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HARPER, of the said district, have de- posited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words fol lowing, to wit : " The History of Modern Europe. With a View of the Progress of Society, from the Rise of th modern Kingdoms, to the Peace of Paris, in 1763. By William Russell, LL.D. And a Continuation of the History to the present Time, by William Jones, Esq. With Annotations, by an American." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encour agement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprie tors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to an Act entitled, "An Act, sup plementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies o maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men tioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historica and other prints. FREDERICK J. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District of New York. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. FROM THE RISE OF THE MODERN KINGDOMS TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648. LETTER I. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Settle- ment of the Barbarians. Page THE subject proposed 33 View of the state of Ancient Europe 33 The northern nations never wholly conquered by the Romans 33 A.D. 476 They break from their forests and fast- nesses, and linally subvert the Roman empire 34 Moral and political causes of that great event. . 34 To be ascribed more immediately to the too great extent of the Roman dominion, and to the de- basing influence of its despotic government. . . 34 Causes of the ruin of the Roman republic 34 Of the decline of the imperial power 35 The treasons of the soldiery, and especially of the Pratorian bands 35 The dissolute lives of the emperors, and the removal of the imperial seat to Constantinople 35 The disputes between the Christians and Pagans, and between the different Christian sects 36 The superiority of the Barbarians in virtue and in valour 36 The despicable policy of the Romans in purchasing their forbearance, and taking large bodies of them into pay 37 The Visigoths plant themselves in Spain ; the Franks in Gaul ; the Saxons in the Roman provinces of South Britain; the Huns in Pannonia; the Ostro- goths in Italy and the adjacent provinces, by the beginning of the sixth century 37 A total change takes place in the state of Europe 38 That change not to be lamented 38 The contempt of the Barbarians for the Roman im- provements, and its cause 38 LETTER II. System of Policy and Legislation established by the Barbarians, on their Settlement in the Provinces of the Roman Empire. The primitive government of the barbarous invaders, like that of the ancient Germans, a kind of mili- tary democracy, under a general or chieftain. . 39 They consider their conquests as common property, in which all had a right to share 38 After settling in the provinces of the Roman empire, they established a new species of government, known by the name of the Feudal System-... 39 Advantages and disadvantagesof that government 39 The bond of political union feeble, and the sources of dissension many 4G A feudal kingdom commonly torn by domestic broils, and little capable of any foreign enterprise .... 4C The judicial proceedings of the Barbarians long very absurd 40 Resentment almost the sole motive for prosecuting crimes, and the gratification of that passion the chief rule in punishing them ... 40 The feudal system, with all its imperfections, yet less degrading to humanity than the tiniforrrWbressure of Roman despotism \... 41 LETTER III. Rise of the French Monarchy, and History of France under the Kings of the First Race. Introductory reflections on Historical Composition 4 Modern history of little importance before the time of Charlemagne 42 ftp The French monarchy first claims our attention 42 186 Clovis, king of the Franks, son of Childeric, and grandson of Merovius (head of the Salian tribe), gains a victory over Syagrius, a Roman usurper in that province, and founds the kingdom of France 42 496 He defeats the Allemanni at Tolbiac, and is bap- tized, with almost the whole French nation. . . 42 507 Vanquishes Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and adds Aquitaine to the kingdom of France 42 Disfigures the latter part of his reign by cruelties and perfidies towards the princes of his blood.... 42 511 Dies, after attempting to atone for his crimes, by building and endowing churches and monas- teries 43 The grandeur of the French monarchy much im- paired by being divided among his four sons, Thi- erri, Childebert, Clodomir, and Clotaire 42 562 A like division takes place on the death of Clo- taire, the sole successor of his brothers and nephews 43 Two rival queens, Brunechilda wife to Sigebert king of Austrasia, and Fredegonda wife to Chilperic king of Soissons, sacrifice every thing to their bloody ambition 43 613 Clotaire II. son of Chilperic and Fredegonda, being left sole monarch of France, re-establishes tranquillity, and gains the hearts of his subjects 43 632 Dagobert, the son and successor of Clotaire, (by his vices, and his imprudent policy, in committing all real power to the mayors of the palace) , greatly weakens the royal authority 43 644 His two sons, Sigebert II. and Clovis II. his successors, on!y the founders of new convents 43 Several succeeding kings, aptly denominated slug- gards, equally insignificant 43 10 Pepin Heristel, duke of Austrasia, usurps the administration, under the title of mayor, and governs France equitably twenty-eight years. . 43 714 After his death, Charles Martel, his natural son, assumes the government of the kingdom 43 751 And Pepin, the son of Charles, usurps the sove reignty ; excluding for ever the descendants of Clovis, or the Merovingian race, from the throne of France 44 LETTER IV. Spain, under the Dominion of the Visigoths, and un- der the Moors, till the Reign of Abdurrahman. 467 The Visigoths found their monarchy in this Roman province 44 The clerey early possessed of great power in Spain, which" becomes a theatre of revolutions and crimes 44 585 Leoyigild, an Arian, puts to death his son Her- menegild, because he had embraced the Catholic faith 44 612 Sisebut dispossesses the Greek emperors of that territory they had continued to hold on the coasts of the Mediterranean, and obliges all the Jews in his own dominions, on pain of death, to receive baptism 44 682 Wamba, who had defeated the Saracens, the countrymen and followersof Mahomet, is excluded the throne, because he had been clothed in the habit of a penitent by a ghostly trick, while la- bouring under the influence of poison 44 712 The Saracens of Mauritania, under the name of Moors, make themselves masters of Spain, and put an end to the empire of the Visigoths 45 VI CONTENTS. Page 717 Pelagrus, a prince of the blood royal, retires into the mountains of Asturias, and then: founds a little Christian kingdom 45 732 The Moois defeated by Charles Martcl, in at- tempting to penetrate into France 45 Spain at first very miserable under its Moorish go- vernors, who were dependent on the viceroy of Africa 45 756 But afterward happy and flourishing under the dominion of Abdurrahman, who founds at Cor- dova a Mahometan kingdom independent of the califs, or successors of the prophet, and their African viceroy 40 LETTER V. Italy, under Ike Dominion of the Ostrogoths, and un- der the Lombards till the Reign of Luitprand. 493 Theodoric, the first Gothic king of Italy, and several of his successors, princes of much prudence and humanity < 46 554 The Ostrogoths subdued, and Italy recovered, by the generals of Justinian, emperor of Constan- tinople 40 568 Great part of Italy seized by Alboinus, king of the Lombards 40 He establishes the feudal policy in his dominions 46 586 Autharis, one of his successors, perfects that form of government 47 And embraces Christianity 47 643 Rotharis gives written laws to the Lombards 47 663 Grimoald reforms the laws of Rotharis 47 Luitprand forms the design of making himself mas- ter of Italy 48 726 This project favoured by the edict of Leo Isau- ricus, emperor of Constantinople, prohibiting the worship of images 48 727 The Italians have recourse to arms in support of the worship of images 48 728 Luitprand, taking advantage of this tumult, Jays siege to Ravenna, the seat of the exarch or imperial governor, and carries it by storm 48 LETTER VI. Rise of the Pope's temporal Power, with some Ac- count of the Affairs of Italy, the Empire of Con- stantinople, and the Kingdom of Prance, from the Time of Charles Muriel to that of Charlemagne. The grand aim of the papal policy to free the city of Rome, the seat of the apostolic court, from the dominion of the "Greek emperors, without sub- jecting it to the Lombard kings 49 728 Gregory II. more afraid of Luitprand than of the emperor Leo, retakes Ravenna, with the assist- ance of the Venetians 49 729 The emperor, notwithstanding this service, persists in his design of abolishing the worship of images in his Italian dominions 49 731 Gregory applies for protection to Charles Martel, who then governed France, and Charles becomes the guardian of the church 50 741 Constantino Copronymus not only renews his father's edict against the worship of images, but prohibits the invocation of saints 7... 50 This new edict confirms the idolatrous citizens of Rome in a resolution they had taken, at the insti- gation of the pope, of separating themselves en- tirely from the Greek empire 50 They accordingly revolt, and drive out of their city such of the imperial officers as had hitherto been suffered to continue there 50 751 Pope Zachary encourages Pepin, fonof Charles Marts:!, to dethrone Childeric III. and assume the title of king of France 50 754 Pepin, in gratitude to his spiritual benefactor, marches into Italy, and obligesAstulphus, king of the Lombards, to desist from an attempt upon Rome 51 755 He takes the same journey a second time 52 756 More effectually humbles Astulphu?, and founds the temporal power of the popes, by bestowing on the see of Rome a considerable territory in Italv, ravished from the Lombards 52 Fa* 780 He dies, after dividing his dominions between his two H.HIS, Charles, and Carloman 52 LETTER VII. Britain, from the Time it was relinquished by the Romans, to the End of the Saxon Heptarchy. 448 The Romans finally evacuate Britain 52 The degenerate inhabitants of South Britain, after the Roman legions arc withdrawn, unable to de- fend themselves against the Scots and Picts 53 449 They apply to the Romans, but without effect, and ultimately to the Saxons for protection 53 450 The Saxons and Angles, or Anglo-Saxons, come to their assistance, and repel the Scots and Picts 54 584 But afterward enter into a league with lliosv. barbajpus invaders, and make themselves masters of all the low country of South Britain 54 827 The seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy, formed in the course of the Saxon conquests, united under Egbert king of Wessex 55 The Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity before this period 56 Eut having received that doctrine through the pol- luted channels of tlie church of Rome, it had little effect in either softening their minds or purifying their morals 56 LETTER VIII. Government and Laws of the Jlnglo-Saxons. As the Saxons rather extirpated than subdued tin natives, they had no occasion to burden themselves with feudal services 56 They transplanted into Britain their civil and mili- tary institutions 56 Their king was only the first citizen of the commu- nity, and his authority, which was very limited, depended chiefly on his personal qualities 57 They had, at alftimes, a national council, a Wit- tenagemot, or assembly of the wise men, whose consent was necessary to the enacting of laws, nnd to give sanction to the measures of public admin- istration 57 The members of this assembly the principal land- holders 57 The Saxons, like all the German nations, divided into three orders of men; the noble, the free, and the servile 57 The Shirenaotes, where all the freeholders assembled twice a year, well calculated for the suppi.: t of general liberty 57 The criminal laws of the Anglo-Saxons exceedingly mild 58 Their judicial proofs very singular 5 The absurdities of the ordeal 58 Their mariners always rude, and their knowledge of the arts imperfect 58 LETTER IX. Reign of Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, King of France and Emperor of the West. 771 Charles sole sovereign of France in consequence of Ihe death of his brother Carloman 58 772 He concludes a treaty with the Saxo;:. he had vanquished 59 773 And marches into Italy against Desiderius, king of the Lombards 59 Defeats Desiderius, and takes Verona 59 774 Reduces Pavia, and puts an end to the kingdom of tlie Lombards 60 775 Having settled the government of Italy, hn marches against the Saxons 01 77(i Defeats them in several engagements, and treats them with great severity 61 778 Makes an expedition into Spain, and takes Pam- polnna and Sarairnssa 62 Become master of France, Italy, and Germany, he pays great attention to the arts of peace G2 Account of his private life 63 He encourages learning 03 Is a friend to the church 63 794 Assists at the council of Frankfort W CONTENTS. vii Goes Into Italy to do justice to pope Leo III 65 800 And is invested with the imperial ensigns by that pontiff. : 65 Universally acknowledged emperor of the West, im- mediately after his coronation at Home 65 602 Receives an embassy from Nicephorus, emperor of Constantinople, complimenting him with the title of Augustus 65 And from the famous caliph, Harun-al-Raschid, with the present of a striking clock 65 Arts mid learning flourish in Asia, under Al-Ras- ,'liiil and his successors 66 H33 Charlemagne delivered from a formidable in vasion of the Normans by the death of their king 66 613 He associates his son Lewis with him in the empire 6( 814 Dies at Aix-la-Chapelle in his seventy-firs year 66 The extent of his dominions 66 LETTER X. Empire of -Charlemagne and the Cliurch, from the Accession of his Son, J.etais the Dcbonnaire, to the Death of Charles the Bald. 814 Lewis renders himself odious to the clergy by attempting to reform certain abuses 67 17 Associates his eldest son Lothario with him in the empire 67 SIS Suppresses a rebellion in Italy, headed by his nephew Bernard, whom he punishes with the loss of his eyes 67 Is seized with remorse, in consequence of this seve- rity, and enjoined public penance at his own de- sire 67 829 His three sons by the first bed, among whom he had divided his dominions, join in a rebellion tai him, because he sought from them some provision for his son Charles, by a second wife 68 830 Abandoned by his army, he is made prisoner 68 Released by the nobility 68 833 Again abandoned by his army, he is deposed and clothed in the habit oi" a penitent 68 334 Obtains absolution, and is restored to his dig- nity. 840 Dies near Mentz, in the 72d year of his age.. 69 Lothario succeeds to the empire 69 841 Attempts to seize the possessions of his brothers 70 842 Is defeated, and obliged to receive conditions 70 847 Subscribes the constitutions of Mersen 70 855 Dies in the habit of a monk 71 Lewis II. his eldest son, succeeds to the kingdom of Italy, and the imperial dignity 71 And iiis two younger sons, among whom he had divided the rest of his dominions, succeed to their several allotments 71 857 France ravaged by the Normans 7J 858 Invaded by Lewis the German, who dethrones his brother Charles the Bald 71 Lewis expelled, and Charles restored 71 Examples of the weakness of Charles 71 Ambitions projects of the popes 72 860 Lothario, king of Lorrain, divorces his wife 72 863 Pope Nicholas I. endeavours to force him to take her back 72 863 Hi: goes to Rome in order to justify himself 73 Dies on his way home 73 Charles the Bald succeeds to his dominions 73 875 The emperor Lewis II. dies without male heirs 74 Charles the Bald, in prejudice to his brother the German, obtains the imperial crown 74 677 Marches into Italy, in order to expel the Sara- cens 74 Pursued thiiher by his nephew Carloman, son of Lewis the German, he attempts to retreat, and dies at a miserable cottage 74 LETTER XI. The Jformans or Danes, bffore their Settlement in France and J'.ngland. The Normans the inhabitants of the ancient Scan- dinavi 74 They become the terror of all the maritime partso? Europe 75 Description of their religion aud-manners 75 Their singular contempt of death 75 Their mode of conducting their piratical enter- prises 75 845 They pillage Rouen, and burn Paris 75 877 Charles the Bald publishes a capitular, in order to regulate the contributions to be paid to them 76 LETTEE XII. England, from the End of the Saxon Heptarchy, to the Death of Alfred the Great. 827 Egbert, the first sole monarch of England, a prince of great abilities 76 He defeats the Scots and Picts , 76 832 The Danes invade England 76 835 Expelled by Egbert 76 838 Death of that prince 76 His son Ethelwolf, a weak prince 76 The Danes return, and long ravage England unmo- lested 76 851 Defeated by the Anglo-Saxons 77 852 They winter in the isle of Thanet, and in the spring burn the cities of London and Canterbury 77 854 Ethelwolf makes a pilgrimage to Rome 77 856 Confers the tithe on the clergy 77 England continues to be infested by the Danes.. . 77 872 Alfred, youngest son of Ethelwolf, succeeds to the throne, in consequence of the death of his elder brothers 77 Routs the Danes in several engagements 78 875 They land in greater numbers, and reduce the Anglo-Saxons to despair 78 Alfred, abandoned by his subjects, is obliged to lay aside the ensigns of his dignity, and assume the habit of a peasant 78 880 Throws off that disguise 78 Defeats the Danes with great slaughter 79 Allows a body of the vanquished enemy to settle in Northumberland, on their consenting to embrace Christianity 79 Establishes a regular militia for the defence of his kingdom 79 Creates a navy 79 His wise regulations 79 890 He frames a body of laws 80 Encourages learning 81 Navigation and commerce 81 901 His death and character 82 LETTER XIIL Empire of Charlemagne and the Church, from the Death of Charles the Bald to the Death of Lewis IV. when the Imperial Dignity was translated from the French to the Germans. 877 Lewis the Stammerer, son of Charles the Bald, succeeds to the crown of France 82 379 Dies, leaving his queen Adelaide pregnant.. 82 [s succeeded by Lewis III. and Carloman II. his two sons by a former marriage 82 884 On the death of these princes, the emperor Charles the Fat, son of Lewis the German, is elected king of France 82 Disgraces himself by ceding Friezland to the Nor- 83 887 These northern ravagers besiege Paris. .. .... 83 But relinquish the enterprise, on receiving a ransom from the pusillanimous Charles 83 !88 He is deposed in a diet of the empire 83 Vrnold, grandson of Lewis the German, is raised to the imperial throne 83 898 Charles III. snrnamed the Simple, son of Lewis the Stammerer, by Adelaide, succeeds to the crown of France, after a long scene of contention. . . 81 The nobles aspire openly at independency, and de- press the great body of the people 84 905 The Normans establish themselves in France 84 And give to the province of Neustria the name of Normandy 84 912 Death of Lewis IV. son of the emperor Ar- nold 85 riii CONTENTS. The empire depai's from the French to the Ger- mans ................................ ...... 85 LETTER XIV. Tke German Empire, from the Election of Conrad I. to the Death of Henry the Fowler. 912 Exlent of the German empire at the election of Conrad 1 ..................................... 85 His reign one continued scene of troubles ....... 86 917 The Huns ravage the empire ............... 86 920 Henry I. surnamed the Fowler, succeeds Conrad in the imperial throne ....................... 86 He forma regulations for the security of the em- pire 86 925 Conquers Lorrain ......................... 86 932 Defeats the Huns in a great battle .......... 86 936 Dies in his march for Italy ................. 87 Is succeeded in the imperial throne by his son Otho, afterward styled the Great ................... 87 LETTER XV. France, from the Settlement of the Normans, to the Extinction of , the Carlovingian Race. Liberal policy of Rollo, duke of Normandy.... 87 922 Charles the Simple deposed, and Robert, duke of France, proclaimed king ..................... 87 923 Rodolph, duke of Burgundy, obtains the crown on the death of Robert ...................... 87 929 Charles the Simple dies in prison ........... 87 936 Rodolph acts with resolution and vigour. ... 88 Dies Without issue, and is succeeded by Lewis the Stranger .................................... 88 Lewis attempts in vain to rescue himself from the tyranny of Hugh the Great, duke of France. . . 88 954 Leaves only a shadow of royalty to his son Lothario ................................... 88 986 Lothario succeeded by his son, Lewis V 88 987 In Lewis V. ends the Carlovingian line, or second race of French kings ................. 88 LETTER XVI. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian Stales, under Otho the Great, and his Successors of the House of Saxony. 936 Otho defeats the Hungarians in the plain of Dortmund .................................. 89 937 Makes Bohemia tributary to the German cm- 938 Expels Everhard, duke of Bavaria, and bestows the dutchy on his uncle Bartolf 89 Revives the dignity of counl Palatine 89 940 Assembles a diet at Arensberg, which appoints a judicial combat to decide the right of inherit- ance 89 943 He augments the privileges of the- German clergy 90 Propagates Christianity by force of arms 90 952 Conquers Italy 90 955 His son Ludolphus revolts 90 959 Returns to his duty, and dies 90 962 Otho suppresses a rebellion in Italy, and is crowned at Rome by the pope 91 Confirms to the holy see the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne 91 Great disorders in the papacy 91 966 Otho enters Italy a third time, and quells a new revolt 91 970 Returns to Germany covered with glory 92 873 His son Otho II. surnamwl the Sanguinary, suc- ceeds him in the imperial throne 9-2 New disorders in the papacy 92 981 Otho marches into Italy, and severely chastises the rebels 93 998 Otho III. his son and successor, takes Rome by assault, and executes vengeance on the authors of another revolt 93 1000 Returns to Germany, and erects Poland into a kingdom 93 1001 Again marches into Italy, and expels the Sara- cens 93 1002 The empire sustains a great loss by his death 93 The duke of Bavaria, grandson of Otho II., elected emperor, under the name of Henry II 93 1005 Marches into Italy, and is crowned king of Lombardy at Pavia 94 In danger of losing his life by a revolt of the citi- zens 94 Quells the troubles in Germany 94 1014 Returns to Italy, and is crowned at Rome by the pope 94 1024 Increases in prosperity to the hour of his death 94 Appears to have made a vow of chastity 94 LETTER XVII. England, from the Death of Alfred to the Reign of Canute the Great. 910 Edward the Elder, the son and successor of' Alfred, a prince of a martial geuiu? 94 Engaged in perpetual war with the Danes 95 925 His natural son Athelstan succeeds him in the throne 95 Athelstan confers on Silheric, a Danish nobleman, the title of king of Northumberland 95 934 Enters Scotland with a numerous army 05 938 Defeats the Scots, Welsh, and Danes, in a great battle ." 95 His memorable law for the encouragement of com- merce 95 941 Succeeded by his brother Edmund 95 945 Edmund conquers Cumberland from the ancient Britons, and confers it on Malcolm, king of Scot- land, on condition of his doing homage for it to the king of England 95 948 His violent death 95 His brother Edred raised to the throne 95 952 Edred places a governor over the Northumbrian Danes 90 Delivers over his conscience to the guidance ot Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury '. . 98 The rigid monastic rules introduced into England by that priest 96 The celibacy of the clergy enjoined 96 955 Edwy, the son of Edmund, who succeeds to the crown of England, less favourable to the monks 9" Dunstan publicly insults him 97 Is banished the kingdom 97 The enraged monies poison the minds of the peo- ple 97 959 Edwy is deposed, and his brother Edgar placed on the throne 97 Wise policy of Edgar 97 His great power and prosperity 98 Secures the favour of Dunslan and the monks.. 98 His licentious amours 98 Story of Elfrida 98 Violent death of Alhelwold 98 Edgar marries Elfrida 99 Extirpates wolves from England and Wales 99 975 Succeeded by his son, Edward the Martyr. . . 99 978 Edward murdered, at the instigation of his slop mother Elfrida, in order to make room for her son Ethelred 99 Elhelred a weak prince 99 Meanly compounds with the Danes for his safety 99 1002 Cruel massacre of the Danes throughout Eng- land 99 1003 Sweyn, king of Denmark, takes vengeance on tlw English for the slaughter of his country- men 100 1013 Ethelred abandons the kingdom, and seeks refuge in the court of his brother-in-law, Richard duke of Normandy 100 1014 Returns on the death of Sweyn 100 1015 Finds a terrible enemy in Canute, the son and successor of that prince 100 1016 Dies in the midst of his troubles 100 Edmond Ironside, his son, bravely struggles for the independency of hia kingdom 100 Betrayed by his general Edric, and obliged to divide his dominions with Canute IOC 1017 Murdered by his chamberlains 101 CONTENTS. LETTER XVIII. fiance, from the Accession of Hugh Capet to the Invasion of England by William Duke of JVor- mandy. Page 987 Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the Great, the most powerful nobleman in France, seizes the crown on the death of Lewis V 101 988 He associates his son Robert in the govern- ment 101 991 Makes prisoner the duke of Lorrain, who at- tempted to dispute his right to the crown 101 996 Is quietly succeeded by his son Robert 103 998 Gregory V. the reigning pope, dissolves the mar- riage of Robert 102 And excommunicates him for persisting in keeping Bertha, his queen 102 Terrible effects of the sentence of excommunica- tion 102 1024 Robert rejects the imperial dignity 100 Great disorders in his family 103 1031 He dies amid those disorders 103 His son Henry I. succeeds him in the throne of France 103 Henry is supported by Robert duke of Nor- mandy 103 Robert makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem ..".... 103 J035 Dies before his return 103 1046 The battle of Val de Dunes gives William, his natural son, full possession of the dutchy .... 104 1060 Henry I. succeeded by his son Philip I 104 1066 Willtem duke of Normandy prepares for the invasion of England 104 1067 Philip I. assumes the reins of government 104 LETTER XIX. England^ from the Danish to the Norman Conquest. 1017 Canute the Dane, in consequence of the mur- der of Edmond Ironside, becomes sole sovereign of England 104 Liberal policy of Canute 105 1019 He visits Denmark 106 1028 Makes himself master of Norway 106 Sees the insignificancy of human greatness. ... 106 1031 Makes a pilgrimage to Rome 106 1035 His son Harold Harefoot succeeds him in the throne of England 106 1039 Harold Harefoot reigns four years, and is suc- ceeded by his brother Hardicanute, a brave prince 106 1041 On the death of Hardicanute, the English shake off the Danish yoke, and place on the throne of his ancestors Edward, surnamed the Confessor, eon of the unfortunate Ethelred 106 Though a good prince, Edward disgusts the English by the favour which he shows to the Normans, among whom lie had been educated, and who thronged his court 106 1051 Earl Godwin rebels, and is expelled the king- dom 107 1053 He returns, and reduces the king to condi- tions 107 Great power of his son Harold 107 1054 Macbeth, usurper of the crown of Scotland, defeated and slain by an English army under Siward duke of Northumberland 107 Anecdotes of Siward 107 1086 Harold obtains the crown of England, on the death of Ed\vard the Confessor 108 He defeats the Danes in a great battle 109 His right fr> the English crown disputed by William duke of Normandy, who lands on the coast of Sussex, at the head of sixty thousand men )09 Harold slain in the battle of Hastings, which lays open the succession of England to the duke of Normandy Ill View of the state of England under the Anglo- Saxons 1 12 Singular manners and customs 112 LETTER XX. Spain, the Arabs, and the Empire of Constantinople, during the Ninth, Tenth, and Part of the Eleventh Centuries. SPAIN. Dissensions among the Moors favourable to the Christians ................................. 113 The kingdom of Asturias, or of Leon, and Oviedo, increases under Alphonso III ............... 113 758 The kingdom of Navarre founded by Garcias Ximenes .................................. 113 938 Ramiro II., king of Leon and Oviedo, gains over the Moors the celebrated victory of Simancas 113 Great success of Almanzor, the Moorish general 114 998 His defeat ............................... 114 His death .................................... 114 The Mahometan kingdom of Cordova, on the ex- tinction of the race of Abdurrahman, divided into many petty sovereignties .................... 114 The Christian kingdoms subdivided in like man- ner ....................................... 114 Freedom of the people of Arragon ............ 114 Singular privileges of their Justiza, or Grand Judge ..................................... 115 EMPIRE of the ARABS. The African governors shake off their dependence on the caliph 115 Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli become independent states 115 969 The Fattimides, a Mahometan sect, found an empire in Egypt, and make Cairo the seat of a new caliph 115 Another sect seize on the western coast of Africa, and found the kingdom of Morocco 115 The caliphs of Bagdat gradually stripped of their power by the Turks, a Tartar tribe, originally hired as common mercenaries, and afterward em- ployed as the royal guard 115 A variety of sovereigns spring up under the title of sultans 115 EMPIRE of CONSTANTINOPLE. The extent of this empire yet considerable 115 811 Nicephorus, an execrable tyrant, made prisoner, and put to death by the B ulgarians 116 The Saracens in his reign conquer the island of Cyprus 1 16 Leo the Armenian attempts to assassinate the king of the Bulgarians ; who, in revenge, pillages the suburbs of Constantinople 11 Superstition of Michael the Stammerer 116 823 In his reign the Saracens make themselves mas- ters of the island of Crete 116 The empress Theodora persecutes the Mani- cheans 116 The grand schism between the Greek and Latin churches brought to a crisis by the conversion of the Bulgarians 116 879 The two primates excommunicate each other 116 912 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, an encourager of learning 117 961 Nicephorus Phocas recovers Crete and other places from the Saracens 117 He is murdered in bed 117 Basil II. vanquishes the Bulgarians 117 1034 The crimes of the princess Zoe, and the wretched state of the empire 117 1059 Constantine Ducas abandons the Asiatic pro- vinces to the Turks 118 1068 His widow Eudoxia, whom he had left regent during the minority of his three sons, marries Ro- manus Diogenes, who had been condemned to suffer death as a public malefactor, and procures for him the imperial crown 118 CONTENTS. LETTER XXI. Progress of Satiety in Europe, from the Settlement of the modern Nations to the Middle of the Eleventh Century. Page The nations who subverted the Roman empire gene- rally embraced the Christian religion 118 The clergy gainers, but Christianity a loser by their conversion 118 They blend with its doctrines and ceremonies their former gross superstitions... ., 119 Corrupt state of Christianity, the ignorance of the clergy, and the disorders of the church, together with those of government and manners during the middle ages 119 These disorders attain their height before the end of the tenth century ~. 120 Causes that contributed to banish anarchy and bar- barism, and introduce oider and politeness. . . 121 Beneficial eflects of chivalry 121 Its origin and character as a civil and military insti- tution .". . 12 1 Its liberal spirit 122 That spirit strongly counteracted by the monastic in- stitutions 123 Account of the origin of those institutions, and of the extravagance of the rage for pious solitude 123 Disorders of the monks and nuns 124 Chivalry, by awakening an ardour for enterprise, ami a generous passion for the softer sex, saves Europe from monastic tyranny 124 LETTER XXII. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, under Conrad If. and his Descenthmts of the House of Franconia. 1024 Disputes on the death of the emperor Hen- ry II 125 Conrad, duke of Franconia, elected by the princes and states, after six weeks' deliberation 125 He marches into Italy, quells a revolt, and is crowned at Rome 125 Returns to Germany, suppresses a rebellion, and gets his son Henry declared his successor "125 Humbles the Poles and Huns 125 1034 Obtains the succession of the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy 125 1039 Extinguishes a rebellion in Italy, and dies on his return to Germany 125 Henry III. succeeds his father in the imperial throne 126 The first years of his reign distinguished by the suc- cessful wars in Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary 126 Rome and Italy distracted by factions 128 1046 Henry composes the disorders there, and is crowned by Clement II. whom he had raised to the papacy 126 1047 inters into a treaty with Drago, Bainulphus, and other Norman adventurers, who had esta- blished themselves in Apulia and Calabria, at the expense of the Greek emperors 126 Intrigues of Hildebrand the Monk, at the election of pope Leo IX 126 1053 Leo, having made war unsuccessfully against the Norman adventurers, joins his sanction to the Imperial investiture for the lands which they held in Calabria 127 The emperor causes his infant son, Henry, to be de- dared king of the Romans, a title still in use for the acknowledged heir to the imperial crown ]-27 Alarmed at the ambitious projects of his sister Beatrice, dowager marchioness of Mantua, who had married the duke of Lorrain, and contracted herdanahter Matilda, by the marquis of Mantua, in llie duke of Spoleto, he marches into Italy, and heri>ft". 127 1050 Die.-i soon after liis return to Germany. ... 127 Henry IV. only live years old at his father's death 127 Troubles of Germany, and usurpations of the Roman pontiffs duriii" his minority ]27 1072 He assumes lilt: reins of government at the nge of twenty-two, and begins his administra- tion with suppressing disorders and remedying abuses 126 Is summoned to appear before the tribunal of the holy see by pope Alexander 11 for having exposed the investiture of bishops to sale 123 UK treats the mandate with contempt 128 1073 Hildebraud elected pope, under the name of Gregory V I 1 -"J The emperor confirms his election 12U He begins his pontificate with excommunicating every clergyman who should receive a benefice from a layman, and every layman by whom such benefice should be conferred 129 Attempts to make himself lord of Christendom, by freeing the whole body of the clergy from the jurisdiction of the civil power, and subjecting all temporal princes to the authority of the see of Rome.... 129 Summons the emperor to appear before him for con- tinuing to bestow investitures 129 1076 Henry, enraged at that arrogant message, sends an ambassador to Rome with a formal deprivation of Gregory 129 The pope deposes and excommunicates the empe- ror 130 1077 Overwhelmed with enemies, in consequence of the displeasure of the head of the church, Henry humbles himself at the feet of his holiness . . 130 Elated with his triumph, Gregory becomes more haughty and insolent 131 1078 He induces the Germans to elect another em peror 131 1080 Henry defeats his antagonist, degrades Gregory, and gets a'nother pope elected 131, 132 1081 Victorious in Germany, he marches into Italy, and makes himself master of Rome, after a si< e of two years 132 1085 Gregory, having taken refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, escapes to Salerno, and there dies 132 Germany involved in new troubles 132 1090 Conrad, the emperor's eldest son, rebels against his father, and assumes the title of king of Italy 132 Is generally acknowledged by the Italian cities and nobles 133 1099 His brother Henry is declared king of the Romans 133 1100 Conrad dies, after having been put to the ban of the empire, and the king of the Romans rebels against his father J33 1106 Henry IV., treacherously made prisoner by his unnatural son, is divested of the imperial en- signs 133 Makes his escape, but dies before he can effect liis restoration 134 Henry V. maintains the right of investiture 134 Attempts in vain to settle the dispute by argu- ment 134 1111 Enters Italy at the head of a great army, and takes the pope prisoner J34. 135 His right of investiture confirmed, and afterward denied by Pascal II 135 1116 He inarches into Italy a second time, and enters Rome in triumph. 135 1122 Tlie dispute in regard of investitures settled by a sreneral council 136 1125 Death of Henry V 136 LETTER XXIII. England, from Ike Battle of Hastings to the Death of Henry I. 106G Consternation of the people of England. . 136 William, duke of Normandy, marches towards London l:!( > Is met by the nobility and clergy, who declare their intention of submitting to hto authority 137 Takes Ilif- i; ; .:iai onth administered i:> tlie .Ando- Saxon kind's, and is crowned in Westminster- abbey 137 1067 Confirms the nobility and gentry in the pos- session of their lands and dignities, and London, and all the oilier cities of England, in the enjoy nicnt of their liberties and immunities 137 CONTENTS. Page j Btit every where disarms the native.-, and places all i re;il power in the haiii>s of the Normans, among whom he divides the forfeited estates of Harold, and those of his adherents 137 He visits Normandy 138 The English rebel in his absence 1068 He returns and humbles the insurgents 138 The English again attempt to shake oil' the Norman yoke." 1 39 The revolt becomes general 139 1069 William politically breaks the force of his ene- mies, by conupting their leaders, and reduces the whole kingdom to a state of the most humiliating subjection 140 1070 He lays waste the country, to the extent of sixty miles, between the Humberand the Tees 140 C'linis'-ates tin? estates of the principal English land- holders, and bestows them upon his Norman fol- lowers 140 Introduces the feudal polity into England 140 His regulations in regard to the church 141 1076 His son Robert rebels against him in Nor- mandy 142 Robert expelled by an English army 142 1079 A reconciliation between the lather and the ton brought about by a singular circumstance. ... 142 1081 William orders a general survey to be taken of all t lie lands of England 142 1087 His death and character 143 He is succeeded in the dutchy of Normandy by his eldest son Robert, and in the kingdom of Eng- land by William, his second son, surnamed Rufus ." 143 1089 Tyrannical government of William II 144 Generous disposition of Robert duke of Nor- mandy 144 He enlists himself in the first crusade, and mortgages his dominions to his brother William '. 145 1G97 William quarrels with Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and confiscates all his tempora- lities 145 He is threatened with the sentence of excommuni- cation by the pope, who protects the primate 145 Anselm distinguishes himself in the council of Bari 145 1100 William Rufus accidentally killed by an ar- 146 His impious and tyrannical character 146 flis younger brother Henry ascends the throne of England, without regarding the prior right of Robert ~. . 146 Henry I. courts popularity 146 Grants a charter of liberties to his English subjects, and reinstates Anselm in the see of Canter- bury 146, 147 1101 His brother Robert returns from the Holy Land, and invades England 147 An accommodation brought about through the me- diation of An?elni ". 147 Henry persecutes Robert's adherents 147 1106 Makes himself master of the dutchy of Nor- mandy 147 Carries Robert prisoner into England, and confines him for life in Cardiff castle 147 1119 Defeats the French near Andeley in Nor- mandy /;. 148 1120 His only son William, who had accompanied him, is shipwrecked, and perishes with all his retinue in his return 1-13 1127 Marries his daisrhter Matilda to Geoffrey Plan- tagenet, eldest son to the count of An jon 148 1133 Matilda delivered of a son, named Henry 148 1135 Henry I. dies, leaving his daughter Matilda heiress of all his dominions 148 Reflections on the government of the Anglo- Saxons 143 That government highly favourable to liberty. . 149 Changes produced in it by the Norman con- qu.'-t 149 Rigour of the Anglo-Norm a; i sovernment. . 149, 150 That rigour ultimately favourable to the cause of freedom 150 In the stni2gles between the king and the nobles, the people recover their consequence ....... 150 LETTER XXIV. /Vance, wnlr.r Philip I. and Lewis VI., with some jtccouut of the First Crusade. Pagf 1095 Philip I. excommunicated by Urban II. in the famous council of Clermont, where the first cru sade was preached 151 Origin of the crusades a desire of recovering tht Holy Laud from the infidels, and a hope of lie- holding the sudden appearance of Christ mi Mount Skm 152 Ardour for the holy war excited by I'eter the Her- mit 152 1096 Persons of all ranks fly to aims, and march towards Asia, under the banner of the cross 153 They are guilty of the greatest disorders in their progress ' 153 1097 At length reach Constantinople, alarm the Greek emperor by their numbers, and muster a prodigious army on the banks ot' the Bospho- rus 153 1098 Make themselves masters of Nice and Antioch, and break the power of the Turks 154 1099 Invest Jerusalem, and take it by assault, after a siege of five weeks ]55 Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king of Jerusalem 155 Philip I. absolved from the sentence of excommiini cation, in consequence of the death of Ur ban II 155 He associates with him his son Lewis in the govern rnent 155 Lewis VI. corrects the licentiousness of the no bles 155 He establishes the commons, or third branch of the legislature, enfranchises the villains or bondmen, and regulates the courts of justice 155 1137 Dies in the sixtieth year of his age, and is sue ceeded by his son Lewis VII 156 LETTER XXV. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian Slates, from the Death of Htnry V to the Election of Frederic I. surnamed Barba rossa. 1125 Lothario, duke of Saxe Supplembourg, elected emperor 156 1132 He marches into Italy, and re-establishes Inno cent II. in the papal chair 157 Orders justice to be administered in the empire ac- cording to the Roman or civil code 157 1139 Dies in the twelfth year of his reign, and is succeeded in the imperial throne by Conrad duke of Franconia 157 1140 Origin of the Guelphs and Ghibeliines.... 157 Singular example of conjugal affection 157 1147 Conrad III. engages in the second crusade, along with his nephew, Frederic Barbarossa 158 LETTER XXVI. France, under Lewis VII., till the Divorce of Queen Eleanor, with same Account of tkz Second Cru- sade. 1143 Lewis VTI., enraged at his rebellious subjects, orders the town of Vitri to be set on fire 158 That cruel command makes a deep impression on his mind 153 St. Bernard exhorts him to expiate his guilt by an expedition to the Holy Land, where the Christiana were in great distress J58 1146 He takes the cross at Vezelai in Burgundy 158 Eleanor his queen, heiress of Gufoiinc aiid Poitou, also takes the cross: and the example of the royal pair is followed by many of the chief nobility, and by a multitude of people of inferior condi- tion 158, 159 1147 The emperor, jealous of the king of France, marches before him into the Holy Land, and is defeated 159 Lewis follows Conrad, and is not more fortu- nate ]59 He is dishonoured by queen Eleanor, his pous con- sort - 159 Xll N T E N T S. Page Divorces her 160 1149 She marries Henry Pliintagenet, duke of Nor- mandy, and presumptive heir to the crown of England ICO LETTER XXVII. England, from the Death of Henry I. to the Ac- cession of Henry II. 1135 Stephen count of Boulogne, grandson of William the Conqueror, usurps the crown of Eng- land on the death of Henry I. in violation of the right of the heiress Matilda 160 1136 Grants exorbitant privileges to the nobility and clergy 160 Wretched state of the common people under his reign 160 David king of Scotland appears in support of Ma- tilda's title to the English crown 1GO 1138 Battle of the standard 160 Scots routed with great slaughter 160 1139 Matilda lands in England 161 She is joined by several barons 161 England desolated by civil war 161 1148 A cessation of arms takes place, and Matilda retires into Normandy 161 1153 Her son Henry invades England 161 Evacuates the kingdom on having the succession secured to him 161, 162 1154 Death and character of Stephen 162 LETTER XXVIII. England, during the Reign of Henry II., with an Account of the Affairs of France. 1154 Extensive continental dominions of Hen- ry II 162 His popularity in England 162 Civil and military regulation 163 1162 He attempts to reform the abuses of the church 163 Difficulty of that undertaking 164 Character of Thomas & Becket, archbishop of Can- terbury 164 He declares himself the champion of the clergy 164 1163 They plead an exemption from all civil juris- diction, and are guilty of the greatest enormi- ties 164 1164 In order to subject them to the authority of the legislature, the king enacts the constitutions of Clarendon 165 Becket opposes the operation of those statutes, ap- peals to the holy see, and takes refuge in France 166 The pope annuls the constitutions of Clarendon, and threatens Henry with the sentence of excommu- nication 166 1170 Afraid of the thunders of the church, the king permits Becket to return to the. see of Can- terbury 167 Insolence and arrogance of the primate 167 He is murdered by four gentlemen of the king's household 168 1171 Henry II. sends ambassadors to Rome, to main- tain his "innocence of that crime 168 Miracles said to be wrought at the shrine of Thomas Becket 168 Henry undertakes the conquest of Ireland 168 State of that country 168 1172 Subdued by the English monarch 169 Henry purges himself by oath of any concern in the murder of Becket 169 1173 His three sons rebel against him, and are sup- ported by the kings of France and Scotland. . 169 1174 lie walks barefooted to Beckct's tomb, and prostrates himself before the shrine of the re- puted saint, in order finally to make his peace with the church ' 170 Gains on the same day a victory over the Scots 170 1175 Subdues his rebellious barons both in England and Normandy, and accommodates matters with his sons 1 70 Frames several wise ordinances for the government of his kingdom 170 1180 Philip Augustus succeeds- to the crown of France 171 1188 He enters into a confederacy with prine Richard, heir apparent to the crown of Eng land 171 1189 Richard seduces the barons of Poitou, Guienne, Anjou, and Normandy 171 His father obliged to submit to his demands .... 171 Death and character of Henry II 172 Many foreign improvements introduced into England during his reign 172 LETTER XXIX. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, under Frederic 1. surnamed Barbarossa, with some Account of the Third. Cru- sade. 1152 Frederic duke of Suabia, surnamed Barba- rossa, elected emperor on the death of Con- rad III 172 He receives the oath of fealty from Frederic king of Denmark, as a vassal of the empire 173 Marches into Italy, where he asserts with vigour the imperial authority 173 1158 Conquers Poland, and erects it into a tributary kingdom 174 1159 Returns into Italy, wjhich was distracted by civil and religious dissensions 174 1162 Acts there with extreme rigour 175 1168 The principal Italian cities enter into an asso- ciation for the defence of their liberties 175 1176 The imperial army defeated by the confede- rates, and the imperial fleet by the Venetians 175 Origin of the ceremony of wedding the Adriatic 175 The emperor in his turn victorious 175 1177 The Italian cities submit, on obtaining a general pardon, and liberty to use their own lavvs and forms of government 17,") 1179 New regulation with regard to the election of the popes 175 1180 The emperor composes the troubles of Ger many, and makes lavvs for the preservation of its peace and good order 175, 176 Languishing state of the kingdom of Jerusalem 176 The holy city taken bySaladin 176 1187 Resolves to undertake an expedition to the Holy Land*. 176 1190 Frederic Barbarossa crosses the Hellespont with a great army 177 Defeats the Turks in several battles 177 Takes the city of Iconium, and passes Mount Taurus l',7 Dies in consequence of bathing in the cold river Cydims 177 LETTER XXX. France and England, from the Death of Henry II. to the granting 1 of the Oreat Charter by King John, with a farther Account of the Th ird Crusade. 1190 Richard I. of England, and Philip II. of France, undertake a joint expedition to the Holy Land 178 Quarrel at Messina in the island of Sicily, but are seemingly reconciled 179 1191 Arrive in Syria, and undertake the siege of Ptolemais 179 Reduce the place after a desperate siege 170 The king of France returns to Europe in dis- ;ust 179,180 1192 The king of England defeats Snladin in a great battle, and arrives within sight of Jerusalem 180 But being abandoned by his associates, he is obliged to relinquish his enterprise, and conclude a truce with the Saracen emperor 180 Death and character of Saladin 181 1193 Richard, returning in disguise, is made prisoner by the duke of Austria, and confined in a dungeon in Germany 181 The king of France and Richard's brother John endeavour to make themselves masters of his do- minions 181 He purchases his release with a large ransom. . 181 The joy of the English nation on his return .... 1SH CONTENTS. xiii War between France and England 182 1199 Richard mortally wounded by an arrow. . 182 Succeeded, ai'ter a bloody dispute, by his brother John 183 1205 John's foreign dominions are adjudged forfeited to the crown of France, and successively subdued by Philip Augustus 183 He is universally despised in England 183 Draws upon himself the indignation of the clergy 183 1207 His kingdom is laid under an interdict by the pope 184 Awful execution of that sentence 181 Innocent III. publishes a crusade against the Albi- genses 184 1213 Denounces against the king of England the sentence of deposition, and intrusts the execution of it to the king of France 184, 185 Both kings prepare for war 185 John abjectly agrees to put himself under the pro- tection of the pope, and to hold his kingdom as a lief of the church of Koine 185 1215 The English barons have recourse to arms, and extort from him the Magna, Ghana, or the Great Charter ISO, 187 Privileges secured by that charter 187 LETTER XXXI. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian Statt'S, from the Accession of Henry VI. to the Election of Rodolph of Haps- burffh, Founder of the House of Austria, with a Continuation of Ike History of the Crusades. 1190 Frederic Barbarossa is succeeded in the impe- rial throne by his son Henry VI 187 1191 Henry attempts to make himself master of thp kingdom of Sicily ; to which he was heiriii right of ins wife Constantia, but which had beeW seized by Tailored, her natural brother 187 Obliged to relinquish the enterprise 188 1192 Incorporates the Teutonic knights into a regu- larorder 18d Account of the origin of those knights, and also of the knights templars, and knights hospitalers . 188 1194 The emperor makes new preparations for the conquest of Sicily, and accomplishes his purpose on the death of Tancred 188 His atrocious cruelty and perfidy to the Sicilians 188 1196 Attempts to render the imperial crown heredi- tary in his family 188 Countenances a new crusade 188 Three German armies raised for the recovery of the Holy Land 189 Henry severely punishes a revolt of the Sicilians 189 Rendered desperate, they again revolt: the empress Constamia heads them ; and Henry, having dis- missed his troops, is obliged to submit to his wife, and to the conditions she is pleased to impose upon him in favour of her countrymen 189 Death and character of Henry VI 189 Distracted state of the empire during the minority of his son Frederic II 189 1203 New crusade under Baldwin count of Flan- ders 190 12U4 The champions of the cross make themselves ma=ters of the Christian city of Constantinople, which they pillniie 190 Baldwin gets himself elected emperor of the East 190 The Venetians and the marquis do Montferrat share with him the provinces of the Greek empire )90 The troubles of Germany continue 191 1214 Frederic II. assumes the reins of government, and commands implicit obedience 191 1216 He encourages a new crusade 192 1217 Two great armies raised under various leaders 192 1219 Progress of the adventurers 192 Their misfortunes 193 Obliged to conclude a dishonourable peace with Meledin,soidan of Egypt and Syria 193 1228 The emperor embarks for the Holy Land 194 1229 Obliges the soldan to cede Jerusalem and its territory to the Christians 194 The subsequent part of Frederic's reign one con- tinued quarrel with the popes ..... 194 After his death the affairs of Germany fall into the utmost confusion 196 Origin of the Hanseatic league 190 LETTER XXXII England, from the Granting of the Great Charter to Hie Reign of Edward I. 1215 The pope absolves king John from the oath which he had taken to observe the great charier 197 John ravages the whole country, from Dover to Ber wick, with an army of Brabancons 197 The barons, dreading the total loss of their liberties, their lives, and their possessions, offer the English crown to Lewis, eldest son of Philip Aug-.;ntus, king of France 197 121G Lewis lands in England 197 Disgusts the people by his partiality to his country- 103 Death and character of John 198 The principal barons agree to acknowledge the au- thority of his son Henry III 198 1217 Lewis obliged to evacuate the kingdom. . . 198 The young king offends the English nation by his profuse bounty to foreign favourites 19? 1243 Loses what remained to him of Poitou.... 19 1255 The pope flatters Henry with the conquest of Sicily, and drains England of immense sums undo. that and other pretences 200 The barons demand an extension of thrir privi leges 199 1258 Headed by the earl of Leicester, they extort from the king the Provisions of Oxford 201 They abuse their authority 201 1263 A civil war 201 1264 The king and prince Edward made pri- soners 201 Tyrannical government of Leicester 201 He summons a new parliament, into which the re- presentatives of boroughs are admitted 202 Reflections on that innovation 202 1265 Prince Edward makes his escape from prison and heads the royalists 202 Leicester slain, and his army routed 202 The king restored 202 His clemency 202 1270 Prince Edward undertakes an expedition to t"ie Holy Land, where he signalizes himself by many gallant exploits 203 1271 Death and character of Henry III 203 LETTER XXXIII. France, from the Reign of Philip Augustus to the End of the Reign of Lewis IX. commonly called St. Lewis, with some Account of the last Crusade. 1223 Death of Philip Augustus 203 Short reign of his son Lewis VIII 203 Character of Lewis IX 203 His humanity and generosity 203 His superstition 204 1244 He makes a vow to engage in a new cru sade 204 1248 Sets sail for the relief of the Holy Land, ac companied by his queen and almost all the knights of France 204 State of the East in those times 201 Conquests of Genghiz-Kan and his descendants 203 1249 Lewis lands near the city of Damietla i,i Egypt, at the head of sixty thousand men 205 1250 That place is abandoned to Mm, but afterward besieged, and restored in consequence of the dis- eases in his army 205 1251 Lewis visits Palestine, where he continues four years without effecting any thing of mo 206 Disorders in France during his absence 205 1258 He returns and makes many wise regulations for the government of his kingdom 208 1264 Is appointed arbiter between the king of Eng land and his rebellious barons 906 CONTENTS. xiv Page 1268 His brother establishes himself on the throne of Sicily 206 1271 Lewis IX. heads a new army against tin: infi- dels, and dies on the coast of Africa 206,207 His son PitUip, JHinuwted the Hardy, saves the re- mains of tin; Fiench army 207 LETTER XXXIV. Spain, from the Middle of the Eleventh to the End of t/ie Thirteenth Century. 1037 Rise of the kingdom of Castile 207 Spain divided into many kingdoms at thut time 207 Origin of kniuhta errant 207 Famous exploits of Don Roderigo, surnamed the Cid 207 1084 Memorable siege of Toiio -07 1085 Dispute concerning the Roman and Musarabic liturgies 208 The Cid conquers Valencia from the Moors... . 208 1134 Giandeur of Alphonso VII. king of Cas- tile 208 1147 Alphonso llenriqiiez, count of Portugal, ob- tains from his followers the title of king 209 1170 His regal dignity confirmed by the see of Rome 209 1211 The Miramolin of Africa undertakes an expe- dition against the Christians in Spain, assisted by the Moors in that country 209 The Christian princes unite from the sense of a common danger 209 1312 Battle of Sierra Morena 20i) The Moors vanquished after an obstinale dispute 209 1236 Ferdinand III. king of Castile, conquers Cor- dova the seat of the first Moorish kings 20!) 1238 The infidels are also driven out of the island of Majorca 209,210 And dispossessed of the kingdoms of Murcia and Valencia 210 Ferdinand III. takes from them the opulent city of Seville 210 1283 Alphonso, surnamed the Astronomer, invites over the Miramolin to protect him against his re- bellious sons 210 1303 Ferdinand IV. makes himself master of Gib- raltar 2JO LETTER XXXV. Progress of Society in Europe, during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Beneficial effects of the crusades 210 Rise of commerce 211 Freedom of cities 21 J Corporation charters granted 211 Their happy consequences 212 The commons obtain a place in the national as- semblies., x. 212 Enfranchisement of the villains, or slaves employed in husbandry 212 Abolition of trials by ordeal and by duel 212 Suppression of the practice of private war.... 213 Revival of the study of thecivillaw 213 Universities founded 214 Academical titles and honours invented 214 The first studies, though ill directed, rouse the human mind 214 Barbarism gradually disappears with ignorance 214 LETTER XXXVI. England, during Vie Rr.ign of Edward /., with an Introduction to the History of Scotland ; some Ac- count of the Conquest of that Country ly the Eng- lish, and the final Reduction of Wales. 1374 Return of Edward I. from the Holy Land 215 His wise policy 215 1276 He undertakes an expedition against Lewellyn prince of North Wales, and obliges him to sub- mit 215 The Welch revolt, and are again s.ubdned 215 1283 Tin; laws of England established in the prin- cipality of Wales. , 215 Retrospective view of the history of Scotland. . 216 ft* 1286 Edward revives a claim of feudal superiority over that kingdom 216 Disputed succession to the Scottish crown 216 Edward chosen umpire of the dispute between Bruce and Baliol, the two competitors 216 1291 Scotland acknowledged by both to be a fitf of the English monarchy 217 1292 Edward gives judgment in favour of Baliol 217 1295 Baliol enters into a secret alliance with France 217 True era of the English house of commons... . 217 Its beneficial influence upon the constitution* 217 1296 Edward cites Baliol as his vassal to appear in the English parliament 21 Baliol refuses compliance 218 Edward enters Scotland, and subdues the whole country 218 Baliol carried prisoner to London, and committed to the tower 218 Edward attempts the recovery of Guienne, which Philip the Fair had ordered to bu confiscated as a fiof of France 218 1297 Obtains large supplies from his parliament, and confirms the great charter with an additional clause 219 Guienne restored to England 219 The Scots rebel 219 Character and heroic exploits of William Wallace 219 He defeats the English army near Stirling, and ex- pels the invaders of his country 220 1298 Edward again enters Scotland with a great army, and subdues the southern provinces 220, 221 1305 Wallace treacherously delivered up to him, and executed as a rebel 221 Character of Robert Bruce 221 He encourages his countrymen to shake off the yoke of Enaland 221 130G TAe English forces driven out of Scotland 222 Bruce defeated by Ayinar de Valence, the generaJ of Edward 222 1307 Edward I. dies at Carlisle, in advancing to complete the recovery of Scotland 22 His high character as a legislator 222 He regulated the jurisdiction of the several courts, and acquired the title of the English Justinian 223 LETTER XXXVII. England, during the Reigii of Edward II., with an Account of the Affairs of Scotland. 1307 Edward II. relinquishes HIP. projected reduction of Scotland after a few feeble efforts 23 Disgusts the English by his profuse liberality to Pier Gaveston, a foreign favourite 22 1308 A confederacy formed against Gaveston. . 22 He is banished 224 But recalled, and beheaded, in consequence of a new revolt...! 224 Edward resolves to subdue the Scots 22 Makes great preparations for that purpose 22 1314 Enters Scotland at the head of one hundred thousand men 224 Battle of Bannockburn ~- The English defeated with great slaughter. . .. , . 22a 1315 The Scots ravage the northern counties of Eng- land, and invade Ireland 22 Brnce established on the throne of Scotland 225 The English barons insult the fallen fortunes of Edward 225 His attachment fo Hugh le Dcspenser, a new favour- ite, furnishes them with a pretext for rebellion 22 1321 The favourite and his father banished. .. . 22 Recalled, and the rebellious barons humbled.. . 22 1322 The earl of Lancaster and about twenty other noblemen condemned and executed 22 The rapacity of the younger Spenser ~J 1323 Edward concludes a truce with Scotland f. 1324 Isabella, his queen, enters into a conspiracy Beaimrt him with Roger Mortimer, her gallant, and other dissatisfied barons .22 1326 The two Spensers condemned and executed 2S 1327 The king accused of incapacity foi govern- ment, and deposed 227 Inhumanly murdered * CONTENTS- LETTER XXXVIII. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, from the Election of Ro- dulph of Hapsburg to the Death of Henry VII. Page 1273 Rodulph count of Hapsburg invested with tlie imperial ensigns after an interregnum of twenty- three years 228 He corrects the disorders in Germany 228 1275 Rebellion of Ottocarus, king of Bohemia 229 1276 He is compelled to submit 2-29 1277 Again rebels, and is slain in battle 229 Bodulph settles the affairs of Italy 229 1282 Establishes the grandeur of his family in Aus- tria .' 229 1291 His death and character 229 1292 Adolphus of Nassau elected emperor 230 1297 He is deposed 230 Albert duke of Austria is raised to the imperial throne 230 And Albert kills his competitor Adolphus in bat- tle 230 The Jews persecuted with great rigour in Ger- many 230 1308 The rise of the republic of Switzerland.. 231 Remarkable circumstances with which it was at- tended 231 The emperor Albert slain by his nephew, when ready to march against the Swiss 232 1309 The count of Luxemburg elected emperor, under the name of Henry VH 232 1310 He resolves to establish the imperial authority in Italy 233 State of that country 233 1311 The emperor there compels universal sub- mission 233 1313 Dies at Benevento 23i LETTER XXXIX. France, from the Death of Lewis IX. till the Ac- cession of tlie House of Valois. 1270 Accession of Philip III. to the crown of France 234 1282 Account of the Sicilian Vespers 234 1284 Philip III. at the instigation of the pope, under- takes the conquest of the kingdom of Arragon 235 1285 Fails in that enterprise, and dies at Perpig- nan 235 The first Freneh monarch who granted letters of nobility . . 235 Accession of Philip IV. surnamed the Fair 235 He institutes the supreme tribunals called Parlia- ments 235 1303 His quarrel with the see of Rome 236 Orders the pope's bull to be thrown into the fire 236 1310 Persecutes the knights templars 237 1312 Suppression of that order, and the cruel cir- cumstances that accompanied it 238 1314 Philip IV. succeeded by his son Lewis X. . 238 1316 Violent dispute in regard to the succession, on the death of Lewis 239 1317 The States of the kingdom, by a solemn de- cree, declare all females incapable of succeeding to the crown of France 239 1318 Philip de Valois, in consequence of that de- cree, is unanimously raised to the throne .... 239 LETTER XL. England, Scotland, France, and Spain, during Me Reign of Edward III. 1327 Tyrannical government of queen Isabella and Mortimer her gallant* 239 1330 Mortimer seized by order of young Edward, and perisltes by the hands of the hangman.. . 240 Edward III. assumes the reins of government. . 240 1331 He makes provision for the impartial admin- istration of justice 240 Secretly encourages Ed ward ISaliol in his claim upon the crown of Scotland 240 1332 Baliol makes himself master of that king- dom 241 1333 Is expelled, and takes refuge in England.. 241 Edward agrees to reinstate him, on his admitting the superiority of England, and defeats the Scots with great slaughter at Halidown Hill 241 Baliol is acknowledged by a parliament, assembled at Edinburgh 241 Tlie Scots auain revolt from Baliol, and return to their allegiance under David Bruce, the son ol the great Robert 241 1336 Edward, a second and third time, marches into their country, and obliges them to take refuge in their hills and fastnesses 241 He lays claim to the crown of France 241 1337 Is flattered in his pretensions by Robert ot Artois 242 The kings of France and England form alliances on the continent 242 State of the Flemings 242 1338 They favour the cause of Edward 243 1340 The English gain an important advantaee over the French" by sea '... 243 Heroic character of Jane, countess of Mount- fnrd 244 1342 Her gallant defence of Hennebone 244 134S Edward invades France with an army of thirty thousand men 244 Philip de Valois advances against him at the head of a hundred thousand men 345 Famous passage of the Somme 245 Battle of Cressy [Aug. 26.] 245 The French defeated with great slaughter 245- Reflections on the invention of firearms 245 David Bruce, king of Scotland, invades Eng- land 246 He is defeated and made prisoner by an English army under queen Philippa and Lord Percy [Oct. 17.] 246 1347 Calais taken by Edward 246 1348 He concludes a truce with France, and returns in triumph to England 246 1350 Institutes the order of the garter 246 A dreadful pestilence in England 247 Death of Philip de Valois 247 Character of king John, his son and successor. . 247 Dangerous intrigues of Charles, king of Navarre 247 1356 Edward prince of Wales, commonly called the Black Prince, invades France on the expira- tion of the truce 247 Battle of Poictiers [Sept. 19.] 248 The prince of Wales defeats the French, and takes their king prisoner 248 His generous treatment of the captive monarch 248 1357 He concludes a truce for two years, and returns to England 248 1358 Distracted state of France 248 The nobility and gentry exposed to the barbarity of the common people 249 These disorders suppressed by the dauphin. ... 249 1359 Edward HI. again invades France 250 1360 Concludes an advantageous peace with his prisoner, king John, who obtains his liberty. . 250 1363 John, unable to fulfil the articles of the treaty, honourably returns to his confinement in Eng- land 250 1364 His death 250 He is succeeded in the throne of France by his son, Charles V 250 Wise policy of Charles 250 1365 His general, Demand du Guesclin, defeats the king of Navarre, and order is restored to France 250 Miserable state of Spain under Peter 1 251 1366 Peter dethroned by his brother Henry, assisted by a French army under du Guesclin 251 1367 Restored by an English army, under the Black Prince 251 His ingratitude to his benefactor 252 1368 He is slain by his brother Henry 252 1370 111 health of the Black Prince 252 The English are stripped of most of their conquests in France 252 1376 Death of the Black Prince 252 1377 Death of king Edward III . 252 1380 Death of Charles V. of France , 253 xvi CONTENTS. LETTER XLI. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Home and the Italian States, from the Election of Lewis of Bavaria to the Death of Charles IV. 1313 Death of Henry VII. followed by an interreg- num 253 ttaly and Germany desolated by civil wars 253 1319 The battle of Muldorff 253 1322 Lewis V. undisputed emperor 253 1324 The pope declares his election void 25-i 1328 He inarches into Italy, and deposes John XX11 254 1338 Establishes a constitution, with the concur- rence of the princes, both ecclesiastical and secu- lar, by which it was irrevocably fixed, " That the plurality of the suffrages of the Electoral College confers the empire, without the consent of the holy tee." 255 Germany employs the blessings of peace 255 1347 Lewis V. succeeded in the imperial throne by the duke of Luxemburg, under the name of Charles IV 255 Nicholas Rienzi, an ambitious demagogue, excites disorders in Rome 256 Story of Joan queen of Naples 250 1348 Lewis king of Hungary, her husbnnd's brother, accuses her of the murder of that prince 256 She is acquitted by the pope 256 1355 The ernperor Charles IV., having settled the affairs of Germany, is crowned at Rome 257 1356 He fixes the number of electors, by the famous constitution, called The Golden Bull 257 Style of that celebrated charter 257 Pomp with which the publication of it was accom- panied 257 The latter part of the reign of Charles IV. distin- guished by no memorable event 258 1378 His death 253 LETTER XLH. England, from the Death of Edward III. to the Accession of Henry V., with some Account of the Jlffairs of Scotland during that Period. 1377 Accession of Richard II. son of the Black Prince 258 1380 Discontents of tlie common people 258 1381 Insurrection of Wat Tyler 250 Suppressed by the address of the young king. . . 259 1385 Fruitless expedition of Richard into Scot- land 260 He resigns himself to the direction of Robert de Vere, a worthless favourite 260 A civil war 2(10 1388 The king obliged to resign the govern- ment 260 1389 He recovers his authority 260 Addicted to low pleasures 260 1397 Intrigues and murder of the duke of Glou- cester 200 1398 Unpopular conduct of Richard II 261 1399 Henry duke of Lancaster, who had been ban- ished, lands in England, and is joined by many disaffected noblemen 261 Richard, deserted by his army, is deposed and mur- dered, and the duke of Lancaster is declared king, under the name of Henry IV 202 1400 Henry persecutes the followers, of Wickliffe, the first English reformer, in order to procure the support of the clergy 262 Rebellion of Owen Glendour in Wales 262 The Scots make incursions into England 202 1402 Defeated at Homeldon 263 The earl of Northumberland, in disgust, forms an alliance with Glendour ". 263 1403 The rebels defeated with great slaughter near Shrewsbury 204 1409 The Welch submit 264 1413 Death and character of Henry IV 264 LETTER XLJII Tlie German Empire and its Dependencies, Romt and the Italian States, from Ike Accession of Winceslaus to the Death of Sigtsmund. Page 1378 Winceslaus succeeds his father, Charles IV., in the imperial throne 205 1379 Gives himself up to all kinds of debauchery 265 Sequel of the story of Joan queen of Naples. . 265 1383 She is smothered between two mattiesses 265 Exploits of Margaret queen of Denmark, surnamed the Semiiamis of the North 265,266 1399 The emperor Winceslaus deposed 266 Election of Robert count palatine of the Rhine 266 1401 Expedition of the new emperor into Italy 266 1400 Disorders in Bohemia, occasioned by the preaching of John Huss 266 The church of Rome distracted l>y what is called the Grand Schism of the We*t 267 1410 Death of the emperor Robert 267 1411 Sigismund, brother of Winceslaus, succeeds to the imperial throne 267 He convokes the council of Constance, with the concurrence of the pope 267 1414 Description of the meeting of that council, and an account of its decress 267 1415 Condemnation and death of John Huss... 268 Proceedings against the aulipope Peter de Luna 268 1416 Trial.and sufferings of Jerome of Prague 368, 860 14 17 The schism in the church closed 269 1419 The Hussites in Bohemia, under Ziska, revenge the death of their apostle 269 1437 Sigismund enlists them in his army, and leads them against the Turks 270 1438 His death and character 270 Anarrow-mindedbicot 270 His wife Barbara more liberal in her opinions. . 270 LETTER XL1V. France, from the Death of Charles V., in 1380, to the Invasion of that Kingdom by Henry y. of England, in 1415. 1380 Distracted state of France during the minority of Charles VI 270 1388 He assumes the reins of government, but falls into a fit of phrensy 270 Singular circumstances accompanying his insa- nity 270,271 Corrupt state of the French court. . .- 271 1407 Assassination of the duke of Orleans 272 The whole kingdom agitated with intestine commo- tions, and divided by two furious factions. ... 272 Civil war between tho Burgundians and Armag- nacs 272 1415 Henry V. of England resolves to take advan- tage of these disorders 273 LETTER XLV. England and France, from the Invasion cf the latter Kingdom by Henry V. to the Death of Charles VI. Dissipated character of Henry V. while prince of Wales 373 1413 His change of conduct on ascending the throne 273 He endeavours to banish all party distinctions. . 273 1415 Suppresses an insurrection of the Lollards 274 Invades Fiance 27* Distress of his army 374 Battle of Agincourt 27 The French defeated with great slaughter 2* Henry V. returns to England 275 Wretched state of France ~' J 1417 The count of Armagnac, and many other per- sons of distinction, murdered 276 1418 The king of England lands in Normandy, and carries every thing before him 27 1419 He negotiates with both the French parties 2/o 1420 Concludes with the queen and the duke of Burgundy the famous treaty of Trove, by which the succession to the crown of France was secured to the king of England 276 CONTENTS. XTil Marries the twincees vii.->a. in . . 277 1421 She brings iiin j swi, ... ... 277 1422 Death of Henry V ...277 Death of Charles VI. of France 277 Coronation of his sou Charles VII 277 LETTER XLVI. Fhe Affairs of France and England continued, from the Accession of Charles VII. to the Expulsion of the English, from their Continental Territories. 422 Comparative state of France and England at the death of Henry V 278 Duke of Bedford regent during the minority of Henry VI 278 Amiable character of Charles VII 278 1423 Prudent measures of the duke of Bedford 278 1424 He defeats the French and Scots in the battle of Verneuil 278 U28 Undertakes the siege of Orleans 279 Desperate state of the affairs of Charles VII. . . 279 1429 He is roused to action by his queen and his mis- tress 279 Account of the Maid of Orleans 279 She is introduced to the king 280 Enters Orleans at the head of a convoy 280 Charles VII. marches to Rheims, where he is so- lemnly crowned and anointed at the request of the maid 280 Recovers many places 280 1430 The duke of Bedford brings over the young king of England, Henry VI., who is crowned and anointed at Paris, as king of France 281 1431 The maid is taken prisoner, and condemned to be burned for sorcery and magic 281 1435 Death of the duke of Bedford, and the utter ruin of the English affairs on the continent 281 Feeble character of Henry VI 281 1443 He is married to Margaret of Anjou 282 1447 Murder of the duke of Gloucester 282 Flourishing state of France under Charles VII . . 282 1453 The English expelled from all their possessions on the continent except Calais 282 LETTER XLVTI. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, from the Death of Sigis- mund to the Accession of Maximilian. 1438 Short reign of Albert II 283 1439 He is succeeded in the imperial throne by Fre- derick III 283 1440 Frederick appears in the council of Basil. . 283 1451 Visits Italy 283 1452 Is there crowned king of Lombardy 284 Troubles in Hungary and Bohemia 284 Progress of the Tuikg 285 1456 John Hunniades obliges Mahomet II. to raise the siege of Belgrade ".... 285 1493 Death of Frederick III 285 He is succeeded in the Imperial throne by his son Maximilian, who had married the heiress of Bur- gundy and the Low Countries 286 LETTER XLVII1. England, during the Contest between me Houses of York and Lancaster, and until its fiMtl Extinction in the Accession of the House of Tudor. 1450 Richard, duke of York, sets up a claim U the English crown s<86 1455 Henry VI. obliged to resign the administration of government into the bands of his rival. ... 287 1458 Acivilwar 287 1459 The duke of York is deserted by his troops, and flies into Ireland 287 1460 The earl of Warwick defeats the royal army at Northampton, and makes the king prisoner 287 The duke of York returns from Ireland, and supports bis claim to the English crown 287 He is acknowledged the true and lawful heir of the monarchy by the parliament 288 Is killed in the battle of Wakefield (Dec. 24.).. 288 VOL. I. B 1461 His son Edward enters London, and assumes the title of king 289 Character of Edward IV 289 Henry VI. and queen Margaret, after several blood) battles, forced to take refuge in Scotland. .. 269 State of that kingdom 289 1464 Queen Margaret and the Scots defeated at Hexham 290 Her singular escape 290 1465 King Henry made prisoner, and confined in the tower 290 Gallantries of Edward IV 290 He marries lady Elizabeth Gray 291 Rebellion of the earl of Warwick 291 1470 He associates himself with the Lancas- trians 291 Edward IV., abandoned by his army, takes refuge in Holland 291 1471 He returns, and totally defeats the Lancastrians at Barnet, where Warwick is slain 291, 292 Death of Henry VI 292 1475 Edward IV. invades France 292, 293 Concludes a truce with Lewis XI 293 Atrocious character of Richard duke of Gloucester, the king's brother 291 1483 He is appointed regent and protector on the death of Edward 293 Orders lord Hastings and many other persons of dis- tinction to be executed without any form of trial 294 Persecutes Jane Shore, the late king's mistress 294 Gets his brother's children, Edward V. and the duke of York, murdered, and usurps the crown under the name of Richard III 295 Henry earl of Richmond disputes the kingdom with him. 296 1485 Richard defeated and slain in the battle of Bosworth 297 The earl of Richmond proclaimed king, under the name of Henry VII 297 LETTER XLIX. France, from the Expulsion of the English by Charles VII. to the Invasion of Italy by Charles nil., in 1494. 1453 Wise regulations of Charles VII 298 He establishes a standing army 29 1461 His death 298 His son, Lewis XI. seeks to depress the power of the nobles 298 1465 They rebel against him 398 He quiets them by a treacherous negotiation .... 298 Corrupts the national assemblies 298 1467 Made prisoner by Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy 299 Obtains his liberty, on humiliating conditions. . 299 The subsequent part of his reign a continued scene of tyranny and cruelty 299 He greatly enlarges the French monarchy, and ex- alts the power of the crown 300 1483 His horror at the approach of death 300 The means which he employed to divert his melan- choly and prolong life note, 300 A description of the various instruments of his cruelty note, 300 His complicated character 301 1491 Charles VIII., his son, unites Brittany to the kingdom of France, by marrying the heiress of thatdutchy 302 1492 Henry VII. of England invades France. . . 303 He is induced to withdraw his forces by the pecu- niary stipulations in the treaty of Estaples. . . 303 1494 Charles VIII. prepares for the invasion of Italy 30 LETTER L. The Progress of the Turks, and the Fall of the Greek Empire, Abject superstition of the Greeks 302 1370 John Paleologus, emperor of Constantinople, concludes a shameful treaty with the Turkish sultan Amurath 903 XVlll CONTENTS. Page, Amurath establishes the body of janissaries.. . 303 Vanquishes the Christians, but is slain, in the battle of Cassovia 304 1389 Succeeded by his son Bajazet 304 1396 Bajazet defeats the Christians at Nicopolis, upon the Danube 304 Manuel Paleologus, emperor of Constantinople, pur- chases a peace by mean submissions 304 1401 The Turks invest Constantinople 304 The siege raised, in consequence of the irruption of the Mogul Tartars under Tamerlane 305 1402 Tamerlane defeats Bajazet in the battle of An- gora, and takes him prisoner 305 He becomes master of Prusa, the seat of the Turkish emperors; but soon after abandons that city, and all his conquests in Asia Minor 305 Wretched state of the Greek empire 305 14521 Amurath II. invests Constantinople 305 Raises the siege to quell the revolt of his brother Mustapha 305 1444 Is defeated by John Hunniades, vaivode of Transylvania 305 Concludes a truce of ten years with the Christians, and resigns the sceptre to his son Mahomet II. 305 The Christians break the truce 306 Are vanquished by the Turks in a great battle near Varna, in Moldavia (Nov. 10.) 306 Account of George Castriot, surnamed Scander- beg 306 He rescues Albania, his native country, from the Turkish yoke 306 Character of Mahomet II 307 1452 He forms the design of making himself master of Constantinople 307 1453 Invests that city both by sea and land 307 Particulars of the siege 307 Constantinople is taken, and the Greek empire, or "Roman empire in the East, utterly subverted 307 Farther conquests of Mahomet II 308 His death 306 LETTER LI. Spain, from the Death of Peter the Cruel, in 1369, till the Conquest of Granada, by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. Debaucheries of Henry IV. of Castile 308 1464 He is deposed with great solemnity at Avi- la 308, 309 A furious civil war 309 1469 The infanta Isabella married to Ferdinand, prince of Arragon 309 The civil war continues 309 1479 Accession of Ferdinand and Isabella 309 Their maxims of policy 309 They endeavour to annihilate the territorial juris- diction of the nobles 310 1480 Establish the court of inquisition 310 1483 Undertake the conquest of Granada 310 1492 Accomplish their enterprise, and terminate the dominion of the Moors in Spain 311 Expulsion of the Jews 311 The infanta Joan, daughter of Ferdinand and Isa- bella, married to Philip, archduke of Austria and sovereign of the Netherlands 311 LETTER LII. England, during the Reign of Henry VII. 1485 Henry VII. by marrying Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., unites the claims of the houses of York and Lt incaster 311 He retains an antipathy against the partisans of the house of York 311 Insurrections in consequence of this prejudice. . 312 Account of the impostor Lambert Simnel 312 1486 He assumes the character of Edward Planta- genet, eatl of Warwick, son of the duke of Cla- rence 312 Excites an i nsurrection in Ireland 312 1487 Is joined by the earl of Lincoln, at the head of two thousand men 313 Lands in England 313 Is defeated and made prisoner 313 Henry turns his eyes towards the affairs on the con* linent 314 1492 Invades France 314 Concludes, at Estaples, an advantageous treaty with Lewis XI 314 Story of Perkin Warbec, a new impostor who as- sumes the character of Richard duke of fork, son of Edward IV 315 1493 Perkin is supported by the dutchess of Bur- gundy 315 She honours him with the appellation of the White Rose of England 316 Henry obtains the secrets of Perkin, and arrests his adherents 316 Execution of lord Stanley 316 Perkin seeks refuge, alternately, in Ireland and Scot- land 317 Lands in Cornwall, and takes the title of Richard IV 317 1498 Despairing of success, he delivers himself into the king's hands, on a promise of pardon 317 1499 Committed to the tower, and hanged for a con- spiracy against the life of the lieutenant 318 1502 Henry prince of Wales, married to Catharine of Arragon, his brother's widow 318 Vigorous but oppressive administration of Henry VII 318 His death and character 319 He repressed the exorbitant power of the barons, by diminishing the number of their retainers.... 319 LETTER LIIL A general View of the Continent of Europe, from the Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII., in 1494, till the League of Cambray, in 1508. 1494 State of Italy at the invasion of Charles VIII 320 He overruns the whole country, and makes himself master of Rome 35X1 Story of Zizim, brother to the Turkish emperor Bajazet II 321 He is delivered into the hands of the French mo- narch by pope Alexander VI 321 Charles VIII. conquers the kingdom of Naples 321 1495 The Italian States, the emperor Maximilian, and their Catholic majesties Ferdinand and Isa- bella, league against him 322 1496 He is driven out of Italy, and stripped of all his conquests 322 1498 His death and character 322 Charles is succeeded in the throne of France by the duke of Orleans, under the title of Lewis XII. 322 Generous spirit of Lewis 322 He proposes to invade Italy 322 Infamous character and debauched manners of pope Alexander VI. and his court 323 He dissolves the marriage of Lewis XII. with Joan, daughter of Lewis XI 322 Lewis marries Anne of Brittany, the queen-dowa- ger 323,324 1499 Invades Italy, and conquers the dutchy of Milan 324 1501 Makes himself also master of the kingdom of Naples 324 Butis expelled by the arms and intrigues of Gonsalvo de Cordova, general of the king of Spain .... 324 Farther account of Alexander VI. and his son Caesar Borgia 324 1504 Lewis XII. makes an unsuccessful attempt to recover the kingdom of Naples 325 1506 Marries his eldest daughter to the count of Angoul6me, first prince of the blood 325 LETTER LIV. Europe, from the League of Cambray to the Death of Levis XII. 1508 Julius II., an able and ambitious pontiff, forma the project of driving all foreigners out of Italy, and of humbling the republic of Venice 325 Policy and power of that republic 326 It becomes an object of terror to the other Italian states 3SM CONTENTS XIX Page The league of Cambray formed against it 326 1509 Depressed condition of the Venetians 327 The pope, having accomplished one part of his plan, sows dissensions among the confederates .... 327 J510 The league of Cambray dissolved 327 The Venetians recover from their consternation 327 151 1 Henry VIII. of England agrees to send an army to invade France at the solicitation of Ferdinand king of Spain, his father-in-law 328 1512 Lewis XII., in consequence of this threatened invasion, withdraws part of his forces from Italy 328 Ferdinand conquers the kingdom of Navarre. . . 328 Battle of Ravenna, and death of the gallant Gaston deFoix 328 The French driven out of Italy 328 1513 Death of Julius II. and the elevation of Leo X 329 The king of England invades France 329 Is joined by the emperor Maximilian, who conde- scends to act under him 329 French routed at Guinegate 329 The English make themselves masters of Terouane and Tournay 330 Perilous situation of Lewis XII 330 The Scots invade England 330 Defeated in the field of Flouden, where James IV. and the flower of his nobility were slain (Sept. 9.). 330 General pacification among the European pow- ers 330 Death of Lewis XII 331 1515 His amiable character 331 His humanity, generosity, and indulgence to his subjects, obtained him the appellation of Father of his people 331 LETTER LV. The general View of Europe continued, from the Accession of Francis I., in 1515, to the Death, of the Emperor Maximilian, in 1519; including the Rise of the Reformation in Germany. Lewis XII. succeeded by the count of Angoulfime, his son-in-law, under the name of Francis I . . 331 Francis projects the recovery of the dutchy of Mi- lan. 331 Is opposed by the Swiss 331 Battle of Marignan (Sept. 13.) 332 The Swiss defeated with great slaughter 332 City of Milan surrenders, and the whole dutchy sub- mits to the French monarch 332 1516 Death of Ferdinand the Catholic, king of Spain 332 Succeeded by his grandson Charles, heir to the arch- duke Philip, late sovereign of the Low Coun- tries 332 Vigorous administration of cardinal Ximenes, regent of Spain 332 1517 His unhappy fate 333 Charles assumes the reins of government in Spain 333 1518 Diet of Augsburg, and the rise of the Reforma- tion in Germany 333 Corruptions of the Romish church 333 The pope assumes the right of pardoning sins. . . 334 Nature of plenary indulgences 334 Mistake of Mr. Hume in regard to them 334 Leo X. publishes a general sale of indulgences, or liberty to commit crimes without being amenable to divine justice 335 Abuse of this spiritual traffic in Germany 335 \lartin Luther, professor of theology in the univer- sity of Wittemberg, declares against the sale of indulgences, and other abuses of the Romish church 335 Leo summons him to answer for his doctrines at Rome 335 That citation revoked at the intercession of the elec- tor of Saxony 335 Luther appears in the diet at Augsburg 335 Denied a hearing by cardinal Cajettn 335 B9 Retires, and continues to propagate his new opt nions 335 1519 Death of the emperor Maximilian 1 336 LETTER LVI. Progress of Society in Europe,from the Beginning of the Fourteenth to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century, with a retrospective View of the Revival of Letters. Recapitulation of the progress of society in regard to trade and industry 336 The command of national force, civil government, and political power 336 Splendour of the Italian cities 33* They invent new arts 337 Introduce into Europe the culture of silk, and of other productions of Asia 337 Flanders famous for the manufacture of linen and woollen cloth 337 Its great trade 337 Painting and architecture revive in Italy and the Low Countries 337 Reflections on learning and politeness 338 The revival of letters, and its remote causes 338 Erection of schools under lay preceptors 338 A more liberal mode of thinking introduced.... 338 Effects of the invention of paper, and of the art of printing 339 Influence of women upon manners 339 Their high sense of honour during the times of chi- valry 339 They inspire the men with the most exalted cou- rage 339 Origin of the heroic romance 340 It has its rise among the Troubadours of Pro- vence 340 Its character 340 Allegorical tale, and Italian epic..... 341 Character of Dante, the father of Italian poetry 341 Character of Petrarch 341 Character of Boccacio 341 He is imitated by Chaucer 342 Splendour of the court of Edward III. of Eng- land 342 Chaucer its brightest ornament 342 His character as a poet 342 State of poetry in France 343 Rapid progress of genius in Italy 343 Character of the Orlando of Ariosto 343 Character of the Jerusalem of Tasso 343 Reflections on the revival of theatrical representa- tion 344 Reflections on music 344 Reflections on historical composition 344 Character of Machiavel and Guicciardini 344 Flourishing state of Italy in the sixteenth cen- tury 345 LETTER LVB. The Progress of Navigation, and particularly among the Portuguese. A short Introduction to the History of Portugal. The Discoveries and Settlements of the Portuguese on the Coast of Africa and in the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. The Discovery of America by the Spa- jiiards; the Settlement of the West Indies; and the Conquest of Mexico and Peru; together iciHh some Reflections on the moral and political Conse quences of those great Events. View of the state of commerce and navigation in Europe, at the beginning of the fifteenth cen- tury. 345 Rise of the kingdom of Portugal 345, 346 1385 Accessionof John I. surnamed the Bastard 346 1414 He takes Ceuta from the Moors 346 Enlightened genius of his son, Don Henry 346 1420 Discovery of the island of Madeira by the Portuguese 346 1484 Discovery of the river Zara, and the kingdom of Congo 346 I486 Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope... 346 1497 Voyage of Vasco de Garaa 346 CONTENTS. Page 1493 He arrives in the East Indies 346 State of commerce in the East 347 1499 Gama encounters many dangers, and returns to Lisbon 347 1500 Voyage of Alvarez de Cabral 347 1501 The Portuguese establish themselves by force of arms on the coast of Malabar 347, 348 1508 They monopolize the trade of the East Indies 348 1509 Their conquests there under Albuquerque 348 151 1 He makes himself master of Goa and Ma- lacca 348,349 1515 Of Ormus in the Persian Gulf. 349 His death and character 349 Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, pro- jocts the discovery of a new continent towards the West 350 His proposals long treated with neglect 350 1492 Patronised by Isabella, queen of Spain, and sails from the port of Palos in Andalusia 350 Discovers the Archipelago of America, to which he gives the name of the West Indies 350 Character of the natives of Hispaniola, where Co- lumbus planted a colony 351 1493 He returns to Spain, where he is treated with great respect 351 Makes another voyage with little success 351 1498 In a third voyage discovers the continent of America 352 199 Voyage of Americus Vespucius 352 He gives his own name to the New World, in preju- dice of the prior right of Columbus 352 Misfortunes and injuries of Columbus 352 1506 His death and character 353 Cruelty of the Spaniards in the West Indies. . . 353 1518 Discovery of the empire of Mexico 353 1519 Invaded by Cortez, the Spanish general, with only five hundred men 353 Circumstances favourable to his enterprise 353 He receives an embassy from the emperor Mon- tezuma 353 Negotiates with the tributary princes and states 354 Defeats the Tlascalans, and enters into a treaty with them 354 Admitted by Montezuma into the city of Mexico 354 Makes the emperor prisoner in his own capital 354 1520 A Spanish army sent against him by the go- vernor of Cuba 354 He defeats his rival 354 The Mexicans revolt in his absence 354 Their desperate valour 354 Death of Montezuma 355 Cortez obliged to abandon the city of Mexico. . . 355 The Mexicans pursue him, and are totally defeated in the battle of Otumba 355 1521 Final subjection of the Mexican empire... 355 Doubts concerning the civilization of the Mexi- cans 355 Their bloody superstition 356 1532 A Spanish adventurer, named Pizarro, under- takes the conquest of Peru 356 State of that empire 356 Treachery and cruelty of the Spaniards 356 1533 Conquest of Peru, and murder of Atahualpa 356 Inquiry, " How far the discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards have been advantageous to Europe,, or beneficial to mankind 7" 357 The East India trade drains Europe of its bullion and specie 357 The mines of Mexico and Peru necessary to supply that drain 357 The discovery of America has increased the labour of Europe, and the number of the civilized part of the human species 357 The violent settlement of the European colonies in ! the New World to be lamented 358 LETTER LVIII. * general View of the Affairs of Europe, from the Election of Charles F., in 1519, till the Peace of Cambray, in 1529, including the Progress of the Reformation. State of Germany at the death of the emperor Maximilian 358 Threatening posture of the Turks 356 Extensive dominions of the archduke Charles, king of Spain and-sovereign of the Netherlands . . 358 High reputation and great power of Francis I. . 358 He and Charles candidates for the imperial crown 358 Their respective pretensions 353 Charles elected emperor 359 Chagrin of Francis 359 Their emulation and interfering claims 359 Henry VIII. courted by both, as the next prince of the age in power and dignity 359 His character, and that of his minister cardinal Wolsey 359 1520 The emperor Charles V. artfully pays a visit to the king of England, in his way from Spain to the Netherlands 360 Splendid interview between Henry and Francis near Guisnes 360 Charles crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle 3fil Orders a diet to be held at Worms for the condemna- tion of the reformed opinions 361 Progress of Luther in Germany 361 Of Zuingliusin Switzerland 361 1521 Luther summoned to attend the diet of Worms 362 His wonderful popularity there 362 His firmness in maintaining his doctrines 362 Is permitted to depart, in consequence of the empe- ror's safe-conduct 362 Propagates his opinions in solitude, though at the hazard of his life 362 Disturbances in Spain 362 Hostilities begun between Charles and Francis . . 363 The pope, the emperor, and the king of England enter into a league against France 363 Rapid progress of the imperial arms in Italy .... 363 1522 The French stripped of all their territories there 364 An English army invades France without effect 364 The tumults in Spain quelled 364 Solyman II., emperor of the Turks, makes himself master of the island of Rhodes, the seat of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem 364 Perilous state of Francis 1 365 1523 He determines to lead a strong army into Italy 365 Conspiracy of the constable Bourbon 365 He escapes, and enters into the imperial ser- vice 366 Thwarts the designs of Francis in Italy 366 1524 The French defeated in the battle of Bia- grassa 366 Death of the chevalier Bayard 366 Francis, successful on his own frontier, marches into Italy, and lays siege to Pavia (Oct. 28.) 366, 367 1525 Battle of Pavia (Feb. 24.) 367 The French army routed with great slaughter, and the king himself made prisoner, by the imperial- ists, under Bourbon and Pescara 367 Prudent conduct of Louisa, Francis's mother. 368 Henry VIII. becomes anxious for the liberties of Eu- rope 368 tie interposes in favour of the French monarch 368 Sebaviourof Francis in confinement 363 [526 He signs the treaty of Madrid, in consequence of which he obtains his liberty 368 Evades the execution of that treaty 369 Clement VII. forms a powerful league against the emperor 369 1527- The city of Rome taken and plundered by the imperialists under Bourbon, who is slain 369 The pope is made prisoner 369 Horrid circumstances with which the sacking of Rome was accompanied 369 Charles V., though highly pleased with the success of his arms, affects the deepest sorrow on the occasion 370 1528 The French again invade Italy, and lose another army 37C 1529 The Turks threaten Germany 37C Peace of Cambray 37G The Italian states abandoned to the will of the em- peror 37C His lenity 370 CONTENTS. xxi LETTER LIX. Tkt general Vitw of the Affairs of Europe, and of the Progress of the Reformation on the Continent, continued from Ike Peace of Cambray to that of Crespy, in 1544. Page Almost one-half of the Germanic body had embraced the opinions of Luther, during the contest between UK emperor and the pope 371 1529 Charles V. summons a diet at Spire, to take into consideration the state of religion 371 The diet issues a decree confirming the edict of Worms against Luther, and prohibiting the aboli- tion of the mass 371 Several princes and imperial cities protest against ti.is... .: :. 371 Hence they were called PROTESTANTS ; an appella- tion become common to all the Christian sects who have since separated themselves from the church of Rome 371 1530 The Confession of Augsburg, or system of Protestant opinions 371 1531 The league of Smalkalde 371 1532 The Protestants obtain liberty of con- science 372 1533 The empenir Charles V. takes the field against the Turks, and obliges Solyman II. to retire 372 He visits Spain 372 Great disorders in Germany during his ibsence, oc- casioned by a fanatical sect nameA Anabap- tists- 372 Their absurd tenets and licentious conduct- .. 372 1534 They form a kind of sensual republic at Mun- ster 372 John of Leyden, their apostle, assumes the title of king 373 1535 Munster taken by surprise, and most of the Anabaptists slain 373 lohn of Leyden, being made prisoner, suffers death with the firmness of a martyr 373 Charles V. solicited to undertake an expedition against the piratical states on the coast of Africa 373 Account of those states, and of the famous corsair Barbarossa 373 The emperor sets sail for Tunis with a formidable armament 373, 374 Takes the Goletta, or key of the harbour, by storm ; defeats Barbarossa in the field ; makes himself master of Tunis, and procures liberty for twenty thousand Christian slaves 374 The king of France, during the absence of Charles, revives his claims in Italy 374 Persecutes the Protestants, in order to show his zeal for the ancient faith 374 He walks in procession before the Host through the city of Paris 374 invades the dominions of the duke of Savoy 375 Death of Sforza, duke of Milan 375 The emperorseizes on that dutchy 375 Francis I. claims it 375 1536 War between them renewed 375 Charles invades France 375 Admirable plan of defence adopted by the king 376 Theemperor obliged to retreat, after having lost one- half of hi? army, without making himself master of one important place 376 1537 Indecent display of the resentment of Francis 376 A suspension of arms takes place between the hostile rivals 377 Barbarn?=a ravages the coast of Italy 377 The Tu rks invade Hungary, and defeat the Germans at Essex on the Drave 377 Truce between the emperor and the king of France conclude^ at Nice 377 Francis visits Charles on board his galley, off the coast of Provence 377 Charles returns his visit on shore 378 Assassination of Lorenzo of Medicis 378 The emperor's troops mutiny for want of pay. . 378 1539 The cortes of Castile, assembled at Toledo, refuse to grant him the supplies demanded . . 378 He dismisses them with indignation, and subverts the ancient constitution of that national assem- bly 378 The citizens of Ghent break out into open rebellion on account of an unconstitutional tax 37(3 They offer their sovereignty to Francis I. who re- jects it, and betrays them to Charles 379 1540 The emperor punishes them with awful seve- rity, and strips their city of its ancient privi- leges 379 He incenses Francis, by finally denying him the in- vestiture of the dutchy of Milan 379 1541 Assists at a conference of Protestant and popish divines 380 Rapid progress of the Turks in Hungary 380 Great revolution in that kingdom 380 It becomes a province of the Ottoman empire 381 Charles V. undertakes an expedition against Al- giers 381 Account of that piratical state 381 The emperor lands on the coast of Africa 381 His fleet dispersed by a violent storm, and his army obliged to re-embark in the greatest distress. . 381 His fortitude under all his disasters 381 The utter failure of his enterprise encourages the king of France to commence hostilities against him 382 Charles secures the fidelity of the Protestant princes by new concessions, and gains the alliance of Henry VIII. of England 382 1542 Vast and speedy military preparations of Francis 1 382 1543 He is assisted by a Turkish fleet, under Bar- barossa 382 1544 The imperialists defeated in the battle of Cerisoles 382 Peace between Charles and Francis concluded at Crespy 382 The emperor's motives for acceding to that treaty 383 1545 Hostilities continued between France and Eng- land 383 1546 Henry and Francis negotiate a peace at Campe 382 LETTER LX. The domestic History of England during the Reign of Henry VIII., with some Account of the Affaire of Scotland, and of the Rise of the Reformation in both Kingdoms. 1509 Fortunate situation of Henry VIII. at his ac- cession 383 His mental and personal qualities 383 He grants a warrant for the execution of Empson and Dudley, two instruments of his father's rapa- city. 383 Consummates his marriage with the infanta Catha- rine, his brother's widow 383 Absolute ascendancy of Wolsey over the king 384 1521 Execution of the duke of Buckingham... 384 1527 Henry resolves to divorcequeen Catharine 384 Character of Anne Boleyn 384 She captivates the king's heart 384 1529 The pope opposes the dissolution of Henry's marriage 385 The principal universities in Europe consulted on the subject, by the advice of Dr. Thomas Cran- mer 385,386 1530 Fall and death of Wolsey 386 1532 Cranmer, become archbishop of Canterbury, dissolves the king's marriage with Catha- rine 386 He espouses Anne Boleyn 386 1533 Final rupture between Henry and the see of Rome 387 1534 He is declared by the parliament "the only supreme HEAD of the Church of England upon Earth!" 387 Consequences of this declaration 387 Dogmatical and tyrannical disposition of Henry VIII 387 1535 Execution of sir Thomas More, for refusing to acknowledge the king's supremacy 387 1536 Dissolution of the less monasteries 38 XX11 CONTENTS. Page Decay of Henry's affections for his queen, Anne Boleyn 388 Her trial and execution 388 The king marries Jane Seymour 388 The duke of Norfolk suppressus a rebellion in Lin- colnshire, raised by the expelled monks 389 1537 The queen delivered of a son 389 Her death 389 Impostures of the Romish clergy 389 1538 Suppression of the monasteries all over Eng land 390 1539 The law of the Six Articles 390 1540 Henry VIII. marries Anne of Cleves 390 Execution of lord Cromwell 390, 391 The king's marriage dissolved by the convocation 301 He espouses Catharine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk 391 Persecutes the Protestants 391 1541 Discovers that his queen had been incontinent before marriage 391 1542 Brings her to the block, and passes a very sin- gular law 391 Makes war against his nephew, James V. of Scot- land 391 Disasters and death of James 392 Henry forms a project for uniting the crowns of England and Scotland 392 1543 Marries Catharine Parr, widow of lord Latimer 393 1546 Example of her address in soothing his violent temper 393 He cruelly persecutes all who differ from him in religious opinions 393 Execution of the earl of Surry 393, 394 1547 Death of Henry VIII 394 Reflections on his tyrannical administration . . . 394 He makes the parliament the instrument of his despotism 394 Danger of such policy to the British constitution 395 LETTER LXI. A general View of the Continent of Europe, in- cluding the Progress of the Reformation in Ger- many, from the first Meeting of the Council of Trent, in 1546,toAe Peace of Religion, concluded at I'assau, in 1552. 1546 The emperor Charles V. concludes a peace with Solyman II 395 He enters into an alliance with pope Paul III. for the extirpation of heresy 395 The Protestants refuse to acknowledge the legality of the council of Trent 395 The emperor resolves to compel their obedience, but endeavours to conceal his purpose in taking arms 395 Doaih of Luther 3% State of Germany 396 The Protestants assemble a great army 396 They imprudently negotiate, instead of fighting 396 Are deserted by Maurice, marquis of Misnia . . 396 His profound dissimulation 39 He invades the electorate of Saxony 397 The elector separates himself from the confede- rates, in order to preserve his hereditary domi- nions 397 1547 All the members of the league of Smalkalde submit to the emperor, except the elector of Saxo- ny and the landgrave of Hesse 397 Paul III., become jealous of the power of Charles V., raises up new enemies against him 397 Death of Francis I. and accession of his son Henry II 398 The emperor defeats the forces of John Frederick elector of Saxony, and makes him prisoner. . . 39 Dignified behaviour of that prince 39 Heroic conductor his wife Sybilla 398 In compliance with the entreaties of his family, he submits to humiliating conditions 399 The electorate of Saxony bestowed upon Man- rice 399 Cruel treatment of the landgrave of Hesse 399 Charles V. governs Germany with absolute sway 400 He summons a diet at Augsburg, finally to compose the controversies in regard to religion" 400 1548 Protests against the translation of the general council from Trent to Bologna 400 Publishes a temporary system of doctrine and wor- ship, under the name of Interim * 401 It pleases neither Protestants nor papists 401 Manly firmness of the deposed elector of Saxony 401 Discontents of the sacred college at the publication of the Interim 402 Enmity between the pope and the ernperor. .. . 403 Rapacity of Charles 402 1549 Death of Paul III 403 Affecting circumstances with which it was accom- panied 403 Character of the new pontiff, Julius III 403 1550 He orders the general council to reassemble at Trent 403 The emperor refuses to set the landgrave of Hesse at liberty 404 Singular act of his despotism 404 1551 Fails in an attempt to get his son Philip de- clared king of the Romans 404 He turns all his attention to the establishment of uniformity of religion in the empire 404 War of Parma 405 Proceedings of the council of Trent 405 The German Protestants prohibited from teaching any doctrine contrary to its decrees 405 Maurice, elector of Saxony, resolves to oppose the civil and religious despotism of the emperor. . 405 Charles entertains no apprehensions of his de- 406 A new revolution in Hungary 406 Ferdinand king of the Romans, the emperor's brother, obtains that crown, through the intrigues of Martinuzzi bishop of Waradin 406 Cruelly orders Martinuzzi to be assassinated. . . 407 Maurice concludes an alliance with Henry II. of France 407 1552 He demands in vain the liberty of the land- grave 407 The emperor remains in delusive security 408 Maurice and his Protestant confederates take the field 408 The king of France at the same time takes arms, and makes himself master of Metz, Toul, and Ver- dun 408 The emperor has recourse to negotiation 408 Maurice attempts to surprise him at Inspruck. . 408 He escapes over the Alps in a litter 408 Maurice negotiates with the king of the Romans 409 The Peace of Religion concluded at Passau 409 The Protestant worship in Germany established on a firm basis 409 LETTER LXII. England, from the Death of Henry VIII. until the Accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, together with an Account of the Affairs of Scotland during that Period, and of the Progress of the Reformation in both the British Kingdoms. 1547 Henry VIII. succeeded by his son, Edward VI , only nine years of age 410 The duke of Somerset, the young king's uncle, chosen protector during his minority 410 Somerset is warmly attached to the cause of the Reformation 410 Assisted by the counsels of archbishop Cranmer, he plans the establishment of the church of Eng- land, as now constituted 411 He prepares for a war with Scotland. . . .' 41 State of religion in that kingdom 41 Scottish Reformers persecuted 411 Murder of cardinal Beatoun * 412 Somerset enters Scotland ar the head of an English army 412 The Scots defeated with great si aualiter in the battle ofPinkey 412 They imprudently throw themselves into the arms of France, and send Mary, their young queen, to be educated in that kingdom, where she is married to the dauphin, afterward Francis II 413 CONTENTS. 1548 Somerset obliged to return, in order to quell the cabal* in the English court 413 1549 Execution of his brother, lord Seymour . . 413 The English liturgy completed, and established by act of parliament 413 Insurrections in England, occasioned by the sup- pression of monasteries 414 Somerset offends the nobility and gentry, by siding with the people 414 He is compelled to resign the protectorship, and com- mitted to the tower 414 1550 A council of regency appointed under the earl of Warwick 414 Warwick negotiates a treaty with France and Scot- land 414 1551 Procures for himself the estate of the North- umberland family, and the titleof duke.. 414, 415 1552 Execution of Somerset 415 Ambitious projects of the duke of Northumber- land 415 He persuades the king to disinherit his sisters. . 415 1553 The succession to the crown settled on lady Jane Gray, married to lord Guilford Dudley, Northumberland's fourth son 416 Death of Edward VI 416 Northumberland induces lady Jane Gray to accept of the crown 416 She is obliged to resign it to the princess Mary 417 Northumberland tried and executed for high- treason 417 Q,ueen Mary takes measures for re-establishing the popish communion 417 Account of cardinal Pole 417 The queen of England desires that he may be sent over in the character of legate from the holy see 417 1554 She is married to Philip II. of Spain, son of the emperor Charles V 418 Discontents of the people 4 18 Wyat's rebellion 419 It is speedily suppressed 419 Execution of lord Guilford Dudley and lady Jane Gray 419 Magnanimous behaviour of lady Jane 419 The Romish religion restored 419 1555 Furious persecution in England 419 Martyrdom of Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, and Ferrar, bishop of St. David's 420 Martyrdom of Ridley, Latimer, and other Protestant divines 420 1556 Martyrdom of archbishop Cranmer 420 Brutal character of bishop Bonner 421 1557 War with France 421 Loss of Calais 422 1558 Death and character of queen Mary 422 Account of the princess Elizabeth her sister, who succeeds to the crown 422 1559 Queen Elizabeth, on her accession, re-esta- blishes the Protestant religion in England. . . . 423 LETTER LXIII. The Continent of Europe, from the Peace of Passau, in 1552, to the Peace of Chateau Cambresis, in 1559. 1552 The emperor Charles V. resolves to attempt the recovery of Metz, Toul, and Verdun 423 Henry II. of France commits the defence of Metz to the duke of Guise 423 Great military talents of that commander 423 His activity in repairing the fortifications, and taking every other measure for the security of the place 423 The emperor invests Metz 424 Is obliged to raise the siege 424 Miserable state of the imperial camp 424 Humanity and generosity of the duke of Guise 424 Decline of the emperor's affairs in Italy 424 1553 Germany distracted by the ambition of Albert of Brandenburg 425 He is defeated at Siverhausen by Maurice elector ol Saxony 425 Maurice dies of a wound he received in battle 42c Albert is obliged to take refuge in France 425 Page Hostilities in the Netherlands, Italy, and Hun- gary 425,426 Germany enjoys profound tranquillity 426 1555 Recess of Augsburg 426 Resignation of Charles V 427 His advice to his son, Philip II. of Spain 427 He attempts in vain, on retiring, to restore peace to Europe 428 1556 War in Italy and the Low Countries 429 1557 Arrogance of pope Paul IV 429 The French defeated with great slaughter in the battie of St. Quintin 429 Philip II. erects the Escurial in honour of that vic- tory 429, 430 He restores peace to Italy 430 1558 The duke of Guise takes Thionville 430 Is opposed by the forces of Philip under the duke of Savoy 431 The French and Spanish inonarchs incline to peace 431 Account of the emperor Charles V. in his retire- ment 431 His death and character 432 Bis brother Ferdinand acknowledged emperor of Germany 432 Philip and Henry court the favour of Elizabeth 432 1559 Treaty between Henry and the English queen 433 The negotiation between France and Spain for- warded by two treaties of marriage 433 Peace of Chateau Cambresis 433 Death of Henry II. and of Paul IV 434 Close of a memorable period in the history of Mo- dern Europe 434 LETTER LXTV. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, from the Union of these Kingdoms under Margaret Waldemar,sur- named the Semiramis of the JVorlA, to the Death of Oustavus Vasa; together with an Account of the State of Russia, Poland, and Prussia, in the Sixteenth Century. 1399 Union of the three northern crowns esta- blished at Calmar, by the states of the three king doms '. 434 Vigorous administration of Margaret Waldemar 434 1520 The Swedes, having repeatedly revolted, are finally subdued by Christian II. of Denmark. . 435 Circumstances with which this revolution was ac- companied 435 Horrid massacre of the Swedish nobles 435 Account of Gustavus Vasa 436 1523 He recovers the independency of Sweden, and is chosen king 436 Christian II. renders himself obnoxious, even to his Danish subjects, and is deposed 436 1524 Frederick duke of Holstein chosen king of Denmark and Norway 436 1537 The Protestant religion introduced into those kingdoms by his son Christian HI. as into Sweden by Gustavus Vasa 436 1560 Death and character of Gustavus 436 Introduction to the history of Russia 437 Introduction to the history of Poland 437 Introduction to the history of Prussia 437 LETTER LXV. England, Scotland, and France, from the Peace of Chateau Cambresis, in 1559, to the Death of Fran- cis If. and the Return of Mary Queen of Scots to her native Kingdom. 1559 Ambitious views of the duke of Guise and his brothers 438 They usurp the whole administration under Francis II. and induce their niece, Mary Stuart, queen of France and of Scotland, to set up a claim to the crown of England 438 They obtain a bull from the pope, declaring Eliza- beth's birth .illegitimate 438 Give orders to their sister; the queen-regent of Scot- land, to suppress the Protestant opinions in that kingdom 436 xxiv CONTENTS. Page Measures of the Scottish reformers 439 They style themselves the Congregation of the Lord, and enter into a bond for their common pro- tection 439 Petition the convocation, that prayers may be said in the vulgar tongue 439 Their demand rejected, and their most eminent teachers cited to appear before the privy-council 439 The members of the Congregation assemble in large bodies 439 The queen promises to put a stop to the proceedings against their pastors 440 She breaks her promise 440 The Protestants prepare for their defence 440 Account of John Knox 440 He inflames the populace, assembled at Perth, by a violent harangue against popery 440 They break all the images in the churches, and de- stroy the monasteries 440 The queen- regent collects an army, and the leaders of the Protestants prepare for resistance 440 She concludes a treaty with the Congregation. . 441 Violates the stipulations 441 The Protestants have again recourse to arms. . 441 They aim at the redress of civil as well as of reli- gious grievances 441 The queen-regent refuses to comply with their de- mands 441 They formally divest her of the regency 441 She shuts herself up in the fortified town of Leith, which was garrisoned with French troops... 441 The Protestants, being defeated before that place, implore the assistance of Elizabeth 442 1560 The queen of England, by the advice of her ministers, resolves to support the Scottish male- contents 442 An English army enters Scotland, and besieges Leith, in conjunction with the forces of the Con- gregation 442 Death of the queen-regent 443 View of the progress of the reformation in France 443 Conspiracy of Amboise 443 The French Protestants demand the free exercise of their religion 443 They become formidable to the court 443 Francis and Mary, by the advice of the duke of Guise, conclude with Elizabeth the treaty of Edinburgh 443 This treaty favourable to the Congregation 443 The French and English forces evacuate Scotland, and the Protestants proceed rapidly in the work of reformation 444 The presbyterian form of worship established in that kingdom 444 Francis and Mary refuse to ratify the proceedings of the Scottish parliament 444 The Protestants put the statutes in execution, and discharge their rage against popery upon the churches and monasteries 444 Death of Francis II 445 1561 Catharine of Medicis appointed guardian to her son Charles IX., only ten years of age.... 445 Decline of the power of the duke of Guise, and joy of the Scottish Protestants 445 Mary queen of Scots solicited to return to her na- tive kingdom 445 Her reluctance to leave France 445 Her spirited reply to Throgmorton, the English am- bassador 446 She embarks on board a galley at Calais, and ar- rives safe at Leith 446 Affecting circumstances that accompanied her voy- age 440 Her beauty and accomplishments 446 She bestows her confidence on the leaders of the Protestant party 447 Knowing her to be a papist, they never believe her to be sincere in her professions of good- will. LETTER LXVI. France, England, and Scotland, from the Return of Mary Stuart to her native Kingdom, in 1581, (ill her Imprisonment and the Proclamation of her Son. James VI., together with a retrospective View tf the Affairs of Spain. 1561 M iry is received by her Scottish subjects with the fondest acclamations of joy 446 447 She with difficulty obtains liberty to celebrate mass in her own chapel 447 Insulted by John Knox, who acquires great influence both in the church and state 447 She courts the friendship of Elizabeth 447 Jealous prudence of the English queen 447 A seeming reconcilation between the rival sove- reigns 447 Cruel bigotry of Philip II 448 He persecutes the Protestants in Spain and the Low Countries 448 Elizabeth sees the necessity of supporting them 448 Catharine of Medicis attempts to govern France by balancing the Catholics against the Protes- tants 448 1562 The Protestants allowed the free exercise of their religion without the walls of towns. .. . 449 Massacre of Vassay 449 The Protestants fly to arms 449 Deplorable state of France 449 Philip II., become jealous of the progress of the French Protestants, or Hugnnots, sends six thou- sand men to reinforce Ihe Catholic party .... 449 The Hugonots crave the assistance of Eliza- beth 449,450 She sends six thousand men for their support. .-*450 The Catholics make themselves masters of Rou- en 450 The battle of Dreux 450 1563 Assassination of the duke of Guise 450 An accommodation between the Protestants and Catholics 451 Elizabeth, dissatisfied with the conditions, refuses to deliver up Havre-de-Grace 451 The garrison, after an obstinate resistance, is obliged to capitulate 451 1564 Harmony between the queens of England and Scotland broken, by Mary's project of marrying lord Darnley 451 Character of that young nobleman 451 Motives of Elizabeth for wishing to obstruct their union 452 1565 Marriage of the queen of Scots (July 19th) 452 She suppresses a rebellion excited by queen Eliza- beth 452 Ungenerous conduct of Elizabeth to the Scottish exiles 453 Conspiracy of Bayonne ; being a confederacy be- tween the courts of France and Spain for the ex- tinction of the reformed religion and the de- struction of the Protestants all over Europe. . 453 1566 The queen of Scots accedes to that confede- racy 453 Account of David Rizzio 453 Violent temper and dissolute life of Darnley after hismariiage 454 Mary's coldness the effect of his own misconduct, not of a criminal passion 454 Becomes jealous of Rizzio's intimacy with Mary 454 Murder of Rizzio 455 Barbarous manner in which it was perpetrated 455 Implacable resentment of Mary against her lius band 455 She makes him disown all connexion with the con- spirators, and renders him contemptible by to no- torious a falsehood 455 She is delivered of a son 455 Behaviour of Elizabeth on that intelligence 455 The English parliament press her to marry, or nettle the succession to the crown 456 Account of James Hepburn earl of Bothwell. . 456 He insinuates himself into the affections of the queen of Scots. . . ; 456 1567 Murder of Darnley 457 The earl of Bothwell suspected to be the author of it 457 Mary, instead of bringing him to justice, honour li'ju with her ccrafiderice, and marries him . . 457 CONTENTS; XXT Bothwell attempts to get the young prince into his power 457 The Scottish nobles associate for the protection of the prince's person, and the punishment of the king's murderers 457 The queen, deserted by her troops at Carberry-hill, is made prisoner 458 Bothwell makes his escape, and dies in a foreign prison 468 Mary is carried in triumph to Edinburgh, and after- ward confined in the castle of Locblevin.... 458 Her disconsolate situation 459 She is prevailed upon to sign a resignation of the crown 459 The earl of Murray, her natural brother, appointed regent, under the infant king, who is proclaimed by the name of James VI 459 LETTER LXVII. Great Britain, from the Flight of the Queen of Scots into England, with an Account of the Civil Wars on the Continent, till the Death of Charles IX^ of France, in 11J74. 1567 The Scottish parliament, summoned by the earl of Murray, as regent, declares the queen's resignation valid, and her imprisonment law- ful. 459 1568 A body of the nobles assemble at Hamilton, and concert measures for supporting her cause 459 She escapes from confinement, and joins them 459 They are totally defeated in the battle of Lang- side- 460 Mary seeks refuge in England, and throws herself on the generosi ty of her kinswoman Elizabeth 460 Insidious policy of the English queen 460 She considers herself as umpire between the queen of Scots and her subjects, and proposes to appoint commissioners to hear the pleadings on both sides 460 Magnanimous reply of Mary 461 She is induced to consent to the proposed trial. . 461 Conferences held between the Scottish and English commissioners on the subject 461 Mary is accused by the regent of consenting to the murder of her husband, and of being accessory to the contrivance and execution of it 462 He produces proofs in support of his charge . . . 462 Mary's commissioners break off the conference 462 She haughtily refuses, either to resign her crown, or to associate her son in the government with her 462 Elizabeth resolves to detain her a prisoner in Eng- land 462 A marriage projected between the queen of Scots and the duke of Norfolk 463 1569 The confederacy for that purpose discovered and defeated 463 Norfolk is committed to the tower 464 An unsuccessful attempt made, by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, to procure liberty to the queen of Scots by force of arms 464 1570 Violent death of the earl of Murray 464 The earl of Lennox elected regent of Scotland 464 Retrospective view of the religious waip in France 465 The battle of St. Denis (1568) '.. 465 The battle of Jarnac ( 1569) 465 The prince of Conde, being wounded and made prisoner, is killed in cold blood 465 Coligny, the leader of the Hugonots, invests Poi- tiers 466 The young duke of Guise obliges him to raise the siege 466 Coligny defeated in the battle of Moncontour. . 466 He again appears formidable 466 The Hugonots, by a new treaty, obtain liberty of conscience, and several places of refuge .... 466 1571 Their leaders invited to Paris, and loaded with favours, in order to lull them into security. . . 466 Sanguinary despotism established by Philip II. in the Low Countries 467 nsolence and cruelty of the duke of Alva 467 Conspiracy for the relief of the queen of Scots 468 1572 It is discovered, and the duke of Norfolk is condemned and executed for his share in it. . 463 Scotland continues in a state of anarchy 468 The earl of Morton succeeds to the regency on the death of Marre, who had succeeded Lennox 469 Violent proceedings in that kingdom 469 Charles IX. of France insidiously caresses the Hu- gonots 469 The massacre of Paris (Aug. 24) 469 Horrid circumstances with which it was at- tended 469 Exultation of the Spanish, and sorrow of the Eng- lish, court on that occasion 470 Cautious conduct of Elizabeth 470 The Hugonots, instead of being annihilated (though sixty thousand of them were slaughtered), are only roused to more vigorous efforts 470 1573 They obtain advantageous terms of peace 471 1574 Death of Charles IX 471 His atrocious character 4T1 LETTER LXVIU. Germany, from the Resignation of Charles V., in 1556, to the Death of Maximilian II., in 1576, with some Account of the Affairs of Spain, Italy, and Turkey, during that Period 1557 Ferdinand I. convokes a diet at Ratisbon, which confirms the peace of religion 471 1560 Pius IV. issues a bull for the reassembling of the council of Trent 471 1562 The Protestant princes persist in denying the authority of that council 472 1563 It is finally dissolved 472 1564 Death of Ferdinand 1 472 1565 His son and successor, Maximilian II. un- avoidably engaged in a war with the Turks. . 472 Solyman II. sends a fleet and army to reduce the island of Malta 472 His general, Mustapha, after a siege of five months. is obliged to relinquish the enterprise 472 1566 Solyman enters Hungary in person at the head of a powerful army, and invests Sigeth 473 The gallant defence and death of Zerini, the go- vernor 473 The place istaken 47i Death of Solyman II 473 His son and successor, Selim II. concludes a truce with the emperor Maximilian 473 1570 Selim turns his arms against the island of Cyprus 473 Obstinate defence of Famagosta 473 1571 It is compelled to surrender, and the whole island submits to the sultan 473 Great naval armament fitted out by the Christian powers, under Don John of Austria 473 Battle of Lepanto (Oct. 5) 474 The Turkish fleet utterly destroyed 474 The Christians, by reason of their want of union, derive little advantage from their victory 474 1573 The Venetians conclude a peace with Se- lim 474 Don John makes himself master of Tunis, and pro- poses to erect an independent sovereignty on the coast of Barbary 474 Tunis is invested by a Turkish fleet and army 475 Taken by storm, and the garrison put to the sword 475 Germany enjoys profound peace under the mild go- vernment of Maximilian II 475 1576 Hisdeath 475 LETTER LXLX. A general View of the Transactions of Europe, from the Death of Charles IX., in 1574, to the Ac- cession of Henry IV., the first King of the Branch of Bourbon, to the Throne of France, in 1589; in- cluding the Rise of the Republic of Holland, the unhappy Catastrophe of Don Sebastian King of Portugal, the Execution of Mary Queen of Scot*, and the Defeat of the Spanish Armada 1574 Accession of Henry HI. of France 47S He attempts to restore the royal authority by aetm| C O N T E N T S. Page as umpire between the Protestants and Catho- lics 475 J575 The king of Navarre places himself at the head of the Protestants 475 1576 They obtain advantagsous conditions 475 1577 Are threatened by the famous Catholic League, which is headed by the duke of Guise 476 Philip II. of Spain declares himself protector of that league 476 His motives for so doing 476 Retrospective view of the civil wars in the Low Countries 476 The Flemish sea ad venturers make themselves mas- ters of the Brille (A. D. 1572) 476 The provinces of Holland and Zealand throw off the Spanish yoke; and William prince of Orange, by forming the revolted towns into a league, lays the foundation of the republic of the United Pro- vinces 477 The duke of Alva, repulsed before Alcmaer, peti- tions to be recalled (A. D. 1573) 477 He is succeeded in the government of the Low Countries by Requesens, commendator of Cas- tile. 477 Middleburg taken by the Zealanders (A. D. 1574) 477 The siege of Leyden; which the Spaniards are com- pelled to raise, after the most vigorous exer- tions 477 The conferences at Breda (A. D. 1575) 477 The revolted provinces, reduced to great distress, offer their sovereignty to queen Elizabeth . . . 478 She rejects it for political reasons 478 The Spanish troops in the Netherlands mutiny on the death of Requesens (A. D. 1576) 478 The pacification of Ghent 478 Don John of Austria, the new governor of the Low Countries, agrees to confirm it 478 He violates his engagements 478 1578 Queen Elizabeth engages to support the re- volted provinces 479 Don John deposed by a decree of the states 479 They are distracted by jealousies and dissensions 479 Death of Don John 479 He is succeeded in the command of the Spanish army in the Netherlands by the famous Alexan- der Farnese, duke of Parma 479 1579 The UNION of the Seven Provinces signed at Utrecht 479 The nature of that union 479 1580 The United Provinces finally withdraw their allegiance from Philip II 480 The expedition of Don Sebastian, king of Portugal, to the coast of Africa 480 His death 480 1581 Philip II. makes himself master of the king- dom of Portugal 480 1582 Attempt against the life of the prince of Orange 481 He is opposed to the duke of Parma 481 distracted state of affairs in Scotland 481 James, the young king, is made prisoner at Ruth- vnn 481 1583 The Spaniards invade Ireland 482 Account of the voyage of sir Francis Drake. . . 482 Discontents of the Catholics in England 482 Plot against the life of Elizabeth 482 1584 It is discovered 483 Assassination of William prince of Orange.... 483 His son Maurice elected stadtholder 483 The duke of Parma invests Antwerp 483 1585 The citizens agree to acknowledge the autho- rity of Philip 483 Rapid decay of that city 483 The United Provinces offer their sovereignty to Henry III. of France 484 He is obliged to reject it, on account of the dis- tracted state of his kingdom 484 Queen Elizabeth sends over an army of six thou- sand men, under the earl of Leicester, to the as- sistance of the states 484 And despatches sir Francis Drake, with a fleet of twenty sail, to distress the Spaniards in the West Indies 484 1566 Success of Drake 484 .Misconduct of Leicester 484 He is recalled 485 Babington's conspiracy against the life of Eliza- beth 485 Trial of Mary queen of Scots 485 Her spirited defence 485 She is condemned to suffer death 486 Examination of the evidence against her 486 1587 Affecting circumstances attending her execu- tion 486 Her gallant behaviour 486 Her ch; 486 Hypocritical sorrow of Elizabeth 487 James VI. king of Scotland, seems determined to levenge the death of his mother 487 He is induced to live on good terms with the court of England 487 Naval exploits of Drake and Cavendish 48? The sailing of the Spanish armada is retarded. . 487 1588 Philip II. makes new and great preparations for invading England... 488 Naval and military force of Elizabeth 488 Undaunted courage of the English queen 488 The Spanish armada sails 489 Defeated by the English fleet, under the earl of Effingham and sir Francis Drake 489 It is attacked by a violent storm, and wrecked on the western isles of Scotland and on the coast of Ireland '. 489 French Protestants reduced to great distress by the power of the Catholic League 490 ' Ambition of the second duke of Guise 490 His violent death 490 1589 The duke of Mayenne, his brother, succeeds him in the command of the League 490 Henry III. enters into a confederacy with the Hu- gpnots, and advances to the gates of Paris, which was in the hands of the Catholics 490 He is assassinated by James Clement, a Dominican friar 491 The succession to the crown of France left open to the king of Navarre 491 Reflections on such fanatical acts of violence. . 491 LETTER LXX. The general View of Europe continued, from the Accession of Henry IV. to the Peace of Vercins, in 1598. 1589 Henry IV. is obliged to abandon the siege of Paris 491 Ready to sink under the power of the Catholic League, he applies to the queen of England for aid 492 She sends him a supply of men and money 492 1590 He gains the battle of Ivri 492 Invests Paris 492 That city is relieved by the duke of Parma 492 Prince Maurice makes rapid progress in the Low Countries, during the absence of this com- mander 492 The king of France is surrounded with enemies 492 1591 Queen Elizabeth sends him fresh succours 493 He forms the siege of Rouen 493 The duke of Parma compels him to raise the siege 493 Rupture among the Catholics 493 1592 Death of the duke of Parma 493 1593 Intrigues of the Spanish faction in France 494 Henry IV., in order to please the majority of his sub- jects, embraces the Catholic religion 494 The followers of both religions become diffident of the king's professions 494 He removes their suspicions by his generosity and humanity to all his subjects 495 1594 Paris, and other places held by the Catholics.-, submit to the royal authority 495 Progress of prince Maurice and sir Francis Vere in the Low Countries 496 1595 Henry IV. obliges the duke of Mayenne to sue for an accommodation 496 The Spaniards take Cambray, Calais, :ind Ami- ens 496 1597 Henry retakes Amiens 496 CONTENTS. Pige 7308 lie passes the edict of Nantes in favour of the Hugonots 497 The Catholic League is utterly dissolved 497 Cadiz taken by an English .armament, under the earls of Effingham and Essex 497 Great loss sustained by the Spaniards 498 Peace concluded between Henry IV. and Philip II. atVervins 498 LETTER LXXI. Spain and the Low Countries, from the Peace of fereins to the Truce in 1609, when the Freedom of the United Provinces was acknowledged. 1598 Treaty between England and Holland 498 Death and character of Philip II 498 He is accused of the murder of his son Don Car- los . 499 Decline of the Spanish monarchy 499 The sovereignty of the Low Countries transferred to the infanta Isabella, married to Albert arch- duke of Austria 499 The states refuse to acknowledge the authority of their new sovereigns 499 1599 The United Provinces are precluded all inter- course with Spain, Portugal, or the Spanish Netherlands 500 The Dutch turn their views towards the East In- dies .- 500 War carried on with vigour in the Low Coun- tries ............/ 500 1600 The Spaniards defeated in the battle of Nieu- port 500 Bravery of the English troops under sir Francis Vere 500 1601 Siege of Ostend 500 1602 It is changed into a blockade 501 1604 Resumed, and the place taken by the famous Spinola 501 Progress of prince Maurice 501 1605 He is opposed by a great army, under Spi- nola 501 Rapid success of the Spanish commander 502 1606 His troops mutiny for want of pay 502 1607 A suspension of arms 502 1609 Truce of twelve years concluded between Philip III. and the United Provinces 502 Expulsion of the Morescoes 502 Impolicy of that measure 502 The languishing condition of Spain 502 LETTER LXXII. "' domestic History of England, from the Defeat ..." the Spanish Armada, in 1588, to the Death of l'.lizabeth,with some Particulars of Scotland and Ireland. 1588 Economy and vigour the leading character- istics of Elizabeth's administration 503 1593 Her bold speech to the parliament 503 She supports the decrees of the Star Chamber and Court of High Commission 503 Grievous monopolies under her reign 503 Her jealousy of her prerogative 503 She obstinately refuses to name a successor. ... 504 Is supposed to have encouraged Cowrie's con- spiracy 504 Distracted and barbarous state of Ireland 504 Elizabeth endeavours to civilize it 504 Account of Hugh O'Neal, earl of Tyrone 505 1595 He rises in open rebellion, and gains several advantages over the English commanders 505 1599 The earl of Essex sent against him, under the title of lord-lieutenant, with an army of sixteen thousand men 505 Essex fails in his enterprise, and returns, contrary to the queen's orders 505 1600 He is divested of his employments, and sen- tenced to remain a prisoner during her majesty's pleasure 505 She resolves to pardon him, but is persuaded to make a farther trial oY his submission 506 H* cabals against her authority 506 1601 On finding his intrigues are discovered, he at- tempts, but in vain, to raise the city 506 Surrenders at discretion, and is convicted of high- treason 506 Agitation of Elizabeth on signing the warrant for his execution 506 He is privately beheaded in the tower 507 His character and conduct considered 507 The king of Scotland sends two ambassadors to the English court to congratulate the queen on her escape from the late conspiracy 507 They find the people of England favourable to the succession of their master 507 Lord Mounljoy subdues the Irish rebels 507 Elizabeth sinks into deep melancholy 507 Its cause 508 It is increased by a singular discovery 50 Death of the queen 509 Her character 509 LETTER LXXIII. France, from the Peace of Vervins, in 1598, to the Death of Henry /if., in 1610, with some Account of the Jiff airs of Germany under Rodolph II. 1598 Wretched state of France at the peace of Vervins 509 Popular character and liberal policy of Henry IV. 510 Character of the duke de Sully, his prime minis- ter 510 Sully 's attention- to the finances 510 He augments the revenue, yet diminishes the taxes 510 His maxims of policy too rigid for a great king- dom 510 The king's ideas more just and extensive 511 1602 He introduces the culture of silk 511 1607 Establishes manufactures, and promotes com- merce 511 His licentious amours 511 His favourite mistresses 511 1608 Intrigues of the court of Spain 512 Disputed succession to the dutchies of Cleves and Juliers 512 Pacific character and mild administration of the emperor Rodolph II. son and successor of Maxi- milian 512 Ambition of his brother Matthias 512 1609 Evangelical Union and Catholic League in Germany 512 Competitors for the dutchies of Cleves and Ju- liers 512 The emperor sequestersjhe disputed fiefs 512 The Protestant claimants, though abetted by the Evangelical Union, apply to the king of France for aid, in order to be a match for their enemies, who were supported by the Catholic League, and in alliance with the king of Spain 512, 513 Henry's grand scheme of humbling the house of Austria, and of erecting a balance of power in Europe 513 He agrees to assist the Protestant body in Ger- many 513 His negotiations and military preparations 513 His great resources 513 He assists at the coronation of his queen, Mary of Medicis .*. 513 Is assassinated next day by Ravaillac, a bloodthirsty bigot 513,514 Character of Henry IV. and of his reign 514 LETTER LXXIV. A general View of the Continent of Europe, jrom the Assassination of Henry IV. to the Treaty of Prague, in 1635. Introductory reflections 514 1610 The 'dispute concerning the succession of Cleves and Juliers continues 515 1612 Death of Rodolph II 515 He is succeeded by his brother Matthias, who con- cludes an advantageous peace with the Turks 515 XXV111 CONTENTS. Page 1617 Matthias alarms the Evangelical Union by au ambitious family compact 515 1618 Furious civil war in Bohemia 515 Death of the emperor Matthias 515 1619 His cousin, Ferdinand de Gratz, duke of Sti- rra, succeeds him in the imperial throne 515 1620 Frederick V. elector palatine, who had ac- cepted the crown of Bohemia from the insur- gents, is totally defeated near Prague 516 1621 He is degraded from his electoral dignity by Ferdinand II., who assumes the tone of master of Germany 516 Conspiracies for rendering the Spanish branch of the house of Austria absolute in Italy 516 Accession of Philip IV 517 Ambitions projects of his minister Olivares .... 517 Retrospective view of the affairs of Holland .. 517 Account of the dispute between Gomar and Armi- nius 517 Execution of the pensionary Barneveldt (A. D. 1619) 517 Prince Maurice becomes unpopular by attempting to usurp the sovereignty of the United Provinces 517 1622 He obliges Spinola to relinquish the siege of Bergen-op-zoom 518 Distracted state of France under the reign of Mary of Medicis 518 She is wholly governed by her Italian favourites, Concini and his wife Galligai 518 By them is negotiated a marriage between Lewis XIII. and the infanta Anne of Austria (A. D. 1612) 518 Rise of Luines, the king's favourite 518 Concini shot (A. D. 1617), and his wife Galligai executed 518 Avarice and ambition of Luines 518 Rise of cardinal Richelieu (A. D. 1619) 519 French Protestants have recourse to arms (A. D. 1620) 519 The king and Luines obliged to raise the siege of Montauban (A. D. 1621) 519 Death of the favourite 519 Peace concluded with the Hugonots 519 1624 Cardinal Richelieu negotiates a marriage treaty between Charles prince of Wales and the princess Henrietta of France 520 Hostilities in the Low Countries 520 Difficult situation of cardinal Richelieu, as prime minister of France 520 1627 The Hugonots show a disposition to render themselves independent 520 Buckingham, the English minister, induces his mas- ter, Charles I., to undertake the defence of the French Protestants 520 His motives for so doing 521 He fails in an attempt to succour Rochelle, and to reduce the isle of Rlie 521 Lewis XIII. and his minister cardinal Richelieu, in person, form the siege of Rochelle 521 1628 The citizens make a gallant defence, but are at last obliged to surrender , 522 1629 The duke of Rohan, after a vigorous struggle in Languedoc, obtains favourable conditions for the Protestants 522 They are left in possession of their estates, and in the free exercise of their religion, but deprived of their cautionary towns 522 The aggrandizement of the French monarchy to be dated from this era 522 Richelieu resolves to humble the house of Austria by supporting the Protestants in Germany. . . 522 Great power of the emperor Ferdinand II 522 He attempts to revive the imperial jurisdiction in Italy, on the death of Vincent II. duke of Man- tua 522 He issues an edict, ordering the German Protestants to restore all the church lands, which they had held sinctitlip peace of Passim 523 1630 Cardinal Richelieu crosses the Alps, and com- pels the emperor to grant the investiture of Man- tua and Monlferrat to the duke of Nevers. . . 523 The Protestant princes remonstrate against the edict of restitution 523 They form an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden 523 A retrospective view of the northern kingdoms 523 A retrospective view of Sweden 523 A retrospective view of Russia 523 A retrospective view .of Denmark and Norway 524 Early exploits and wise administration of the king of Sweden 524 His motives for engaging in the war against the em peror Ferdinand II 5-4 His negotiations 5-24 Charles I. of England furnishes him. with ix thou- sand men, and many English and Scottish adven- turers flock to his standard 524, 525 1631 Cardinal Richelieu engages to pay him an an. nual subsidy 525 The treaty between them a masterpiece in poli- tics 525 Gustavus enters Germany 525 Defeats the imperialists, under count Tilly, near Leipsic (Sept. 7) 525 Is joined by the members of the Evangelical Union, and makes himself master of the whole country from the Elbe to the Rhine 52J 1632 Tilly killed in disputing the passage of the Lech (April 5) 526 The king of Sweden is repulsed in attempting to force the intrencbments of Walstein, the impe- rial eeneral, near Nuremberg (August 24).. . 526 His retreat is conducted with great ability by colo- nel Hepburn, a Scottish officer 526 He gives battle to Walstein, in the plain of Lutzen, and is killed in the heat of action (Novem- ber 6) 527 Circumstances preceding and attending the battle of Lutzen 527 The Swedes are ultimately victorious 529 Character and anecdotes of Gustavus Adolphus 529 His daughter Christina, who succeeds him in the throne of Sweden, only six years old at his death 530 The Protestant confederacy and the alliance with France preserved entire, by the great abilities of the Swedish minister, Oxenstiern 530 1634 Assassination of Walstein 530 The king of Hungary succeeds him in the command of the imperial forces 530 The Swedes and their allies totally routed in the battle of Nordlingen 531 1635 The members of the Evangelical Union, thrown into consternation by this defeat, listen to propo- sals from the court of Vienna, and sign the peace of Prague 531 Substance of that treaty 531 The weight of the war devolves upon the Swedes and their French allies 531 LETTER LXXV. The general Vietn of the European Continent con tinned, from the Treaty of Prague, in 1635, to the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648. 1635 Vigorous but despotic administration of cardi- nal Richelieu 531 He concludes a new treaty with Oxenstiern, in con- sequence of which France engages to take an ac- tive part in the war against the emperor 532 Five French armies are sent into the field 533 Their various operations 532 Keisar-Louter taken by the imperialists under gene- ral Galas 532 Galas also makes himself master of Vauder- vange 533 The French and their allies yet more unfortunate in Italy and the Low Countries 533 A Spanish army, under Piccolomini and John de Wert, enters France on the side of Picardy. 533 1636 The confederates begin the next campaign with vigour 533 The imperialists defeated by the Swedes in the bat- tle of Wislock 534 1637 Death of the emperor Ferdinand II 534 His son and successor Ferdinand III. pursues the same line of policy 534 1638 The duke of Saxe Weimar gains a victory over the imperialists near Rhinfeld, and makes himself master of the place 534, 535 CONTENTS. XXIX He reduces Bris.ic, after an obstinate siege .... 535 Lewis XIII. forms a scheme of annexing Brisac to Uie crown of France 535 Weimar's gallant reply on being requested to give up his conquest 535 Progress of the Swedes, under Bannier, in Pome- rania 535 1639 In Moravia and in Saxony 536 Bannier defeats the imperialists in Bohemia, and makes the generals Hofakirk and Montecuculi prisoners 536 Death of the duke of Saxe Weimar 536 Disputes in regard to his army 536 1640 A treaty concluded between France and 1 the Weimarian officers 536, 537 Jealousies and dissensions among the generals of the confederates 537 They are repulsed in an attempt to force Piccolo- mini's camp at Saltzburg 537 He compels them to quit the imperial domi- nions 537 The Catalans revolt 538 The Portuguese throw off the Spanish yoke, and place on the throne the duke of Braganza, under the name of John IV 538 Particulars of that revolution 538 Indifference of Philip IV. on being told of it. . . 538 1641 Ferdinand III. in danger of being made pri- soner by the French and Swedes, under Bannier and Guebriant 539 They insult Ratisbon, while he is holding a diet in that city 539 Congress for a general peace proposed to be held at Minister and Osnaburg 539 Regulations relative to the negotiations 539 The emperor resolves to continue the war 539 He sends a powerful army into the field, under Pic- colomini and the archduke Leopold 539 Glorious retreat of Bannier 540 His death and character 540 Maresciial Guebriant defeats the imperialists near Wolfenbuttle 540 1642 And afterward in the neighbourhood of Or- dinguen 541 He reduces Lintz, Hempen, and other places . . 541 The archduke and Piccolomini fail in an attempt to surprise Torstenson, who had succeeded Bannier in the chief command of the Swedish forces 541 He passes the Elbe, and gives them battle in the plain of Breitenfeld 541 They are totally defeated, after an obstinate and bloody dispute 541 Consternation of the imperial court 542 Torstenson reduces Leipsic 542 Progress of the war on the frontiers of Spain. . 542 Conspiracy against cardinal Richelieu 542 Cinqmars and DeThou executed 542 The cardinal enters Paris in triumph 542 1643 Death of Richelieu 543 Death of Lewis XIII 543 Caidinal Mazarine succeeds Richelieu in the admi- nistration, and pursues the same line of policy 543 Spanish infantry cut to pieces in the battle of Eacroi 543 Negotiations at Munster and Osnaburg 543 Torstenson carries war into the dutchy of Hoi- stein 543 He penetrates into Jutland, and makes himself mas- ter of many places 544 644 Peace between Denmark andSwed :n... . 544 Success of the French arms in Germany, under Turenne and Condi ........................ 544 The imperialists are defeated in two engage- ments ..................................... 544 Ragotski, vaivode of Transylvania, invades Hun- gary ...................................... 545 The Austrian army in that kingdom ruined at the siege of Cassovia .......................... 545 The imperial forces in Lower Saxony experience a similar fate .............................. 545 Torstenson, having now no enemy to oppose him, enters Bohemia ............................ 545 1645 The emperor leaves Prague, and retires to Vienna ................................... 545 Masterly movements of Torstenson ........... 545 He gives the imperialists battle in the neighbour- hood of Thabor, and totally routs them ...... 545 His rapid progress ........................... 546 The emperor, struck with terror, abandons Vienna, and takes refuge in Ratisbon ............... 546 General Merci attacks Turenne, by surprise, in the plain of Mariendal, and gains a bloody vic- tory ...................................... 546 Obstinate battle between the French and Bava- rians, in which the great military talents of Conde and Turenne are fully displayed ............ 547 Glorious death of count de Merci ............. 547 The Bavarians are obliged to quit the field after various turns of fortune .................... 547 Turenne re-establishes the elector of Triers in his dominions ................................. 548 The elector of Saxony concludes a truce for six months with Kdningsmark, the Swedish gene- ral .................................. 548 The emperor makes peace with Ragotski 548 1646 Torstenson, having formed a junction with Kdningsmark, proposes to lay siege to Prague 548 Finding the attempt impracticable, he resigns in chagrin, and is succeeded by Wrangel in the chief command 548 The elector of Bavaria signs a separate peace with France 548 His example is followed by other princes 543 The French unfortunate on the frontiers of Spain 548 The duke d'Harcourt fails in the siege of Lerida 548 Admirable conduct of the governor Don Antonio deBrito 548 1647 The prince of Condi obliged to raise the siege of the same place 549 1648 The Swedish and French forces, under Wran- gel and Turenne, defeat the Austrians and Bava- rians, under Montecuculi and Wittemberg, at Zusmarhausen 549 Charles Gustavus, prince palatine of Deux-Ponts, arrives from Sweden with fresh troops, and un- dertakes the siege of Old Prague 550 The emperor is made sensible of the necessity of peace 550 Retrospective view of the progress of the negotia- tions at Munster and Osnaburg 550 The United Provinces had concluded, in .1647, a separate treaty with Spain, in which their inde- pendence was acknowledged, and the republic de- clared a sovereign and free state 55C The general peace of Westphalia signed at Muustei (Oct.24) 55C Civil stipulations in that treaty 55C Sti pulations relative to religion 551 War is continued between France and Spain . 551 THE HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE. THE HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE. PART I. FROM THE RISE OF THE MODERN KINGDOMS TO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648. LETTER I. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the Settlement of the Barbarians. You have already, my dear Philip, finished your course of Ancient History, under your preceptor: in the elements of Modern History I myself will undertake to instruct you. The establishment of the present European nations; the origin of our laws, manners, and customs; the progress of society, of arts, and of letters, demand your particular attention, and were ill committed to the disquisitions of a mere scholar. Europe is the theatre on which the human character has appeared to most advantage, and where society has attained its most perfect form, both in ancient and modern times ; its history will, therefore, furnish us with every thing worthy of observation in the study of men or of kingdoms. I shall, however, turn your eye occasionally on the other parts of the globe, that you may have a general idea, at least, of the state of the universe. But before I proceed to the history of Modern Europe, it will be proper to say a few words concerning its ancient inhabitants, and its situation at the settlement of the present nations. The inhabitants of Ancient Europe may be divided into three classes, Greeks, Romans, and Barbarians ; or those nations the two former were pleased to call so, because less civilized than they. With the Greek and Roman story you are well acquainted. I shall, therefore, only remind you, that the Greeks, the most polished people of antiquity, inhabited the mari- time parts of the country now known by the name of European Turkey; that, when corrupted, they were conquered by the Romans ; and that, after the conquest of Greece, the Romans turned their arms against the Barba- rians or northern nations, the Gauls, the Britons, the Germans, whom they also in a great measure subdued, by their superiority in the art of war, but not with the same facility they had overcome the voluptuous nations of Asia. A single battle did not decide the fate of a kingdom. Those brave and independent people, though often defeated, resumed their arms with fresh valour, and defended their possessions and their liberties with obstinate courage. But after a variety of struggles, in which many of them perished in the field, and many were carried into slavery, a miserable remnant sub- mitted to the Romans ; while others fled to their mountains for freedom, or took refuge in the inaccessible corners of the North. There, defended b\. Voi,. I. C 34 THE HISTORY OF [PART! lakes and rivers, the indignant Barbarians lived, until time had ripened the seeds of destruction. Then rushing forth, like an impetuous flood, and sweeping every thing before them, they overturned the vast fabric of the Roman Empire, the work and the wonder of ages, taking vengeance on the murderers of mankind ; established on its ruins new governments, and new manners, and accomplished the most signal revolution in the history of nations. (1) Here we must make a pause, in order to consider the moral and political causes of that great event, and its influence on the state of society. As soon as the Romans had subdued the north of Europe, they set them- selves to civilize it. They transferred into the conquered countries their laws, manners, arts, sciences, language, and literature. And some have thought these a sufficient compensation for the loss of liberty and indepen- dency. But you, my dear Philip, will judge very differently, I hope, what- ever veneration you may haffe for the Roman name. Good laws are essential to good government, arts and sciences to the pros- perity of a nation, and learning and politeness to the perfection of the human character. But these, in order to exalt a people, must be the result of the natural progress of civilization, not of any adventitious ferment, or violence from abroad. The fruits of summer are ripened in winter by art ; but the course of the seasons is necessary to give them their proper flavour, their proper size, or their proper taste. The spontaneous produce of the forest, though somewhat harsh, is preferable to what is raised by such forced culture . and the native dignity, the native manners, and rude virtues of the Barbarian, are superior to all that can be taught the slave. When mankind are obliged to look up to a master for honour and consequence, to flatter his foibles, and to fear his frown, cunning takes place of wisdom, and treachery of fortitude ; the mind loses its vigour, the heart its generosity, and man, in being polished, is only debased. This truth was never, perhaps, more strikingly exemplified than in the his- tory of the Roman empire. The degrading influence of its dominion, more than any other circumstance, hastened its final dissolution; for although the conquered nations were by that means more easily kept in subjection, they became unable to resist a foreign enemy, and might be considered as decayed members of the body politic, which increased its size without increasing its strength. An appearance of prosperity, indeed, succeeded to the havoc of war ; the ruined cities were rebuilt, and new ones founded ; population flourished ; civilization advanced ; the arts were cultivated ; but the martial and independent spirit of the people of the northern provinces was so totally extinct in a few centuries, that instead of preferring death to slavery, like so many of their illustrious ancestors, they patiently submitted to any contribution which a rapacious governor was pleased to levy, and the descendants of those gallant warriors who had disputed the field with the Roman legions under Caesar and Germanicus were unable to oppose the most desultory inroads of a troop of undisciplined Barbarians. They were become incapable of either thinking or acting for themselves. Hence all the countries which have been subjected to the Roman yoke, fell a prey to the first invader, after the imperial forces were withdrawn. Many other causes contributed to the dissolution of the Roman empire, beside the debility occasioned by its unwieldy corpulence. Rome owed her dominion as much to the manners as to the arms of her citizens. (2) Their dignity of sentiment; their love of liberty and of their country; their passion for glory; their perseverance in toils ; their contempt I,ET. 1. 1 MODERN EUROPE. 35 of danger and of death; their obedience to the laws; and, above all, their civil constitution and military discipline, had extended and cemented the conquests of the Romans. The very usurpations of that sovereign people (for I speak of the times of the republic) were covered with a certain ma- jesty, which made even tyranny respectable. But their government carried in its bosom the seeds of destruction. The continual jealousy between the patricians and plebeians, the senate and the people, without any balancing power, made the ruin of the republic inevitable, as soon as the manners were relaxed : and a relaxation of manners was necessarily produced, by the pil- lage of Greece, and the conquest of Asia,(l) by the contagious refinements of the one, and the influx of wealth from the other. The fall of Carthage, and the expulsion of the Gauls out of Italy, though -'nningly the two most fortunate events in the Roman history, contributed Iso to a change of manners, and to the extinction of Roman liberty. While Carthage subsisted, the attention of all parties was carried toward that rival state ; to defend themselves, or annoy their enemies, was the only care of the Romans ; and as long as the Gauls had possessions in the neighbourhood of liome, her citizens were united by the sense of a common danger ; but no sooner were their fears from abroad removed, than the people grew altogether ungovernable. Ambitious men took advantage of their licentiousness ; party Clashed with party. A master became necessary, in order to terminate the horrors of civil war, as well as to give union and vigour to the state. Interest -uid vanity, made courtiers ; force or fear, slaves. The people were disarmed by the jealousy of despotism, and corrupted by the example of an abandoned court. Effeminacy, debauchery, profligacy, and every atrocious vice, was common upon the throne. A new source of ruin disclosed itself. Some disputed successions having made the army sensible that the sovereignty was in their hands, they thence- forth sold it to the highest bidder. Sporting with the lives of their princes, as formerly with the laws of the republic, they created emperors only to extort money from them, and afterward massacred them, in order to extort like sums from their successors. Emperors were opposed to emperors, and armies disputed the pretensions of armies. With obedience, discipline was lost. Wise princes endeavoured, but in vain, to restore it : their zeal to maintain the ancient military regulations only exposed them to the fury of the soldiery ; the very name of discipline was a signal for revolt. The armies of Rome did not now consist of free men, who had voluntarily chosen a mili- tary life ; or who, in obedience to the laws, served for a term of years ; but of mercenaries collected from the provinces, or Barbarians bribed into the service, as more able to undergo the fatigues of war. Her soldiers were no longer citizens armed in defence of their country : they were its oppressors ; they were licensed robbers, insatiable of plunder. In order to prevent the continual treasons of the soldiery, but especially the Pretorian bands, the emperors associated with themselves in the supreme. power, their sons, their brothers, or such persons as they could trust; and every emperor elected a Caesar, or successor. They likewise subdivided, and consequently diminished, the power of the Pretorian prefects, who were the grand viziers of their time, appointing four instead of two. By these means the imperial seat was rendered more secure : the emperors were permitted to die in their beds ; manners were softened, and less blood was shed by ferocity ; but the state was wasted by an enormous expense, and a new species of oppression took place, no less disgraceful to humanity than the former mas- sacres. The tyranny was transferred from the soldiery to the prince ; the cause and the mode was changed, but the effect was the same. Shut up within the walls of a palace, surrounded by flatterers and women, and sunk in the softness of Eastern luxury, those masters of empire governed in secret (1) It was in the delicious climate and pleasurable groves of Asia (says Sallust) that the army of thi Roman people first learned to abandon themselves to wine and women to admire pictures, statues, and tases of curious workmanship and to spare nothing civil or sacred to come at the possession of them Bell. Catilin C2 16 THE HISTORY OF [PART i. by the dark and subtle artifices of despotism. Iniquitous judgments, under the form of justice, seemed only to set death at a distance, in order to make life more miserable, and existence more precarious. Nothing- was said, all was insinuated : every man of prime reputation was accused ; and the warrior and the politician daily saw themselves at the mercy of sycophants, who had neither ability to serve the state themselves, nor generosity to suffer others to serve it with honour. (1) The removal of the imperial court to Constantinople, to say nothing of the subsequent division of the empire into Eastern and Western, was a new blow to the grandeur of Rome, and likewise to its security : for the veteran legions, that guarded the banks of the Danube and the Rhine, were also removed to the East, in order to guard another frontier ; and Italy, robbed of its wealth and inhabitants, sunk into a state of the most annihilating languor. Changed into a garden by an Asiatic pomp, and crowded with villas, now deserted by their voluptuous owners, this once fertile country was unable to maintain itself; and when the crops of Sicily and Africa failed, ^he people breathed nothing but sedition. These discontents, occasioned by the removal of the imperial court, wen- heightened by those of religion. Christianity had long been making progress in the empire : it now ascended the throne of the Caesars. As the Christians had formerly been persecuted, they, in their turn, became persecutors. The gods of Rome were publicly insulted, their statues were broken, their votaries were harassed. Penal statutes were enacted against the ancient worship : the punishment of death was denounced against the sacrifices formerly ordained by law : the altar of Victory was overturned, the cross was exalted in its stead, and displayed in place of that triumphant eagle, under which the world had been conquered. (2) The most dreadful hates and animosities arose. The Pagans accused the Christians of all their misfortunes : they rejoiced in the midst of the greatest calamities, as if the gods had been come in person to take vengeance on the destroyers of their altars ; while tlu Christians affirmed, that the remains of Paganism alone had drawn down the wrath of Omnipotence. Both parties were more occupied about their reli- gious disputes than the common safety ; and, to complete the miseries of thi& unhappy people, the Christians became divided among themselves. New sects sprang up ; new disputes took place ; new jealousies and antipathies raged ; and the same punishments were denounced against Heretics and Pagans. A universal bigotry debased the minds of men. In a grand assembly of the provinces, it was proposed ; That, as there are three persons in the Trinity, they ought to have three emperors. Sieges were raised, and cities lost, for the sake of a bit of rotten wood, or withered bone which was supposed to have belonged to some saint or martyr. The effeminacy of the age mingled itself with this infatuation; and generals, more weak than humane, sat down to mourn the calamities of war, when they should intrepidly have led on their troops to battle. (3) The character of the people with whom the Romans had to contend, was in all respects, the reverse of their own. Those northern adventurers, or Barbarians as they were called, breathed nothing but war. Their martial spirit was yet in its vigour. They sought a milder climate, and lands more fertile than their forests and mountains : the sword was their right : and they exercised it without remorse, as the right of nature. Barbarous they surely were, but they were superior to the people they invaded, in virtue as well as (1) Montcsq. Considerat. sur Us Causes de la Grandeur dcs Romans, et dc lew Decad. chap. xv. xvl xvii. and the authors there cited, but especially Tacitus, Ammianus, Marcellinus, and Zosimus. (2) Four respectable deputations were successively voted to the imperial court, representing the grie ances of the priesthood, and the senate, and soliciting the restoration of the altar of Victory. The conducl of this important business was intrusted -to Symmachus, a noble and eloquent orator, who thus makes Rome herself plead, before the imperial tribunal, in favour of the ancient worship: " These rites have re pelled Hannibal from the city, and the Gaula from the Capitol. Were my gray hairs reserved for such in- tolerable disgrace 7 I am ignorant of the new system that I ajn required to adopt ; but I am well assured, that the correction of old age is always an ungrateful and ignominious office." Symmach. lib. x. epist. 54. (3) Montesq. Considerat, Sec. chap, xviii xxii. See also Gibbon's Hist, of the Decline and Fall of the I'.oman Empire, (in four vols.) vol. ii iii. and the authors there quoted. LEI. i.j MODERN EUROPE. 37 in valour. Simple and severe in their manners, they were unacquainted with the name of luxury ; any thing was sufficient for their extreme frugality. Hardened by exercise and toil, their bodies seemed inaccessible to disease or pain : war was their element ; they sported with danger, and met death with expressions of joy. Though free and independent, they were firmly attached to their leaders ; because they followed them from choice, not from constraint, the most gallant being always dignified with the command. Nor were these their only virtues. They were remarkable for their regard to the sanctity of the marriage bed ; their generous hospitality, their detestation of treachery and falsehood. They possessed many maxims of civil wisdom, and wanted only the culture of reason to conduct them to the true principles of social life.(l) What could the divided, effeminate, and now dastardly Romans, oppose to such a people? Nothing but fear and folly; or, what was still more igno- minious, treachery. Soon convinced that the combat was unequal, they attempted to appease their invaders by money : but that peace could not be of long continuance which put those who sold it in a better condition to sell another. Force is seldom just. These voluntary contributions were changed into a tribute which was demanded as aright ; and war was denounced when it was refused, or fell short of the customary sum. Tributes were multiplied upon tributes, till the empire was drained of its treasure. Another expedient was then fallen upon : large bodies of the Barbarians were taken into pay, and opposed to other Barbarians. This mode of defence, so contrary to the practice of the first Romans, answered for the moment, but terminated in ruin : those auxiliaries proved the most dangerous enemies to the empire. Already acquainted with the Roman luxuries, the Roman wealth, and the Roman weakness, they turned their arms against their masters, inviting theii countrymen to come and share with them in the spoils of a people unworthy of so many accommodations. They were likewise become acquainted with what little military skill yet remained among the Romans; and that, super- added to their natural intrepidity, made them perfectly irresistible. A third expedient, yet more unworthy of the Roman name, was had recourse to : assassination was employed by the emperors against those princes, or leaders, whose arms they feared : it was even concealed beneath the mask of friend- ship, and perpetrated under the roof of hospitality in the convivial hour, and at the festive board !(2) This diabolical practice, the want of faith, and other unmanly vices of the Romans, not only account for the total subversion of their empire, but also for many of the cruelties of the conquerors. Inflamed with the passion of revenge, no less than the thirst of conquest or the lust of plunder, the inflex- ible and high spirited, though naturally generous Barbarians, were equally deaf to the offers of treaty and the voice of supplication. Wherever they marched, their route was marked with blood. The most fertile and populous provinces were converted into deserts. Italy and Rome itself was often pillaged. New invaders, from regions more remote and barbarous, drove out or exterminated the former settlers : and Europe was successively laid waste, till the North, by pouring forth its myriads, was drained of people, and the sword of slaughter tired of destroying. In less than a hundred years after the first northern invasion, scarce any re- mains of the laws, manners, arts, or literature of the Romans were left in our quarter of the globe. By the beginning of the sixth century, the Visi- goths had possessed themselves of Spain ; the Franks of Gaul ; the Saxons of the Roman provinces in South Britain ; the Huns of Pannonia ; the Os- trogoths of Italy, and the adjacent provinces. New governments, laws, languages ; new manners, customs, dresses ; new names of men and of f 1) Tacit de JHoribus Germ. Priscus, Exerpt. de Logat. Jornandes, de reb Get. " As in polished s-ocieties," says Ammianus Marcellinus, speaking of the Huns, " ease and tranquillity are courted, they delight in war and dangers. He who falls in battle is reckoned happy ; while they, who die of old age or disease, are held infamous." Hist. lib. xxxi. 2} Montesquieu and Gibbon, ubi sup. 46 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. co urines every where prevailed. A total change took place in the state of Europe. (1) How far this change ought to be lamented is not now a matter of much dispute. The human species was reduced to such a degree of debasement by the pressure of Roman despotism, that we can hardly be sorry at any means, however violent, which removed or lightened the load. But we cannot help lamenting at the same time, that this revolution was the work of nations so little enlightened by science or polished by civilization : for the Roman laws, though somewhat corrupted, were yet in general the best that human wisdom had framed ; and the Roman arts and literature, though much declined, were still superior to any thing found among rude nations, or which those who spurned them produced for many ages. The contempt of the Barbarians for the Roman improvements is not wholly, however, to be ascribed to their ignorance, nor the suddenness of the revolution to their desolating fury ; the manners of the conquered must come in for a share. Had the Romans not been in the lowest state of national degeneracy, they might surely have civilized the conquerors ; had they re- tained any of the virtues of men among them, they might have continued under the government of their own laws. Many of the northern leaders were endowed with great abilities, and several of them were acquainted both with the policy and literature of the Romans : but they were justly afraid of the contagious influence of Roman example; and therefore avoided every thing allied to that name, whether hurtful, or otherwise.(2) They erected a cottage in the neighbourhood of a palace, breaking down the stately building, and burying in its ruins the finest works of human ingenuity : they ate out of vessels of wood, and made the vanquished be served in vessels of silver ; they hunted the boar on the voluptuous parterre, the trim garden, and expen- sive pleasure ground, where effeminacy was wont to saunter, or indolence to loll ; and they pastured their herds where they might have raised a luxuriant harvest. They prohibited their children the knowledge of literature, and of all the elegant arts ; because they concluded, from the dastardliness of the Romans, that learning tends to enervate the mind, and that he who has trembled under the rod of a pedagogue will never dare to meet a sword with an undaunted eye.(3) Upon the same principles they rejected the Roman jurisprudence. It reserved nothing to the vengeance of man : they therefore, not unphilosophically, thought it must rob him of his active powers. Nor could they conceive how the person injured could rest satisfied, but by pouring out his fury upon the author of the injustice. Hence all those judicial com- bats, and private wars which for many ages desolated Europe. In what manner light arose out of this darkness, order out of this confu- sion, and taste out of this barbarism, we shall have occasion to observe in the course of history : how genius and magnificence displayed themselves in a new mode, which prevailed for a time, and was exploded; how the sons came to idolize that literature which their fathers had proscribed, and wept over the ruins of those sculptures, paintings, buildings, which they could not restore; digging from. dunghills, and the dust of ages, the models of their future imitations, and enervating themselves with the same arts which had enervated the Romans. In the mean time we must take a view of the system of policy and legis- lation established by the Barbarians on their first settlements. (1) A similar change was soon to take place in the state of Asia, great part of which was still subject to the emperors of Constantinople. These emperors, though gradually robbed of their Asiatic provinces by the followers of Mahomet, continued to; preserve, in the East, as we shall have occasion to see, an iui.-iL'- of Roman greatness, lung ailer Rome had been sacked by the Barbarians, and the Roman dominion f;n;ill> extinguished in the West. The Roman provinces in Africa were already overrun by the Vaml;ii had spread desolation with fire and sword. (2) " When we would brand an enemy," says an enlightened Barbarian, " with disgraceful and con- tumelious appellations we call him a Roman : a name which comprehends whatever is base, cowardly avaricious, luxurious in a word, lying, and all other vices." Liutprand. Legal, ap. Murat. vol. ii. 13) Procop. Bell. Goth, iib.i. II. I MODERN EUROPE. * LETTER II. The system of Policy and Legislation established by the Barbarians, on settling in the Provinces of the Roman Empire. THE ancient Gauls, the Britons, the Germans, the Scandinavians, and all the nations of the north of Europe, had a certain degree of conformity in their government, manners, and opinions. The same leading character, and the same degree of conformity, was also observable among their more modern descendants, who, under the names of Goths and Vandals, dismembered the Roman empire. Alike distinguished by a love of war and of liberty, by a persuasion that force only constitutes right, and that victory is an infallible proof of justice, they were equally bold in attacking their enemies, and hi resisting the absolute domination of any one man. They were free even in a state of submission. Their primitive government was a kind of military democracy, under a general or chieftain, who had commonly the title of king. Matters of little consequence were determined by the principal men, but the whole community assembled to deliberate on national objects. The au- thority of their kings or generals, who owed their eminence entirely to their military talents, and held it by no other claim, was extremely limited : it con- sisted rather in the privilege of advising, than in the power of commanding Every individual was at liberty to choose whether he would engage in any warlike enterprise. They therefore followed the chieftain who led them forth in quest of new settlements from inclination, not control ;(1) as volun- teers who offered to accompany him, not as soldiers whom he could order to inarch. They considered their conquests as common property, in which all had a right to share, as all had contributed to acquire them : nor was any obligation whatsoever entailed on the possessors of lands thus obtained. Every one was the lord of his own little territory. But after settling in the Roman provinces, where they had their acquisi- tion to maintain not only against the ancient inhabitants, but also against the inroads of new invaders, the northern conquerors saw the necessity of a closer union, and of relinquishing some of their private rights for public safety. They continued therefore to acknowledge the general who had led them to victory : he was considered as the head of the colony ; he had the largest share of the conquered lands ; and every free man, or every subor- dinate officer and soldier, upon receiving a share according to his military rank, tacitly bound himself to appear against the enemies of the com- munity.^) This new division of property, and the obligations consequent upon it, gave rise to a species of government formerly unknown, and which is commonly distinguished by the name of the FEUDAL SYSTEM. The idea of a feudal kingdom was borrowed from that of a military establishment. The victorious army, cantoned out in the country which it had siezed, continued arranged under its proper officers, who were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to assemble whenever occasion should require their united operations or counsels. But. that system of policy apparently so well calculated for national defence or conquest, and which prevailed for several centuries in almost every kingdom of Europe, did not sufficiently provide for the interior order and tranquillity of the state. The bond of political union was feeble ; the sources of dissension Avere many; and corruption was interwoven with the very frame of the constitution. The partial division oithe conquered lands, which (1) Cssar. de Bell. Oall. lib. yi. Tacit de Moribus German, cap. xi. xlvi. Amm. Marcel, lib. XXTI Pris. RAet. ap. Byz. Script, vol. i. (2) Du Cange, Gloss, voc Miles et JHadis. 40 THE HISTORY OF [PART! were chiefly swallowed up by the great officers, gave the few a dangerous ascendency over the many. The king or general, by his superior allotment, had it amply in his power to reward past services or attach new followers, for the purpose of future wars. With this view he parcelled out his lands ; binding those, on whom he bestowed them, to attend them in all his military enterprises, under the penalty of forfeiture. The nobles, or great officers, followed his example, annexing the same conditions to their benefices or grants of land, and appearing at the head of their numerous vassals, like so many independent princes, whenever their pride was wounded or their pro- perty injured. They disputed the claims of the sovereign ; they withdrew their attendance, or turned their arms against him.(l) A strong barrier was thus formed against a general despotism in the state ; but the nobles them- selves, by means of their warlike retainers, were the tyrants of every inferior district, holding the people in servitude, and preventing any regular admin- istration of justice, every one claiming that prerogative within his own domain. Noi wa& this the only privilege those haughty nobles usurped; they also extorted from the crown the right of coining money in their own name, and of carrying on war against their private enemies. (2) In consequence of these encroachments on the royal prerogative, the pow- erful vassals of the crown obtained grants during life, and afterward others including their heirs, of such lands as they had originally enjoyed only during pleasure ; and they appropriated to themselves titles of honour, as well as offices of power and of trust, which became hereditary in many families. The ties which connected the principal members of the constitu- tion with its head were dissolved; almost all ideas of political subjection were lost, and little appearance of feudal subordination remained. The nobility openly aspired at independence ; they scorned to consider themselves as subjects ; and a kingdom, considerable in name and extent, was often a mere shadow of monarchy, and really consisted of as many separate princi- palities as it contained baronies. A variety of feuds and jealousies subsisted among the barons, and gave rise to so many wars. (3) Hence every country in Europe, wasted or kept in continual alarm by these internal hostilities, was filled with castles and places of strength, in order to protect the inhabitants from the fury of their fellow-subjects. Kingdoms so divided, and torn by domestic broils, were little capable of any foreign effort. The wars of Europe, therefore, during several centuries, as we shall have occasion to see, resembled more the wild and desultory incursions of pirates, or banditti, than the regular and concerted operations of national force. Happily, however, for posterity, the state of every king- dom was nearly the same ; otherwise all must have fallen a prey to one ; the independent spirit of the North might have been extinguished for ever : and the present harmonious system of European policy, which so gloriously struggled from the chaos of anarchy, would have sunk in eternal night. The particular manner in which the Barbarians conducted their judicial proceedings, when they first settled in the provinces of the Roman empire, cannot now be ascertained ; but their form of government, their manners, and a variety of other circumstances, lead us to believe that it was nearly the same with that which prevailed in their original countries ; where the autho- rity of the magistrate was so limited, and the independence of individuals so great, that they seldom admitted any umpire but the sword.(4) Our most ancient historical records justify this opinion ; they represent the exercise of justice in all the kingdoms of Europe, and the ideas of men with respect to equity, as little different from those which prevail in a state of nature, and deform the first stages of society in every country. Resent- ment was almost the sole motive for prosecuting crimes ; and the gratification of that passion, more than any view to the prosperity and good order ol society, was the end, and lso the rule in punishing them. He that suffered (1) Montesquieu, IS Esprit dea LOIK, liv. xxx. xxxi. (2) Moiitequieu, ubi supra. Robertson's Introd. Hist. Charles V. Hume's Hist. Eng. (University Ed ) Append, ii. (3) Id. ibid. (4) Fergusop, Essay on thoHist. of Cicil Society, part ii. LET. III.] MODERN EUROPE. 41 the wrong was the only person who had a right to pursue the aggressor to demand or remit the punishment : and he might accept a compensation for any offence, how heinous soever. The prosecution of criminals in the name and by the authority of the community, in order to deter others from violating the laws, now justly deemed the great object of legislation, was a maxim of jurisprudence then little understood in theory, and still less regarded in practice. The civil and criminal judges could, in most cases, do no more than appoint the lists, and leave the parties to decide their cause by the sword. Fierce and haughty nobles, unfriendly to the restraints of law, con- sidered it as infamous to give up to another the right of determining what reparation they should accept of, or with what vengeance they should rest satisfied : they scorned to appeal to any tribunal but their own right-arm. And if men of inferior condition sometimes submitted to award or arbitration, it was only to that of the leader whose courage they respected, and whom' in the field they had been accustomed to obey.(l) Hence every chieftain became the judge of his tribe in peace, as well as its general in war. The pernicious effects of this power upon government and upon manners, and the many absurd modes of trial established before its abolition, we shall have frequent occasion to observe in the history of every modern kingdom. The feudal system, however, with all its imperfections, and the disorders to which it gave birth, was by no means so debasing to humanity as the uni- form pressure of Roman despotism. Very different from that dead calm which accompanies peaceful slavery, and in which every faculty of the soul sinks into a kind of somnolency, it kept the minds of men in continual fer- ment, and their hearts in agitation. If animosities were keen, friendships also were warm. The commonalty were unfortunately degraded to the con- dition of slaves, but the nobility were exalted to the rank of princes. The gentry were their associates : and the king, without the form of compact, was in reality but chief magistrate, or head of the community, and could literally do no WRONG ; or none, at least, with impunity. LETTER III. Rise of the French, Monarchy, and the History of France, under the Kings of the First Race. IN history, as in all other sciences, it is necessary to set certam limits to our inquiries, if Ave would proceed with certainty ; and, where utility more than curiosity is our object, we must even contract these boundaries. We must not only confine ourselves to those periods where truth can be ascer- tained, but to those events chiefly which were followed by some civil or poli- tical consequence, which produced some alteration in the government or the manners of a people ; and, even of such events, we should be more particu- larly attentive to those which continue to operate upon our present civil or political system. In these few words, my dear Philip, in order to avoid egotism, I have indirectly given you an account of the manner in which I mean to conduct that History of Modern Europe which is intended for your instruction. The first epochs of modern, as Avell as ancient history, are involved in fable ; and the transactions of the immediately succeeding periods are handed down to us in barren chronicles, which convey no idea of the character of the agents, and consequently are destitute alike of instruction and amusement ; while the events of latter ages are related with a copiousness so profuse and undis- tinguishing, that a selection becomes absolutely necessary for such as would (1) This subject has been finely illustrated by Dr. Robertson, (Tntrod. Hist. Charles V.") and by the pre- sident Montesquieu, (IS Esprit des Loix, Hv. xviii. xxxi.) who has written a philosophical commentary on the Laws of the Barbarians. It has also been treated with much learning and ingenuity, by Dr. Stuart in his View of Society, and by Mr. Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Umpire chap, xxxviii. . 42 THE HISTO.RY OF [PAHT 1. not willingly spend a life time in acquiring a knowledge of the transactions of those who have lived before them. And as I would rather have you acquainted with the character of one living than of ten dead statesmen or heroes, I shall be as concise in my narration as is consistent with perspicuity, and as select in my matter as information will allow; yet always taking care to omit no anecdote which can throw light on the history of the human heart, nor any circumstance that marks the progress of civil society. Modern History is of little importance before the time of Charlemagne; and a late celebrated writer has fixed upon the coronation of that prince at Rome, in the year 800, as the proper era of its commencement. But for the sake of order, as well as to gratify the curiosity we naturally have to become acquainted with the origin of nations, I shall give you a short sketch of the state of Modern Europe previous to that era. The French monarchy first claims our notice; not on account of its anti- quity only, but because of its early and continued consequence. Gaul was shared by the Romans, the Visigoths, and the Burgundians, when Clovis king of the Franks (son of Childeric, and grandson of Merovius, head of the Salian tribe), defeated Syagrius, a Roman usurper in that province, and established a new kingdom, to which he gave the name of France, or the Land of Free Men.(l] How ill applied in latter times ! Though Clovis was only nineteen years of age when he obtained this vic- tory, his prudence appears to have been equal to his valour. And many cir- cumstances conspired to his farther aggrandizement. The Gauls hated the dominion of the Romans, and were strongly attached to Christianity : Clovis gained on their piety, by favouring their bishops ; and his marriage with Clo- tilda, niece to Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, made them hope that he would speedily embrace the faith. The attachment of his countrymen to their ancient worship was the sole objection; the pious exhortations of the queen had some effect ; and the king having vanquished the Allemanni at Tolbiac, near Cologne, after an obstinate engagement, politically ascribed that victory to the God of Clotilda, whom he said he had invoked during the time of battle, under promise of becoming a Christian, if crowned with success. He was accordingly baptized by St. Remigius, bishop of Rheims, and almost the whole French nation followed his example. (2) This was a grand circumstance in favour of Clovis ; and he did not fail to take advantage of it. The Gauls were stanch Catholics ; but the Visigoths and Burgundians were Arians. Clotilda, however, happily was a Catholic, though nursed in the bosom of Arianism ; and Clovis himself overflowed with zeal for the same faith, as soon as he found it would second his ambitious views. Under colour of religion, he made war upon Alaric, king of the Visi- goths, who possessed the country between the Rhone and 'the Loire. The Gallic clergy favoured his pretensions ; and the battle of Vouill6, in which the king of the Visigoths was vanquished and slain, near Poictiers, added to the kingdom of France the province of Aquitaine.(S) But Clovis, instead of enjoying his good fortune with dignity, disfigured the latter part of his reign by perfidies and cruelties towards the princes of his house, whom he extirpated. He died in 511, after attempting to atone for his crimes by building and endowing churches and monasteries, and as- sembling a council at Orleans for the regulation of church-discipline. (4) The death of Clovis was a severe blow to the grandeur of the French monarchy. He left four sons, who divided his extensive dominions among them. Thierry, the eldest, had the largest share : he was king of Austrasia, or that part of the Oriental France which lies between the Rhine and tho '!) Gregor. Turon. lib. ii. cap. 27. (2) Gest. Franc, cap. xv. Greg. Turon. lib. ii. cap. 31. Of the miracles said to have been wrought on the conversion of Clovis, the author of this work says nothing, as he would not wish to foster pious cre- dulity ; but the lovers of the marvellous will find sufficient food for their passion in Hincmar. (Vit St Remig.) It may not, however, be improper to observe, that Clovis, when warmed with the eloquence of the bishop of Rheims, in describing the passion and death of Christ, started up, and seizing his spear, vlo lently exclaimed, "Had I been there with the valiant Franks, I would have redressed his wrongs' Fredig. F.pitvm. cap. xxi. (3) Greg. Tur. lib. ii. cap. 37. (4) Ibid. lib. ii. cap 40 13 LET III.] MODERN EUROPE. 43 Meuse : Metz was his capital. Childebert was king of Paris, Cludomir of Orleans, and Clotaire of Soissons.(l) This division of the empire of the Franks, into four independent kingdoms, not only weakened its force, but gave rise to endless broils. The brothers became enemies whenever their interests jarred. The most frightful barbarities were the consequence of their dissensions. Murders and assassinations grew common events. The experience of these evils, however, did not prevent a like division taking place after the death of Clotaire, the sole successor of his brothers and nephews. His four sons divided the four kingdoms by lot. (2) The kingdom of Paris fell to the lot of Caribert ; Soissons to Chilperic ; Austra- sia to Sigebert; and Orleans to Gontran, in whose lot also was included Burgundy, which had been conquered by the united forces of Childebert and Clotaire. This new division was followed by consequences still more fatal than the former. Two queens, more deserving the name of furies than of women, sacrificed every thing to their bloody ambition Brunechilda, prin- cess of Spain, wife to Sigebert king of Austrasia, and Fredegonda, first con- cubine and afterward wife to Chilperic King of Soissons. Their mutual hatred, conjoined with their influence over their husbands, was productive of an infinite number of crimes, equally ruinous to the people and the royal family, and the most enormous to be met with in the history of mankind. After the murder of a multitude of princes, and many years of civil war, carried on a with the most vindictive spirit, and accompanied with every form of treachery and cruelty, Clotaire II. son of Chilperic and Fredegonda, was left sole monarch of France.(S) He re-established tranquillity, and gained the hearts of the people by his justice and generosity: and he attached the nobility to him by augmenting their consequence. He committed the govern- ment of the provinces of Austrasia and Burgundy to the Mayors of the Palace, as they were called ; a kind of viceroys, who, daily acquiring power, at last made their way to the throne. The vices of Dagobert, the son of Clotaire ; the taxes with which he loaded the people, to furnish his debauches, or to atone for them, according to the custom of those times, by pious profusions, weakened the royal authority, at the same time that they debased it. His two sons, Sigeb'ert II. and Clovis II. were only the founders of new convents. They were nobody in their king- doms, the mayors were every thing. On the death of Sigebert, Grimoald, mayor of Austrasia, set his own son upon the throne of that kingdom. The usurper was deposed; but the se- ducing example remained as a lure to future ambition. The succeeding sovereigns were as weak as their predecessors ; and Pepin Heristel, duke of Austrasia, governed France twenty-eight years, under the title of mayor, with equal prudence and fortitude. The kings were not more than decorated pageants, to be shown to the people occasionally. The appellation of slug- gards, which was given them, aptly expresses their stupid inactivity. After the death of Pepin, who, by restoring national assemblies, which the despotism of former mayors had abolished, by turning the restless impe- tuosity of the French against foreign enemies, whom he always overcame, and other wise measures, had quietly enjoyed a power hitherto unknown in the monarchy: his authority passed into the hands of his widow Plectrude, whose grandson, yet an infant, was created mayor. So high was the vene- ration of the French for the memory of that great man! but the government of a woman was ill suited to tho'se turbulent times, though the insignificant kings were content to live under the guardianship of a child. Charles Mar- tel, natural son of Pepin, was suspected of ambitious views by Plectrude, and imprisoned. He found means, however, to make his escape, and was re- ceived by the Austrasians as their deliverer. His superior talents soon ex- alted him to the same degree of power which his father had enjoyed, and he was no less worthy of it. He saved France from the sword of the Saracens, who had already subjected Spain, and he kept all the neighbouring nations (1) Greg. Tur. lib. iii. cap. 3 (2) Ibid. lib. iv. cap. 22. Oest. Franc, cap. xxix <& I'redig. C/iron. cap. xliii 44 THEHISTORYOF [PAST I in awe by his wise and vigorous administration ; yet he never styled himself any more than Duke of France, conscious that the title of King could add nothing to his power. But his son Pepin, less modest or more vain, assumed the sovereignty in name as well as reality : excluding for ever the descend- ants of Clovis, or the Merovingian race, from the throne of France.(l) The circumstances of that revolution I shall soon have occasion to relate At present we must take a view of the other states of Europe. LETTER IV. Spain under the Dominion of the Visigoths, and under the Moors, till the Reign of Abdurrahman. SPAIN, my dear Philip, next merits your attention, as the second great king- dom on this side of the Alps. Soon after the Visigoths founded their mo- narchy in that Roman province, already overrun by the Vandals and the Suevi, the clergy became possessed of more power than the prince. So early was the tyranny of the church in Spain ! Almost all causes, both civil and ecclesiastical, were referred to the bench of bishops : they even decided in their councils the most weighty affairs of the nation. Along with the nobles, among whom they held the first rank, they often disposed of the crown which was more elective than hereditary.(2) The kingdom was one theatre of re- volutions and crimes. The number of kings assassinated fills the soul with horror. The Barbarians, after their establishment, contracted new vices . their ferocity became bloody. What crimes did not bigotry alone produce ! In order to make you fully sensible of this, as well as acquainted with all that is necessary to be known in the history of the Visigoths in Spain, I need only mention the principal reigns. Leovigild, who died in 585, and who is so much celebrated for his victories over the Suevi, whom he entirely subdued, put to death his son Hermenegild, because he had embraced the Catholic faith, he himself being an Arian. Recared, however, his other son and successor, abjured Arianism. The Arians were persecuted in their turn. The spirit of persecution daily increased. Sisebut, a prince in other respects wise, and whose valour dis- possessed the Greek emperors of what territory they had continued to hold on the coasts of the Mediterranean, obliged the Jews, on pain of death, to receive baptism. In the reign of this monarch the empire of the Visigoths was at its height ; comprehending not only Spain, but also some neighbour- ing provinces of Gaul, and part of Mauritania. Chintila, a subsequent king, banished all the Jews ; and a council, or assembly of divines, convoked during his reign, declared that no prince could ascend the Spanish throne without swearing to enforce all the laws enacted against that unfortunate people. Under the reign of Recesuint, the election of kings was reserved by a council to the bishops and palatines. These palatines were the principal officers of the crown. Thus the Spanish nobility lost one of their most essential rights. Wamba, who defeated the Saracens in an attempt upon Spain, was excluded the throne, because he had been clothed in the habit of a penitent, while labouring under the influence of poison, administered by the ambitious Er- viga ! This stroke of priestcraft, the first of the kind we meet with in history, shows at a distance what might be expected from clerical finesse. A council adjudged the throne to Erviga ; and another council, held during his reign, prohibited the kings, under penalty of damnation, from marrying a king's widow. This canon is a sufficient proof of the spirit of legislation which at that time prevailed in Spain. The debauchery, cruelty, and impiety of Witiza, whose wickedness knew no bounds, occasioned a civil war in 710. ;n Adon. Chron. Annul. Metens. (2) Geddes's Tracts, vol. ii. See also Saavedra, Corona Gotliica LET. IV.] MODERN EUROPE. 45 Roderic, or Roderigue, dethroned this prince, and was himself dethroned h"" a people whom nothing- could withstand. (1) The Mahometan religion was already established in many countries. Ma- homet, its founder, who erected at Mecca a spiritual and temporal monarchy, had died 632 ; and his countrymen, the Arabs or Saracens, soon after overran great part of Asia, and all the part of Africa which was under the Roman dominion. Animated by the most violent spirit of fanaticism, their valour was altogether irresistible. The Koran promised heaven and eternal sen- suality to such as fell in battle, and the conquerors always tendered liberty and protection to those who embraced their superstition. They threatened the whole world with subjection. Count Julian, whose daughter king Roderic had dishonoured, invited them, it is said, to land in Spain. Nor is this cir- cumstance by any means improbable, considering the character of the times, more revolutions being then occasioned by the private vices of princes than any other cause. The Saracens, already masters of Mauritania, now Barbary (a name which the lawless ferocity of their descendants has given to that country, as it gave to them the name of Maures or Moors), made a descent upon Spain ; and by the decisive battle of Xeres, in Andalusia, put an end to the empire of the Visigoths. (2) Muza, viceroy of Africa, under the caliph Walid, came over to finish the conquest. According to the prudent policy of the Mahometans (the only enthusiasts who ever united the spirit of toleration with a zeal for making proselytes), he offered the inhabitants their religion and laws, on condition that they should pay to him the same subsidy they had paid their former sovereigns : and such as embraced the religion of the conquerors were entitled to all their privileges. Most cities submitted without resistance . those that held out he reduced by force, burning and pillaging them. Oppas, Archbishop of Seville, and uncle to the children of Witiza, was not ashamed on this occasion to join the Saracens, and sacrificed his country and his religion to his hatred against Roderic. But Pelagius, a prince of the royal blood, remained firm in his faith and his duty; and when he could no longer keep the field against the Infidels, he retired to the mountains o) Asturias, followed by a number of faithful adherents. There he founded a Christian kingdom, which he defended by his valour, and transmitted to hi* posterity. (3) Meanwhile the Saracens or Moors, little willing to confine their ambition within the limits of the Pyrenees, made an unsuccessful attack upon Eudes, duke of Aquitaine. But that check was soon forgot. Abdurrahman, the new emir or governor of Spain, made a second irruption with superior forces, and penetrated as far as Sens. Repelled there by bishop Ebbo, he fell upon Aquitaine, vanquished the duke, and advanced towards the heart of France. Charles Martel put a step to his career, between Poictiers and Tours, by a memorable battle in which Abdurrahman himself was slain ; and, if we believe the historians of those times, the Saracens lost in this action above three hundred thousand men. But such exaggerations are only fit for romance. Spain was at first very miserable under the dominion of the Moors. The emirs being dependent on the viceroy of Africa, who allowed them to con- tinue but a short time in their government, were more busy in fleecing the Spanish nation, than in the administration of justice or the preservation of good order. Civil Avars arose among the Moslems themselves, and the caliphs or vicars of the prophet, the successors of Mahomet, who had made Damascus the seat of their court, were unable to quell those disorders. The competi- tions for the caliphat, as may be expected, even favoured the projects of the rebels. At length that august dignity, which included both the highest regal and sacerdotal eminence, passed from the family of the Ommiades to that of the Abbassides. This revolution, which was bloody, gave birth to another, truly advantageous to Spain, but injurious to the Christian faith. (1) Isidor. Cron. Goth. Ferreras, Hist. Hisp. vol. ii. Mariana, ibid. Greg. Turon. lib. vi. (3) Rod. Tolet. Hist. Arab. Ferreras, ubi sup. (3) Mariana, vol. i. Ferreras, rol. ii. 46 THE HISTORY OF [PART I Abdurrahman, called also Almanzor, a prince of the blood royal, who escaped in the massacre of the Ommiades, founded in Spain an independent kingdom, consisting of all those provinces which had been subject to the caliphs. (1) He fixed his residence at Cordova, which he made the seat of the arts, of magnificence, and of pleasure. Without persecuting the Christians, lie was able, by his artful policy, almost to extinguish Christianity in his domi- nions : by depriving the bishops of their diocesses ; by reserving all honour and offices for the followers of his prophet ; and by promoting intermarriages between the Christians and Mahometans. No prince in Europe equalled Abdurrahman in wisdom, nor any people the Arabs, in whatever tends to the aggrandizement of the human soul. Lately enemies to the sciences, they now cultivated them with success, and enjoyed a considerable share both of learning and politeness, while the rest of mankind were sunk in ignorance and barbarism. (2) I shall afterward have occasion to be more particular on this subject. In the mean time, we must cast an eye on Italy, Rome, Constantinople, and France, from the time of Charles Martel to that of Charlemagne. LETTER V. Italy under the Dominion of the Ostrogoths, and under the Lombards, till the reign of Liutprand. ITALY experienced a variety of fortunes after it lost its ancient masters, before it fell into the hands of Charlemagne. It was first wholly conquered by the Heruli, a people from the extremity of the Euxine or Black Sea, who held it only a short time, being expelled by the Ostrogoths. Theodoric the first Gothic king of Italy, and several of his successors, were princes of great prudence and humanity. They allowed the Italians, or Romans, as they still affected to be called, to retain their possessions, their laws, their reli- gion, their own government, and their own magistrates, reserving only to the Goths the principal military employments. They acknowledged the emperors of Constantinople their superiors in rank, but not in jurisdiction. Ravenna was the seat of their court, and in real magnificence vied with ancient Rome, as their equitable administration did with the reigns of Trajan and Antoninus. (3) They were at last subdued by Belisarius and Narses, the generals of Justinian, who, having recovered Africa from the Vandals, had the pleasure of uniting Italy once more to the Roman Eastern, or Greek empire ; the Western empire, which took its rise, as a separate state, on the death of Theodosius in 395, being totally annihilated by Odoacer king of the Heruli. Soon after the expulsion of the Ostrogoths, great part of Italy was seized by Alboinus, king of the Lombards or Langobards, a Gothic nation. He and his successors made Pavia the place of their residence. The govern- ment of Italy was now entirely changed. Alboinus established the feudal policy in those countries which he had conquered, settling the principal offi- cers of his army, under the name of duke, in the chief cities of every pro- vince. (4) A similar kind of government prevailed in that part of Italy which remained subject to the emperors of Constantinople ; the exarch or supreme governor, who resided at Ravenna, appointing the dukes or chief magistrates of the other cities, and removing them at pleasure. Even Rome itself was governed by a duke, the very name of the senate and consuls being abolished. (I) Ferreras, ubi sup. (2) Oekloy, Hist. Sarac. vol.i. ii. (3) Procop. Sell. Goth. Cassiodor. lib. viii. The lenity of the Ostrogoths, on first settling in Italy may be accounted for from two causes: partly from that polish which their manners may be supposed (o have received during their intercourse with the Romans, whom they had long served as auxiliaries t:rainst tlu; Huns and other barbarous nations; partly from the character of Theodoric the Gothfc con- luiTor. who having been educated at Constantinople, and initiated in all the learning of the times, retained ever after a just admiration of the Roman laws and arts. (41 Paul. Diac. de Gest. Lartgob. I'b. iii. LET. V.J MODERN EUROPE. 47 Albointis was one of the greatest princes of his time, and no less skilled in the science of reigning than in the art of war ; but he was slain by the treachery of his wife Rosamund, before he had leisure to perfect the govern- ment of his kingdom. Clephis, his successor, was an able, but a barbarous prince. His cruelties gave the Lombards such an aversion against regal power, that they resolved, after his death to change their form of gove"rn- ment ; accordingly, for the space of twelve years, they chose no other king, but lived subject to their dukes. These dukes had hitherto acknowledged the royal authority: but, when the kingly power was abolished, each duke became sovereign of his own city and its district. The Lombards, during that interregnum, extended their conquests in Italy. But, being threatened by foreign enemies, they saw the necessity of a closer union ; of restoring their ancient form of government - r and committing the management of the war to a single person. For this purpose the heads of the nation assembled, and with one voice called Autharis, the son of Clephis, to the throne. Autharis perfected that form of government which had been established by Alboinus. Sensible that the dukes, who had ruled their several districts like independent princes, for so many years, would not willingly part with their authority, he allowed them to continue in their governments, but reserved to himself the supreme juris- diction. He made them contribute a part of their revenues towards the sup- port of his royal dignity, and take an oath that they would assist him to the utmost of their power in time of war.(l) After settling the government of his kingdom, he enacted several salutary laws for its tranquillity and good order. He was the first of the Lombard kings who embraced Christianity, and many of his subjects followed his example : but being of the Arian per- suasion, like most of the northern conquerors, whose simple minds could not comprehend the mysteries of the Trinity and incarnation, many disputes were by that means occasioned between the Arian and Catholic bishops ; for the Romans, or native Italians, were then as stanch Catholics as at this day. Liberty of conscience, however, was allowed under all the Lombard kings ; and Rotharis, who surpassed all his predecessors in wisdom and valour, was so moderate in his principles, and so indulgent to his people, that during his reign most cities of Italy had two bishops, one Catholic, and the other Arian He was the first prince who gave written laws to the Lombards. For that purpose he summoned at Pavia a general diet of the nobles ; and such regu- lations as they approved he ordered to be digested into a code, and observed over all his dominions. His military talents were not inferior to his civil. He very much extended the limits of his kingdom, and gained so many ad- vantages over the imperial forces, that no future hostilities passed between the exarchs and the kings of the Lombards, till the reign of Luitprand. But the emperor Constans, before that time landed in Italy with a con- siderable army, which he commanded in person, determined to expel the Barbarians, and reunite the kingdom of Lombardy to his dominions. He at first gained some inconsiderable advantages ; but his army was afterward totally routed by Romuald, duke of Benevento, whose father, Grimoald, had been elected king of the Lombards. Grimoald was a prudent prince, and in all respects worthy of the dignity to which he had been raised. As soon as he was free from the alarms of war, he applied himself wholly to the arts of peace. He reformed the laws of Rotharis, which were now from choice appealed to by the Italians, as well as the .Lombards ; revoking some, and enacting others more applicable to the circumstances of the times. Influenced by the arguments of John, Bishop of Bergamo, he renounced the tenets of Arius. His successors followed his example, all professing the Catholic faith ; so that Arianism was in a short time forsaken by the whole nation of the Lombards. (2) Luitprand gave strong proofs of his wisdom and valour from the moment he ascended the throne ; but his courage sometimes bordered on rashness (1) Paul. Diac. de Gest. Langob. lib. iii. (2) Paul. Diac. lib. v. 48 THE HISTORY OF [PART L Informed that two of his attendants had conspired against his life, and only waited an opportunity to put their design in execution, he walked out with them alone, and upbraided them Avith their guilt. Struck with such heroic firmness, they threw themselves at his feet, as wretches unworthy of mercy. The king, however, thought otherwise : he not only pardoned them, but received them into favour, promoting them afterward to principal employ- ments. Having thus Avon his domestic enemies by kindness, and strength- ened his interests abroad by marrying the daughter of the duke of the Boioarii, Luitprand applied himself in imitation of his two illustrious prede- cessors, Rotharis and Grimoald, to the formation of new laws. In one of these, his sagacity appears highly conspicuous. He blames " the ridiculous custom of trials by duel, in which we would force God to manifest his justice according to the caprice of men ;" adding, " that he has only tolerated the abuse, because the Lombards are so much attached to it."(l) But Luitprand's great qualities were in some measure shaded by his boundless ambition. Not satisfied with the extensive dominions left him by nis predecessors, he formed the design of making himself sole master of Italy : and a favourable opportunity soon offered for the execution of that enterprise. Leo Isauricus, then emperor of Constantinople, where theological disputes had long mingled with affairs of state, and where casuists were more com- mon upon the throne than politicians, piously prohibited the worship of images ; ordering all the statues to be broken in pieces, and the paintings in the churches to be pulled down and burnt. The populace, whose devotion extended no further than such objects, and the monks and secular priests, interested in supporting the mummery, were so highly provoked at this innovation, that they publicly revolted in many places. The emperor, how- ever, took care to have his edict put in force in the East ; and he strictly enjoined the exarch of Ravenna, and his other officers in the West, to see it as punctually obeyed in their governments. In obedience to that com- mand, the exarch began to pull down the images in the churches and public- places at Ravenna ; a conduct which incensed the superstitious multitude to such a degree, that they openly declared they would rather renounce their allegiance to the emperor than the worship of images. They considered him as an abominable heretic, whom it was lawful to resist by force, and took arms for that purpose. (2) Luitprand judging this the proper season to put his ambitious project in execution, suddenly assembled his forces, and unexpectedly appeared before Ravenna ; not doubting but the reduction of that important place would be speedily followed by the conquest of all the imperial dominions in Italy. The exarch, though little prepared for such an assault, defended the city with much courage ; but finding he could not long hold out against so great a force, and despairing of relief, he privately withdrew. Luitprand, informed of this, made a vigorous attack, carried the city by storm, and gave it up to be plundered by his soldiers, who found in it an immense booty, as it had been successively the seat of the western emperors, of the Gothic kings, and of the exarchs. Alarmed at the fate of Ravenna, most other cities in the exarchate surrendered without resistance. (3) Luitprand seemed, therefore, in a fair way to become master of all Italy. But that conquest neither he nor any of his successors was ever able to complete : and the attempt proved fatal to the kingdom of the Lombards. (1) Leg. Langob. in Codex Lindenbrog. (2) Memb. Hist IconoiUst. (3) Paul. Diac. lib. vi. LET. VI.] MODERN EUROPE. 49 LETTER VI. Rue of the Pope's temporal Power, with some Account of the Affairs of Italy, the Empire of Constantinople, and the Kingdom of France, from the Time oj Charles Martel to that of Charlemagne. THOUGH Rome was now governed by a duke, who depended on the exarch of Ravenna, the pope, or bishop, had the chief authority in that city. He was yet less conspicuous by his power, than the respect which religion inspired for his see, and the confidence which was placed in his character. St. Gregory, who died 604, had negotiated with princes upon several matters of state, and his successors divided their attention between clerical and poli- tical objects. To free themselves from the dominion of the Greek emperors, without falling a prey to the kings of Italy, was the great object of these umbitious prelates. In order to accomplish this important purpose, they employed successively both religion and intrigue ; and at last established a spiritual and temporal monarchy, which of all human institutions, perhaps, most merits the attention of man, whether we consider its nature, its progress, or its prodigious consequences. Gregory II. had offended the emperor Leo, by opposing his edict against the worship of images : but he was more afraid of the growing power of the: Lombards, than of the emperor's threats ; he therefore resolved to put a stop, if possible, to the conquest of Luitprand. The only prince in Italy to whom he could have recourse, was Ursus, duke of Venice, the Venetians making already no contemptible figure. Not less alarmed than Gregory at the pro- gress of so powerful a neighbour, Ursus and the Venetians promised to assist the exarch (who had fled to them for protection) with the whole strength of the republic. They accordingly fitted out a considerable fleet, while the exarch conducted an army by land, and retook Ravenna before Luitprand could march to its relief. As the recovery of Ravenna had been chiefly owing to the interposition of Gregory, he hoped to be able to prevail on the emperor to revoke his edict against the worship of images in the West. Leo, however, being sensible that the pope had been influenced merely by his own interest in the measures he had taken relative to that event, was only more provoked at his obstinacy, and resolved that the edict should be obeyed even in Rome itself. For this purpose he recalled Scholasticus, exarch of Ravenna, and sent in his stead. Paul, a Patrician, ordering him to get the pope assassinated, or to seize him. and send him in chains to Constantinople. But Gregory, far from being in- timidated by the emperor's threats, solemnly excommunicated the exarch for attempting to put the imperial edict in execution, exhorting all the Italian cities to continue steadfast in the Catholic faith. Luitprand, though highly incensed against Gregory, assisted him in his distress ; and the populace rose at Ravenna, and murdered the exarch, making prodigious slaughter of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, as the abettors of the edict were called. The duke of Naples shared the same fate with the exarch; and as Leo still insisted that his favourite edict should be enforced at Rome, the people of that city, at the instigation of Gregory, withdrew their allegiance from the Greek emperor.(l) Hence the rise of the pope's temporal power. Informed of this revolt, and not doubting who was the author of it, Leo ordered a powerful army to be raised, with a design both to chastise the rebels and take vengeance on the pope. Gregory, alarmed at these warlike preparations, looked round for some power on which he might depend for protection. The Lombards were possessed of sufficient force, but they were too near neighbours to be trusted ; and the Venetians, though zealous Catho- lics, were not yet in a condition to withstand the strength of the empire. (1) Anast. in Fit. Greg. II. Meimb. Hist. Iconoclast VOL. I. D 3 50 THE HISTORY OF [PART! Spain was at that time overrun by the Saracens : the French seemed, there- fore, the only people to whom it was advisable to apply for aid, as they were at once able to oppose the emperor, and enemies to his edict. France was then governed by Charles Martel, the greatest commander of his age. Gregory sent a solemn embassy to Charles, entreating him to take the Romans and the church under his protection, and defend them against the attempts of Leo. The ambassadors were received with extraordinary marks of honour : a treaty was concluded ;(1) and the French, glad to get any concern in the affairs of Italy, became the protectors of the church. In the mean time considerable alterations were made by death. Gregory II. did not live to see his negotiation with France finished. He was suc- ceeded in the see of Rome by Gregory III., and, some years after, Leo Isauricus was succeeded on the imperial throne by his son Constantine Copronymus, who not only renewed his Father's edict against the worship of images, but prohibited the invocation of saints. This new edict confirmed the Romans in the resolution they had taken of separating themselves entirely from the empire ; more especially as, being now under the protection of France, they had nothing to fear from Constantinople. They accordingly drove out of their city such of the imperial officers as had hitherto been suf- fered to continue there ; and abolished, by that means, the very shadow of subjection to the emperor. Soon after Leo, died Charles Martel, and also Gregory III. who was succeeded in the see of Rome by Zachary, an active and enterprising prelate. Immediately after his election, he waited upon Luitprand, and obtained the restoration of four cities in the territory of Rome, which had been yielded to that prince as a ransom for the capital, when ready to fall into his hands. (2) Luitprand henceforth laid aside all ambitious thoughts, dying in peace with the church and with men. Rachis, his successor, confirmed the peace with Zachary ; but being afterward seized with a thirst of conquest, he invaded the Roman dukedom, and laid siege to Perugia. Zachary, before he solicited the assistance of France, the only power on which he could depend, resolved to try once more his personal influence. He accordingly went in person to the camp of Rachis ; and being respectfully received by that prince, he represented so forcibly to him the punishment reserved for those who unjustly invade the property of others, that Rachis not only raised the siege, but was so much subdued by the eloquence of the pontiff, that he renounced his crown, and retired to the monastery of Monte Cassino ; prostrating himself first at Zachary's feet, and taking the habit of St. Benedict. (3) While things were in this situation in Italy, Pepin, son of Charles Martel, governed France in the character of mayor, under Childeric III. and, ac- quainted no doubt with the sentiments of his Holiness, proposed to Zachary a case of conscience, which had not hitherto been submitted to the bishop of Rome. He desired to know, Whether a prince incapable of governing, or a minister invested with royal authority, and who supported it with dignity, ought to have the title of king. Zachary, decided in favour of the minister ; and the French clergy supported the pretensions of Pepin, because he had restored the lands of which Charles Martel had robbed them. The nobles respected him, because he was powerful and brave ; and the people despised the sluggard kings, whom they scarcely knew by name. The judgment of the pope therefore silenced every scruple. Childeric was deposed ; or more properly, degraded, for he could never be said to reign. He was shut up in a monastery. Pepin was raised to the throne ; and St. Boniface, bishop of Mentz, the famous apostle of the Germans, anointed lim solemnly at Soissons.(4) This ceremony of anointing, borrowed from the Jews, and hitherto uri- xnown to the French nation, or at most only used on the conversion of Clovis, seemed to bestow on the king a kind of divine character : and so far it w?.s useful, by inspiring respect. But as ignorance abuses all things, the 'D Bigon. Reg. Jtal. (2) Paul. Diac. lib. vi. (3) Id. ibid. (4) Sigon. Reg. ftn> w . VI.J MODERN EUROPE. 51 bishops soon imagined they could confer royalty by anointing princes an opinion which was followed by many fatal consequences. The eastern emperors had long been crowned by the patriarchs of Constantinople ; the popes, in like manner crowned the emperors of the West. Crowning'and anointing were supposed necessary to sovereignty. A pious ceremony gave the church a power of disposing of kingdoms. The r e observations, my dear Philip, you will find frequent occasion to appl f I offer them here, in order to awaken your attention. We must 2 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. archate had been made, conjuring Pepin, his two sons, and the states of France to come to his relief; promising them all good things, both in this world and the next, in case of compliance, and denouncing damnation as the reward of refrisal.(l) Pepin, much affected by this eloquence, wild as it may seem, crossed the Alps a second time, and Astulphus again took refuge in Pavia. Meanwhile the emperor Constantine Copronymus, informed of the treaty between the king of France and the Pope, by which the latter was to be put in possession of the exarchate and Pentapolis, remonstrated by his ambassa- dors against that agreement, offering to pay the expenses of the war. But Pepin replied, that the exarchate belonged to the Lombards, who had acquired it by the right of arms, as the Romans had originally done : that the right of the Lombards was now in him, so that he could dispose of that territory as he thought proper. He had bestowed it, he said, on St. Peter, that the Catholic faith might be preserved in its purity, free from the damnable here- sies of the Greeks ; and all the money in the world, he added, should never make him revoke that gift, which he was determined to maintain to the church with the last drop of his Wood. In consequence of this resolution, the ambassadors were dismissed, without being suffered to reply. Pepin pressed the siege of Pavia ; and Astulphus, finding himself unable to hold out, agreed to fulfil the former treaty, giving hostages as a pledge of hie fidelity, and putting the pope immediately in possession of Commachio, a place of great importance at that time.(2) Before Pepin returned to France he renewed his donation to St. Peter, yielding to Stephen and his successors the exarchate ; Emilia, now Romagna, and Pentapolis, now Marca d'Ancona, with all the cities therein, to be held by them for ever ; the kings of France, as patricians, retaining only an ideal superiority, which was soon forgot. (3) Thus was the sceptre added to the keys, the sovereignty to the priesthood, and the popes enriched with the spoils of the Lombard kings and the Roman emperors. Astulphus, soon after ratifying his treaty with France, was killed by acci- dent, when he was preparing to recover his conquests. Pepin continued to extend his sway and his renown till the year 768 ; when, after having imposed tribute on the Saxons and Sclavonians, having made the duke of Bavaria take an oath of fidelity, and reunited Aquitaine to his crown, equally respected at home and abroad, he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign. He never affected absolute power, but referred all matters of importance to the national assemblies, of which he was the oracle. By the consent of the nobles, he divided his kingdom between his two sons, Charles and Carloman. The reign of Charles, known by the name of Charlemagne or Charles the Great, introduces a new era, and will furnish the subject of a future Letter. In the mean time, we must trace the settlement of other Barbarians, and the rise of another great kingdom. LETTER VII. Britain from the time it was relinquished by the Romans, to the end of the Saxon Heptarchy. THE affairs of our own island, my dear Philip, now claim your attention. It was ultimately evacuated by the Romans about the year 448, after they had been masters of the southern and most fertile part of it for almost four centuries. (1) Anastaf. in Tit. Steph. III. (2) Leo Ostiensis, ubi sup. (3) Many disputes have arisen concerning the nature of Pepin's donation, and some writers liave even denied that euch a donation was ever made ; but, on comparing authorities, and observing the scope of his- tory, the matter seems to have been nearly as represented in the text. The impertinences of Voltawe on tois subject, under the form of reasoning, are too contemptible to deservo notice LET. VII.] MODERN EUROPE. 53 Never, perhaps, was the debasing influence of despotism so fully displayed as in its effect on our ancient countrymen. No people were ever more brave, none more jealous of liberty, than the Britons. With ordinary weapons, and little knowledge of military discipline, they struggled long with the Roman power, and were only subdued at last by reason of their want of union. But after three centuries of tranquil submission, when the exigencies of the empire obliged the Romans to recall their legions from this island, and resign to the inhabitants their native rights, the degenerate Britons were incapable of prizing the gift. Conscious of their inability to protect themselves against- their northern neighbours, and wanting resolution to attempt it, they would gladly have lived in security and slavery. (1) They had therefore recourse, again and again, to their conquerors : and the Romans, beside occasionally sending over a legion to the aid of the Britons, assisted them in rebuilding the wall of Antoninus, which extended between the friths of Forth and Clyde. This wall was esteemed by the Romans a necessary barrier first against the Caledonians, and afterward against the Scots and Picts. Much time has been spent in inquiring after the origin of the Scots and Picts, and many disputes have arisen on the subject. (2) The most probable opinion, however, seems to be, that they were two tribes of native Britons, who at different times had fled from the dominion of the Romans, choosing liberty and barren mountains rather than fertile plains and slavery. But whoever they were, they are allowed to have been brave and warlike adven- turers, who often invaded the Roman territories, and were greatly an over- match for the now dastardly and dispirited Britons. These two nations or tribes no sooner heard of the final departure of the Romans, than they considered the whole British island as their own. One party crossed the frith of Forth, in boats made of leather, while another attacked with fury the Roman wall, which the Britons had repaired for their defence, but which they abandoned on the first assault, flying like timorous deer, and leaving their country a prey to the enemy. The Scots and Picts made dreadful havoc of the fugitives ; and, meeting with no opposition, they laid all the southern part of the island waste with fire and sword. Famine followed, with all its horrid train. The miserable Britons, in this frightful extremity, had once more recourse to Rome. They wrote to ^Etius, then consul the third time, that memorable letter entitled The Groans of the Britons, and which paints their unhappy condition strongly as it is possible for words : " We know not," say they, " even which way to flee. Chased by the Bar- barians to the sea, and forced back by the sea upon the Barbarians, we have only left us the choice of two deaths ; either to perish by the sword, or be swallowed up by the waves."(3) What answer they received is uncertain ; but it is well known they received no assistance, Rome being then threatened by Attila, the most terrible enemy that ever invaded the empire. The Britons, however, amid all their calamities, had one consolation : they had embraced Christianity ; a religion which above all others teaches the endurance of misfortunes, which encourages its votaries to triumph in adver- sity, and inspires the soul with joy in the hour of affliction. Many of them fled over to Gaul, and settled in the province of Armorica, to which they gave the name of Brittany ; part of them submitted to the Scots and Picts ; and part, collecting courage from despair, sallied from their woods and caves upon the secure and roving invaders, cut many of them to pieces, and obliged the rest to retire into their own country. But the enemy threatening to return next season with superior forces, the distressed Britons, by the advice of Vortigem, prince of Dunmonium, who then possessed the principal authority (1) Gildas, Bede, lib. i. Mr. Gibbon, whose historical skepticism is as well known as his theological incredulity, has attempted to controvert the degeneracy of the Britons under the Roman government. But facts will speak for themselves: these lie has not been able to destroy. The Britons, who fled before their naked and barbarous neighbours, were surely inferior to those that intrepidly contended with the Roman legions, under Julius Caesar and other great commanders. (2) See Macpherson's Introd. Hist. Brit. Origin, &c. of the Caledonians, Whitakes'8 Hist. / Man- chester, Genuine Hist. Brit, and Hume's Hist, of England, vol. i. note A. (3- Bede. Gildas, ubi SUB. Gul. Malms, lib. i. 64 THEHISTJR1OF [PART F among them, called over to their assistance, by a solemn deputation, the Saxons and Angles, or Anglo-Saxons. (1) The Saxons, like all the ancient German tribes, were a free, brave, inde- pendent people. They had arrived at that degree of civilization in which the mind has acquired sufficient force for enterprise, and seems to derive energy from the unimpaired vigour of the body. A nation, taken collectively, "is never perhaps capable of such great achievements as in this state of half- civilization. The Saxons had spread themselves over Germany and the Low ' Countries from the Cimbrian Chersonesus, now Jutland, taking possession of the whole territory between the Rhine and the Elbe ; and, when the Britons sent to implore their assistance, they were masters not only of the present Westphalia, Saxony, East and West Friesland, but also of Holland and Zealand. They readily complied with the request of Vortigern : and having fitted out three large transports, about fifteen hundred of them put to sea under the command of Hengist and Horsa, two brother chiefs, said to be descended from Woden, their tutelary god. The Saxon chiefs landed in the isle of Thanet, which was assigned them as a possession, and a league was entered into between them and the British prince. (2) Soon after their ar- rival, they marched against the Scots and Picts, who made a new irruption, and advanced as far as Stamford. These northern ravagers, unable to with stand the steady valour of the Saxons, were routed with great slaughter ;. and the Britons, felicitating themselves on an expedient by which they had freed their country from so cruel an enemy, hoped thenceforth to enjoy security under the protection of their warlike auxiliaries. But mankind, in the possession of present good, are apt to overlook the . prospect of future evil. The Britons did not foresee that their deliverers were to be their conquerors ; though it must have been evident to any dis- interested observer, that the day of subjection was nigh. The reflections of TIengist and Horsa, after their victory over the Scots and Picts, were very different from those of the Britons. They considered with what ease they might subdue a people, who had been unable to resist such feeble invaders ; and sent to their countrymen intelligence of the fertility and opulence of Britain, inviting them to come and share in the spoils of a nation, without union and without Valour, sunk in indolence and sloth. (3) The invitation was readily accepted. Seventeen vessels soon arrived with five thousand men, who, joined to those already in the island, formed a con- siderable army. (4) Though now justly alarmed at the number of their allies, the Britons sought security and relief only in passive submission ; and even tli at unmanly expedient soon failed them. The Saxons pulled off the mask : they complained that their subsidies were ill paid, and demanded larger sup- plies of corn and other provisions. These being refused, as exorbitant, they formed an alliance with the Scots and Picts ; and proceeded to open hostilities against the people they had come over to protect. The Britons were at last under the necessity of taking arms ; and having deposed Vortigern, who was become odious by his vices, and the unfortunate issue of his rash councils, they put themselves under the command of his son Vortirrier. Many battles were fought between the Saxons and Britons with various success, though commonly on the side of the former : and, in one oJ these battles, the Saxon general, Horsa, was slain. The sole command now devolved xipon Hengist ; who, continually reinforced with fresh adventurer* from Germany, carried desolation to the most remote possessions of the Britons. Anxious to spread the terror of his arms, he spared neither age, sex, LET VII.] MODERN EUROPE. 55 nor condition.(l) The description is too horrible to read ; and, for the honour of humanity, I am willing to suppose it to be partly untrue. Of the unhappy Britons who escaped the general slaughter, some took icfuge among inaccessible rocks and mountains ; many perished by hunger; and many, forsaking their asylum, preserved their lives at the expense of their liberty. Others, crossing the sea, sought shelter among their countrymen in Armorica. They who remained at home suffered every species of misery : they were not only robbed of all temporal, but spiritual benefits. (2) In this extremity, a British and a Christian hero appeared. Arthur, prince of the Silures, revived the expiring valour of his countrymen. He defeated the Saxons in several engagements ; and particularly in the famous battle of Badon-hill, which procured the Britons tranquillity for upwards of forty years. But the success of Hengist and his followers having excited the ambition of other German tribes, who arrived at different times, and under different leaders, yet all speaking one language, being governed by the same regula- tions, and passing under the common appellation of Saxons or Angles, they were naturally led to unite against the ancient inhabitants of the island. The Britons, therefore, ultimately found themselves unequal to the contest, and retired to the mountains of Cornwall and Wales, where they formed inde- pendent principalities, protected by their remote and inaccessible situation. (3) The Saxons and Angles, or Anglo-Saxons (for they are mentioned under both these denominations), were now absolute masters of the whole fertile and cultivated part of South Britain, which had changed not only its inhabit- ants, but its language, customs, and political institutions. (4) History affords an example of few conquests more bloody, and few revolutions so violent as that effected by the Saxons. In the course of their wars with the Britons, which continued a hundred and thirty-five years, they had established many separate kingdoms, the seventh and last of which was that of Northumber- land. The names of the other kingdoms were Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia. These seven kingdoms formed what is commonly called the Saxon Heptarchy. (5) While the Saxons had to struggle with the Britons for dominion, their several princes leagued against the common enemy, and a union of coun- cils and interests was preserved. But after the wretched natives were shut up in their barren mountains, and the conquerors had nothing to fear from them, the bond of alliance was in a great measure dissolved among the princes of the Heptarchy; and although one prince seems still to have assumed, or to have been allowed, some ascendant over the rest, his autho- rity was so very limited, that each state acted as if entirely independent. Jealousies, and dissensions arose among the Saxon chiefs, and these were followed by perpetual wars ; which, in Milton's opinion, are no more worthy of a particular narration, than the combats of kites or crows. And, inde pendent of so great an authority, which however it would be presumption to slight, it may be safely affirmed, that the barren records transmitted to us, and the continued barbarities of the times, render it impossible for the most eloquent and discerning writer to make this portion of our history either instructive or entertaining. It will therefore be sufficient for me to observe, that after a variety of inferior revolutions, the seven kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy were united under Egbert, king of Wessex, in the year 827.(6) His dominions were nearly of the same extent with what is now properlv (Alfor. a nn . ence te compoun name o ngo-axons, gven em y mos wrers. a Jutes had also a considerable share iu the conquest of South Britain, and settled themselves in Kent and the Isle of Wight. Essex, Middlesex, Surry, Sussex, and all the southern counties, as far as Cornwall, were peopled by Saxons. The Saxons also took possession of the northern counties. Norfolk, Suffolk! and all the midland counties were inhabited by Angles. Bede, lib. i. ii. Elhelwerd, lib. i. H. Hunting, lib ii. Hume, vol. i. chap. i. (5) The extent of the different kingdoms is of too little importance now to deserve particular description (6) Wessex, or the kingdoms of the West Saxons, extended over the counties of Hants, Dorset, Wilts Uerks, and the Isle of Wight. ' 66 THEHISTORYOF [PART! ailed ENGLAND ; a name which was given to the empire of the Saxons in Britain, immediately after the termination of the Heptarchy. The Anglo-Saxons before this period had been converted to Christianity by the preaching of Augustine, a Roman monk, and the zeal of Bertha, daughter of Garibert, king of Paris, and wife to Ethelbert, king of Kent ; but as they received that doctrine through the polluted channels of the church of Rome, though it opened an intercourse with the more polished states of Europe, it had not hitherto been very effectual either in purifying their minds, or in softening their manners. The grossest ignorance and superstition pre- vailed among them. Reverences to saints and relics seemed to have sup- planted the worship of the Supreme Being ; donations to the church atoned for every violation of the laws of society ; and monastic observances were more esteemed than moral virtues. Even the military virtues so habitual to the Saxons began to fall into neglect. The nobility themselves began to prefer the indolence and security of the cloister to the toils and tumults of war ; and the crown, impoverished by continual benefactions to the church, had no rewards for the encouragement of valour. This corrupt species of Christianity was attended with another train ol inconveniences, proceeding from a superstitious attachment to the see ol Rome. The Britons had conducted all ecclesiastical matters by their own synods and councils, acknowledging no subordination to the Roman pontiff; but the Saxons, having received their religion through the medium of Italian monks, were taught to consider Rome as the capital of their faith. Pilgrim- ages to that city were accordingly represented as the most meritorious acts of devotion ; and not only noblemen and ladies of rank undertook this tedious journey, but kings themselves, resigning their crowns, implored a safe pass- port to heaven at the foot of St. Peter's chair, and exchanged the purple for the sackloth.(l) But England, even in those times of British darkness, gave birth to some men equal at least to any of the age in which they lived. Offa, king of Mer- cia, was thought worthy the friendship of Charlemagne, the greatest prince that Europe had produced for many centuries ; and Alcuin, an English cler- gyman, had the honour of instructing that illustrious monarch in the sciences, at the time when he was surrounded by all the literati of Christendom. Having mentioned Charlemagne, I think it necessary to observe, That 1 shall finish the history of that great conqueror and legislator, before we pro- ceed to the reign of Egbert, the first English monarch ; who, as you will after- ward have occasion more fully to know, was educated in the court, and in the armies of the new emperor of the West. Meanwhile, my dear Philip, I must say a few words of the government, laws, and manners of the Saxons, after their settlement in Britain. LETTER VIII. Government and Laws of the Anglo-Saxons. HAD the Saxons, on their settlement in Britain, established the same form of government with the other northern nations that seized the provinces of the Roman empire, this letter would have been in a great measure unneces- sary ; but as they rather exterminated than subdued the natives, and wero under few apprehensions from foreign enemies, they had no occasion to bur- den themselves with feudal services. They therefore retained entire their civil and military institutions ; they transplanted into this island those prin- ciples of liberty and independency which they had so highly cherished at home, which had been transmitted to them from their ancestors, and which still continued to flourish among their descendants. Their original constitu- tion was a kind of military democracy, in which the protection of the state (1) Bale, lib. i. ii. Spell. Cone. II. Hunting, lib ill LET. VIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 57 was the voluntary care of its members, as every free man had a share in the government ; and conquest was the interest of all, as all partook in the ac- quisitions. Their king, or chief, was only the first citizen of the community : his authority was extremely limited ; and depended, as did his station, prin- cipally on his personal qualities. The succession was neither elective nor hereditary. A son who inherited his father's virtues and talents was sure to succeed to his sway : but if he happened to be weak, wicked, or under age, the next in blood was generally raised to the throne, or the person of most eminence in the state. (1) We owe to the masterly pen of Tacitus this account of the primitive go- vernment of the Saxons, who were a tribe of the ancient Cimbri. Unfortu- nately the Saxon annals are too imperfect to enable us to delineate exactly the prerogatives of the crown, and the privileges of the people, after their settlement in Britain. The government might be somewhat different in the different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, and might also undergo several changes before the Norman conquest ; but of those changes we are in a great mea- sure ignorant. We only know, that at all times, and in all the kingdoms, there was a national council, a Wittenagemot, or Assembly of the Wise Men, whose consent was necessary to the enacting of laws, and to give sanction to the measures of public administration. But who the constituent members of that assembly were, has not hitherto been determined with certainty The most probable conjecture however seems to be, that it consisted of the no- bility, the dignified clergy, and all freeholders possessing a certain portion of land. The Saxons were divided into three orders of men ; the noble, the free, and the servile. These distinctions the* brought into Britain with them. The nobles were called Thanes, and wer*of two kinds, the greater and less Thanes. The latter seem to have had some dependence on the former, as the former had on the king, but of what nature is uncertain. The lower kind of freemen among the Saxons were denominated ceorles, and were chiefly employed in husbandry whence a husbandman and ceorle came to be synonymous terms. They farmed the lands of the nobility, or higher orders, and appear to have been removable at pleasure. But the slaves, or villains, were by much the most numerous class in the community; and being the property of their masters, were consequently incapable of holding any pro- perty themselves. They were of two kinds ; household slaves, after the man- ner of the ancients ; and rustic slaves, who were sold and transferred, like cattle, with the soil. The long wars between the Saxons and Britons, and afterward between the different kingdoms of the Heptarchy, seem to have been the cause of the disproportionate number of these unhappy men : for prisoners taken in battle, were reduced to slavery by the laws of war, and entirely at the disposal of their masters. (2) The higher nobility and dignified clergy among the Anglo-Saxons possessed a criminal jurisdiction within their own territories, and could punish without appeal such as they judged worthy of death. This was a dangerous privilege, and liable to the greatest abuse. 'But although the Anglo-Saxon government seems at last to have become in some measure aristocratical, there were still considerable remains of the ancient democracy. All the freeholders assembled twice a year in the county-courts, or Shiremotes, to receive appeals from the inferior courts a practice well calculated for the pre- servation of general liberty, and for restraining the exorbitant power of the nobles. In these courts they decided all causes ecclesiastical as well as civil, the bishop and aldermen, or earl, presiding over them. The case was determined by a majority of voices, without much pleading, formality, or delay ; the bishop and earl having no farther authority than to keep order among the freeholders, and offer their advice when necessary. (3) Though it should therefore be granted, that the Wittenagemot was composed entirely (1) Tacit, de Moribus Germ. cap. xl. (2) L. Edg. sec. xiv. ap. Spelman, Ct-nc. vol. i. Brady Gen. Pres. p. 7, 8, 9. Nithard. Hist, lib w (3) Hickes, Ditsert. Episl. ii viii 68 THE HIS TORY OF [PART!. of the greater Thanes and dignified clergy, yet in a government where few taxes were imposed by the legislature, and few statutes enacted, where the nation was less governed by laws than by customs, which allowed much lati tude of interpretation, the county courts, where all the freeholder? were admitted, and which regulated all the daily occurrences of life, formed a wide basis for freedom. The criminal laws of the Anglo-Saxons, as of most barbarous nations, were uncommonly mild ; a compensation in money being sufficient for mur- der of any species, and for the life of persons of any rank, not excepting the king and the archbishop, whose head, by the laws of Kent, was estimated higher than the king's. The price of all kinds of wounds was also settled : and he who was caught in adultery Avith his neighbour's wife, was ordered, by the laws of Ethelbert, to pay him a fine, and buy him another wife a proof, though somewhat equivocal, of the estimation in which women were then held. The punishments for robbery were various, but none of them capital. If any person could track his stolen cattle into another's ground, 'he owner of the ground was obliged to show their tracks out of it, or pay the ralue of the cattle. (1) But if the punishments for crimes among the Anglo-Saxons were singular, their proofs were no less so. When any controversy about a fact was too intri- cate for the ignorant judges to unravel, they had recourse to what they called the judgment of God ; or, in other words, to chance. Their modes of con- sulting that blind divinity were various, but the most common was the ordeal. This method of trial was practised either by boiling water, or red-hot iron. The \yatar 01 iron was consecrated by many prayers, masses, fastings, and exorcisms ; a %er which the person accused either took up with his naked hand a stone sunk iu the water to a certain depth, or carried the iron to a certain distance. The hand was immediately wrapped up, and the covering sealed for three days ; and if on examining it there appeared no marks of burning or scalding, the ptisan Accused was pronounced innocent ; if otherwise, he was declared guilty.(2; The same kinds of proof, or others equally extra- vagant, existed among ail the nations on the continent ; and money, in like manner, was every wbece jb. atonement for guilt, both in a civil and ecclesi- astical sense. iVTTER IX. The Reign of Charlemagne, o \.Ji <*'ee the Great, King of France and. Emperor of t'lt West. CHARLES and Carloman, thi two suns of Pepin, and his successors in the French monarchy, were m^n of vory different dispositions. Charles was open and generous, Carloman dark and suspicious : it was therefore happy foimankind that Carloman died soon after his father, as perpetual wars must have been the consequence of the opposite tempers and interfering interest of the brothers. Now alone at the head of a powerful kingdom, Charles's great and ambitious genius soon gave birth to projects which will render his name immortal. A prosperous reign of forty-six years, abounding with mili- tary enterprises, political institutions, and literary foundations, offers to our view, in the midst of barbarism, a spectacle worthy of more polished ages. But before we proceed to the history of this illustrious reign, I must say a few words of the state of Germany at that time. Germany was anciently possessed by a number of free and independert nations, who bravely defended their liberties against the Romans, and were never totally subjected by them. On the decline of the Roman empire, many of those nations left their native country, as we have seen, and founded empires of their own ; so that Germany, at the accession of Charlemagne to (1) Anglo Saxon Laws, ap. Wilkins. (2) Spelman, in Verb.Ordeal. LET. IX.] MODERN EUROPE. 59 the crown of France, was principally occupied by the Saxons. Of their government I have already spoken. They were still Pagans. What was then considered as their territory comprehended a vast tract of countiy. It was bounded on the west by the German Ocean, by Bohemia on the east, on the north b'y the Baltic Sea, and on the south by Germanic France, extending along the lower Rhine and from Issel beyond Mentz. This extensive empire was governed by an infinite number of independent princes, and inhabited by a variety of tribes, under different names, who, by reason of their want of union, had become tributary to the French monarchs. But whenever the throne of France was vacated by death, or when the kings of France were engaged either in foreign or domestic wars, the Saxon princes threw off their allegiance, and enteredthe French territories. (1) Charles had occasion to quell one of those revolts immediately after the death of his brother : and the work was but imperfectly executed, when his arms were wanted in another quarter. Charles and Carloman had married two daughters of Desiderius, king of the Lombards. Carloman left two sons by his wife Berta ; but Charles had divorced his consort, under pretence that she was incapable of bearing chil- dren, and married Ildegarda, a princess of Suabia. Berta, the widow of Car- loman, not thinking herself and her children safe in France after the death of her husband, fled to her father in Italy, and put herself and her two sons under his protection. Desiderius received them with joy. Highly incensed against Charles for divorcing his other daughter, he hoped by means of these refugees to raise such disturbances in France as might both gratify his revenge, and prevent the French monarch from intermeddling in the affairs of Italy. In this hope he was encouraged by his intimacy with pope Adrian I. to whom he proposed the crowning and anointing of Carloman's two sons. But Adrian, though sufficiently disposed to oblige him, refused to comply with the request; sensible that by so doing he must incur the displeasure of Charles, the natural ally of the church, and the only prince capable of pro- tecting him against his ambitious enemies. Enraged at a refusal, Desiderius ravaged the papal territories, or, as they were called, the Patrimony of St. Peter, and threatened to lay siege to Rome itself. In order to avert the pressing danger, Adrian resolved to have recourse to France, in imitation of his predecessors. He accordingly sent ambassadors privately to Charle- magne, not only imploring His assistance, but inviting him to the conquest of Italy, his friendship for Desiderius being now converted into the most ranco- rous hate. The French monarch, who waited only an opportunity to revenge himself on that prince for keeping his nephews, and still more for wanting to crown them, received the pope's invitation with incredible satisfaction. He immediately left Germany, concluding a kind of treaty with the Saxons, and collected such an army as evidently showed that his object was nothing less than the extinction of the kingdom of the Lombards. (2) Desiderius, informed of these preparations, put himself at the head of a great army, and sent several bodies of troops to guard the passes of the Alps. But Charlemagne, apprised of this precaution, sent a detachment under ex- perienced guides to cross the mountains by a different route. The French completed their march ; and falling unexpectedly upon the Lombards who guarded the passes, struck them with such terror, that they fled in the utmost confusion. Charles now entered Italy unmolested, and marched in quest of Desiderius. Finding himself unable to keep the field, the king of the Lom- bards retired to Pavia, his capital; sending his son Adalgisus, and his daughter Berta, the widow of Carloman, with her two sons, to Verona, a place not inferior in strength to Pavia. As soon as Charlemagne understood that Desiderius had taken shelter in Pavia, he assembled his whole army, and laid siege to that city, resolving not to withdraw his forces till it had submitted ; but, as the Lombards made a gallant defence, he changed the siege into a blockade, and marched with part of his troops to invest Verona. Adalgisus defended the place, for a (!) Eginhard. in Vit. Cat Mag. (2) Sigon. Reg. Ital. Anast. in rit. Hadriwni 60 THE HISTORY OF TART i. time., with great bravery, but finding himself, at last, reduced to extremities, and despairing of relief, he secretly withdrew, and fled to Constantinople, where he was cordially received by the emperor. Verona now surrendered to Charles ; wl.o having got Berta, his brother's widow, and her two sons, into his power, sent them immediately, under a strong guard, into France. What afterward became of them history has not told us. It is much to be feared, however, that their fate was little to the honour of the conqueror Humanity was not the characteristic of those times. The siege of Pavia was renewed, and pushed with fresh vigour. But the festival of Easter approaching, which Charles had resolved to spend at Rome, he left the conduct of the siege once more to his uncle Bernard. The pope received his deliverer in the most pompous manner, the magistrates and judges walking before him with their banners, and the clergy repeating, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord !" After Charles had satisfied his curiosity, and confirmed the donation which his father Pepin had made to St. Peter, he returned to the camp before Pavia. The Lombards still continued to defend that city with obstinate valour, so that the siege was little if at all advanced ; but a plague breaking out among the besieged, the unfortunate Desiderius was obliged at last to surrender his capital, and deliver up himself, his wife, and his children, to Charles, who sent them all into France, where they either died a violent death, or languished out their days in obscurity, being never more heard of.(l) Thus ended the kingdom of the Lombards in Italy, after it had subsisted two hundred and six years. They are represented by'the monkish historians as a cruel and barbarous people, because they opposed the ambitious vie^s of the popes ; but the many wholesome laws which they left behind them, and which devouring time has still spared, are convincing proofs of their justice, humanity, and wisdom. A short account of the state of Italy at the time it was entered by Charle magne will here be proper, and also of the new form of government intro- duced there by the conqueror. Italy was then shared by the Venetians, the Lombards, the popes, and the emperors of the East. The Venetians were become very considerable by their trade to the Levant, and bore no small sway in the affairs of Italy, though it does not appear that they had yet any town oft the terra firma, or conti- nent. The pope, by the generosity of Pepin and his son Charles, was now master of the exarchate and Pentapolis. The dukedom of Naples, and some cities in the two Calabrias, were still held by the emperors of the East. All the other provinces of Italy belonged to the Lombards ; namely, the duke- doms of Friuli, Spoleto, and Benevento, together with the provinces of Ligu- ria, Venetia, Tuscany, and the Alpes Cottiae, which were properly called the kingdom of the Lombards. Thes Ceharles claimed by right of conquest, and caused himself, in imitation of them, to be crowned king of Italy, with an iron crown,(2) which is still preserved in the little town of Monza. The ceremony of coronation being over, the conqueror thought it neces- sary to settle the government of his new kingdom, before he left Italy ; and, after consulting with the pope, who declared him patrician of Rome, and protector of the apostolic see, he agreed that the people should be permitted to live under their former laws, and that all things should remain as esta- blished by his predecessors. Accordingly he allowed the dukes of Friuli, Spoleto, and Benevento, the same authority which they had enjoyed under ihe Lombard kings. He also permitted the other dukes to hold the duke- doms, contenting himself with an oath of allegiance, which he obliged them, and likewise the three great dukes, to take annually. It was conceived in these words : " I promise, without fraud or deceit, to be faithful to my sove reign Chartes, and his sons, as long as I live : and I swear, by these holy Gospels, that I will be faithful to him, as a vassal to his lord and sovereign ; Deither will I divulge any thing which, in virtue of my allegiance, he shall (1) Leo Osticns. Monach. Engolism (2) Eginliard. in. Tit. Car. May. LET. IX.] MODERNEUROPE. fi| commit to me.'' He never transferred a dukedom from one family to another, unless when the duke broke his oath, or died without male issue. This trans- lation from one to another was called investiture ; and hence it came, that fiefs were not granted but by investiture, as was afterward the case with respect to other vassals and feudatories.(l) Charles committed the boundaries of his new kingdom, and the territory of cities, to the care of counts, who were vested with great authority. These boundaries were called Marchae or Marches, and those who had the care of them were styled Counts of the Marches, or Marquisses ; whence the title Marquis had its rise. He also sent occasionally missi., or commissaries, who Avere vested with higher powers, and examined into the conduct of the counts, whose province it was to administer justice over all the dominions of Charle- magne. That Italy might retain at least some shadow of liberty, he con vened, as often as he returned thither, a general assembly of all the bishops, abbots, and barons of the kingdom, in order to settle affairs of national im- portance. The Lombards had but one order in the state, composed of the barons and judges ; but the French, in the time of Charlemagne, had two, the clergy and nobility; hence was added by Charles in Italy, after the manner of France, the order of ecclesiastics to that of the barons or nobles.(2) The affairs of Italy being thus settled, Charles returned to France, and marched immediately against the Saxons, who had again revolted during his absence. But his wars with that barbarous, though brave and independent people, which lasted upwards of thirty years, and formed the principal busi- ness of his reign, could afford little pleasure to a humanized mind. J shall therefore only observe, that, after a number of battles gallantly fought, and many cruelties committed on both sides, the Saxons were totally subjected. and Germany became part of the empire of Charlemagne. A desire to con- vert the Saxons to Christianity seems to have been one of the principal motives for prosecuting this conquest ; and as they were no less tenacious ol their religion than their liberty, persecution marched in the train of war, and stained with blood the fetters of slavery. Witikind, so deservedly celebrated by his nation, was the most eminent Saxon general during these hostilities. He frequently roused the drooping valour of his countrymen, and revived in their hearts the love of liberty and independency. Nor were they wanting to him in attachment, for which they severely paid. After an unsuccessful revolt, when they went to make submission to Charlemagne, he ordered four thousand five hundred of their principal men to be massacred, because they refused to deliver up their gene- ral.(3) An equal instance of severity is not, perhaps, to be met with in the history of mankind ; especially if we consider, that the Saxons were not Charles's natural subjects, but an independent people struggling for freedom. Witikind at last submitted, and embraced Christianity, continuing ever after faithful to his engagements. But he could never inspire his associates with the same docile sentiments : they were continually revolting ; and submitting, that they might have it in their power to revolt again. On the final reduc- tion of their country, the more resolute spirits retired into Scandinavia, carry- ing along with them the vindictive hatred against the dominion and the reli- gion of France. A word here of religion. Charlemagne very justly considered the mild doctrines of Christianity as the best means of taming a savage people ; but he was mistaken in supposing that force will ever make Christians. His Capitulars for the Saxons are almost as barbarous as their manners. He obliged them, under pain of death, to receive baptism ; he condemns to the severest punishments the breakers of Lent ; in a word, he everywhere sub- stitutes force for persuasion. Instead therefore of blaming the obstinacy of these barbarians, we ought to be filled with horror at the cruel bigotry of the conqueror. Almost every year of Charles's reign was signalized by some military expe- U) Sigonius. ubi sup. (2) Ibid. (3) Eginhard. in AnnaL 62 THE HISTORY 01 [PART! dition, though very different from those of our times. War was then carried on Mithout any settled plan of operations. The troops were neither regu- larly disciplined nor paid. Every nobleman led forth his vassals, who were only obliged to serve for a certain time ; so that there Avas a kind of necessity of concluding the war with the campaign. The army was dissolved on the approach of winter, and assembled next season, if necessary. Hence we are enabled to account for the circumstance which would otherwise appear inex- plicable, in the reign of this great prince. Beside the Lombards and Saxons, whom he conquered, Charles vanquished in several engagements the Abares or Huns, plundered the capital, and penetrated as far as Raab on the Danube. He likewise made an expedition into Spain, and carried his arms to the banks of the Ebro.(l) Abdurrahman, the Moorish king, whom I have already mentioned, still reigned with lustre at Cordova. A superb mosque, now the cathedral of that city, six hundred feet in length, and two hundred and fifty in breadth, sup- ported by three hundred and sixty-five columns of alabaster, jasper, and black marble, continues to manifest the grandeur of this monarch. No other people but the Arabs could then either have conceived or executed such a work. The little Christian king of the Asturias had prudently sued for peace from Abdurrahman ; but the Moorish governors of Saragossa and Arragon having revolted, implored the assistance of Charlemagne, offering to acknow- ledge him as their sovereign. Willing to extend his empire on that side, Charles crossed the Pyrenees with all expedition, took Pampeluna and Sara- gossa, and re-established the Moorish governors under his protection. In repassing the mountains, his rear-guard was defeated by the duke of Gascony, at Roncevaux.(2) Here fell the famous Roland, so much celebrated in romance, and represented as nephew to Charlemagne ; though history only tells us that he commanded on the frontiers of Bretagne. But Charles, though engaged in so many wars, was far from neglecting the arts of peace, the happiness of his subjects, or the cultivation of his own mind. Government, manners, religion, and letters, were his constant study. He frequently convened the national assemblies, for regulating affairs both of church and state. In these assemblies he proposed such laws as he con- sidered to be of public benefit, and allowed the same liberty to others; but of this liberty, indeed, it would have been difficult to deprive the French nobles. who had been accustomed, from the foundation of the monarchy, to share the legislation with their sovereign. His attention extended even to the most distant corner of his empire, and to all ranks of men. Sensible how much mankind in general reverence old customs, and those constitutions undci which they have lived from their youth, he permitted the inhabitants of all the countries that he conquered to retain their own laws, making only such alterations as he judged absolutely necessary for the good of the community. He was particularly tender of the common people, and every where studie ! their ease and advantage. This benevolence of mind, which can never b sufficiently admired, was both more necessary and more meritorious in tbos times, as the commonalty were then in a state of almost universal oppres- sion, and scarcely thought entitled to the common sympathies of humanity. The same love of mankind led him to repair and form public roads ; to build bridges, where necessary; to make rivers navigable, for the purpose of com- merce ; and to project that grand canal, which would have opened a communi- cation between the German Ocean and the Black Sea, by uniting the Danube and the Rhine.(3) This illustrious project failed in the execution, for want of those machines which art has since constructed. But the greatness of the conception, and the honour of having attempted it, were beyond the power of contingencies : and posterity has done justice to the memory of Charles, by considering him, on account of that and his other public spirited plans, as one of those few conquerors who did not merely desolate the earth; as a hero (1) Eginhard. in Jtnnal. (2) Eginhard. ubi sup. '3) Eginhard. Kit. da M Oest. Lud. Pii. 88 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. Lewis, by the advice of his ministers, who were desirous to divert him from his monastic habits, had married a second wife, whose name was Judith, descended from one of the noblest families in Bavaria, and distinguished both by her mental and personal qualities. That princess brought him a son, afterward known by the name of Charles the Bald, whose birth was the occasion of much joy, but proved eventually the cause of many sorrows. For this son there was no inheritance, the imperial dominions being already divided among the children of the first marriage. The empress, who had gained a great ascendancy over her husband, therefore, pressed Lewis to place her son Charles on a footing with his other children, by a new division of the empire. (1) Aquitaine and Bavaria were small kingdoms, from them nothing could be expected; but Lothario's share was large, and might spare a little. Sensible of the wishes of his indulgent father, and prevailed on by the entreaties of his fond mother, Lothario consented that some provision should accordingly be made for his brother Charles. But he soon repented of his too easy concession, and the three brothers joined in a rebellion against their father ;(2) the most singular circumstance, perhaps, to be met with in history. These disorders we refostered by Walla, abbot of Corbie, a monk of high birth, who had formally been in the confidence of Lewis, but was now in disgrace. He declaimed against the court, and against the empress in parti- cular, accusing her of an adulterous commerce with count Bernard, the prime minister. His schemes succeeded. The emperor was abandoned by his army, and made prisoner, along with his wife Judith, and her son Charles. The empress was shut up in a cloister, and Lewis himself would have been obliged to take the monastic habit, had it not been supposed that he would make a voluntary resignation of his crown. He had the courage, however, to insist on the rectitude of his intentions, while he acknowledged his errors, and promised to act with more circumspection in future. The nobility pitied their humbled sovereign ; and by the intrigues of the monk Gombaud, who sowed dissensions among the brothers, Lewis was restored to his dignity, and seemingly reconciled with his family. (3) The first use that the emperor made of his liberty was to recall his consort to court, though not without the permission of the pope, as she had formally taken the veil. Bernard was also recalled, and Walla banished ; yet Lewis did not long enjoy either peace or tranquillity. The monk Gombaud thought he had a right to be prime minister, as the reward of his services : and a? women generally repay flattery with favour, they as generally reserve ven- geance for insult; the empress brought her animosities along with her. Walla's friends were persecuted, and Lothario was deprived of the title oi emperor, that the succession might be reserved for young Charles. The three brothers again associated themselves in a league against their father.(4) Count Bernard, dissatisfied with his master's conduct, joined the rebels ; and Gregory IV. then pope, went to France in the army of Lothario, under pre- tence of accommodating matters, but really with an intention to employ against the emperor that power which he derived from him, glad of an oppor- tunity to assert the supremacy and independency of the Holy See. The presence of the pope, in those days of superstition, was of itself suffi- cient to determine the fate of Lewis. After a deceitful negotiation, and an interview with Gregory on the part of Lothario, the unfortunate emperor found himself abandoned by his army, and at the mercy of his rebellious sons. He was deposed in a tumultuous assembly held on the spot, and Lothario proclaimed in his stead.(5) After that infamous transaction the pope returned to Rome. In order to give permanency to this revolution, as well as to apologise for their own conduct, the bishops of Lothario's faction bethought themselves of an artifice, like that which had been made use of to degrade king Wamba in Spain. " A penitent," said they, " is incapable of ah 1 civil offices ; a royal (]) Vit. Lud. Pii. (2) Nithard. ubi. sup. (3) Theogan. de Gegt. Lud. Pit (4) Nithard. de Distent. Filior. Lvd Pti. (5) Theogan. de Gesl. Lud. Pii. LET. X.] MODERN EUROPE. 69 penitent must then be incapable of reigning ; let us subject Lewis to a per- petual penance, and he can never ascend the throne." He was accordingly arraigned in the assembly of the states, by Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims (who had been raised by his bounty from the condition of a slave), and condemned to do penance for life.(l) Lewis was then a prisoner in the monastery of St. Medard, at Soissons ; and, being much intimidated, he patiently submitted to a ceremony no less solemn than debasing. He prostrated himself on a hair-cloth, which was spread before the altar, and owned himself guilty of the charge brought against him, in the presence of many bishops, canons, and monks ; Lothario being also present, in order to enjoy the sight of his father's humiliation But this acknowledgment was not enough ; they gave him a written confession to read aloud, in which he is made to accuse himself of sacrilege and murder, and to number among his crimes the marching of troops in Lent, calling an assembly on Holy Thursday, and taking arms to defend himself against his rebellious children! for superstition can transform into crimes the most innocent and even the most necessary actions. After having finished his confession, this unhappy prince, by order of the ungrateful archbishop, laid aside his sword and belt, divested himself of the royal robes, put on the penitential sackcloth, and had a cell assigned him.(2) But the feelings of nature, and the voice of humanity, prevailed over the prejudices of the age, and the policy of the clergy. Lothario was univer- sally abhorred, and his father no less generally pitied : his two brothers united against him in behalf of that father whom they had contributed to humble. The nobility returned to their obedience : they paid homage to Lewis as their lawful sovereign ; and the ambitious Lothario was obliged to crave mercy, in the sight of the whole army, at the feet of a father, and an emperor, whom he had lately insulted in the habit of a penitent. (3) He received it, and was permitted to retain the kingdom of Italy. Lewis immediately demanded absolution, (such was his weakness !) and an assembly held at Thionville formally restored him to his dignity, declaring void every thing that had been done at Soissons. He might now have ended his days in peace, but for the intrigues of the empress Judith, who, still ambitious of the aggrandizement of her son Charles, again entered into a negotiation with Lothario, in consequence of the death of his brother Pepin. An assembly was held at Worms, to which he was invited. His father received him kindly, the empress loaded him with caresses. The kingdom of Neustria had been lately added to the dominions originally assigned her son ; and the object of all these intrigues was, to engage Lothario in a scheme by which Charles should also become possessed of the kingdom of Aquitaine, at the expense of Pepin's children. Lothario assented to what he was not in a con- dition to dispute. But Lewis, king of Bavaria, though not injured by this new division of the empire, was so much incensed at this injustice, as he pretended, that he assembled the whole force of his dominions. His father marched against him, but was suddenly taken ill ; and an eclipse of the sun happening at the same time, the superstitious old man had the vanity to think that Heaven had taken the trouble to foretell to mankind the death of a prince whose very virtues dishonoured the throne, and who should never have stirred beyond the walls of a cloister. He therefore repeatedly received the communion, and scarce any other nourishment, till his piety fulfilled the prediction which his folly had suggested. (4) Lewis died near Mentz, in the seventy-second year of his age, and the twenty-eighth of his reign. He left a crown, a sceptre, and a very rich sword, to Lothario, by which it was supposed he also left him the empire, on condition that he should fulfil his engagement to the empress and her son Charles. His brother, the bishop of Mentz, observing that he had left nothing to his son Lewis, then in arms against him, reminded him that forgiveness at least was his duty. " Yes, I forgive him !" cried the dying monarch with (1) Theogan. de Oest. Lud. Pii. (2) Jet. Ezavet. Lud. PH. ^'3) N'thard. de Z>is. Lud. Pii. (4) Fit. Lud. Pii. Annul. Bertiniani. Tbeogan. de Gest. Lud. Pii 70 THE HISTORY OF [PART I much emotion ; but tell him from me, to seek forgiveness also of God, for bringing my gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. (1) A bad son, my dear Philip, is not likely to make a good brother ; for the natural feelings in the second relation are necessarily weaker than in the first : you must therefore expect to see the sons of Lewis the Debonnaire armed against each other. No sooner was Lothario informed of his father's death, than he considered himself as emperor in the most extensive sense of the word, and resolved to make himself master of the whole imperial dominions, regardless of his engagements with Judith and her son Charles the Bald, or the right of his brother Lewis to the kingdom of Bavaria. And he seemed likely to obtain the object of his ambition. He was a prince of great subtlety and address, could wear the complexion of the times, and was possessed of an extensive territory, beside the title of emperor, which was still much respected : he therefore assured himself of success against his brothers ; Charles being only a youth of seventeen, under the tuition of his mother, and Lewis a prince of no high reputation. He was deceived,, however, in his conjectures. These two princes, united by a sense oi common interest, gave him a battle at Fontenai, in Burgundy, where fraternal hatred appeared in all its horrors. Few engagements have been so bloody. A hundred thousand men are said to have fallen on the spot. ' Lothario and his nephew Pepin (who had joined him to assert his right to the crown of Aquitaine,) were totally defeated. (2) Pepin fled to Aquitaine, and Lothario towards Italy, abandoning France to the victorious army. Nothing now remained for Lewis and Charles but to secure their con- quests. For this purpose they applied to the clergy; and with hopes so much the better founded, that Lothario, in order to raise troops with more expedition, had promised the Saxons the liberty of renouncing Christianity, or, in other words, liberty of conscience a thing held in abhorrence by the church of Rome. Several bishops assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle ; and, after examining the misconduct of the emperor, asked the two princes, whether they chose to follow his example, or govern according to the laws of God ? Their answer may be easily imagined. " Receive then the kingdom by the divine authority," added the prelates : " we exhort you, we command you to receive it."(3) This command would have taken effect in its most extensive meaning, if Lothario had respected it as much as his brothers. But that artful prince, by means of his indulgence to the Saxons, and other political expedients, was enabled to set on foot a new army. He became again formidable. The two victorious princes, therefore, thought it advisable to negotiate with him. By a new treaty of division, he was left in possession of the kingdom of Italy, with the imperial dignity, and the countries situated between the Rhone and the Alps, the Meuse and the Rhine. Charles retained Neustria and Aqui- taine ; and Lewis, afterward styled the German, had all the provinces on the other side of the Rhine, and some cities on this side of it. (4) The extinction of the civil war made but one evil less in the empire of Charlemagne, ravaged in different parts by the Normans, and by the Sara- cens, who pillaged Italy. The turbulent independency of the nobles, accus- tomed during the last reign to despise the prince and the laws, the discon- tents of the clergy, and the ambitious projects of both, were the source of new troubles. Every thing threatened the most fatal revolutions, every thing tended to anarchy. In order to lessen these evils, the three brothers entered into an associa- tion, the effect of weakness more than affection, by which the enemies of one were to be considered as the enemies of all, (so low was the empire of the great Charles !) and in an assembly held at Mersen on the Meuse, they settled certain constitutions relative to the succession, and other public mat- ters. By these it was established, that the children of the reigning prince, whether of age or under age, should succeed to his dominions, and owe fl) Vit. Lud. Pii. (2) Nitliard. de Dissent. Laid. Pii. '31 Nitliard. ft Ditsent. Lud Pii. Annul. JKelcns, (4) NUhard. uhi sup. LET. X.} MODERN EUROPE. 71 nothing 1 to the other princes of the monarchy but the respect due to the ties of blood ;(1) a regulation well calculated to prevent civil wars, though it proved" ineffectual in those disorderly times. But other constitutions of the assembly at Mersen tended to enfeeble the royal authority, which had already but too much need of support. They provide, that the crown vassals shall no longer be obliged to follow the king, unless in general wars, occasioned by foreign invasions ; and that every free man shall be at liberty to choose, whether he will be the vassal of the king or of a subject.(2) The first of these regulations increased the independency of the crown vassals, and the second their power,, by augmenting the number of their retainers ; for many persons chose rather to depend upon some neighbouring nobleman, whose immediate protection they might claim (at a time when protection was neces- sary, independent of the laws), than on the sovereign, whose attention they had less reason to expect, and whose aid was more distant or doubtful. Lothario, some years after, took the habit of a monk, that, according to the language of those times, he might atone for his crimes ; and, though he had lived a tyrant, die a saint. In this pious disguise he expired before he had worn it quite a week. He had divided his dominions among his children ; and, by virtue of the treaty of Mersen, they quietly succeeded to their allot- ments. Lewis had Italy with the title of emperor ; Lothario the provinces between the Rhone, the Somme, the Meuse, the Escaut, and the Rhine, called from his own name the kingdom of Lotharingia, and by corruption Lorrain. Charles had Provence, Dauphine, and part of Burgundy. He took the title of king of Provence. One might have imagined there were now kings enough in this monarchy ; yet Charles the Bald declared his infant son king of Aquitaine.(3) Thus was the empire of Charlemagne, split by continual subdivisions, the source of perpetual wars, till it became, to use the language of Shakspeare, only "a stage to feed contention on." Foreign invasions conspired with civil dissensions to spread terror and disorder in every quarter ; but more especially through the dominions of Charles the Bald a prince as weak as his father, and restless as his mother. The Normans carried fire and sword into the heart of his kingdom, to Rouen, and even to the gates of Paris. Young Pepin, son of the last king of Aquitaine, joined the invaders, and ravaged that country over which he had been born to reign. Nomenoe, duke of Bretagne, usurped the title of king, which Charles was obliged to confirm to his son Herispee, by whom he had been totally defeated. The spirit of revolt became every day more general. Some factious nobles invited Lewis the German to usurp his brother's kingdom. He came at the head of a powerful army, and received the homage of the principal nobility. Venilon, archbishop of Sens, and other prelates of Lewis's party, at the same time declared that Charles had forfeited his dignity -ty mal-administration, and crowned his brother the German. (4) Charles, however, recovered his kingdom as quickly as he had lost it. The prelates of his party excommunicated those who had dethroned him ; which brought the rebels into contempt, and even abhorrence. Lewis sent back his army into Germany, that he might not give umbrage to the French, and he was afterward obliged to take the same route himself. (5) Charles no sooner appeared than he was universally acknowledged ; his restoration did not cost a single blow. The most terrible anathemas were now denounced against Lewis the German by the French clergy, unless he submitted to the rigours of the church, among which were included penance ; and he was weak enough to reply, that he must first consult the bishops of his own kingdom.(6) The weakness of Charles the Bald was still more extraordinary. Having assembled a council to judge the traitor Venilon, he presented a memorial against him, in which is the following singular passage : " I ought not to have been deposed, or at least not before I had been judged by the bishops, (1) Annul. Bertiniani. (2) Ibid. (3) Annul Fuldena it) Jinnal. Bertiniani. Condi. Oal. torn. ii. (5) Jlnnal. Berlin. ' (6) Ibid. 72 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 who gave me the royal authority! I have always submitted to their correction, and am ready now to submit to it ! Venilon escaped punishment by making his peace with the prince : and the bishops of the council bound themselves by a canon to remain united, "for the correction of kings, the nobility, and the people .'"(1) A variety of circumstances show, that the clergy now aspired at the right of disposing of crowns, which they founded on the custom of anointing kings. They employed fictions and sophisms to render themselves inde- pendent : they refused the oath of fealty, " because sacred hands could not, without abomination, submit to hands impure !"(2) One usurpation led to another; abuse constituted right a quibble appeared a divine law. Ignorance sanctified every thing and we may safely conclude from the abject language of Charles, in publicly acknowledging the right of the bishops to depose him, and other examples of a like nature, that the usurpations of the clergy were in a great measure occasioned by the slavish superstition of the laity, equally blind, wicked, and devout. The zeal of the bishops to establish their independency was favourable to the projects of the court of Rome. Sergius II. the successor of Gregory IV. had taken possession of the Apostolic See, in 844, without the approbation of Lothario, then emperor. Incensed at such an insult, Lothario sent his son Lewis to Rome with troops and prelates. The pope having conducted the prince to St. Peter's gate, said to him, " I permit you to enter, if your intentions are good ; if not, I will not suffer you to enter !" and the French soldiers being guilty of some irregularities, he actually ordered the gates to be shut. Lothario complained ; Sergius was cited to appear before a council ; he appeared, and justified himself in the eye of the priesthood. (3) Leo IV. celebrated for the courage with which he defended Rome against the Saracens, and Benedict III. elected in spite of the emperor, both lived in peace with royalty; but Nicholas I. more bold than any of his predecessors, made himself the judge of kings and bishops, and realized the chimera of lying decretals. A grand occasion offered in France for Nicholas to exercise that authority which he attributed to himself. Lothario, king of Lorrain, divorced his wife Teutberge, falsely accused of incest. She was cleared by the trial of boiling water, but afterward convicted by her own confession if an involuntary acknowledgment, the effect of violence and fear, can be called conviction. A council held at Aix-la-Chapelle authorized Lothario to espouse Waldrade, a young lady whom he had seduced. The guilty parties were equally desirous of this marriage ; a criminal amour had drawn them to the brink of dis- honour. The scandal was horrible ! Nicholas laid hold of the affair, and attempted to force the king to take back his first wife. For this purpose he ordered the bishops to hold a council at Metz, along with his legates, and there to cite and judge Lothario. They confirmed the divorce, contrary to the expectations of the pontiff; a decree which so much enraged him, that he deposed the bishops of Treves and Cologne, who had been appointed to present to him the acts of the council. These bishops complained to the emperor Lewis II. He went immediately to Rome, displayed his authority, and seemed determined to repress the papal power. But he fell ill : a super- stitious fear seized him ; and retired, after having approved the conduct of Nicholas, who became still more imperious. Lothario humbled himself in vain before the haughty pontiff; though he went so far as to offer to come and justify himself in person. The pope insisted, that Waldrade should first be dismissed ; and a legate threatened the king with immediate excommuni- cation, if he continued in disobedience. Lothario, intimidated, now sub- mitted : he recalled Teutberge, and even consented that the legate should lead Waldrade in triumph to Rome. She set out on that mortifying journey, but escaped by the way : and, in a short time, resumed her place both as (1) Conctt. Galat. torn. ii. Fleury, Hist. Eeclet. (2) Hist, de VEglise G'llir '3) Coneil. Gal. torn. ii. Fleury, Hitt. Eeclet. LEU. X.] MODERNEUROPE. 73 tress and queen. Meanwhile the unfortunate Teutberge, sinking beneath the weight of persecution and neglect, at last desired to be separated from Lothario, protesting that her marriage was void, and that Waldrade's was legitimate. But nothing could move the inflexible Nicholas : he continued obstinate. (1) We may consider this pope as the forerunner of Gregory VII., and, in the same circumstances, he would likely have carried his ambition to the same height. The bishops of Treves and Cologne accused him, in an invectivp, of making himself emperor of the whole world ; and that expression, though somewhat strained, was not altogether without foundation. He asserted his dominion over the French clergy, by re-establishing Rothade of Soissons, deposed by a provincial council; and he received appeals from all ecclesiastics dissatisfied with their bishops. By these means he accustomed the people to acknowledge a supreme tribunal at a distance from their own country, and consequently a foreign sway. He gave orders for the succession to the king- dom of Provence, which Charles the Bald disputed with the emperor Lewis, brother to the deceased king. " Let nobody hinder the emperor," says he, in a letter on that subject, "to govern the kingdoms which he holds in virtue of a succession confirmed by the Holy See, and by the crown which the sove- reign pontiff has set upon his head."(2) Nicholas died in 867 ; but his principles had taken such deep root, that Adrian II., his successor, though more moderate, and desirous of peace, thought his condescension great in permitting Lothario to come to Rome, in order to justify himself, or do penance. Charles the Bald and Lewis the German waited with impatience for the excommunication of their nephew, persuaded that they should then have a right to seize his dominions. Thus the blind ambition of princes favoured the exercise of a power, which they ought to have foreseen might be turned against themselves ; Avhich afterward became the scourge of royalty and made every crowned head tremble. Lothario, while at Rome, employed all possible means to soften the pope ; he received the communion from his hand, after having sworn he never had any criminal commerce with Waldrade, since the prohibition of Nicholas, nor ever would have any in future. (3) He died at Placentia, in his way home. This accident was considered as a just vengeance ; as a mark of the divine displeasure against perjury, and rendered the proof by the eucharist still more important. The emperor Lewis II. brother of Lothario, ought legally to have succeeded to his dominions ; but he being at that time employed in expelling the Sara- cens, who had plundered Italy, and consequently not in a condition to assert h^ right by arms, Charles the Bald laid hold of the succession, and retained it, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the pope. " The arms which God has put into our hand," wrote Adrian, " are prepared for his defence !"(4) Charles was more afraid of the arms of his brother the German, with whom he found it necessary to share the kingdom, though the nobility and clergy of Lorrain had voluntarily submitted to him. The pope still continued his remonstrances in favour of the emperor, hoping at least to obtain something for him ; but they were disregarded by the French monarch, who had now thrown off much of his piety, and answered in a spirited manner by the famous Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. This bold and independent prelate desired the pope to call to mind that respect and submission which the ancient pontiffs had always paid to princes : he bid him know that his dignity gave him no right over the government of kingdoms; that he could not be at the same time pope and king; that the choice of sovereigns belongs to the people ; that anathemas ill applied have no effect upon the soul ; and that free men are not to be enslaved by a bishop of Rome. (5) Adrian affected to despise these arguments, and continued for some time (1) Hincmar de Divert. Lothar. et Tlieutterg. (2) Epist. Jficol. Pap. (3) Adon. Chron. Lotharii. Reg. Geit. Rom. (4) Epist. Adrian. (5) Fleury, Hist. Eccla 4 74 THE HISTORY OF [PART I his menaces, both against Hincmar and the king; but, finding them ineffec- tual, he changed his tone and wrote several flattering letters to Charles, pro- mising him the empire on the death of his nephew, then in a languishing condition. This project in favour of the French monarch was executed under John VIII., Adrian's successor. The emperor Lewis II. died without male heirs. Lewis the German claimed the ^succession, and the imperial dignity, as the elder brother of Charles ; but the pope preferred the claim of Charles for political reasons, which, with the court of Rome, never fail to taTte place of equity. Lewis seemed fast approaching to his end, and had three sons among whom his dominions must be divided. Charles was a younger man, and had only one son ; he therefore appeared the most proper person to choose as a protector. He crossed the Alps at the head of his army, and accordingly received the imperial crown as a present from the pope ; but much in the same manner that many presents of the like kind are obtained in our days, by paying roundly for it. In an assembly at Pavia, the bishops, abbots, and Italian nobles recognised him in the following words : " Since the divine favour, through the merits of the holy apostles, and of their vicar pope John, has raised you to the empire, according to the judgment of the Holy Ghost, we elect you unanimously for our protector and lord."(l) On the death of Lewis the German, a prince of considerable abilities both as a warrior and politician. Charles the Bald, always ambitious and imprudent, attempted to seize that part of Lorrain which he had granted to his brother, and was deservedly defeated.(2) His three nephews, Carloman, Lewis, and Charles preserved their possessions by maintaining a strict union among themselves. The first had Bavaria, the second Saxony, and the third Suabia. About this- time the Saracens renewed the ravages in Italy. They took and plundered Comachio. Pope John had recourse to the emperor; and desired him " to remember the hand that had given him the empire ; lest," added he, " if driven to despair, we should change our opinion !" Tha menace, sufficiently intelligible, had its effect. Though France Avas then overrun by the Normans, whom Charles was unable to resist, he undertook to expel the Saracens ; and he was scarce arrived in Italy, when he received intelligence of a new enemy. Carloman, his nephew, had advanced against him, with an intention to seize the imperial crown and the kingdom of Italy, in virtue of his father's will, and the right of primogeniture. Charles, be- trayed by his nobles, retired with precipitation ; fell ill, and died in a misera- ble cottage, at a village called Brios, in the fifty-fourth year of his age. (3) A capitular in the last year of Charles's reign permits the nobility to trans- mit their employments to their sons, or other male heirs. (4) This privilege, extorted from the crown, as I have already observed,(5) was one of the principal sources of disorder in the feudal government, and tended, as we shall have occasion to see, to the abolition of all political subjection. In the mean time, I must speak of a people, who deserve your attention, no less on account of their manners than their warlike achievements. LETTER XI. The Normans or Danes before their Settlement in France and England. THE bravest and most liberal-minded of the Saxons, my dear Philip, on the final reduction of their country by Charlemagne, having fled from the domi- nion and persecutions of the conqueror into the ancient Scandinavia, or that part of the northern peninsula of Europe which comprehends the present kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, carried with them (as already observed) (6) their vengeance and violent aversion against Christianity (1) Fieury, Hi ft. />///< (2) rfnn.il. f'uldens. (3) Sigon de Reg. Hal. 9n\,d. Berliiiiani. r 4) Cantt. Caroli. Culvi. W Letter II. '61 Letter IX. LET. XI.] MODERN EUR OPE. 75 There meeting with men of dispositions similar to their own, and the same religion with themselves, they were cordially received, and soon stimulated the natives to deeds of arms ; to enterprises which at once promised revenge to the fugitives, and subsistence to the inhabitants of countries then over- stocked with people. In their various incursions on the continent, these ferocious adventurers were known by the general name of Normans, from their northern situation; and in their attacks upon Britain, by the common appellation of Danes, to whatever country they might belong. They became the terror of all the maritime parts of Europe : but before I speak of their depredations, I must say a few words of their religion and manners. The manners of a people, and their popular superstition, depend mutually on each other. Religion takes its complexion originally from the manners : men form a deity according to their own ideas, their prejudices, their pas- sions ; and the manners are, in a great measure, continued or altered by the established religion of any country, especially if calculated to affect the imagination. The religion of the ancient Scandinavians was highly so, and was preserved entire among the Normans, who also retained their unadulte- rated manners. They were worthy of each other : equally bloody and barba- rous, but formed to inspire the most enthusiastic courage, and the most unre- mitted perseverance in toil. Odin, whom the Saxons called Woden, was their supreme divinity. They painted him as the God of terror the Author of devastation the Father of carnage ! and they worshipped him accord- ingly. They sacrificed to him, when successful, some of the captives taken in war : and they believed those heroes would stand highest in his favour who had killed most enemies in the field ; that, after death, the brave would be admitted into his palace, and there have the happiness of drinking beer (the favourite liquor of the northern nations) out of the skulls of their slaughtered foes.(l) In consequence of this belief, fatigues, wounds, combats and perils, were the exercise of infancy, and the sport of youth. They were forbid to pro- nounce the word fear, even on the most trying occasions. Education, preju- dice, manners, example, habit, all contributed to subdue in them the sensation of timidity ; to make them covet danger, and seem greedy of death. (2) Military discipline was only wanting to have enabled them to enslave -the whole Christian world, then sinking under the weight of a debasing super- stition, and cringing beneath the rod of priestly tyranny. Though Charlemagne, as I have had occasion to notice, took many wise precautions against the Normans, he was not able wholly to prevent their irruptions, and was only freed by the death of their leader from a dangerous competition. Under Lewis the Debonnaire, they threw all France into alarm ; and under Charles the Bald, they committed frightful devastations. Their fleets, which were composed of light barks, braved the storms of the ocean, and penetrated every creek and river; so that they landed sometimes on the coasts, and sometimes in the interior parts of the kingdom. As the government took no effectual measures for repelling them, the unprotected people knew nothing but fear. Fire and sword, on all hands, marked the route of the ravagers. With their booty they carried off women, to whom they were much addicted, and boys to recruit their predatory bands. They were no sooner gone than they again returned. They pillaged Rouen twice ; they surprised and burnt Paris ; they laid waste Aquitaine and other provinces, and reduced the French monarch to the greatest distress. (3) Shut up at St. Denis, while his capital was in flames, Charles the Bald was no less anxious about saving his people than the relicks. Instead of en- (1) See the Kdda, or System of Runic Mythology. In that state of festivity, the departed warriors were supposed to be served at table by beautiful virgins called Valker, who ministered to other pleasures beside those of the feast. (Kdda Mytkol. xxxi.) And war and arms, the delight of the Scandinavians in this life, were believed to be their amusement in another world. Edda Mythol. xxxy. (2) " The battle is as pleasing to me," says Lodbrog (who was a king and a warrior as well as a poet), " as the bed of a virgin in the glow of her charms, or the kiss of a young widow in her most secret QDartmeiU." Epiced. Stroph. xb (31 Ver. Chron. Hist. Jforn. 76 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. countering the enemy, he bought a peace, or, in other words, he furnished the Normans with the means, while he inspired them with the motive of a new war. They returned accordingly; and Charles, to complete his dis- grace, published, when going to assist the pope, in the last year of his reign, a capitular to regulate the contributions to be paid to the Normans.(l) England had also experienced a variety of calamities from the incursions of these plunderers, when it found a protector in the great Alfred. But before I exhibit the exploits, or consider the institutions of that illustrious prince, we must take a view of the reigns of his predecessors from the end of the Saxon Heptarchy. LETTER XII. England, from the End of the Saxon Heptarchy, to the Death of Alfred the Great. EGBERT, the first sole monarch of England, Avas a prince of eminent abilities and great experience. He had enjoyed a considerable command in the armies of Charlemagne, by whom he was much respected, and had acted successfully against the Normans, and other enemies of the empire. After his return to Britain he was engaged in a variety of struggles before he obtained the supreme dominion ; but having surmounted those difficulties, he found himself without a rival. Being the only remaining descendant of Hengist and Horsa, the first Saxon leaders who landed in this island, and who were supposed to be sprung from Woden, the chief divinity of the ancient Saxons, the people readily transferred their allegiance to a prince who appeared to merit it equally by his birth and talents ; so that Egbert was no sooner seated on the throne of England, than the seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy were strongly cemented into one monarchy. A union of government seemed to promise internal tranquillity ; and the Saxons, from their insular situation, and their power, had little reason to be afraid of foreign enemies. The Britons were humbled ; and the Scots and Picts, wa.sted by continual wars with each other, being in no condition to molest Egbert, he flattered himself with peace and security. But human foresight is very limited : a fleet of those northern adventurers, whom we have already seen ravaging France, under the name of Normans, soon gave the English monarch reason to alter his opinion. They first landed in the isle of Sheppey, pillaged it, and carried off their booty with impunity. They returned next year in thirty-five ships. Egbert gave them battle at Charmouth in Dorset- shire, where they were worsted, after an obstinate dispute, but made good their retreat to their ships. Now sensible what an enemy they had to deal with, they entered into an alliance with the Britons of Cornwall ; and, landing in that country, their confederates and they made an irruption into the county of Devon. They were met by Egbert at Hengesdown, and totally defeated. (2) But while England was threatened with new alarms from the same quarter, this warlike monarch, who alone was able to oppose the invaders, unfortu- nately died, and left the kingdom to his son Ethelwolf, a prince better fitted to wear the cowl than the crown. Ethelwolf began his reign with dividing his dominions, according to the absurd custom of those times ; delivering over to his eldest son Athelstan the counties of Essex, Kent, and Sussex. But no inconveniences seem to have arisen from this partition, the terror of the Danish invaders preventing all domestic dissensions. Time proved that this terror was but too just. The Danes returned with redoubled fury ; and, though often repulsed, and sometimes defeated, they always obtained their end, by committing plunder, and carrying off their booty. They avoided coming to a general engage- ment, which was not suited to their plan of operations. Their vessels being (1) Capit. Caroli CaM. (2) Citron. Saz. LET. XII.] MODERN EUROPE. 77 small, ran easily up the creeks and rivers : they drew them ashore, and formed an entrenchment around them, leaving them under a guard. They scattered themselves over the face of the country in small parties, making spoil of every thing that came in their way goods, cattle, and women. If opposed by a superior force, they betook themselves to their vessels, set sail, and invaded some distant quarter, not prepared for their reception. All England was kept in continual alarm : nor durst the inhabitants of one part go to the assistance of another, lest their own families and possessions should be exposed to the fury of the ravagers.(l) Every season of the year was alike : no man could compute on a moment's safety. Encouraged by their past successes, the Danes at length landed in so large a body, as seemed to threaten the whole island with subjection. But the Anglo-Saxons, though labouring under the weight of superstition, were still a gallant people : they roused themselves with a vigour proportioned to the necessity, and defeated their invaders in several engagements. (2) The Danes, however, ventured, for the first time, to take up their winter quarters in England ; and receiving in the spring a strong reinforcement, by three hundred and fifty vessels, they advanced from the isle of Thanet, where they had stationed themselves, and burnt the cities of London and Canterbury. They were again defeated in several engagements ; yet they still maintained their settlement in the isle of Thanet, and spent next winter in the isle of Sheppey. The harassed state of his kingdom did not hinder Ethelwolf from making a pilgrimage to Rome. Thither he carried Alfred, his fourth and favourite son, then only six years of age. In his return, after a twelvemonth spent in devotions and benefactions to the see of Rome, Ethelwolf married Judith, daughter of the emperor Charles the Bald; and soon after his arrival in England, he conferred a perpetual and very important donation on the church, by granting to the clergy a tenth out of all the produce of land. This enormous tax upon industry had been long claimed by the servants of the altar as a perpetual property belonging to the priesthood a jargon founded on the practice of the Jews. Charlemagne had ordered the tithe to be paid in consideration of the church-lands seized by the laity ; but, in England, no such invasion had been made. The church enjoyed many lands, and was enriched by the continual oblations of the people : the English clergy, therefore, had not hitherto been able to obtain their demand. But a favourable opportunity now offered, and religion furnished the motive ; a weak and superstitious prince, and an ignorant people dejected by their losses, and in terror of future invasions, greedily laid hold of any means, however costly, of bribing the protection of Heaven.(3) During the absence of Ethelwolf, his eldest son Athelstan died ; and Ethelbald, the second son, had formed the project of excluding his father from the throne. This unnatural attempt gave the pious monarch little concern. He complied with most of his son's demands, and the kingdom was divided between them. Ethelwolf lived only two years after his return to England, which he left by his will to be shared between his two eldest sons, Ethelbald and Ethelbert. Ethelbald was a profligate prince, but his reign was happily short ; and Ethelbert succeeding to the government of the whole kingdom, conducted himself, during a reign of five years, in a manner more suitable to his rank. England was still infested by the depredations of the Danes, who, in this reign, sacked Winchester, but were there defeated. Ethelbert was succeeded by his brother Ethelred, whose whole reign was one continued struggle with the Danes. He defended his kingdom with much bravery, and was gallantly seconded in all his efforts by his younger brother Alfred, who, though excluded from a large inheritance left him by his father, generously sacrificed his resentment to the public good. Ethelred died in the midst of these troubles, and left his disordered kingdom to his brother Alfred. (1) Alured Beverl. (2) Oiron. Sax (3) Selden, Hist. Tyth. cap/.viii 78 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. Alfred was now twenty years of age, and a prince of very promising talents. He had no sooner buried his brother, than he was obliged to take the field against the Danes. They had seized Wilton, and were ravaging the neighbouring country. He gave them battle, and at first gained some advantages over them ; but, pursuing his victory too far, he was worsted by means of the enemy's numbers. The loss of the Danes, however, was so considerable, that, fearing Alfred might suddenly receive reinforcements from his subjects, they stipulated for a safe retreat, under a promise to depart the kingdom. But they were no sooner freed from danger, than they renewed their ravages. A new swarm of Danes landed under three principal leaders ; and Alfred, in one year, fought eight battles with these faithless and inhuman invaders, and reduced them to the greatest extremity. But this generous prince again condescending to treat with them, was again deceived. While he was expecting the execution of the agreement, a third swarm landed from the northern hive, and reduced the Saxons to despair. They believed themselves abandoned by Heaven, and devoted to destruc- tion; since, after all their vigorous efforts, fresh invaders still poured in upon them, as greedy of spoil and slaughter as the former. Some left their country, others submitted to the conquerors, but none would listen to the exhortations of Alfred, who, still undismayed, begged them to make one exertion more in defence of their possessions, their liberties, and their prince. (1) Thus abandoned by his subjects, this illustrious monarch was obliged to lay aside the ensigns of his dignity, and assume the habit of a peasant. In that mean disguise he eluded the pursuit and the fury of his enemies ; and, in order to save his country, he even condescended to live for some time as servant to a grazier. But the human mind is as little suited to employments beneath, as above its capacity: the great Alfred made a bad cow-herd. His guardian genius was occupied about higher cares ; and, as soon as he found the search of his enemies become more remiss, he collected some of his adherents, and retired to the middle of a morass, formed by the stagnating waters of the Thone and Parret ; where finding some firm ground, he built and fortified a castle, no less secure by its own strength, than by its remote and inaccessible situation. This place is called JEthelingey, or the Isle ol Nobles. It now bears the name of Athelney. Here, during a twelvemonth, Alfred lay concealed, but not inactive : he made frequent and unexpected sallies upon the Danes, who often felt the vigour of his arm, but knew not whence the blow came, or by whom it was directed. At length a prosperous event emboldened the royal fugitive to leave his retreat, and enter on a scene of action more worthy of himself. Oddune, earl of Devonshire, being besieged in his castle by Hubba, a cele- brated Danish general, made an unexpected sally upon the enemy, put them to rout, and pursued them with great slaughter; killed Hubba himself, and got possession of the famous Reafen, or Raven, an enchanted standard, in which the Danes put great confidence. (2) The news of this victory was immediately carried by the faithful earl to Alfred, who was happy to find the seeds of valour beginning to revive among his subjects ; but, before he would assemble them in arms, he resolved to inspect the situation of the enemy, and judge of the probability of success, as an unfortunate attempt in the present state of national despondency, must have terminated in final ruin. In consequence of this resolution, he entered the Danish camp under the dis- guise of a harper, and passed unsuspected through every quarter. He observed the supine security of the ravagers, their contempt of the English, and their neglect of all military regulations. Encouraged by these propitious appearances, he sent secret intelligence to his most powerful subjects, and summoned them to assemble, along with their retainers, on the borders of Selwood forest.(3) The English who, instead of ending their calamities by submission, as they fondly hoped, had found the insolence and rapine of the CAron Sax Alured Beverl. "> Citron. Sax. Abbas Rieval. (3) Gul. Malmes. lib. i\ LET. XII.] MODERN EUROPE. 79 conquerors more intolerable than the dangers and fatigues of war, joyluily resorted to the place of rendezvous. They saluted their beloved monarch with bursts of applause ; they could not satiate their eyes with the sight oi a prince whom they had believed dead, and who now appeared as their de- liverer; they begged to be led to liberty and vengeance. Alfred did not suffer their ardour to cool : he conducted them instantly to Eddington, where the Danes lay encamped ; and taking advantage of his previous knowledge of the enemy's situation, he directed his attack against their most unguarded quarter. Surprised to see an army of Englishmen, whom they considered as totally subdued, and still more to find Alfred at their head, the Danes made but a feeble resistance, notwithstanding their superior numbers. (1) They were soon put to flight, and routed with great slaughter. Alfred, no less generous than brave, and who knew as well how to govern as to conquer, took the remainder of the Danish army, and their prince Guth- rum, under his protection. He granted them their lives on submission, and liberty to settle in the kingdoms of Northumberland and East Anglia, (which were entirely desolated by the frequent inroads of their countrymen) on con- dition that they should embrace Christianity. .They consented, and were baptized. The king stood godfather for Guthrum.(2) This mode of population fully answered Alfred's expectations. The greater part of the Danes settled peaceably in their new possessions ; and the more turbulent made an expedition into France, under their famous leader Hastings, who afterward invaded England, but was expelled by the valour and vigilance of Alfred.(3) In the mean time this great prince was employed in establishing civil and military institutions ; in composing the minds of men to industry and justice, and in providing against the return of like calamities. After rebuilding the ruined cities, particularly London, which had been destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Ethelwolf, he established a regular militia for the defence of the kingdom. He took care that all his subjects should be armed and regis- tered, and assigned them a regular round of duty : he distributed one part into the castles and fortresses, which he erected at proper places ; he appointed another to take the field on any alarm, and assemble at stated places of rendezvous ; and he left a sufficient number at home, who were employed in the cultivation of the lands, and afterward took their turn in military s'ervice. The whole kingdom was like one garrison : the Danes could no sooner land in any quarter, than a sufficient force was ready to oppose them, and that without leaving the other parts naked or defenceless. (4) But Alfred did not trust solely to his land forces. He may be considered as the creator of the English navy, as well as the establisher of the monarch) 7 . Sensible that ships are the most natural bulwark of an island, a circumstance hitherto entirely overlooked by the Saxons or English, as they began now to be generally called, he provided.himself with a naval force, and met the Danes on their own element. A fleet of a hundred and twenty armed vessels was stationed upon the coast ; and being provided with warlike engines, and expert seamen, both Frisians and English, maintained a superiority over the enemy, and gave birth to that claim which England still supports to the sovereignty of the ocean. (5) In this manner did Alfred provide for the security of his kingdom ; and the excellent posture of defence every where established, together with the wisdom and valour of the prince, at length restored peace and tranquillity to England, and communicated to it a consequence hitherto unknown in the monarchy. But I should convey to you, my dear Philip, a very imperfect idea of Alfred's merit, were I to confine myself merely to his military and political talents. His judicial institutions, and his zeal for the encourage- ment of arts and sciences, demand your particular attention. We must now, therefore, consider him in a character altogether civil as the father of English law and English literature. (1) C/iron. Sax. Simon Dunelra. Alured Beverl (2) Id. ibid. (3) Gul Malmes lib ii 4) Id. ibid. M Westin. (5) Spelman's Life of Alfred. 80 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 Though Alfred in the early part of his reign had subdued, settled, or ex- pelled the Danes, as a body, straggling bands of that people afterward con- tinued to infest the kingdom with their robberies ; and even the native English, reduced to extreme indigence by these and former depredations, abandoned themselves to a like disorderly life. They joined the robbers in pillaging the more wealthy part of their fellow-citizens. Those evils re- quired redress, and Alfred took means effectually to remove them. In order to render the execution of justice more strict and regular, he divided all England into counties ; these counties he subdivided into hundreds, and the hundreds into tythings. Every householder was answerable for the beha- viour of his family, of his slaves, and even of his guests, if they resided above three days in his house. Ten neighbouring householders, answerable for each other's conduct, were formed into one corporation, under the name of a tything, decennary, or fribourg, over which a person called a tything- man, headbourg, or borsholder, presided. Every man was punished as an outlaw who did not register himself in some tything; and no man could change his habitation without a warrant and certificate from the borsholder of the tything to which he formerly belonged.(l) These regulations may seem rigorous, and are not perhaps necessary in times when men are habituated to obedience and justice. But they were well calculated to reduce a fierce and licentious people under the salutary restraints of law and government; and Alfred took care to temper their severity by other institutions favourable to the freedom and security of the subject. Nothing can be more liberal than his plan for the administration of justice. The borsholder, summoned his whole decennary to assist him in the decision of smaller differences among the members of the corporation : in controversies of greater moment, the dispute was brought before the hundred, which consisted of ten decennaries, or a hundred families of freemen, and was regularly assembled once in four weeks, for the trying of causes.(2) Their mode of decision claims your attention: twelve freeholders were chosen, who, having sworn along with the magistrate of the hundred to administer impartial justice, proceeded to the examination of the cause that was submitted to them. In this simple form of trial you will perceive the origin of juries, or judgment by equals, an institution now almost peculiar to the English nation, admirable in itself, and the best calculated for the pre- servation of man's natural rights, and the administration of justice, that human wisdom ever devised. (3) Besides these monthly meetings of the hundred, there was an annual meeting, appointed for the more general inspection of the police of the district; inquiring into crimes, correcting abuses in magistrates, and obliging every person to show the decennary in which he was registered. In imitation of their ancestors, the ancient Germans, the people on those occasions assembled in arms ; whence a hundred was sometimes called a Wapentake, and its court served for the support of military discipline, as well as the administration of justice. (4) The next superior court to that of the hundred was the county-court, which met twice a-year, and consisted of all the freeholders of the county, who had an equal vote in the decision of causes ; but of this court I have already spoken in treating of the laws and government of the Saxons. I shall therefore only add here, that to the alderman and bishop, Alfred added a third judge in each county, under the name of Sheriff, who enjoyed equal authority with the two former.(5) His office also empowered him to guard the rights of the crown in the county, and levy the fines imposed ; which, in an age when money atoned for almost every violation of the laws of society, formed no inconsiderable branch of the public revenue. (1) Fcedus Alfred, el Oothurn. cap. iii. ap. Wilkins. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Trial by jury was known to the Saxons, at least in criminal cases, before their settlement in Britain. But, among the nations on the continent, it was not necessary that the members of a jury should be unanimous in their decision: a majority of voices was sufficient to acquit or condemn the person ecused. Stiernhook de Jure Sucon. et Oothor. Vetust. lib. i. lib Spelra. Gloas. in voc. IVapentake. (5) Inguiph. LET.XIl.J MODERN EUROPE. 8. In default of justice from all these courts, an appeal lay to the king himself ji council ; and as the wisdom and justice of Alfred were universally revered, ne was soon overwhelmed with appeals from all parts of his dominions. In order to remedy this inconvenience, he chose the earls and sheriffs from among the men most celebrated for probity and knowledge in the kingdom : he punished severely all malversation in office ; he removed all whom he found unequal to the trust ;(1) and, the better to guide magistrates of all kinds in the administration of justice, he framed a body of laws; which, though now lost, served long as the basis of English jurisprudence, and is generally esteemed the origin of our COMMON LAW. Alfred appointed regular meetings of the states of England twice a-year in the city of London, which he himself had repaired and beautified, and which thenceforth became the capital of the kingdom. Every thing soon wore a new face under his wise and equitable government. Such success attended his legislation, and so exact was the general police, that he is said to have hung up, by way of trial, golden bracelets near the high roads, and no man dared to touch them. (2) But this great prince, though rigorous in the administration of justice, which he wisely considered as the best means of repressing crimes, preserved the most sacred regard to the liberty of his people. His concern on this subject extended even to future times, and ought to endear his memory to every Englishman. " It is just," says he in his will, "that the English should ever remain FREE AS THEIR OWN THOUGHTS."(3) After providing for the security of his kingdom, and taming his subjects to the restraints of law, Alfred extended his care to those things which aggran- dize a nation, and make a people happy. Sensible that good morals and knowledge are almost inseparable in every age. though not in every individual, he gave great encouragement to the pursuit of learning. He invited over the most celebrated scholars from all parts of Europe : he established schools every where for the instruction of the ignorant: he founded, or at least repaired, the .university of Oxford, and endowed it with many privileges, revenues, and immunities : he enjoined by law all freeholders, possessed of two hides of land, to send their children to school ; and he gave preferment, either in church or state, to such only as had made some proficiency in knowledge.(4) But the most effectual expedient employed by Alfred for the encouragement of learning was his own example, and the progress which he made in science. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of civil objects which engaged his attention, and although he fought in person fifty-six battles by sea and land, this illustrious hero and legislator was able to acquire by his unremitted industry, during a life of no extraordinary length, more knowledge, and even to produce more books, than most speculative men, in more for- tunate ages, who have devoted their whole time to study. He composed a variety of poems, fables, and apt stories, to lead the untutored mind to the love of letters, and bend the heart to the practice of virtue. For the same purpose he translated from the Greek the instructive fables of . handling red-hot iron. LETTER XVII. England,from the Death of Alfred to the Reign of Canute the Great. ENGLAND, my dear Philip, from the reign of Alfred to the Danish conquest, affords few objects to arrest the attention of the scholar, the gentleman, or the politician. Little attention was paid to arts or letters; which, with manners, suffered a decline. The constitution continued nearly the same. A concise account of the principal reigns will therefore be sufficient for your purpose ; more especially as England, during this period, had no connexion with the affairs of the continent. Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder, being the first of that name who gat on the English throne. Though inferior to his father in genius and erudition, he equalled him in military talents ; and he had occasion for them. Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son to king Ethelbert, Alfred's elder . ; --s. Mb.ii. Barre, torn. iii. (2) Annul, de I'Emp. torn. i. '3) Id. ibid fiET. XVII.] MODERN EUROPE. 95 brother, disputed the crown, and called in the Danes to support his claim. The death of Ethelwald, who fell in a battle with the Kentish men,(l) decided the quarrel ; but Edward's wars with the Danes continued during the greater part of his reign, though he was successful in almost every engagement. He died in 925. Athelstan, Edward's natural son, obtained the kingdom in preference to his legitimate children. As he was arrived at an age more suited to the cares of government, and the nation, exposed to foreign and domestic wars, required a prince of vigour and abilities, the stain in his birth was overlooked. No sooner was Athelstan securely seated on the throne, than he endea- voured to give it stability by providing against the insurrections of the domestic Danes. With this view he marched into Northumberland, their most considerable settlement; and finding that they bore with impatience the English yoke, he judged it prudent to confer on Sitheric, a Danish nobleman, the title of king, and to give him his sister Editha in marriage, as a farther motive of attachment. But this policy, though apparently wise, proved the source of many troubles. Sitheric died within a twelvemonth after his elevation ; and his two sons by a former marriage, Anlaf and Godfrid, founding pretensions on their father's rank, assumed the sovereignty, without waiting for the approbation of Athelstan. But they were soon expelled by that powerful monarch, who was no less brave than politic. The former took shelter in Ireland, the latter in Scotland ; where he was protected for some time by the clemency of Constantine, who then swayed the Scottish sceptre. Continually solicited, however, and even menaced, by the English monarch, Constantine at last promised to deliver up his guest ; but secretly detesting such treachery he gave Godfrid a hint to make his escape. Incensed at Constantine's beha- viour, though the death of the fugitive had freed him from all apprehensions, Athelstan entered Scotland with a numerous army, and reduced the Scots to such distress, that their king was happy to preserve his crown by the most humble submission. (2) Athelstan afterward defeated the Scotch, Welsh, and Danes, in a general engagement at Brunsbury, in Northumberland. In consequence of this vic- tory lie enjoyed tranquillity during the rest of his reign. He appears to have been one of the most able and active of our ancient princes ; and his memorable law for the encouragement of commerce discovers a liberality of mind worthy of the most enlightened ages; that a merchant, who had made two voyages, on his own account, to distant lands, should be admitted to the rank of a less thane or gentleman. (3) Athelstan was succeeded by his brother Edmund ; who, on his accession, met with some disturbance from the Northumbrian Danes, whom he reduced to obedience. He also conquered Cumberland from the Britons, and con- ferred that principality on Malcolm, king of Scotland, on condition that he should do homage to England for it, and protect the northern counties from all future incursions of the foreign Danes. (4) Edmund's reign was short, and his death violent. As he was solemnizing a feast in Gloucestershire, a notorious robber named Leolf, whom he had sentenced to banishment, audaciously entered the hall where his sovereign dined, and seated himself at one of the tables. Enraged at such insolence, Edmund ordered him to be seized ; but observing that the ruffian was pre- paring to resist, the indignant monarch sprung up, and, catching him by the hair, dragged him out of the hall. Meanwhile Leolf, having drawn his dag- ger, lifted his arm with a furious blow, and stabbed the king to the heart, who immediately expired on the bosom of his murderer.(5) Edmund left male issue ; but as his eldest son was too young to govern the kingdom, his brother Edred was raised to the throne. The beginning f Edred's reign, like those of his predecessors, was disturbed by the rebel- (I) Chron. Sax. H. Hunting (2) Hovcden. (3) Brompton. (4) Gul Malmes. lib. ii. (5) Id. ibid. H. Hunting, lib. v. 96 THE HISTORY OF [PART! lion of the Northumbrian Danes. Though frequently humbled, tney were never entirely subdued, nor had they ever paid a sincere allegiance to the English crown. .Their obedience lasted no longer than the present terror. Edred, instructed by experience, took every precaution to prevent their future insurrections. He settled English garrisons in their most considerable towns, and placed over them an English governor, to watch their motions, and check the first appearance of revolt. He also obliged Malcolm, king of Scotland, to renew his homage for Cumberland.(l) But Edred, though a brave and active prince, lay under the influence of the lowest superstition, and had blindly delivered over his conscience to the guidance of Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, commonly called St. Dunstan, whom he advanced to the highest offices of state, and who concealed beneath an appearance of sanctity the most insatiable and insolent ambition. In order to impose on the credulity of mankind, this designing monk had long secluded himself from the world in a miserable cell, where he is said to have had frequent conflicts with the Devil ; until one day, when the infernal spirit attempting to seduce him in the shape of a woman, Dunstan seized him by the nose with a pair of red-hot pincers, and held him till the whole neigh- bourhood resounded with his bellowings.(2) Satan, thus vanquished, durst never more show his face. This story, and others of the like nature, then seriously believed, obtained the abbot a reputation, both with prince and people, which no real piety or virtue could possibly have procured him. Soon after his return from solitude, he was placed by Edred at the head of the treasury ; and, sensible that he owed his advancement solely to the opinion of his austerity, he professed himself a friend to the rigid monastic rules, which about this time began to prevail, and by which monks were excluded from all commerce with the world and with women. He introduced them into the convents of Glastonbury and Abingdon, and endeavoured to render them universal in the kingdom. (3) A word here of the monastic life. There had been monasteries in England from the first introduction of Christianity among the Saxons, and these establishments had been greatly multiplied by the mistaken piety of the English princes and nobles, who sought to bribe Heaven by donations to the church. But the monks had hitherto been a species of secular priests, who were at liberty either to marry or continue single, and who lived after the manner of our present canons or prebendaries. They both intermingled with the world, in some degree, and endeavoured to render themselves useful to it. A superstitious devotion, however, had produced in Italy a new species of monks, who secluded them- selves entirely from the world, renounced all claim to liberty, and made a merit of the most inviolable chastity. Dunstan laid hold of this circum stance to commence reformer. The popes had favoured the doctrine from motives of general policy, as detaching the ecclesiastical from the civil power : the abbot embraced it for his own aggrandisement. Celibacy was therefore extolled as the universal duty of priests ; and, in England, the minds of men were already prepared for such an innovation, though it mili- tates against the strongest propensities in human nature. The first preachers of Christianity among the Saxons had carried to the most extravagant height the praises of inviolable chastity; the pleasures of love had been represented as incompatible with Christian perfection; and an abstinence from all commerce with the softer sex, certainly the highest act of self-denial, was deemed a sufficient atonement for the greatest enormi- ties. It therefore naturally followed, as a consequence of this doctrine, that those who officiated at the altar should at least be free from such pollution. And Dunstan and his reformed monks knew well how to avail themselves of these popular topics, and set off their own character to the best advantage. On the other hand, their rivals the secular clergy, who were numerous and rich, and possessed of the ecclesiastical dignities, defended themselves with U) Hoveden. (2) Osberne in Anglici. Sacra, vol. ii (3) .d. ibid. LET. XVII.] MODERN EUROPE 97 vigour, and boldly maintained the sanctity of the institution of marriage.(l) The whole nation was thrown into a ferment. In the mean time, the power of the monks received a check by the death of Edred, the dupe of their ambition. He left children, but in an infant state ; the crown was therefore conferred on Edwy, his nephew, son to Ed- mund his brother and predecessor.(2) This prince, who was only seventeen years of age at his accession, possessed an elegant person, and the most amiable and promising virtues. But neither the graces of his figure nor the accomplishments of his mind could screen him from the fury of the monks, whom he unhappily offended in the beginning of kis reign. The beautiful Elgiva, his second or third cousin, had made an impression on the susceptible heart of Edwy; and, as he was at an age when the tender passions are most keenly felt, he ventured to marry her, though within the degrees of affinity prohibited by the church. The austerity of the monks made them particularly violent on this occasion : the king therefore entertained a strong aversion against them, and determined to oppose their project of expelling the seculars from the convents. But he had soon reason to repent his rashness in provoking such dangerous enemies. On the day of his coronation, while the nobility, assembled in the great hall, were indulging themselves in riot and disorder, after the example of their German ancestors, Edwy, attracted by the gentler pleasures of love, retired to the queen's apart- ment, and gave loose to his fondness, which was but feebly checked by the presence of her mother. Dunstan conjectured the reason of the king's absence ; and carrying along with him Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, over whom he had gained an absolute ascendant, he burst into the royal privacy; upbraided Edwy of lasciviousness, tore him from the arms of his consort, and pushed him back ignominiously into the company of the nobles, loading the queen with the most opprobrious epithets. (3) Though Edwy Avas young, and had the prejudices of the age to encounter, he found means to revenge this public insult. He accused Dunstan of mal- versation in office, while at the head of the treasury; and as that minister did not clear himself of the charge, the king banished him the realm. But Dunstan's party were not idle during his absence. They poisoned the minds of the people to such a degree by declamations against the king, and pane- gyrics on the abbot's sanctity, that the royal authority was despised, and still more outrageously insulted. Archbishop Odo ordered the queen to be seized ; and after her face had been seared with a red-hot iron, in order to destroy that fatal beauty which had ensnared the king, she was carried into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile. (4) Edwy, finding resistance ineffectual, was obliged to consent to a divorce, which Avas pronounced by the imperious Odo. But these were not the only evils which attended this unfortunate prince and his consort. The amiable Elgiva was made prisoner, by her persecutors, and cruelly murdered in returning to the embraces of the king, whom she still considered as her hus- band. Nothing less than her death could satisfy the archbishop and the monks. Edwy was dethroned by the same influence, in order to make room for his brother Edgar, a boy of thirteen years of age. Dunstan returned to England and took upon him the government of the young king and his party. He was first installed in the see of Worcester, next in that of London, and afterward in that of Canterbury ; of all which, lie long kept possession. In the mean time the unhappy Edwy was excommunicated, and pursued by his enemies with unrelenting vengeance. (5) But his death soon freed them from all inquietude, and left Edgar in peaceable possession of the throne. The reign of Edgar is one of the most fortunate in the English annals. Though he ascended the throne in early youth, he soon discovered an excel- lent capacity for government. He showed no aversion against war: he took the wisest precautions for public safety ; and, by his vigilance and foresight (1) Spelm. Cm. vol. i. (2) Chron. Sax. K 3) Gul. Malmes. lib. ii ( 4) Osbeni''. i hi *"?, (5) Brompton. VOL f. C 5 J8 THE HISTORY OF [PABT I. he was enabled to indulge his natural inclination for peace. He maintained a body of troops in the North, to keep the mutinous Northumbrians in awe, and to repel the inroads of the Scots. Ho also built and supported a power- ful navy ; aid, in order to habituate the seaman to the practice of their pro- fession, as well as to intimidate his enemies, he stationed three squadrons of the coasts of his kingdom, and commanded them to make by turns the circui of his dominions. The foreign Danes durst not approach a country whicl was so strongly defended : the domestic Danes saw destruction to be th( inevitable consequence of insurrection ; and the princes of Wales, of Scotland and even of Ireland, were happy to appease so potent a monarch by submis- sions^!) But the means by which Edgar more especially maintained his authority at home, and preserved public tranquillity, was paying court to Dunstan and the monks, who had violently placed him on the throne, and whose claim to superior sanctity gave them an ascendant over the people. He favoured their scheme of reformation, as it was called, but in reality of dispossessing the secular canons of the monasteries ; he consulted them in the administra- tion of all ecclesiastical and even of many civil affairs ; and although the vigour of his genius prevented him from being entirely guided by them, he took care never to disoblige them. Hence he is represented by the monkish writers not only as a warrior and a politician, a character which he seems to have merited, but also as a saint and a man of virtue, though he was licen- tious in the highest degree, and violated every law human and divine. His very amours are a compound of barbarity and brutality. He broke into a convent, carried of a nun by force, and even committed violence on her per- son.^) Struck also with the charms of a nobleman's daughter, in whose house he was entertained, he demanded that she should pass that very night with him, without once consulting the young lady's inclinations. (3) But his most remarkable amour was with the beautiful Elfrida ; and, as it is connected with the history of the following reign, I shall relate it circumstantially. It will give you at once an idea of the manners of the age and of the character of Edgar. Elfrida, the only daughter and sole heiress of Olgar, earl of Devonshire, though educated in the country, and a stranger at court, had filled all England with the reputation of her beauty. Edgar, who was never indifferent to sny report of this kind, sent Athelwold, his favourite, to see if the young lady was indeed as fair as fame had represented her. Athelwold no sooner saw Elfrida than he was inflamed with love, and determined to sacrifice to it his fidelity to his master : he therefore told Edgar, on his return, that the fortune and quality of Elfrida alone had been the cause of the adulation paid her, and that her charms, so far from being extraordinary, would have been en- tirely overlooked in a woman of inferior condition. " But," added he, when he found he had blunted the edge of the king's curiosity, " though she has nothing to claim the attention of a sovereign, her immense wealth would, to a subject, be a sufficient compensation for the homeliness of her person ; and, although it could never produce on me the illusion of beauty, it might make her a convenient wife !" Edgar, glad of an opportunity of establishing his favourite's fortune, not only gave his approbation to the projected match, but forwarded its success by recommending him in the wannest manner to the earl of Devonshire ; so that Athelwold was soon made happy in the possession of his beloved Elfrida. Dreading, however, the eyes of the king, he still found some pretence for de- taining his wife in the country. But all his cautions were insufficient to con- ceal his amorous treachery. Royal favourites are never without enemies ; Edgar was soon informed of the truth ; but before he would execute ven- LET. XVII.] MODERN EUROPE. 93 geance on Athelwold's perfidy, he resolved to sa'tisfy himself fully in regard to Elfrida's beauty. He therefore told his deceiver, that he intended to pay him a visit at his castle, and be introduced to his wife, whose beauty he had formerly heard so much praised. Athelwold was thunderstruck at the pro- posal ; but, as he could not refuse such an honour, he only begged leave to go a few hours before his royal guest, that he might make proper preparations for his reception. On his arrival he fell at his wife's feet, discovered the whole secret, and conjured her, if she valued either her own honour or his life, to disguise as much as possible that fatal beauty which had tempted him to deceive his prince and friend. Elfrida promised compliance, though nothing appears to have been farther from her thoughts. She adorned her person with the most exquisite art, and called forth all her charms ; not despairing, it should seem, yet to reach that exalted station of which Athel- wold's fondness had deprived her. The event was answerable to her wishes : she excited at once in Edgar's bosom the warmest love, and the keenest desire of revenge. The king, however, who could dissemble those passions, as well as feel them, beheld her with seeming indifference; and having seduced Athelwold into a wood, under pretence of hunting, he stabbed him with his own hand, took Elfrida to court, and soon after publicly married her.(l) % This reign is remarkable for the extirpation of wolves from England. Edgar took great pleasure in pursuing those ravenous animals : and when he found they had all taken shelter in the mountains and forests of Wales, he changed the tribute of money imposed on the Welsh princes by Athelstan into an annual tribute of three hundred head of wolves(2) ; a policy which occasioned so much diligence in hunting them, that the breed soon became extinct in the island. Edgar was succeeded by his son Edward, commonly called the Martyr, whom he had by his first wife, the daughter of earl Ordmer. The succession of Edward did not take place without much opposition. Elfrida, his step-mother, had a son named Ethelred, only seven years old, whom she attempted to raise to the throne. But the principal nobility, dreading her imperious temper, opposed a measure which must increase her authority, if not put her in possession of the regency ; and Dunstan, to whom it was of great importance to have a king favourable to his cause, resolutely crowned and anointed Edward, over whom he had already gained an absolute ascendant. His short reign was remarkable for nothing but a continual struggle between the monks and the secular clergy. He was treacherously murdered at the instigation of Elfrida, in order to make room for her son Ethelred. Soon after the accession of Ethelred, a prince without courage or capacity, England was visited anew by the Danes. The wise regulations of Alfred, and the valour of his iVnmediate successors, had long deterred those ravagers from approaching the British shores; and their settlement in France had required, for a time, most of their superfluous hands. But a new race of men having now sprung up in the northern regions, who could no longer dis- burthen themselves on Normandy, and England being no longer governed by an Alfred or an Edgar, they ventured to renew their depredations. Ethelred, instead of rousing his people to defend with courage their prince and their property, meanly compounded with the enemy for his safety, by bribing them to depart the kingdom. (3) That shameful expedient, which invited assailants instead of repelling them, was attended with the success that might have been expected ; the Danes again returned, and were again bribed to depart. In the mean time Ethelred, from a policy incident to weak princes, embraced the cruel resolu- tion of massacring the Danes throughout all his dominions. Secret orders were accordingly given to commence the execution on the same day, and all T> GuUMalmes. Hoveden, Brompton, ubi sup. (2) GuU Malraes. lib. ii. <3) Ibid. G2 100 THE HISTORY OF [PART I the Danes were destroyed Without mercy. Even Gunilda, sister to the king of Denmark, who had married Earl Paling, and embraced Christianity, was seized and put to death by Ethelred, after having seen her husband and chil- dren butchered before her face.(l) This unhappy princess foretold, in the agonies of despair, that her murder would soon be revenged by the total ruin of the English nation. Never was prophecy better fulfilled, nor ever did barbarous policy prove more fatal to its projectors. Sweyn, king of Denmark, breathing vengeance for the slaughter of his countrymen, landed speedily in the West of England, and desolated the whole kingdom with fire and sword. The English, sensible what they had to expect from a barbarous and enraged enemy, attempted several times to make a stand ; but they were successively betrayed by Alferic and Edric, governors of Mercia. The base and imprudent expedient of money was again tried, till the nation was entirely drained of its treasure, but without effect. The Danes continued their ravages : and Ethelred, equally afraid of the violence of the enemy and the treachery of his own subjects, fled over to his brother-in-law, Richard duke of Normandy, who received him with a generosity that does honour to his memory. (2) Sweyn died soon after Ethelred left England, and before he had lime to establish himself in his newly acquired dominions. Ethelred was recalled ; but his misconduct was incurable. On resuming the government, he dis- covered the same incapacity, indolence, cowardice, and credulity, which had so often exposed him to the insults of his enemies ; and the English found in Canute, the son and successor of Sweyn, an enemy no less terrible than his father. An army was assembled against him under the command of Edric and prince Edmond. Edric, whom the infatuated king still trusted, continued his perfidious machinations. After endeavouring in vain to get the prince into his pow,er, he found means to dissipate the army, and then openly revolted to Canute with forty vessels. (3) Notwithstanding this misfortune, Edmond, whose intrepidity never failed him, collected the remaining force of the kingdom, and was soon in a condi- tion to give the enemy battle. But the king had so often experienced the perfidy of his subjects, that he had lost all confidence in them : he therefore refused to take the field ; so that the prince's vigorous measures were rendered altogether ineffectual, the army being discouraged by the timidity of their sovereign. As the north had already submitted to Canute's power, Edmond retired to London, determined there to maintain the small remains of English liberty. In the mean time his father died, after an inglorious reign of thirty five years. Ethelred left two sons by his first marriage : Edmond, who succeeded him, and Edwy, whom Canute afterward murdered. His two sons by the second marriage, Alfred and Edward, were conveyed into Normandy by Queen Emma, immediately after the death of their father. * Edmond, who received the name of Ironside from his hardy valour, possessed courage and abilities sufficient to have saved his country, not only from sinking under its present calamities, but even to have raised it from that abyss of misery into which it was already fallen, had the English, among their :>ther misfortunes, not been infected with treachery and disloyalty. But these rendered his best concerted schemes abortive, and his noblest efforts fruitless. The traitor Edric pretended to return to his duty; and, as Edmond had no general in whom he could repose more confidence, he gave him a con- siderable command in the army. A battle was soon after fought at Assington m Essex. Edric deserted to the enemy, in the beginning of the day, and (1) Gul. Malmes. lib. ii. lien. Hunting, lib. vi. Contrary to the testimony of most of our old English historians, who represent the massacre of the Danes as universal, Wallingford (page 548) says it affected anly a military body in the pay of the king, dispersed over the country ; become insolent in an uncommor, . and in some measure masters of the kingdom ; which, instead of protecting, they often ravaged, in conjunction with the foreign Danes. After so great a lapse of time, it is impossible to decide upon the n.. -iltcr with certainty; but as the kingdoms of Northumberland and East Anglia were chiefly peopled .1 i'li Dares, Wallingford's account seems most probable. !. Hn. Hunting, lib vi. (3) Gul. Malmes. lib. ii. LET. XVIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 101 occasioned the total defeat of the English army, with a great slaughter of the nobility. The indefatigable Edmond, however, had still resources. He assembled a new army at Gloucester, and was again in a condition to dispute the field ; when the Danish and English nobility, equally tired of the struggle, obliged their kings to come to terms. The kingdom was divided between them by treaty. Canute reserved to himself the northern division; Mercia, East- Anglia, and Northumberland, which he had entirely subdued : the southern parts were left to Edmond, who survived the treaty only a month. He was murdered at Oxford by two of his chamberlains, accomplices of Edric, whose treachery made way for the accession of Canute the Dane to the throne of England ;(1) Edwin and Edward, the sons of Edraond, being yet in their infancy. LETTER XVIII. France from the Accession of Hugh Capet, to the Invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. WHILE England changed its line of sovereigns, and Germany its form ol government, France also had changed its reigning family, and was become, like Germany, a government entirely feudal. Each province had its heredi- tary counts or dukes. He who could only seize upon two or three small villages, paid homage to the usurper of a province ; and he who had only a castle held it of the possessor of a town. The kingdom was a monstrous assemblage of members, without any compact body. Of the princes, or nobles, who held immediately of the crown, Hugh Capet was not the least powerful. He possessed the dukedom of France, which extended as far as Touraine : he was also count of Paris ; and the vast domains which he held in Picardy and Champagne gave him great authority in those provinces. He therefore seized the crown on the death of Lewis V. and brought more strength to it than he derived from it ; for the royal domain was now reduced to the cities of Laon and Soissons, with a few other disputed territories. (2) The right of succession belonged to Charles, duke of Lorraine, uncle to Lewis V. but the condition of vassal of the empire appeared to the French nobility a sufficient reason for excluding him, and Hugh Capet secured the favour of the clergy by resigning to them the abbeys which had been heredi- tary in his family. An extreme devotion, real or assumed, recommended him to the people ; and particularly his veneration for relicks. Force and address seconded his ambition, and the national aversion against his rival completed its success. He was acknowledged in an assembly of the nobles ; he was anointed at Rheims ; and he farther established his throne, by associating his son Robert in the government of the kingdom, and vesting him with those ensigns of royalty which he prudently denied himself, as what might give umbrage to men who were lately his equals. (3) In the mean time the duke of Lorrain entered France, made himself master of Laon by assault, and of Rheims by the treachery of archbishop Arnold, his relation. But this unhappy prince was afterward himself betrayed by the bishop of Laon, and made prisoner for life. (4) A council was assembled for the trial of Arnold. He was degraded ; and Gerbert, a man of learning and genius, who had been tutor to the emperor Otho III. and to the king's son, Robert, was elected archbishop of Rheims. But the court of Rome not being consulted in this transaction, the election was declared void, Arnold was re-established, and Gerbert deposed. The (1) Gul. Malmes. Hen Hunting, ubi sup. (2) Glab. Hist, sui Temp. (3) Id. ibid. (4) Sigeberti, Chrcn. ' 102 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 first, however, remained in prison till the death of Hugh Capet, who was more afraid of Arnold's intrigues than of the thunder of the Vatican ;(l) while the second, having found an asylum in the court of his pupil Otho, became archbishop of Ravenna, and afterward pope, under the name of Silvester II. Nothing else memorable happened during- the reign of Hugh Capet, who conducted all his affairs with great prudence and moderation ; and had the singular honour of establishing a new family, and in some measure a new form of government, with few circumstances of violence, and without shed- ding blood. He died in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and the eighth .of his reign, and was quietly succeeded by his son Robert ; a prince of a less vigorous genius, though not of a less amiable disposition. The most remarkable circumstance, in the reign of Robert, and the most worthy of our attention, is his excommunication by the pope. This prince had espoused Bertha, his cousin in the fourth degree ; a marriage not only lawful according to our present ideas of things, and justified by the practice of all nations, ancient and modern, but necessary to the welfare of the state, she being the sister of Rodolph, king of Burgundy. But the clergy, among their other usurpations, had about this time made a sacrament of marriage, and laid the most essential of civil engagements under spiritual prohibitions, which extended even to the seventh degree of consanguinity. The popes, politically arrogated to themselves a special jurisdiction over this first object of society, and that on which all the rest hang. Gregory V. therefore under- took to dissolve the marriage between Robert and Bertha, though it had been authorized by several bishops; and in a council held at Rome, without examining the cause, and without hearing the parties, he published, with the most despotic authority, an imperious decree, which ordered the king and queen to be separated, under peril of excommunication. And all the bishops who had countenanced the pretended crime were suspended from their func- tions, until such time as they should make satisfaction to the Holy See. (2) Robert, however, persisted in keeping his wife, and thereby incurred the sentence of excommunication ; which, according to cardinal Peter Damien, an historian of those times, had such an effect on the minds of men, that the king was abandoned by all his courtiers, and even by his own domestics, two servants excepted. And these threw to the dogs all the victuals which their master left at meals, and purified, by fire, the vessels in which he had been served : so fearful were they of what had been touched by an excommunicated person !(3) The same credulous author adds, that the queen was brought to bed of a monster, which had a neck and head like a goose a certain proof and punishment of incest ! But as Voltaire very justly observes, there was nothing monstrous in all this affair, but the insolence of the pope, and the weakness of the king ; who, giving way to superstitious terrors, or afraid of civil commotions, at last repudiated his wife Bertha, and married Constance, daughter to the count of Aries, in whom he found an imperious termagant, instead of an amiable consort. Gregory also obliged him to restore the traitor Arnold to the see of Rheims.(4) In the mean lime Robert had it in his power to have been master of the popes, if he had possessed the ambition and the vigour necessary for such an enterprise. After the death of Henry II. the last emperor of the house of Saxony, the Italians, sick of the German dominion, offered their crown and the imperial dignity to the king of France. Robert, however, had the reso- lution to refuse it : and not only his own subjects, but Europe in general was (1) Sigeberti, Chron. (2) Glab. Hist, sui Temp. (3) Let ua not, however, with certain sarcastical historians, represent this mode of inspiring religions terrors as an invention of the Christian priesthood. For Cesar tells us that, among the ancient Gauls, if any one, whether magistrate or private person, refused to submit to the sentence of the Druids, lie wag ixterdictcd the sacrifices ; and that, while under such prohibition, all men shunned him, lest they should infer by the contagion of his impiety. (Cipsar, Bell. Gal. lib. vi.) The power of EXCOMMUNICATION, or the authority of excluding the vicious and refractory from religious privileges, is necessary indeed to every body of priests. But ii ought to extend no farttier, to affect no legal right, nor sny civil privilege. \ Aimon. Hint |jb. v. LET. XVIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 103 soon convinced that he had acted wisely : for those who made the proposal afterward deserted the person who accepted it.(l) The latter years of Robert's reign were rendered very unhappy by the dis- orders of his family. Unfortunate in the death of his eldest son Hugh, whom ne had associated in the sovereignty, his queen Constance, whose haughtiness was altogether insupportable, attempted to regulate the succession. Having an aversion against her son Henry, she wanted to place her younger son Robert on the throne. But the king, by the advice of his parliament, confirmed the succession to Henry, his eldest surviving son. Provoked at this measure, the queen wanted to embroil the brothers ;(2) but they, being united by a sincere friendship, withstood all her irritations. At length, become equally the objects of her hatred, they retired from court, and took arms in order to obtain a separate establishment. In the mean time the king died, and was succeeded by his son Henry. There is not any monarch in the French history more generally or more highly commended than Robert, notwithstanding his weakness of temper, 01 on whose death the lamentations of all ranks of people were louder or more sincere. The monks spoke the sense of the whole nation, when they deplored him in these words : " We have lost a father, who governed us in peace. We lived under him in security ; for he did not oppress, or suffer oppression : we loved him, and there was nobody whom he feared."(3) Henry I. was twenty-seven years of age at his accession to the throne, and, with all the spirit of a young man, he had the sagacity and prudence of one more advanced in years ; without which, the crown would have been shaken from his head almost as soon as it was placed there. His mother Constance, who hated him, as has been observed, and who was ambitious stili to govern, had drawn over to her party a number of lords and bishops, under pretence of supporting the cause of her younger son Robert. Henry, there- fore, after some ineffectual struggles, was obliged to take refuge in Nor- mandy, where he was received with all possible respect by duke Robert, who assured him that the treasures and forces of the dutchy were at his disposal. Nor were these mere expressions of civility ; an army of Normans entered France on one side, while the king and royal party invaded it on the other. The queen dowager and her faction were humbled, and Henry recovered all that he had lost. But although this contest ended gloriously for the king, it proved hurtful to the monarchy; for as the success of the war was prin- cipally owing to the Duke of Normandy, Henry added to his ducthy Gisors, Chaumont, Pontoise, and that part of the Vexin which yet remained to the crown. (4) The next affair of importance that occupied the king's attention was the succession to the dutchy of Normandy. Duke Robert had thought fit, in compliance with the fashionable devotion of those times, to make a pilgrim- age to Jerusalem. But before his departure, as he was a prudent prince, thougli now old and superstitious, he assembled his nobles ; and, informing them of his pious purpose, the length of the journey, and the dangers to which he must be exposed, he engaged them to swear allegiance to his natu- ral son William, whom he tenderly loved, and intended for his successor, as he had no legitimate issue. He also recommended the guardianship of this son, who was only nine years of age, to two persons in whom he placed the greatest confidence Henry I. king of France, and Alain duke of Bretagne.(5) But these precautions did not prevent many disorders, which a mind not hoodwinked by superstition must have foreseen ; arising from the habitual turbulency of the great, the illegitimacy of William, and the claims from other branches of the ducal family. Robert died, as he had apprehended, in his pilgrimage ; and left his son rather the heir of his wishes than of his dominions. The licentious nobles, "reed from the awe of sovereign authority, broke out into personal quarrels, (1) Aimon. Hist. lib. v. (2) Glab. Hist, sui Temp. (3) Helgaldus. Glab. ubi sup. <4) Gul. Gemet lib. vi (5) Id. ibid. 104 THE HISTORY OP and made the whole dutchy a scene of war and devastation. Alain, duke of Bretagne, came to appease their animosities ; but being very roughly treated, he returned home, and was soon after carried off by slow poison, supposed to have been given him in Normandy. Various pretenders arose to the suc- cession ; and the king of France, forgetting what he owed to Robert, seemed willing to deprive his infant son of his inheritance, by taking advantage of these troubles. He accordingly invaded the Norman frontier, and reduced several places ; but not finding the conquest so easy as he expected, or influ- enced by the returning sentiments of friendship and generosity, he united his forces with those of the young duke, and the malecontents were totally routed in the battle of Val de Dunes, which gave William quiet possession oi his dominions. (1) Henry I. died in 1060, and was succeeded by his son Philip, whom he had by his second wife, and the first with whom he cohabited, the daughter of Joradislaus, duke of Russia a circumstance truly remarkable, in an age when the intercourse between nations was so little familiar. But the pro- hibitions of marriage were so multiplied, and the example of his father so alarming, that Henry is supposed to have sought a wife in this remote coun- try, in order to avoid the crime of incest, and the danger of excommunica- tion. What must the disorders of society have been, when even a king did not know whom he might lawfully marry. Philip I. was only eight years of age at the time of his accession: and, what is very singular, instead of being put under the guardianship of his mother or his uncle, one of whom it might naturally be supposed would have been called to the regency, he was committed by his father to the care of Baldwin V. surnamed the pious, earl of Flanders a man of strict honour, and brother-in-law to Henry. Baldwin gave his pupil an education suitable to his rank; he kept the nobility in awe, without giving them just cause of offence ; and he maintained peace, by being always prepared for war. His- tory, in a word, scarce furnishes us with an instance of a minority more quiet, and of none more happy an example the more remarkable, as the times and circumstances of it were both delicate. The only colour that Baldwin gave for censure, was in his conduct towards William duke of Normandy, who was preparing to invade England, and whom he permitted to raise forces in France and Flanders a liberty which, from the event, was judged impolitic. But the duke being his son-in-law, he could not refuse him with a good grace : and there was yet a farther motive for compliance. The fortunate and enterprising William might have entered France with that army which he had assembled against England, where he succeeded more speedily, and with more ease than could possibly have been expected. But the particulars of that invasion and its conse- quences belong to the history of our own country. I shall therefore only here observe, that to balance in some measure the increase of William's power, an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between the crowns of France and Scotland. Soon after that negotiation Baldwin died, and left his pupil Philip I. in peaceable possession of his kingdom, when he had attained his fifteenth year. (2) LETTER XIX. England from the Danish to the Norman Conquest You have already, my dear Philip, seen Edmond Ironside inhumanly mur- dered, and England exposed to the ambition of Canute the Dane a prince both active and brave, and at the head of a numerous army, ready to take advantage of the minority of Edwin and Edward, the sons of Edmond The (1) Gul. Gemet. ubi gup. (2) Gul. Malmes. lib li LET. XIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 105 English could therefore expect nothing but total subjection from Canute But the Danish monarch, commonly so little scrupulous, showed, on this occasion, an anxiety to conceal his injustice under plausible pretences. Be- fore he seized the inheritance of the two young princes, he summoned a gene- ral assembly of the states of England, in order to fix the succession ; and having suborned some noblemen to depose that, in the treaty of Gloucester, it was agreed, " That Canute in case of Edmond's decease, should succeed to the whole kingdom," the states convinced by this evidence, or overawed by his victorious arms, immediately put the Dane in full possession of the government. (1) But although Canute had now attained the great object of his ambition in the undivided sovereignty of England, he was at first obliged to make many sacrifices to it ; and to gratify the chief nobility, by bestowing on them ex- tensive governments and jurisdictions. He also thought himself obliged, from political motives, to exercise some severities. In order to reward his Danish followers, he loaded the people with oppressive taxes; and jealous of the two young princes, but sensible that he should render himself detested if he ordered them to be murdered in England, he sent them to his ally the king of Sweden, whom he desired to get them privately despatched, as soon as they arrived at his court. But the Swedish monarch was too generous to comply with such a barbarous request. Afraid, however, to draw on himself the displeasure of Canute, by protecting the English princes, he sent them to be educated in the court of Solomon, king of Hungary a strange place surely to seek for a preceptor. But the defenceless seek only a protector; and the sons of Edmond found one in Solomon. Edwin, the eldest, was married to that monarch's sister ; but he dying without issue, Solomon gave his sister-in-law, Agatha, daughter of the emperor Henry II. in marriage to Edward, the younger brother ; and she bore him Edgar Atheling, whom I shall have occasion to mention ; Margaret, afterward queen of Scotland ; and Christina, who retired into a convent.(2) The removal of Edmond's children into so distant a country as Hungary was regarded by Canute, next to their death, as the greatest security of his government. But he was still under alarm on account of Alfred and Edward, the sons of Ethelred, who were protected and supported by their uncle, Richard duke of Normandy. Richard had even fitted out a fleet on purpose to restore the English princes to the throne of their ancestors. In order, therefore, to break the storm, and to secure himself on that side, Canute paid his addresses to queen Emma, the duke's sister, and the mother of those princes who disputed his sway. He was listened to : Richard sent over Emma to England, where she was soon after married to Canute, the enemy of her former husband's family, and the conqueror of that country which her chil- dren had a right to rule. But Canute promised that her children should still rule it, though not the children of Etheldred ; and, although the English dis- approved of the match, they were pleased to find at court a sovereign to whom they were accustomed : so that the conqueror, by this marriage, not only secured the alliance of Normandy, but acquired the confidence of his new subjects. Having thus freed himself from the danger of a revolu- tion, Canute determined, like a truly wise prince, by the equity of his admi- nistration, to reconcile the English yet farther to the Danish yoke. He sent back to their own country as many of his followers as could safely be spared ; he restored the Saxon customs : he made no distinction between the i Janes and English in the distribution of justice ; and he took care, by a strict execution of law, to protect the lives and properties of all his subjects. (3) The Danes were gradually incorporated with the native English ; and both were glad to breathe a little from those multiplied calamities which the con- querors no less than the conauered had experienced in their struggle foi dominion. (1) Gul. Malmes lib. ii. R. Hoveden, Annal. pars prior. (2) Id. ibid. '3) Gul. Malmes. lib. it. 106 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The first use that Canute made of this tranquillity was to visit Denmark, where he obtained a victory over the Swedes, by the valour of the English under the command of earl Godwin, on whom he bestowed his daughter in marriage. In a second voyage to Denmark he made himself master of Norway, and expelled the good Olaus from his kingdom. Canute seems to have attained the height of his ambition ; for, from this period, he appears not only to have laid aside all thoughts of future conquests, but to have held in contempt all the glories and pleasures of the world a necessary consequence, my dear Philip, of assigning to human enjoyments a satisfaction which they cannot yield, and more especially of pursuing them (another effect of the same cause) at the expense of justice and humanity. During this change of mind it must have been that Canute, the greatest and most powerful prince of his time, being sovereign of Denmark, Norway, and England, put to the blush his flattering courtiers, who exclaimed, in admiration of his grandeur, that every thing was possible for him. He ordered a chair to be brought, and seated himself on the sea-shore while the tide was rising; and as the waves approached, he said, in an imperious tone, " Thou, sea ! art under my dominion, and the land which I sit upon is mine : I charge thee, approach no farther ! nor dare to wet the feet of thy sovereign." He even sat some time in seeming expectation of submission : but as the sea still advanced towards him, and at last began to wash him with its billows, he turned to his courtiers, and observed, that every creature in the universe is feeble and impotent ; and that power resides only with ONE Being, in whose hands are the elements of nature, and who can say to the ocean, " Thus far shall thou go, and no farther !"(!) But although Canute, sick of worldly greatness, began to turn his eyes toward a future state of existence, the spirit which prevailed in that age unfortunately gave a wrong direction to his piety. Instead of making reparation to the persons whom he had injured by former acts of violence, he built churches, endowed monasteries, and appointed prayers to be said for the souls of those who had fallen in battle against him ; nay, more meritorious than all the rest ! he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. After his return from Rome, Canute performed nothing memorable, except an expedition against Malcolm king of Scotland, whom he humbled. He died in 1035, and left the crown of England to his son Harold Harefoot, by his first wife, Alfwen, daughter to the earl of Hampshire, in prejudice of Hardi- canute, his son by queen Emma, to whom he had promised the succession. (2) Harold reigned only four years. He was succeeded by his brother Har- dicanute, whose reign was yet shorter. Neither of these princes had any qualities that merit your attention, nor did any thing memorable happen during their reigns. It will therefore be sufficient to observe, that on the death of Hardicanute, who fell a sacrifice to his brutal intemperance, the English shook off the Danish yoke, and recalled, from Normandy, Edward, son of Ethelred and Emma, surnamed the Confessor, to the throne of his ancestors. This revolution was effected without bloodshed ; and the mild and equi- table government of Edward soon reconciled the Danes, no less than the English, to his sway. The distinction between the two nations vanished. But the English in vain flattered themselves that they were for ever delivered from foreign masters. A little time convinced them that the evil was rather suspended than removed. Edward had been educated in Normandy ; and, having contracted many intimacies with the natives of that country, as well as an affection for their manners, the court of England was soon filled with Normans, who were dis- tinguished by the royal favour, and had great influence in the national coun- cils. He had also, it appears, though married to a beautiful woman, made an indiscreet vow of virginity, which rendered his bed sterile, but obtained 'o him from the monks, the title of Saint and Confessor : and he had given (I) jSnglia Sacra, vol i. (21 C/iron. Sax. H. Hunting. R. Hoveden. LET. XIX.! MODERN EUROPE. 10V his kinsman, William duke of Normandy, hopes of succeeding to the English crown. What use that enterprising prince made of this promise, real or pretended, we shall afterward have occasion to see. In the mean time the English, and particularly earl Godwin, the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom, and who had hopes of exalting his own son to the throne, became jealous of the preference shown to foreigners, and openly revolted. The rebels were reduced : the estates of Godwin and his son were confiscated ; and they were obliged to flee the realm. But they soon after returned, and reduced the king to conditions ; the most considera- ble of which was, that all foreigners should be banished the kingdom.(l) Godwin's death, which happened shortly after this treaty, prevented him from establishing that authority which he had acquired at the expense of the crown. But his son Harold, who succeeded him in his estates and offices, and who, with an ambition equal to his father's, was superior to him in address and insinuation, proved no less dangerous to the unsuspecting and unwarlike Edward, whose confidence he had obtained. And the death of Siward, duke of Northumberland, while it enfeebled the royal authority, gave still more consequence to the ambitious Harold. Si\vard, besides his loyalty and exploits in behalf of the crown, had acquired honour to England, by his successful conduct in the only foreign enterprise undertaken during this reign : and as it is connected with a memorable circumstance in the history of a neighbour- ing kingdom, as well as with the intrigues of Harold, it doubly deserves our attention. * Duncan, king of Scotland, a prince of a gentle disposition, and some talents, but not possessed of sufficient vigour to govern a turbulent nation, distracted by the animosities of the great, had laid himself open to the designs of Macbeth, a powerful nobleman, nearly allied to the crown ; and who, not contented with curbing the king's authority, carried yet farther his traitorous ambition. He murdered his sovereign ; usurped the crown ; and chased Malcolm Kenmure, the prince and heir, into England. Siward, whose daughter was married to Duncan, undertook, by Edward's orders, the pro- tection of this unhappy family. He marched an army into Scotland, defeated and killed Macbeth in battle, and restored Malcolm to the throne of his an- cestors. This service, added to his former connexions with the royal family of Scotland, brought great accession to the authority of Siward in the north, and enabled him to be highly useful to Edward, in restraining the ambition of Godwin and his powerful family ; but as he had lost his eldest son Osbern, in the action with Macbeth, it proved eventually fatal to his house, and hurtful to the crown. The duke's second son Woltheof, appeared too young, on his father's death, to be intrusted with the government of Northumber- land: and Harold's influence obtained that dukedom for Tosti, his own brother.(2) There are two anecdotes related of Siward, which strongly mark his cha racter, and are eminently expressive of that enthusiasm of valour, long so predominant in the house of Northumberland. When informed of his son Osbern's death, he was at first inconsolable. But inquiring how he fell, and being told that he behaved with great gallantry, and that his wound was in the breast, the feelings of the father seemed lost in those of the soldier : his grief was transformed into joy. " Would to God," exclaimed he, " that I had as many sons as 1 have hairs, that I might lose them thus !" And when he found his own death approaching, he ordered himself to be clothed in a suit of complete armour ; and sitting erect on a couch, with a spear in his hand, " In this posture," said he, " the only one worthy of a warrior, I will meet the tyrant : if I cannot conquer, I shall at least face the combat." (3) Tosti behaved so tyrannically in his government of Northumberland, that the people rose against him, and expelled him by force of arms a circum- stance which contributed much to his brother's aggrandisement. Harold \vas appointed by the king to punish the Northumbrians, and advanced with (1) R. Hoveden. Sim Dunelm. (3) Gul. Malmes. lib. ii. Buchanan, lib. vii. (3) H. Hunting, lib. vi 108 THE HISTORY OF [PART! an army for that purpose ; but being met by a deputation from Morcar, who had been elected duke, and finding that Tosti had acted in a manner unworthy of his station, he returned to the king, and generously persuaded him not only to pardon the rebels, but even to confirm Morcar in the duke- dom. He afterward married the sister of that nobleman, and got her younger brother, Edwin, elected into the government of Mercia. He also undertook an expedition against the Welsh, whom he obliged to receive English governors. (1) By these political and fortunate steps, Harold soon found himself in a con- dition openly to aspire at the succession to the crown. He had gained the affections of his countrymen by his lenity to the Northumbrians ; he had raised their admiration of his valour by his conquest of Wales ; and so great was his influence, that he laid almost all England under the command of himself or his friends. His competitors for the succession were Edgar Atheling, the sole surviving heir to the crown, who had been recalled from Hungary, and William duke of Normandy, the king's cousin. But the first was a youth whose imbecility was thought sufficient to set aside his claim, and the second a foreigner. Edward's prepossessions hindered him from supporting the pretensions of Harold ; and his irresolution, from securing the crown to the duke of Normandy, whom he secretly favoured : he therefore died without appointing a successor, being worn out with age and infirmities, and more anxious about obtaining a heavenly, than settling his earthly inheritance. Edward the Confessor was the first who touched for the scrofula, hence denominated the King's Evil. The opinion of his sanctity procured belief, among the superstitious vulgar, to this mode of cure : and his successors regarded it as a part of their royalty, to support the same idea. The practice was first dropped by the princes of the house of Brunswick, who wisely con- sidered, that such a pretension must be attended with ridicule in the eyes of all men of cultivated minds, and even become the scorn of an enlightened populace. Posterity are more indebted to this prince for the body of laws which he compiled, and which, on account of their mildness, were long dear to our ancestors. Though Edward left the succession undecided, it did not long continue so. Harold immediately stepped into the vacant throne ; and so well had he taken his measures, that his accession was attended with as little opposition or disturbance, as if he had succeeded by the most indisputable hereditary- title. The right of Edgar Atheling was scarce ever mentioned, and still less the claim of the duke of Normandy : the whole nation seemed joyfully to swear allegiance to the new king. (2) The first danger that Harold experienced was from abroad, and from his own brother. Tosti, when expelled the government of Northumberland, had submitted to a voluntary banishment in Flanders : but no sooner was he informed of the accession of Harold, to whose fortunate ambition he con- sidered himself to have fallen a sacrifice, than he entered into a league with Halfagar, king of Norway, who invaded England with a fleet of three hun- dred sail. Tosti himself had collected about sixty vessels in the ports of Flanders, with which he put to sea ; and after committing some depredations on the south and east coasts of England, he sailed to Northumberland, where lie was joined by Halfagar and his powerful armament. The combined fleets disembarked their troops at the mouth of the Humber ; and the earls of Northumberland and Mercia were defeated in attempting to oppose the invaders. Harold was no sooner informed of this disaster, than he hastened to the North, anxious for the safety of his people, and ambitious to show himself worthy of that crown which had been conferred upon him by his countrymen The English flocked from all quarters to his standard : so that he found him. self in a condition to give battle to his enemies, as soon as he reached them (1) Orderic. Vital. (2) Gul. Pict. Order. Vital. LET. XIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 109 The two armies engaged at Standford. The action, which was long and bloody, ultimately terminated in the total rout of the Danes, and in the death of Tosti and Halfagar. Harold, however, had scarce time to rejoice on account of this victory, before he received intelligence that the duke of Normandy, having landed with a formidable force in the south of England, determined to dispute with him the crown. The Norman prince (whom I have already had occasion to mention, both in he history of France and of England) founded his claim to the English crown on a pretended will of Edward the Confessor in his favour. This claim he fortified with an oath 'extorted from Harold when shipwrecked on the coast of France, that he would never aspire to the succession, and by which he bound himself to support the pretensions of William. The will Harold knew to be void of foundation, and the oath he entirely disregarded, as it had not only been drawn from him by the fear of violence, but was in itself unlawful ; unless William had not only been appointed successor by the king, but chosen by the people, the English crown not being at the disposal of the sovereign. He therefore replied to the Norman ambassadors, who summoned him to resign the kingdom, that he was determined strenu- ously to maintain those national liberties with which he had been intrusted, and that the same moment should put a period to his life and his sway.(l) This answer Avas no other than what William expected. He knew the valour of Harold, and the power of the English nation ; but he consulted only his ambition, and his courage. The boldness of the enterprise he thought would astonish the enemy, and inspire his soldiers with resolution from despair, as well as from a desire of supporting the reputation of their country- men, who had about this time revived their ancient fame, as we shall afterward have occasion to see, by the most hazardous exploits and the most wonderful successes in the other extremity of Europe. Nor were these the only foundation of William's hopes. A. military spirit had universally diffused itself over Europe ; and the feudal nobles, whose minds were elated by their princely situation, greedily embraced the most hazardous enterprises, how little soever they might be interested in the failure or success. Hence their passion for chivalry, and their ambition to out- shine each other in exertions of strength or prowess. William had long been distinguished among those haughty chieftains by his power, his courage, and his address in all military exercises ; and every one ambitious of acquiring renown in arms, repaired to the court of Normandy, where they were enter- tained with that hospitality and courtesy which distinguished the age. The fame of the intended invasion of England had been every where diffused : the more perilous the attempt appeared, the more it suited the genius of the times : multitudes of adventurers therefore crowded to tender their service to William, impatient to acquire fame under so renowned a leader, or to sup- port, by new acts of valour, that reputation which they had already earned ;(2) so that the duke's army consisted of the flower of all the warriors of the continent, determined to die or to conquer. The continental monarchs could surely have obstructed those supplies. But Philip I. of France, whose interest most it was, being a minor, Baldwin earl of Flanders, William's father-in-law, who then held the reins of govern ment, favoured the duke's levies (as I have had occasion to observe) both in France and Flanders ; and the emperor Henry IV. besides giving all his vas sals leave to embark in this expedition, which so much engaged the atten tion of Europe, promised his protection to the dutchy of Normandy during the absence of the duke, and thereby enabled him to draw his whole strength to the attack of England. But William's most important ally was pope Alexander II. who had a tnighto influence over the warriors of that age ; and who, besides being flat- tered by an appeal which William had made to the court of Rome in favour :>f his undertaking, at a time when this pontiff wanted to be the arbiter of a) Gul. Malmes. lib. iii. Higden. Matili. West. (2) Gul. Pictav. 110 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. princes, foresaw that if the French and Norman barons were successful in their enterprise, they would import into England, which still maintained some degree of independence in ecclesiastical matters, a more devoted reverence to the Holy See. He therefore declared immediately in favour of William's claim; pronounced Harold a perjured usurper; denounced excom- munication against him and his adherents ; and in order more particularly to encourage the duke, he sent him a consecrated banner, and a ring with one of St. Peter's hairs in it.(l) Thus, as the sagacious Hume remarks, all the ambition and violence of this invasion were covered safely over with the broad mantle of religion. The Norman fleet, which consisted of three hundred vessels, great and small, and carried an army of sixty thousand men, selected by William from those numerous supplies that courted his service, had been assembled early in the summer, and put to sea soon after ; but, being long detained by con- trary winds, the troops began to imagine that Heaven had declared against them, and that, notwithstanding the pope's benediction, they were destined to destruction. The wind, however, fortunately changed on the eve of the feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy; and the soldiers and their bold leaders, who had an equal contempt of real and a dread of imaginary dangers, fancying they saw the hand of Providence in the cause of their former terrors, set out with the greatest alacrity, and safely arrived at Pe- vensey in Sussex, where the troops quietly disembarked. The duke himself had the misfortune to fall, as he leaped ashore a circumstance which, con- sidering the superstition of the times, might have been construed to his dis- advantage, but which he had the presence of mind to turn in his favour, by calling aloud, " I have taken possession of England !" and a soldier, running to a neighbouring cottage, plucked some thatch, which he presented to his general, as giving him seizin of the kingdom. (2) The confidence of William and his followers was now so great, that when they heard even of Harold's victory over the Danes, instead of being discouraged they seemed only to 'ong with more impatience for the arrival of the English army. They had not long occasion to wait. Harold was at York when he received intelligence of the Norman invasion, and hastened by quick marches to meet his competitor. But on reviewing his forces he found them much diminished, though he had been reinforced with fresh troops from London and other places. His victory proved his ruin. Many of his bravest officers and veteran soldiers fell in the action ; some retired from fatigue, and others jecretly withdrew from discontent, because he had refused to distribute the Danish spoils among them a conduct little suited to his usual generosity of temper, and which can only be accounted for from a desire of easing his people in the war that hung over them from Normandy, and which he foresaw must be attended with great expense. From these and other circumstances, Gurth, the king's brother, a man of bravery and conduct, began to entertain apprehensions of the event ; and represented to the king, that it would be better policy to prolong the war than to risk a general action, as the winter was approaching, when the enemy would suffer many hardships, while the English, better sheltered, and be- coming every day more incensed against their invaders, would hasten from all quarters to his assistance, and render his army invincible ; or, if he thought it necessary to hazard a battle, he ought at least not to expose his person, that some resource might still be left for the liberty and independency of the kingdom. But Harold, deaf to all these arguments, rejected his brother's advice with disdain ; and, elated with past prosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, replied, that he would give battle in person, and con- vince his subjects that he was worthy of the crown which they had set upon his head.(3) With this resolution he drew near to the Normans, who had removed their camp to Hastings. He was even so confident of success, that he sent a mes- '!) Baker, Citron. (2) Order. Vital. ) Order. Vital. Gul. Malmes. lib. iii. LET. XIX.] MODERN EUROPE. Ill sage to the duke of Normandy, offering him a sum of money, if he would depart the kingdom without effusion of blood ; and William, not to be behind him in vaunting, commanded him to resign the crown of England, to submit their cause to the arbitration of the pope, or to fight him in single combat. Harold replied, that the God of battles would soon be the arbiter of all their differences.(l) Both armies now impatiently expected the awful decision; but night drawing on, it was deferred till morning. During this interval of darkness and suspense, the scene was very different in the two camps : the English spent the night in riot and feasting: the Normans, in prayer and preparations for battle. As soon as day began to appear, the duke assembled his principal officers, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion. He next divided his army into three lines. The first consisted of archers and light armed infantry; the second was composed of his bravest battalions, heavy armed, and ranged in close order. The cavalry, at the head of which William placed himself, formed the third line, and were so disposed, that they stretched be- yond the infantry, and flanked each wing of the army. He commanded the signal to be given ; and the whole army, moving at once, and singing the celebrated song of Rowland, the fabulous nephew, but renowned captain of Charlemagne, advanced in order of battle. (2) Harold, whose army was inferior to William's in number as well as in dis- cipline, had seized the advantage of a rising ground ; and having drawn some trenches to secure his flanks, seemed inclined to act upon the defensive, and to avoid all encounter with the Norman cavalry, to which his strength in horse was very unequal. The Kentish men were placed in the front, a post which they had always claimed as their due : the Londoners guarded the standard ; and the king, dismounting, placed himself in the centre, at the head of his infantry, expressing his resolution to conquer or die. The first attack of the Norman foot was terrible : their archers sorely galled their adversaries ; and, as the English ranks were close, the arrows did great execution. But Harold's army received the shock of the enemy undismayed ; and after a furious struggle, which long remained undecided, the Normans began to give ground. Confusion was spreading from rank to rank ; when William, who found himself on the brink of ruin, hastened with a select band to the relief of his broken forces. His presence restored the battle. The English were obliged to retire in their turn ; but the duke finding they still made a vigor- ous resistance, aided by the advantage of ground, and animated by the example of their valiant prince, ordered his troops to make a hasty retreat, and allure their antagonists from their station by the appearance of flight. The artifice succeeded. Impelled by the enthusiasm of valour and the heat of action, the troops of Harold precipitately followed the Normans into the plain ; while William instructed his infantry at once to face about on their pursuers, and the cavalry to make an assault upon their wings. The English were thrown into disorder, and driven back with loss to the hill ; where, being rallied with the generalship of Harold, they were again able to maintain the combat. William tried the same stratagem a second time, and with equal success. Yet he still found a large body of English forces that remained firm around their prince, and seemed determined to dispute the field to the last man ; when fortune decided a victory which valour had left doubtful. Harold, who had fought with unspeakable courage and personal prowess from dawn until eve, was shot into the brains with an arrow, while bravely defending the royal standard at the head of his guards. His two gallant brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, also were slain; and the English army, dispirited by the loss of its leaders, gave way on all sides, and was pursued with great slaughter by the victorious Normans."(3) Thus, my dear Philip, was gained by William the Norman, aftenvard sur- named the Conqueror, the famous battle of Hastings, which terminated the 1) Higden. (2) Gul. Malmes. lib. iii. Du Gang, in Gloss. Verb. Gait. Roland. 3i Gul. Malmes. ubi. sup. Gul. Pict. H. Hunting. R. Hoveden. M. Paris. Order Vital 112 THE HISTORY OF [PART . Anglo-Saxon monarchy in England ; and which, by the heroic feats of valour displayed on both sides, by both armies and both commanders, seemed worthy to decide the fate of a mighty kingdom. Fifteen thousand of the Normans fell, and a much greater number of the English forces. (1) But we must take d view of the other nations of Europe, and also throw a glance on those of Asia and Africa, before I consider the consequences of this victory, and the influence of the revolution by which it was followed, upon the laws, government, and manners of England. In the mean time, however, it will not be improper to take a slight survey of the state of England at the Norman conquest. POSTSCRIPT. No territory of so small an extent has ever so much engaged the attention of mankind, for so long a series of ages, as the island of Britain. From the most remote antiquity it was visited by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, on account of its tin and other valuable productions. The Romans, in the height of their power, made themselves masters of the southern part of it, at a vast expense of blood and treasure : and they thought the acquisition of sufficient importance, to preserve their footing in this distant and transmarine province for three hundred years, by maintaining in it a great naval and military force. The ancient Britons lost their courage and their independent spirit under the Roman dominion, but received from their enlightened governors some knowledge of arts and letters. (2) The Saxons, in achieving their sanguinary conquest, destroyed every trace of ingenuity which the Romans had introduced into the island, without bringing along with them one peaceful art, with which the Britons were not better acquainted ; and the inveterate wars between the princes of the Heptarchy afterward obstructed, among their people, the usual progress of civilization. But no sooner was England united into one kingdom, under Egbert, than commerce and manufactures began to be cultivated in a country so highly favoured by nature; abounding in the materials of industry, and surrounded on three sides by the sea, which forms on its coasts many commodious bays and safe harbours. (3) The commerce and navigation of the Anglo-Saxons, however, was cruelly injured by the piracy and predatory invasions of the Danes ; yet did England, under their government, contain many large trading towns, and a greater number of inhabitants, both in the towns and in the country, than could have been expected in such a turbulent and hostile period. London, York, Bristol,(4) Exeter, and Norwich, were great and populous cities ; and as the labours of husbandry were chiefly performed by slaves or villains, who were excluded from military service, the number of freemen in England, habituated to the use of arms, if not greater, must have been as great at the Norman invasion as in any former or subsequent period. (5) But let us not hence (1) Gul. Gemat. cliap. xxxvi. (2) If the Britons had any knowledge of letters before the arrival of the Romans, that knowledge was confined chiefly, if not solely, to their priests, the mysterious Druids. (3) The principal English exports, during the Anglo-Saxon times, were tin, lead, wool, hides, horses, and slaves! These slaves consisted not solely of such unhappy persons as the laws of war or other causes had reduced to the condition of perpetual servitude. The Anglo-Saxons are accused, by contemporary writers, of making merchandise even of their nearest relations ; " a custom," adds a respectable historian, who lived after the Norman conquest, " which prevails in Northumberland even in our own days." Gul. Mahnes. lib. i. (4) The Bristol traders were distinguished, even in those early ages, by their mercantile sagacity. ' The people of this town," says an author of undoubted veracity, " were cured of a most odious and inveterate custom, by Wulfstan, (bishop of Winchester at the Norman conquest) of buying men ana teamen in all parts of England, and exporting them for the sake of fain. The young women they com manly pot with child, and carried them to the market in their pregnancy, that they might bring a better price." Anglia Sacra, torn. ii. (5) To that exemption from rustic labour, which was friendly to the use of arms, may also perhaps be ascribed tlie dissolute manners of the Anglo-Saxons. Unless when employed in war or hunting, their whole time was gpent in drinking and feasting. This licentious life seems to have much impaired the native courage of the Enclisli nation, before the Danish conquest. The wars which introduced and ac- companied that conquest revived their martial spirit : and under the Danish princes, the Anglo-Saxons LET. XX.] MODERN EUROPE. 113 conclude, that sixty thousand men, under an experienced leader, have at al] imes been sufficient to overturn the constitution of this vigorous kingdom. William was ultimately indebted for his good fortune, less to the rashness of he English monarch, his own conduct, or the valour of his troops, than to the unsettled state of the succession to the crown. Harold had owed his exaltation to the throne as much to fear as affection ; and, on his death, the English nobility, who had borne with impatience the sway of an equal, naturally looked up to his conqueror and competitor, the kinsman of their ancient princes, as their sovereign, their head, and centre of union. The duke of Normandy, at Hastings, had triumphed over their elected king, but not over their liberties. These they imprudently put into his hands (as we shall afterward have occasion to see) in hopes that he would not abuse their generosity, when resistance, and even vengeance, was in their power. LETTER XX. Spain, the Arabs, and the Empire of Constantinople, during the ninth, tenth, ana Part of the eleventh Century. SPAIN. THE death of Abdurrahman, the Moorish king, whom we have seen reigu with so much lustre at Cordova, was followed by dissensions among his chil- dren, which procured some relief to the Spanish Christians. The little king- dom of the Asturias, or of Leon and Oviedo, as it was afterward called, founded by Pelagius, increased under Alphonso III. surnamed the Great, on account of his wisdom and valour. Garcias Ximenes, descended, from the ancient Spaniards, had also founded, in 758, the kingdom of Navarre, which became one of the most considerable Christian principalities in Spain. The Moors, however, still possessed Portugal, Murcia, Andalusia, Valentia, Granada, Tortosa, and the interior part of the country as far as the moun- tains of Castile and Saragossa more than three-fourths of Spain, and the most fertile provinces. Among them, as in the other nations of Europe, a crowd of too powerful nobles affected independency, and the sovereign was obliged to contend with his subjects for dominion. This was the time to have crushed the Mahometan power: but the Spanish Christians were not more united than their enemies. Though continually at war with the Moors, they were always destroying each other. The reign of Alphonso the Great was full of conspiracies and revolts : his own wife and his two sons were among the number of the rebels. He resigned his crown to Garcias the eldest; he even generously fought under his command; and died in 912, with the glory of a hero, and the piety of a saint.(l) Ramiro II. king of Leon and Oviedo, another Spanish hero, gained in 938 the celebrated victory of Simancas, where the Moors are said to have lost fourscore thousand men. He had promised to St. James, in a pilgrimage to Compostella, that, if he was victorious, all his subjects should offer annually appeared to have emulated their conquerors to all acts of prowess and valour. But both were alike given to long and excessive drinking, in large societies or clubs: and the Danes added to this convivial in temper ence an inordinate passion for women ; in which they seem to have gloried, and often gratified in a manner shocking to humanity. Violence in love was with them as common as in war. Yet they some- times made use of other means to accomplish their purpose they affected gallantry ; and, by their atten- tion to dress and cleanliness, are said to have seduced many English wives. That cleanliness, however, by which they were distinguished, consisted only in combing the hair once a day, and washing themselves once a week. Wallingford, ad. Gale, torn. i. Gul. Malmes. lib. ii. Jlnglia. Sacra, torn. ii. The manners of the Welsh in this dark period must have been even less delicate than those of the Anglo- Saxons ; for they thought it necessary, we find, to make a law, That none of the courtiers should give the queen a blow, or snatch any thing violently out of her hands, under penalty of forfeiting Her Majesty's protection. (Leg. Wallicse, p. 11.) And if any woman brought an action for a rape which was denied by the man, she was ordered to take hold of the culprit by the offending part, with her left hand, and to lay the right on the holy reliques ; and, in that position , to make oath of the violation of her person quod is per se isto membra vitia verit. Ibid. p. 80. u (1) Ferreras. Mariana. 11 114 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. a certain measure of wheat to the church of that saint. The church was enriched, and the name of St. James became the alarm to battle among the Spaniards. Men are chiefly indebted for all their heroic achievements to their pas- sions : hence nothing is so irresistible as the valour inspired by enthusiasm, while it lasts. The name of St. James was long terrible to the Moors, ana long the companion of victory. Mahomet Almanzor, however, the celebrated general and prime minister of Hissem king of Cordova, found means, by another artifice, to turn the tide of success. Seeing his troops begin to fly, in a battle fought on the banks of the river Ezla, he dismounted from his horse, sat down in the field, threw his turban on the ground, and, laying his arms across his breast, declared he would in that posture meet his fate, since he was abandoned by his army. This stratagem had the desired effect ; hi' troops returned to the charge, and obtained a complete victory. The Moors became sensible that they could conquer in spite of St. James : and the Christians in their turn trembled at the name of Almanzor. That great man, who was no less a politician than a warrior, is said to have vanquished the Christian princes in fifty engagements. He took the city of Leon by assault; sacked Compostella; pillaged the church of St. James, and carried the gates in triumph, on the shoulders of his army, to Cordova. This triumph proved his ruin. A flux breaking out among his troops, the Christians considered that distemper as a punishment inflicted by St. James : the flame of enthusiasm rekindled, and Almanzor was defeated. But what was infinitely more advantageous to the Christians, as well as more fatal to himself, he was so much ashamed of his misfortune, that he would neither eat nor drink, and obstinately perished of hunger.(l) About the beginning of the eleventh century, the race of Abdurrahman being extinct, the kingdom of Cordova was dismembered, by the ambition of a number -of noblemen, who all usurped the title of king. Toledo, Valentia, Seville, Saragossa, and almost all the great cities, had their independent sovereigns. The provinces were changed into kingdoms, which multiplied in the same manner among the Christians, who had a king of Leon, of Na- varre, of Castile, of Arragon; and Sancho, surnamed the Great, king of Navarre, was so imprudent as to subdivide his dominions among his four sons. Perpetual jealousies, with all the crimes that accompany them, were the consequence of these divisions of territory treachery, poisonings, as- sassinations ! the common weapons of petty neighbouring and rival princes, who have much ambition and small means of gratifying it. Hence the his- tory of Spain becomes always less important, in proportion to the increase of the kingdoms. One circumstance, however, merits our attention, both on account of its nature and its singularity. In this dark and oppressive period, when the commonalty all over Europe were either degraded to a state of actual slavery, or in a condition little more to be envied, the people of Arragon shared the government with their sove- reign. The representatives of cities and towns had a place in their Cortes, or national assembly. But the Arragonians, not satisfied with this check on the royal prerogative, nor willing to trust the preservation of their liberties solely to their representatives, elected a justiza, or grand judge, who was the supreme interpreter of the laws, and whose particular business it was to restrain the encroachments of the crown, and protect the rights of the sub- ject. He was chosen from among the cavelleros, or second order in the state, answering to our gentlemen commoners, that he might be equally inte- rested in curbing the oppressive spirit of the nobles, and setting bounds to the ambition of the prince. His person was sacred, and his jurisdiction almost unbounded : his power was exerted in superintending the administra- tion of government, no less than in regulating the course of justice. He had a right to review all the royal proclamations and patents, and to declare whether they were agreeable to law, and ought to be carried into execution : (I) Rod. Tolet, de Reb. Hisi>. Anna 1 .. Cvmpostcl. LBT. XX.] MODERN EUROPE. 115 and he could, by his sole authority, exclude any of the king's ministers from the management of affairs, and call them to answer for their conduct while In office. He himself was answerable to the Cortes alone. The justiza had also the singular privilege of receiving the coronation oath, in the name of the people ; when, holding a naked sword opposite to the king's heart, he repeated these remarkable words : " We, who are your equals, make you our sovereign, and promise obedience to your government, on condition that you maintain our rights and liberties ; if not not !" And it was accordingly an established maxim in the constitution of Arragon, that if the king should violate his engagements, it was lawful for the people to depose him, and to elect another in his stead.(l) THE EMPIRE OF THE ARABS, FROM the Arabs in Spain we pass naturally to those of Asia and the neigh- bouring continent of Africa. The great empire of the Arabs, as well as its tiranches, had experienced those revolutions which war and discord naturally produce, and which sooner or later overturn the best founded governments. The glory of the caliphat was obscured toward the end of the ninth century. Under weak or wicked princes, the African governors shook off their alle- giance. Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, formed particular states. Religious quarrels augmented those of ambition. The Fattimides, a Mahometan sect, flamed with all the fury of fanaticism. They founded an empire in Egypt, from which they expelled the race of Abbas ; and Cairo, the capital of that empire, became the seat of a new caliph, and a nourishing city of commerce. Another fanatical sect, persuaded that the abuses introduced into the teligion of Mahomet required reformation, delivered themselves up to the transports of enthusiasm, and acquired strength by being persecuted. They revolted, obtained several victories, and seized the provinces on the western coast of Africa, which form the present kingdom of Morocco; where their chief, like the other caliphs, uniting the royalty with the priesthood, governed his new empire under the name of Miramoulin, or Commander of the Faith- ful, a title implying his claim to the caliphat. Other circumstances conspired to dismember the empire of the Arabs. The caliphs of Bagdat had received into their armies a body of Turks, or Tur- comans, a Tartar tribe. These auxiliaries, on account of their valour, were soon employed as the royal guard, and subjected those whom they were hired to protect. They took advantage of the civil wars raised against the caliphat to make themselves lords of Asia : they stripped the caliphs, by degrees, of the sovereignty, but permitted them to retain the pontificate, which they revered ; prudently submitting themselves to the religion of the country, and kneeling to the priest while they despoiled the king.(2) A variety of sovereigns sprung up under the name of Sultans, who were invested with their dominions by the caliphs, but took care to leave them very little authority; so that the successors of Mahomet found themselves, to- wards the middle of the eleventh century, in much the same situation with those of St. Peter under the first German emperors, or with the kings of Europe about the same time, whose power declined in proportion to the in- crease of their vassals. THE EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. WHILE the empire of the Arabs was thus overturned, and that of Charle- magne falling to pieces, the empire of Constantinople, to borrow a simile from Voltaire, still stood like a large tree, vigorous though old, stripped of (1) Zurit. Jlnnal. de Arrag. Hier. Blanca, Comment, de Rer. Jlrrag. '2) Leunclav. Jinnal. Turcici. Georg. Elmacin. Histor. Saracenica H2 116 THE HISTORY OF [PART! its branches, some of its roots, and buffeted on every side by storms and tempests. Though much circumscribed on the eastern frontier, it yet ex- tended over all Greece, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, Thrace, Illyricum : it was contracted indeed, but not dismembered ; often changing its emperors, but always united under the person who swayed the sceptre. How unworthy, in general, of the imperial dignity! and what a people had they to govern ! Nicephorus, whom we have seen dethrone Irene, was an execrable tyrant. The Saracens robbed him of the Isle of Cyprus ; and the Bulgarians, the scourge of Thrace, took him prisoner, after having cut off his army, beheaded him, and threw his body to the beasts of the field, while they made a drinking- cup of his skull. (1) Stauracus, the son of Nicephorus, rendered himself so odious in the be- ginning of his reign, that he was abandoned" by his people, and obliged to become a monk. Michael Rangabus refused to make peace with the Bulgarians, because a monk declared, that he could not, in conscience, deliver up the deserters. In consequence of this refusal, the Greeks were defeated by the Bulgarians : the emperor betook himself to flight ; and the officers, incensed at his beha- viour, proclaimed Leo the Armenian. Leo attempted to assassinate the king of the Bulgarians, who, in revengf, pillaged the suburbs of Constantinople. The emperor could conceive notliiny more effectual to save the state than the extirpation of idolatry ; that is to say, the abolition of images. He accordingly commanded a new persecu- tion ; and eight hundred and twenty persons were massacred in one church. Michael the Stammerer, the successor of Leo, at first tolerated the worship of images. But he afterward changed his system: he persecuted those whom he had formerly protected, and would even have had the sabbath ob- served, and the passover celebrated in the manner of the Jews. The Saru- cens took advantage of his weakness to make themselves masters of the Isle of Crete, now Candia : they also conquered almost all Sicily, and ravaged Apulia and Calabria.(2) During the reign of Theophilus, though more worthy of the imperial throne, the persecution was redoubled, and the Saracens extended their conquests. But after his death, the empress Theodora, governing during the minority of Michael III. re-established the worship of images, as Irene had formerly done. Afterward, desirous to convert the Manicheans by terror, she caused them to be destroyed in thousands. Those who escaped went over to the Bulgarians, and the empire was obliged to contend with its own subjects. Michael confined Theodora in a convent ; and delivering himself up to all manner of crimes, carried his impiety so far, as to sport with the ecclesiastical ceremonies. He was assassinated by Basil, whom he had associated in the empire, and imprudently would have deposed. Basil, originally a beggar, now found himself emperor. He is celebrated for his justice and humanity; but he was a dupe to the patriarch, Photius, whom he favoured with his confidence, even after he had exiled him. His reign is the era of the grand schism, which for ever divided the Greek and Latin churches. This schism, which took its rise from a jealousy between the primates of the East and West, was brought to a crisis by the conversion of the Bulga- rians. As Bulgaria had formerly belonged to the eastern empire, it was dis- puted, whether the new Christians ought to be subject to the pope, or to the patriarch of Constantinople. A variety of other reasons were assigned for the squabble that followed ; but this is the true one, and the only one which it is necessary for you to know. The council of Constantinople gave judg- ment in favour of the patriarch; but the pope's legates protested against the decision. New circumstances widened the breach. The two primates ex- communicated each other ; and although the quarrel was sometimes mode. (1) Tlieophan. (2) Cerden. LET. XX.] MODERN EUROPE. 117 rated by the mediation of the emperors, it was never made up. The schism continued. The Saracens took Syracuse, while Basil was employed in founding- a church ; and his son Leo composed sermons, while the empire was ravaged on all sides. Leo, however, is styled the Philosopher ; because he loved learning-, and favoured learned men, not from being an Alfred or a Marcus Aurelius. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the son and successor of Leo, merits the eulogies bestowed on him, as a protector of the sciences, which he himself cultivated with success. Men of the first rank taught philosophy, geometry, and rhetoric, at Constantinople, during his reign, which commenced in 912, and ended in 959. But the affairs of the empire were not conducted better than formerly. They were still worse conducted under Romanus, the son of Constantine, who poisoned his father, and was the tyrant of his people. Nicephorus Phocas had the honour of vanquishing the Saracens, and of recovering from them Crete, Antioch, and other places. His avarice and tyranny, however, made him detested : his own wife joined in a conspiracy against him ; and he was murdered in bed. John Zimisces, one of the assassins, seized the empire, and delivered it from the Rossi, or Russians, whom he defeated in several engagements. This brave prince was poisoned by the eunuch Basil, his chamberlain, who, notwithstanding, preserved his credit under Basil II. grandson of Constantine Porphyrogenitus . Basil was a warrior, but a barbarous one. Having vanquished the Bulga- rians, he caused the eyes of five thousand prisoners to be put out. His sub- jects, loaded with taxes, could not enjoy his triumphs. He fought for him- self, not for them. His death was followed by a train of the blackest crimes of which we have any example in history. The princess Zoe, daughter of Constantine, the brother and colleague of Basil, had espoused Romanus Argyropulus, who was proclaimed emperor. Zoe afterward became enamoured of Michael Paphlagonotus, a man of low birth. She poisoned her husband, in order to give the throne to her lover , but the poison not operating quick enough, she caused Argyropulus to be drowned in a bath. The patriarch of Constantinople at first scrupled to marry the empress to Michael. But a sum of money quieted his conscience, and the imperial crown followed the sanction of the church. The emperor Paphlagonotus, a prey to diseases and remorse, died in the habit of a monk ; and Zoe gave the empire and her hand to Michael Cala- phates, the son of a calker, or cobbler of ships, by a sister of the other Michael, hoping that he would be the slave of her will. But the new emperor, jealous of his power, put her in confinement. The people revolted : they released the empress and her sister Theodora, and put out the eyes of Ca- laphates. The two sisters reigned together a year, and employed themselves only about trifles. The people would have a prince ; and Zoe, at last, married Constantine Monomachus, one of her ancient lovers, who was crowned. This upstart emperor neglected his wife for a young mistress. The Greeks, incensed at his conduct, seized him in a procession, and declared they would only obey two empresses. He would have been cut to pieces, if the princesses had not interposed. Monomachus augmented the miseries of the empire by his rapacity. The frontier provinces had been exempted from taxes, on condition that they should defend themselves against the barbarians. The emperor pretended that he would defend them, and made them pay like the rest of the empire ;(l) but they were poorly defended, notwithstanding the taxes. These particulars will be sufficient to enable you to judge of the state of Constantinople. If at any time we find an able and warlike prince there, we (0 Cerden. See also Curpolatus and Leo Gramraattcoa. 118 THE HISTORY OF always find the same reigning spirit of superstition and rebellion. Isaac Comnenus, one of the best Greek emperors, proclaimed in 1057, made him- self hated by the monks, because he applied to the public exigencies the super- flux of their wealth. Lamed by a fall from his horse, he gave himself up to devotion, resigned his crown in favour of Constantino Ducas, and took the habit of a monk. Ducas, too much a friend to peace, abandoned the provinces to the ravages of the Turks. He made his three sons emperors, and left the regency to their mother Eudoxia, exacting from her a promise, that she would never marry : and this promise he obliged her to confirm in writing. Eudoxia, nowever, soon resolved to marry Romanus Diogenes, whom she had con- demned to die, but whose fine person subdued her heart. Her promise, deposited in the hands of the patriarch, now gave her much uneasiness. In order to recover it, she artfully pretended to have fixed her choice on the patriarch's kinsman. This amorous deceit had the desired effect. The writing was restored ; and the empress, absolved from her promise of widow- hood, did not fail to take advantage of her release. She immediately married Romanus, and procured him the empire. (1) Could ignorant savages have acted more absurdly 1 or ruffians amenable to public justice more atrociously 1 ? Yet the Greeks were still the most learned and polished people in Europe ; and Constantinople, notwithstanding all its misfortunes, its revolutions, and crimes, having never felt the destruc- tive rage of the Barbarians, continued to be the largest and most beautiful European city, after the fall of Rome, and the only one where any image of ancient manners or ingenuity remained. Thus, my dear Philip, we rapidly traverse the wilds of history ; where the objects are often confused, rude, and uninteresting. But it is necessary to travel these first stages, in order to arrive at more cultivated fields. We shall soon meet with a new set of objects, equally interesting and important ; and then more leisure and attention will be required. In the mean time, we must take a review of past ages. LETTER XXI. Progress of Society in Europe, from the Settlement of the Modern Nations, to the Middle of the Eleventh Century. I HAVE already given you, in a particular letter, an account of the system of policy and legislation established by the Barbarians, or northern invaders, on their first settlement in the provinces of the Roman empire :(2) and I have endeavoured, in the course of my general narration, to mark the progress of society, as it regards religion, laws, government, manners, and literature. But as the history of the human mind is of infinitely more importance than the detail of events, this letter, my dear Philip, shall be entirely devoted to such circumstances as tend more particularly to throw light upon that subject. I shall also pursue the same method, at different intervals, during the subse- quent part of your historical studies. Though the northern invaders wanted taste to value the Roman arts, laws, or literature, they generally embraced the religion of the conquered people. And the mild and benevolent spirit of Christianity would doubtless have soft- ened their savage manners, had not their minds been already infected by a barbarous superstition ; which, mingling itself with the Christian principles and ceremonies, produced that absurd mixture of violence, devotion, and folly, which has so long disgraced the Romish church, and which formed the cha- racter of the middle ages. The clergy were gainers, but Christianity was a loser, by the conversion of the Barbarians. They rather changed the object than the spirit of their religion. il) Anna Cumnena N'icetai. (2) Irf-itei II. LET. XXI.] MODEnN EUROPE. 119 The druids among the Gauls and Britons, the priests among the ancient Germans, and among all the nations of Scandinavia, possessed an absolute dominion over the minds of men. These people, after embracing Christianity, retained their veneration for the priesthood. And unhappily, the clergy of those times had neither virtue enough to preserve them from abusing, nor knowledge sufficient to enable them to make a proper use of their power. They blindly favoured the superstitious homage : and such of the Barbarians as entered into holy orders, carried their ignorance and their original preju- dices along with them. The Christian emperors of Rome and Constantinople had enriched the church : they had lavished on it privileges and immunities ; and these seducing advantages had but too much contributed to a relaxation of discipline, and the introduction of disorders, more or less hurtful, which had altered the spirit of the Gospel. Under the dominion of the Barbarians the degeneracy increased, till the pure principles of Christianity were lost in a gross super- stition ; which, instead of aspiring to virtuous sanctity, the only sacrifice that can render a rational being acceptable to the great Author of order and excel- lence, endeavoured to conciliate the favour of God by the same means that satisfied the justice of men, or by those employed to appease their fabulous deities. (1) As the punishments due for civil crimes, among the northern conquerors, might be bought off by money, they attempted, in like manner, to bribe heaven, by benefactions to the church, in order to supersede all future inquest. And the more they gave themselves up to their brutal passions, to rapine, and to violence, the more profuse they were in this species of good works. They seem to have believed, says the Abb6 de Mably, that avarice was the first attribute of the Divinity, and that the saints made a traffic of their influence and protection. Hence the bonmot of Clovis : " St. Martin serves his friends very well ; but he makes them pay soundly for his trouble !" " Our treasure is poor," says Chilperic, the grandson of Clovis : " our riches are gone to the church : the bishops are the kings !" And indeed the superior clergy, who, by the acquisition of lands, added the power of fortune to the influence of religion, were often the arbiters of kingdoms, and disposed of the crown while they regulated the affairs of the state. There was .a necessity of consulting them, because they possessed all the knowledge that then remained in Europe. The acts of their counsels were considered as infallible decrees, and they spoke usually in the name of God ; but, alas ! they were only men. As the interest of the clergy clashed with that of the laity, opposition and jealousy produced new disorders. The priests made use of artifice against their powerful adversaries : they invented fables to awe them into submis- sion: they employed the spiritual arms in defence of their temporal goods; they changed the mild language of charity into frightful anathemas : the reli- gion of Jesus breathed nothing but terror. To the thunder of the church, the instrument of so many wars and revolutions, they joined the assistance of the sword. Warlike prelates, clad in armour, combated for their posses- sions, or to usurp those of others ; and, like the heathen priests, whose perni- cious influence was founded on the ignorance of the people, the Christian clergy sought to extend their authority by confining all knowledge to their own order. They made a mystery of the most necessary sciences : truth was not permitted to see the light, and reason was fettered in the cell of superstition. Many of the clergy themselves could scarce read, and writing was chiefly confined to the cloisters,(2) where a blind and interested devotion, equally willing to deceive and to believe, held the quill, and where lying chronicles and fabulous legends were composed, which contaminated history, religion, and the principles and the laws of society. Without arts, sciences, commerce, policy, principles, the European nations 1) Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. 1. H. (2) Persons who could not write made the sign of the cross in place of their name, in confirmation of any legal deed. (Du Cangs Gloss voc Cruz) Hence the phrase signing, instead of subscribing a raper 120 THEHISTORYOF [PART I. were all as barbarous and wretched as they could possibly be, unless a mira- cle had been wrought for the disgrace of humanity. Charlemagne indeed in France, and Alfred the Great in England, as you have had occasion to see, endeavoured to dispel this darkness, and tame their subjects to the restraints of law : and they were so fortunate as to succeed. Light and order distin- guished their reigns. But the ignorance and barbarism of the age were too powerful for their liberal institutions : the darkness returned, after their time, more thick and heavy than formerly, and settled over Europe, and socict\ again tumbled into chaos. The ignorance of the West was so profound, during the ninth and tenth centuries, that the clergy, who alone possessed the important secrets of reading and writing, became necessarily the arbiters and the judges of almost ail secular affairs. They comprehended within their jurisdiction, marriages, contracts, wills, which they took care to involve in mystery, and by which ilit'y opened to themselves new sources of wealth and power.(l) Every iiiing wore the colour of religion; temporal and spiritual concerns were con- founded; and from this unnatural mixture sprung a thousand abuses. The !ii story of those ages forms a satire on the human soul; and on religion, if v, e should impute to it the faults of its ministers. " Redeem your souls from destruction," says St. Egidius, bishop of Noyon, while you have the means in your power : offer presents and tithes to church- men : come more frequently to church : humbly implore the patronage of the saints ; for if you observe these things you may come with security in the day of the tribunal of the Eternal Judge, and say, Give us, O Lord, for we have given unto thee !"(2) In several churches of France a festival was celebrated in commemoration '. { the Virgin Mary's flight into Egypt. It was called the Feast of the Ass. A young girl richly dressed, with a child in her arms, was set upon an ass superbly caparisoned. The ass was led to the altar in solemn procession. High mass was said with great pomp. The ass was taught to kneel at proper places ; a hymn, no less childish than impious, was sung in his praise : and when the ceremony was ended, the priest, instead of the usual words witli which he dismissed the people, brayed three times like an ass ; and the peo- ple, instead of the usual response, brayed three times in return.(3) Letters began to revive in the eleventh century, but made small progress till toward its close. A scientifical jargon, a false logic, employed about words, without conveying any idea of things, composed the learning of those times. It confounded all things, in endeavouring to analyze every thing. As the new scholars were mostly clergymen, theological matters chiefly engaged their attention ; and as they neither knew history, philosophy, nor criticism, their labours were as futile as their inquiries, which were equally disgraceful to reason and religion. The conception of the blessed Virgin, and digestion of the eucharist, were two of the principal objects of their speculation : and out of the last a third arose, which was, to know whether it was voided again 1(4) The disorders of government and manners kept pace, as they always will, with those of religion and learning. These disorders seem to have attained their utmost height about the middle of the tenth century. Then the feudal policy, the defects of which I have pointed out,(5) was become universal. The dukes or governors of provinces, the marquises employed to guard the marshes, and even the counts intrusted with the administration of justice, all originally officers of the crown, had made themselves masters of their dutchies, marquisates, and counties. The king indeed, as superior lord, still received homage from them for those lands which they held of the crown ; and which, in default of heirs, returned to the royal domain. He had a right of calling them out to war, of judging them in his court by their assembled peers, and of confiscating their estates in case of rebellion ; but in all othei (1) Du Canee, voc. Curia Christian. Flcurv. Hist. E-cles torn. xix. Disc. Prelim. (2) D. Specileg. Vet. Script, vol. ii. '3l Du Cange, voc. Fcstum. (4) Hist. Liltcrairt de France. '51 Letter I) LET. XXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 121 respects, they themselves enjoyed their rights of royalty. They had their sub-vassals, or subjects ; they made laws, held courts, coined money in their own name, and levied war against their private enemies.(l) The most frightful disorders arose from this state of feudal anarchy. Force decided all things. Europe was one great field of battle, where the weak struggled for freedom, and the strong for dominion. The king was without power, and the nobles without principle; they were tyrants at home, and robbers abroad. Nothing remained to be a check upon ferocity and violence. The Scythians in their deserts could not be less indebted to the laws of society than the Europeans during the period under revieAV. The people, the most numerous as well as the most useful class in the community, were either actual slaves, or exposed to so many miseries, arising from pillage and op- pression, to one or other of which they were a continual prey, and often to both, that many of them made a voluntary surrender of their liberty for bread and prot.ection.(2) What must have been the state of that government where slavery was an eligible condition ! But, conformable to the observation of the philosophic Hume, there is a point of depression as well as of exaltation, beyond which human affairs seldom pass, and from which they naturally return in a contrary progress. This utmost point of decline, society seems to have attained in Europe, as I have already said, about the middle of the tenth century ; when the disorders of the feudal government, together with the corruption of taste and manners consequent upon these, svere arrived at their greatest excess. Accordingly from that era we can trace a succession of causes and events, which, with different degrees of influence, contributed to abolish anarchy and barbarism, and introduce order and politeness. Among the first of these causes we must rank chivalry; which, as the elegant and inquisitive Dr. Robertson remarks, though commonly considered as a wild institution, the result of caprice and the source of extravagance, arose naturally from the state of society in those times, and had a very seri- ous effect in refining the manners of the European nations. The feudal state, as has been observed, was a state of perpetual war, rapine, and anarchy. The weak and unarmed were exposed every moment to insults or injuries. The power of the sovereign was too limited to prevent these wrongs, and the legislative authority too feeble to redress them. There was scarce any shelter from violence and oppression, except what the valour and generosity of private persons afforded ; and the arm of the brave was the only tribunal to which the helpless could appeal for justice. The trader could no longer travel in safety, or bring unmolested his commodities to market. Every possessor of a castle pillaged them, or laid them under con- tribution ; and many not only plundered the merchants, but carried off all the women that fell in their way. Slight inconveniences may be overlooked or endured, but when abuses grow to a certain height the society must reform or go to ruin. It becomes the business of all to discover and to apply such remedies as will most effectually remove the prevailing disorders. Humanity sprung from the bosom of violence, and relief from the hand of rapacity. Those licentious and tyrannic nobles, who had been guilty of every species of outrage and every mode of oppression; who, equally unjust, unfeeling, and superstitious, had made pilgrimages, and had pillaged ! who had massa- cred, and had done penance ! touched at last with a sense of natural equity, and swayed by the conviction of a common interest, formed associations for the redress of private wrongs, and the preservation of public safety.(S) So honourable was the origin of an institution generally represented as whimsical. The young warrior among the ancient Germans, as well as among the modern knights, was armed, for the first time, with certain ceremonies proper to inspire martial ardour: but chivalry, considered as a civil and military institution, is as late as the eleventh century. The previous discipline and (1) l)u Cange, voc. Feudum. (2) Marculsus, lib. ii. cap. 8. <3l Mem.sur I'Jlncienne Chevalerie, par. M. dela Curne de St. Palaye. 6 122 THE HIS TORY OF [.PART [. solemnities of initiation were many and singular. The novice in chivalry was educated in the house of some knight, commonly a person of high rank, whom he served first in the character of page, and afterward of squire . nor was he admitted to the supreme honour of knighthood, until he had given many striking proofs of his valour and address. The ceremony ol initiation was very solemn. Severe fastings, and nights spent in a church or ohapel in prayer ; confession of sins, and the receiving of the sacraments with devotion; bathing, and putting on white robes, as emblems of that purity of manners required by the laws of chivalry, were necessary prepara- tions for this ceremony. When the candidate for knighthood had gone through all these, and other introductory formalities, he fell at the feet of the person from whom he ex pected that honour, and on his knees delivered to him his sword. After an- swering suitable questions, the usual oath was administered to him ; namely, to serve his prince, defend the faith, protect the persons and reputations of virtuous ladies, and to rescue, at the hazard of his life, widows, orphans, and all unhappy persons groaning under injustice or oppression. Then the knights and ladies, who assisted at the ceremony, adorned the candidate with the armour and ensigns of chivalry ; beginning with putting on the spurs, and ending with girding him with the sword. Seeing him thus accoutred, the king or nobleman, who was to confer the honour of knighthood* gave him the accolade, or dubbing, by three gentle strokes with the flat part of the sword on the shoulder, or with the palm of his hand on the neck, saying, "In the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, I make thee a knight! be thou loyal, brave, and hardy."(l) Valour, humanity, courtesy, justice, honour, were the characteristics of chivalry : and to these were added religion, which, by infusing a large portion of enthusiastic zeal, carried them all to a romantic excess, wonderfully suited to the genius of the age, and productive of the greatest and most permanent effects both upon policy and manners. War was carried on with less ferocity, when humanity, no less than courage, came to be deemed the ornament of knighthood, and knighthood a distinction superior to royalty, and an honour which princes were proud to receive from the hands of private gentlemen ; more gentle and polished manners were introduced, when courtesy was recommended as the most amiable of knightly virtues, and every knight devoted himself to the service of some lady; and violence and oppression decreased, when it was accounted meritorious to check and to punish them. A scrupulous adherence to truth, with the most religious attention to fulfil every engagement, but particularly those between the sexes, as more easily violated, became the distinguishing character of a gentleman; because chi- valry was regarded as the school of honour and inculcated the most delicate sensibility with respect to that point.(2) And valour, seconded by so many motives of love, religion, and virtue, became altogether irresistible. That the spirit of chivalry often rose to an extravagant height, and had sometimes a pernicious tendency, must however be allowed. In Spain, under the influence of a romantic gallantry, it gave birth to a series of wild adven- tures, which have been deservedly ridiculed ; in the train of Norman ambi- tion, it extinguished the liberties of England, and deluged Italy in blood ; and we shall soon see it, at the call of superstition, and as the engine of papal power, desolate Asia under the banner of the cross. But these violences, resulting from accidental circumstances, ought not to be considered as argu- ments against an institution laudable in itself, and necessary at the time of (1) Mem. sur VJlncienne C&evalerie, par. M. de la Curne de St. Palaye. (2) This sentiment became reciprocal. Even a princess, says Tirant le Blanc, declares that she sub- mits to lose ail right to the benefits of chivalry, and consents that never any knight shall take ai ins in In i defence, if she keeps not the promise of marriage, which she has given to the^ knight who adored her. And a young gentlewoman, whose defence was undertaken by Gerard de Nevers, beholding the ardour with which he engaged in it, took off her glove, we are told, and delivered it to him, saying, " Sir, un- person, my life, my lands, and my honour, I deposite in the care of God and you ; praying for such assist- ance and grace, that I may be delivered out of this peril." (M. de la Curne de St. Palaye, ubi sup.) Many similar examples might be produced of this mutual confidence, the basis of that elegant intercounft between Uie sexes, which so remarkably distinguishes modern from ancient manners. LET. XXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 1-23 As establishment. And they who pretend to despise it, the advocates of an- cient barbarism and ancient rusticity, ought to remember, that chivalry not only first taught mankind to carry the civilities of peace into the operations of war, and to mingle politeness with the use of the sword, but roused the human soul from its lethargy ; invigorating the human character, even while it softened it, and produced exploits which antiquity cannot parallel. Nor ought they to forget, that it gave variety and elegance, and communi- cated an increase of pleasure, to the intercourse of life, by making woman a more essential part of society ; and is therefore entitled to our gratitude, though the point of honour, and the refinements in gallantry, its more doubt- ful effects, should be excluded from the improvements in modern manners. But the beneficial effects of chivalry were strongly counteracted by othet institutions of a less social kind. Some persons of both sexes, of most reli- gions and most countries, have in all ages secluded themselves from the world, in order to acquire a reputation for superior sanctity, or to indulge a melancholy turn of mind, affecting to hold converse only with the Divinity. The number of these solitary devotees, however, in ancient times, was few ; and the spirit of religious seclusion, among the heathens, was confined chiefly to high southern latitudes, where the heat of the climate favours the indo'- lence of the cloister. But the case has been very different in more modem ages : for although the monastic life had its origin among the Christians in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, it rapidly spread not only over all Asia and Africa, but also over Europe, and penetrated to the most remote corners of the North and West, almost at the same time that it reached the extremities of the East and South ; to the great hurt of population and industry, and the obstruction of the natural progress of society.(l) Nor were these the only consequences of the passion for pious solitude. As all who put on the religious habit, after the monastic system was com- pletely formed, took a vow of perpetual chastity, the commerce of the sexes was represented by those holy visionaries as inconsistent with Christian purity; and the whole body of the clergy, in order to preserve their influence with the people, found themselves under the necessity of professing a life of celibacy. This condescension, which was justly considered as a triumph by the monks, increased their importance, and augmented the number of their fraternities. Nothing was esteemed so meritorious, during the period under review, as the building and endowing of monasteries. And multitudes of men and women of all conditions, but especially of the higher ranks, considering the pleasures of society as seducers to the pit of destruction, and turning with horror from sensual delight, retired to mountains and deserts, or crowded into cloisters, where, under the notion of mortifying the body, and shutting all the. avenues of the soul against the allurements of external objects, they affected an austerity that gained them universal veneration, and threw a cloud over the manners of the Christian world. (2) The extravagance to which both sexes are said to have carried that aus- terity, during the first fervours of monastic zeal, seems altogether incredible to cool reason, unenlightened by philosophy. In attempting to strip human nature of every amiable and ornamental quality, in order to humble pride, and repress the approaches of loose desire, or, in their own phrase, "to deliver the celestial spirit from the bondage of flesh and blood," they in a manner divested themselves of the human character. They not only lived among wild beasts, but, after the m uner of those savage animals, they ran naked through the lonely deserts "ith a furious aspect, and lodged in gloomy caverns ; or grazed in the fields like the common herd, and like cattle took their abode in the open air. (3) And some monks and holy virgins, oy the habit of going naked, became so completely covered with hair, as to require no other veil to modesty. Many chose their rugged dwelling in the hollow side or narrow cleft of some rock, which obliged them to sit or stand in the (1) Mosheim, Hist. Ecclts. vol. i. ii. et Auct. cit. in loc. (2) Id. ibid. (3 s Ibid. vol. ii- Tillcmont. Mem. Ecclea. torn v'" 124 THE HISTORY OF [PAUT 1. most painful and emaciating posture, during the remainder of their wretched lives ; while others, with no small exultation, usurped the den of some fero- cious brother brute, whom they affected to resemble ; and not a few, under the name of Stylites or Pillar-saints, ascended the top of some lofty column, where they remained for years, night and day, without any shelter from heat or cold.(l) Even after religious houses were provided for the devout solitaries of both sexes, and endowed with ample revenues by the profuse superstition of the newly converted Barbarians, they attempted, in their several cells, to extin- guish every spark of sensuality, by meagre fastings, bloody flagellations, and other cruel austerities of discipline, too shocking to bear a recital. But no sooner did the monastic fury subside, than nature began to assert her em pire in the hearts of the deluded fanatics ; to tell them they had wants incon- sistent with their engagements, and that, in abandoning society, they had relinquished the most essential requisites of human happiness. The holy sisters and brothers, convinced of their pious folly, endeavoured by tender familiarities to console each other ; but without violating, as they affirmed, their vow of chastity. (2) And although this delectable commerce was pro- hibited,^) as alike scandalous and dangerous, by resembling too nearly the ways of the world, and provoking sensibilities too strong for the curb of restraining grace, other solacing practices took place in the convents, not more for the honour of the monastic life. (4) Whenever any set of people, by laying a constraint upon the natural appetites, seek to arrive at a degree of purity inconsistent with the welfare of society, they never fail to be guilty of crimes which society disclaims, and nature abhors, unless they relax the rigour of their institutions, or slide back, by a blameless corruption, into the more smooth but slippery paths of erring humanity. The ignorance of the times, however, favoured by certain circumstances, continued the veneration for religious solitude, notwithstanding the licen- tiousness of the monks. Many new monastic orders were instituted in the eleventh century, under various rules of discipline ; but all with a view to greater regularity of manners. And monks were called from the lonely cell to the most arduous and exalted stations ; to fill the papal chair, and support the triple crown ; or to discharge the office of prime minister in some mighty kingdom, and regulate the interests of nations. Though utterly ignorant 01 public transactions, their reputation for superior sanctity, which was easily acquired, by real or affected austerity, in ages of rapine and superstition, made them be thought fit to direct all things. This ghostly reputation even enabled them to trample upon the authority, and insult the persons, of the princes whose government they administered ; especially if the lives of such princes, as was very commonly the case, happened to be stained with any atrocious acts of lust, violence, or oppression. In order to stay the uplifted arm of divine justice, and render the Governor of the world propitious, the king knelt at the feet of the monk and the minister happy to commit to the favourite of Heaven the sole guidance of his spiritual and temporal con- cerns.^) And if chivalry, by awakening a spirit of enterprise, had not roused the human powers to deeds of valour, and revived the passion for the softer sex, by connecting it with arms, and separating it from gross desire, Europe might have sunk under the tyranny of a set of men, who pretend to renounce the world and its affairs, and Christendom have become but one great cloister. (1) Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. torn. viii. (2) Mosheim, ubi. sup. (3) The sixth general council (canon) xvii. forbids worn n to pass the night in a male, or men in a female, monastery. And Hie seventh general council (canon M.) forbids the erecting of double or pro- miscuous monasteries of both sexes. (Beveridge, torn. 1.) On the irregular pleasures of the monks and nuns, see Thnmassin, torn, lit (4) Mosheim, vol. ii. (5) Besides the wealth and influence acquired by the monks in consr-quence of the superstitious ignorance of the great, who often shared not only their power, but the fruits of their rapine with their pious directors, a popular opinion which prevailed towards the close of the tenth century, contributed greatly to augment ill "ir opulence. The thousand years, from the birth or death of Christ, mentioned by St. John in the book uf Revelations, were supposed to be nearly accomplished, and the day of judgment at hand Multitudes LIT. XXIL1 MODERN EUROPE. F25 LETTER XXII. The Germin Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian State*, under Conrad II, and his Descendants of the House of Franconia. WE now, my dear Philip, return to the great line of history, which I shall endeavour to trace as exactly as possible, that you may be able to keep in view the train of events, without which you will neither he able to reason distinctly on them yourself, nor to understand clearly the reasonings of others. I shall therefore bring down the history of the German empire to the death of Henry V. when the quarrel between the popes and the emperors came to a stand, before I speak of the affairs of France and England, which, from the Norman conquest, became inseparably interwoven, but had little influence for some centuries on the rest of Europe. Great disputes ensued on the death of Henry II. about the nomination oi a successor to the empire ; that prince, as you have bad occasion to see, dying without issue. The princes and states assembled in the open fields, between Mentz and Worms, no hall being sufficient to hold them ; and, after six weeks' encampment and deliberation, they elected Conrad, duke of Franconia, surnamed the Salic, because he was born on the banks of the river Sala.(l) The Lombards revolting, as usual, soon after the election of the new emperor, Conrad marched into Italy ; and having reduced the rebels by force of arms, he went to Rome, where he was consecrated and crowned by Pop~ John XX., in presence of Canute the great, king of England, Denmark, and Norway, and Rodglph III., king of Transjurane Burgundy. But his stay at Rome was short. Scarce was the coronation over, when he was obliged to return to Germany, on account of some insurrections raised in his absence. He took the precaution, however, be fore he attempted to humble the insurgents, to get his son Henry, then above twelve years of age, declared his successor, and solemnly crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. The rebellion was soon after suppressed by the valour of Conrad. He defeated the authors of it in several engagements ; in one of which, Ernest, duke of Suabia, who had been put to the ban of the empire, was slain.(2) The word ban originally signified banner, afterward edict, and lastly, a declaration of outlawry, which was intimated thus : " We declare thy wife a widow, thy children orphans, and send thee, in the name of the devil, to the four corners of the earth." This is one of the first examples of that pro- scription. The emperor next turned his arms against the Poles, and afterward against the Huns, and obliged both to subscribe to his own conditions. In the mean time Rodolph, king of Transjurane Burgundy, dying without issue, left his dominions to Conrad. They were of small extent, but included the seigniorial superiority over the Swiss, the Grisons, Provence, Franche-Compte, Savoy, Geneva, and Dauphine. Hence the lands on the other side of the Rhine ar- still called the Lands of the Empire ; and all the noblemen of those can- tons, who formerly held of Rodolph and his predecessors, now hold of the emperor. (3) While Conrad II. was employed in taking possession of his new inheritance, the Poles revolted : and this rebellion was no sooner quelled than he had occasion to compose another in Italy, headed by Hubert, bishop of Milan, whom he had loaded with favours. Conrad made so much haste that Milan was taken by surprise. The bishop was condemned to perpetual banishment ; of Christians, therefore, anxious only for their eternal salvation, delivered over to the monastic orders all their lands, treasures, and other valuable effects, and repaired with precipitation to Palestine, where they expected the appearance of Christ on Mount Zinn. Mosheim, vol. ii. '!) Jinr.al. de I'Emp. torn. i. (2) Heiss, lib. ii. (3) Jlnnal. de VEmp. torn. i. 126 THE HISTORY OF [PART I and the emperor died soon after his return to Germany, leaving behind him the reputation of a just, generous, and magnanimous prince. (1) Henry III. surnamed the Black, son of Conrad and Gisella of Suabia, was elected in consequence of his father's recommendation, and crowned a second time at Aix-la-Chapelle. The first years of Henry's reign was signalized by successful wars against Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary ; which, however, produced no memorable event. Rome and Italy, as usual, were involved in confusion, and distracted by factions, particularly those of the Pandolphi and the Ptolemei. The Pandolphi had thrust Benedict IX. a boy of twelve years of age, into the papacy. He was deposed by Ptolemei and the people, who substituted in his place Sylvester III. This new pope was deposed, in his turn, by the Pandolphi, and his rival re-established. Benedict, however, finding himself universally despised, voluntarily resigned in favour of John, archpriest of the Roman church ; but afterward repenting of his resignation, he wanted to resume his dignity. These three popes, supported by their several partizans, and living peace- ably with each other, maintained themselves each upon a different branch of the revenues of the Holy See. One resided at St. Peter's, another at Santa Maria Major, and the third in the palace of the Lateran, all leading the most profligate and scandalous lives. A priest, called Gratian, at last put an end to this singular triumvirate. Partly by artifice, partly by presents, he prevailed upon all three to renounce their pretensions to the papacy ; and the people of Rome, out of gratitude for so signal a service to the church, chose him pope, under the name of Gregory VI. Henry III. took umbrage at this election, in which he had not been con- sulted, and marched with an army into Italy. No emperor ever exercised more absolute authority in that country. He deposed Gregory, as having been guilty of simony, and filled the papal ch'air with tys own chancellor, Suidger or Heidiger, Bishop of Bamberg, who assumed the name of Clement II. and afterward consecrated, at Rome, Henry and the empress Agnes. (2) This ceremony being over, and the Romans having sworn never to elect a pope without the approbation of the reigning emperor, Henry proceeded to Capua, where he was visited by Drago, Rainulphus, and other Normal) adventurers, who having left their country, namely the dutchy of Normandy, at different times, had made themselves masters of great part of Apulia and Calabria, at the expense of the Greeks and Saracens. Henry entered into a treaty with them ; and not only solemnly invested them with those territories which they had acquired by conquest, but prevailed on the pope to excommu- nicate the Beneventines, who had refused to open their gates to him, and bestowed that city and its dependencies, as fiefs of the empire, upon the Norman princes, provided they took possession by force of arms. (3) What use they made of the imperial favour we shall afterward have occasion to see. At present the papacy claims all our attention. The emperor was scarce returned to Germany, when he received intelli- gence of the death of Clement II. Clement was succeeded in the apostolic see by Damasus II. who also dying soon after his elevation, Henry nominated Bruno, bishop of Toul, to the vacant chair. This Bruno, who was the emperor's relation, immediately assumed the pontificals ; but being a modest and pious prelate, he threw them off on his journey, by the persuasion of Hildebrand, a monk of Cluny, and went to Rome as a private man. " The emperor alone," said Hildebrand, "has no right to create a pope." He accompanied Bruno to Rome, and secretly retarded his election, that he might arrogate to himself the merit of obtaining it.(4) The scheme suc- ceeded to his wish. Bruno, who took the name of Leo IX. believing himself indebted to Hildebrand for the pontificate, favoured him with his particular friendship and confidence ; and hen e originated the power of this enterprising (I) Hehs, lib. il. (2) Muratori, Jtnnal. eTItal. Mosheim, Hist.Eccles. yol. ii

Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii. Dithmar. Vit. Oreg. VII LET. XXII.] MODERNEUROPE. 127 monk, of obscure birth, but boundless ambition, who so long governed Rome, and whose zeal for the exaltation of the church occasioned so many troubles to Europe. Leo, soon after his elevation, waited on the emperor at Worms, to crave assistance against the Norman princes, who were become the terror of Italy, and treated their subjects with great severity. Henry furnished the pope with an army; at the head of which his holiness marched against the Normans, after having excommunicated them, accompanied by a great number of bishops and other ecclesiastics, who were all either killed or taken prisoners, the Germans and Italians being totally routed. Leo himself was led captive to Benevento, of which the Normans were now masters, and which Henry had granted to the pope in exchange for the fief of Bamberg in Germany; and the apostolic see is to this day in possession of Benevento, by virtue of Henry's donation. The Norman chiefs, however, who had a right to that city by a prior grant, restored it, in the mean time, to the princes of Lombardy : and the holy father was treated with so much respect by the conquerors, that he revoked the sentence of excommunication, and joined his sanction to the imperial investiture for the lands which they held in Apulia and Calabria. (1) Leo died soon after his release ; and the emperor, about the same time, caused his infant son, afterward the famous Henry IV. to be declared King of the Romans, a title still in use for the acknowledged heir of the empire. Gebhard, a German bishop, was elected pope, under the name of Victor II. and confirmed by the address of Hildebrand, who waited on the emperor in person for that purpose, though he disdained to consult him be forehand. (2) Perhaps Hildebrand would not have found this task so easy, had not Henry been involved in a war with the Hungarians, who pressed him hard, but whom he obliged at last to pay a large tribute, and furnish him annually with a certain number of fighting men. As soon as the emperor had finished this war, and others to which it gave rise, he marched into Italy to inspect the conduct of his sister Beatrice, widow of Boniface, marquis of Mantua, and made her prisoner. She had married Gozelo, duke of Lorrain, without the emperor's consent ; and contracted her daughter, Matilda, by the marquis of Mantua, to Godfrey, duke of Spoleto and Tuscany, Gozelo's son by a former marriage. This formidable alliance justly alarmed Henry; he therefore attempted to dissolve it by carrying his sister into Germany, where he died soon after his return, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and the sixteenth of his reign. This emperor, in his last journey to Italy, concluded an alliance with Cou- tarini, doge of Venice. That republic was already rich and powerful, though it had only been enfranchised in the year 998 from the tribute of a mantle of cloth of gold, which it formerly paid, as a mark of subjection, to the emperors of Constantinople. Genoa was the rival of Venice in power and in commerce, and was already in possession of the island of Corsica, which the Genoese had taken from the Saracens. (3) These two cities, which I shall afterward have occasion frequently to mention, engrossed at this time almost all the trade of Europe. There was no city in France or Germany equal, in any respect, to either of them. Henry IV. surnamed the Great, was only five years old at his father's death. He was immediately acknowledged emperor in a diet of the princes convoked at Cologne, and the care of his education was committed to his mother Agnes, who also governed the empire. She was a woman of spirit and address, and discharged both her public and private trust with diligencr and ability. Germany, during the first years of this reign, was harassed with civil .wars \ so that the empress Agnes, notwithstanding her strong talents, found it diffi- cult to maintain her authority. And at length the dukes of Saxony and (1) Giannone, Hist.di Napol. (2' Leo Ostiensis, lib. ii. Hist. Litifraire de la France, \f ID vii '3) Muratori, Jinnal. d'ftal. torn. vu. 128 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. Bavaria, uncles of the young emperoiy carried him off from her by stratagem, accusing her of sacrificing the public welfare to the will of the bishop of Augsburg, her minister and supposed gallant. Thus divested of the regency, she fled to Rome, and there took the veil.(l) Henry was now put under the tuition of the archbishops of Cologne and Bremen, who discharged their trust in a very opposite manner. The first endeavoured to inspire him with a love of learning and virtue, while the second sought only to acquire an ascendancy over his passions, by indulging him in all the pleasures of youth. This indulgence produced a habit of licen- tiousness which he could never afterward restrain. Italy, in the mean time, was a prey, as usual, to intestine disorders. After a variety of troubles, excited on account of the pontificate, Nicholas II. tin; creature of Hildebrand, passed a famous decree, which gave rise to many more ; and by which it was ordained, in a council of a hundred and thirteen bishops, that for the future the cardinals only should elect the pope, and that the election should be confirmed by the rest of the Roman clergy and the people : " saving the honour," adds he, " due to our dear son Henry, now king; and who, if it please God, shall one day be emperor, according to the privilege which we have already conferred upon him ; and saving the honour of his successors on whom the Apostolic See shall confer the same high privilege. "(2) The same pope Nicholas II. after having in vain excommunicated the Norman princes, made protectors and vassals of them ; and they, who were feudatories of the empire, less afraid of the popes than the emperors, readily did homage for their lands to Nicholas, in 1059, and agreed to hold them of the church.(S) This mode of holding was very common in those days of rapacity, both for princes and private persons, the only authority then respected being that of the church: and the Normans wisely made use of it as a safeguard against the emperors. They gave their lands to the church under the name of an offering, or oblata, and continued in possession of them on paying a slight acknowledgment. Hence the pope's claim of superiority over the kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Robert Guiscard, brother of Drago, and one of the gallant sons of Tancred of Hauteville, received from the pope the ducal crown of Apulia and Calabria ; and Richard, count of Aversa, was confirmed prince of Capua, a title which he had already assumed. The pope also gave the Normans a right to hold Sicily in the same manner with their other possessions, provided they could expel the Saracens from it ;(4) and Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger made themselves fully masters of that island in 1061. Henry IV. assumed the reins of government at the age of twenty-two, and began his administration with restraining the thefts, robberies, and extortions, which his subjects of the dutchy of Saxony exercised upon strangers, as well as upon each other. But the Saxon princes and nobles, who were gainers by these abuses, particularly by the infamous practice of imprisoning travellers, and making them pay for their ransom, opposed the intended reformation, and entered into an association against the emperor, under pretence that their liberties were in danger. In this rebellious disposition they were encouraged by the arrogance of pope Alexander II. who, at the instigation of Hildebrand, his confidant and oracle, summoned Henry to appear before the tribunal ot the Holy See, on account of his loose life, and to answer to the charge of having exposed the investiture of bishops to sale. (5) Henry treated the pope's mandate with the contempt it deserved ; and at the same time carried on war with vigour against the Saxons, and their (1) Jtnnal. dePKntp. (2) C/ironicon Farsense i I ET. XXII.J MO BERN EUROPE. 129 rebellious associates, whom he totally routed in a bloody engagement, and made himself master of all Saxony. The heads of the rebellion asked pardon of the emperor in public, and begged to be restored to his favour : he gene* rously accepted their submission, and peace was restored to Germany. (1) But Henry was not suffered long to enjoy the fruits of his valour. A new storm threatened him from Italy, which afterward fell with violence on his head, and shook all the thrones in Christendom. On the death of Alexander II. in 1073, Hildebrand had been elected pope, under the name of Gregory VII. and atyhough he had not asked the emperor's voice, he prudently waited for his confirmation before he assumed the tiara. He obtained it by this mark of submission : Henry confirmed his election ; and Gregory, having nothing farther to fear, pulled off the mask. He began his pontificate with excommunicating every ecclesiastic who should receive a benefice from a layman, and every layman by whom such benefice should be conferred. This was engaging the church in an open war with the sovereigns of all nations. But the thunder of the Holy See was more particularly directed against the emperor ; and Henry, sensible of his danger, and willing to avert it, wrote a submissive letter to Gregory, who pretended to take him into favour, after having severely reprimanded him for the crimes of simony and debauchery, laid against him by the late pope, and of which he now confessed himself guilty. (2) Gregory, at the same time, proposed a crusade, in order to deliver the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidels ; offering to head the Christians in person, and desiring Henry to serve as a volunteer under his command !(3!| a project so wild and extravagant, that nothing but the prevailing spirit of the times, the double enthusiasm of religion and valour, can save the memory of its author from the imputation of insanity. Gregory's project of making himself lord of Christendom, by not only dis- solving the jurisdiction which kings and emperors had hitherto exercised over the various orders of the clergy, but also by subjecting to the papal authority all temporal princes, and rendering their dominions tributary to the See of Rome, seems no less romantic ; yet this he undertook, and not altogether without success. Solomon, king of Hungary, dethroned by his brother Geysa, had fled to Henry for protection, and renewed the homage of Hungary to the empire. Gregory, who favoured Geysa, exclaimed against this act of sub- mission ; and said in a letter to Solomon, " You ought to know, that the king- dom of Hungary belongs to the Roman church ; and learn, that you will incur the indignation of the Holy See, if you do not acknowledge that you hold your dominions of the pope, and not of the emperor '."(4) This presumptuous declaration, and the neglect it met with, brought the quarrel between the empire and the church to a crisis. It was directed to Solomon, but intended for Henry. And if Gregory could not succeed in one way, he was resolved that he should in another : he therefore resumed the claim of investitures, for which he had a more plausible pretence ; and as that dispute and its consequences merit particular attention, I shall be more cir- cumstantial than usual. The predecessors of Henry IV. had always enjoyed the right of nominating bishops and abbots, and of giving them investiture by the ring and crosier. This right they had in common with almost all princes. The predecessors of Gregory VII. had been accustomed, on their part, to send legates to the emperors, in order to entreat their assistance ; to obtain their confirmation, or desire them to come and receive the papal sanction, but for no other pur- pose. Gregory, however, sent two legates to summon Henry to appear be- fore him as a delinquent, because he still continued to bestow investitures, notwithstanding the apostolic decree to the contrary; adding, that if he should fail to yield obedience to the church, he must expect to be excommunicated and dethroned. Incensed at that arrogant message from one whom he considered as his (1) Heiss, Hist.de I'Emp. lib. ii. (2) -Jlnnal. de VEmp. torn. i. Dithmar. Vit. Greg. VII. (3) Ibid. (4} Goldast. Apologia pro Hen. IV Thomas. Conten. inter Imp. et Sacerdot 130 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. vassal. Henry dismissed the legates with very little ceremony, and convoked an assembly of all the German princes and dignified ecclesiastics at Worms ; where, after mature deliberation, they concluded, that Gregory having usurped the chair of St. Peter by indirect means, infected the church of God with many novelties and abuses, and deviated from his duty to his sovereign in several scandalous attempts, the emperor, by that supreme authority derived from his predecessors, ought to divest him of his dignity, and appoint another in his place. (1) In consequence of this determination, Henry sent an ambassador to Rome, with a formal deprivation of Gregory ; who, in his turn, convoked a councL at which were present a hundred and ten bishops, who unanimously agreed, that the pope had just cause to depose Henry, to dissolve the oath of alle- giance which the princes and states had taken in his favour, and to prohibit them from holding any correspondence with him on pain of excommunication. And that sentence was immediately fulminated against the emperor and his adherents. " In the name of Almighty God, and by your authority," said Gregory, alluding to the members of the council, " I prohibit Henry, the son of our emperor Henry, from governing the Teutonic kingdom, and Italy ; I release all Christians from their oath of allegiance to him ; and I strictly forbid all persons from serving or attending him as king."(2) This is the first instance of a pope's pretending to deprive a sovereign of his crown, but it was too flattering to ecclesiastical pride to be the last. No prelate, from the foundation of the church, had ever presumed to use so im- perious a language as Gregory : for although Lewis the Debonnaire had been deposed by his bishops, there was at least some colour for that step. They condemned Lewis, in appearance, only to do public penance. The circular letters written by this pontiff breathe the same spirit with his sentence of deposition. In these he repeatedly asserts, that " bishops are superior to kings, and made to judge them !" expressions alike artful and presumptuous, and calculated, for bringing in all the churchmen of the world to his standard. Gregory's purpose is said to have been, to engage in the bonds of fidelity and allegiance to the Vicar of Christ, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, all the potentates of the earth, and to establish at Rome an annual assembly of bishops, by whom the contests that might arise between kingdoms and sovereign states were to be decided; the rights and preten- sions of princes to be examined, and the fate of nations and empires to be ' determined. (3) The haughty pontiff knew well what consequences would follow the thun- der of the church. The German bishops came immediately over to his party, and drew along with them many of the nobles ; the brand of civil war still lay smouldering, and a bull properly directed was sufficient to set it in a blaze. The Saxons, Henry's old enemies, made use of the papal displeasure as a pretence for rebelling against him. Even his favourite Guelf, a noble- man to whom he had given the dutchy of Bavaria, supported the malecontents with that power which he owed to his sovereign's bounty : nay, those very princes and prelates who had assisted in deposing Gregory, gave up their monarch to be tried by the pope; and his holiness was solicited to come to Augsburg for that purpose.(4) Willing to prevent this odious trial at Augsburg, Henry took the unac countable resolution of suddenly passing the Alps at Tirol, accompanied only by a few domestics, in order to ask absolution of Gregory, his tyrannical oppressor, who was then in Canosa, on the Apennines ; a fortress belonging to the countess or dutchess Matilda, whom I have already had occasion to mention. At the gates of this place the emperor presented himself as an humbie penitent. He alone was admitted within the outer court, where, being stripped of his robes, and wrapped in sackcloth, he was obliged to remain three days, in the month of January, barefooted and fasting, before he was (1) Schiller. De Libertat. Ecclcs. German, lib. iv. (2) Ditlimar. Hist. Bell, inter Imp. e Snt**li>t (3) Mosheim. Hist. Etclcs. vol. ii. par. ii. cent .xi. et Auct. cit. in loc. (4) Ditimiar. ubi sup. rfnnal. German, an Struv LET. XXII. J MODERN EUROPE. 131 permitted to kiss the feet of his holiness, who all that time was shut up with the devout Matilda, whose spiritual director he had long been ; and, as some say, her gallant. But be that as it may, her attachment to Gregory, and her hatred against the Germans, was so great, that she made over all her estates to the Apostolic See : and this donation is the true cause of all the wars, which since that period have raged between the emperors and the popes. She possessed in her own right, great part of Tuscany ; Mantua, Parma, Reggio, Placentia, Ferrara, Modena, Verona, and almost the whole of what is now called the patrimony of St. Peter, from Viterbo to Orvieto : together with part of Umbria, Spoleto, and the Marche of Ancona.(l) The emperor was at length permitted to throw himself at the feet of the haughty pontiff, who condescended to grant him absolution, after he had sworn obedience to his holiness in all things, and promised to submit to his solemn decision at Augsburg so that Henry got nothing but disgrace by his journey, while Gregory, elated with his triumph, and now looking upon him- self, not altogether without reason, as the lord and master of all the crowned heads in Christendom, said in several of his letters, that it was his duty " to pull down the pride of kings." This extraordinary accommodation gave much disgust to the princes of Italy. They never could forgive the insolence of the pope nor the abject humility of the emperor. Happily however for Henry, their indignation at Gregory's arrogance overbalanced their detestation of his meanness. He took advantage of this temper ; and by a change of fortune hitherto unknown to the German emperors, he found a strong party in Italy, when abandoned in Germany. All Lombardy took up arms against the pope, while he was raising all Germany against the emperor. Gregory, on the one hand, made use of every art to get another emperor elected in Germany ; and Henry, on his part ; left nothing undone to persuade the Italians to elect another pope. The Germans chose Rodolph, duke of Suabia, who was solemnly crowned at Mentz ; and Gregory, hesitating on this occasion, behaved truly like the supreme judge of kings. He had deposed Henry, but still it was in his power to pardon that prince : he therefore affected to be displeased that Rodolph was consecrated without his order; and declared, he would acknowledge as emperor and king of Germany him of the two competitors who should be most submissive to the Holy See. (2) Henry, however, trusting more to the valour of his troops than to the generosity of the pope, set out immediately for Germany, where he defeated his enemies in several engagements : and Gregory, seeing no hopes of sub- mission, thundered out a second sentence of excommunication against him, confirming at the same time the election of Rodolph, to whom he sent -a golden crown, on which the following well known verse, equally haughty and puerile, was engraved : Petra dedit Petro, petrus diadema Rodolpho. This donation Avas also accompanied with a prophetic anathema against Henry, so wild and extravagant, as to make one doubt whether it was dictated by enthusiasm or priestcraft. After depriving him of strength in combat, and condemning him never to be victorious, it concludes with the fol- lowing remarkable apostrophe to St. Peter and St. Paul: "Make all men sensible, that, as you can bind and loose every thing in heaven, you can also upon earth take from, or give to, every one according to his deserts, empires, kingdoms, principalities let the kings and princes of the age then instantly feel your power, that they may not dare to despise the orders of your church ; let your justice be so speedily executed upon Henry, that nobody may doubt but that he falls by your means, and not by chance."(3) (1) Fran. Mar. Florent Mem. della Contessa Matilda. (2) Dithmar. Hist. Bell, inter Imp tt Sacerdot. Muratori, Annal. d'ltal. (3) Hardouin, Concil. Floury, Hist. Eccles 132 THE HISTORY OF In order to avoid the effects of the second excommunication, Henry took a step worthy of himself. He assembled at Brixen, in the county of Tirol, about twenty German bishops, who, acting also for the bishops of Lombardy, unanimously resolved, That the pope, instead of having power over the emperor, owed him obedience and allegiance; that Gregory VII. having rendered himself unworthy of the papal chair, by his misconduct and rebel- lion, ought to be deposed from a dignity he so little deserved. They ac- cordingly degraded Hildebrand, and elected in his room Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna, a person of undoubted merit, who took the name of Clement III. Henry promised to put the new pope in possession of Rome. But he was obliged, in the mean time, to shift the scene of action, and to employ all his forces against his rival Rodolph, who had reassembled a large body of troops in Saxony. The two armies met near Mersburg, and both fought with great fary. Victory remained long doubtful : but the fortune of the day seemed inclining to Rodolph, when his hand was cut off by the famous Godfrey of Bouillon, then in the service of Henry, and afterward renowned by the con- quest of Jerusalem. Discouraged by the misfortune of ftieir chief, the rebels immediately gave way ; and Rodolph perceiving his end approaching, ordered the hand that was cut off to be brought him, and made a speech to his officers on the occasion, which could not fail to have a favourable influence on the emperor's affairs. " Behold," said he, " the hand with which I took the oath of allegiance to Henry an oath, which, at the instiga- tion of Rome, I have violated, in perfidiously aspiring to an honour that was not my due."(l) The emperor, thus delivered from his formidable antagonist, soon dispersed the rest of his enemies in Germany, and set out for Italy, in order to settle Clement III. in the papal chair. But the gates of Rome being shut against him, he was obliged to attack it in form. The siege continued upwards of two years ; Henry, during that time, being obliged to quell some insurrec- tions in Germany. The city was at length carried by assault, and with difficulty saved from being pillaged ; but Gregory was not taken : he retired into the castle of St. Angelo, and thence defied and excommunicated the conqueror. The new pope was, however, consecrated with the usual ceremonies, and expressed his gratitude by crowning Henry, with the concurrence of the Roman senate and people. Meanwhile the siege of St. Angelo was going on ; but the emperor being called about some affairs into Lombardy, Robert Guiscard took advantage of his absence to release Gregory, who died soon after at Salerno. His last words, borrowed from the scripture, were worthy of the greatest saint : " I have loved justice, and hated iniquity ; therefore I die in exile !"(2) Henry did not long enjoy the success of his Italian expedition, or that tranquillity which might have been expected from the death of Gregory. Germany was involved in new troubles : thither he hastened with all expe- on. The Saxons, his old enemies, had elected a king of the Romans, om he defeated in several engagements, and whose blood atoned for his presumption. Another pretender shared the same fate. Every thing yielded to the emperor's valour. But while Henry was thus victorious in Germany, his enemies were busy in embroiling his affairs in Italy, into which he found it necessary again to march. Not satisfied with Clement III. the emperor's pope, they had elected the abbot of Monte Cassino, under the name of Victor III. and he dying in a short time, they chose in his room Urban II. who, in conjunction with the countess Matilda, seduced the emperor's son, Conrad, into a rebellion against his father. It was this Urban who held the famous council of Clermont, of which I shall afterward have occasion to speak, and where the first crusade H'as resolved upon. Conrad assumed the title of king of Italy, and was actually crowned bv '-" do-on. Magdeb. (2) Vii. Greg. VII. Murat. ubi sup. LET. XXII.] MODERNEUROPE. 133 Anselmo, archbishop of Milan. Soon after this ceremony, he married the daughter of Roger, king of Sicily ; and succeeded so well in his usurpation, that the greater part of the Italian cities and nobles acknowledged him as their sovereign. The emperor, therefore, despairing of being able to reduce his son to obedience, returned to Germany; where he assembled the princes, who put Conrad to the ban of the empire, and declared his brother Henry king of the Romans. (1) An accommodation was made with the Saxons and Bavarians, and the emperor hoped to spend the latter part of his life in peace. In the mean time Conrad died ; and Pascal II. another Hildebrand, suc- ceeded Urban in the see of Rome. This pope no sooner found himself safely seated in the papal chair, than he called a council, to which he summoned the emperor ; and as Henry did not obey the citation, he excommunicated him anew for the schisms which he had introduced 'into the church. But that vengeance, though sufficiently severe, was gentle, in comparison of what Pascal meditated and accomplished. He excited young Henry to rebel against his father, under pretence of defending the cause of the orthodox ; alleging, that he was bound to take upon himself the reins of government, as he could neither acknowledge a king nor a father that was excommuni- cated. (2) In vain did the emperor use every paternal remonstrance to dissuade his son from proceeding to extremities : the breach became wider and wider, and both prepared for the decision of the sword. But the son dreading his father's military superiority, and confiding in his tenderness, made use of a stratagem equally base and effectual. He threw himself unexpectedly at the emperor's feet, and begged pardon for his undutiful behaviour, which he im- puted to the advice of evil counsellors. In consequence of this submission, he was immediately taken into favour, and the emperor dismissed his army. The ungrateful youth now bared his perfidious heart : he ordered his father to be confined ; while he assembled a diet of his own confederates, at which the pope's legate presided, and repeated the sentence of excommunication against the emperor Henry IV. who was instantly deposed, and the parrici- dious usurper Henry V. proclaimed. (3) The archbishops of Mentz and Cologne were sent as deputies to the old emperor, to intimate his deposition, and demand the crown, and other regalia. Henry received this deputation with equal surprise and concern ; and finding the chief accusation against him was, " the scandalous manner in which he had set bishoprics to sale," he thus addressed the audacious ecclesiastics : " If we have prostituted the benefices of the church for hire, you yourselves are the most proper persons to convict us of that simony. Say then, I con- jure you, in the name of the eternal God ! what have we exacted, or what have we received, for having promoted you to the dignities which you now enjoy ?" They acknowledged he was innocent as far as regarded their pre- ferment : " and yet," continued he, " the archbishoprics of Mentz and Cologne being two of the best in our gift, we might have filled our coffers by exposj^ them to sale. We bestowed them, however, on you, out of free grace ^E favour ; and a worthy return you make to our benevolence ! Do not, we beseech you, become abettors of those who have lifted up their hand against their lord and master, in defiance of faith, gratitude, and allegiance." The two archbishops, unmoved by that pathetic address, insisted on his compliance with the purport of their errand. On this he retired, and put on his royal ornaments ; then returning to the apartment he had left, and seating himself on a chair of state, he renewed his remonstrance in these words: " Here are the marks of that royalty with which we were invested by God and the princes of the empire : if you disregard the wrath of Heaven, and the eternal reproach of mankind, so much as to lay violent hands on your sovereign, you may strip us of them. We are not in a condition to defend ourselves." Cn Chron. Magdeb. 12) Dilhmar. Hist. Bell, inter Imp. et Saeerdot. (3) Ibid. 134 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. This speech had no more effect than the former upon the unfeeling pre- lates, who instantly snatched the crown from his head ; and, dragging him from his chair, pulled off his royal robes by force. While they were thus employed, Henry exclaimed, " Great God !" the tears trickling down his venerable cheeks " thou art the God of vengeance, and wilt repay this out- rage. I have sinned, I own, and merited such shame by the follies of my youth : but thou wilt not fail to punish those traitors, for their perjury, inso- lence, and ingratitude."(l) To such a degree of wretchedness was this unhappy prince reduced by the barbarity, of his son, that, destitute of the common necessaries of life, he en- treated Gertrad, bishop of Spire, whom he had created, to grant him a cano- nicate for his subsistence ; representing that he was capable of performing the office of " chanter or reader !" Being denied that humble request, he shed a flood of tears, and -turning to those who were present, said, with a deep sigh, " My dear friends, at least have pity on my condition, for I am touched by the hand of the Lord '."(2) The hand of man, at least, was heavy upon him ; for he was not only in want, but under confinement. In the midst of these distresses, when every one thought his courage was utterly extinguished, and his soul overwhelmed by despondence, Henry found means to escape from his keepers, and reached Cologne, where he was recognised as lawful emperor. He next repaired to the Low Countries, where he found friends, who raised a considerable body of troops to facilitate his restoration ; and he sent circular letters to all the princes in Christendom, in order to interest them in his cause. He even wrote to the pope, giving him to understand, that he was inclined to an accommodation, provided it could be settled without prejudice to his crown. But before anything ma- terial could be executed in Henry's favour, he died at Liege, in the fifty-sixth ye ar of his age, and the forty-ninth of his reign. He was a prince of great courage, and excellent endowments both of body and mind. There was an air of dignity in his appearance that spoke the greatness of his soul. He possessed a natural fund of eloquence and vivacity ; was of a mild and mer- ciful temper; extremely charitable ; and an admirable pattern of fortitude and resignation. (3) Henry V. put the finishing stroke to his barbarous, unnatural, and hypo- critical conduct, by causing his father's body, as the carcass of an excommu- nicated wretch, to be dug out of the grave where it was buried, in the cathe- dral of Liege, and be carried to a cave at Spire. (4) But, notwithstanding his obligations and seeming attachment to the church, this parricidious zealot no sooner found himself established upon the imperial throne, than he main- tained that right of investiture in opposition to which he had taken arms against his father, and the exercise of which was thought to merit anathemas so frightful as to disturb the sacred mansions of the dead. In order to terminate that old dispute, Henry invited the pope into Ger- many. But Pascal, who was well acquainted with the emperor's haughty aud implacable disposition, thought proper to take a different route, and put Itself under the protection of Philip I. king of France, who undertook to mediate an accommodation between the empire and the Holy See. A confe- rence was accordingly held at Chalons, in Champagne, but without effect. After this unsuccessful meeting, the pope held a council at Troyes, and Henry convoked a diet at Mentz : the first supported Pascal's pretensions, and the last declared for the emperor's right of investiture. But more weighty affairs demanding Henry's attention, the dispute was laid aside for a time. He was engaged for several years in wars with Hungary and Poland, which ended in the weariness of all parties, and left things nearly as at the beginning. When tired of fighting, Henry thought of disputing : he was desirous 01 settling his contest with the pope ; and, lest force should be necessary, he (1) DIthmar. iibi sup. Heiss. lib. li. cap. 1\. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Gob Pars Leo Ostirns. Chron. Magdel '4\ Annul, de VEmp. torn. I LET. XXII.] MODERN EUROPE. 135 entered Italy with an army of eighty thousand men. Pascal received him with the greatest appearance of cordiality, but would not renounce the claim of investitures ; and Henry, rinding himself deceived in his expectations, ordered the pope to be seized. The consul put the citizens in arms, and a battle was fought within the walls of Rome. The Romans were defeated ; and the carnage was so great, that the waters of the Tiber were stained with blood. Pascal was taken prisoner, and became less inflexible. He crowned Henry, and confirmed him in the right of investiture ; dividing the host with him, at the same time, in token of perfect reconciliation, and pronouncing the following anathema : " As this part of the vivifying body," breaking it, " is separated from the other, let him of us two, who shall infringe the treaty, be separated from the kingdom of Christ."(l) But Henry had no sooner left Italy than it appeared that the court of Rome was by no means sincere in the concessions it had made ; for, although Pascal himself still preserved the exteriors of friendship and good faith, a council of the Lateran, called by him, set aside the bull touching the inves- titure of benefices, and ordered the emperor to be excommunicated. The clergy every where attempted to fill the vacant sees, and the whole empire was again involved in trouble and dissension. A rebellion broke out in Saxony, which Henry was enabled to quell by the valour of his nephew, Frederick, duke of Suabia and Alsace, whom he pro- moted to the supreme command of his army. In the mean time the countess Matilda dying, the emperor, as her nearest relation, claimed the succession, notwithstanding the steps she had taken in favour of the Holy See, alleging that it was not in her power to alienate her estates, which depended imme- diately upon the empire. He therefore set out for Lombardy, and sent am- bassadors to Rome, beseeching the pope to revoke the sentence of excom- munication which had been fulminated against him, expressly contrary to their last agreement. Pascal Avould not so much as favour the ambassadors with an audience ; but convoked a council, in which his treaty with the emperor was a second time condemned. Incensed at such arrogance, Henry advanced towards Rome, determined to make his authority respected ; and the pope, well ac- quainted with his inflexible disposition, took shelter among the Norman princes in Apulia, the new vassals and protectors of the church. The emperor entered Rome in triumph, and was crowned a second time by Bardinus, archbishop of Prague, who attended him in this expedition. But Henry's presence being necessary in Tuscany, Pascal privately returned to Rome, where he died in a few days ; and on the third day after his decease cardinal Cajetan was elected his successor, without the privity of the empe- ror, under the name of Gelasius II. Enraged at this presumption, Henry declared the election of Gelasius void, and appointed in his place Bardinus, who assumed the name of Gregory VIII. revoked the sentence of excommunication against the emperor, and confirmed his right of investiture. Gelasius, though supported by the Norman princes, was obliged to take refuge in France, where he died; and the archbishop of Vienne was elected in his room, by the cardinals then present, under the name of Calixtus II. Calixtus attempted an accommodation with Henry, which not succeeding, he called a council, and again excommunicated the emperor, the antipope, and their adherents. He next set out for Rome, where he was honourably received, and Gregory VIII. retired to Sutri, a strong town garrisoned by the emperor's troops. They were not, however, able to protect him from the fury of his rival. Calixtus, assisted by the Norman princes, besieged Sutri ; and the inhabitants, afraid of the consequences, delivered up Gregory, who was mounted, by his competitor, upon a camel, with his face towards the tail, and conducted through the streets of Rome, amid the scoffs and insults of the populace, as a prelude to his confinement for life. (2) (1) Chron. Abb. St. Petri de Burgo. Padre Paolo Benef. Eccles. (2) Dithinar. Hist. Bell, inter Imp. ct Sacerdot. 136 THE HISTORY OF [PART I In the mean time the states of the empire, quite tired with this long quarrel between the popes and the emperors, unanimously supplicated Henry for peace. He referred himself entirely to their decision : and a diet being as- sembled at Worms, it was decreed, that an embassy should immediately be sent to the pope, desiring that he would convoke a general council at Rome, by which all disputes might be determined. Calixtus accordingly called the famous council, which was opened during Lent, and at which were present three hundred bishops and about seven hundred abbots. The imperial ambassadors being heard before this grand assembly, the affair of investitures was at length settled, with their consent, on the following conditions : " That, for the future, the bishops and abbots shall be chosen by the monks and canons ; but that this election shall be made in presence of the emperor, or of an ambassador appointed by him for that purpose : that, in case a dispute arise among the electors, the decision of it shall be left to the emperor, who is to consult with the bishops on that subject ; that the bishop or abbot elect shall take an oath of allegiance to the emperor, receive from his hand the regalia, and do homage for them ; that the emperor shall no longer confer the regalia by the ceremony of the ring and crosier, which are the ensigns of a ghostly dignity, but by that of the sceptre, as more proper to invest the person elected -in the possession of rights and privileges merely temporal."(I] Thus, in substituting the sceptre for the ring and crosier, ended one of the most bloody quarrels that ever desolated Christendom. But as no mention had been made, in this accommodation, of the emperor's right to create popes, or to intermeddle in their election, Calixtus was no sooner dead, than the cardinals, clergy, and people of Rome, without the participation of Henry, proceeded to a new election, which was carried on with so* much disorder, that two persons were elected at the same time ; Theobald, called Celestin, and Lambert, bishop of Ostia, who assumed the name of Honorius II. Ho- norius was confirmed in the papacy, on the voluntary resignation of his com- petitor. Henry died at Utrecht a few years after his accommodation with Rome. He was a wise, politic, and resolute prince ; and, exclusive of his unnatural behaviour to his father, was worthy of the imperial throne. He married Maud, or Matilda, daughter of Henry I. king of England, by whom he had no children ; so that the empire was left without a head. But a variety ol objects demand your attention, before I carry farther the affairs of Germany. LETTER XXIII. England from the Battle of Hastings to the Death of Henry L You have already, my dear Philip, seen William, duke of Normandy, vic- torious at Hastings. Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the English nation, when made acquainted with the issue of that unfortunate battle with the death of their king, and the slaughter of their principal nobility. And W T illiam, in order to terminate an enterprise which he knew celerity and vigour only could render finally successful, instantly put his army in motion, and advanced by forced marches to London. His approach increased the general alarm, and the divisions already prevalent in the English councils. The superior clergy, who even then were mostly French or Normans, began to declare in his favour ; and the pope's bull, by which his undertaking was avowed and consecrated, was now offered as a reason for general submission. Other causes rendered it difficult for the English nation, destitute as it was of a head, to defend their liberties in this critical emergency. The body of the people had, in a great measure, lost their ancient pride and independent N '11 Pndre Paolo, iitii sup. Schiller de J^ibertat. Eccles. German, lib. iv. LET. XXIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 137 spirit, by their recent and long subjection to the Danes ; and as Canute had, in the course of his administration, much abated the rigours of conquest, and governed them equitably by their own laws, they regarded with less terror a foreign sovereign ; and deemed the inconveniences of admitting the preten- sions of William less dreadful than those of bloodshed, war, and resistance. A repulse, which a party of Londoners received from five hundred Norman horse, renewed the terror of the great defeat at Hastings : the easy submission of all the inhabitants of Kent was an additional discouragement to them; and the burning of Southwark before their eyes, made the citizens of London dread a like fate for their capital. Few men longer entertained any thoughts but of immediate safety and self-preservation. Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, met the conqueror at Berkhamstead, and made submissions to him : and before he reached London, alL the chief nobility, with the weak Edgar Atheling, their lawful but deservedly neglected prince, came into William's camp, and declared their intention of yielding to his authority. They requested him to accept the crown, which they now considered as vacant ; and orders were immediately issued to prepare every thing for the ceremony of his coronation. It was accordingly performed in Westminster abbey, in presence of the most considerable nobility and gentry, both English and Norman, with seeming satisfaction.(l) This appearance of satisfaction on the part of the former, if it contained any sincerity, must have been the effect of the conciliating manner in which the coronation ceremony was conducted. The duke of Normandy took the usual oath administered to the Anglo-Saxon kings at their inauguration ; namely, " to preserve inviolate the constitution, and govern according to the laws," before the crown was placed upon his head, and after the consent of all present had been asked and obtained. (2) William, thus possessed of the throne, by a pretended "will of king Edward, and an irregular election of the people, abetted by force of arms, retired to Barking in Essex ; where he received the submissions of all the nobility who had not attended his coronation, and whom he generally confirmed in the possession of their lands and dignities, forfeiting only the estates of Harold, and those of his most active adherents. Every thing wore the appearance of peace and tranquillity. The new sovereign seemed solicitous to unite in an amicable manner the English and Normans, by intermarriages and alliances ; and all his subjects who approached his person were received with affability and respect. No signs of suspicion appeared even in regard to Edgar Atheling, the natural heir to the crown. On the contrary, the king confirmed him in the honours of earl of Oxford, conferred on him by Harold, and affected on all occasions to treat him with the greatest kindness, as nephew to the Confessor, his friend and benefactor. He also confirmed the liberties and immunities of London, and all the other cities of England ; and seemed, in a word, desirous of resting every thing on ancient foundations. In his whole administration he bore the semblance of the lawful prince, not of the conqueror ; so that the English began to flatter themselves they had only changed the succession of their sovereigns, a matter which gave them .ittle concern, without injury to the form of their government. But William, notwithstanding this seeming confidence and friendship which he expressed for his English subjects, took care to place all real power in the hands of the Normans, and still to keep possession of that sword to which he eventually owed his crown. He every where disarmed the inha- bitants; he built fortresses in all the principal cities, where he quartered Norman soldiers ; he bestowed the forfeited estates on the most powerful of (1) GuLPictav. Orderic. Vital. (2) Ibid. Aware that such an oath would be demanded, and conscious that he must either violate it or relinquish the right of conquest, William is said to have hesitated, whether he should accept the offer of the English crown from the nobility and clergy, or owe it solely to the sword. But his most experienced captains advised him to moderate his ambition ; sensible that the people of England, when they saw they had to contend for their free constitution, and not merely for the person who should administer their government, would fight with double fury (Gul. Pictav.) when they found that their dearest inttrests. their liberty, and property, were at stake. 138 THE HISTORY OF [PART L his captains, and he established funds for the payment of his troops. While his civil administration wore the face of the legal magistrate, his military institutions wore those of a master and a tyrant. And by this mixture ol rigour and lenity, he so R.. beted and composed the minds of the people of England, that he ventured to visit his native country within six months after hehad leftit.(l) Various reasons have been assigned by historians for this extraordinary journey; for extraordinary it certainly was in William, as Normandy remained in perfect tranquillity, to absent himself so soon after the submission of a great, warlike, and turbulent nation. Some have ascribed it to ostentatious vanity, which made him impatient to display his pomp and magnificence ajnong his ancient courtiers ; while others, supposing him incapable of such weak- ness, affirm, that in this step, apparently so extravagant, he was guided by a concealed policy; that finding he could neither satisfy his rapacious captains, nor secure his unstable government, without seizing the possessions of the English nobility and gentry, he left them to the mercy of an insolent and licentious army in order to try their spirit, to provoke them to rebellion, and to give a colour to his intended usurpations. For my own part, I can see no reason why William, solid as his genius was, may not have been influenced by both these motives in undertaking his journey to Normandy. But, what- ever was the cause, the effect is certain ; the English nobility and gentry revolted in consequence of the king's absence; and he thenceforth either embraced, or was more fully confirmed in, the resolution of seizing their lands, and of reducing them to the most abject condition. But although the natural violence and austerity of William's temper made him incapable of feeling any scruples in the execution of this tyrannical pur- pose, he had art enough to conceal his intention, and still to preserve some appearance of justice in his oppressions. He*was prevailed on to pardon the rebels who submitted themselves to his mercy, and he ordered all his Eng lish subjects who had been arbitrarily expelled by the Normans during his absence to be restored to their possessions. The public discontents, how- ever, daily increased ; and the injuries committed and suffered on both sides rendered the quarrel between the victors and vanquished mortal. The inso- lence of imperious masters, dispersed throughout the kingdom, seemed into- lerable to the natives, who took every opportunity to gratify their vengeance by the private slaughter of their enemies. Meanwhile an insurrection in the northern counties drew general attention, and seemed big with the most im- portant events. Edwin and Morcar, the potent earls of Mercia and Northumberland, were the conductors of this attempt to shake off the Norman yoke. And these warlike noblemen, before they took arms, had stipulated for aid from Blethin, prince of North Wales, Malcolm, king of Scotland, and Sweyn, king of Den mark. Aware of the importance of celerity in crushing a rebellion supported by such powerful leaders, and in a cause so agreeable to the wishes of the people, William, who had always his troops in readiness, marched northward with speed ; and reached York before the hostile chieftains were prepared for action, or had received any succours, except a small reinforcement from Wales. Edwin and Morcar, therefore, found it necessary to have recourse to the clemency of the king : and their adherents, thus deserted, were unable to make any resistance. But the treatment of the chieftains and their fol- lowers, after submission, was very different. William observed religiously the terms granted to the former, and allowed them for the present to keep possession of their estates ; but he extended the rigour of his confiscations over the latter, and gave away their lands to his foreign adventurers, whom he planted throughout the whole country. (2) The English were now convinced their final subjection was intended ; and that, instead of a legal sovereign, whom they had at first hoped to gain by their prompt submission, they had unwisely surrendered themselves to a (1; Gul. Pictav Orderic. Vital. (2) Orderic. Vital. Sim. Dunelm. LET. XXI] L] MODERN EUROPE. 139 master and a tyrant. The early confiscation of the estates of Harold's followers seemed iniquitous, as the proprietors had never sworn fealty to the duke of Normandy, and fought only in defence of the government which they themselves had established in their own country. Yet that rigour, how contrary soever to the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon laws, was excused on account of the urgent necessities of the victor; and they who were not involved in those forfeitures hoped to enjoy unmolested their possessions and their dignities. But the subsequent confiscation of so many estates convinced them, that the Norman prince intended to rely solely, for the maintenance of his authority, on the support and affection of foreigners. And they foresaw new forfeitures and attainders to be the necessary consequences of this de- structive plan of policy. Impressed with a sense of their dismal situation, many Englishmen fled into foreign countries, with an intention of passing their lives abroad, free from oppression, or of returning on a favourable opportunity to assist their friends in recovering their native liberties. Edgar Atheling himself, dread- ing the insidious caresses of William, made his escape into Scotland, and carried thither his two sisters Margaret and Christina. They were well received by Malcolm III. then king of that country, who soon after espoused Margaret, the elder sister: and partly with a view of strengthening his king- dom by the accession of so many strangers, partly in hopes of employing them against the growing power of William, he gave great countenance to all the English exiles. (1) Many of them settled in Scotland, and there laid the foundations of families which afterward made a figure in that kingdom. W T hile the people of England laboured under those oppressions, new attempts were made for the recovery of their liberties. Godwin, Edmond, and Magnus, three sons of Harold, had sought a retreat in Ireland, after the defeat at Hastings ; and having met with a kind reception from Dermot, and other princes of that island, they projected an invasion of England, and hoped that all the exiles from Denmark, Scotland, and Wales, assisted by forces from these several countries, would at once commence hostilities, and rouse the resentment of the English nation against their haughty conquerors. They landed in Devonshire, but found a body of Normans ready to oppose them ; and being defeated in several rencounters, they were obliged to seek shelter in their ships, and return with great loss into Ireland. The struggle, however, was not yet over: all the north of England was soon m arms. The Northumbrians, impatient of servitude, had attacked Robert de Comyn, governor of Durham, and put him and seven hundred of his adherents to death. This example animated the inhabitants of York, who slew Robert Fitz-Richard their governor, and besieged in the castle William Mallet, on whom the chief command had devolved. About the same time the Danish succours were landed from three hundred vessels, under the command of Osberne, brother to king Sweyn, accompanied by Harold and Canute, two sons of that northern monarch. Edgar Atheling also appeared from Scotland, and brought along with him a number of English noblemen, who had shared his exile, and who easily excited the warlike and discontented Northumbrians to a general insurrection. In order more effectually to provide for the defence of the citadel of York, Mallet set fire to some neighbouring houses. But that expedient proved fatal to himself, and to every man under his command. The flames spreading into the adjacent streets reduced the whole city to ashes; and the enraged inha- bitants, aided by the Danes, took advantage of the confusion to attack the fortress, which they carried by assault, and put the garrison, amounting tc three thousand men, to the sword. This success served as a signal of revolt to many other parts of the kingdom. The English, every where repenting of their former too easy submission, seemed determined to make one great effort for the recovery of their liberty and the expulsion of their oppressors. (2) Undismayed amid that scene of confusion, William assembled his forces. (I) M. Paris. R. Hoveden (S) Ord. Vital. Gul. Gemet. Sim. Dunetm. 140 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. and, animating them by the prospect of new confiscations and forfeitures, marched against the insurgents in the North, whom he considered as most formidable. Not choosing, however, to trust entirely to force, he endeavoured to weaken the rebels by detaching the Danes from them. And he accordingly prevailed upon Osberne, by large presents, and the liberty of plundering the sea-coast, to desert his engagements. Many English noblemen, in despair, followed the unworthy example, made submissions to the conqueror, and were taken into favour. Malcolm, the Scottish king, coming too late to sup- port his confederates, was obliged to retire ; so that the Normans found them- selves once more undisputed masters of the kingdom. Edgar Atheling and his followers again sought an asylum in Scotland; but despairing of success, and weary of a fugitive life, that prince afterward submitted to his enemy, and was permitted to live unmolested in England.(l) William's seeming clemency, however, proceeded only from political con- siderations, or from his esteem of individuals : his heart was hardened against all compassion toward the English as a people; and he scrupled no measure, how violent soever, which seemed requisite to support his plan of tyrannical administration. Acquainted with the restless disposition of the Northum- brians, who had begun the revolt, and determined to incapacitate them from ever more molesting him, he issued orders for laying waste that fertile coun- try, which, to the extent of sixty miles, lies between the Humber and the Tees. (2) The houses were reduced to ashes by the unfeeling Normans; the cattle were seized and driven away; the instruments of husbandry were destroyed; and the inhabitants were compelled either to seek a subsistence in the southern parts of Scotland, or to perish miserably in the woods from cold and hunger, which many of them chose rather to do than to abandon their native soil. The lives of a hundred thousand persons are computed to have been sacrificed to this stroke of barbarous policy ;(3) which, by seeking a remedy for a temporary evil, inflicted a lasting wound on the power and popu- lousness of the nation. But William was now determined to proceed to extremities against all the natives of England, and to reduce them to a condition in which they should be no longer formidable to his government. The insurrections and conspi- racies, in different parts of the kingdom, had involved the bulk of the land- holders, more or less, in the guilt of treason; and the king took advantage ol executing against them, with the utmost rigour, the laws of forfeiture and attainder. Their lives were commonly spared, but their estates were con- fiscated, and either annexed to the royal domain, or conferred with the most profuse bounty on the Normans and other foreigners. Against a people thus devoted to destruction, any suspicion served'as the most undoubted proofs of guilt. It was crime sufficient in an Englishman to be opulent, noble, or powerful : and the policy of the king concurring with the rapacity of needy adventurers, produced an almost total revolution in the landed property of the kingdom. Ancient and honourable families were reduced to beggary. The nobles were every where treated with ignominy and contempt ; they had the mortification to see their castles and manors possessed by Normans of the meanest condition, and to find themselves excluded from every road that led either to riches o- preferment. (4) Power naturally follows property. This change of landholders alone, therefore, gave great security to the Norman government. But William also took care, by the new institutions that he established, to retain for ever the military authority in those hands which had enabled him to acquire the king- dom. He introduced into England the feudal polity, which he found estab- lished in France and Normandy ; and which, during that age, was the foun- dation both of the stability and of the disorders in most of the monaichical governments of Europe. He divided all the lands of -England, with few exceptions, besides the royal domain, into baronies ; and he conferred these, (1) Gul. Gemet. E. Hovedon. (2) C/iron. Sax. W. Maltnes. R. Hoveden. M. Paris. Sim I u.-ielni. (3) Older. \ itaL -1) M. West. Order. Vital. LET. XXIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 141 with the reservation of stated services and payments, on the most consider- able of his followers. The barons, who held immediately of the crown, shared out part of their lands to other foreigners, who were denominated knights or vassals, and who paid their lord the same duty and submission, in peace and war, which he owed to his sovereign. None of the native English were admitted into the first rank: the few who retained any landed property were therefore glad to be received into the second, and, under the protection of some powerful Norman, to load themselves and their posterity with a grievous servitude for estates which had been transmitted free to them from their ancestors. (1) William's next regulations regarded the church. He deposed Stigand, the primate, and several other English bishops, by the assistance of Ermonfroy, the pope's legate ; and as it was a fixed maxim in this reign, as well as in some of the subsequent, that no native of the island should ever be advanced to any dignity, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, the king promoted Lanfranc, a Milanese monk, to the see of Canterbury. That prelate professed the most devoted attachment to Rome, which thenceforth daily increased in England, and became very dangerous to some of William's successors; but the" arbi- trary power of the Conqueror over the English, and his extensive authority over the Normans, kept him from feeling any inconveniences from it. He retained the clergy in great subjection, as well as his lay subjects, and would allow no person of any condition or character to dispute his absolute will and pleasure. None of his ministers or barons, whatever might be their offences, could be subjected to spiritual censures, until his consent was obtained. He prohibited his people to acknowledge any one for pope, whom he himself had not received ; and he ordered that all ecclesiastical canons, voted in anj* synod, should be submitted to him, and ratified by his authority, before they could be valid. Even bulls or letters from Rome, before they were produced, must receive the same sanction. And when the imperious Gregory VII. whom we have seen tyrannizing over kings and emperors, wrote to this monarch, requiring him to fulfil his promise of doing homage for the king- dom of England to the See of Rome, and to send him over that tribute which his predecessors had 'been accustomed to pay to the vicar of Christ, (meaning Peter's Pence, a charitable donation of the Saxon princes, which the court of Rome, as usual, was inclined to construe into a badge of subjection acknow- ledged by the kingdom,) William coolly replied, that the money should be remitted as formerly, but that he neither had promised to do homage to Rome, nor entertained any thoughts of imposing that servitude on his kingdom. Nay, he went so far as to refuse the English bishops liberty to attend a gene- ral council, which Gregory had summoned against his enemies. (2) The following anecdote shows, in a still stronger light, the contempt of this prince for ecclesiastical dominion. Odo, bishop of Bayeux, the king's maternal brother, whom he had created earl of Kent, and intrusted with a great share of power, had ^amassed immense riches ; and, agreeable to the usual progress of human wishes, he began to regard his present eminence as only a step to future grandeur. He aspired at nothing less than the papacy, and had resolved to transmit all his wealth to Italy, and go thither in person, accompanied by several noblemen, whom he had persuaded to follow his example, in hopes of establishments under the future pope. William, from whom this object had been carefully concealed, was no sooner informed ot it than he accused Odo of treason, and ordered him to be arrested; but nobody would lay hands on the bishop. The king himself was therefore obliged to seize him; and when Odo insisted, that, as a prelate, he was ex- empted'from all temporal jurisdiction, William boldly replied, '' I arrest not (1) M. West. M. Paris. Bracton, lib. i. cap. 11. Fieta, lib. i. cap. 8. The proprietors of land, undei the Anglo-Saxon princes, were only subjected to three obligations ; namely, to attend the king with then followers in military expeditions, to assist in building or defending the royal castles, and to keep the high- ways and bridges in a proper state of repair : (Hickesi, Dissertat. Spelman. Reliquiae,) emphatically called the three necessities, as they certainly were in a government without regular troops, and almost without revenue. '2) Aug. Sacra. Eadmer. Ingulph. Order. Vital. 142 THE HISTORY OF [PART i. the bishop, I arrest the earl !" and accordingly sent him prisoner into' Nor- mandy, where he was detained in custody, during this whole reign, notwith- standing the remonstrances and menaces of Gregory.(l) But the English had the cruel mortification to find, that their king's au- thority, how worthy soever of a sovereign, all tended to their oppression, or to perpetuate their subjection. William had even entertained the difficult project of totally abolishing their language. He ordered the English youth to be instructed in the French tongue, in all the schools throughout the king- dom. The pleadings in the supreme courts of judicature were in French; the deeds were often drawn in the same language : the laws were composed in that idiom. No other tongue was used at court : it became the language of all fashionable societies ; and the natives themselves affected to excel in it.(2) To this attempt of the Conqueror, and to the foreign dominions so long annexed to the crown of England, we owe that predominating mixture of French at present to be found in our language. While William was thus wantonly exercising his tyranny over England, his foreign affairs fell into disorder : and the English had an opportunity of at once recovering their military character, and of taking vengeance on the part of their foreign oppressors. Fulk, count of Anjou, had seized on the province of Maine, which had fallen under the dominion of the duke of Nor- mandy, by the will of Herbert, the last count. But William, by the assist- ance of his new subjects, soon obliged the inhabitants, who had revolted, to return to their duty, and the count of Anjou to renounce his pretensions.(S) The king now passed some years in Normandy, where his presence was become necessary on account of the turbulent disposition of his son Robert, who openly aspired at independency, and claimed the dutchies of Normandy and Maine, during his father's lifetime. William gave him a positive refusal, repeating that homely saying, that he never intended to throw off his clothes till he went to.bed. He accordingly called over an army of Englishmen, under his ancient captains, who bravely expelled Robert and his adherents. The prince took shelter, in the castle of Gerberoy in the Beauvoison, which the king of France, who secretly favoured his pretensions, had provided for him. In this fortress he was closely besieged by his father, against whom he made a gallant defence : under the walls of that place many rencounters passed, which resembled more the single combats of chivalry than the military ope- rations of armies. One of these was too remarkable, by its circumstances and its event, to be omitted. Robert happened to encounter the king, who being concealed by his helmet, a fierce combat ensued. But at last the prince wounded his father in the arm, and threw him from his horse, when, calling for assistance, his voice discovered him to his son, who, struck with a sense of remorse, duty, and the dread of greater guilt, instantly flung himself at the feet of his king and father, craved pardon for his offences, and offered to purchase forgiveness by any atonement. A return of kindness, however, did not immediately ensue. William's military pride was wounded, and his resentment was too obstinate at once to yield ; but a reconciliation was soon brought about by the interposition of the queen and other common friends. (4) The peaceable state of William's affairs now gave him leisure to finish an undertaking, which proves his great and extensive genius, and does honour to his memory. It was a general survey of all the lands of England ; their extent in each district, their proprietors, tenures, value; the quantity of meadow, pasture, wood, and arable land, which they contained ; and, in some counties, the number of tenants, cottagers, and slaves of all denominations, who lived upon them. This valuable piece of antiquity, called the Dooms day book, is still preserved in the exchequer, and helps to illustrate to us the ancient state of England. William, like all the Normans, was much attached to the manly amuse- (1) Jlng. Sacra. Eadmer. Inaulph. Order. Vital. (2) Ckron. Rothum. Iiisulpli. Hist. p. 71. Hume, Hist. Eng. vol. i. Warton, Hist. F.ng. Poetry, vo< } (3) CAron. Sax. Order. Vital. (4) R. Hoveden. M. Paris. Order. Vital. LKT. XXIIL] MODERN EUROPE 143 ment of hunting : and his passion for this amusement he cruelly indulged at the expense of his unhappy subjects. Not contented with those large forests which the Saxon kings possessed in all parts of England, he resolved to make a new forest near Winchester, the usual place of his residence. Accordingly, for that purpose, he laid waste the country for an extent of thirty miles in Hampshire, expelling the inhabitants from their houses, seizing their pro- perty, and demolishing churches and convents, without making the sufferers any compensation for the injury.(l) He also increased the rigour of the game laws, now become so grievous. This monarch's death was occasioned by a quarrel not altogether worthy of his life. A witticism gave rise to war. William, who was become cor- pulent, had been detained in bed some time by sickness, while in Normandy a circumstance which gave Philip I. of France occasion to say, with that vivacity natural to his country, that he was surprised his brother of England should be so long in being delivered of his big belly. William, enraged at this levity, swore " by the brightness and resurrection of God !" his usual oath, that, as soon as he was up, he would present so many lights at Notre Dame, as would give little pleasure to the king of France ; alluding to the usual practice, at that time, of women carrying a torch to church after child- birth. Accordingly, on his recovery, he led an army into the Isle of France and laid every thing waste with fire and sword. But the progress of these hostilities was stopped, by an accident which put an end to the English mo- narch's life. His horse suddenly starting aside, he bruised his belly on the pummel of his saddle : and this bruise, joined to his former bad habit of body, brought on a mortification, of which he died, in the sixty-third year of his age. (2) He left Normandy and Maine to his eldest son, Robert: he vvrote to Lanfranc, desiring him to crown William king of England : and he be- queathed to Henry, the youngest of the three, the possessions of his mother Matilda. The characters of princes are best seen in their actions : I shall, however, give you a concise character of the Conqueror ; for such he ultimately proved, though little more than a conditional sovereign when he first received the submissions of the English nation. (3) The spirit of William I. says a phi- losophic historian, was bold and enterprising, yet guided by prudence ; and his exorbitant ambition, which lay little under the restraints of justice, and still less under those of humanity, ever submitted to the dictates of reason and sound policy. Though not insensible to generosity, he was hardened against compassion ; and he seemed equally ostentatious and ambitious of eclat, in his clemency and in his vengeance. William II. surnamed Rufus, or the Red, from the colour of his hair, was instantly crowned king of England, in consequence of his father's recom- mendatory letters to Lanfranc, the primate ; and Robert, at the same time, took peaceable possession of Normandy. But this partition of the conqueror's dominions, though apparently made without any violence or opposition, occasioned in England many discontents which seemed to promise a sudden revolution. The Norman barons, who generally possessed large estates both in England and their own country, were uneasy at the separation of those territories, and foresaw that, as it would be impossible for them to preserve long their allegiance to two mas- ters, they must necessarily resign their ancient property or their new acqui- sitions. Robert's title to Normandy they esteemed incontestable : his claim to England they thought plausible ; and they all desired that this prince, who alone had any pretensions to unite the dutchy and kingdom, might be put in possession of both. (4) (1; Gul. Malmes. II. Hunting. Anglia Sacra, vol. i. (2) M. Paris. M. Westminst. Order. Vital. (3^ William acted so uniformly like a conqueror, that, before the end of his reign, there was not left one English, who was either earl, baron, bishop, or abbot. (Gul. Malmes. lib. iv. H. Hunt. lib. vii.) No revo- lution, ancient or modern, was ever perhaps attended with so complete and sudden a change of power and property, as that accomplished by the duke of Normandy. Nor was the administration of any prince ever more absolute than that of William I. though the government which he establishad was by no means a despotism, but a feudal monarchy, as has been already shown. (4) Orderic. Vital. 44 THE HISTORY 01 [PART I. A comparison between the personal qualities of the two princes also led the malecontents to prefer the elder. Robert was brave, open, sincere, gene- rous ; whereas William, though not less brave than his brother, was violent, haughty, tyrannical, and seemed disposed to govern more by fear than the love of his people. Odo, bishop of Baieux, who had been released from prison on the death of the Conqueror, enforced all these motives with the dissatisfied barons, and engaged many of them in a formal conspiracy to dethrone the king. Expecting immediate support from Normandy, the conspirators hastened to put themselves in a military posture : and William, sensible of his perilous situation, endeavoured to provide against the threatened danger by gaining the affections of the native English, who zealously embraced his cause, upon receiving some general promises of good treatment, and leave to hunt in the royal forests, having now lost all hopes of recovering their ancient liberties. By their assistance the king was enabled to subdue the rebels ; but the Nor- man barons, who had remained faithful to him, only were the gainers. He paid no regard to the promises made to his English subjects, who still found themselves exposed to the same oppressions which they had experienced during the reign of the Conqueror, and which were augmented by the tyran- nical temper of the present monarch. (1) Even the privileges of the church, which were held so sacred in those days, formed but a feeble rampart against the usurpations of William ; yet the terror of his authority, confirmed by the suppression of the late insurrections, kept every one in subjection, notwith- standing the murmurs of the clergy, and preserved general tranquillity in England. William even thought himself sufficiently powerful to disturb his brother in the possession of Normandy, and bribed several Norman barons to favour his unjust claim. The duke had also reason to apprehend danger from the intrigues of his brother Henry, who inherited more of his father's money than his possessions, and had furnished Robert, during his preparations against England, with the sum of three thousand marks ; in return for which slender supply he had been put in possession of the Cotentin, almost one- third of the duke's dominions. But these two brothers, notwithstanding their mutual jealousies, now united, in order to defend their territories against the ambition of the king of England, who appeared in Normandy at the head of a numerous army : and affairs seemed to be hastening to extre- mity, when an accommodation was brought about by the interposition of the nobility. Prince Henry, however, disgusted at the terms of that agreement, in which he thought himself treated with neglect, retired to St. Michael's Mount, a strong fortress on the coast of Normandy, and infested the neighbouring country with his incursions. Robert and William, his two brothers, besieged him in this place, and had nearly obliged him to surrender by reason of the scarcity of water; when the elder, hearing of his brother's distress, granted him permission to obtain a supply, and also sent him some pipes of wine for his own table a conduct which could only have been dictated by the gene- rous but romantic spirit of chivalry that prevailed in those times, and with which the duke was strongly infected. Being reproved by William for this imprudent generosity, Robert replied " What I shall I suffer my brother to die of thirst 1 where shall we find another brother, when he is gone ?" William, during this siege, also performed an act of generosity less suited to his character. Riding out alone to survey the fortress, he was attacked by two soldiers, and dismounted. One of the soldiers drew his sword, in order to despatch the king. " Hold, knave !" cried William, " I am the king of England." The soldier suspended his blow, and raised the king from the ground ; who, charmed with the fellow's behaviour, rewarded him handsomely, and took him into his service. (2) (1) Chron. Sax. Gul. Malmes. lib iv. The application of William, however, and the service they had rendered him, made the natives sensible of their importance by reason of their numbers : and they gra- dually recovered their consequence in the course of the struggles between the king and the nobles. (2) Gul. Malmes. ubi sup. M. Paris. R. Hoveden. LET. XXIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 145 Prince Henry was at last obliged to capitulate ; and, being despoiled of all his dominions, wandered about for some time with very few attendants, and often in great poverty. In the mean time William was engaged in humbling the Scots and Welsh, who had infested England with their incursions during his Norman expedi- tion. He had also occasion to quell a conspiracy of his own barons, who meant to exalt to the throne Stephen, count of Aumale, nephew to the Con- queror. But the noise of these petty wars and commotions was quite sunk in the tumult of tho Crusades, which then engaged the attention of all Europe, and have since attracted the curiosity of mankind, as the most singu- lar examples of human folly that were ever exhibited on the face of the globe. The cause and consequences of these pious enterprises I shall afterward have occasion to consider : at present I shall only speak of them as they affect the history of England. Robert, duke of Normandy, impelled by the bravery and mistaken genero- sity of his spirit, had early enlisted himself in the first crusade ; but being always unprovided with money, he found it would be impossible for him, without some supply, to appear in a manner suitable to his rank at the head of his numerous vassals, who, transported with the general fury, were desi- rous of following him into Asia. He therefore resolved to mortgage, or to sell his dominions, which he had not prudence to govern; and he offered them to his brother William, who kept aloof from all those fanatical and romantic warriors, for so small a sum as ten thousand marks. (l) The bargain was concluded, and William was put in possession of Normandy and Maine ; while Robert, providing himself with a magnificent train, set out for the Holy Land in pursuit of glory, and in full hopes of securing his eternal salvation. In the mean time William, who regarded only the things of this world, was engaged in a quarrel with Anselm, commonly called St. Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, a Piedmontese monk, whom he had called over in a fit of remorse, and whom he wanted to deprive of his see for refractory behaviour. Anselm appealed to Rome against the king's injustice, and affairs came to such extremities, that the primate, finding it dangerous to remain in the kingdom, desired permission to retire beyond sea. It was granted him, but all his temporalities were confiscated. He was nevertheless received with great respect by Urban II. who considered him as a martyr in the cause of religion, and even threatened the king with the sentence of excommunication on account of his proceedings against the primate. (2) Anselm afterward distinguished himself in the council of Bari, where the famous dispute between the Greek and Latin churches, relative to the pro- cession of the third person of the Trinity, was agitated ; namely, whether the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and Son, or from the Father only? He also assisted in a council at Rome, where spiritual censures Avere de- nounced against all ecclesiastics who did homage to laymen for their benefices, and on all laymen who exacted such homage. The arguments made use of on that occasion, in favour of the clergy, are worthy of the ignorance of the age, and strongly mark the gross superstition into which the human mind was sunk. The ceremony of homage, by the feudal customs, as I have had occasion to observe, was,. that the vassal should throw himself on his knees, put his hands between those of his superior, and in that posture swear fealty to him. Churchmen had been accustomed thus to do homage for their benefices. But this council declared such homage inconsistent with the dignity of the sacer- dotal character, as well as with the independency of the church : " For," said Urban. " it is execrable, that holy hands, appointed to perform what was never granted to any angel, to create God the Creator, and offer him to God his Father, for the salvation of mankind, should be reduced to the humiliating (1) Our old historians are not agreed in regard to the particulars of this transaction ; but the ten thousand marks seem to have been paid for a mortgage, or uninterrupted possession, of five years. Vide Eadmer M. Paris. Order. Vital. (2) Endmnr. M. Paris. Order. Vital. VOL. I. K ~ 146 THEHISTORYOF [PART L baseness of slavishly mingling with profane hands, which, besides being soiled with rapine and bloodshed, are day and night employed in impure offices, and obscene contacts !"(!) The fanaticism of the times afforded the King of England a second oppor- tunity of increasing his dominions. Poictiers and Guienne Avere offered to be mortgaged to him, for the same pious purpose that had induced his brother Robert to put him in possession of Normandy and Maine. The bargain was concluded, and William had prepared a fleet and army to escort the money stipulated as the price of his new territory, and to secure the possession of it, when an accident put an end to his life, and to all his ambitious projects. He was engaged in hunting, the sole amusement, and, except war, the chief occupation of princes in those rude times, when this accident happened. Walter Tyrrel, a French gentleman, remarkable for his address in archery, attended him in that recreation, of which the New Forest was the scene ; and as William had dismounted after the chase, Tyrrel, impatient to show his dexterity, let fly an arrow at a stag which suddenly started before him. The arrow glancing against a tree, struck the king to the heart, and instantly killed him ; while Tyrrel, without informing any one of the accident, put spurs to his horse, hastened to the sea-shore, embarked for France, and joined the crusade in an expedition to the Holy Land(2) a penance which he imposed on himself for this involuntary crime, and which was deemed suffi- cient to expiate crimes of the blackest dye. William II. though a man of sound understanding, appears to have been a violent and tyrannical prince; a perfidious, encroaching, and dangerous neighbour, and an unkind and ungenerous relation. His vices, however, have probably been much exaggerated by the monkish writers, the only historians Of those times, as he was utterly void of superstition, and seemingly wanting in a decent respect for religion. Of this many examples might be produced, but one will be sufficient. When the body of the clergy presented a petition, that he would give them leave to send a form of prayer to be used in all the churches of England, " That God would move the heart of the king to appoint an archbishop !" he having kept the revenues or temporalities of the see of Canterbury in his own hands almost five years, he carelessly replied, " You may pray as you please, and I will act as I please."(3) Had he lived a few years longer, he would greatly have enlarged his dominions, and as he was the most powerful and politic prince in Europe, he might perhaps have become its arbiter. He built the Tower, Westminster hall, and London bridge, monu- ments of his greatness, which still remain. His most liberal measure was the sending of an army into Scotland, in order to restore prince Edgar, the true heir of that crown, the son of Malcolm III. surnamed Canmore, bv Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling. The enterprise succeeded. Toward the latter part of this reign, Magnus, king of Norway, made a descent on the Isle of Anglesea, but was beat off by the earl of Shrewsbury. Since that repulse the northern nations have made no attempt against England. As William Rufus was never married, and consequently could leave no lawful issue, the kingdom of England now belonged to his brother Robert both by the right of birth and of solemn compact, ratified by the nobility, But as prince Henry was hunting in the New Forest when the king was slain, he immediately galloped to Winchester, secured the royal treasure, was saluted king, and proceeded to the exercise of the sovereign authority Sen- sible, however, that a crown usurped against all the rules of justice would sit very unsteady on his head, Henry resolved, by fair professions at least, to gain the affections of all his subjects. Besides taking the usual coronation oath, to maintain the constitution, and to execute justice, he passed a charter which was calculated to remedy many of the grievous oppressions complained (1) Fleury, Hist. Eccles. Jlnglia Sacra, vol. i. Eadmer. Bromptan. Sim. Dimelin. Eaimerlus who was present at that council, tells us, that, on the close of this impious speech of his holiness, all tl venerable fathers cried " Jlmen! Jlmrn /" "i) Cfiron. Sax. R. Hoveden. H. Hunt. (3) Gul. Malmcs. p.124, col. i. LET. XXIIL] MODERNEUROPE. 147 of during the reign of his father and his brother ; and he promised a general confirmation and observance of the laws of Edward the Confessor.(l) In order farther to establish himself on the throne, the king recalled arch- bishop Anselm, and reinstated him in the see of Canterbury. He also mar- ried Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III. king of Scotland, and niece to Edgar Atheling. And this marriage, more than any other measure of his reign, tended to endear Henry to his English subjects, who had felt so severely the tyranny of the Normans, that they reflected with infinite regret on their former liberty, and hoped for a more equal and mild administration, when the blood of their native princes should be united with that of the new sove reigns. (2) But the policy and prudence of Henry I. ran great hazard of being frustrated by the sudden appearance of his brother Robert, who returned from the Holy Land about a month after the death of William II. took possession of Normandy without resistance, and made preparations for asserting his title to the crown of England. The great reputation which Robert had acquired in the East favoured his pretensions ; and the Norman barons, still impressed with apprehensions of the consequences of the separation of the dutchy and kingdom, discovered the same discontent which had appeared on the accession of Rufus. Henry was, therefore, in danger of being deserted by all his subjects : and it was only through the exhortations of archbishop Anselm that they were engaged to oppose Robert, who had landed at Portsmouth. The two armies continued some days in sight of each other without coming to action ; and by the interposition of the same prelate, an accommodation was happily brought about between the brothers. In this treaty it was agreed, that Robert should resign his pretensions to England, and receive an annual pension of three thousand marks ; that if either of the princes died without issue, the other should succeed to his domi- nions: that the adherents of each should be pardoned, and restored to all their possessions, and that neither the king nor the duke should thenceforth countenance the enemies of each other. (3) But these conditions, though so favourable to Henry, were soon violated by his rapacity and ambition. He restored indeed the estates of Robert's adherents, but took care that they should not remain long in the undisturbed possession of them. Various pre- tences were formed for despoiling and humbling all who, in his opinion, had either inclination or abilities to disturb his government. Enraged at the fate of his friends, Robert imprudently ventured into Eng- land, but met with such a bad reception, that he became alarmed for his own safety, and was glad to purchase his escape with the loss of his pension. One indiscretion followed another. The affairs of Normandy fell into confusion : Henry went over, by invitation, to regulate them ; but, instead of supporting his brother's authority, he increased the discontents bjj every art of bribery, intrigue, and insinuation, and at length made himself master of the dutchy. The unfortunate Robert, who seemed born only to be the sport of fortune, was carried prisoner into England, where he remained in custody during the remainder of his life, which was no less than twenty-eight years, and died a captive in the castle of Cardiff, in Glamorganshire. (4) The acquisition of Normandy was a great point of Henry's ambition, being the ancient patrimonial inheritance of his family, and the only territory which gave him any weight or consideration on the continent. But the injustice of the usurpation was the source of much inquietude, and the jea- lousy of the French monarch gave rise to those wars which were to prove so fatal to posterity. Lewis VI. in concert with the counts of Anjou and Flan- ders, supported the claim of William, son of Robert, to the dutchy of Nor- mandy : he even craved the assistance of the church for reinstating the true heir in his dominions, and represented the enormity of detaining in prison so brave a prince as Robert, one of the most eminent champions of the cross. But Henry knew how to defend the rights of his crown with vigour, and yet (1) M.Paris. R. Hagulstail. (2) M. Paris. R. Hoveden. (3) Chron. Sax. Orler. ViU <4) Annul. Wavcrl. Gul. Malmes. lib. v. 148 THE HISTORY OF [PART! with dexterity. He detached the count of Anjou from the alliance, by con- tracting his eldest son, William, to that prince's daughter, while he gained the pope and his favourites by liberal presents and promises. Calixtus II. vrho was then in France, declared, after a conference with Henry, that of all men, whom he had ever seen, the king of England was beyond comparison the most eloquent and persuasive. (l) The complaints of the Norman prince were thenceforth disregarded. The military operations of Lewis proved as unsuccessful as his intrigues. The French and English armies engaged near Andeley, in Normandy ; where a sharp action ensued, in which William, the son of Robert, behaved with great bravery. Henry himself was in imminent danger. He was wounded in the head by a gallant Norman, named Crispin, who had followed the for- tunes of William; but rather roused than intimidated by the blow, the king collected all his might, and beat his antagonist to the ground. (2) The p]nglish, animated by the example of their sovereign, put the French to total rout; and an accommodation soon after took place between the two mo- narchs, in which the interests of young William were entirely neglected. But Henry's public prosperity was much overbalanced by a domestic mis- fortune. His son William, who had attained his eighteenth year, had accom- panied him into Normandy, but perished in his return, with all his retinue. The royal youth was anxious to get first to land: and the captain of his vessel, being intoxicated with liquor, heedlessly ran her on a rock, where she was immediately dashed to pieces. Beside the prince, ahove one hundred and forty young noblemen, of the principal families of England and Nor- mandy, were lost on this occasion. The king was so much affected by the news, that he is said never to have smiled more. (3) As prince William left no children, Henry had now no legitimate issue, ex- cept his daughter Matilda, whom he had betrothed when a child to the emperor Henry V. who also dying without children, the king bestowed his daughter on Geoffrey Plantagenet, the eldest son of the count of Anjou, and endea- voured to secure her succession, by having her recognised heiress of all his dominions : and he obliged the barons, both of Normandy and England, to swear fealty to her. After six years she was delivered of a son, who re- ceived the name of Henry ; and the king, farther to ensure the succession, made all the nobility renew the oath of fealty which they had already sworn to her, and also to swear fftalty to her infant son. (4) The joy of this event, and the pleasure of his daughter's company, made Henry take up his residence in Normandy, where he died, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and the thirty-fifth of his reign, leaving his daughter Matilda, heiress of all his dominions. He was one of the most able and accomplished princes that ever filled the English throne, possessing all the qualities, both mental and personal, that could adorn the high station to which he attained, or fit him for the government of an extensive territory. His learning, which procured him the name of Beauclcrc, or the^rae scholar, would have distinguished him in private life, and his talents would have given him an ascendant in any condition. The affairs of France, my dear Philip, and the crusades, which took their rise in that kingdom, claim your attention, before I speak of the disputed succession of Matilda, and of her son Henry II. commonly known by the name of Plantagenet, whose reign affords some of the most interesting spec- tacles in the history of England. In the mean time, it will be proper to take a slight review of the change produced in our ancient constitution, and in the condition of our Saxon ancestors, by the Norman conquest or revolution. POSTSCRIPT. THE original government of the Anglo-Saxons, as we have seen, was a kind of military democracy, under a king or chief, whose authority was very limited, and whose office was not strictly hereditary, but depended on the will (1 M. Paris. H. Hunting. (2) Id. ibid. (3) R. llovcden. (4) Ypod. Nenst. R. de Dicetn LET. XXIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 149 of the people. This government they brought into Britain with them. Matters of small consequence were settled by the king in council ; but all affairs of general concern, or national importance, the making of laws, the imposing of taxes, the declaring of war, were laid before the Wittenagemot or parliament, and determined by the majority of voices, or at least by the preponde ration of public opinion.(l) From that assembly no freeman could be said to be excluded ; for although a certain portion of land was necessary as a qualification, a husbandman or tradesman no sooner acquired that portion, which was different, at different times of the Anglo-Saxon government,(2) than he had a right to be present, not only as a spectator, a privilege that was common to every one, but as a constituent member of the Wittenagemot. And all merchants, who had made two voyages to foreign countries, on their own account, became pos- sessed of the same right, by a law passed in the reign of king Athelstan ;(3) so that our Anglo-Saxon ancestors might make with truth, the glorious boast of modern Englishmen, that every member of the community shared with his sovereign, the power and authority by which he was governed. Little wonder, therefore, that the great lines of this ennobling system of freedom, long after it was destroyed, seemed to be engraved in their hearts, by the" keen sorrow with which it was regretted 1 . If the Anglo-Saxons, as a nation, had reason to think themselves happy in their deliberative and legislative, they were no less so in their juridical capacity. Justice was universally the care of the great body of the people: and a regular chain of appeal was established from the tything or decennary, consisting of ten families, up to the Wittenagemot, which was a suj^reme court of law, as well as a national council or assembly. But the grand security of justice, and even of liberty and property, was the court called the thiremote, held twice a year in every county, at a stated time and place, where, along with the alderman or earl of the shire, and the bishop of the diocess, all the clergy and landholders of the county were obliged to be present, and determined, by the majority of voices, all causes brought before them, in whatever stage of their progress ; beginning with the causes of the church, taking next under cognizance the pleas of the crown, and lastly, the disputes of private persons. (4) As the duke of Normandy, by taking the usual oath administered to the Anglo-Saxon kings at their coronation, had solemnly engaged to maintain the constitution, and to administer justice according to the laws, the English nation had reason to believe they had merely changed their native sovereign for one of foreign extraction a matter to them of small concern, as I have had occasion to observe, especially as the line of succession had been already broken by the usurpation or election of Harold. But although William affected moderation for a while, and even adopted some of the laws oi Edward the Confessor, in order to quiet the apprehensions of his new subjects, to these laws he paid little regard ; and no sooner did he find himself firmly established on the throne, than he utterly subverted the form of government, and the manner of administering justice throughout the whole kingdom. The government which he substituted was a rigid feudal monarchy, or military aristocracy, in which a regular chain of subordination and service was established, from the sovereign or commander-in-chief, to the serf or villain; and which, like all feudal governments, was attended with a grievous depression of the body of the people, who were daily exposed to the insults, violences, and exactions of the nobles, whose vassals they all were, and from whose oppressive jurisdiction it was difficult and dangerous for them to appeal. This depression, as might be expected, was more complete and humiliating in England, under the first Anglo-Norman princes, than in any other feudal (1) Spelman. Gloss, in voc. Wittenagemot. (2) It was originally only five hides, but was raised by degrees as high as forty. (3) Wilkius, Leges Saxon. Seldon, Tit. Hon. (4) Spelman, Reliquiae. Hickcsi, DissertaL Epist. 150 THE HISTORY OF [PART t. government. William I. by his artful and tyrannical policy, by attainders and confiscations, had become, in the course of his reign, proprietor of almost all the lands in the kingdom. These lands, however, he could not retain, had he been even willing, in his own hands : he was under the necessity ol bestowing the greater part of them on his Norman captains, or nobles, the companions of his conquest, and the instruments of his tyranny, who had led their own vassals to battle.(l) But those grants he clogged with heavy feudal services, and payments or prestations, which no one dared to refuse. He was the general of a victorious army, which was still obliged to continue in a military posture, in order to secure the possessions it had seized. And the Anglo-Norman Barons and tenants in capite, by knights-service, who only held immediately of the crown, and with the dignified clergy, formed the national assembly, imposed obligations yet more severe on their vassals, the inferior landholders, consisting chiefly of unhappy English gentlemen, as well as on the body of the people, for whom they seemed to have no bowels of compassion. (2) But the rigour of the Anglo-Norman government, and the tyrannical and licentious spirit of the nobles, proved ultimately favourable to general liberty. The oppressed people looked up to the king for protection : and circumstances enabled them to obtain it. The defect in the title of William II. and of Henry I. induced them to listen to the complaints of their English subjects, and to redress many of their grievances. The people, in some measure satisfied with the relief afforded them, became sensible of their consequence, and of their obligations to the crown ; while the barons, finding themselves in quiet possession of their English estates, and apprehending no future disturbance from the natives, bore with impatience the burdens imposed upon them by William I. and to which they had readily submitted in the hour of conquest and of danger. They saw the necessity of being more indulgent to their vassals, in order to obtain sufficient force to enable them to retrench the prerogatives of the sovereign, and of connecting their cause with that of the people. And the people, always formidable by their numbers, courted by both parties, and sometimes siding with one, sometimes with the other, in the bloody contest between the king and the barons, recovered by various progressive steps, which I shall have occasion to trace in the course (1) Nothing can more strongly indicate that necessity than the following anecdote. Earl Warren, when questioned, in a subsequent reign, concerning his right to the lands he possessed, boldly drew liis sword. "This," said he, "is my title! William the Bastard did not conquer England himself: the Norman barons, and my ancestors, among the rest, were joint adventurers in the enterprise." Dugdale, Baronage, vol. i. (2) The state of England, at the death of William the Conqueror, is thus described by one of our ancient historians, who was almost cotemporary with that princo. " The Normans," says he, " had now fully executed the wrath of heaven upon the English. There was hardly one of that nation who poaseeeed any power; they were all involved in servitude and sorrow; insomuch, that to be called an Englishman, was considered as a reproach. In those miserable times, many oppressive taxes and tyrannical customs were introduced. The king himself, when he had let his lands at their full value, if another tenant came and oftered more, and afterward a third, and offered still more, violated alt his former pactions, and gave them to him who oflered most: and the great men were inflamed with such a rage for money, that they cared not by what means it was acquired. The more they talked of justice, the more injuriously they arted. Those who-were called justiciaries," alluding most likely to the barons in their courts, " were the fountains of all iniquity. Sheriffs and judges, whose peculiar duty it was to pro- nounce righteous judgments, were the most cruel of all tyrants, and greater plunderers than common thieves and robbers." (Hen. Hunting, lib. viii.) And the author of the Saxon Chronicle, in speaking of the miseries of a subsequent reign, says, that the great barons " grievously oppressed the poor people \v itb building castles ; and when they were built, they filled them with wicked men, or rather devils, who seized both men and women, supposed to be possessed of any money, threw (hem into prison, and put them to more cruel tortures than the martyrs ever endured." (Chron. Sax. p. 238.) The truth of this melan- choly description is corroborated by the testimony of William of Malmsbury. Hist. lib. ii. The great power and success of the Normans made them licentious as well as tyrannical. This licen- tiousness was so great, that the princess Matilda, daughter of Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland, wh<. had received her education in England, and was afterward married to Henry I. thought it nrci's.-ary to wear the religious habit, in order to preserve her person from violation. Before a great council of the Anglo-Norman clergy, she herself declared, that she had been induced by no other motive to put on the eil. And the council admitted her plea, in the following memorable words: "When the great king William conquered this land, many of his followers, elated with their extraordinary success, and thinking that all things ought to be subservient to their will and pleasure, not only seized the possessions of the vanquished, but invaded the honour of their matrons and virgins. Hence many young ladies, wh< dreaded such violences, were indiirnl to sffk shelter ia convents, and even to take the veil as a fartke* tecuritf to their virtue." Eadnur Hit: III) 'ii. LET. XXIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 151 of my narration, their ancient and natural right to a place in the parliament or national assembly. Thus restored to a share in the legislature, the English commonalty felt more fully their own importance; and, by a long and vigorous struggle, maintained with unexampled perseverance, they wrested from both the king and the nobles, all the other rights of a free people, of which theif Anglo- Saxon ancestors had been robbed, by the violent invasion and cruel policy of William the Norman. To those rights they were entitled as men, by the great law of nature and reason, which declares the welfare of the whole com- munity to be the end of all civil government ; and, as Englishmen by inhe- ritance. In whatever light, therefore, we view the privileges of the commons, they are resumptions, not usurpations. In order to establish this important political truth, some of our popular writers have endeavoured to prove, that the people of England were by no means robbed of their liberty or property by William L, and that the commons had a share in the legislature under all the Anglo-Norman princes. But as this position cannot be maintained without violating historical testimony, the advocates for prerogatives have had greatly the advantage in that contentious dispute. (1) I have therefore made the usurpations of William, in violation of his coronation oath, the basis of my argument. Usurpation can create no right, nor the exercise of illegal authority any prerogative. LETTER XXIV. France, under Philip L and Lewis VI. with some account of the first Crusade. PHILIP I. as I have already observed,(2) had been perfectly well educated. Nor was he by any means deficient in point of capacity; but his mind had acquired a wrong bias, which discovered itself in all his actions, and swayed him upon all occasions to prefer his interest, or his inclinations, to his honour. His reign is not so remarkable for any thing as his marrying Bertrand de Montford, dutchess of Anjou, while her husband and his queen were both alive. For this irregularity he was excommunicated by Urban II. in the famous council of Clermont, where the first crusade was preached for the recovery of the Holy Land(3) a circumstance which naturally leads me to speak of that extravagant expedition, its causes, and its consequences. Gregory VII. among his other vast ideas, had formed, as we have seen, the project of uniting the western Christians against the Mahometans, and of recovering Palestine from the hands of those infidels ;(4) and his quarrels with the emperor Henry IV. by which he declared himself an enemy to the civil power of princes, only could have obstructed the progress of this under- taking, conducted by so able a politician, at a time when the minds of men were fully prepared for such an enterprise. The work, however, was reserved for a meaner instrument; for a man whose condition could excite no jealousy, and whose head was as weak as his imagination was warm. But before I mention this man, I must say a few words of the state of the east at that time, and of the passion for pilgrimages which then prevailed in Europe. We naturally view with veneration and delight those places which have been the residence of any illustrious personage, or the scene of any great transaction. Hence the enthusiasm with which the literati still visit the (1) Mr. Hume, in particular, has triumphed over every adversary. His collected arguments, supported by facts, to prove "that the commons originally formed no part of the Anglo-Norman parliament," are strong and satisfactory. But the following clause in the great charter, is of itself sufficient to determine Ihe dispute. " We will cause to be summoned," says the king, " as a common council of the kingdom, !he archbishops, bishops, earls, and great barons, personally, by our letters ; and besides, we will cause to e summoned in general, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief." (Mag. Chart, c. civ.) This indubitable testimony, so full and conclusive, when duly weighed, must preclude all future controversy on the subject. (2) Letter XVIII. <3\ Harduin Condi, torn. xi. C4) See Letter XXII. 152 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. ruins of Athens and Rome ; and hence flowed the superstitious devotion with which Christians, from the earliest ages of the church, were accustomed to visit that country where the religion had taken its rise, and that city in which the Messiah had died for the redemption of those who believe in his name. Pilgrimages to the shrines of saints and martyrs were also common ; but as this distant pilgrimage could not be performed without considerable expense, fatigue, and danger, it appeared more meritorious than all others, and came to be considered as an expiation for almost every crime. And an opinion which prevailed over Europe toward the close of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century, increased the number and the ardour of the credu lous devotees that undertook this tedious journejr. The thousand years mentioned by St. John, in his book of Revelations, were supposed to be accomplished, and the end of the world at hand. A general consternation, as I have had occasion to notice, seized the minds of Christians. Many relinquished their possessions, abandoned their friends and families, and hurried with precipitation to the Holy Land, where they imagined Christ would suddenly appear to judge the quick and the dead.(l) But the Christians, though ultimately undeceived in regard to the day of judgment, had the mortification, in these pious journeys, to see the holy sepulchre, and the other places made sacred by the presence of the Saviour, fallen into the hands of infidels. The followers and. the countrymen of Ma- homet, had early made themselves masters of Palestine, which the Greek empire, far in its decline, was unable to protect against so warlike an enemy. They gave little disturbance, however, to those zealous pilgrims who daily flocked to Jerusalem ; nay, they allowed every one, after paying a moderate tribute, to visit the holy sepulchre, to perform his religious duties, and return in peace. But the Turks, a Tartar tribe who had also embraced Mahomet- anism, having wrested Syria from the Saracens, as you have seen, about the middle of the eleventh century, and made themselves masters of Jerusalem, pilgrims were thenceforth exposed to outrages of every kind from these fierce Barbarians. And this change, coinciding with the panic of the consummation of all things, and the supposed appearance of Christ on Mount Sion, filled Europe with alarm and indignation. Every pilgrim who returned from Palestine, related the dangers he had encountered in visiting the holy city, and described, with exaggeration, the cruelty and vexations of the Turks, who, to use the language of those zealots, not only profaned the sepulchre 01 the Lord by their presence, but derided the sacred mysteries in the very place of their completion, and where the Son of God was speedily expected to hold his great tribunal. (2) While the minds of men were thus roused, a fanatical monk, commonly known by the name of Peter the hermit, a native of Amiens in Picardy, revived the project of Gregory VII. of leading all the forces of Christendom against the infidels, and of driving them out of the Holy Land. He had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was so deeply affected with the danger to which that act of piety now exposed Christians, that he ran from province to province on his return, with a crucifix in his hand, exciting princes and peo- ple to this holy war ; and wherever he came, he kindled the same enthusiastic ardour for it with which he himself was animated. Urban II. who had at first been doubtful of the success of such a project, at length entered into Peter's views, and summoned at Placentia a council, which was obliged to be held in the open fields, no hall being sufficient to contain the multitude : it consisted of four thousand ecclesiastics, and thirty thousand laymen, who all declared for the war against the infidels, but none of them heartily engaged in the enterprise. Urban, therefore, found it necessary to call another council the same year at Clermont, in Auvergne, where the greatest prelates, nobles, and princes, attended ; and when the pope and the hermit had concluded their pathetic exhortations, the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate inspiration, exclaimed with one (1) Chron. Will. Godelli ap. Bouquet. Reeueil des Hist, de France, torn. X (2) Eccard. Corp. Script. Vedii JKci. vol. i. LET. XXIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 153 voice ; " It is the will of God ! It is the will of God !" words which were deemed so memorable, and believed to be so much the result of a divine influ- ence, that they were employed as the motto on the sacred standard, and as the signal of rendezvous and battle in all the future exploits of the champions of the Cross ; the symbol chosen by the devoted combatants, in allusion to the death of Christ, as the badge of union, and affixed to their right shoulder, whence their expedition got the name of a crusade.(l) Persons of all ranks flew to arms with the utmost ardour. Not only the gallant nobles of that age, with their martial followers, whom the boldness of a romantic enterprise might have been apt to allure, but men in the more humble and pacific stations of life ; ecclesiastics of every order, and even women, concealing their sex beneath the disguise of armour, engaged with emulation in an undertaking which was deemed so sacred and meritorious. The greatest criminals were forward in a service, which they regarded as a propitiation for all their crimes. If they succeeded, they hoped to make their fortune in this world ; and if they died, they were promised a crown of lory in the world to come. Devotion, passion, prejudice, and habit, all con- tributed to the same end ; and the combination of so many causes produced that wonderful emigration which made the princess Anna Comnena say, that Europe, loosened from its foundations, and impelled by its moving principle, seemed in one united body to precipitate itself upon Asia. (2) The number of adventurers soon became so great, that their more expe rienced leaders, Hugh, count of Vermandois, brother to the French king, Robert, duke of Normandy, Raymond, count of Thoulouse, Godfrey of Bouillon, prince of Brabant, and Stephen, count of Blois, grew apprehensive that the greatness of the armament would defeat its purpose. They therefore permitted an undisciplined multitude, computed at three hundred thousand men, to go before them, under the command of Peter the Hermit, Walter the Moneyless, and other wild fanatics. Peter and his army, before which he walked with sandals on his feet, a rope about his waist, and every other mark of monkish austerity, took the road to Constantinople, through Hungary and Bulgaria. Godescald, a Ger- man priest, and his banditti, took the same route ; and trusting that Heaven by supernatural means, would supply all their necessities, they made no pro- vision for subsistence on their march. But they soon found themselves obliged to obtain by plunder what they had vainly expected from miracles. Want is ingenious in suggesting pretences for its supply. Their fury first discharged itself upon the Jews. As the soldiers of Jesus Christ, they thought them- selves authorized to takfi revenge upon his murderers : they accordingly fell upon those unhappy people, and put to the sword without mercy such as would not submit to baptism, seizing their effects as lawful prize. In Bavaria alone twelve thousand Jews were massacred, and many thousands in the other provinces of Germany. But Jews not being every where to be found, these pious robbers, who had tasted the sweets of plunder, and were under no military regulations, pillaged without distinction, until the inhabitants of the countries through which they passed rose and cut them almost all off. The Hermit, however, and the remnant of his army, consisting of twenty thousand starving wretches, at length reached Constantinople, where he received a fresh supply of German and Italian vagabonds, who were guilty of the greatest disorders, pillaging even the churches.(3) Alexis Comnenus, the Greek emperor, who had applied to the Latins for succour against the Turks, entertained a hope, and but a feeble one, of ob- taining such an aid as might enable him to repulse the enemy. He was, therefore, astonished to see his dominions overwhelmed by an inundation of licentious Barbarians, strangers alike to order and discipline, and to hear of the multitudes that were following, under different leaders. He contented himself, however, Avith getting rid, as soon as possible, of such troublesome (1) Theod. Ruinart. in Vit. Urlicmi II. Baron. Annal. Eccles. torn. xi. (2) Alexias, lib. x. (31 Maimbourg, Hist, des Croisadet, torn. i. 154 THE HISTORY OF [PART I guests, by furnishing them with vessels to transport themselves to the other side of the Bosphorus ; and general Peter soon saw himself in the plains of Asia, at the head of a Christian army, ready to give battle to the Infidels. Soliman, sultan of Nice, fell upon the disorderly crowd, and slaughtered them almost without resistance. Walter the Moneyless and many other leaders of equal distinction were slain ; but Peter the Hermit found his way back to Constantinople, where he was considered as a maniac, who had enlisted a multitude of madmen to follow him.(l) In the mean time the more disciplined armies arrived at the imperial city, and were there joined by Bohemond, son of Robert Guiscard, from motives of policy rather than piety. Having no other inheritance but the small prin- cipality of Tarentum, and his own valour, he took advantage of the epide- mical enthusiasm of the times to assemble under his banner ten thousand horsemen, well armed, and some infantry, with which he hoped to conquer a few provinces either from the Christians or Mahometans. His presence gave much alarm to the emperor Alexis Comnenus, with whom he had been for- merly at war. But the refined policy of that prince, who caressed those rapacious allies whom he wished to ruin, and secretly regarded as more dan- gerous than the enemies they came to combat, diverted all apprehensions of harm either from Bohemond or the other leaders of the crusade. He furnished them with provisions, and transported them safely into Asia ; after having conciliated their affections by presents and promises, and engaged them to do him homage for the lands they should conquer from the Turks. (2) Asia, like Europe, was then divided into a number of little states, compre- hended under the great ones. The Turkish princes paid an empty homage to the caliphs, but were in reality their masters ; and the sultans or soldans, who were very numerous, weakened still farther the empire of Mahomet by continual wars with each other, the necessary consequence of divided sway. The soldiers of the cross, therefore, who amounted, when mustered on the banks of the Bosphorus, to the incredible number of one hundred thousand horsemen, and six hundred thousand foot, were sufficient to have conquered all Asia, had they been united under one head, or commanded by leaders that observed any concert in their operations. But they were unhap- pily conducted by men of the most independent, intractable spirit, unac- quainted with discipline, and enemies to civil or military subordination. Their zeal, however, their bravery, and their irresistible force, still carried them forward, and advanced them to the great end of their enterprise, in spite of every obstacle the scarcity of provisions, the excesses of fatigue, and the influence of unknown climes. After an obstinate siege, they took Nice, the seat of old Soliman, sultan of Syria, whose army they had twice defeated : they made themselves masters of Antioch, the seat of another sultan, and en- tirely broke the strength of the Turks, who had so long tyrannized over the \rabs. (3) The caliph of Egypt, whose alliance the Christians had hitherto courted, recovered, on the fall of the Turkish power, the authority of the caliphs in Jerusalem. On this he sent ambassadors to the leaders of the Crusade, informing them, that they might now perform their religious vows, if they came disarmed to that city; and that all Christian pilgrims, who should thenceforth visit the holy sepulchre, might expect the same good treatment which they had ever received from his predecessors. His offers were, how- ever, rejected. He was required to yield up the city to the Christians ; and, on his refusal, the champions of the Cross advanced to the siege of Jerusalem, the great object of their armament, and the acquisition of which they consi- dered as the consummation of their labours. These pious adventurers were now much diminished, by the detachments they had made, and the disasters they had suffered : and what seems almost .ncredible, they did not exceed, according to the testimony of most historians (1) Anna Comnena, ubi sup. (2) Maimbouig, abl sup. (3) Dach. Specileg. vol. iv. Maimbourg, torn. i. LET. XXIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 15 twenty thousand foot, and fifteen hundred horse, while the garrison of Jerusalem consisted of forty thousand men. But, be that as it may, after a siege of five weeks, they took the city by assault, and put the garrison and inhabitants to the sword without distinction. Arms protected not the brave, or submission the timid: no age or sex were spared: infants perished by the same sword that pierced their mothers, while imploring mercy. .The streets of Jerusalem were covered with heaps of slain ; and the shrieks ol agony or despair still resounded from every house, when these triumphant warriors, glutted with slaughter, threw aside their arms, yet streaming will blood, and advanced with naked feet and bended knees to the sepulchre 01 the Prince of Peace ! sung anthems to that Redeemer, who had purchased their salvation by his death ; and, while dead to the calamities of their fel- low-creatures, dissolved in tears for the sufferings of the Messiah !(1) So inconsistent is human nature with itself; and so easily, as the philosophic Hume remarks, does the most effeminate superstition associate both with the most heroic courage and with the fiercest barbarity. About the same time that this great event happened in Asia, where God- frey of Bouillon was chosen king of Jerusalem, and Bohemond, and some other Christian princes, settled in their new conquests, Urban II. the author of the Crusade, and the queen of France, died in Europe. In consequence of these deaths, Philip I. who still continued to live with the countess of Anjou, was absolved, by the new pope, from the sentence of excommunication denounced in the council of Clerrnont. But although this absolution quieted in some measure his domestic troubles, his authority, which the thunder of the church, together with his indolent and licentious course of life, had ruined, was far from being restored. The nobility more and more affected independency : they insulted him every hour ; plundered his subjects, and entirely cut off the communication between Paris and Orleans.(2) In order to remedy these evils, Philip associated his son Lewis in the go- vernment, or, at least, declared him, with the consent of the nobility, his successor. This young prince was, in all respects, the reverse of his father , active, Vigorous, affable, generous, and free from the vices incident to youth. He saw that in a state so corrupted nothing could be done but by force : he therefore kept continually in the field, with a small body of troops about him, and these he employed against such nobles as would not listen to the dictates of justice and equity, but treated the laws of their country with derision. He demolished their castles : he compelled them to make restitution to such as they had pillaged, and he forced them to abandon the lands they had usurped from the clergy : yet all these rigours he executed in a manner so disinterested, and with so indisputable a zeal for the public welfare, that he gained the affections of the virtuous part of the nobility, and the reverence of the people, while he restored order to the state, and preserved the monarchy from sub version. (3) This prince, who is commonly called by the old historians Lewis the Gros?, from his great size in the latter part of life, and who was the sixth Lewis that sat upon the throne of France, succeeded his father in 1108, when he was thirty years of age. Soon after his coronation, he engaged in a war against Henry I. of England, a powerful vassal, whom it was his interest to humble. The war was carried on with a variety of fortunes during the greater part of this reign, but without producing any remarkable event, ex- cept what I have related in the history of England, or any alteration in the state of either kingdom.(4) A peace was at length concluded between the two rival princes ; after which Lewis devoted himself to the regulation of the interior polity of his kingdom, and either humbled or overawed the great vassals of the crown, so as to procure universal tranquillity. This he accomplished, partly by esta- blishing the commons or third state, partly by enfranchising the villeins or bondmen, and partly by diminishing the exorbitant authority of the seignioral (I) M.Paris. Order. Vital. Verlot. Hist, de Cftev. de Malt. torn. i. (2) Order. Vital. Mezera) f3 ; Order. Vital. Sug. Vit.Lud. Grossi. 14) See Letter XX HI 156 THE HISTORY OF [PART I jurisdictions; sending- commissaries into the provinces to receive the com- plaints and redress the wrongs of such as had been oppressed by the dukes and counts, and every where encouraging appeals to the royal judges. But the king of France, in the midst of his prosperity, fell into a languishing dis- order, occasioned by his excessive corpulency ; and when he thought his death at hand, he ordered his son to be called to him and gave him the fol- lowing excellent advice. " By this sign," said he, (drawing the signet from his finger, and putting it on that of the prince) " I invest you with sovereign authority; but remember, that it is nothing but a public employment, to which you are called by Heaven, and for the exercise of which you must render an account in the world to come."(l) The king unexpectedly recovered ; but he would never afterward use an} of the ensigns of royalty. An accident contributed to the revival of hi* strength. William, duke of Guienne and earl of Poitou, resolved to make f* pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella, bequeathed his exten- sive territories to his daughter Eleanor, on condition that she married young Lewis, already crowned king of France, at the desire of his father; and the duke dying in that pilgrimage, the marriage was celebrated with great pomp at Bordeaux, where Lewis VII. was solemnly inaugurated as lord of Gui- enne and Poitou. (2) In the mean time Lewis VI. unable to support the heat of the dog-days died at Paris on the first of August, in the sixtieth year of his age, and the thirtieth of his reign. A better man, historians agree, never graced the throne of France; but, with the addition of certain qualities, his country- men say he might have made a better king. Posterity, however, may nol perhaps be inclined to think worse of his character, when they are told that the qualities he wanted were hypocrisy and dissimulation, and that his vices were honesty and sincerity ; which led him to despise flattery, and indulge himself in a manly freedom of speech. We should now, my dear Philip, return to the history of England ; but the second crusade, which was conducted by the sovereigns of France and Germany, makes it necessary to carry farther the affairs of the continent. LETTER XXV. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian Slates, from the Death of Henry V' to the Election of Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa. As Henry V. left no issue, it was universally believed that ;he states would confer the empire on one of his nephews, Conrad, duke of Franconia, or Frederic, duke of Suabia, who were princes of great merit ; but Albert, archbishop of Mentz, found means to influence the German chiefs to give their suffrages in favour of Lothario, duke of Saxe-Supplembourg, who had supported him in all his contests with the late emperor. Lothario was ac- cordingly crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, in presence of the pope's nuncio. Meanwhile his two competitors neglected nothing in their power to obtain the throne. But after a short opposition, which was, however, obstinate and bloody, they dropped their pretensions, and were reconciled to Lothario, who afterward honoured them with his friendship. (3) The first expedition of the new emperor was against the Bohemians, whom he obliged to sue for peace, and do homage to the empire. He next marched into Italy, where ecclesiastical affairs, as usual, were in much disorder. In- nocent II. had succeeded Honorius II. by virtue of a canonical election ; notwithstanding which cardinal Leoni, the grandson of a wealthy Jew, was also proclaimed pope by the name of Anacletus, and kept possession of Rome by means of his money, while his rival was obliged to retire into France, (1) Sug. Vit. Lud. Orcssi. Henault, Chron. Hist. torn. i. (2) Ibid. (3j Annul dt CEmp. torn. i. Hois. lib. ii. cap. xi. LET. XXV.] MODERN EUROPE. 157 the common asylum of distressed popes. Lothario espoused the cause of Innocent, with whom he had an interview at Liege ; accompanied him to Rome at the head of an army, and re-established him in the papal chair in spite of all the efforts and opposition of Anacletus. (1) After being solemnly crowned at Rome, the emperor returned to Ger- many ; where, by the advice of Ernerius, a learned professor of the Roman law, he ordered that justice should be administered in the empire according to the Digesta, or Code of Justinian, a copy of which was, about this time, found in Italy. (2) In the mean time Roger, duke of Apulia, who had lately- conquered the Island of Sicily, raised an army in favour of Anacletus, and made himself master of almost all the places belonging to the Holy See. Pope Innocent retired to Pisa, which was then one of the most considerable trading cities in Europe, and again implored the assistance of Lothario. The emperor did not desert him in his adversity: he immediately put himself at the head of a powerful army ; and, by the help of the Pisans, the imperial forces soon recovered all the patrimony of St. Peter. Pope Innocent was reconducted in triumph to Rome ; a circumstance which so much affected Anacletus, that he fell a martyr to the success of his competitor, literally dying of grief. The emperor afterward drove Roger, duke of Apulia, from city to city ; and, at length, obliged him to take refuge in Sicily, his new kingdom. He then subdued the provinces of Apulia and Calabria, and all Roger's Italian dominions, which he formed into a principality, and bestowed it, with the title of duke, upon Renaud, a German prince, and one of his own relatious.(S) On his way to Germany, Lothario was seized with a dangerous distemper, which carried him off, near Trent, in the twelfth year of his reign. He was distinguished by a passionate love of peace, and an exact attention to the administration of public justice. Conrad, duke of Franconia, nephew to Henry V. was unanimously elected emperor, on the death of Lothario. But the imperial throne was disputed by Henry the Haughty, duke of Bavaria, the name of whose family was Guelph ; hence those who espoused his party were called Guelphs, an appel- lation afterward usually bestowed on the enemies of the emperors. Henry the Haughty died during this contest, after being divested of his dominions by the princes of the empire ; but the war was still carried on against the emperor by Guelph, the duke's brother, and Roger king of Sicily. The imperial army was commanded by Frederic, duke of Suabia, the em- peror's brother, who being born at the village of Hieghibelin, gave to his soldiers the name of Ghibelins ; an epithet by which the imperial party was distinguished in Italy, while the pope's adherents grew famous under that of Guelphs. (4) Guelph and his principal followers were besieged in the castle of Weins- berg ; and having sustained great loss in a sally, they were obliged to sur- render at discretion. The emperor, however, instead of using his good for- tune with rigour, granted the duke and his chief officers permission to re- tire unmolested. But the dutchess, suspecting the generosity of Conrad, with whose enmity against her husband she was well acquainted, begged that she, and the other women in the castle, might be allowed to come out with as much as each of them could carry, and be conducted to a place of safety Her request was granted, and the evacuation was immediately performed , when the emperor and his army, who expected to see every lady loaded with jewels, gold, and silver, beheld, to their astonishment, the dutchess and her fair companions staggering beneath the weight of their husbands. The tears ran down Conrad's cheeks : he applauded their conjugal tenderness, and an accommodation with Guelph and his adherents was the consequence of this act of female heroism.(S) (1) Jean de Launes, Jfist. du. Pontifical dv. Pope Innocent If. (2) On this subject, which is involved in controversy, see Hen. Brenchmann, Hist. Pandeet. Murat intiq. Hal. torn. ii. (3) Jlnnal. de I'Emp. torn. i. (4) Murat. Disserlat. de Guelph. tt Guitel. Sigon. lib. xi. Krant. Saz. lib. viii. '5) Heis. lib. ii. cap. xii 158 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. While these things were transacting in Germany, new disorders broke out in Italy. The people of Rome formed a design of re-establishing the com- monwealth ; of retrieving the sovereignty of their city, and abolishing the temporal dominion of the popes. Lucius II. marched against the rebels, and was killed at the foot of the Capitol ; but Eugenius III. his successor, found means to reduce them to reason, and preserve the authority of the Apostolic See.(l) This pope afterward countenanced the second crusade against the Sara- cens, preached by St. Bernard, in which the emperor and the king of France engaged, as I snail soon have occasion to relate. Another crusade was preached against the Moors in Spain, in which a great number of Germans, from the neighbourhood of the Rhine and Weser, engaged; and the Saxons, about the same time, undertook a crusade against the Pagans of the North, whom they cut off in thousands, without making one convert.(2) Nothing remarkable happened in the empire, after the return of Conrad III. from the East, except the death of prince Henry, his eldest son, who had been elected king of the Romans. This event greatly affected the em- peror, who died soon after ; and his nephew Frederic, surnamed Barbarossa, duke of Suabia, was raised to the imperial throne by the unanimous voice of the princes and nobles both of Italy and Germany. LETTER XXVI. France under Lewis VII. till the Divorce of Queen Eleanor, with some Account of the second Crusade. LEWIS VII. surnamed the young, was no sooner seated on the throne of France, than he found himself engaged in one of those civil wars which the feudal government rendered unavoidable ; and having, in an expedition into Champagne, made himself master of the town of Vitri, he ordered it to bo set on fire. In consequence of the conflagration that followed, thirteen hundred persons, who had taken refuge in the church, perished in the flames.(3) This cruel action made a deep impression upon the king's mind, and prepared the way for a second crusade, which now demands our attention. The Christians of the East grew weaker every day in those countries which they had conquered. The little kingdom of Edessa had already been taken by the Turks, and Jerusalem itself was threatened. Europe was so- licited for a new armament ; and as the French had begun the first inunda- tion, they were again applied to, in hopes of a second. Pope Eugenius III. to whom the deputies from the East had been sent, very wisely pitched upon Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, as the instrument of this pious warfare. Bernard was learned for those times, naturally eloquent, austere in his life, irreproachable in his morals, enthusiastically zealous, and inflexible in his purpose. He had long held the reputation of a saint, was heard as an oracle, and revered as a prophet ; little wonder, therefore, he found means to persuade the king of France, that there was no other method of expiating his guilt but by an expedition to the Holy Land. At Vezelai, in Burgundy, a scaffold was erected in the market-place, on which St. Bernard appeared by the side of Lewis VII. The saint spoke first, the king seconded him, after taking the cross, and the example of the royal pair was followed by all present, among whom were many of the chief no- bility. (4) Suger, abbot of St. Dennis, then prime minister, a man very different from Bernard, endeavoured in vain to dissuade the king from abandoning hia iominions, by telling him that he might make a much more suitable atonement 1 , Flenry, Hint. Ecclet. vol. jiv. Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. IU. (2) Ibid. :. U'i 'fyr.Oest.Ludovic.yiI. (4) Epist. Ludovic.ad Suger LET. XXVI.] MODERN EUROPE. 159 for his guilt by staying at home, and governing his kingdom in a wise and prudent manner. The eloquence of St. Bernard, and the madness of the times, prevailed over reason and sound policy. Suger, however, retained his opinion ; and made no scruple of foretelling the inconveniences that would attend an expedition into Palestine, while Bernard made himself answerable for its success, and extolled it with an enthusiasm that passed for inspiration. From France this fanatical orator went to preach the crusade in Germany ; where, by the force of his irresistible eloquence, he prevailed on the emperor, Conrad III, Frederic Barbarossa, afterward emperor, and an infinite number of persons of all ranks to take the Cross ! promising them, in the name of God, victory over the Infidels. He ran from city to city, every where com- municating his enthusiasm ; and, if we may believe the historians of those times, working miracles. It is not indeed pretended that he restored the dead to life : but the blind received sight, the lame walked, the sick were healed. And to these bold assertions we may add a fact no less incredible, mat while St. Bernard's eloquence operated so powerfully on the minds of the Germans, he always preached to them in French, a language which they did not understand ! or in Latin, equally unintelligible to the body of the people.(l) The hopes of certain victory drew after the emperor and the king of France the greater part of the knights in their dominions ; and it is said that in each army there were reckoned seventy thousand men in complete armour, with a prodigious number of light horse, besides infantry ; so that we cannot well reduce this second emigration to less than three hundred thousand persons. And these, joined to one million three hundred thousand sent before, make, in the whole, sixteen hundred thousand transplanted inhabitants. The Germans took the field first, the French followed them ; and the same excesses that had been committed by the soldiers of the first crusade were acted over again by those of the second. Hence Manuel Comnenus, who now filled the throne of Constantinople, was disquieted with the same appre hensions which the former enterprise had raised in the mind of his grand father Alexis. If the Greek emperor behaved ungenerously to them, it must therefore be ascribed to the irregularity of their own conduct, which made craft necessary where force was unequal ; especially as Manuel is represented, on all other occasions, as a prince of great generosity and magnanimity. But the mortality which prevailed in the German army, near the plains of Con- stantinople, may be fully accounted for from intemperance and the change of climate, without supposing the wells to be poisoned or the meal to be mingled with lime. After Conrad had passed the Bosphorus, he acted with that imprudence which seems inseparable from such romantic expeditions. As the principality of Antioch was "yet in being, he might have joined those Christians who remained in Syria, and there have waited for the king of France. Their numbers united would have ensured them success. But, instead of such a rational measure, the emperor, jealous both of the prince of Antioch and the king of France, marched immediately into the middle of Asia Minor ; where the Sultan of Iconium, a more experienced general, drew his heavy German cavalry among the rocks, and cut his army in pieces. Conrad fled to Antioch ; went to Jerusalem as a pilgrim, instead of appearing there as the leader of an army, and returned to Europe with a handful of men.(2) The king of France was not more successful in his enterprise. He fell into the same snare that had deceived the emperor; and, being surprised among the rocks near Laodicea, was worsted, as Conrad had been. But Lewis met with a domestic misfortune which gave him more uneasiness than the loss of his army. Queen Eleanor was suspected of an amour with the prince of Antioch, at whose court her husband had taken refuge. She is even said to have forgotten her fatigues in the arms of a young Turk: and the Conclusion of the whole expedition was, that Lewis, like Conrad, returned to (1) Henault, Chron. Hist. torn. i. Jiririitl.de'r flap ro:;i. i .'> Otho de Frising. Gul.Tyr. Climn. ' tandard LET. XXVII.] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 161 creased those disorders which it was their duty to prevent, while they claimed an exemption from all civil jurisdiction, and attracted popularity by the sacredness of their character. The bishop of Salisbury, whose castle had been seized by order of the king-, appealed to the pope ; and had not Stephen and his partisans employed menaces, and even shown a disposition of exe cuting vengeance by the hands of the soldiery, affairs had instantly come to extremity between the crown and the mitre. In the mean time Matilda, encouraged by these discontents, and invited by the rebellious clergy, landed in England, accompanied by Robert earl of Gloucester, natural son of the late king, and a retinue of a hundred and forty knights. She fixed her residence at Arundel castle, whose gates were opened to her by Adelais, the queen-dowager, now married to William de Albini, earl of Sussex. Her party daily increased ; she was soon joined by several barons : war raged in every quarter of the kingdom ; and was carried on with so much fury, that the land was left untilled, and the instruments of husbandry destroyed or abandoned. A grievous famine, the natural conse- quence of such disorders, affected equally both parties, and reduced the spoilers, as well as the defenceless people, to the most extreme want.(l) Things were in this deplorable situation, when an unexpected event seemed to promise some mitigation of the public calamities. The royal army was defeated near the castle of Lincoln ; and Stephen himself, surrounded by the enemy, and borne down by numbers, was made captive, after displaying un- common efforts of valour. He was conducted to Gloucester, thrown into prison, and ignominiously loaded with irons. But he was soon after released in exchange for earl Robert, Matilda's brother, who was no less the soul of one party than Stephen was of the other, and the civil war was again kindled with greater fury than ever.(2) The weakness of both parties, however, at last produced a tacit cessation of arms, and the empress Matilda retired into Normandy. But an event soon after happened, which threatened a revival of hostilities in England. Prince Henry, son of Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet, had reached his sixteenth year/ and was desirous of receiving the honour of knighthood from his grand-uncle, David king of Scotland. For this purpose he passed through England with a great retinue, and was visited by the most considerable of his partisans, Avhose hopes he roused by his dexterity and vigour in all manly exei'cises, and his prudence in every occurrence. He staid some time in Scotland, where he increased in reputation ; and on his return to Normandy he was invested in that dutchy, with the consent of his mother Matilda. His father died the following year; when Henry took possession of Anjou and Maine, and espoused the heiress of Guienne and Poitou, who had been mar- ried sixteen years to Lewis VII. king of France, but whom he had divorced, as I have already observed, on account of her gallantries. This marriage, which brought Henry a great accession of power, rendered him extremely formidable to his rival ; and the prospect of his rising fortune had such an effect in England, that the archbishop of Canterbury refused to anoint Eus- tace, Stephen's son, as his successor, and made his escape beyond sea, to avoid the fury of the enraged monarch.(3) As soon as Henry was informed of these dispositions in the people, he in- vaded England. Stephen advanced with a superior army to meet him : and a decisive action was every day expected, when the great men on both sides, terrified with the prospect of farther bloodshed and confusion, interposed with their good offices, and set on foot a negotiation between the contending- princes. The death of Eustace, which happened during the course of the treaty, facilitated its conclusion ; and an accommodation was at last settled, by which it was agreed, that Stephen should possess the crown during his life* ime ; that justice should be administered in his name, even in the pro- vinces which had submitted to his rival ; and that Henry, on Stephen's death, (1) Oiron. Sax. Oest. Reg. Stephani. H. Hunting, lib. viii. (2) Gul. Malmes. Hist. JVoo. lib. ii. Hen. Hunt. lib. viii (3) Id, ibid VOL. I. L 162 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. should succeed to the kingdom of England, and William, Stephen's son, to Boulogne and his patrimonial estate. (1) The barons all swore to the observance of this treaty, and did homage to Henry as heir of the crown. He immediately after evacuated the kingdom ; and Stephen's death, which happened next year, prevented those jealousies and feuds which were likely to have ensued in so delicate a situation. The character of Stephen is differently represented by historians ; but all allow that he possessed industry, activity, and courage, to a great degree; and had he succeeded by a just title, he seems to have been well qualified to pro- mote the happiness and prosperity of his subjects, notwithstanding the mise- ries that England suffered under his reign.(2) LETTER XXVIII. England, during the Reign of Henry II. with an Account of the Affairs of France. I HAVE already observed, my dear Philip, that before the conquest of Eng- land by the duke of Normandy, this island was as distinct from the rest of the world in politics as situation. The English had then neither enemies nor allies on the continent. But the foreign dominions of William and his successors connected them with the kings and great vassals of France : and while the opposite pretensions of the popes and the emperors in Italy pro- duced a continual intercourse between Germany and that country, the two great monarchs of France and England formed, in another part of Europe, a separate system, and carried on their wars and negotiations, without meeting either with opposition or support from their neighbours ; the extensive con- federacies by which the European potentates are now united, and made the guardians of each other, being then totally unknown. No wonder, therefore, that Lewis VII. king of France, observed with terror the rising greatness of the house of Anjou or Plantagenet, whose continental dominions composed above a third of the whole French monarchy, and 'which gave a sovereign to England in the person of Henry II. The jealousy occasioned by this alarm- ing circumstance, however, as we shall have occasion to see, not only saved France from falling a prey to England, but exalted that kingdom to the pitch of grandeur which it has so long enjoyed. The king of England soon became a kind of foreigner, in his continental dominions ; and the other powerful vassals of the French crown, instead of being roused at the oppression of a co-vassal, were rather pleased at the expulsion of the Anglo-Normans. But as these important consequences could not be foreseen by human wis- dom, the king of France had maintained a strict union with Stephen, in order to prevent the succession of Henry. The sudden death of the usurper, how- ever, rendered abortive all the schemes of Lewis. Henry was received in England with the acclamations of all orders of men, who joyfully swore to him the oath of allegiance ; and he began his reign with re-establishing justice and good order, to which the kingdom had been long a stranger. For this purpose he dismissed all those foreign mercenaries retained by Stephen ; and that he might restore authority to the laws, he caused all the new-erected castles, which had proved so many sanctuaries to rebels and freebooters, to be demolished.(3) In order yet farther to conciliate the affections of his subjects, he voluntarily confirmed that charter of liberties which had been granted by. his grandfather, Henry I. (4) (1) lien. Hunt, ubi sup. Jlnnal. Waverl. M. Paris. J. Brompton. (2) These miseries are thus described by a contemporary historian : " All England wore a face of deso- lation and wretchedness. Multitudes abandoned their beloved country, and went into voluntary exile: others, forsaking their own houses, built sorry huts in the churchyards, hoping for protection from the sacrednessof the place. Whole families, after sustaining life as long as they could, by eating herbs, roots and the flesh of dogs and horses, at last died of hunger ; and you might see many pleasant villages without a single inhabitant of either eex." Gcst. Keg. Steph. (3) Gervas. Ckron. Gul. Neubrig. lib. ii. (4) Vide Blackstone's I,aw Tracts vol. ii LET. XXVIII.; MODERN EUROPE. 163 Tranquillity was no sooner restored to England, than Henry had occasion to visit his foreign dominions ; where all things being likewise settled, he returned to repress the incursions of the Welch, who at first gave him much trouble, but at length submitted. In the mean time a quarrel broke out between Lewis and Henry, relative to the county of Thoulouse, and war was openly carried on between the two monarchs. But these hostilities produced no memorable event, were stopped by a cessation of arms, and soon terminated in a peace, through the mediation of the pope. This war, so insignificant in itself, is remarkable for the manner in which it was conducted. An army formed of feudal vassals, as I have had occasion frequently to observe, was commonly very intractable and undisciplined ; both because of the independent spirit of the persons who composed it, and because the commissions were not bestowed by the choice of the sovereign, in reward of the military talents and services of the officers. Each baron conducted his own vassals, and his rank in the army was greater or less, in proportion to the value of his property. Even the chief command, under that of the prince, was often attached to birth ; and as the military vassals were obliged to serve only forty days, at their own charge, the state reaped very little benefit from their attendance. Henry, sensible of these inconveniences, levied upon his vassals in Normandy, and other provinces remote from Thou louse, the seat of war, a sum of money in place of their service : and this commutation, by reason of the greater distance, was still more advantageous to his English vassals. He therefore imposed a scutage of three pounds upon each knight's fee ; a condition, though unusual, and the first perhaps to be met with in history, to which the military tenants readily submitted. With this money he levied an army which was more at his disposal, and whose service was more durable and constant: and, in order to facilitate those levies, he enlarged the privileges of the people, and rendered them less dependent on the barons by whom they had been long held in servitude, or in a state of the most grievous oppression. Having thus regulated his civil and military affairs, and accommodated his differences with Lewis, Henry, soon after his return to England, began to cast his eye upon the church, where abuses of every kind prevailed. The clergy, among their other inventions to obtain money, had inculcated the necessity of penance as an atonement for sin. They had also introduced the practice of paying large sums of money as a composition for such penances. By these means the sins of the people were become a revenue to the priest ; and the king computed, that, by this invention alone, they levied more money from his subjects, than flowed into the royal treasury by all the methods of public supply.(l) Feeling for his oppressed people, he therefore required that a civil officer, appointed by the crown, should for the future be present in all eccle- siastical courts, and whose consent should be necessary to every composition made by sinners for their spiritual offences. But the grand difficulty was, how to carry this order into execution? as the ecclesiastics, in that age, had* renounced all immediate subordination to the civil power. They openly claimed exemption, in cases of criminal accusa- tion, from a trial before courts of justice. Spiritual penalties alone could be inflicted on their offences ; and, as the clerical habit was thus become a pro- tection for all enormities, they could not fail to increase. Accordingly crimes of the deepest dye were daily committed with impunity by ecclesiastics ; and it was found upon inquiry, that no less than a hundred murders had been perpetrated since the king's accession, by men in holy orders, who had never been called to account for these offences against the laws of nature and society. (2) In order to bring such criminals to justice, as the first step toward his pro- jected reformation of the church, and by that means to restore union between the civil and ecclesiastical power, so necessary in every government for the maintenance of peace and harmony, Henry exalted Thomas a Becket, hi* (I) Fitz-Steph Vit. St. Than. (2) Gul. Neubrig. lib. ii- L2 164 THE HISTORY OF [Pun I. chancellor, and the first man of English descent who had occupied an eminent station since the Norman conquest, to the see of Canterbury, on the death of archbishop Theobald; rightly judging, that if the present opportunity should be neglected, and the usurpations of the clergy allowed to proceed, the crown must be in danger, from the predominating superstition of the people, of falling under subjection to the mitre. Becket, while chancellor, was pompous in his retinue, sumptuous in his furniture, and luxurious in his table, beyond what England had seen in a subject. His house was a place of education for the sons of the chief nobi- lity, and the king himself frequently condescended to partake of his chan- cellor's entertainments. His amusements were as gay as his manner of life was splendid and elegant. He employed himself at leisure hours in hunting hawking, gaming, and horsemanship. His complaisance and good humour had rendered him agreeable, and his industry and abilities useful to his master. He was well acquainted with the king's intention of retrenching, or rather confining within ancient bounds, all ecclesiastical privileges ; and hay/ing always showed a ready disposition to comply with every advance to that purpose, Henry considered him as the fittest person he could place at the head of the English church. But no prince of so much penetration, as appeared in the issue, ever so little understood the character of his minister. Becket was no sooner installed in the see of Canterbury, which rendered him the second person in the kingdom, than he secretly aspired at being the first, in consequence at least, and totally altered his manner of life. He affected the greatest austerity, and the most rigid mortification : he wore sack- cloth next his skin, which he changed so seldom that it was filled with dirt and vermin. His usual diet was bread, his drink water : he tore his back with the frequent discipline which he inflicted upon it ; and he daily washed on his knees, in imitation of Jesus Christ, the feet of thirteen beggars, whom he afterward dismissed with presents. (1) Every one who made profession of sanctity was admitted to his conversation, and returned full of panegyrics on the humility as well as piety and mortification of the holy primate, whose aspect now wore the appearance of intense seriousness, mental reflection, and sacred devotion. And all men of penetration saw that he was meditating some great design, and that the ambition and ostentation of his character ha? taken a new and more dangerous direction. This champion of the church (for such he now declared himself) did nol even wait till the king had matured those projects which he knew had been formed against ecclesiastical power : he himself began hostilities, and endeavoured to overawe the king by the intrepidity and boldness of his measures. But although Henry found himself thus grievously mistaken in the character of the person whom he had promoted to the primacy, he determined not to desist from his former intention of retrenching clerical usurpations : and an event soon occurred which gave him a plausible pretence for putting his design in execution, and brought matters to a crisis with the archbishop. A parish clerk in Worcestershire having debauched a gentleman's daughter, had about this time proceeded to murder the father. The general indignation against so enormou^ a crime, made the king insist that the clerk should be delivered up to the civil magistrate, and receive condign punishment ; but Becket insisted on the privileges of the church, and maintained, that no greater punishment could be inflicted upon him than'degradation.(2) Henry laid hold of so favourable a cause to push the clergy with respect to all their usurpations, and to determine at once those controversies which daily multi- plied between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He summoned an assembly of all the prelates of England, and put them to this concise and decisive question : Whether or not they were willing to submit to the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom 1 the bishops answered equivocally, and the king left the assembly with marks of the highest indignation. They (11 Fitz-Sleph. ubi sup. (2) Ibid. LET. XXVI11.] MODERN EUROPE. 165 were struck with terror, and gave a general promise of observing the ancient customs. (1) But a declaration in general terms was not sufficient for Henry; he wanted to define exactly the limits between the rival powers. For this purpose, he summoned at Clarendon a general council of the bishops and nobles, to whom he submitted that great and important question. The barons were all gained to the king's party, either by the reasons he urged, or by his superior authority, while the bishops were overawed by the general combination against them And the following laws, among others, commonly called the Constitutions of Clarendon, were voted without opposition : " That no chief tenant of the crown shall be excommunicated, or have his lands put under an interdict, without the king's consent ; that no appeals in spiritual causes shall be car ried before the Holy See, nor any clergyman be suffered to depart the king- dom, unless with the king's permission ; that laymen shall not be accused in spiritual courts, except by legal and reputable promoters and witnesses ; and lastly," which was the great object aimed at, " that churchmen, accused of any crime, shall be tried in the civil courts."(2) These articles were well calculated to prevent the principal abuses in ecclesiastical affairs, and put a final stop to the usurpations in the church ; and having been passed in a national and civil assembly, they fully esta- blished the superiority of the legislature over all papal decrees and spiritual canons. But as Henry knew the bishops would take the first opportunity to deny the authority which had enacted these constitutions, he resolved they should set their seal to them, and give a promise to observe them. With this view they were reduced to writing; and none of the prelates dared to oppose the king's will except Becket, who at length consented. He set -his seal to the Constitutions; promised legally, with good faith, and without fraud or reserve, to observe them, and even took an oath to that purpose.(3) Henry, thinking he had now finally prevailed in this great contest, sent the Constitutions of Clarendon to Alexander III. to be ratified. But the pope, who plainly saw they were calculated to establish the independency of England from the Holy See, abrogated, annulled, and rejected them ; and when Becket found he might hope for the papal support in an opposition to regal authority, he expressed the deepest sorrow for his concessions. He redoubled his aus- terities, as a punishment for his criminal compliance ; and he refused to exer- cise any part of his ecclesiastical function, until he should receive absolution from the pope. Absolution was readily granted him ; after receiving which he set no bounds to his obstinacy and ambition. Henry, however, who was entirely master of his extensive dominions, and sure every one would obey his will except the man wham he had lifted into pokier, and to whose assistance he had trusted in forwarding his favourite project against the clergy, was now incensed beyond all measure, and resolved both to humble the church, and make the prelate feel the weight of his indig- nation. He accordingly summoned Becket to give an account of his adminis- tration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had been subject to his management during that time. This prosecution, which seems to have been more dictated by passion than by justice, or even by sound policy, threw Becket and all the clergy of Eng- land into the utmost confusion. Some bishops advised him to resign his see, on receiving an acquittal ; others were of an opinion that he ought to submit himself entirely to the king's mercy for they were fully sensible that ac- counts of so much intricacy could not be produced of a sudden, in such a manner as to satisfy a tribunal resolved to ruin and oppress him. But the primate, thus pushed to extremity, had too much courage to yield : he deter mined to brave all his enemies ; to trust to the sacredness of his character for protection ; and to defy the utmost efforts of royal indignation, by in- volving his cause with that of God and the church. He therefore strictly (1) R. Hoveden. Hist. quad. (2) M. Paris. Hist. Quad. (3) Fitz-Sleph. Gervas. 166 THE HISTORY OF [Pxnx 1 prohibited his suffragans to assist at any such trial, or give their sanction to any sentence against him : he put himself and his see under the immediate protection of the vicegerent of Christ, and appealed to his holiness against any penalty which his iniquitous judges might think proper to inflict upon him. " The indignation of a great monarch," added he, " such as Henry, with his sword, can only kill the body; while that of the church, intrusted to the primate, can kill the soul, and throw the disobedient into infinite and eternal perdition.*'(l) Appeals to Rome, even in spiritual causes, had been prohibited by the Constitutions of Clarendon, and consequently were become criminal by law ; but an appeal in a civil cause, such as the king's demand upon Becket, was altogether new and unprecedented, and tended directly to the subversion of the English government. Henry, therefore, being now furnished with so much better a pretence for his violence, would probably have pushed this affair to the utmost against the primate, had he not retired beyond sea, and found patrons and protectors in the pope and the king of France. The violent prosecution carried on against Becket at home, had a natural tendency to turn the public favour on his side, and to make men forget his former ingratitude towards the king, and his departure from all oaths and engagements, as well as the enormity of those ecclesiastical privileges of which he affected to be the champion : and political considerations conspired with sympathy to procure him countenance and support abroad. Philip, earl of Flanders, and Lewis, king of France, jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, were glad of an oppportunity to give him disturbance in his govern- ment. They pretended to pity extremely the condition of the persecuted archbishop; and the pope, whose interests were more immediately concerned in abetting his cause, honoured Becket with the highest marks of distinction. A residence was assigned him in the abbey of Pontigny, where he lived, for some years, in great magnificence, partly by a pension out of the revenues of the abbey, and partly by the generosity of the French monarch. (2) In the mean time, the exiled primate filled all Europe with exclamation against the violence he had suffered. He compared himself to Christ, who had been condemned by a lay tribunal, and who was crucified anew in the present oppressions under which his church laboured. (3) But complaint was a language little suited to the vehemence of Becket's temper, and in which he did not long acquiesce. Having resigned his see into the hand* of the pope, as a mark of submission, and received it again from the head of the church, with high encomiums on his piety and fortitude, he issued out a cen- sure of excommunication against the king's chief ministers by name, com- prehending in general all those who had favoured or obeyed the Constitutions of Clarendon : he abrogated and annulled those Constitutions, absolving all persons from the oaths which they had taken to observe them ; and he sus- pended the spiritual thunder over Henry, only that he might avoid the blow by a timely repentance. (4) Henry, on the other hand, employed the temporal weapons still in his power. He suspended the payment of St. Peter's Pence, and made some advances towards an alliance with the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, who was then engaged in violent wars with Pope Alexander III. Both parties grew sick of contention, and each was afraid of the other. Although the vigour of Henry's government had confirmed his authority in all his domi- nions, he was sensible that his throne might be shaken by a sentence of ex- communication ; but as the trials hitherto made of the spiritual weapons by Becket had not succeeded to his expectation, and every thing remained quiet both in England and Normandy, nothing seemed impossible, on the other hand, to the vigilance and capacity of so great a prince. These considerations produced frequent attempts at an accommodation, which was long obstructed by mutual jealousy. After all differences seemed (1) M. Paris. R. Hoveden. Epist. St. Tkom. Vit. St. Thorn. (2) Epist. St. Thorn ,3) Ibid. (4) M. Paris. R. Hoveden. Fltz-Steph Vit. St, Thorn LET XXVIIL] MODERNEUROPE. 167 adjusted, the king offered to sign the treaty, with a salvo to his. royal dignity a reservation which gave so much umbrage to the primate, that the nego- tiation became fruitless. And in a second negotiation, Becket, imitating Henry's example, offered to make his submissions with a salvo of the honour of God and the liberties of the Church a proposal which, for a like reason, was offensive to the king, and rendered the treaty abortive. A third con- ference was broken off by the same means. And even in a fourth, when all things were settled, and the primate expected to be introduced to the king, Henry refused to grant him the kiss of peace, under pretence that he made a rash vow to the contrary. The want of this formality, insignificant as it may seem, prevented the conclusion of the treaty, it being regarded in those times as the only sure mark of forgiveness. In one of these conferences, at which the French king was present, Henry said to that monarch, " There have been many kings of England, some of greater, some of less authority than myself: there have also been many archbishops of Canterbury, holy and good men, and entitled to every kind of respect : let Becket only act towards me with the same submission which the greatest of his predecessors has paid to the least of mine, and there shall be no controversy between us."(l) Lewis was so much struck with this state of the case, and with an offer which Henry made to submit his cause to the French clergy, that he could not forbear condemning Becket and withdrawing his friendship for a time. But their common animosity against Henry soon produced a renewal of theii former intimacy, and the primate revived his threats and excommunications. All difficulties between the parties, however, were at last got over, and Becket was permitted to return on conditions both honourable and advantageous a certain proof how much Henry dreaded the interdict that was ready to be laid upon his dominions, if he had continued in disobedience to the church, and how terrible the thunder of the church must then have been, since it could humble a prince of so haughty a spirit. This accommodation with Becket, though settled on terms by no means favourable to the crown, did not even procure Henry that temporary tran- quillity which he had hoped to reap from it. Instead of being taught mode- ration by a six years' exile, the primate was only animated with a spirit 01 revenge. Elated by the victory which he had obtained over his sovereign, he set no bounds to his arrogance. On his arrival in England, where he went from town to town in a sort of triumphal cavalcade, he notified to tht archbishop of York the sentence of suspension, and to the bishops of London and Salisbury that of excommunication, which, at his solicitations, the pope had pronounced against them, because they had assisted at the coronation of prince Henry, whom the king had associated in the royalty, during the absence of the primate, and when an interdict was ready to be laid upon his dominions a precaution thought necessary to ensure the succession of that prince. By this violent measure, therefore, Becket in effect declared war against the king himself; yet, in so doing, he appears to have been guided by policy as well as passion. Apprehensive lest a prince of such profound sagacity should in the end prevail, he resolved to take all the advantage which his present victory gave him, and to disconcert the cautious measures of the king by the vehemence and vigour of his own conduct. Assured of support from Rome, he was little apprehensive of dangers which his courage taught him to despise, and which, though followed by the most fatal conse- quences, would still gratify his thirst for glory, and reward his ambition with the crown of martyrdom. The suspended and excommunicated prelates waited upon the king at Baieux in Normandy, where he then resided, and complained to him of the violent proceedings of Becket ; and Henry, sensible that his whole plan of operations was overturned, and the contest revived, which he had endea- voured by so many negotiations to appease, was thrown into the most violent (1) yit, St.Thom. lib. ii. 168 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. agitation. * Will my servants," exlaimed he, " still leave me exposed to the insolence of this ungrateful and imperious priest ]" These words seemed to call for vengeance ; and four gentlemen of the king's household, Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracey, Hugh de Moreville, and Richard Brito. communicating their thoughts to each other, and swearing to revenge their sovereign's quarrel, secretly withdrew from court, and made the best of their way to England. In the mean time Henry, informed of some menacing expressions which they had dropped, despatched a messenger after them, charging them to attempt nothing against the person of the primate. But these orders came too late to prevent their fatal purpose. Though they took different roads, to avoid suspicion, they arrived nearly about the same time at Canterbury, where they found the primate in perfect security ; and on his refusing, with his usual insolence and obstinacy, to take off the excommunication and suspension of the bishops, they murdered him in the church of St. Benedict, during the evening service.(l) Such, my dear Philip, was the tragical death of Thomas a Becket a pre- late of the most lofty, intrepid, and inflexible spirit, who was able to cover from the world, and probably from himself, the efforts of pride and ambition, under the disguise of sanctity, and of zeal for the interest of Christ and his church. His death confirmed to the clergy those privileges which his oppo- sition could not obtain. Though Henry had proposed to have him arrested, when informed of his renewed insolence, he was no sooner told of the pri- mate's murder than he was filled with the utmost consternation. Interdicts and excommunications, weapons in themselves so terrible, would now, he foresaw, be armed with double force : in vain should he plead his innocence, and even his total ignorance of the fact ; he was sufficiently guilty, if the church thought fit to esteem him so. These considerations gave him the ' deepest and most unaffected concern, which he was at no pains to conceal. He shut himself up from the light of the sun for three days, denying himself all manner of sustenance ; and, as soon as he recovered, in any degree, his tone of mind, he sent a solemn embassy to Rome, maintaining his innocence, and offering to submit the whole affair to the decision of the holy see. (2) The pope, flattered by this unexpected condescension, forebore to proceed to extremities against Henry ; more especially as he was sensible that he could reap greater advantages from moderation than from violence. Mean- time the clergy were not idle in magnifying the sanctity of the murdered prelate. Other saints had borne testimony, by their sufferings, to the ge- neral doctrines of Christianity, but Becket had sacrificed his life for the power and privileges of the church. This peculiar merit challenged (nor without a ready concurrence) a tribute of gratitude to his memory from the whole body of the priesthood. Endless were the panegyrics on his virtues ; and the miracles wrought by his relics were more numerous, more nonsen- sical, and more impudently attested, than those which ever filled the legend of any saint or martyr. His shrine not only restored dead men to life ; it also restored cows, dogs, and horses. Presents were sent, and pilgrimages performed, from all parts of Christendom, in order to obtain his intercession with Heaven : and it was computed that, in one year, above a hundred thou- sand pilgrims arrived at Canterbury, and paid their devotions at his tomb. (3) As Henry found, however, that he was in no immediate danger from the thunder of the Vatican, he undertook the conquest of Ireland an enterprise which he had long meditated, and for which he had obtained a bull from pope Adrian IV. but which had been deferred by reason of his quarrels with the primate. Of that island something must here be said. Ireland was probably first peopled from Britain as Britain was from Gaul : and the inhabitants of all those countries seem to have proceeded from the same Celtic origin, which is lost in the most distant antiquity. The Irish, from the earliest accounts of history or tradition, had been buried in igno- (1) Vit. St. Thorn, lib. iii. M. Paris. Benedict. Abbas. (2) M. Paris. R. Hoveden ;li, Gul. Neubrig. J. Brompton. R. Hoveden. LET. XXVIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 169 ranee and barbarism ; and as their country was never conquered or even invaded by the Romans, who communicated to the Western world civility and slavery, they had remained almost in their primitive condition. The small principalities, into which the island was divided, exercised perpetual hostili- ties against each other; and the uncertain succession of the Irish princes was a continual source of domestic convulsion, the usual title of each petty sovereign to his principality being- the murder of his predecessor. Courage and force, though exercised in the commission of violence, were more honoured than pacific virtues ; and the most simple arts of life, even tillage and agriculture, were almost wholly unknown among the rude natives of Ireland. From this short account of the state of the country, you Avill be less sur- prised, my dear Philip, when you are told, that Henry, who landed at the head of no more than five hundred knights and their attendants, in a progress which he made through that island, had little other occupation than to receive the homage of his new subjects. He left most of the Irish chieftains or princes in possession of their ancient territories ; he bestowed lands on some of his English adventurers ; and, after a stay of a few months, returned to Britain, where his presence was much wanted, having annexed Ireland to the English crown.(l) The pope's two legates, Albert and Theodin, to whom was, committed the trial of Henry's conduct in regard to the death of Becket, were arrived in Normandy, before his return, and had sent frequent letters to England, full of menacing expressions. The king hastened over to meet them; and was so fortunate as to conclude an accommodation with them, on terms more easy than could have been expected. He cleared himself by oath of all con- cern in the murder of Becket. But as the passion which he had expressed on account of that prelate's conduct had probably been the cause of his violent death, he promised to serve three years against the Infidels, either in Spain or Palestine, if the pope should require him ; and he agreed to per- mit appeals to the Holy See, in ecclesiastical causes, on surety being given that nothing should be attempted against the rights of his crown. (2) Henry seemed now to have reached the pinnacle of human grandeur and felicity. His dangerous controversy with the church was at an end, and he appeared to be equally happy in his domestic situation and his political go- vernment. But this tranquillity was of short duration. Prince Henry, at the instigation of Lewis VII. his father-in-law, insisted that his father should resign to him either the kingdom of England or the dutchy of Normandy : and the king's two younger sons, Geoffrey and Richard, also leagued with the court of France, by the persuasion of their mother, queen Eleanor, whose jealousy, when in years, was as violent as her amorous passions in youth. Thus Europe saw, with astonishment, the best and most indulgent of parents obliged to maintain war against his whole family ; and, what was still more extraordinary, several princes not ashamed to support this absurd and unnatural rebellion ! Not only Lewis king of France, but William king of Scotland, Philip earl of Flanders, and several other princes on the continent, besides many barons, both English and Norman, espoused the quarrel of young Henry and his brothers.(S) In order to break that alarming confederacy, the king of England humbled himself so far as to supplicate the court of Rome. Though sensible of the danger of ecclesiastical authority in temporal disputes, he applied to the pope to excommunicate his enemies, and by that means reduce to obedience his undutiful children, whom he found such reluctance to punish by the sword. The bulls required were issued by Alexander III. ; but they not having the desired effect, Henry was obliged to have recourse to arms : and he carried on war successfully, and at the same time, against France, Scotland, and hir rebellious barons in England and Normandy. (1) Benedict. Abbas. M. Paris. Expugnat. Hibern. lib. 1 (2) M. Paris. P Hoveden (31 Benedict. Abbas. R. Hovpden. W. Neubrig. 8 170 THE HISTORY OF [PART I Meanwhile, the English monarch, sensible of his danger, and of the effects of superstition on the minds of the people, went barefooted to Becket's tomb : prostrated himself before the shrine of the saint ; remained in fasting and prayer during a whole day ; watched all night the holy reliques ; and, assem- bling a chapter of the monks, put a scourge of discipline into each of their hands, and presented his bare shoulders to the lashes which these incensed ecclesiastics not sparingly inflicted upon him ! Next morning he received absolution ; and his generals obtained, on the same day, a great victory over the Scots, which was regarded as a proof of his final reconciliation with Heaven, and with Thomas a Becket.(l) The victory over the Scots was gained near Alnwick, where their king was taken prisoner ; and the spirit of the English rebels being broken by this blow, the whole kingdom was restored to tranquillity. It was deemed im- pious any longer to resist a prince who seemed to lie under the immediate protection of Heaven. The clergy exalted anew the merits and the powerful intercession of Becket ; and Henry, instead of opposing their superstition, politically propagated an opinion so favourable to his interests. (2) Victorious in all quarters, crowned with glory, and absolute master of nis English do- minions, he hastened over to Normandy ; where a peace was concluded with Lewis, and an accommodation brought about with his sons. Having thus, contrary to all expectation, extricated himself from a situa- tion in which his throne was exposed to the utmost danger, Henry occupied himself for several years in the administration of justice, enacting of laws, ind in guarding against those inconveniences which either the past convul- , sions of the state or the political institutions of that age, rendered unavoid- able. The success which had attended him in all his wars discouraged his neighbours from attempting any thing against him, so that he was enabled to complete his internal regulations without disturbance from any quarter. Some of these regulations deserve particular notice. As the clergy, by the Constitutions of Clarendon, which Henry endeavoured still to maintain, were subjected to a trial by the civil magistrate, it seemed but just to afford them the protection of that power to which they owed obedience: he therefore enacted a law, that the murderers of a clergyman should be tried before the justiciary, in the presence of the bishop, or his official ; and, besides the usual punishment for murder, should be subjected to a forfeiture of their estates, and a confiscation of their goods and chattels. (3) He also passed an equitable law, that the goods of a vassal should not be seized for the debt of his lord, unless the vassal was surety for the debt ; and that, in cases of insolvency, the rents of vassals should be paid to the cre- ditors of the lord, not to the lord himself.(4) The partition of England into four divisions, and the appointment of itine- rant judges, learned in the law, to go the circuit in each division, and to decide the causes in the counties, after the example of the commissaries of Lewis VI. and the missi of Charlemagne, was another important ordinance of the English monarch a measure which had a direct tendency to curb the oppressions of the barons, and to protect the inferior gentry or small land- holders, and the common people, in their property. (5) And that there might be fewer obstacles to the execution of justice, he was vigilant in demolishing all the new erected castles of the nobility, in England as well as in his foreign dominions. Nor did he permit any fortress to remain in the custody of those he found reason to suspect. (6) But lest the kingdom should be weakened by this peaceful policy, Henry published a famous decree, called an Assize of Arms, by which all his sub- jects were obliged to put themselves in a situation to defend themselves and the realm. Every person possessed of a single knight's fee was ordered to have a coat of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance : and the same accoutre- ments were required to be provided by every one, whether nobleman or gen- (1) Benedict. Abbas. E. Hfcvccten. W. Neubrig. (2) R. Hoveden. (3) Gervase. Diceto. (4) Benedict. Abbas. (5) E. Hoveden. (G) Benedict. Abbas. LET. XXVIII.] MODERNEUROPE. 171 tleman, for whatever number of knight's fees he might hold. Every free layman, who had rents or goods to the value of sixteen marks, was to be armed in like manner : eveiy one that had ten marks was obliged to have an iron gorget, a cap of iron, and a lance ; and all burgesses were to have a cap of iron, a lance, and a coat thickly quilted with wool, tow, or some such ma- terials, called a Wambais.(l) While, the English monarch was thus liberally employed in providing foi the happiness and security of his subjects, the king of France had fallen into a most abject superstition ; and was induced, by a devotion more sincere than Henry's, to make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Becket, in order to obtain his intercession for the recovery of Philip, his son and heir. Lewis, as the saga- cious Hume remarks, with no less ingenuity than pleasantry, probably thought himself entitled to the favour of that saint, on account of their ancient inti- macy ; and hoped that Becket, whom he had protected while on earth, would not, now that he was so highly advanced in heaven, forget his old friend and benefactor ; the young prince was restored to health ; and, as was supposed, through the intercession of Becket. But the king himself, soon after his return, was struck with an apoplexy, which deprived him of his judgment ; and Philip II. afterward surnamed Augustus, took upon him the administra- tion, though only fifteen years of age. His father's death, which happened next year, opened his way to the throne ; and he proved the ablest and greatest monarch that had governed France since the age of Charlemagne. The superior age and experience of Henry, however, while they moderated his ambition, gave him such an ascendant over this prince, that no dangerous rivalship, for some time, arose between them. The English monarch, instead of taking advantage of Philip's youth, employed his good offices in composing the quarrels which arose in the royal family of France ; and he was successful in mediating an accommodation between the king, his mother, and uncles. But these services were ill requited by Philip, who, when he came to man's estate, encouraged Henry's sons in their ungrateful and undutiful behaviour towards their father. (2) The quarrels between the king of England and his family, however, were in some measure quieted by the death of his two sons, young Henry and his brother Geoffrey, who had both been in open rebellion against their parental sovereign : and the rivalship between old Henry and Philip seemed, for a time, to give place to the general passion for the relief of the Holy Land. Both assumed the cross, and imposed a tax, amounting to the tenth of all moveables, on such of their subjects as remained at home.(3) But, before this great enterprise could be carried into execution, many ob- stacles were to be surmounted. Philip, still jealous of Henry's greatness, entered into a private confederacy with prince Richard, now heir apparent to the English crown ; and, by working on his ambitious and impatient temper, persuaded him to seek present power and independency at the expense of filial duty, and of the grandeur of that monarchy which he was one day to inherit. The king of England was therefore obliged, at an advanced age, to defend his dominions by arms, and to enter on a war with France, and with his eldest surviving son a prince of great valour and popularity, who had seduced the chief barons of Poitou, Guienne, Anjou, and Normandy. Henry, as might be expected, was unsuccessful a misfortune which so much sub- dued his spirit, that he concluded a treaty on the most disadvantageous terms. He agreed that Richard should receive the homage, on oath of fealty of all his subjects, and that all his associates should be pardoned : and -he engaged to pay the king of France a compensation for the charges of the war. f4) But the mortification which Henry, who had been accustomed to give law to his enemies, received from these humiliating conditions, was light in com- parison of what he experienced from another cause on that occasion. When he demanded a list of the persons to whom he was to grant an indemnity foi ll) .annal. Waverl. Bened. Abbas. (2) Benedict. Abbas. R. Hoveden. (3) Benedict. Abbas (4) M. Paris. Bened. Abbas. K. Hoveden. 172 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 confederating with Richard, he was astonished to find at the head of them the name of ms lavourite son John, who had always shared his confidence, and who, on account of his influence with the king, had often excited the jealousy of Richard. Overloaded with cares and sorrows, and robbed of his last domestic comfort, this unhappy father broke out into expressions of the utmost despair : he cursed the day of his birth ; and bestowed on his undu- tiful and ungrateful children a malediction which he could never be brought to retract.(l) The more his heart was disposed to friendship and affection, the more he resented the barbarous return which his four sons had succes- sively made to his parental care ; and this fatal discovery, by depriving him of all that made life desirable, quite broke his spirit, and threw him into a lingering fever, of which he soon after expired, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, at the castle of Chinon, near Saumur, in Normandy. The character of Henry, both in public and private life, is almost without a blemish ; and his natural endowments were equal to his moral qualities. He possessed every mental and personal accomplishment which can make a man either estimable or amiable. He was of a middle stature, strong and well proportioned ; his countenance was lively and engaging ; his conversation affable and entertaining; his elocution easy, persuasive, and ever at com- mand. He loved peace, but possessed both bravery and conduct in war ; was provident without timidity, severe in the execution of justice without rigour, and temperate without austerity. He is said to have been of a very amorous complexion, and historians mention two of his natural sons by Rosamond, the fair daughter of lord Clifford namely, Richard Longespee or Longsword (so called from the sword which he usually wore), who married the heiress of Salisbury ; and Geoffrey, first bishop of Lincoln, and afterward archbishop of York. The other circumstances of the story commonly told of that lady seem to be fabulous, though adopted by many historical writers. Like most of his predecessors of the Norman line, Henry spent more of his time on the continent than in England. He was surrounded by the Eng- lish nobility and gentry when abroad ; and the French nobility and gentry attended him when he returned to this island. All foreign improvements, therefore, in literature and politeness, in laws and arts, seem now to have been transplanted into England : and the spirit of liberty, which still conti- nued to animate the breasts of the native English, communicated itself to the barons, who were all yet of Norman extraction, and made them both more desirous of independency themselves, and more willing to indulge it to the people, whom they had at first affected to despise, and of restraining those exorbitant prerogatives and arbitrary exactions to which the necessities of war and tlie violence of conquest had originally obliged them to submit. The effects of this secret revolution in the sentiments of men we shall afterward have occasion to trace. At present I must return to the affairs of Germany ; remarking by the way, that Henry II. left only two legitimate sons, Richard, who succeeded him, and John, commonly denominated Lack- land, because he inherited no territory, though his father, at one time, had intended to leave him a large share of his extensive dominions. LETTER XXIX. '[Tie German Empire and its Dependencies. Rome and the Italian States, under Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa, -with some Account of the third Crusade. I HAVE already observed, my dear Philip, that Frederic duke of Suabia, sur- named Barbarossa, a prince of great courage and capacity, was unanimously elected emperor on the death of his uncle Conrad III., not only by the Ger- mans, but also by the Lombards, who grave their votes on that occasion. His 111 K.Hovcden. LET. XXIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 173 election was no sooner known, than almost all the princes of Europe sent ambassadors to Mersburg, to congratulate him on his elevation. The king of Denmark went thither in person for the investiture of his dominions ; and Frederic crowned the Danish monarch with his own hand, and received the oath of allegiance from him as a vassal of the empire.(l) But although the reign of Frederic thus auspiciously commenced, it was soon involved in troubles, which required all his courage and capacity to sur- mount, and which it would be tedious circumstantially to relate. I shall therefore only observe, that, after having settled the affairs of Germany, by restoring Bavaria to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, the emperor marched into Italy, in order to compose the disburbances of that country, and be crowned by the pope, in imitation of his predecessors.(2) Adrian IV. who then filled St. Peter's chair, was an Englishman, and a great example of what may be done by personal merit and good fortune. The son of a mendicant, and long a mendicant himself, strolling from country to country, he was received as a servant to the canons of St. Rufus in Provence, where, after a time, he was admitted a monk, was raised to the rank of abbot and general of the order, and at length to the pontificate. Adrian was inclined to crown a vassal, but afraid of giving himself a master ; he '.herefore insisted upon the Roman ceremonial ; which required, that the em- peror should prostrate himself before the pope, kiss his feet, hold his stirrup, and lead the holy father's white palfrey by the bridle the distance of nine Roman paces. Frederic looked upon this ceremony as an insult, and refused to submit to it. On his refusal, the cardinals fled, as if the emperor had given the signal of civil war; and the Roman chancery, which kept a register of every thing of this kind, assured him that his predecessors had always complied with these forms. The ceremony of kissing the pope's feet, which he knew to be the established custom, did not hurt Frederic's pride ; but he could not bear that of holding the bridle and the stirrup, which he considered as an innovation : and indeed it does not appear that any emperor, except Lothario, successor to Henry V. had complied with this part of the ceremony. Frederic's pride, however, at length digested these two supposed affronts, which he construed only as empty marks of Christian humility, though the court of Rome viewed them as proofs of real subjection. (3) But the emperor's difficulties were not yet over. The citizens of Rome sent him a deputation, insolently demanding the restoration of their ancient form of government, and offering to stipulate with him for the imperial dig- nity. " Charlemagne and Otho conquered you by their valour," replied Fre- deric, " and I am your master by right of succession : it is mine to prescribe laws, and yours to receive them." With these words he dismissed the depu- ties, and was inaugurated without the walls of the city by the pope, who put the sceptre into his hand, and the crown upon his head.(4) The nature of the empire was then so little understood, and the pretensions so contradictory, that, on the one hand, the Roman citizens mutinied, and a great deal of blood was- spilt, because the pope had crowned the emperor without the consent of the senate and the people ; and, on the other hand, pope Adrian, by all his letters, declared, that he had conferred the benefice of the Roman empire on Frederic I. ll beneficiumimperiiRomani;^novftlie word beneficium literally signified a fief, though his holiness explained it otherwise. Adrian likewise exhibited publicly in Rome a picture of the emperor Lothario on his knees before pope Alexander II., holding both his hands joined between those of the pontiff, which was the distinguishing mark of vassalage ; and on the picture was this inscription : Rexvenit ante fores, jurans pnus urbis honores: Post homo Jit, papoe ; sumit quo dante coronam.(5) (1) Jnnal. de I'Emp. torn. i. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Bunaii. Hist. Fred. I. Mural. Antig. 1UL (41 Id. ibid. 15} .Innal, de I'F.mp. torn. i. Bunau, ubi sup. 174 THE HISTORY OF [PART I " Before the gates the king appears, Rome's honours to maintain he swears ; Then to the pope sinks lowly down, Who grants him the imperial crown." Frederic, who had retired to his German dominions, was at Besan9on, when he received information of Adrian's insolence ; and having expressed his dis- pleasure at it,' a cardinal then present made answer, "If he does not hold the empire of the pope, of whom does he hold it ?" Enraged at this impertinent speech, Otho, count Palatine, would have run the author of it through the oody, with the sword which he wore as marshal of the empire, had not Fre- deric prevented him. The cardinal immediately fled, and the pope entered into a treaty. The Germans then made use of no argument but force, and the court of Rome sheltered itself under the ambiguity of its expressions. Adrian declared, that benefice, according to his idea, signified a favour, not a fief, and he promised to put out of the way the painting of the consecration of Lothario. (1) A few observations will not here be improper. Adrian IV., besieged by William I. king of Sicily, in Benevento, gave up to him several ecclesiastical pretensions. He consented that Sicily should never have any legate, nor be subject to any appeal to the See of Rome, except with the king's permission. ' Since that time, the kings of Sicily, though the only princes who are vassals of the pope, are in a manner popes themselves in their own island. The Roman pontiffs, thus at once adored and abused, somewhat resembled, to borrow a remark from Voltaire, the idols which the Indians scourge to obtain favours from them. Adrian, however, fully revenged himself upon other princes who stood in need of him. He .wrote in the following manner to Henry II. of England. " There is no doubt, and you acknowledge it, that Ireland, and all the islands which have received the faith, appertain to the Roman church ; but if you want to take possession of that island, in order to banish vice from it, to enforce the observance of the Christian doctrines, and with an intent of paying the yearly tribute of St. Peter's penny for every house, we with pleasure grant you our permission to conquer it."(2) Thus an English beggar, become bishop of Rome, bestowed Ireland, by his sole authority, upon an English king, who wanted to usurp it, and who had power to carry his design into execution. The intrepid activity of Frederic Barbarossa had not only to subdue the pope, who disputed the empire; Rome, which refused to acknowledge a master ; and many other cities of Italy, that asserted their independency ; he had, at the same time, the Bohemians, who had mutinied against him, to humble : and also the Poles, with whom he was at -war. Yet all this he effected. He conquered Poland, and erected it into a tributary kingdom : he quelled the tumults of Bohemia ; and the king of Denmark is said to have renewed to the empire the homage for his dominions. (3) He secured the fidelity of the German princes, by rendering himself formidable to foreign nations ; and flew back to Italy, where hopes of independency had arisen, in consequence of his troubles and perplexities. He found every thing there in confusion ; not so much from the efforts of the several cities to recover their freedom, as from that party rage which constantly prevailed, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, at the election of a pope. On the death of Adrian IV. two opposite factions tumultuously elected two persons known by the names of Victor IV. and Alexander III. The emperor's allies necessarily acknowledged the pope chosen by him ; and those princes, who were jealous of the emperor, acknowledged the other. What was t-he shame and scandal of Rome, therefore became the signal of division over all Europe. Victor IV. Frederic's pope, had Germany, Bohemia, and one half (I) Jlnnal. de V Emp. torn. i. Bunau. ubi sup. (2) M. Paris. GiraM. Cambr. Spelman. Canal '31 Jlnnal.de I' Emp. LET. XXIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 173 of Italy on his side The othei kingdoms and states submitted to Alexander III. in honour of whom the Milanese, who were avowed enemies to the empe- ror, built the city of Alexandria. In vain did Frederic's party endeavour to have it called Caesaria, the pope's name prevailed: and it was afterward called, out of derision, Alexandria del Paglia, or Alexandria built of straw, on account of the meanness of its buildings. (1) Happy had it been for Europe, if that age had produced no disputes at- tended with more fatal consequences; but unfortunately that was not the case. Milan, for maintaining its independency, was, by the emperor's orders, razed to the foundations, and salt strewed upon its ruins ; Brescia and Pla- centia were dismantled by the conqueror ; and all the other cities which had aspired at independency, were deprived of their privileges. Pope Alexander III. however, who had excited these revolts, and had been obliged to take refuge in France, returned to Rome, after the death of his rival ; and, at his return, the civil war was renewed. The emperor caused another pope to be elected, under the appellation of Pascal III. who also dying in a short time, a third was nominated by Frederic, under the title of Calixtus III. Meanwhile Alexander was not intimidated. He solemnly ex- communicated the emperor ; and the flames of civil discord, which he had raised, continued to spread. The chief cities of Italy, supported by the Greek emperor, and the king of Sicily, entered into an association for the defence of their liberties ; and the pope, at length, proved stronger by negotiating than the emperor by fighting. The imperial army, worn out by fatigues and diseases, was defeated by the confederates, and Frederic himself narrowly escaped being made prisoner. About the same time he was defeated at sea by the Venetians, and his eldest son Henry, who commanded his fleet, fell into the hands of the enemy. Pope Alexander, in honour of this victory, sailed out into the Adriatic sea, or Gulf of Venice, accompanied by the whole senate ; and, after having pronounced a thousand benedictions on that ele- ment, threw into it a ring as a mark of his gratitude and affection. Hence the origin of that ceremony which is annually performed by the Venetians, under the notion of espousing the Adriatic. (2) In consequence of these misfortunes, the emperor was disposed to an ac- commodation with the pope ; but his pride would not permit him to make any humiliating advance. He therefore rallied his troops, and exerted himself with so much vigour in repairing his loss, that he was soon in a condition to risk another battle, in which his enemies were worsted ; and being no less a politician than a general, he seized this fortunate moment to signify his desire of peace to Alexander III. who received the proposals with great joy. Venice had the honour of being the place of reconciliation. The emperor, the pope, and a number of princes and cardinals, repaired to that city, then mistress of the sea, and one of the wonders of the world. There the emperor put an end to his bloody dispute with the see of Rome, by acknowledging the pope, kissing his feet, and holding his stirrup while he mounted his mule.(3) This reconciliation was attended with the submission of all the towns in Italy, which had entered into an association for their mutual defence. They obtained a general pardon, and were left at liberty to use their own laws and forms of government, but were obliged to take the oath of allegiance to the emperor, as their superior lord. Calixtus, the antipope, finding himself abandoned by the emperor, in con- sequence of that treaty, made his submissions to Alexander III. who received him with great humanity; and in order to prevent, for the future, those schisms which had so often attended the election of popes, his holiness called a general council, in which it was decreed, that no pope should be deemed duly elected without having the votes of two thirds of the college of cardi- nals in his favour.(4) The affairs of Italy being thus settled, the emperor returned to Germany (1) Murat, Antiq. Ital. (2) Ibid. 13) Bunau, Hist. Fred. I. (4) MosheNi, Hut. Eccles. vol. iii. 176 THE HISTORY OF [PART! where Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, had raised fresh troubles. He was a proud, haughty and turbulent prince, like most of his predecessors, and not only oppressed his own subjects, but committed violences against all his neighbours. His natural pride was not diminished by his alliance with the king of England, whose daughter he had married. Glad of an opportunity of being revenged upon Henry, who had abandoned him in his Italian expe- dition, Frederic convoked a diet at Goslar, where the duke was put to the ban of the empire ; and, after a variety of struggles the sentence was put in execution. He was divested of all his dominions, which were bestowed upon different vassals of the empire. Sensible of his folly when too late, the degraded duke threw himself at the emperor's feet, and begged with great humility that some of his territories might be restored. Frederic, touched with his unfortunate condition, re- ferred him to a diet of the empire at Erfurt. There Henry endeavoured to acquit himself of the crimes laid to his charge. But as it was impracticable immediately to withdraw his fiefs from the present possessors, the emperor advised him to reside in England, until the princes who had shared his dominions could be persuaded to relinquish them ; and he promised that, in the mean time, no attempts should be made upon the territories of Brunswic or Lunenburg, which he would protect in behalf of Henry's children. In com- pliance with this advice, the duke retired to England, where he was hospita- bly entertained by his father-in-law, Henry II. and there his wife bore him a fourth son, from whom the present house of Brunswic, and consequently the present royal family of England, is descended. (1) While tranquillity was, in this manner, happily restored to Italy and Ger- many, the Oriental Christians were in the utmost distress. The great Sa- ladin, a prince of Persian extraction, and born in the small country of the Curdes, a nation always warlike, and always free, having fixed himself, by his bravery and conduct, on the throne of Egypt, began to extend his con- quest over all the East; and finding the settlements of the Christians in Palestine an invincible obstacle to the progress of his arms, he bent the whole force of his policy and valour to subdue that small and barren but important territory. Taking advantage of the dissensions which prevailed among the champions of the Cross, and having secretly gained the count of Tripoli, who commanded their armies, he invaded Palestine with a mighty force; and, aided by the treachery of that count, gained at Tiberias a com^ plete victory over them, which utterly broke the power of the already Ian guishing kingdom of Jerusalem. The holy city itself fell into his hands, after a feeble resistance : the kingdom of Antioch also was almost entirely subdued by his arms ; and, except some maritime towns, nothing of importance re- mained of those boasted conquests, which, near a century before, had cost the efforts of all Europe to acquire. (2) Clement III. who then filled the papal chair, no sooner received these melancholy tidings, than he ordered a crusade to be preached through all the countries in Christendom. Europe was filled with grief and astonishment at the progress of the Infidels in Asia. To give a check to it seemed the com- mon cause of Christians. Frederic Barbarossa, who was at that time em- ployed in making regulations for the preservation of the peace and good order of Germany, assembled a diet at Mentz, in order to deliberate with the states of the empire on -this subject. He took the cross ; and his example was followed by his son Frederic, duke of Suabia, together with sixty-eight of the most eminent German nobles, ecclesiastics as well as laymen. The rendezvous was appointed at Ratisbon ; and in order to prevent the incon- venience of too great a multitude, the emperor decreed, that no person should take the cross who could not afford to expend three marks of siJver. But notwithstanding that regulation, wisely calculated to prevent those neces- sities which had ruined the former armies, so great was the zeal of the Ger- mans, that adventurers assembled to the number of one hundred and fifty (11 Jlnnal. de f Emp. torn. i. (2) Maimbourg, ffi.it. det Croisades, UET. XXX.] MODERN EUROPE. 177 thousand fighting men, well armed, and provided with necessaries for the ex- pedition. (1) Before his departure, Frederic made a progress through the principal cities of Germany, accompanied by his son Henry, to whom he intended to commit the government of the empire, and that he might omit nothing necessary to the preservation of peace and harmony during his absence, he endeavoured so to regulate the succession to his dominions as that none of his children should have cause to complain, or any pretext to disturb the public tran- quillity. The emperor in person marched at the head of thirty thousand men, by the way of Vienna, to Presburg, where he was joined by the rest of his army. He thence proceeded through Hungary, into the territories of the Greek emperor, who, notwithstanding his professions of friendship, had been de- tached from the interests of Frederic by Saladin's promises and insinuations, and took all opportunities of harassing the Germans in their march. Incensed at this perfidy, Frederic laid the country under contribution ; took and plun- dered Philippolis; defeated a body of Greek troops that attacked him by surprise ; and compelled Isaacus Angelus, emperor of Constantinople, to sue for peace. He wintered atAdrianople ; crossed the Hellespont in the spring ; refreshed his troops a short time in Laodicea ; defeated the Turks in several battles ; took and pillaged the city of Iconium, and crossed Mount Taurus. All Asia was filled with the terror of his arms. He seemed to be among the soldiers of the cross what Saladin was among the Turks an able politician, and a good general, tried by fortune. The Oriental Christians therefore flattered themselves with certain relief from his assistance. But their hopes were suddenly blasted. This great prince was an expert swimmer, ven- tured to bathe in the cold river Cydnus, in order to refresh himself after fatigue in a sultry climate, perhaps in emulation of the Macedonian con- queror ; and by that means caught a mortal distemper, which at once put an end to his life and his bold enterprisers) Thus unfortunately perished Frederic I. in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and the thirty-eighth of his reign a prince of a firm spirit and strong ta- lents, who had the good of his country always at heart, and who supported the dignity of the empire with equal courage and reputation. He was suc- ceeded in the imperial throne by his son Henry VI. surnamed the severe. But before I enter on the reign of that prince, my dear Philip, I must carry forward the history of the third crusade, continued by the kings of France and England. LETTER XXX. France and England, from the Death of Henry II. to the Granting of the greai Charter by King John, with a further Account of the third Crusade. THE death of Henry II. was an event esteemed equally fortunate by his son Richard, and by Philip Augustus, king of France. Philip had lost a dan- gerous and implacable enemy, and Richard got possession of that crown which he had so eagerly pursued. Both seemed to consider the recovery of the Holy Land as the sole purpose of their government ; yet neither was so much impelled to that pious undertaking by superstition, as by the love of military glory. The king of England, in particular, carried so little the appearance of sanctity in his conduct, that, when advised by a zealous preacher of the crusade, (who from that merit had acquired the privilege of speaking the boldest truths) to rid himself of his pride, avarice, and voluptuousness, which the priest affectedly called the king's three favourite daughters, Richard promptly replied, " You counsel wefl ! and I hereby dispose of the first to (1) Maimbourg, Hist, des Croisades. Bunau, ubi supra. (2^ Maimbourg, ubi sup. Bunau. Hist. Fred. I. VOL. I. M 178 THE HISTORY OF [PxRTl. the Templars, of the second to the Benedictines, and of the third to my Bishops."(l) The reiterated calamities attending the former crusades taught the kings of France and England the necessity of trying another road to the Holy Land. They determined to conduct their armies thither by sea ; to carry provisions along with them ; and, by means of their naval power, to main- tain an open communication with their own states, and with all the western parts of Europe. The first place of rendezvous was the plains of Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy, when Philip and Richard found their armies amount to one hundred thousand men : an invincible force, animated by re- ligion and glory, and conducted by two warlike monarchs. They renewed their promises of mutual friendship ; pledged their faith not to invade each other's dominions during the crusade, and, exchanging the oaths of all their barons and prelates to the same effect, then separated. Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, both with a view of meeting their fleets, which were severally appointed to assemble in those harbours. (2) They put to sea together ; and both, nearly about the same time, were obliged by stress of weather to take shelter in Messina, where they were detained during the whole winter. This event laid the foundation of animosities be- tween them, which were never afterward entirely removed, and proved ulti- mately fatal to their armament. But before I proceed to that subject, a few words relative to the character and circumstances of the two princes will be necessary. Philip and Richard, though professed friends, were, by the situation and extent of their domi- nions, rivals in power ; by their age and inclinations, competitors for glory ; and these causes of emulation, which might have stimulated them to martial efforts, had they been acting in the field against the common enemy, soon excited quarrels, during their present leisure, between monarchs of such fiery tempers. Equally haughty, ambitious, intrepid, and inflexible, they were irritated at the least appearance of injury, and they were incapable, by mu- tual condescensions, to efface those occasions of complaint which mutually arose between them. Nor were other sources of discord wanting. William II. the last king of Naples and Sicily, had married Joan, sister to Richard ; and that prince, dying without issxie, had bequeathed his domi- nions to his paternal sister Constantia, the only legitimate offspring surviving of Roger, the Norman, who conquered those states from the Greeks and Sa- racens, as we have already seen. Henry VI. then emperor of Germany, had married this princess, in expectation of that rich inheritance ; but Tancrcd, her natural brother, by his interest among the Sicilian nobles, had acquired possession of the throne, and maintained his claim against all the efforts of the empire. The approach of the crusaders naturally gave the king of Sicily apprehensions for his unstable government : and he was uncertain whether tic had most reason to dread the presence of the French or English monarch. Philip was engaged in strict alliance with the emperor, Tancred's competitor ; Richard was disgusted by his rigour towards the queen-dowager, whom he confined in Palermo, because she had opposed his succession to the crown. Sensible therefore of the delicacy of his situation, Tancred resolved to pay his court to both these princes : nor was he unsuccessful in his endeavours. He persuaded Philip, that it would be highly improper to interrupt the expe- dition against the infidels, by any attack upon a Christian prince ; he restored queen Joan to her liberty, and even found means to make an alliance with Richard. But before this friendship was cemented, Richard, jealous both of Tancred and the inhabitants of Messina, had taken up his quarters in the suburbs, and possessed himself of a small fort which commanded the harbour. The citizens took umbrage. Mutual insults and injuries passed between them and the English soldiers. Philip, who had quartered his troops in the town, endeavoured to accommodate the quarrel, and held a conference with Richard for that purpose. fl) M. Westminst. (3) R. Hovcden. Gaus. Vinisauf. Her Hitrosol lib ii LET. XXX.J MODERNEUROPE. 179 While the two kings, who met in the open fields, were engaged in discourse on this subject, a body of the Sicilians seemed to be drawing towards them. Richard, always ardent and impatient, pushed forward, in order to learn the cause of that extraordinary movement ; and the English adventurers, insolent from their power, and inflamed by former animosities, wanting only a pre- tence to attack the Messinese, chased them from the field, drove them into the town, and entered with them at the gates. The king employed his authority to restrain them from pillaging or massacring the defenceless inha- bitants ; but he gave orders that the standard of England, in token of his victory, should be erected on the walls. Philip, who considered the city of Messina as his quarters, exclaimed against the arrogance of the English monarch, and ordered some of his troops to pull down the standard. But Richard informed him by a messenger, that although he would willingly him- self remove that ground of offence, he would not permit it to be done by others ; and if the French king attempted such an insult on his dignity, he should not succeed but by the utmost effusion of blood. Philip, satisfied with this species of haughty condescension, recalled his orders, and the difference was seemingly accommodated ; but the seeds of rancour and jealousy still remained in the breasts of the two monarchs.(l) After leaving Sicily, the English fleet was assailed by a furious tempest It was driven on the coast of Cyprus, and some of the vessels were wrecked near Lemisso in that island. Isaac Comnenus, despot of Cyprus, who had assumed the magnificent title of emperor, pillaged the ships that were stranded, and threw the seamen and passengers into prison. But Richard, who arrived soon after, took ample vengeance on him for the injury. He disembarked his troops ; defeated the tyrant, who opposed his landing ; entered Lemisso by storm; gained next day a second victory ; obliged Isaac to sui render at discretion ; established governors over the island ; and afterward conferred it as a sovereignty upon Guy of Lusignan, the expelled king of Jerusalem Thrown into prison, and loaded with irons, the Greek prince complained of the little respect with which he was treated. Richard ordered silver fetters to be made for him ; and this phantom of an emperor, pleased with the dis- tinction, expressed a sense of the generosity of his conqueror.(2) Richard, by reason of these transactions at Cyprus, was later of arriving in Asia than Philip. But the English monarch came opportunely to partake : n the glory of the siege of Ptolemais ; a seaport town, which had been invested above two years, by the united forces of all the Christians in Pales- tine, and defended by the utmost efforts of Saladin and the Saracens. Before this place, Frederick, duke of Suabia, son of the emperor Barbarossa, and who succeeded him in the command, together with the remains of the German army, had perished. The arrival of the armies of France and England, how- ever, with Philip and Richard at their head, inspired new life into the besiegers : and the emulation between these rival kings and rival nations, produced extraordinary acts of valour. Richard especially, animated by a more pre- cipitate courage than Philip, and more agreeable to the romantic spirit of that age, drew to himself the attention of all the religious and military world, and acquired a great and splendid reputation. Ptolemais was taken. The Sara- cen garrison, reduced to the last extremity, surrendered themselves prisoners of war ; and the governor engaged that Saladin, besides paying a large sum for their ransom, should release two thousand five hundred Christian prisoners of distinction, and restore the wood of the true cross. (3) Thus, my dear Philip, was this famous siege, which had so long engaged the attention of all Europe and Asia, brought to the desired close, after the loss of three hundred thousand men, exclusive of persons of superior rank ; six archbishops, twelve bishops, forty earls, and five hundred barons. But the French monarch, instead of pursuing the hopes of farther conquest, and redeeming the holy city from slavery, being disgusted with the ascendant (1) Bened. Abbas. M.Paris. G. Vinisauf. ubi sup. (2) Ibid. (3) Benedict. Abbas. G. Vinisauf. lib. iii. Saladin refused to ratify the treaty ; and the Saracen pri sioncrs to the number of five thousand, were inhumanly butchered. Id ibid. M2 80 THE HISTORY OF 'foal. assumed at I .i.tqilin y the king of England, and having views of many advantages \vhirli lie might reap by his presence in Europe, declared his resolution of returning to France; and he pleaded his ill state of health as an excuse for his desertion of the common cause. He left however to Richard ten thousand of his troops, under the command of the duke of Burgundy ; and he renewed his oath never to commit hostilities against that prince's territo- ries during his absence. But no sooner did he reach Italy, than he applied to pope Celestine III. for a dispensation from his vow ; and, though denied that request, he still proceeded, but after a more concealed manner, in his unjust projects. He seduced prince John, king Richard's brother, from his allegiance, and did every thing possible to blacken the character of that monarch himself; representing him as privy to the murder of the marquis de Montserrat, who had been taken off, as was well known, by an Asiatic ciiief, called The old Man of the Mountain, the prince of the Assassins a word w hich has found its way into most European languages, from the practice of these bold and determined ruffians, against whom no precaution was sufficient to guard any man, how powerful soever, and whose resentment the marquis had provoked.(l) But Richard's heroic actions in Palestine were the best apology for his conduct. The Christian adventurers, under his command, determined, o;: opening the campaign, to attempt the siege of Ascalon, in order to prepare the way for that of Jerusalem ; and they marched along the seacoast with that intention. Saladin proposed to intercept their passage, and placed him- self on the road with an army of three hundred thousand combatants. On this occasion was fought one of the greatest battles of that age, and the most celebrated for the military genius of the commanders ; for the number and valour of the troops, and for the great variety of events which attended it. The right wing of the Christian army commanded by d'Avesness, and the left conducted by the duke of Burgundy, were both broken in the beginning of the day, and in danger of being utterly defeated, when Richard, who com- manded in the centre, and led on the main body, restored the battle. He attacked the enemy with admirable intrepidity and presence of mind ; per- formed the part of a consummate general and gallant soldier; and not only gave his two wings leisure to recover from their confusion, but obtained a complete victory over the Saracens, forty thousand of whom are said to have been slain in the field. (2) Ascalon soon after fell into the hands of the Christians : other sieges were carried on with success ; and Richard was even able to advance within sight of Jerusalem, the great object of his hopes and fears, when he had the mortification to find, that he must abandon all thoughts of immediate success, and put a stop to the career of victory. Animated with an enthusiastic ardour for these holy wars, the champions of the cross, at first, laid aside all regard to safety or interest in the prose- cution of their pious purpose ; and trusting to the immediate assistance of Heaven, set nothing before their eyes but fame and victory in this world, and a crown of glory hi the next. But long absence from home, fatigue, disease, famine, and the varieties of fortune which naturally attend war, had gradually abated that fury which nothing was able instantly to allay or with stand. Every leader, except the king of England, expressed a desire of speed- ily returning to Europe; so that there appeared an absolute necessity of aban- doning, for the present, all hopes of farther conquest, and of securing the acquisitions of the adventurers by an accommodation with Saladin. Richard therefore concluded a truce with that monarch ; stipulating that Ptolemais, Joppa, and other sea-port towns of Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and that every one of that religion should have liberty to perform his pilgrimage to Jerusalem unmolested.(3) This truce was con- cluded for three years, three months, three weeks, three days, and thiee hours a magical number, suggested by a superstition well suited to the object of the war. (I) VV. Heming. J. Brompton. G. Vinisauf. lib. iii. Rymer vol.i. (2) G. Viriisauf. lib. iv (3; W Heming. lib ii. G. Vinisauf. lib. vi. LET. XXX.] MODERN EUROPE. 181 Saladin died at Damascus, soon after concluding tlie tnice with the leaders of the crusade. He was a prince of great generosity and valour ; and it ig truly memorable, that, during his fatal illness, he ordered his winding-sheet to be carried as a standard through every street of the city, while a crier went before the person who bore that ensign of mortality, and proclaimed with a loud voice, " This is all that remains to the mighty Saladin, the conqueroi of the East !" His last will is also remarkable. He ordered charities to be distributed to the poor, without distinction of Jew, Christian, or Mahometan ;(1) intending by this legacy to inculcate, that all men are brethren, and that, when we would assist them, we ought not to inquire what they believe, but what they feel an admirable lesson to Christians, though from an Infidel. But the advantage of science, of moderation, and humanity, were at that time indeed entirely on the side of the Saracens. After the truce Richard had no farther business in Palestine, and the intelligence which he received of the intrigues of his brother John and the king of France made him sensible that his presence was necessary in Europe. Not thinking it safe, however, to pass through France, he sailed to the Adri- atic ; and being shipwrecked near Aquileia, he put on the habit of a pilgrim, with an intention of taking his journey secretly through Germany. But his liberality and expenses betrayed him. He was arrested and thrown into prison by Leopold, duke of Austria, whom he had offended at the siege of Ptolemais, and who sold him to the emperor Henry VI. who had taken offence at Richard's alliance with Tancred, king of Sicily, and was glad to have him in his power. (2) Thus the gallant king of England, who had filled the whole world with his renown, found himself, during the most critical state of his affairs, confined to a dungeon, in the heart of Germany, loaded with irons, and entirely at the mercy of his enemy, the basest and most sordid of mankind. (3) While the high spirit of Richard suffered every insult and indignity in Germany, the king of France employed every means of force and intrigue^ of war and negotiation, against the dominions and the person of his unfor- tunate rival. He made the emperor the largest offers, if he would deliver into his hands the royal prisoner : he formed an alliance by marriage with Denmark, desiring that the ancient Danish claim to the crown of England might be transferred to him : he concluded a treaty with prince John, the king's brother, who is said to have done homage to him for the English crown; and he invaded Normandy, while the traitor John attempted to make himself master of England. (4) In the mean time Richard, being produced before a diet of the empire, made such an impression on the German princes, by his eloquence and spirit, that they exclaimed loudly against the conduct of the emperor. The pope also threatened him with excommunication ; and although Henry had listened to the proposals of the king of France and prince John, he found it would be impracticable for him to execute his and their base purposes, or to detain any longer the king of England in captivity. He therefore concluded a treaty with Richard for his ransom, and agreed to restore him to his freedom for one hundred and fifty thousand marks of pure silver, about three hundred thousand pounds of our present money ;(5) an enormous sum in those days. (1) W. Heming. lib. ii. G. Vinisauf. lib. vi. aptive. (Hist. his release. M M Paris. W. Heming. E. Hoveden. 5) Eymer, vol i 182 THEHISTORYOF [PART I. As soon as Philip heard of Richard's release, he wrote to his confederate John in these emphatical words : " Take care of yourself! the devil is broke loose." How different on this occasion were the sentiments of the English nation ! Their joy was extreme on the appearance of their king, who had acquired so much glory, and spread the reputation of their name to the farthest East. After renewing the ceremony of his coronation, amid the acclamations of all ranks of people, and reducing the fortresses which still remained in the hands of his brother's adherents, Richard passed over with an army into Normandy ; impatient to make war upon Philip, and to revenge himself for the many injuries he had sustained from that monarch.(l) When we consider two such powerful and warlike monarchs, inflamed with personal animosity against each other ; enraged by mutual injuries ; excite* by rivalship ; impelled by opposite interests, and instigated by the pride and violence of their own temper, our curiosity is naturally raised, and we expect an obstinate and furious war, distinguished by the greatest events, and con- cluded by some remarkable catastrophe. We find ourselves, however, entirely disappointed ; the taking of a castle, the surprise of a straggling party, a rencounter of horse, which resembles more a rout than a battle, com- prehend the whole of the exploits on both sides : a certain proof, as a great historian observes, of the weakness of princes in that age, and of the little authority which they possessed over their refractory vassals. (2) During this war, which continued, with short intervals, till Richard's death, prince John deserted Philip, threw himself at his brother's feet, craved par- don for his offences, and was received into favour, at the intercession of his mother queen Eleanor. " I forgive him with all my heart," said the king ; " and hope I shall as easily forget his offences, as he will my pardon."(3) Peace was just ready to be concluded between England and France, when Richard was unfortunately slain by an arrow, before an inconsiderable castle which he besieged in hopes of taking from one of his vassals a great mass of gold which had been found hid in the earth. The story is thus related : Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, had found a treasure, of which he sent par to the king, as a present. But Richard, as superior lord, claimed the whole and, at the head of some Brabanyons, besieged the count in the castle ol Chains, in order to make him comply with his demand. The garrison offered to surrender ; but the king replied, since he nad taken the trouble to come thither and besiege the place in person, he would take it by force, and hang every one of them. The same day Richard, accompanied by Marcadee, leader of his Braban9ons, went to survey the castle ; when one Bertrand de Gourdon, an archer, took aim at him, and pierced his shoulder with an arrow. The king, however, gave orders for the assault ; took the place, and hanged all the garrison, except Gourdon, whom he reserved for a more cruel execu- tion. (4) Richard's wound was not in itself dangerous, but the unskilfulness of We surgeon made it mortal ; and when the king found his end approaching, he sent for Gourdon, and demanded the reason why he sought his life. " My father, and my two brothers," replied the undaunted soldier, " fell by your sword, and you intended to have executed me. I am now in your power, and you may do your worst ; but I shall endure the most severe torments with pleasure, provided I can think that Heaven has afforded me such great revenge, as, with my own hand, to be the cause of your death." Struck with the boldness of this reply, and humbled by his approaching dissolution, Richard ordered the prisoner to be set at liberty, and a sum of money to be given him. But the blood-thirsty Brabangon, Marcadee, a stranger to such generosity, seized the unhappy man, flayed him alive, and then hanged him.(5) The most shining part of the character of Richard I. was his military '!) K.Uovedcn. (2) Hume, Ifist. England, vol. i. (3) M.Paris. (4) R. Hoveden. J. BrompUm. (5) Hoveden. The Brabancons were ruffian mercenaries, formed out of the numerous bands of robbers who, during the middle ages, infested every country of Europe, and set the civil magistrate at defiance LET. XXX. J MODERN EUROPE. 183 talents. No man, even in that romantic age, carried personal coinage or intrepidity to a greater height ; and this quality obtained him the appellation of C(ur de Lion, or the Lion-hearted Hero. As he left no issue behind him, he was succeeded by his brother John. The succession was disputed by Arthur, duke of Britanny, son of Geoffrey, the elder brother of John ; and the barons of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, declared in favour of this young prince's title. The king of France, whose daughter he espoused, also assisted him ; and every thing promised success, when Arthur was unfortunately taken prisoner by his uncle John, and inhumanly murdered. The fate of this unhappy prince is differently related, but the following account seems the most probable. After having employed unsuccessfully different assassins, John went himself in a boat, by night, to the castle of Rouen, where Arthur was confined, and ordered him to be brought forth. Aware of his danger, and subdued by the continuance of his misfortunes, and by the approach of death, the brave youth, who had before gallantly main tained the justice of his cause, threw himself on his knees before his uncle, and begged for mercy. But the barbarous tyrant, making no reply, stabbed his nephew to the heart, and, fastening a stone to the dead body, threw it into the Seine.(l) John's misfortunes commenced with his crime. The whole world was struck with horror at his barbarity ; and he was from that moment detested by his subjects, both in England and on the continent. The Bretons, disap- pointed in their fondest hopes, waged implacable war against him, in order to revenge the murder of their duke : and they carried their complaints before the French monarch, as superior lord, demanding justice for the inhuman violence committed by John on the person of Arthur. Philip II. received their application with pleasure ; he summoned John to stand trial before him and his peers : and, on his non-appearance, he was declared guilty of felony and parricide, and all his foreign dominions were adjudged forfeited to the crown of France. (2) Nothing now remained but the execution of this sentence, in order to com- plete the glory of Philip, whose active and ambitious spirit had long with impatience borne the neighbourhood of so powerful a vassal as the king of England. He therefore greedily embraced the present favourable opportunity of annexing to the French crown the English dominions on the continent ; a project which the sound policy of Henry II. and the military genius of Richard I. had rendered impracticable to the most vigorous efforts, and most dangerous intrigues, of this able and artful prince. But the general defection of John's vassals rendered every enterprise easy against him; and Philip not only reunited Normandy to the crown of France, but successively reduced Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and part of Poitou, under his dominion.(S) Thus, by the baseness of one prince, and the intrepidity of another, the French monarchy received, in a few years, such an accession of power and grandeur as, in the ordinary course of things, it would have required several ages to attain. John's arrival in England completed his disgrace. He saw himself uni- versally despised by the barons, on account of his pusillanimity and baseness ; and a quarrel with the clergy drew upon him the contempt of that order, and the indignation of Rome. The papal chair was then filled by Innocent III., who, having been exalted to it at a more early period of life than usual, and being endowed with a lofty and enterprising genius, gave full scope to his ambition ; and attempted, perhaps more openly than any of his predecessors, to convert that ghostly superiority, which was yielded him by all the European princes, into a real dominion over them ; strongly inculcating that extrava- Excluded the protection of general society, these banditti formed a kind of government among themselvt* Troops of them were sometimes enlisted in the service of one prince or baron, sometimes in that of another ; and they often acted in an independent manner, under leaders of their own. W. Neubrig Citron. Gem. (1) T. WykPs. W. Heroin". M. Paris. H. Knighton (21 Annal. Morgan. M. West. (3) Otron. Trevit. Ypod. Neusl 184 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. gant maxim, " that neither princes nor bishops, civil governors nor ecclesi- astical rulers, have any lawful power, in church or state, but what they derive from the pope." To this pontiff an appeal was made relative to the election of an archbishop of Canterbury. Two primates had been elected ; one by the monks or canons of Christ-Church, Canterbuiy, and one by the suffragan bishops, who had the king's approbation. The pope declared both elections void; and commanded the monks, under penalty of excommunica- tion, to choose for their primate cardinal Langton, an Englishman by birth, but educated in France, and connected by his interests and attachments with the see of Rome. The monks complied ; and John, inflamed with rage at such a usurpation of his prerogative, expelled them the convent ; swearing by God's teeth, his usual oath, that, if the pope gave him any farther disturb- mce, he would banish all the bishops and clergy of England.(l) Innocent, nowever, knew his weakness, and laid the kingdom under an interdict ; at that time the grand instrument of vengeance and policy employed against sovereigns by the court of Rome. The execution of this sentence was artfully calculated to strike the senses in the highest degree, and to operate with irresistible force on the superstitious minds of the people. The nation was suddenly deprived of all exterior exercise of its religion ; the altars were despoiled of their ornaments ; the crosses, the relics, the images, the statues of the saints, were laid on the ground ; and, as if the air itself had been profaned, and might pollute them by its contact, the priests carefully covered them up, even from their own approach and veneration. The use of bells entirely ceased in all the churches ; the bells themselves were removed from the steeples, and laid on the ground with the other sacred utensils. Mass was celebrated with shut doors, and none but the priests were admitted to that holy institution. The laity par- took of no religious rite, except baptism of new-born infants, and the com- munion to the dying. The dead were not interred in consecrated ground : they were thrown into ditches, or buried in the common fields ; and their obsequies were not attended with prayers, or any hallowed ceremony. The people were prohibited the use of meat, as in Lent, and debarred from all pleasures and amusements. Every thing wore the appearance of the deepest distress, and of the most immediate apprehensions of divine vengeance and indignation. (2) While England groaned under this dreadful sentence, a new and very ex- traordinary scene disclosed itself on the continent. Pope Innocent III. published a crusade against the Albigenses, a species of sectaries in the South of France, whom he denominated heretics ; because, like all sectaries, they neglected the rites of the church, and opposed the power and influence of the clergy. Moved by that mad superstition, which had hurried such armies into Asia, in order to combat the infidels, and the reigning passion for wars and adventures, people flocked from all parts of Europe to the standard of Simon de Montfort, the general of this crusade. The count of Thoulouse, who protected the Albigenses, was stripped of his dominions; and these unhappy people themselves, though the most inoffensive of man- kind, were exterminated with all the circumstances of the most unfeeling barbarity. (3) Innocent, having thus made trial of his power, carried still farther his ecclesiastical vengeance against the king of England, who was now both despised and hated by his subjects of all ranks and conditions. He gave the bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester, authority to denounce against John the sentence of excommunication. His subjects were absolved from their oath of allegiance, and a sentence of deposition soon followed. But as this last (1) M.Paris. (2) John, besides banishing the bishops, and confiscating the estates of all the ecclesiastics who obeyed the interdict, took a very singular and severe revenge upon the clergy. In order to distress tliein in the . tenderest point, and at the same time expose them to reproach and ridicule, lie threw into prison all their concubines. (M. Paris. Ann. Waverl.) These concubines were a sort of inferior wives, politically Indulged to the clergy by the civil magistrate, after the members of that sacred body wereenjomed celibact liv the canons of the church. PadrePaolo. Hist. Cone. Trid. lib. i. (3) Hist Mbig. LET. XXX.] MODERN EUROPE. 186 sentence required an armed force to execute it, the pontiff pitched on Philip II. king of France, as the person into whose hand he could most properly intrust so terrible a weapon : and he proffered that monarch, beside the remis- sion of all his sins, and endless spiritual benefits, the kingdom of England as the reward of his labour.(l) Seduced by the prospect of present interest, Philip accepted the pope's liberal offer ; although he thereby ratified an authority which might one day tumble him from his throne, and which it was the common concern of all princes to oppose. He levied a great army ; summoned all the vassals of his crown to attend him at Rouen; collected a fleet of seventeen hundred vessels, great and small, in the sea-ports of Normandy and Picardy ; and partly by the zeal of the age, partly by the personal regard universally paid him, pre- pared a force which seemed equal to the greatness of his enterprise. John, on the other hand, issued out writs, requiring the attendance of all his mili- tary vassals at Dover, and even of all able-bodied men, to defend the kingdom in this dangerous extremity. An infinite number appeared, out of which he selected an army of sixty thousand men. (2) He had also a formidable fleet at Portsmouth, and he might have relied on the fidelity of both ; not indeed from their attachment to him, but from that spirit of emulation which has so long subsisted between the natives of England and France. All Europe was held in expectation of a decisive action between the two kings, when the pope artfully tricked them both, and took to himself that tempting prize which he had pretended to hold out to Philip. This extraor- dinary transaction was negotiated by Pandolfo, the pope's legate to France and England. In his way through France, he observed Philip's great arma- ment, and highly commended his zeal and diligence. He thence passed to Dover, under pretence of negotiating with the barons in favour of the French king, and had a conference with John on his arrival. He magnified to that prince the number of the enemy, and the disaffection of his own subjects ; intimating, that there was yet one way, and but one, to secure himself from the impending danger ; namely, to put himself under the protection of the pope, who, like a kind and merciful father, was still willing to receive him into his bosom. John, labouring under the apprehensions of present terror, listened to the insidious proposal, and abjectly agreed to hold his dominions as a feudatory of the church of Rome. In consequence of this agreement, he did homage to the pope in the person of his legate, Pandolfo, with all the humiliating rites which the feudal law required of vassals before their liege-lord and supe- rior. He came disarmed into the presence of the legate, who was seated on a throne ; he threw himself on his knees before it : he lifted up his joined hands, and put them between those of Pandolfo, and swore fealty to the pope in the, following words : " I John, by the grace of God, king of England, and lord of Ireland, for the expiation of my sins, and out of my own free Avill, with the advice and consent of my barons, do give unto the church of Rome, and to pope Innocent III. and his successors, the kingdoms of England and Ireland, together with all the rights belonging to them ; and will hold them of the pope, as his vassal. I will be faithful to God, to the church of Rome, to the pope my lord, and to his successors lawfully elected : and I bind myself to pay him a tribute of one thousand marks of silver yearly ; to wit, seven hundred for the kingdom of England, and three hundred for Ireland."(3) Part of the money was immediately paid to the legate, as an earnest of the subjection of the kingdom ; after which the crown and sceptre were also delivered to him. The insolent Italian trampled the money under his feet, indicating thereby the pope's superiority and the king's dependent state, and kept the regalia five days ; then returned them to John, as a favour from the pope, their common master. During this shameful negotiation, the French monarch waited impatiently U) M.Paris. M. Westminst. (2) Ibid. (3) Rymer, vol. i. M. Paris, Hist. Major. 186 THE HISTORY OF [PART i at Boulogne for the legate's return, in order to put to sea. The legate at length returned; and the king, to his utter astonishment, was given to under- stand that he was no longer permitted to attack England, which was become a fief of the church of Rome, and its king a vassal of the Holy See. Philip was enraged at this intelligence : he swore he would no longer be the dupe of such hypocritical pretences ; nor would he have desisted from his enter- prise but for weightier reasons. His fleet was utterly destroyed by that of England; and the emperor Otho IV., who at once disputed the empire with Frederic II. son to Henry VI., and Italy with the pope, as we shall afterward have occasion to see, had entered into an alliance with his uncle, the king of England, in order to oppose the designs of France, now become formidable to the rest of Europe. With this view he put himself at the head of a prodigious force ; and the French monarch seemed in danger of being crushed for having grasped at a present proffered him by the pope. Philip, however, advanced undismayed to meet his enemies, with an army of fifty thousand chosen men, commanded by the chief nobility of France, and including twelve hundred knights, and between six and seven thousand gens d'armes. The emperor Otho, on the other side, had with him the earl of Salisbury, bastard brother to king John, the count of Flanders, the duke of Brabant, seven or eight German princes, and a force superior to that of Philip. The two armies met near the village of Bouvines, between Lisle and Tournay, where the allies were totally routed, and thirty thousand Germans are said to have been slain. (1) This victory established for ever the glory of Philip, and gave full security to all his dominions. John could therefore hope for nothing farther than henceforth to rule his own kingdom in peace ; 'and his close alliance with the pope, which he was determined at any price to maintain, ensured him, as he imagined, the certain attainment of that felicity. How much was he deceived ! A truce was indeed concluded with France, but the most grievous scene of this prince's misfortunes still awaited him. He was doomed to hum- ble himself before his own subjects, that the rights of Englishmen might be restored, and the privileges of humanity secured and ascertained. The conquest of England by William the Norman, and the introduction of the feudal government into the kingdom, had much infringed the liberties ol the natives. The whole people were reduced to a state of vassalage under the kings or barons, and even the greater part of them to a state of actual slavery. The necessity also of devolving great power into the hands of a prince who was to maintain a military dominion over a vanquished nation, had induced the Norman barons to subject themselves to a more absolute authority, as I have already had occasion to observe, than men of their rank commonly submitted to in other feudal governments; so that England, during the course of a hundred and fifty years, had groaned under a tyranny un- known to all the kingdoms founded by the northern conquerors. Preroga- tives once exalted are not easily reduced. Different concessions had been made by different princes, in order to serve their temporary purposes ; but these were soon disregarded, and the same unlimited authority continued to be exercised both by them and their successors. The feeble reign of John, a prince equally odious and contemptible to the whole nation, seemed there- fore to afford all ranks of men a happy opportunity of recovering their natural and constitutional rights ; and it was not neglected. The barons entered into a confederacy, and formally demanded a restora- tion of their privileges ; and, that their cause might wear the greater ap- pearance of justice, they also included those of the clergy and the people. They took arms to enforce their request : they laid waste the royal domains : and John, after employing a variety of expedients, in order to divert the blow aimed at the prerogatives of his crown, was obliged to lower himself and treat with h : s subjects. A conference was held between the king and the barons at Runnemede (1) Gul. Brit Fit. Phil. Aufutt. Nag. Chron. P. LET. XXXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 187 between Windsor and Staines ; a spot ever since deservedly celebrated, and even hallowed by every zealous lover of liberty. There John, after a debate of some days, signed and sealed the famous Magna Chartaj or GREAT CHAR- TER; which either granted or secured very important privileges to ever} order of men in the kingdom to the barons, to the clergy, and to the people What these privileges particularly were you will best learn, my deai Philip, from the charter itself, which deserves your most early and continued attention, as it involves all the great outlines of a regal government, and provides for the equal distribution of justice, and free enjoyment of property, the chief objects for which political society was first founded by men, which the people have a perpetual and unalienable right to recall, and which no time, nor precedent, nor statute, nor positive institution, ought to deter them from keeping ever uppermost in their thoughts. (1) The better to secure the execution of this charter, the barons stipulated with the king for the privilege of choosing twenty-five members, of their own order, as conservators of the public liberties : and no bounds were set to the authority of these noblemen, either in extent or duration. If complaint was made of the violation of the charter, any four of the conservators might ad- monish the king to redress the grievance ; and if satisfaction was not obtain- ed, they could assemble the whole council of twenty -five. This august body, in conjunction with the great council of the nation, was empowered to com- pel him to observe the charter ; and, in case of resistance, might levy war against him. All men throughout the kingdom were bound, under penalty of confiscation, to swear obedience to the five and twenty barons ; and the free- holders, of each county were to choose twelve knights, who should make re- port of such evil customs as required redress, conformable to the tenor of the Great Charter.(S) In what manner John acted after granting the charter, and under these regulations to which he seemed passively to submit, together with their in- fluence on the English constitution, and on the affairs of France, we shall afterward have occasion to see. At present we, must cast our eyes on the other states of Europe. LETTER XXXI. The German Empire, and its Dependencies, Rome, and the Italian States, from the Accession of Henry VL to the Election of Rodolph of Hapsburg, Founder of the House of Austria, with a Continuation of the History of the Crusades IT is necessary, my dear Philip, that I should here recapitulate a little , for there is no portion of modern history more perplexed than that under review. The emperor, Frederic Barbarossa, died as you have seen, in his expedi- tion to the Holy Land; and his son, Henry VI., received almost at the same time intelligence of the death of his father and his brother-in-law, William king of Naples and Sicily, to whose dominions he was heir in right of his wife. After settling the affairs of Germany, he levied an army, and marched into Italy, in order to be crowned by the pope, and go with the empress Con- stantia to recover the succession of Sicily, which was usurped by Tancred, her natural brother. With this view he endeavoured to conciliate the affec- tions of the Lombards, by enlarging the privileges of Genoa, Pisa, and other (1) The most valuable stipulation in this charter, and the grand security of the lives, liberties, and pio- jierties of Englishmen, v/as the following concession. " No freeman shall be apprehended, or imprisoned or disseised, or outlawed, or banished, or any other way destroyed; nor will WE go upon him, nor will WE send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." Mag. Chart. Art. xxxii.) The stipulation next in importance seems to be the singular concession, that "to no mac will we sell, to no man will we delay, right and justice." (Ibid. Art. xxxiii.) These concessions show, in a very strong light, the violences and iniquitous practices of the Anglo-Norman princes. C2) M. Paris Rvmer vol i. 188 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. cities, in his way to Rome. There the ceremony of coronation was per- formed the day after Easter, by Celestine III., accompanied with a very re- markable circumstance. That pope, who was then in his eighty-sixth year, had no sooner placed the crown upon Henry's head, than he kicked it off again ; as a testimony of the power residing in the sovereign pontiff, to make and unmake emperor s.(l) Henry now prepared for the conquest of Naples and Sicily, in which he was opposed by *be pope. For although Celestine considered Tancred as a usurper, and wanted to see him deprived of the crown of Sicily, which he claimed, in imitation of his predecessors, as a fief of the holy see, he was still more averse against the emperor's possessing that kingdom; because such an accession of territory would have rendered him too powerful in Italy for the interests of the church. He dreaded so formidable a vassal. Henry, however, without paying any regard to the threats and remonstrances of his holiness, took aunost all the towns of Campania, Apulia, and Calabria ; in- vested the city of Naples, and sent for the Genoese fleet, which he had en- gaged to come and form a blockade by sea. But, before its arrival, he was obliged to raise the siege, in consequence of a dreadful mortality among his troops, and all future attempts upon the kingdom of Naples and Sicily proved ineffectual during the life of Tancred. (2) The emperor, after his return to Germany, incorporated the Teutonic knights into a regular order, religious and military, and built a house for them at Coblentz. These Teutonic knights, and also the knights Templars, and knights Hospitallers, were originally monks, who settled in Jerusalem, when it was first taken by the champions of the Cross. They were estab- lished into religious fraternities for the relief of distressed pilgrims, and for the care of the sick and wounded, without any hostile purpose. But the holy city being afterward in danger, they took up arms, and made a vow to combat the Infidels, as they had formerly done to combat their own carnal inclinations. The enthusiastic zeal of the times increased their members : they grew wealthy and honourable ; were patronised in Europe by different princes, and became a militia of conquerors. (3) Their exploits I shall have occasion to relate. In what manner Richard I. king of England was arrested, on his return from the Holy Land, by Leopold, duke of Austria, and detained prisoner by the emperor, we have already seen. As soon as Henry had received the money for that prince's ransom, he made new preparations for the conquest of Sicily ; and Tancred dying about the same time, he effected his purpose by the assistance of the Genoese. The queen dowager surrendered Salerno, and her right to the crown, on condition that her son William should possess the principality of Tarentum. But Henry, joining the most atrocious cruelty to the basest perfidy, no sooner found himself master of the place, than he ordered the infant king to be castrated ; to have his eyes put out, and be con- fined in a dungeon. The royal treasure was transported to Germany, and the queen and her daughters were shut up in a convent. (4) While these things were transacting in Sicily, the empress, though near the age of fifty, was delivered of a son named Frederic. And Henry, in the plenitude of his power, assembled soon after a diet of the German princes to whom he explained his intention of rendering the imperial crown hereditary, in order to prevent those disturbances which attended the election of empe- rors. A decree was passed for that purpose ; and Frederic II., yet in his cradle, was declared king of the Romans.(5) In the meantime the emperor was solicited by the pope to engage in a new crusade, for the relief of the Christians in the Holy Land. Henry obeyed, but took care to turn it to his advantage. He convoked a general diet at Worms, where he solemnly declared his resolution of employing his whole power, and even of hazarding his life, for the accomplishment of so holy an undertaking : and he expatiated on the subject with so much eloquence, that almost the (1) R. Hoveden. Jnnal. Heiss, lib. ii. (2) Sigon. Reg. Itnl. lib. xv. (3) Helyot. Hist. dr.t Ordret. '41 Sigon. Reg. Ital. Reliue, de Reg. Jfapol.tt Sicil. (51 Lunig. Arch. Imp. Heiss, lib. ii LET. XXXI. J MODERN EUROPE. 189 whole assembly took the cross. Nay, such multitudes, from all the provinces of the empire, enlisted themselves, that Henry divided them into three large armies ; one of which, under the command of the bishop of Mentz, took the route of Hungary, where it was joined by Margaret queen of that country, who entered herself in this pious expedition, and actually ended her days in Palestine. The second army was assembled in Lower Saxony, and embarked in a fleet furnished by the inhabitants of Lubec, Hamburg, Holstein, and Friesland , and the emperor in person conducted the third into Italy, in ordei to take vengeance upon the Normans of Naples and Sicily, who had risen against his government. (l) The rebels were humbled, and their chiefs condemned to perish by the most excruciating tortures. One, Jornandi, of the house of the Norman princes, was tied naked on a chair of red-hot iron, and crowned with a circle of the same burning metal, which was nailed to his head. The empress, shocked at such cruelty, renounced her faith to her husband, and encouraged her countrymen to recover their liberties. Resolution sprung from despair. The inhabitants betook themselves to arms, the empress Constantia headed them; and Henry, having dismissed his troops, no longer thought necessary to his bloody purposes, and sent them to pursue their expedition to the Holy Land, (blessed atonement for his crimes and theirs !) was obliged to submit to his wife, and to the conditions which she was pleased to impose on him in favour of the Sicilians. He died at Messina soon after this treaty; and, as was supposed, of poison administered by the empress, who saw the ruin of her country hatching in his perfidious and vindictive heart. (2) But Henry, amid all his baseness, possessed many great qualities. He was active, eloquent, brave ; his administration was vigorous, and his policy deep. None of the successors of Charlemagne was ever more feared and obeyed, either at home or abroad. The emperor's son Frederic, having already been declared king of the Romans, became emperor on the death of his father. But as Frederic II. was, yet a minor, the administration was committed to his uncle, Philip duke ol Suabia, both by the will of Henry and by an assembly of the German princes. Other princes, however, incensed to see an elective empire become heredi- tary, held a new diet at Cologne, and chose Otho duke of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion. Frederic's title was confirmed in a third assembly, at Arns- burg ; and his uncle Philip was elected king of the Romans, in order to give greater weight to his administration. (3) % These two elections divided the empire into two powerful factions, and involved all Germany in ruin and desolation. Innocent III., who had suc- ceeded Celestine in the papal chair, threw himself into the scale of Otho, and excommunicated Philip and all his adherents. This able and ambitious pontiff (of whom I have already had occasion to speak) was a sworn enemy to the house of Suabia ; not from any personal animosity, but out of a prin- ciple of policy. That house had long been terrible to the popes, by its con- tinued possession of the imperial crown; and the accession of the king of Naples and Sicily made it still more to be dreaded. Innocent, therefore, gladly seized the present favourable opportunity for divesting the house of Suabia of the empire, by supporting the election of Otho, and sowing divisions among the Suabian party. Otho was also patronised by his uncle, the king of England; a circumstance which naturally inclined the king of France to the side of his rival. Faction clashed with faction ; friendship with interest ; caprice, ambition, or resentment, gave the sway; and nothing was beheld on all hands but the horrors and miseries of civil war.( i) Meanwhile the empress Constantia remained in Sicily, where all was peace, as regent and guardian for her infant son, Frederic II., who had been crowned king of that island, with the consent of pope Celestine III. But she also had her troubles. A new investiture from the Holy See being necessary on the death of Celestine, Innocent III., his successor, took advantage of the critical (1) Giannone, Hist.di ffapol. (2) Id. ibid. Relius. ubi sup. &\ Krantz, lib. viii. Heiss, lib. ii. (4\ Id. ibid. Snnal. de F Emp. torn i 190 THE HISTORY OF [PART! situation of affairs for agrandizing the papacy at the expense of the kings of Sicily. They possessed, as we have seen, the privilege of filling up vacant benefices, and of judging all ecclesiastical causes in the last appeal : they were really popes in their own islands, though vassals of his holiness. Innocent pretended that these powers had been surreptitiously obtained ; and demanded, that Constantia should renounce them in the name of her son, and do liege, pure, and simple homage for Sicily. But before any thing was settled rela- tive to this affair, the empress died, leaving the regency of the kingdom to the pope ; so that he was enabled to prescribe what conditions he thought proper to young Frederic. (1) The troubles of Germany still continued; and the pope redoubled his efforts to detach the princes and prelates from the cause of Philip, king of the Romans, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the king of France. To these remonstrances he proudly replied, " either Philip must lose the empire, or I the papacy ."(2) But all these dissensions and troubles in Europe did not prevent the forma tion of another crusade, or expedition into Asia, for the recovery of the Holy Land. The adventurers who took the cross were chiefly French and Germans. Baldwin, count of Flanders, was their commander; and the Venetians, as greedy of Avealth and power as the ancient Carthaginians, furnished them with ships, for which they took care to be amply paid both in money and territory. The Christian city of Zara, in Dalmatia, had with- drawn itself from the government of the republic : the army of the cross undertook to reduce it to obedience ; and it was besieged and taken, notwith- standing the threats and excommunications of the pope. (3) Nothing can show in a stronger light the reigning spirit of those pious adventurers. The storm next broke upon Constantinople. Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, had been dethroned, and deprived of his sight, in 1195, by his bro- ther Alexis. Isaac's son, named also Alexis, who had made his escape into Germany, and was then in the army of the crusade, implored the assistance of its leaders against the usurper ; engaging, in case of success, to furnish them provisions, to pay them a large sum of money, and to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the pope. By their means the lawful prince was re- stored. He ratified the treaty made by his son, and died ; Avhen young Alexis, who was hated by the Greeks for having called in the Latins, became the victim of a new faction. One of his relations, surnamed Murtzufle, Strangled him with his own hands, and usurped the imperial throne. (4) Baldwin and his followers, who Avanted only an apology for their intended violence, had now a good one ; and, under pretence of revenging the death of Alexis, made themselves masters of Constantinople. They entered it with little or no resistance; put everyone who opposed them to the sword, and gave themselves up to all the excesses of avarice and fury. The booty of the French lords alone was valued at four hundred thousand marks of silver : the very churches were pillaged ! And what strongly marks the character of that giddy nation, which has been at all times nearly the same, we are told by Nicetas, that the French officers danced with the ladies in the sanctuary of the church of St. Sophia, after having robbed the altar, and drenched the city in blood. (5) Thus was Constantinople, the most flourishing Christian city in the world, taken for the first time, and sacked by Christians, who had vowed to fight only against infidels ! Baldwin, count of Flanders, the most powerful of these ravagers, got himself elected emperor ; and this new usurper condemned the other usurper, Murtuzfle, to be thrown headlong from the top of a lofty column. The Venetians had for their share Peloponnesus, the island of Candia, and several cities on the coast of Phrygia, which had not yet sub- mitted to the Turkish yoke. The marquis de Montferrat seized Thessaly ; so that Baldwin had little left except Thrace and Mesia. The pope gained, (1) Mural. Jinliq. ltd. torn. vi. (2) Oe.it. Innocent. III. (3) Maimbourg, Hist, des Croiaadtt .<) Nicetas, Chron. (5) Ibid. LET. XXXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 191 for a time, the whole eastern church ; and, in a word, an acquisition was made of much greater consequence than Palestine. Of this indeed the con- querors seemed fully convinced ; for, notwithstanding the vow they had taken, to go and succour Jerusalem, only a very inconsiderable number 01 the many knights who had engaged in this pious enterprise went into Syria, and those were such as could get no share in the spoils of the Greeks. (1) Innocent III., speaking of this conquest, says, in one of his letters, " God, willing to console his church by the reunion of the schismatics, has made the empire pass from the proud, superstitious, disobedient Greeks, to the humble, pious, catholic, and submissive Latins." So easy it is by words to give that complexion to persons and things which most favours our interests and our prejudices ! I should now, my dear Philip, return to the affairs of Germany ; but a few more particulars, consequent on the taking of Constantinople, require first to be noted, as they cannot afterward be brought properly under review. There still remained a number of princes of the imperial house of Com- nenus, who did not lose their courage with the destruction of their empire. One of those, who bore among others the name of Alexis, took refuge on the coast of Colchis ; and there, between the sea and mount Caucasus, erected a petty state, to which he gave the name of the Empire of Trebisond ; so much was the word empire abused ! Theodore Lascarus retook Nice, and settled himself in Bithynia by opportunely making use of the Arabs against the Turks. He also assumed the title of emperor, and caused a patriarch to be electea of his own communion. Other Greeks entered into an alliance with the Turks, and even called in their ancient enemies, the Bulgarians, to assist them against the emperor Baldwin, who, being overcome by those bar- barians near Adrianople, had his legs and arms cut off, and was left a prey to wild beasts. (2) Henry, his brother and successor, was poisoned in 1216; and, within half a century, the imperial city, which had gone to ruin undei the Latins, returned once more to the Greeks. While these things were transacting in the East, Philip and Otho were desolating the West. At length Philip prevailed; and Otho, obliged to abandon Germany, took refuge in England. Philip, elated with success, got his election confirmed by a second coronation, and proposed an accommoda- tion with the pope, as a means of finally establishing his throne. But before that accommodation could be brought about, he fell a sacrifice to private re- venge ; being assassinated by the count Palatine of Bavaria, in consequence of a private dispute. (3) Otho returned to Germany on the death of Philip, married that prince's daughter, and was crowned at Rome by Innocent III. after yielding to the Holy See the long disputed inheritance of the countess Matilda, and confirm- ing the rights and privileges of the Italian cities. But these concessions, as far at least as they regarded the pope, were only a sacrifice to present policy. Otho therefore no sooner found himself in a condition to act offensively, than he resumed his grant ; and not only reco- vered the possessions of the empire, but made hostile incursions into Apulia, ravaging the dominions of young Frederic, king of Naples and Sicily, who was under the protection of the Holy See. Hence we may date the ruin of Otho. Innocent excommunicated him : and Frederic, now fifteen years of age, was elected emperor, by a diet of the German princes.(4) Otho, however, on his return to Germany, finding his party still considera- ble, and not doubting but he should be able to humble his rival by means of his superior force, entered into an alliance with his uncle, John king of England, against Philip Augustus king of France. The unfortunate battle of Bouvines, where the confederates were defeated, as we have seen, corn- pleted the fate of Otho. He attempted to retreat into Germany, but was prevented by young Frederic, who had marched into the empire at the head of a powerful army, and was every where received with open arms. (1) Nicetas. Cantacuzeuus. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Heiss, lib ii. cap. xv '4) Hciss, lib. ii. cap. xvi- 192 THE HISTORY OF [PART. I. Thus abandoned by all the princes of Germany, and altogether without re- source, Otho retired to Brunswick, where he lived four years as a private man, dedicating his time to the duties of religion. He was not deposed, but for- got ; and if it is true that, in the excess of his humility, he ordered himself to be thrown down, and trod upon by his kitchen-boys, we may well say with Voltaire, that the kicks of a turnspit can never expiate the faults of a prince. (1) Frederic II., being now universally acknowledged emperor, was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle with great magnificence : and, in order to preserve the favour of the pope, he added to the other solemnities of his coronation a vow to go in person to the Holy Land. (2) About this time pope Innocent died, and was succeeded by Hohorius III., who expressed great eagerness in forwarding the crusade, which he ordered to be preached up through all the provinces of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Bohemia, and Hungary : and his endeavours were crowned with extraordinary success. The emperor indeed excused himself from the performance of his vow, until he should have regulated the affairs of Italy ; and almost all the other European monarchs were detained at home by domestic disturbances. But an infinite number of private noblemen and their vassals took the cross, under the dukes of Austria and Bavaria, the archbishop of Mentz, and the bishops of Munster and Utrecht ; and Andrew, king of Hungary, who brought with him a body of fine troops, was declared generalissimo of the crusade. (3) While these adventurers of Upper Germany marched towards *Italy, in order to embark at Venice, Genoa, and Messina, a fleet of three hundred sail was equipped in the ports of Lower Saxony, to transport the troops of West- phalia, Saxony, and the territory of Cologne. And those joining the squad- ron of the Frieslanders, Flemings, and subjects of Brabant, commanded by William count of Holland, George count of Weerden, and Adolphus count of Berg, set sail for the straits of Gibraltar, on their voyage to Ptolemais. But being driven by a tempest into the road of Lisbon, they were prevailed upon to assist Alphonso king of Portugal against the Moors. They defeated these Infidels, and afterward took from them the city of Alcazar.(4) Meanwhile the king of Hungaiy and his army, having joined the king of Cyprus, landed at Ptolemais ; where he was joyfully received by John de Brienne, a younger brother of the family of that name in Champagne, who had been nominated king of Jerusalem. After refreshing and reviewing the forces, the two kings marched into tfce great valley of Jesrael, against the Saracens, with the wood of the true cross carried before them. But Coradin Son of Saphadin, soldan of Egypt and Babylon, and nephew to the famou? Saladin, finding himself greatly outnumbered by the Christians, retired with- out giving battle ; and the champions of the cross undertook the siege of Thabor, in which they miscarried. They now separated themselves into foui bodies, for the conveniency of subsisting. The king of Cyprus died, and the king of Hungary returned to his own dominions, in order to quiet some dis turbances wftich had arisen during his absence. (5) The fleet from the coast of Spain arrived at Ptolemais soon after the de parture of the king of Hungary; and it was resolved in a council of war to besiege Damietta in Egypt, which was accordingly invested by sea and land, and taken after a siege of eighteen months. During the siege Saphadin died: and his eldest son Meledin, his successor in the kingdom of Egypt, who came to the relief of the besieged, was defeated. The duke of Austria, with a large body of troops, returned soon after to Germany ; and a reinforcement arrived from the emperor, under the conduct of Cardinal Albano, legate of the Holy See. (6) This cardinal, who was a Spanish benedictine, pretended that he, as repre- sentative of the pope, the natural head of the crusade, had an incontestible (1) jinnal.derEmp.imn.il. (2) Heiss, lib ii. cap. xvii. (3) rfnnal. Paderborn (4) Ibid. (5) Jac. de Vilri. Maimbourg. ubi supra. (6J Vertot, Hist, de Chcv. de Malth. torn. i. Maimbourg, Hist, des Croisades, loin. ii. LET. XXXI.j MODERN EUROPE. 193 right to be general ; and that, as the king of Jerusalem held his crown only by virtue of the pope's license, he ought in all things to pay obedience to the legate of his holiness. Much time was spent in that dispute, and in writing to Rome for advice. At length the pope's answer came, by which he ordered the king of Jerusalem to serve under the Benedictine : and his orders were punctually obeyed. John de Brienne resigned the command, and this monkish general brought the army of the cross between two branches of the Nile, just at the time that river, which fertilizes and defends Egypt, began to over- flow its banks. The soldan, informed of the situation of his enemies, flooded I he Christian camp, by opening the sluices; and while he burnt their ships on the one side, the Nile, increasing on the other, threatened every hour to sv allow up their whole army. The legate therefore now saw himself and hh troops in a similar extremity to that in which the Egyptians under Pha- ivoh are described, when they beheld the sea ready to rush in upon them. In consequence of this pressing danger, Damietta was restored; and the leaders of the crusade were obliged to conclude a dishonourable treaty, by vhich they bound themselves not to serve against Meledin, soldan of Egypt, for eight years.(l) The Christians of the East had now no hopes left but in the emperor Frederic II., who was about this time crowned at Rome by pope Honorius III., whose 1 friendship he had purchased, by promising to detach Naples and Sicily from the empire, and bestow it on his son Henry, to be held as a fief of the Holy See. He also promised to pass into Asia with an army, at any time the pope should appoint. But this promise Frederic was very little inclined to perform, and therefore found a thousand pretences for delaying his journey He was indeed more worthily employed; embellishing and aggrandizing Naples ; in establishing a university in that city, where the Roman law was taught; and in expelling the vagrant Saracens, who still infested Sicily. (2) In the mean time the unfortunate leaders of the crusade arrived in Europe ; and the pope, incensed at the loss of Damietta, wrote a severe letter to the emperor, taxing him with having sacrificed the interests of Christianity, by delaying so long the performance of his vow, and threatening him with immediate excommunication, if he did not instantly depart with an army into Asia. Frederic, exasperated at these reproaches, renounced all corres- pondence with the court of Rome ; renewed his ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Sicily; filled up vacant sees and benefices, and expelled some bishops, who were creatures of the pope, on pretence of their being concerned in practices against the state. (3) Honorius at first attempted to cdJhibat rigour with rigour, threatening the emperor with the thunder of the church, for presuming to lift up his hand against the sanctuary; but finding Frederic not to be intimidated, his holi- ness became sensible of his own imprudence, in wantonly incurring the resentment of so powerful a prince, and thought proper to sooth his temper by submissive apologies and gentle exhortations. The emperor and the pope were accordingly reconciled, and conferred together at Veroli; where the emperor, as a proof of his sincere attachment to the church, published some very severe edicts against heresy, which seem to have authorized the tribunal of the inquisition. (4) A solemn assembly was afterward held at Ferentino, where both the pope and the emperor Avere present, together with John de Brienne, titular king of Jerusalem, who was come into Europe to demand succours against the soldan of Egypt. John had an only daughter named Yolanda, whom he pro- posed as a wife to the emperor, with the kingdom of Jerusalem as her dower, on condition that Frederic should, within two years, perform the vow he had made to lead an army into the Holy Land. Frederic married her on these terms, because he chose to please the pope : and since that time the kings of Sicily have taken the title of king of Jerusalem. (l)Vertot, Hist, de Chen, de Jtfalth. torn. i. Maimbnurg, Hist, des Croisades, torn. ii. f2) Sigon. Reg Hal. Giannonfi. Him.

  • f mankind sacrificed, and the blood of princes unjustly spilled, was pre- paring- to lead a new army against the infidels. He hoped to make a convert (1) Fontainny, Hist. deVEgliae Gallic, torruxi. Boulay, Hist. AcaA, Paris, torn lii. -ymer.voU. CAron. T.V iiannone, flint di JVaji (2) Rymer, vol. i. CAron. T. VVykes. Ch.ron.Dv.nst. M.Paris. W. Heming. <3) G' LET. XXXIV.] MOD K UN EUROPE. 20? of the king of Tunis ; and, for that purpose, landed on the coast of Africa, sword in hand, at the head of his troops. But the Mussulman refused to em- brace Christianity : the French army was seized with an epidemical distemper, of which Lewis beheld one of his sons expire, and another at the point of death, when he was seized with it himself, and died in the fifty-sixth year of his age. His son and successor, Philip, recovered ; kept the field against the Moors ; and saved the remains of the French army, which procured him the name of the Hardy. (1) But the reign of this prince must not at present engage our attention ; we must return to the affairs of Spain, which had still little connexion with the rest of Europe, but was every day rising into conse- quence. ' LETTER XXXIV. Spain, from the Middle of the Eleventh to the End of the Thirteenth Century. WE left Spain, my dear Philip, towards the middle of the eleventh century, dismembered by the Moors and Christians, and both a prey to civil wars. About that time Ferdinand, son of Sancho, surnamed the Great, king of Navarre and Arragon, reunited to his dominions Old Castile, together with the kingdom of Leon, which he took from his brother-in-law, whom he slew in battle. Castile then became a kingdom, and Leon one of its provinces. (2) In the reign of this Ferdinand lived Don Roderigo, surnamed the Cid, who actually married Chimene, whose father he had murdered. They who know nothing of this history, but from the celebrated tragedy written by Corneille, suppose that Ferdinand was in possession of Andalusia. The Cid began his famous exploits by assisting Don Sancho, Ferdinand's eldest son, to strip his brothers and sisters of the inheritance left them by their father ; but Sancho being murdered in one of these unjust expeditions, his brothers entered again into possession of their estates. A short digression will be here necessary. Besides the many kings at this time in Spain, who amounted to near the number of twenty, there were also many independent lords, who came on horseback completely armed, and fol- lowed by several squires, to offer their service to the princes and princesses engaged in war. The princes with whom these lords engaged girded them with a belt, and presented them with a sword, with which they gave them a slight blow on the shoulder ; and hence the origin of knights-errant, and of the number of single combats, which so long desolated Spain. One of the most celebrated of these combats was fought after the niurder of that king Sancho, whose death I have just mentioned, and who was assas- sinated while he was besieging his sister Auraca in the city of Zamora. Three knights maintained the honour of the infanta against Don Diego de Lara, who had accused her. Don Diego overthrew and killed two of the infanta's knights ; and the horse of the third having the reigns of his bridle cut, carried his master out of the lists, and the combat was declared undecided. Of all the Spanish knights, the Cid distinguished himself most eminently against the Moors. Several knights ranged themselves under his banner ; and these knights, with their squires and horsemen, composed an army covered with iron, and mounted on the most beautiful steeds in the country. With this force he overcame several Moorish kings ; and having fortified the city of Alcassar, he there erected a little sovereignty. But of the various enterprises in which the Cid and his followers were engaged, the most gallant was the siege of Toledo, which his master Alphonso VI., king of Old Castile, undertook against the Moors. The noise of this siege, and the Cid's reputation, -brought many knights and princes from France and Italy; particularly Raymond, count of Toulouse, and two princes of the blood-royal of France, of the branch of Burgundy. The Moorish 11 Joinville, ubi sup. Mezeray, torn. iii. Renault torn (2) Mariana, Hist, de Espana. '208 THE HISTORY OF [PART I king, named Hiaya, was the son of Almamon, one of the most generous princes mentioned in history, and who had afforded an asylum, in this very city of Toledo, to Alphonso, when persecuted by his brother Sancho. They had lived together for a long time in strict friendship ; and Almamon was so far from detaining Alphonso, when he became king by the death of Sancho, that he gave him part of his treasures, and they shed tears, it is said, at part- ing. But the spirit of those times made every thing lawful against Infidels ; and even meritorious. Several Moorish princes went out of the city to re- proach Alphonso with his ingratitude, and many remarkable combats were fought under the walls. This siege lasted a whole year; at the end of which Toledo capitulated: ju condition that the Moors should enjoy their religion and laws, and suffer no injury in their persons or property.(l) All New Castile, in a short time, yielded to the Cid, who took possession of it in the name of Alphonso ; and Madrid, a small place, which was one day to become the capital of Spain, fell into the hands of the Christians. Immediately -after the reduction of Toledo, Alphonso called an assembly of bishops, who, without the concurrence of the people, formerly thought necessary, promoted a priest named Bernard to the bishoprick of that city ; and pope Urban II., at the king's request, made him primate of Spain. The king and the pope were also anxious to establish the Roman liturgy and ritual in place of the Gothic, or Musarabic, hitherto in use. The Spaniards con- tended zealously for the ritual of their ancestors : the pope urged them to receive that which he had given his infallible sanction: a violent squabble arose ; and, to the disgrace of human reason, a religious opinion was referred to the decision of the sword. Two knights accordingly entered the lists in complete armour. The Musarabic champion was victorious ; but the king and the archbishop had influence enough to get a new trial appointed, though contrary to all the laws of combat. The next appeal was to God by fire. A fire being prepared for that purpose, a copy of each liturgy was cast into the flames. The fire, most likely, respected neither; but authority prevailed The Roman liturgy was ordered to be received ; yet some churches were per- mitted to retain the Musarabic.(2) Alphonso, either from policy or inclination, augmented the dominions which he had acquired through the valour of the Cid, by marrying Zaid, daughter of Abenhabet, the Mahometan king of Seville, with whom he received several towns in dowry : and he is reproached with having, in conjunction with his father-in-law, invited the Miramolin of Africa into Spain. But be that as it may, the Miramolin came ; and, instead of assisting, as was expected, the king of Seville, in reducing the petty Moorish princes, he turned his arms against Abenhabet ; took the city of Seville, and became a dangerous neigh- bour to Alphonso. (3) In the mean time the Cid, at the head of his army of knights, subdued the kingdom of Valencia. Few kings in Spain were, at that time, so powerful as he ; yet he never assumed the regal title, but continued faithful to his master Alphonso. He governed Valentia, however, with all the authority of a sovereign, receiving ambassadors, and being treated with the highest respect by all nations. After his death, which happened in 1096, the kings of Castile and Arragon continued their wars against the Infidels ; and Spam was more drenched in blood than ever, and more desolated. Alphonso, surnamed the Battle-giver, king of Navarre and Arragon, took Saragossa from the Moors ; and that city, which afterward became the capi- tal of the kingdom of Arragon, never again returned under the dominion oi' the Infidels. He was continually at war either with the Christians or Maho- metans ; and the latter gained a complete victory over them, which mortified him so much, that he died of chagrin, leaving his kingdom by will to the Knights Templars. This was bequeathing a civil war as his last legacy. (1) Rod. Tolet. da Reb. Hisp. Mariana, ubi sup. Ferreras, Hist, de Espana. (2) Id ibid <3) Bod. Tolet. de Reb. Hup. LET. XXXIV.J M O DE R N E URO P E. 209 The testament was esteemed valid ; but fortunately these knights were not in a condition to enforce it ; and the states of Arragon chose for their king Garcias Remiero, brother to the deceased monarch. He had led a monastic life for upwards of forty years, and proved incapable of governing. The people of Navarre therefore chose another king, descended from their an- cient monarchs ; and, by this division, both these states became a prey to the Moors. They were saved by the timely assistance of Alphonso VII., king of Castile, who had obtained many victories over the Infidels, and in return for his protection received the city of Saragossa from the Arragonese, and the homage of the king of Navarre. This success so much elated Alphonso, that he assumed the title of Emperor of Spain.(l) Alphonso Henriquez, count of Portugal, received about this time the title of king from his soldiers, after a victory obtained over the Moors ; and he took Lisbon from them by the assistance of the crusaders, as has been already mentioned. On this occasion, pope Alexander III., steady to the policy of his predecessors, took advantage of the papal maxim, that all countries con- quered from the Infidels belong to the Holy See, to assert his superiority over Portugal ; and Alphonso politically allowed him an annual tribute of two marks of gold, on receiving a bull from Rome confirming his regal dignity and his infallible right to that territory.(S) A very few efforts would now have been sufficient to have driven the Moors entirely out of Spain : but for that purpose it was necessary that the Spanish Christians should be united among themselves, whereas they were unhappily engaged in perpetual wars one with another. They united, however, at length, from a sense of common danger, and also implored the assistance of the other Christian princes of Europe. Mahomet Ben Joseph, Miramolin of Africa, having crossed the sea with an army of near one hundred thousand men, and being joined by the Moors in Andalusia, assured himself of making an entire conquest of Spain. The rumour of this great armament roused the attention of the whole European continent. Many adventurers came from all quarters. To these the kings of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, united their forces : the kingdom of Por- tugal also furnished a body of troops; and the Christian and Mahometan armies met in the defiles of the Black Mountain, or Sierra Morena, on the borders of Andalusia, and in the province of Toledo. Alphonso the Noble, king of Castile, commanded the centre of the Christian army : the arch- bishop of Toledo carried the cross before him. The Miramolin occupied the same place in the Moorish army : he was dressed in a rich robe, with the Koran in one hand, and a sabre in the other. The battle was long and obstinately disputed, but at length the Christians prevailed :(3) and the six- teenth of July, the day on which the victory was gained, is still celebrated in Toledo. The consequences of this victory, however, were not so great as might have been expected. The Moors of Andalusia were strengthened by the remains of the African army, while that of the Christians was immediately dispersed. Almost all the knights who had been present at the battle returned to their respective homes as soon as it was over. But although the Christians seemed thus to neglect their true interest, by allowing the Mahometans time to recruit themselves, the Moors employed that time more to their own hurt than the Christians could if united against them. All the Moorish states, both in Spain and Africa, were rent in pieces by civil dissen- sions, and a variety of new sovereigns sprang up, which entirely broke the power of the Infidels. The period seemed therefore arrived, to use the language of that haughty and superstitious nation, marked out by Heaven for the glory of Spain, and the expulsion of the Moors. Ferdinand III., styled by his countrymen St. Ferdinand, took from the Infidels the famous city of Cordova, the residence of the first Moorish kings ; and James I. of Arragon dispossessed them oi (1) Bod. Tolet. deReb. Hisp (2) Neuaville, Hist Gen de Port. (3) Rod. Tolet. de Jtet,. l/txo VOL. I. O 210 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. the island of Majorca, and drove them out of the fine kingdom of Valentia. St. Ferdinand also subdued the province of Murcia, and made himself master of Seville, the most opulent city belonging to the Moors. (l) Death at length put an end to Hfs conquests : and if divine honours are due to those who have been the deliverers of their country, Spain justly reverences the name of Ferdinand III. Alphonso, surnamed the Astronomer, or the Wise, the son of St. Ferdinand, likewise exalted the glory of Spain ; but in a manner very different from that of his father. This prince, who rivalled the Arabians in the sciences, digested the celebrated Spanish code, called Las Portidas ; and under his inspection those astronomical tables were drawn up, which still bear his name, and do honour to his memory. In his old age he saw his son Sancho rebel against him, and was reduced to the disagreeable necessity of leaguing with the Moors against his own blood, and his rebellious Christian subjects. This was not the first alliance which Christians had entered into with Mahometans against Christians ; but it was certainly the most excusable. Alphonso invited to his assistance the Miramolin of Africa, who immedi- ately crossed the sea ; and the two monarchs met at Zara, on the cpnfines of Granada. The behaviour and speech of the Miramolin, on this occasion, deserves to be transmitted to the latest posterity. He gave the place of honour to Alphonso at meeting : " I treat you thus," said he, " because you are unfortunate; and enter into alliance with you merely to revenge the common cause of all kings and all fathers."(2) The rebels were overcome ; but the good old king died before he had time to enjoy the fruits of his victory : and the Miramolin being obliged to return to Africa, the unnatural Sancho succeeded to the crown in prejudice to the offspring of a former marriage. He even reigned happily ; and his son Fer- dinand IV. took Gibraltar from the Moors. (3) This Ferdinand is called by the Spanish historians the Summoned : and the reason they assign for it is somewhat remarkable. Having ordered two noblemen, in a fit of anger, to be thrown from the top of a rock, those noble- men, before they were pushed off, summoned him to appear in the presence of God within a month; at the end of which he died.(4) It is to be wished, as Voltaire very justly observes, that this story were true ; or, at least, believed to be so by all princes who think they have a right to follow their own imperious wills at the expense of the lives of their fellow-creatures. These are the circumstances most worthy of notice in the history of Spain, during the period here examined. We must now take a view of the progress of society. LETTER XXXV. Progress of Society in Europe during the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. You have already, my dear Philip, seen letters begin to revive, and manners to soften, about the middle of the eleventh century. But the progress of refinement was slow during the two succeeding centuries, and often altogether obstructed by monastic austerities, theological disputes, ecclesiastical broils, and the disorders of the feudal anarchy. Society, however, made many beneficial advances before the close of this period. These I shall endeavour distinctly to trace. The influence of the spirit of chivalry on manners, as we have seen, was great and singular; it enlarged the ge'nerosities of the human heart, and soothed its ferocity. But being unhappily blended with superstition, it became itself the means of violence : armed one half of the species against the other, and precipitated Europe upon Asia. I allude to the crusades. (1) Rod. Tolet. de Reb. ffisp. (2) Fern-ran ct Mariana, uhi supra (3) Id. Ibid. (4) Ferrera.s, Hitt. Espana. I,BT. XXXV.] MODERN EUROPE. 211 Yet these romantic expeditions, though barbarous and destructive in them selves, were followed by many important consequences, equally conducive to the welfare of the community and of the individual. All adventurers who assumed the cross being taken under the immediate protection of the church, and its heaviest anathemas denounced against such as should molest their persons or their property, private hostilities were for a time suspended or extinguished : the feudal sovereigns became more powerful, and their vassals less turbulent ; a more steady administration of justice was introduced, and some advances were made towards regular government. The commercial effects of the crusades were no less considerable than their political influence. Many ships were necessary to transport the prodigious armies which Europe poured forth, and also to supply them with provisions. These ships were principally furnished by the Venetians, the Pisans, and the Genoese ; who acquired, by that service, immense sums of money, and opened to themselves at the same time, a new source of wealth, by importing into Europe the commodities of Asia. A taste for these commodities became general. The Italian cities grew rich, powerful, and obtained extensive pri- vileges. Some of them erected themselves into sovereignties, others into corporations or independent communities ;(1) and the establishment of those communities may be considered as the first great step towards civilization in modern Europe. This subject requires your particular attention. The feudal government, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, had degenerated into a system of oppression. The nobles had reduced the great body of the people to a state of actual servitude, and the condition of those denominated free was little, if at all, more desirable. Not only the inhabitants of the country, but even whole cities and villages, held of some great lord, on whom they depended for protection; and the citizens were no less subject to his arbi- trary jurisdiction than those employed in cultivating the estates of their masters. Services of various kinds, equally disgraceful and oppressive, were exacted from them without mercy or moderation : and they were deprived of the most natural and unalienable rights of humanity. They could not dispose of their effects by will, appoint guardians to their children, or even marry, without the consent of their superior lord. (2) Men in such a condition had few motives to industry. Accordingly we find all the cities of Europe, before their enfranchisement, equally poor and wretched. But no sooner were they formed into bodies politic, governed by magistrates chosen from among their own members, than the spirit of industry revived, and commerce began to flourish. Population increased with independency; the conveniences of life with the means of procuring them ; property gave birth to statutes and regulations ; a sense of common interest enforced them; and the more frequent occasions of intercourse among men, and kingdoms, gradually led to a greater refinement in manners, and tended to wear off those national and local prejudices which create dissension and animosity between the inhabitants of different states and provinces. The manner in which these immunities were obtained was different in the different kingdoms of Europe. Some of the Italian cities, as we have seen, acquired their freedom by arms, others by money; and in France and Ger- many many of the great barons were glad to sell charters of liberty to the towns within their jurisdiction, in order to repair the expense incurred by the crusades. The sovereigns also granted, or sold, like privileges to the towns within the royal domain, in order to create some power that might counter- balance their potent vassals, who often gave law to the crown.(3) The prac- tice quickly spread over Europe ; and before the end of the thirteenth century its beneficial effects were generally felt. These effects were no less extensive upon government than upon manners U) Mural. Jlntiq. Hal. vol. ii. 3) Ordon. des Rots de France, torn. i. iii. Dacb. Spicilo". torn. xi. Murat. Antiqvdt. Ital. vol iv 3) Du Cange, voc. communia. O 2 212 THE HISTORY OF [PART! Self-preservation had obliged every man, during several centuries, to court the patronage of some powerful baron, whose castle was the common asylum in times of danger ; but towns surrounded with walls, and filled with citizens trained to arms, bound by interest as well as the most solemn engagements to protect each other, afforded a more commodious and secure retreat. The nobles became of less importance, when they ceased to be the sole guardians of the people ; and the crown acquired an increase of power and consequence, when it no longer depended entirely upon its great vassals for the supply of its armies. The cities contributed liberally towards the support of the royal authority, as they regarded the sovereigns as the authors of their liberty, and their protectors against the domineering spirit of the nobles. Hence another consequence of corporation charters. The inhabitants of cities having obtained personal freedom, and municipal jurisdiction, soon aspired at civil liberty and political power. And the sove- reigns, in most kingdoms, found it necessary to admit them to a share in the legislature, on account of their utility in raising the supplies for government ; it being a fundamental principle in the feudal policy, that no free man could be taxed but with his own consent. The citizens were now free ; and the wealth, the power, and the consequence which they acquired on recovering their liberty, added weight to their claim to political eminence, and seemed to mark them out as an essentfel branch in the constitution. They had it much in their power to supply the exigencies of the crown, and also to re- press the encroachment of the nobles. In England, Germany, and even in France, where the voice of liberty is heard no more, the representatives of communities accordingly obtained, by different means, a place in the national council, as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century.(l) Thus, my dear Philip, an intermediate power was established between the king and nobles, to which each had recourse alternately, and which some- times opposed the one, and sometimes the other. It tempered the rigour of aristocratical oppression with a mixture of popular liberty, at the same time that it restrained the usurpations of the crown: it secured to the great body of the people, who had formerly no representatives, active and powerful guardians of their rights and liberties ; and it entirely changed the spirit of the laws, by introducing into the statutes and the jurisprudence of the Eu- ropean nations ideas of equality, order, and public good. To this new power that part of the people still in servitude, the villains, who resided in the country, and were employed in agriculture, looked up for freedom. They obtained it, though contrary to the spirit of the feudal polity. The odious names of masters and slaves were abolished. The husbandman became farmer of the same fields which he had formerly been compelled to cultivate for the benefit of another. He reaped a share of the fruits of his own industry. New prospects opened, new incitements were offered to ingenuity and enterprise. The activity of genius was awakened; and a numerous class of men, who formerly had no political existence, were restored to society and augmented the force and riches of the state. The second great advance which society made, during the period under review, was an approach towards a more regular administration of justice. The barbarous nations who overran the Roman empire, and settled in its pro- vinces, rejected the Roman jurisprudence, as I have had occasion to observe, with the same contempt that they spurned the Roman arts. Both respected objects of which they had no conception, and were adapted to a state of iociety with which they were, then unacquainted. But as civilization ad- vanced, they became sensible of the imperfection of their own institutions, and even of their absurdity. The trial by ordeal and by duel was abolished in most countries before the end of the thirteenth century, and vaiious at- tempts were made to restrain the practice of private war ; one of the greatest abuses in the feudal polity, and which struck at the foundation of all govern- ment. (11 M. I'Abbe Mably, Observat. sur. I' Hist, de France, torn. ii. Henault, torn. i. Pfesael, Abreg* dt Pffist. di Droit d' JHlcmagne. Brady, Treatise of Boroughs. Madox, Firma Burfi. LET. XXXV.J MODERN EUROPE. 213 As the authority of the civil magistrate was found ineffectual to remedy this evil, the church interposed ; and various regulations were published, in order to set bounds to private hostilities. But these all proving insufficient, supernatural means were employed ; a letter was sent from heaven to a bishop of Aquitaine, enjoining men to cease from violence, and be reconciled to each other. This revelation was published during a season of public calamity, when men were willing to perform any thing in order to avert the wrath of an offended God. A general reconciliation took place : and a resolution was formed, that no man should, in time to come, attack or molest his adversaries during the seasons set apart for celebrating the great festivals of the church, or from the evening of Thursday in each week to the morning of Monday in the week ensuing ; the intervening days being considered as particularly holy. Christ's passion having happened on one of those days, and his resur- rection on another. This cessation from hostilities was called " The Truce of God ;" and three complete days, in every week, allowed such a considerable space for the passions of the antagonists to cool, and for the people to enjoy a respite from the calamities of war, as well as to take measures for their own security, that, if the Truce of God had been exactly observed, it must have gone far towards putting an end to private wars. That, however, was not the case ; the nobles prosecuted their quarrels, as formerly, till towards the end of the twelfth century, when a carpenter of Guienne gave out, that Jesus Christ, together with the Blessed Virgin, had appeared to him, and, having commanded him to exhort mankind to peace, had given him, a t s a proof of his mission, an image of the Virgin holding her son in her arms, with this inscription : " Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, give us peace !" This law fanatic was received as an inspired messenger of Heaven. Many prelates and barons assembled at Puy, and took an oath, not only to make peace with all their own enemies, but to attack such as refused to lay down their anus and to be reconciled to their enemies. They formed an association for that purpose, and assumed the honourable name of ' The Brotherhood of God." Like associations were formed in other coun- tries ; and these, together with civil prohibitions, enforced by royal power, contributed to remove this pernicious evil.(l) When society was thus emerging from barbarism, and men were become sensible of the necessity of order, a copy of Justinian's Pandects was dis- covered at Amalphi, in Italy: and although the age had still too little taste to relish the beauty of the Roman classics, it immediately perceived the merit of a system of laws, in which all the points most interesting to mankind were settled with precision, discernment, and equity. All men of letters were struck with admiration at the wisdom of the ancients : the Justinian code was studied with eagerness ; the professors of civil law were appointed, who taught this new science in most countries of Europe. The effects of studying and imitating so perfect a model were, as might be expected, great. Fixed and general laws were established ; the principles and the forms by which judges should regulate their decisions were ascer- tained ; the feudal law was reduced into a regular system ; the canon law was methodised ; the loose uncertain customs of different provinces or king- doms were collected and arranged with order and accuracy. And these im- provements in the system of jurisprudence had an extensive influence upon society. They gave rise to a distinction of professions. Among rude nations no profession is honourable but that of arms ; and, as the functions of peace are few and simple, war is the only study. Such had been the state of Europe during several centuries. But when law be- came a science, the knowledge of which required a regular course of studies, together with long attention to the practice of courts, a new order of men naturally acquired consideration and influence in society. Another profes- sion beside that of arms was introduced, and reputed honourable among the (J) Du Cange, Gloss, voc. Treuga. Du Mont. Corps Diplomatique, torn. i. Robertson's Introd. Hitt fliarles V. sect i. Hume. Hitt. England, Append, i. 214 FHE HISTORY OF [PART I. laity : the talents requisite for discharging it were cultivated ; the arts and virtues of peace were placed in their proper rank : and the people of Europe became accustomed to see men rise to eminence by civil as well as military employment. (1) The study of the Roman law had also a considerable influence upon letters. The knowledge of a variety of sciences became necessary, in order to ex- pound with judgment the civil code ; and the same passion which made men prosecute the juridical science with so much ardour made them anxious to excel in every branch of literature. Colleges and universities were founded, a regular course of studies was planned, and a regular set of professors esta- blished. Privileges of great value were conferred upon masters and scholars ; academical titles and honours were invented, as rewards for the different degrees of literary eminence ; and an incredible number of students, allured by these advantages, resorted to the new seats of learning. (2) But a false taste unhappily infected all those seminaries ; which is thus ingeniously accounted for by a learned and inquisitive writer: Most of the persons who attempted to revive literature in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- turies had received instruction, and derived their principle of science, from the Greeks in the Eastern empire, or the Arabs in Spain and Africa. Both those people, acute and inquisitive to excess, corrupted the sciences which they cul- tivated. The Greeks rendered theology a system of speculative refinement, or endless controversy ; and the Arabs communicated to philosophy a spirit of metaphysical and frivolous subtlety. Misled by these guides, the persons who first applied to science were involved in a maze of intricate inquiries. Instead of allowing their fancy to take its natural range, and produce such works of elegant invention as might have improved the taste and refined the sentiments of the age ; instead of cultivating those arts which embellish human life, and render it delightful, they spent the whole force of their genius in speculations as unavailing as they were difficult. (3) But, fruitless and ill-directed as these speculations were, their novelty roused, and their boldness engaged, the human mind ; and although science was further circumscribed in its influence, and prevented during several ages from diffusing itself through society, by being delivered in the Latin tongue, its progress deserves to be mentioned, as one of the great causes which con- tributed to introduce a change of manners into modern Europe. That ardent though mistaken spirit of inquiry which prevailed put ingenuity and inven- tion in motion, and gave them vigour : it led men to a new employment of their faculties, which they found to be agreeable as well as interesting ; it accustomed them to exercises and occupations that tended to soften their manners and to give them some relish for those gentle virtues which are peculiar to nations among whom science has been successfully cultivated. Some ages indeed elapsed before taste, order, and politeness were restored to society : but anarchy and barbarism gradually disappeared with ignorance ; the evils of life, with its crimes ; and public and private happiness grew daily better understood ; until Europe (wisely governed !) came to enjoy a!5 those advantages, pleasures, amusements, and tender sympathies, which an? seces- sary to alleviate the pains inseparable from existence, and sooth the 'rows allied to humanity. (1) Montesquieu. I' Esprit de Loix. liv. xxviii. Hume, Hist. England, chap, xxiii. Robert* * ttisi. CAorCes V. sect i. (2) Id. Ibid. (3) Robertson, ubi sup. LET XXXVI.l MODERN EUROPE. 215 LETTER XXXVI. England during the Reign of Edward I. with an Introduction to the History of Scotland ; some Account of the Conquest of that Country by the English, and the final Reduction of Wales. THE reign of Edward I. my dear Philip, as already observed, forms a new era in the history of Britain. I must now make you sensible what entitles it to that distinction. As soon as Edward returned to England (where his authority was firmly established, by his high character both at home and abroad), he applied him- self assiduously to the correcting of those disorders which the civil commo- tions, and the loose administration of his father, had introduced into every part of government. His policy, though severe, was equally liberal and pru- dent. By an exact distribution of justice, and a rigid execution of the laws, he gave at once protection to the inferior orders of the state, and diminished the arbitrary power of the nobles. He made it a rule in his own conduct to observe, except upon extraordinary occasions, the privileges secured to the barons by the Great Charter, and he insisted on their observance of the same charter towards their vassals ; he made the crown be regarded as the gram fountain of justice, and the general asylum against violence and oppression. By these wise measures, the state of the kingdom was soon wholly changed ; order and tranquillity were restored to society, and vigour to government.(l) Now it was that the enterprising spirit of Edward began more remarkably to show itself. He undertook an expedition against Lewellyn prince of Wales, who had formerly joined the rebellious barons, and whose two brothers, David and Roderic, had fled to Edward for protection ; craving his assistance to recover their possessions, and seconding his attempts to enslave their native country. The Welch prince had no resource against the superior force of Edward but the inaccessible situation of his mountains, which had hitherto protected his forefathers against all the attempts of the Saxon and Norman conquerors. He accordingly retired with the bravest of his subjects among the hills of Snowdon. But Edward, no less vigorous than cautious, pierced into the heart of the country, and approached the Welch army in its last retreat. Having carefully secured every pass behind him, he avoided putting to trial the valour of a nation proud of its ancient independency. He trusted to the more slow but sure effects of famine for success ; and Lewellyn was at length obliged to submit, and receive the terms imposed upon him by the English monarch. (2) These terms, though sufficiently severe, were but ill observed by the vic- tors. The English oppressed and insulted the inhabitants of the districts 'which were yielded to them. The indignation of the Welch was roused they flew to arms ; and Edward again entered Wales with an army, not dis pleased with the occasion of making his conquest final. This army he com- mitted to the command of Roger Mortimer, while he himself waited the event in the castle of Rudhlan ; and Lewellyn, having ventured to leave his fastnesses, was defeated by Mortimer, and slain, together with two thousand of his followers. All the Welch nobility submitted to Edward, and the laws of England were established in that principality. (3) In order to preserve his conquest, Edward had recourse to a barbarous policy. He ordered David, brother to Lewellyn, and his successor in the principality of Wales, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, as a traitor, for taking arms in defence of his native country, which he had once unhappily (1) M. West. T. WaiMnsham. '21 T. Wykes. f3l T. Walsingham. T. Wvke* 1nn>il. .'".: --r'. Pow.-l. Hist. Walts. 216 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. deserted, and for maintaining by force his own hereditary authority. He also ordered all the Welch bards to be collected together and put to death ; from a belief, and no absurd one, that he should more easily subdue the inde- pendent spirit of the people, when their minds ceased to be roused by the ideas of military valour and ancient glory, preserved in the traditional poenib of these minstrels, and recited or sung by them on all public occasions and days of festivity. (1) Edward's conduct, in regard to Scotland, at which his ambition now pointed, is little more excusable. But several things must be premised, my dear Philip, before I proceed to his transactions with that country. On the final departure of the Romans from this island, you have seen the Scots and Picts., its northern inhabitants, ravaging South Britain. They were repelled, but not subdued, by the Saxons ; and the first Norman princes were too much occupied with the affairs of the continent to push their con- quests beyond the Tweed. Meanwhile fierce and bloody wars were, during several ages, carried on between the Scots and Picts, and Kenneth II., the sixty-ninth Scottish king, according to tradition, had obtained, in 838, a complete victory over the Picts, and united into one monarchy the whole country at present known by the name of North Britain. The Scots thence- forth became more formidable ; and, having less business on their hands at home, were always ready to join the English malecontents, and made frequent incursions into the bordering counties. In one of these incursions, as I have had occasion to notice, William king of Scotland was taken prisoner ; and Henry II., as the price of his liberty, not only extorted from him an exorbi- tant ransom, and a promise to surrender the places of greatest strength in his dominions, but compelled him to do homage for his whole kingdom. Richard I., a more' generous, but less politic, prince than his father, solemnly re- nounced his claim of homage, and absolved William from the other hard conditions which Henry had imposed. The crown of Scotland was therefore again rendered independent, and the northern potentate only did homage for the fiefs which he enjoyed in England, (a circumstance which has occasioned many mistakes, and much dispute among historians) in the same manner as the king of England himself swore fealty to the French monarch, for the fiefs which he inherited in France. But on the death of Alexander III. near a century after the captivity of William, Edward I., availing himself of the situation of affairs in Scotland, revived the claim of sovereignty which had been renounced by Richard. (2) This is the real state of the controversy concerning the independency of Scotland, which took its rise about this time, and in the following manner. As Alexander left no male issue, nor any descendant except Margaret of Norway, his granddaughter, who did not long survive him, the right of suc- cession belonged to the descendants of David earl of Huntingdon, third son of king David I. Of that line, two illustrious competitors for the crown ap- peared : Robert Bruce, son of Isabel, earl David's second daughter ; and John Baliol, grandson of Margaret, the eldest daughter. According to the t rules of succession now established, Baliol's right was preferable : he would succeed as the representative of his mother and grandmother ; and Bruce's plea of being one degree nearer the common stock would be disregarded. But in that age the question appeared no less intricate than important : the sentiments of men were divided : each claim was supported by a powerful faction ; and arms alone, it was feared, must terminate a dispute too weighty for the laws to decide. In this critical situation the parliament of Scotland, in order to avoid the miseries of civil war, embraced the dangerous resolution of appealing to Ed- ward I. He was accordingly chosen umpire, and both parties agreed to ac- quiesce in his decree. Now it was that this ambitious and enterprising prince, already master of Wales, resolved more determinedly to make him self lord of the whole island of Britain, by reviving his obscure claim of fl) Sir J. Wynne. (2) Buchanan, Hist. Scot., lib. viii. Robertson, book i LET. XXXVI.] M D E R N E U R O P E. 217 feudal superiority over Scotland. Under pretence of examining' the question with the utmost solemnity, he summoned all the Scottish barons to attend him in the castle of Norham, a place situated on the southern bank of the Tweed ; and having gained some, and intimidated others, he prevailed on all who were present, not excepting Bruce and Baliol, the two competitors for the succession, to acknowledge Scotland a fief of the English crown, and swear fealty to him as their sovereign liege lord.(l) This step led to another still more important. As it was in vain to pro- nounce a sentence which he had not power to execute, Edward demanded possession of the disputed kingdom, that he might be able to deliver it to him whose right should be found preferable: and that exorbitant demand \vas complied with both by the barons and the claimants. He soon after gave judgment in favour of Baliol, as being the least formidable of the com- petitors, we are told by a respectable historian ;(2) but, in justice to Edward, I am bound to say, that his award, which was no less equitable than solemn, seemed to proceed merely from the state of the question. He not only referred it to the consideration of a hundred and forty commissioners, partly English and partly Scotch, but proposed it to all the celebrated lawyers in Europe, who returned a uniform answer conformable to the king's decree. Baliol renewed the oath of fealty to England, and was put in possession of the kingdom. (3) Edward, having thus established his unjust claim of feudal superiority over Scotland, aspired next at the absolute sovereignty and dominion of that king- dom. He attempted to provoke Baliol by indignities ; to rouse him to rebel- lion, and to rob him of his crown, as the punishment of his pretended treason and felony. The passive spirit of Baliol accordingly began to mutiny ; and he entered into a secret alliance Avith France, which was already engaged in a war with England, the more effectually to maintain his independency. The expenses attending these multiplied wars of Edward, and his new pre- parations for reducing Scotland, obliged him to have frequent recourse to parliamentary supplies, and introduced the lower orders of the state into the public councils. This period, therefore, the twenty-third year of his reign, seems to be the true era of the House of Commons : for the former precedent of representatives from the boroughs, summoned by the earl of Leicester, was regarded as the act of a violent usurpation, and had been discontinued in all the subsequent parliaments. But when the multiplied necessities of the crown produced a greater demand for money than could be conveniently an- swered by the common mode of taxation, Edward became sensible, that the most expeditious way of obtaining supplies was to assemble the deputies of all the boroughs : to lay before them the exigencies of the state ; to discuss the matter in their presence, and to require their consent to the demands of their sovereign. He therefore issued writs to the sheriffs, enjoining them to send to parliament, along with two knights of the shire, two deputies from each borough within their county, provided with sufficient powers from their community, to consent to what levies should seem necessary for the support of government" as it is a most equitable rule," says he, in his preamble to this writ, " that what concerns all should be approved of by all ; and common dangers be repelled by united efforts."(4) Such a way of thinking implies a generosity of mind much superior to what might be expected from Edward's general conduct. The aldermen and common-council, after the election of these deputies, gave surety for their attendance before the king and parliament ; and their charges were borne by the borough that sent them.(5) How different in that, as well as in other respects, from our more modern representatives ! Instead of checking and controlling the authority of the king, they were naturally induced to adhere to him, as the great fountain of justice, and to support him against the power of the nobles, who at once suppressed them, and disturbed (1) Rymer, vol. ii. W. Hemming, vol. i. (2) Kobertson, Hist. Scotland, book i. (3) Rymer, vol. ii. W. Hemming, vol. i. (4) Brady, Treatise of Boroughs, from the Record* (a) Id. ibid. Rcliquie Spclm. , . JlS THE HISTORY OF [PART! him in the execution of the laws. The king, in his turn, gave countenance to an order of men so useful, and so little dangerous. The peers also were obliged to pay them some respect, on account of their consequence as a body. By these means the commons, or third estate, long so abject in England, as well as in all other European nations, rose gradually to their present impor- tance ; and, in their progress, made arts and commerce, the necessary attend- ants on liberty and equality, flourish in Britain. Edward employed the supplies granted by his people in warlike prepara- tions against his northern neighbour. He cited Baliol as his vassal, to ap- pear in an English parliament, to be held at Newcastle. But that prince, having now received pope Celestine's dispensation from his oath of fealty, renounced the homage which had been done to England, and set Edward at defiance. This bravado was but ill supported by the military operations of the Scots. Edward crossed the Tweed without opposition, at the head of thirty thousand foot, and four thousand horse. Berwick was taken by as- sault ; the Scottish army was totally routed near Dunbar ; the whole southern part of the kingdom was subdued ; and the timid Baliol, discontented with his own subjects, and overawed by the English, instead of making use of those resources which were yet left, hastened to make his submissions to the conqueror. He expressed the deepest penitence for his disloyalty to his liege lord ; and he made a solemn and irrevocable renunciation of his crown into the hands of Edward.(l) The English monarch marched as far north as Aberdeen and Elgin without meeting a single enemy. No Scotsman approached him, but to pay him sub- mission and do him homage. Even the turbulent Highlanders, ever refrac- tory to their own princes, and averse against the restraints of law, endea- voured by a timely obedience to prevent the devastation of their country : and Edward, flattering himself that he had now attained the great object of his wishes, in the final reduction of Scotland, left earl Warrenne governor of the kingdom, and returned with his victorious army into England. (2) Here a few particulars are necessary. There was a stone, to which the popular superstition of the Scots paid the highest veneration. All their kings were seated on it when they received the rite of inauguration. Ancient tradi- tion assured them, that their nation should always govern where this stone was placed ; and it was carefully preserved at Scone, as the true palladium of their monarch, and their ultimate resource under all misfortunes. Edward got possession of it, and carried it with him into England. He also gave orders to destroy all the records, and all those monuments of antiquity which might preserve the memory of the independency of the kingdom of Scotland, and refute the English claims of superiority. The great seal of Baliol was broken, and that prince himself was carried prisoner to London, and committed to close custody in the Tower.(3) Two years after he was restored to liberty, and submitted to a voluntary banishment in France ; where, without making any farther attempt for the recovery of his royalty, he died in a private station. Edward was not so successful in an effort which he made for the recover} of Guienne. The French monarch, Philip IV., surnamed the fair, had robbed England of this province, by an artifice similar to that which Edward had practised against the Scots. He had cited the English monarch, as his vassal, to answer, in the court of peers, the charge of treason against his sovereign ; for having permitted his subjects to seize some Norman vessels, and denied satisfaction : and Edward, refusing to comply, was declared guilty of treason, and the dutchy of Guienne confiscated. An English army was sent over to recover it under the earl of Lancaster, who died in a short time ; and the earl of Lincoln, who succeeded him in the command, failed in the attempt. But the active and ambitious spirit of Edward could not rest satisfied so long as the ancient patrimony of his family remained in the hands of his rival (1) Rymer, vol. ii. Hemming, vol. i. Trivet Annul. (2) Id. ibi!>!;. T Walsingham. Q40 THE HISTORY OF [PART! These abuses could not long escape the observation of a prince of so much discernment as young Edward, nor fail to rouse his active spirit against the murderer of his father, and the dishonourer of his mother. But he was besieged in such a manner by the creatures of Mortimer, that it became necessary to conduct the project of bringing that felon to justice with as much secrecy and caution as if he had been forming a conspiracy against his sovereign. He communicated his intentions, however, to some of the nobility, who readily entered into his views ; and they surprised the usurper in the castle of Nottingham, and dragged him from an apartment adjoining to the queen's, while she, in the most pathetic manner, implored her son to spare the geyitle Mortimer ! A parliament was immediately summoried for his condemnation ; and he was sentenced to die, from the supposed notoriety of his crimes, without any form of trial. He perished by the hands of the hangman, at the Elmes, near London : and the queen was confined, during life, to her house at Risings ; where she languished out twenty-five years of sorrow rather than of penitence. (1) Edward having now taken the reins of government into his own hands, applied himself, with industry and judgment, to redress all those grievances which had either proceeded from want of authority in the crown, or the late abuses of it. He issued writs to the judges, enjoining them to administer justice, without paying any regard to the arbitrary orders of the great : and as thieves, robbers, murderers, and criminals of all kinds, had multiplied to an enormous degree during the public convulsions, and were openly protected by the powerful barons, who made use of them against their enemies, the king set himself seriously to remedy the evil, after exacting from the peers a solemn promise in parliament, that they would break off all connexion with such malefactors. (2) The ministers of justice, animated by his example, employed the utmost diligence in discovering, pursuing, and punishing criminals : and the disorder was by degrees corrected. In proportion as the go'vernment acquired authority at home, it became formidable to the neighbouring nations ; and the ambitious spirit of Edward sought and soon found an occasion of exerting itself. The wise and valiant Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, who had recovered by arms the independency of his country, and fixed it by treaty, was now dead, and had left David his son a minor, under the guardianship of Randolph earl of Murray, the companion of his victories. About this time Edward Baliol son of John, formerly crowned king of Scotland, was discovered in a French prison by lord Beaumont, an English baron, who, in the right of his wife, claimed the earldom of Buchan in Scotland ; and deeming Baliol a proper instrument for his purpose, procured him his liberty, and induced him to revive his claim to the Scottish crown. Many other English noblemen, who had obtained estates during the sub- jection of Scotland, were in the same situation with Beaumont. They also saw the utility of Baliol, and began to think of recovering their possessions by^arms : and they applied to Edward for his concurrence and assistance. Edward was ashamed to avow their enterprise. He was afraid that violence and injustice would every where be imputed to him, if he attacked with superior force a minor king, and a brother-in-law, whose independent title had been so lately acknowledged by solemn treaty; but he secretly en- couraged Baliol in his claim, connived at his assembling forces in the North, and gave countenance to the nobles who were disposed to join him. A force of near three thousand men was assembled, with which Baliol and his adhe- rents landed on the coast of Fife. Scotland was now in a very different situation from that in which it had appeared under the victorious Robert. Besides the loss of that great monarch, whose genius and authority preserved entire the whole political fabric, and maintained union among the unruly barons, lord Douglas, impatient of rest, had gone over to Spain in a crusade against the Moors, and there perished in i n Knygliton. Walsingham. (2) Cotton's Abridgment LKT. XL/I MODERN EUROPE. 241 battle. The earl of Murray, long declining through years and infirmities, had lately died, and been succeeded in the regency by Donald earl of Mnr, a man much inferior in talents : so that the military spirit of the Scots, though still unbroken, was left without a guide. Baliol had valour and activity, and ^is followers, being firmly united by their common object, drove back the Scots who opposed his landing. He marched into the heart of the country and with his small party defeated an army of forty thousand men, under the ;arl of Mar, of whom twelve thousand are said to have been slain. Baliol, soon after this victory, made himself master of Perth, and was crowned at Scone; while young Bruce, his competitor, was sent over to France with his betrothed wife Jane, sister to king Edward. Scotland was subdued by a handful of men ; but Baliol lost the kingdom by a revolution as sudden as that by which he had acquired it. His imprudence, or his necessities, making him dismiss part of his English followers, he was unex- pectedly attacked near Annan by sir Archibald Douglas, and other chieftains of Bruce's party. He was routed : his brother John Baliol was slain ; and he himself was chased into England in a miserable plight.(l) In this extremity, Baliol had again recourse to the English monarch, with- out whose assistance he was now become sensible he could neither recover nor keep possession of his throne. He offered to acknowledge Edward's superiority; to renew the homage for Scotland; and to espouse the princess Jane, if the pope's consent could be obtained for dissolving her former mar- riage, which was not yet consummated. Ambitious of retrieving that im- portant superiority relinquished by Mortimer during his minority, Edward willingly accepted the offer, and put himself at the head of a powerful army, in order to reinstate Baliol in his throne. The Scots met him with an army more numerous, but less united, and worse supplied with arms and provisions. A battle was fought at Halidown-hill, a little north of Berwick ; where about thirty thosaund of the Scots fell, and all the chief nobility were either killed or taken prisoners. (2) After this fatal blow, the Scottish nobles had no resource but in submission. Baliol was acknowledged king by a parliament assembled at Edinburgh; the superiority of England was again recognised ; many of the Scottish nobility swore fealty to Edward ; who, leaving a considerable body of troops with Baliol to complete the conquest of the kingdom, returned to England with the remainder of his army. But the English forces were no sooner with- drawn than the Scots revolted against Baliol, and returned to their former allegiance under Bruce. Edward was again obliged to assemble an army, and to march into Scotland. The Scots, taught by experience, withdrew into their hills and fastnesses. He destroyed the houses, and ravaged the estates, of those whom he called rebels. But this severity only confirmed them more in their obstinate antipathy to England and to Baliol ; and being now rendered desperate, they soon reconquered their country from the Eng- lish. Edward made anew his appearance in Scotland, and with like success. He found every thing hostile in the kingdom, except the spot on which he was encamped ; and although he marched uncontrolled over the low coun- tries, the nation itself was farther than ever from being broken or subdued. Besides- being supported by their pride or anger, passions difficult to tame, the Scots were encouraged amid all their calamities with daily promises of relief from France ; and as a war was now likely to break out between that kingdom and England, they had reason to expect a division of the force which had so long overwhelmed and oppressed them.(3) These transactions naturally bring us back to Edward's claim to the crown of France ; on which depended the most memorable events, not only of this long and active reign, but of the whole English and French history, during more than a century. A notion weaker or worse grounded than that claim cannot well be imagined. He admitted the general principle, that females (1) Hemming. Knyghton. Walsingham. Buchanan. Fordun (2) Ibid. (3) Rymer, vol. iv. Leland's Collect, vol. ii. W. Hemming. T. Walsingham. VOL. I. Q 11 242 THE HIS DRY OF [PART!. could not inherit the crown of France. But, in so doing, he only set aside his mother's right, to establish his own ; for although he acknowledged females incapable of inheriting, he asserted that males descending from females were liable to no such objection, but might claim by right of propinquity. This plea, however, was not only more favourable to Charles king of Navarre, descended from a daughter of Lewis X., but contrary to the established rules of succession in every European country. Edward's claim was therefore disregarded, and the title of Philip of Valois universally recognised and acknowledged.(l) But although the youthful and ambitious mind of Edward had rashly entertained this false idea, he did not carry his pretensions so far as to engage in hostilities with so powerful a monarch as Philip VI. On the contrary, he went over to Amiens, and did homage for Guienne.(2) By that compliance he indirectly acknowledged Philip's title to the crown of France. His own claim indeed was so unreasonable, and so thoroughly disavowed by the whole French nation, that to insist on it was no better than to pretend to the violent conquest of the kingdom ; and it probably would never have been further thought of, had it not been for some incidents which afterward excited an animosity between the two monarchs. Robert of Artois, a prince of great talents and credit, who had married Philip's sister, had fallen into disgrace at the court of France. His brother- in-law not only abandoned him, but prosecuted him with violence. He came over to England, and was favourably received by Edward. Now resigning himself to all the movements of rage and revenge, Robert endeavoured to revive in the mind of the English monarch his supposed title to the crown of France ; and even flattered him that it was not impossible for a prince of his valour and abilities to render this claim effectual ; " I made Philip de Valois king of France," added he : " and, with your assistance, I will depose him for his ingratitude."(3) Edward was the more disposed to listen to such suggestions, as he had reason to complain of Philip's conduct with regard to Guienne, and because that monarch had both given protection to the exiled David Bruce, and encouraged the Scots in their struggles for independency. Resentment gradually rilled the breasts of both monarchs, and made them incapable of hearkening to any terms of accommodation. Philip thought he should be wanting to the first principles of policy, if he abandoned Scotland : and Edward pretended that he must renounce all claim to generosity, if he with- drew his protection from Robert of Artois. Alliances were formed on both sides, and great preparations were made for war. On the side of England was the count of Hainault, the king's father-in-law, the duke of Brabant, the archbishop of Cologne, the duke of Guelder, the marquis of Juliers, and the count of Namur. These princes could supply, either from their own states, or from the bordering countries, great numbers of warlike troops : and nothing was wanting to make Edward's alliance on that quarter truly formidable but the accession of Flanders, which he obtained by means somewhat extraordinary. The Flemings, the first people in the north of Europe that successfully cultivated arts and manufactures, began now to emerge from that s,tate of vassalage, or rather slavery, into which the common people had been univer- sally thrown by the abuses of the feudal polity ; and the lower class of men among them had risen to a degree of riches unknown elsewhere to those of their station in that comparatively barbarous age. It was impossible for such men not to resent anyyict of tyranny ; and acts of tyranny were likely to be practised by a sovereign and nobility accustomed to domineer. They had risen in tumults : they had insulted the nobles, and driven their earl into France. (4) In every such revolution there is always some leader or demagogue, to whose guidance the people blindly deliver themselves : and on his character (1) Froissard, torn. i. D. Specileg, torn. iii. (2) Rymer, vol. iv. (31 Froissard, liv. L Mm. de Robert d'Artoia (4) Froissard. liv. i LET. XL.] MODERN EUROPE. 343 entirely depends the happiness or misery of those who have put themselves under his care ; for every such man has it in his power to be a despot : so narrow are the boundaries between liberty and slavery. The present leader of the Flemings was James d'Arteville, a brewer of Ghent, who governed them with a more absolute sway than had ever been assumed by any of their lawful sovereigns. He placed and displaced the magistrates at pleasure. He was constantly attended by a guard, who, on the least signal from him, instantly assassinated any man that happened to fall under his displeasure. All the cities of Flanders were full of his spies; and it was immediate death to give him the smallest umbrage. This was the man to whom Edward addressed himself for bringing over the Flemings to his interests. (1 ) Proud of advances from so great a prince, and sensible that the Flemings were naturally inclined to maintain connexions with the English, on account of the advantages of trade, their demagogue embraced the cause of Edward, and invited him over to the Low Countries. Edward repaired to Flanders, attended by several of his nobility, and a body of English forces : but before the Flemings, who were vassals of France, would take up arms against their liege lord, Edward was obliged to assume the title of king of France, and tc challenge their assistance for dethroning Philip de Valois, the usurper of his kingdom.(2) This step, which was taken by the advice of d'Arteville, as he knew it would produce an irreconcilable breach between the two monarchs (a further motive for joining the cause of Edward), gave rise to that animo- sity which the English and French nations, but more especially the former, have ever since borne against each other an animosity which had, for some centuries, so visible an influence on all their transactions, and which still continues to inflame the heart of many an honest Englishman. Let philosophers blame this prejudice as inconsistent with the liberality of the human mind ; let moralists mourn its severity, and weak politicians lament its destructive rage you, my dear Philip, as a lover of your country, will ever, I hope, revere a passion that has so often given victory to the arms of England, and humbled her haughty rival ; which has preserved, and continues to preserve, the independency of Great Britain ! The French monarch made great preparations against the attack from the English ; and his foreign alliances were both more natural and powerful than those which were formed by his antagonist. The king of Navarre, the duke of Britanny, the count of Bar, were entirely in the interests of Philip ; and on the side of Germany, the king of Bohemia, the palatine of the Rhine, the dukes of Lorraine and Austria, the bishop of Liege, the counts of Deuxponts, Vaudemont, and Geneva. A mighty army was brought into the field on both sides. Conferences and mutual defiances, however, were all that the first campaign produced ; and Edward, distressed for want of money, was obliged to disband his army, and return to England. (3) But this illustrious prince had too much spirit to be discouraged by the first difficulties of an undertaking. He was anxious to retrieve his honour by more successful and more gallant enterprises ; and next season proved somewhat more fortunate. The English, under the command of Edward, gained an important advantage over the French by sea. Two hundred and thirty French ships were taken, thirty thousand Frenchmen were killed, with two of their admirals. The lustre of this victory increased the king's repu- tation among his allies, who assembled their forces with expedition, and joined the English army ; and Edward marched to the frontiers of France at the head of above one hundred thousand men. The French monarch had collected an army still more numerous : yet he continued to adhere to the prudent resolution he had formed of putting nothing to hazard, hoping by that means to weary out the enemy. This conduct had in some measure the desired effect. Edward, fatigued with fruitless sieges, and irritated at the disagreeable prospect that lay before him, challenged Philip to decide their claims to the crown of France by single combat ; by an action of one hundred (1) Froissard, liv. i. (2) W. Hemming. T. Wal-iicham Rymer, vol. v <3) Froissard, ubi sup. W. Hemming. T Walsingham. Q. 2 244 THE HISTORY OF [PART I against one hundred, or by a general engagement. Philip replied with his usual coolness, that it did not become a vassal to challenge his liege lord \ and Edward found it necessary to conclude a truce for one year.(l) This truce would in all likelihood have been converted into a solid peace, and Edward would have dropped his claim, had not an unexpected circum- stance opened to him more promising views, and given his enterprising genius full opportunity to display itself. The count de Mountfort, the heir male of Brittany, had seized that dutchy in opposition to Charles of Blois, the French king's nephew, who had married the daughter of the late duke. Sensible that he could expect no favour from Philip, Mountfort made a voyage to England, under pretence of soliciting his claim to the earldom of Richmond, which had devolved to him by his brother's death; and then offering to do homage to Edward, as king of France, for the dutchy of Brittany, he pro- posed a strict alliance for the support of each other's pretensions. Little negotiation was necessary to conclude a treaty between two princes connected by their immediate interests. But the captivity of the count de Mountfort, which happened soon after, seemed to put an end to all the advan- tages naturally to be expected from such an alliance. The affairs of Brittany, however, were unexpectedly retrieved by Jane of Flanders, countess of Mountfort, the most extraordinary woman of her time. Roused by the cap- tivity of her husband from those domestic cares to which she had hitherto confined herself, she boldly undertook to support the fallen fortunes of her family. She went from place to place, encouraging the garrisons, providing them with every thing necessary for .subsistence, and concerting the proper plans of defence ; and after having put the whole province in a good posture, she shut herself up in Hennebone, where she waited with impatience the arrival of those succours which Edward had promised her. Charles of Blois, anxious to make himself master of this important fortress, and still more to get possession of the person of the countess, sat down before the place with a great army, and conducted the attack with indefatigable industry. The defence was no less vigorous. The besiegers were repulsed in every assault. Frequent sallies were made by the garrison ; and the countess herself being the most forward on all occasions, every one was ashamed not to exert himself to the utmost. The reiterated attacks of the besiegers, however, had at length made several breaches in the walls; and it was appre- hended that a general assault, which was dreaded every hour, might bear down the garrison. It became necessary to treat of a capitulation : and the bishop of Laon was already engaged in a conference on that subject with Charles of Blois, when the countess, who had mounted a high tower, and was anxiously looking towards the sea for relief, descried some sails at a distance. "Behold the succours!" exclaimed she; "the English succours'. No capi- tulation." They consisted of six thousand archers, and some cavalry, under the command of sir Walter Manny, one of the bravest captains of England ; and having entered the harbour, and inspired fresh courage into the garrison, immediately sallied forth, beat the besiegers from their posts, and obliged them to decamp. (2) Notwithstanding this success, the troops under sir Walter Manny were found insufficient for the support of the countess of Mountfort, who was still ready to be overpowered by numbers. Edward therefore sent over a rein- forcement under Robert of Artois, and afterward went to her assistance in person. Robert was killed in the defence of Vannes ; and Edward concluded a truce of three years, on honourable terms, for himself and the countess. This truce, however, was of much shorter duration than the terms specified in the articles, and each monarch endeavoured to throw on the other the blame of its infraction. The English parliament entered warmly into the quarrel, advised the king not to be amused by a fraudulent truce, and granted him supplies for the renewal of hostilities. The earl of Derby was sent over for the protection of Guienne, where he behaved with great gallantry ; and tt) Frotowrd, ubi tup. W. Hemming. T. Walsingham. (21 Froissard, liv I LET. XL.] MODERNEUROPE. 245 Edward invaded Normandy with an army of thirty thousand men. He took several towns, and ravaged the whole province, carrying his incursions even to the gates of Paris. At length Philip advanced against him at the head of a hundred thousand men : and Edward, afraid of being surrounded in the country, retreated towards Flanders.(l) In this retreat happened the famous passage of the Somme, which was> followed by the still more celebrated battle of Cressy. When Edward approached the Somme, he found all the bridges either broken down or strongly guarded. An army of twenty thousand men, under the command of Goda- mar de Faye, was stationed on the opposite bank ; and Philip was advancing on him, at the same time, from behind. In this extremity he was informed of a place that was fordable : he hastened thither, but saw de Faye ready to obstruct his passage. A man of less resolution, or more coolness, would have hesitated: Edward deliberated not a moment, but threw himself into the river sword in hand, at the head of his troops ; drove the enemy from their station, and pursued them to a distance on the plain. Philip and his forces arrived at the ford when the rear-guard of the English army was passing ; and the rising of the tide only prevented that incensed monarch from follow- ing them. On the lapse of so few moments depended the fate of Edward ! and these, by his celerity, were turned from ruin into victory ! Yet if he had been unfortunate in his passage, or if the French army had arrived somewhat sooner, how many pretended philosophers would have told us that he was an inconsiderate prince, and the attempt would have been branded as absurd ! - So much, my dear Philip, does the reputation of events depend on success, and the characters of men on the situations in which they are engaged. Edward by his fortunate passage gained some ground of the enemy, as Philip was obliged to take his route by the bridge of Abbeville ; but he still saw the danger of precipitating his march over the plains of Picardy, and of exposing his rear to the insults of the numerous cavalry, in which the Frencli camp abounded. He therefore embraced the prudent resolution of waiting the arrival of the enemy, and chose his ground advantageously near the village of Cressy, where he drew up his army in excellent order, and divided into three lines. The first line was commanded by the prince' of Wales, commonly called the Black Prince, from the colour of his armour ; the second by the earls of Arundel and Northampton: and the king himself took the direction of the third, which was intended as an auxiliary force. The French army, which now consisted of above a hundred and twenty thousand men, was also formed into three lines ; but as Philip had made a hasty and con- fused march from Abbeville, the troops were fatigued and disordered. The first line, consisting of fifteen thousand Genoese cross-bow men, was com- manded by Anthony Doria and Charles Grimaldi : the second was led by the count d'Alenon ; and the king in person was at the head of the third. The battle began about three o'clock, and continued till towards evening ; when the whole French army took to flight, and was followed and put to the sword with great slaughter, till the darkness of night put an end to the pursuit. Almost forty thousand of the French were slain, among whom were many of the principal nobility, twelve hundred knights, and fourteen hundred gentle- men. On his return to the camp, Edward flew into the arms of the prince of Wales, who had distinguished himself in a remarkable manner. " My brave son !" cried he, " persevere in your honourable course. You are my son ; for valiantly have you acquitted yourself to-day. You have shown yourself worthy of empire."(2) This victory is partly ascribed to some pieces of artillery, which Edward is said to have planted in his front, and which gave great alarm to the enemy ;(3) but we cannot suppose they did much execution. The invention was yet in its infancy; and cannon were at first so clumsy, and of such difficult management, that they were rather incumbrances than those terrible instru- ments of desolation which we now behold them. They had never before (1) R. de Averburg. Froissard, ubi sup. IS) Froissard, lib. L Walsingham. Knyghton. Averburg. (3) Villani, lib. ziL 246 THE HISTORY OF [PART I, been made use of on any memorable occasion in Europe. This may, there- fore, be regarded as the era of one of the most important discoveries that has been made among men : a discovery which changed by degrees the whole military science, and of course many circumstances in the political govern- ment of Europe ; which has brought nations more on a level ; has made suc- cess in war a matter of calculation ; and though seemingly contrived for the destruction of mankind, arid the overthrow of empires, has in the issue ren- dered battles less bloody, and conquest less frequent, by giving greater security to states, and interesting the passions of men less in the struggle for victory. A weak mind is elated with the smallest success ; a great spirit is little affected by any turn of fortune. Edward, instead of expecting that the vic- tory of Cressy Avould be immediately followed by the total subjection of the disputed kingdom, seemed rather to moderate his views. He prudently limited his ambition to the conquest of Calais ; by which he hoped to secure such an easy entrance into France, as might afterward open the way to more considerable advantages. He therefore marched thither with his victorious army, and presented himself before the place. In the mean time, David Bruce king of Scotland, whom his countrymen had recalled, was strongly solicited by his ally, Philip, to invade the northern counties of England. He accordingly assembled a great army, and carried his ravages as far as Durham. He was there met by queen Philippa, at the head of a body of twelve thousand men, which she committed to the command of lord Percy. A fierce engagement ensued ; and the Scots were broken and chased off the field with great slaughter. Fifteen thousand of them were slain, among whom was the chancellor and earl marshal. The king himself was taken prisoner, together with many of the principal nobility. (1) As soon as Philippa had secured her royal prisoner, she crossed the sea at Dover, and was received in the English camp before Calais with all the eclat due to her rank, her merit, and her success. This was the age of chivalry and gallantry. Edward's courtiers excelled in these accomplishments no less than in policy and war ; and the extraordinary qualities of the women of those times, the necessary consequence of respectful admiration, form the best apology for the superstitious devotion which was then paid to the softer sex. Calais was taken, after an obstinate siege of almost twelve months The inhabitants were expelled : and it was peopled anew with English sub- jects, and made the staple of wool, leather, tin, and lead ; the four chief com modities of England, and the only ones for which there was yet any demand in foreign markets. A truce was soon afterward concluded with France, through the mediation of the pope's legate, and Edward returned in triumph to England. (2) Here a few observations seem necessary. The great success of Edward in his foreign wars had excited a strong emulation among the English nobi- lity ; and their animosity against France, and respect to their prince, had given a new and more useful direction to that ambition, which had so often been turned by those turbulent barons against the crown, or which discharged its fury on their fellow-subjects. This prevailing spirit was further promoted by the institution of the military Order of the Garter, in emulation of some orders of knighthood, of a like nature, which had been established in different parts of Europe. A story prevails, though not supported by ancient authority, that Edward's mistress, commonly supposed to be the countess of Salisbury, dropped her garter at a court ball : that the king stooped, and took it up : when, observing some of his courtiers to smile as if they had suspected another intention, he held up the trophy, and called out, Horn soil qm mal y pense : " Evil to him that evil thinks." And as every incident of gallantry in those times was magnified into a matter of importance, he instituted the Order of the Garter in commemoration of this event, though not without political views, and gave these words as the motto of the order. Frivolous 1 1 Averlmtg. Knyghtnn. Froiseard, ubi sup (3) Id. ibid LET. XL.] MODERN EUROPE. 247 as such an origin may seem, it is perfectly suitable to the manners of that age ; and, as a profound historian remarks, it is difficult by any other means to account either for the seemingly unmeaning terms of the motto, or the peculiar badge of the garter, which appears to have no reference to any pur- pose either of military use or ornament.(l) A damp, however, was suddenly thrown over the triumphant festivity of the English court, by a destructive pestilence, which about this time invaded Britain, after having desolated the greatest part of the earth. It made its appearance first in the north of Asia ; encircled all that vast continent ; visited Africa; made its progress from one end of Europe to the other; and is com- puted to have swept away near a third of the inhabitants in every country through which it passed. Above fifty thousand persons are said to have perished by it in London alone. This grievous^ calamity, more than the pacific disposition of the princes, served to prolong the truce between Eng- land and France. During this truce Philip de Yalois died, without being able to re-establish the affairs of France, which his unsuccessful war with England had thrown into much disorder. This monarch had, during the first years of his reign, obtained the appellation of Fortunate, and acquired the character of Prudent but he ill maintained either the one or the other ; less indeed from his own fault, than because he was overmatched by the superior fortune and superior genius of Edward. But the incidents in the reign of his son John gave the French cause to lament even the calamitous times of Philip. John was distinguished by many virtues, but particularly by a scrupulous honour and fidelity. He was not deficient in personal courage ; but as he wanted that masterly prudence and foresight which his difficult situation required, his kingdom was at the same time disturbed by intestine commotions, and op- pressed by foreign wars. The principal author of these calamities was Charles king of Navarre, sur- named the Bad, and whose conduct fully entitled him to that appellation. He was descended from males of the blood royal of France. His mother was daughter of Lewis X., and he had himself married a daughter of the reigning king ; but all these ties, which ought to have connected him with the throne, gave him only greater power to shake and overthrow it. He secretly entered into a correspondence with the king of England; and he seduced, by his address, Charles, afterward surname! the Wise, the king of France's eldest son, and the first who bore the title of Dauphin, by the reunion of the pro- vince of Dauphiny to the crown. This young prince, however, made sensi- ble of the danger and folly of such connexions, promised to make atonement for the offence by the sacrifice of his associates. In concert with his father, ne accordingly invited the king of Navarre, and other noblemen of the party, to a feast at Rouen, where they were betrayed into the hands of John. Some of the most obnoxious were immediately led to execution, and the king of Navarre was thrown into prison. But this stroke of severity in the French monarch, and of treachery in the Dauphin, was far from proving decisive in restoring the royal authority. Philip of Navarre, brother to Charles the Bad, and Geoffrey d'Harcourt, put all the towns and castles belonging to that prince in a posture of defence ; and they had immediate recourse to England in this desperate extremity. (2) The truce between the two kingdoms, which had always been ill observed on both sides, was now expired ; so that Edward was at liberty to support the French malecontents. The war was again renewed; and after a variety of fortunes, but chiefly in favour of the English, an event happened which nearly proved fatal to the French monarchy. The prince of Wales, encouraged by the success of the first campaign, took the field with an army of only twelve thousand men ; and with that small body he ventured to penetrate into the heart of France. King John provoked at the insult offered him by this incursion, collected an army of (1) Hume, Hist. England, chap. xv. (2) Froissard, liv i 248 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. sixty thousand combatants, and advanced by hasty marches to intercept his enemy. The prince, not aware of John's near approach, lost some days, on his march, before the castle of Remorantin, and thereby gave the French monarch an opportunity of overtaking him. The pursuers came within sight at Maupertuis, near Poictiers ; and young Edward, sensible that his retreat was now become impracticable, prepared for battle with all the courage of a hero, imd all the prudence of an experienced general. No degree of prudence or courage, however, could have saved him, had the king of France known how to make use of his present advantages. John's superiority in numbers enabled him to surround the English camp, and, by intercepting all provisions, to reduce the prince to the necessity of surrendering at discretion. But the impatient ardour of the French nobility prevented this idea from striking any of the commanders ; so that they immediately took measures for the assault, with full assurance of victor}'. But they found themselves miserably mis- taken. The English adventurers received them with desperate valour, put their army to flight, and took their king prisoner. The Black Prince, who had been carried away in pursuit of the flying enemy, finding the field entirely clear on his return, had ordered a tent to be pitched, and was reposing himself after the toils of battle, when informed of the fate of the French monarch. John had long refused to surrender him- self to any one but his "cousin the prince of Wales."(l) Here commences the real and unexampled heroism of young Edward the triumph of humanity and moderation over insolence and pride, in the heart of a young warrior, elated by as extraordinary and as unexpected success as had ever crowned the arms of any commander. He came forth to meet the captive king with all the marks of regard and sympathy; administered comfort to him amid his misfortunes ; paid him the tribute of praise due to his valour ; and ascribed his own victory merely to the blind chance of war, or to a superior Providence, which controls all the efforts of human force and prudence. He ordered a repast to be prepared in his tent for the royal prisoner ; and he himself served at the captive's table, as if he had been one of his retinue. All his father's pretensions to the crown of France were now buried in obli- vion. John in captivity received the honours of a king, which were refused him when seated on the throne of Clovis. His misfortunes, not his right, were respected ; and the French prisoners, conquered by this elevation of mind, more than by the English arms, burst into tears of admiration ; which were only checked by the reflection, that suqh exalted heroism in an enemy must make him doubly dangerous to the independency of their native country.(2) The prince of Wales conducted his royal prisoner to Bourdeaux; and, after concluding a truce for two years, brought him over to England. Here the king of France, besides the generous treatment which he met with, ha.d the melancholy consolation of meeting a brother in affliction. The king of Scotland had been for eleven years a captive in the hands of Edward, whose superior genius and fortune had reduced at once the two neighbouring poten- tates, with whom he was engaged in war, to the condition of prisoners in his capital. Finding, however, that the conquest of Scotland was nowise advanced by the captivity of its sovereign, Edward consented to restore David Bruce to his liberty, for the ransom of one hundred thousand marks sterling; and that prince delivered the sons of all his principal nobility as hostages for the payment. (3) Meanwhile the captivity of the French monarch, joined to the preceding disorders of the kingdom, had produced an almost total dissolution of civil authority, and occasioned the most horrible and destructive violences ever experienced in any age or country. The Dauphin, now above nineteen years M age, naturally assumed the reins of government during his father's cap- tivity; but although endowed with an excellent judgment, even in such early years, he possessed neither experience nor ability sufficient to remedy the prevailing evils. In order to obtain supplies, he assembled the states of the (1) Ryraer, vol. vi. FroisBard, liv.i. f21 Ibid, ubi sup. (3) Rymer, vol i LET. XL.] M O D K ic N i i It O P E. 249 kingdom. But that national assembly, instead of supporting his administra- tion, were themselves seized with the spirit of licentiousness ; and laid hold of the present opportunity to demand limitations of the regal power, the punishment of past malversations, and the liberty of the king of Navarre. Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris, and first magistrate of that city, put himself at the head of the unruly populace; and, from the violence and temerity of his character, pushed them to commit the most criminal outrages against the royal authority. They detained the Dauphin in a kind of cap- tivity : they murdered in his presence Robert de Clermont, and John de Con- flans, mareschals of France ; they threatened all the other ministers with the like fate ; and when Charles, who had been obliged to temporize and dis- semble, made his escape from their hands, they levied war against him, and openly erected the standard of rebellion. The other cities of the kingdom, in imitation of the capital, shook off the Dauphin's authority ; took the government into their own hands, and spread the contagion into every pro- vince. The wild state of nature seemed to be renewed in the bosom of society ; every man was thrown loose and independent of his fellow-citizens. The nobles, whose inclinations led them to adhere to the crown, and were naturally disposed to check these tumults, had lost all their influence. The troops, who could no longer be retained in discipline, by reason of the want of pay, throwing off all regard to their officers, sought the means of subsist- ence by pillage and robbery, and associating with them all the disorderly people, with whom that age abounded, infested every quarter of the kingdom in numerous bodies. They desolated the open country, burned and plundered the villages ; and, by cutting off all means of communication or subsistence, reduced to necessity even the inhabitants of the fortified towns. The peasants, formerly oppressed and now left unprotected by their mas- ters, became desperate from their present misery ; and, rising everywhere in arms, carried to the last extremity those disorders which were derived from the sedition of the citizens and disbanded soldiers. The gentry, hated for their tyranny, were everywhere exposed to the violence of popular rage ; and, instead of meeting with the respect due to their rank, became only, on that account, the object of more wanton insult to the mutinous rustics. They were hunted like wild beasts, and put to the sword without mercy. Their castles were consumed with fire, and levelled with the ground ; while their wives and daughters were subject to violation, and then murdered. A body of nine thousand of these savage boors broke into Meaux, where the wife of the Dauphin, the dutchess of Orleans, and above three hundred other ladies, had taken shelter. The most brutal treatment and fatal conse- quences were apprehended by this fair and helpless company ; when the count de Foix and the captal de Buche, with the assistance of only sixty knights, animated with the true spirit of chivalry, flew to the rescue of the ladies, and beat off the brutal and rapacious peasants with great slaughter.(l) Amid these disorders, the king of Navarre made his escape from prison and presented a dangerous leader to the furious malecontents. He revived his pretensions to the crown of France ; but in all his operations he acted more like a captain of banditti, than one who aspired to be the head of a regular government, and who was engaged by his station to endeavour the re-esta- blishment of order in the community. All the French, therefore, who wished to restore peace to their desolated country, turned their eyes towards the Dauphin ; who, though not remarkable for his military talents, daily gained, by his prudence and vigilance, the ascendant over his enemies. Marcel, the seditious provost of Paris, was slain in attempting to deliver that city to the king of Navarre. The capital immediately returned to its duty ; the most considerable bodies of the mutinous peasants were dispersed, or put to the sword ; some bands of military robbers undenvent the same fate, and France began once more to assume the appearance of civil government. (2) Edward appeared to have a favourable opportunity of pushing his con- (1) Froissard, liv. i. St. Pelaye sur r Ancient Chivalrie. '2) Froissard, ubi sup aw) THE HISTORY OF [PART I. quests, during the confusion in the Dauphin's affairs ; but his hands were tied by the truce, and the state of the English finances made a cessation of arms necessary. The truce, however, no sooner expired, than he invaded France anew with the whole military force of England. He ravaged the country without opposition, pillaged many towns, and levied contributions upon others ; but finding that he could not subsist his army in a kingdom wasted by foreign and domestic enemies, he prudently concluded the peace of Bretigni, which seemed to secure essential advantages to his crown. By this peace, it was stipulated, that John should pay three millions of crowns of gold for his ransom ; that Edward should for ever renounce all claim to the crown of France, and to the provinces of Normandy, Maine, Touraine, and Anjou, possessed by his ancestors ; in exchange for which, he should receive the provinces of Poitou, Xaintonge, 1'Angenois, Perigord, the Limou- sin, Quercy, Rovergue, 1'Angoumois, and other districts in that quarter, together with Calais, Guisnes, Montreuil, and the county of Ponthieu, on the other side of France ; that the full sovereignty of these provinces, as well as of Guienne, should be vested in the crown of England; and that France should renounce all title to feudal jurisdiction, homage, or appeal from them.(l) In consequence of this treaty, the king of France was restored to his liberty ; but many difficulties arising with respect to the execution of some of the articles, he took the honourable resolution of coming over to England in person, in order to adjust them. His council endeavoured to dissuade him from this design, which they represented as rash and impolitic ; and insinu- ated, that he ought to elude, as far as possible, the execution of so disad- vantageous a treaty. " Though justice and good faith," replied John, " were banished from the rest of the earth, they ought still to retain their habitation in the breasts of princes !" And he accordingly came over to his former lodgings in the Savoy; where he soon after sickened and died.(2) John was succeeded in the throne of France by his son Charles V., a prince educated in the school of adversity, and well qualified, by his prudence and experience, to repair the losses which the kingdom had sustained from the errors of his predecessors. Contrary to the practice of all the great princes of those times, who held nothing in estimation but military courage, he seems to have laid it down as a maxim, never to appear at the head of his armies. He was the first European monarch that showed the advantage of policy and foresight over a rash and precipitate valour. Before Charles could think of counterbalancing so great a power as Eng- land, it was necessary for him to remedy the many disorders to which his own kingdom was exposed. He accordingly turned his arms against the king of Navarre, the great disturber of France during that age ; and he de- feated that prince, and reduced him to terms, by the valour and conduct of Bertrand du Guesclin, one of the most accomplished captains of those times, whom Charles had the discernment to choose as the instrument of his victories. He also settled the affairs of Brittany, by acknowledging the title of Mountfort, and receiving homage for Ins dominions. But much was yet to do. On the conclusion of the peace of Bretigni, a multitude of military adven- turers, who had followed the prosperous fortunes of Edward, being dispersed into the several provinces of France, and possessed of strong holds, refused to lay down their arms, or relinquish a course of life to which they were now accustomed, and by which alone they could earn a subsistence. They there- fore associated themselves with the banditti, who were already inured to the habits of rapine and violence, and, under the name of Companies and Com- panions, became a terror to the peaceable inhabitants. Some English and Gascon gentlemen of character were not ashamed to take the command of these ruffians, whose number amounted to near forty thousand, and who bore the appearance of regular armies, rather than bands of robbers. (3) As Charles (1) Bymer, vol. vi. (9) Froissard, ubi sup. (3) Id. ibid. LE-J XL.] MODERN EUROPE. 251 was not able by force to redress so enormous a grievance, h<5 was led by ne- cessity, and by the turn of his character, to correct it by policy ; to discover some method of discharging into foreign countries this dangerous and intes- tine evil. And an occasion now offered. Alphonso XI. king of Castile, who took the city of Algezira from the Moors, after a famous siege of two years, had been succeeded, in 1350, by his son Peter I. surnamed the Cruel; a prince equally perfidious, debauched, and bloody. He began his reign with the murder of his father's mistress, Leonora de Gusman : his nobles fell every day the victims of his severity : he put to death his cousin, and one of his natural brothers, from groundless jealousy ; and he caused his queen, Blanche de Bourbon, of the blood royal of France, to be thrown into prison, and afterward poisoned, that he might enjoy in quiet the embraces of Mary de Padella, with whom he was violently enamoured. Henry, count of Trastamara, the king of Spain's natural brother, alarmed at the fate of his family, and dreading his own, took arms against the tyrant ; but having failed in the attempt, he fled into France, where he found the minds of men inflamed against Peter, on account of the murder of the French princess. He asked permission of Charles to enlist the Companies in his service, and to lead them into Castile against his brother. The French monarch, charmed with the project, employed du Guesclin in negotiating with the leaders of these banditti. The treaty was soon concluded ; and du Gues- clin, having completed his levies, led the army first to Avignon, where the pope then resided, and demanded, sword in hand, absolution for his ruffian soldiers, who had been excommunicated, and the sum of two hundred thou- sand livres for their subsistence. The first was readily promised him ; but some difficulty being made with respect to the second, du Guesclin replied. " My fellows, I believe, may make a shift to do without your absolution : but the money is absolutely necessary." His holiness now extorted from the inhabitants of the city and its neighbourhood, the sum of one hundred thou- sand livres, and offered it to Guesclin. " It is not my purpose," said that generous warrior, " to oppress the innocent people. The pope and his car- dinals can spare me double the sum from their own pockets. I therefore insist that this money be restored to the owners : and if I hear they are de- frauded of it, I will myself return from the other side of the Pyrenees, and oblige you to make them restitution." The pope found the necessity of sub- mitting, and paid from his own treasury the sum demanded.(l) Thus hal- lowed by the blessings and enriched by the spoils of the church, du Guesclin and his army proceeded on their expedition. A body of experienced and hardy soldiers, conducted by so able a general, easily prevailed over the king of Castile, whose subjects were ready to join the enemy against their oppressor. Peter fled from his dominions, took shelter in Guienne, and craved the protection of the Black Prince, whom the king of England had invested with the sovereignty of the ceded provinces, under the title of the principality of Aquitaine. The prince promised his assistance to the dethroned monarch ; and having obtained his father's consent, he levied an army, and set out on his enterprise. The first loss which Henry of Trastamara suffered from the interposition of the prince of Wales, was the recalling of the Companies from his service : and so much reverence did they pay to the name of Edward, that great numbers of them immediately withdrew from Spain, and enlisted under his standard. Henry, however, beloved by his new subjects, and supported by the king of Arragon, was able to meet the enemy with an army of one hun- dred thousand men, three times the number of those commanded by the Black Prince ; yet du Guesclin, and all his experienced officers, advised him to delay a decisive action ; so high was their opinion of the valour and con- duct of the English hero ! But Henry, trusting to his numbers, ventured to give Edward battle on the banks of the Ebro, between Najara and Navarette ; (1} Hist, de Gucsdia. 252 THEHISTORYOF [PART I. where the French and Spaniards were defeated, with the loss of above twenty thousand men, and du Guesclin and other officers of distinction taken pri- soners. All Castile submitted to the victor : Peter was restored to the throne ; and Edward returned to Guienne with his usual glory ; having not only over- come the greatest general of his age, but restrained the most blood-thirsty tyrant from executing vengeance on his prisoners.(l) But this gallant warrior had soon reason to repent his connexions with a prince like Peter, lost to all sense of virtue and honour. That ungrateful monster refused the stipulated pay to the English forces. Edward abandoned him. He treated his subjects with the utmost barbarity: their animosity was roused against him; and du Guesclin, having obtained his ransom, returned to Castile with the count of Trastamara, and some forces levied anew in France. They were joined by the Spanish malecontents ; and having no longer the superior genius, and the superior fortune, of the Black Prince to encounter, they gained a complete victory over Peter, in the neighbour- hood of Toledo. The tyrant now took refuge in a castle where he was soon after besieged by the victors, and taken prisoner in endeavouring to make his escape. He was conducted to his brother Henry ; against whom he is said to have rushed, in a transport of rage, disarmed as he was. Henry slew him with his own hand, in resentment of his cruelties ; and, though a bastard, was honoured with the crown of Castile, which he transmitted to his pos- terity. (2) In the mean time the affairs of the Black Prince were fallen into some dis- order. He had involved himself so much in debt by his Spanish expedition, that he found it necessary, on his return, to impose on his foreign principa- lity a new tax, which some of the nobility paid with extreme reluctance, and to which others absolutely refused to submit. They carried their complaints to the king of France, as their lord paramount; and, as the renunciations agreed to in the treaty of Bretigni had never been made, Charles seized this opportunity to renew his claim of superiority over the English provinces. (3) In this resolution he was encouraged by the declining years of Edward III., and the languishing state of the prince of Wales's health : he therefore sent the prince a summons to appear in his court at Paris, and justify his conduct towards his vassals. The prince replied, that he would come to Paris, but it should be at the head of sixty thousand men. War was renewed between France and England, and with singular reverse of fortune. The low state of the prince of Wales's health, not permitting him to exert his usual acti- vity, the French were victorious in almost every action ; and when he was obliged, by his increasing infirmities, to throw up the command, and return to his native country, the affairs of the English went to total ruin on the continent. They were stripped in a few years of all their ancient possessions in France, except Bourdeaux and Bayonne; and of all their conquests, except Calais.(4) These misfortunes abroad were followed by the decay of the king's autho- rity at home. This was chiefly occasioned by his extravagant attachment to Alice Pierce, a young lady of wit and beauty, whose influence over him had given such general disgust, as to become the object of parliamentary remon- strance. The indolence naturally attendant on years and infirmities, had also made Edward resign the administration into the hands of his son, the duke of Lancaster, whose unpopular manners and proceedings weakened extremely the affections of the English to their sovereign. Meanwhile the prince of Wales died ; leaving behind him a character adorned with every eminent virtue, and which would throw lustre on the most shining period of ancient or modern history. The king survived that melancholy incident only about twelve months. He expired in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the fifty-first of his reign ; one of the longest and most glorious in the English annals. His latter days were, indeed, somewhat obscured by the infirmities (1) FroissariV Hv. i. (2) Id. ibid. (3) T. Walsingham. Froissard, ubi sup. (4) Id. ibid. LET. XLL] MODERNEUROPE. 253 and the follies of old age ; but he was no sooner dead, than the people of England were sensible of their irreparable loss, and posterity considers him as the greatest and most accomplished prince of his time. The domestic government of Edward was even more worthy of admiration than his foreign victories. By the prudence and vigour of his administra- tion, England enjoyed a longer time of interior peace and tranquillity, than it had been blessed with in any former period, or than it experienced for many ages after. He gained the affections of the great, yet curbed their licen- tiousness. His affable and obliging behaviour, his munificence and generosity, made them submit with pleasure to his dominion: his valour and conduct made them successful in most military enterprises ; and their unquiet spirits, directed against a public enemy, had no leisure to bleed those private feuds to which they were naturally so much disposed. This internal tranquillity was the chief benefit that England derived from Edward's continental expe- ditions : and the miseries of the reign of his successor made the nation fully sensible of the value of the blessing. But before I speak of the administration of Richard II., the unhappy son of the Black Prince, I must carry forward the affairs of the German empire,. At present, however, it will be proper to observe, that the French monarch, Charles V., whose prudent conduct had acquired him the surname of Wise, died soon after Edward III., while he was attempting to expel the English from the few places which they still retained in France, and left his kingdom to a minor son of the same name, Charles VI. ; so that England and France were now both under the government of minors. And both experienced the misfortunes of a turbulent and divided regency. LETTER XLL The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, jrom the Election of Lewis of' Bavaria, to the Death of Charles IV. WE now, my dear Philip, approach to that era in the history of the Gernaar empire, when the famous constitution, called the Golden Bull, was established , which, among other things, settled the number and the rights of the electors, as yet uncertain, and productive of many disorders. Henry VII., as you have already seen, struggled hard to recover the sove reignty of Italy ; but he died before he was able to accomplish his purpose His death was followed by an interregnum of fourteen months, which were employed in the intrigues of Lewis of Bavaria, and of Frederic the Handsome, duke of Austria. Lewis was elected by the greater number of the princes but Frederic being chosen and supported by a faction, disputed the empin with him. A furious civil war, which long desolated both Italy and Germany was the consequence of this opposition. At last the two competitors mei near Muldorf, and agreed to decide their important dispute by thirty cham pions, fifteen against fifteen. The champions accordingly engaged in pre sence of both armies, and fought with such fury, that in a short time not one of them was left alive. A general action followed, in which the Austrians were worsted. But this victory was not decisive. Frederic soon repaired his loss, and even ravaged Bavaria. The Bavarian assembled a powerful army, in order to oppose his rival ; and the battle of Vechivis, in which the duke of Austria was taken prisoner, fixed the imperial crown on the head ol Lewis V.(l) During the course of these struggles, was fought, between the Swiss and Austrians, the memorable battle of Morgart ; which established the liberty of Swisserland, as the victory of Marathon had formerly done that of Greece and Attic eloquence only was wanting to render it equally famous. Sixteei (1) Avent. Annul. Boior. lib. vii 254 Til K H i S T O k Y OF [PART -I. hundred Swiss, from the cantons of Uri, Schwitz, and Underwald, defeated an army of twenty thousand Austrians, in passing the mountains near Mor- gart, in 1315, and drove them out of the country with terrible slaughter. The alliance which these three cantons had entered into for the term of ten years, was now converted into a perpetual league ; and the other cantons occasionally joined in it.(l) Lewis V. had no sooner humbled the duke of Austria, than a new anta- gonist started up : he had the pope to encounter. The reigning pontiff at that time was John XXII., who had been elected at Lyons in 1315, by the influence of Philip the Long, king of France. John was the son of a cobbler, and one of those men who, raised to power by chance or merit, are haughty in proportion to the meanness of their birth. He had not hitherto, however, interfered in the affairs of the empire; but now, all at once, he set himself up as its judge and master. He declared the election of Lewis void : he maintained . that it was the right of the sovereign pontiff to examine and confirm the election of emperors ; that the government, during a vacancy, belonged to him : and he commanded the emperor, by virtue of his apostolic power, to lay aside the imperial ensigns, until he should receive permission from the Holy See to reassume them. (2) Several attempts were made by Lewis towards a reconciliation with his holiness, but in vain : the proud pontiff was inflexible, and would listen to no reasonable conditions. The emperor therefore, jealous of the independency of his crown, endeavoured to strengthen his interest both in Italy and Ger- many. He continued the government of Milan in the family of the Visconti, who were rather masters than magistrates of that city; and he conferred the government of Lucca on Castruccio Castruccani, a celebrated captain, whose life is pompously written by Machiavel. The German princes were mostly in his interest, and no less jealous than he of the dignity of the empire. Enraged at such firmness, pope John excommunicated and deposed the emperor Lewis, and endeavoured to get Charles the Fair, king of France, elected in his room. But this attempt miscarried. None of the German princes, except Leopold of Austria, came to the place appointed for an inter- view with the French monarch ; and the imprudent and ambitious Charles returned chagrined and disappointed into his own dominions. (3) Thus freed from a dangerous rival, the emperor marched into Italy, in order to establish his authority in that country. He was crowned at Milan, and afterward at Rome ; where he ordered the following proclamation to be made three times by an Augustine friar : " Is there any one who will defend the cause of the priest of Cahors, who calls himself pope John ?" And no person appearing, sentence was immediately pronounced against his holi- ness. Lewis declared him convicted of heresy, deprived him of all his dig- nities and benefices, and delivered him over to the secular power, in order to suffer the punishment of fire ; and Peter Rainaucci, a Neapolitan Cordelier, was created pope under the name of Nicholas V.(4) But Lewis, notwithstanding this mighty parade, was soon obliged, like his predecessors, to quit Italy, in order to quell the troubles of Germany ; and pope John, though a refugee on the banks of the Rhone, recovered his au thority in Rome. The imperialists were expelled the city ; and Nicholas V. the emperor's pope, was carried to Avignon, where, with a rope about his neck, he publicly implored forgiveness of his rival, and ended his days in a prison. (5) The emperor, in the mean time, remained in peace at Munich, having settled the affairs of Germany. But he still lay under the censures of the church, and the pope continued to solicit the princes of the empire to revolt against him. Lewis was preparing to assemble a general council, in order to depose his holiness a second time, when the death of John made such a mea- sure unnecessary, and relieved the emperor from all dread of the spiritual (1) Simler, de Repub. Helvetic. (2) Steph. Baluzii. fit. Pontif. Aveiiion. vol. i. (3) Villani, lib. ix. (4) Baluzii, ubi sup. (5) Id. ibid. LET. XLIJ MODERN EUROPE. 256 thunder. This turbulent pope, who first invented the taxes for dispensations and mortal sins, died immensely rich. He was succeeded in the papacy by James Fournier, surnamed the White Cardinal, who assumed the name of Benedict XII.(l) The new pope, who seemed desirous to tread in the steps of his predeces- sor, confirmed all the bulls which had been issued by John against the em- peror But Lewis had now affairs of more importance to engage his atten- tion, than those important fulminations. John of Luxemburg, second son of the king of Bohemia, had married Margaret, surnamed Great Mouth, heiress of Carinthia ; and that princess, accusing her husband of impotency, a bishop of Frisingen dissolved the marriage, and she espoused the margrave of Bran- denburg, son of the emperor Lewis, who readily consented to a match that added Tyrol and Carinthia to the possessions of his family. This marriage produced a war between the houses of Bavaria and Bohemia, which lasted only one year, but occasioned abundance of bloodshed ; and the parties came to a very singular accommodation. John of Luxemburg confessed that his wife had reason to forsake him, renounced all claim to her, and ratified her marriage with the margrave of Brandenburg.(S) This affair being settled, Lewis exerted all his endeavours to appease the domestic troubles of the empire, which were still kept alive by the intrigues of the pope ; and, notwithstanding all the injuries and insults he had sus- tained, he made several attempts towards an accommodation with the Holy See. But these negotiations being rendered ineffectual by the influence of France, the princes of the empire, ecclesiastical as well as secular, assembled a*t Frankfort, and established that famous constitution, by which it was irre- coverably fixed, " That the plurality of the suffrages of the electoral college confers the empire, without the consent of the Holy See: that the pope has no superiority over the emperor of Germany, nor any right to approve or reject his election ; and that to maintain the contrary is high-treason." They* also refuted the absurd claim of the popes to the government of the empire during a vacancy; ahd declared, that this right appertains, by ancient custom, to the count Palatine of the Rhine.(3) Germany now enjoyed for some years what it had seldom known, the bless- ings of peace, which was again interrupted by the court of Avignon. Bene- dict XII. was succeeded in the papacy by Clement VI., a native of France, and so haughty and enterprising as to affirm, that his " predecessors did not know what it was to be popes." He began his pontificate with renewing all "the bulls issued against Lewis ; with naming a vicar-general of the empire in Lombardy, and endeavouring to make all Italy shake off the emperor's authority. Lewis, still desirous of an accommodation with the Holy See, amidst all these acts of enmity, sent ambassadors to the court of Avignon. But the conditions prescribed by his holiness were so unreasonable, that they were rejected with disdain by a diet of the empire, as an insult upon the imperial dignity. Clement, more incensed than ever at this instance of diregard, fulminated new excommunications against the emperor. " May the wrath of God," says the enraged pontiff in one of his bulls, " and of St. Peter and St. Paul, crush him in this world, and that which is to come ! May the earth open and swallow him alive ; may his memory perish, and all the elements be his enejnies ; and may his children fall into the hands of his adversaries, even in the sight of their father !"(4) Clement issued another bull for the election of a new emperor; and Charles of Luxemburg, margrave of Moravia, afterward known by the name of Charles IV. son and heir of John, king of Bohemia, having made the ne- cessary concessions to his holiness, was elected king of the Romans by a faction. Lewis, however, maintained his authority till his death, which hap- pened soon after the election of his rival ; when Charles, rather by his mo- ney than his valour, got possession of the imperial throne. (1) Baluzii. Vit. Pontif. dvenion. (2) Hist, de Luxembourg. (3) Ileiss, Hv. ii. chap. 96. (4; .Innal. de I'Emp. torn, ii. 856 THE HISTORY OF [PxR-t 1 While these things were transacting in Germany, a singular scene vus exhibited in Italy. Nicholas Rienzi, a private citizen of Rome, but an c o- quent, bold, enterprising man, and a patriot, seeing that city abandoned ?v the emperors and the popes, set himself up as the restorer of the Romar. liberty and the Roman power. Proclaimed tribune by the people, and put in possession of the Capitol, he declared all the inhabitants of Italy free, and denizens of Rome But these convulsive struggles of long-expiring freedom, like many others, proved ineffectual. Rienzi, who styled himself " the severe though merciful Deliverer of Rome, the zealous Asserter of the Liberties of Italyt and the Lover of all Mankind," as he attempted to imitate the Gracchi, met the same fate, being murdered by the patrician faction. (1) A scene no less extraordinary was about this time exhibited at Naples. The kingdom of Naples and Sicily still continued to be ruled by foreigners. Naples was governed by the house of France, and Sicily by that of Arragon. Robert of Anjou, son of Charles the Lame, though he had failed in his attempt to recover possession of Sicily, had made Naples a flourishing kingdom. He died 1343, and left his crown to Joan his granddaughter, who had married her relation Andrew, brother to Lewis of Anjou, elected king of Hungary ; a match which seemed to cement the happiness and prosperity of that house, but proved the source of all its misfortunes. Andrew pretended to reign in his own right ; and Joan, though but eighteen years of age, insisted that he should only be considered as the queen's husband. A Franciscan friar, called Brother Robert, by whose advice Andrew was wholly governed, lighted up the flames of hatred and discord between the royal pair ; and the Hungarians, of whom Andrew's court was chiefly composed, excited the jealousy of the Neapolitans, who considered them as Barbarians. It was therefore resolved, in a council of the queen's favourites, to put Andrew to death. He was ac- cordingly strangled in his wife's antichamber : and Joan married the prince tf Tarentum, who had been publicly accused of the murder of her husband, and was well known to have been concerned in that bloody deed. How strong a presumption of her own guilt ! In the mean time Lewis king of Hungary, brother to the murdered Andrew, wrote to Joan, that he would revenge the death of that unfortunate prince on her and her accomplices. He accordingly set out for Naples by the way of Venice and Rome. At Rome he publicly accused Joan, before the tribune Rienzi ; who, during the existence of his transitory power, beheld several kings appealing to his tribunal, as was customary in the times of the ancient republic. Rienzi, however, declined giving his decision ; a moderation by which he at least gave one example of his prudence : and Lewis advanced towards Naples, carrying along with him a black standard, on which were painted the most striking circumstances of Andrew's murder. He ordered a prince of the blood, and one of the accomplices in the regicide to be be- headed. Joan and her husband fled into Provence ; where, finding herself utterly abandoned by her subjects, she waited on pope Clement VI. at Avig- non, a city of which she was sovereign, as countess of Provence, and which she sold to that pontiff, together with its territories, for eighty thousand florins of gold, which a celebrated historian tells us were never paid. Here she pleaded her cause in person before the pope, and was acquitted. But perhaps the desire of possessing Avignon had some influence upon the judg- ment of his holiness. Clement's kindness did not stop here. In order to engage the king of Hungary to quit Naples, he proposed that Joan should pay him a sum ol money; but as ambition or avarice had no share in Lewis's enterprise, lie generously replied, " I am not come hither to sell my brother's blood, but to revenge it !" and as he had partly effected his purpose he went away satisfied, though the kingdom 6f Naples was in his power. (2) Joan recovered her dominions, but only to become more wretched. Of her unhappy fate I sha3 afterward have occasion to speak. 1 Jlnnal de VEmp. torn. ii. ( most potent barons in England, and the malecontents in all quarters flew to arms. He solemnly declared that he had no other purpose in this invasion than to recover the dutchy of Lancaster, unjustly detained from him: and he entreated his uncle, the duke of York, who had been left guardian of the kingdom, not to oppose a loyal and humble supplicant in the recovery of his (1) T. Walsingham. Froissard.liv. iv Eyraer, vol. vii. (2) T. Walsingham. Part. Hist, vol i 13} Tvrrel, vol. .iii. from the Records. KS THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. legal patrimony. His entreaties had the desired effect. The guardian em- braced his cause, and he immediately found himself master of England. Richard no sooner received intelligence of this invasion than he hastened over from Ireland, and landed at Milford-Haven-with a body of twenty thou- sand men. But even that small army was seized with the spirit of disaffec- tion, and the king found himself almost entirely deserted. In this extremity he fled to the Isle of Anglesea, where he proposed to embark for France, and there wait the return of his subjects to a sense of their duty. But before he had an opportunity of carrying his design into execution, the earl of North umberland waited upon him from the duke of Lancaster, with the strongest professions of loyalty and submission ; and Richard was so credulous as to put himself in the power of his enemy. He was carried about in an abject manner, exposed to the insults of the populace ; deposed, confined in prison, and afterward murdered.(l) And the duke of Lancaster was proclaimed king, under the name of Henry IV. The beginning of the reign of Henry IV. as may naturally be expected from the manner in which he obtained the throne, was stained by many acts of blood and violence. All who opposed his title fell a sacrifice to his rigid policy, and superstition was called in to swell by new crimes the horrid cata- logue. While a subject, Henry was believed to have strongly imbibed the principles of Wickliffe, a secular priest educated at Oxford, who, during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., preached the doctrine of reformation; hut finding himself possessed of the throne by so precarious a title, this politic prince thought superstition a necessary engine of public authority. There had Hitherto been no penal laws enacted against heresy in England : Henry, therefore, who made nothing of sacrificing his principles to his interest, understanding that the clergy called loudly for the punishment of the disciples of Wickliffe, whose learning and genius had in ome measure broken the fetters of prejudice, resolved to procure the favour of the church by the most effectual of all methods, by gratifying her vengeance on those who presumed to dispute her infallibility. A law was accordingly enacted, that when any heretic, who relapsed, or refused to abjure his opinions, was delivered over to the secular arm by the bishop or his commissaries, he should be committed to the flames by the civil magistrate, before the whole people. (2) This weapon did not long remain unemployed in the hands of the clergy. William Sautre, a clergyman in London, had been condemned by the convo- cation at Canterbury : his sentence was ratified by the house of peers ; and the unhappy sectary suffered the punishment of fire, because he could not think as the church directed. What a fatal prelude to future horrors, pro- ceeding from the same source ! But all the prudence and precaution of Henry could not shield him from numerous alarms. He was threatened from France with an invasion, which was only prevented by the disorders in that country ; and the revolution in England was speedily followed by an insurrection in Wales. Owen Glendour, descended from the ancient princes of that country, had become obnoxious on account of his attachment to Richard ; and Reginald, lord Grey of Ruthyn, who was closely connected with the new king, and who enjoyed a great for- tune in the Marches of Wales, thought the o\ portunity favourable for op- pressing his neighbour, and taking possession of his estate. Glendour, pro- voked at the injustice, and still more at the indignity, recovered possession by the sword. Henry sent assistance to Grey, the Welch took part with Glendour : a tedious and troublesome war was kindled, which Glendour long sustained by his valour and activity, aided by the natural strength of the country and the untamed spirit of the inhabitants. The Scots also were tempted by these disorders to make incursions into England ; and Henry, desirous of taking revenge upon them, conducted an army as far north as Edinburgh. But finding that the Scots would neithet submit nor give him battle, he returned without effecting- any thing of con (1) T. Walsinghnm Froiesard, ubi sup (2) 2 Hen. IV. c. 7 LET. XLII.l MODERN EUROPE. 263 sequence. Next season, however, Archibald earl of Douglas, who, at the head of twelve thousand men, attended by many of the principal nobility of Scotland, had made an irruption into the northern counties, was overtaken by the Percies of Northumberland on his return, at Homeldon, on the borders of England, where a fierce battle ensued, and the Scots were totally routed. Douglas himself was taken prisoner ; as were the earls of Angus, Murray. Orkney, and many others of the Scottish nobility and gentry.(l) When Henry received intelligence of this victory, he sent the earl of Northumberland orders not to ransom his prisoners : a privilege which that nobleman regarded as his right by the then received laws of war. The king intended to detain them, that he might be able, by their means, to make an advantageous peace with Scotland. But by this selfish policy he gave fresh disgust to the powerful family of Northumberland. The impatient spirit of Harry Percy, commonly known by the name of Hotspur, and factious dis- position of the earl of Worcester, younger brother of the earl of Northum- berland, inflamed the discontents of that nobleman; and the precarious title of Henry tempted Northumberland to seek revenge, by overturning that throne which he had at first established. He entered into a correspondence with Glendour : he set the earl of Douglas at liberty, and made an alliance with that martial chieftain. But when war was ready to break out, the earl of Northumberland was unfortunately seized with a sudden illness at Ber- wick ; and young Percy, taking the command of the troops, marched towards Shrewsbury, in order to join his forces with those of Glendour. The king had happily a small army on foot with which he intended to act against the Scots ; and knowing the importance of celerity in all civil wars, ne instantly hurried down, in order to giye battle to the rebels. He ap- proached Percy near Shrewsbury, before that nobleman was joined by Glen- dour ; and the policy of one leader, and impatience of the other, made them hasten to a general engagement. The armies were nearly equal in number, consisting of about twelve thousand men each ; and we scarcely find any battle in those ages where the shock was more terrible or more constant. Henry exposed his person in the thickest of the fight ; and the prince of Wales, his gallant son, whose military achievements became afterward so famous, and who here performed his noviciate in arms, signalized himself in a remarkable manner. Percy supported that renown which he had acquired in many a bloody combat ; and Douglas, his ancient enemy, and now his friend, still appeared his rival amid the horror and confusion of the fight. This nobleman performed feats of valour which are almost incredible. He seemed determined the king of England should fall that day by his arm. He sought him all over the field ; and as Henry had accoutred several captains in the royal garb, in order to encourage his troops, the sword of Douglas rendered that honour fatal to many. But while the armies were contending in this furious manner, the death of Hotspur, accomplished by an unknown hand, decided the victory ; the royalists prevailed. There are said to have fallen on both sides near two thousand three hundred gentlemen. The earl of Northumberland, having recovered from his sickness, had levied a fresh army, and was on his march to join his son ; but being op- posed by the earl of Westmoreland, and hearing of the defeat at Shrewsbury, he dismissed his forces, and came with a small retinue to the king at York. He pretended that his sole intention in arming was to mediate between the parties. Henry thought proper to admit the apology, and even granted him a pardon for his offence. All the other rebels were treated with equal lenity : and, except the earl of Worcester and sir Richard Vernon, who were re- garded as the chief authors of the insurrection, no person engaged in that dangerous conspiracy seems to have perished by the hands of the execu- tioner.(2) This rebellion was no sooner quelled than another wagready to break out, nupported by the earl of Nottingham and the archbishop of York. But it 0) Watoingham, Hall, Otterbourne. (2) Walsingham, Hall, Otterbournc, Rymer, vol viii 264 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. was discovered before it was ripe for execution, and the earl and the arch- bishop were both beheaded. Northumberland also was concerned in this second rebellion, but made his escape into Scotland ; whence returning to commit new disorders, he was slain at Bramham, along with lord Bardolf.(l) The defeat of Glendour, and the submission of the Welch, which happened soon after, freed Henry from all his domestic enemies ; and a fortunate event which had thrown the heir to the crown of Scotland into his hands made him also secure on that quarter. Robert III. king of Scotland, though a prince of slender capacity, was extremely innocent and inoffensive in his conduct. But Scotland, at that time, was still less fitted than England for cherishing a sovereign of such a character. The duke of Albany, Robert's brother, a prince of a boisterous and violent disposition, had assumed the government of the state ; and not satisfied with present authority, he entertained the criminal purpose of ex- tirpating his brother's children, and of acquiring the crown to his own family. He threw into prison David, his eldest nephew, who there perished by hunger; so that James, the younger brother of David, alone stood between the tyrant and the throne. Robert, therefore, sensible of his son's danger, embarked him on board a ship, with a view of sending him into France, and of trusting him to the protection of that friendly power. Unfortunately, however, the vessel was taken by the English : and although there subsisted at that time a truce between the two kingdoms, Henry refused to restore the young prince to his liberty. (2) But he made ample amends for this want of generosity by bestowing on James an excellent education, which afterward qualified him, when he mounted the 'throne, to reform, in some measure, the rude and bar- barous manners of his native country. The remaining part of the reign of Henry IV. was chiefly spent in regu- lating the affairs of his kingdom ; which he at length brought into much order, by his valour, prudence, and address. In his latter years, however, he began to turn his eyes towards those bright projects which his more fortunate son conducted so successfully against the French monarchy ; but his declining health prevented him from attempting to put any of them in execution. Af- flicted for some years with violent fits, which frequently deprived him of all sensation, and threatened his existence, he was carried off by one of them at Westminster, in the v forty-sixth year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign. (3) He left behind him the reputation of a wise prince, a prudent king, but a bad man ; and yet, if we consider the circumstances in which he was involved, we can hardly conceive any person to carry his ambition to the same height, and transmit a throne to his posterity, with less violence to humanity. t We should now examine the affairs of France under Charles VI. as an introduction to the reign of Henry V. of England, who became sovereign of both kingdoms ; but we must first carry forward the history of the empire and the church. LETTER XLIII. T-* German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome and the Italian States, from the Accession of Winceslaus to the Death of Sigismund. THE history of the German empire, my dear Philip, becomes always more important to us, in proportion as we advance in the narration, though the empire itself grew daily less consequential. We now approach two principal events* in the histqjy of the church : the Great Schism in the West and the Council of Constance. (1) T Walsingham. (2) Buchanan, lib. 10. Scotichronicon Ub. xv. (3) Wnlsingham. Otterbourne. LET. XLIII.] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 2C5 Winceslaus, at the age of seventeen, succeeded his father, Charles IV., in the government of the empire, and on the throne of Bohemia, when the church was divided by one of those violent contests so disgraceful to Christianity. The Italians had raised to the pontificate Urban VI., who confirmed the elec- tion of the new emperor, and the French had chosen Clement VII. During these troubles Winceslaus appointed Ja'doc, marquis of Moravia, his vicar- general in Italy ; laid injunctions on him to inquire which of the two persons chosen was the true pope ; to acknowledge and protect him whom he should find to be canonic-ally elected, and to expel by force the other, who had intruded himself into the chair. He likewise held a diet at Nuremburg, and afterward one at Frankfort ; where the affair of the popes being examined, Urban VI. was acknowledged by the German bishops and archbishops, and Winceslaus and the princes of the empire engaged to protect him in the papacy. (1) After the diet of Frankfort, the emperor repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he resided some time, because the plague raged in Bohemia ; and here he gave himself up to all manner of debauchery, neglecting the affairs of the empire to such a degree, that the princes and towns of Germany were obliged to enter into associations for their mutual defence. At the same time Italy was torn in pieces by the schism in the church. Clement, who had taken Rome from his rival, was expelled in his turn by the citizens, and afterward settled at Avignon, the former residence of the French pontiffs. Urban used his victory like a tyrant. But all priests in power, it has been said, are tyrants. The famous Joan, queen of Naples, of whom I have already had occasion to speak, first experienced the effects of Urban's vengeance. This princess, who had imprudently espoused the cause of Clement, had been several times married, but had no children by any of her husbands ; she therefore adopted Charles de Durazzo, the natural heir to her kingdom, and the only remaining descendant of the house of Anjou in Naples. But Du- razzo, unwilling to wait for the crown till the natural death of his adoptive mother, associated himself with pope Urban, who crowned him king of Naples at Rome, on condition that he should bestow the principality of Capua on Francis Prignano, nephew to his holiness. Urban also deposed queen Joan, and declared her guilty of heresy and high treason. These steps being taken, the pope and Durazzo marched towards Naples. The church plate and church lands were sold, in order to facilitate the con- quest. Joan, meanwhile, was destitute of both money and troops. In this extremity, she invited to her assistance Lewis of Anjou, brother to Charles V. of France. But Lewis, whom she had adopted in the room of the un- grateful Durazzo, arrived too late to defend his benefactress, or dispute the kingdom with his competitor. The pope and Durazzo entered Naples, aftei having defeated and taken prisoner Otho of Brunswick, the queen's husband. All resistance now appeared to be in vain, and flight alone seemed prac- ticable. But even in this the unfortunate Joan failed : she fell into the hands of the usurper ; who, in order to give some colour to his barbarity, declared himself the avenger of the murder of her first husband. Lewis king of Hungary was consulted in regard to the fate of the unhappy queen. He replied that she must suffer the same death which she had inflicted on his brother and her husband, Andrew : and Durazzo ordered her to be smo- thered between two mattresses. (2) Thus perished the famous Joan I queen of Naples, who was celebrated by Petrarch and Boccace ; and whose life, character, and catastrophe, have a singular resemblance to those of the unfortunate Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, whom I shall afterward have occasion to mention. While one gallant woman thus sunk beneath the arm of power, another rose superior to all resistance. On the death of Olaus, king of Denmark, his mother Margaret ascended the throne, with the unanimous consent of the (1) Du Puy, Hist. Gen. du Schisme, &c. Mairabourg, Hist, du grand Sckismc d'Occidei 2) Giannone, Hist, di Nap. 10 366 THEHISTORYOF [PART!. people ; and even recommended herself so strongly to the Swedes, who were oppressed by their own king Albert, that they renounced their allegiance to that prince, and made her a solemn tender of their crown. She accepted the offer ; marched to their assistance, and defeated Albert, who was deposed, and obliged to retire into the dominions of his brother the Duke of Mecklen- burg. On this revolution in Swederi, Margaret assumed the reins of govern- ment, and was distinguished by the appellation of the Semiramis of the North.(l) Meantime Winceslaus continued immersed in debauchery, and seemed industrious in acquiring the implacable hatred of his subjects by the extraor- dinary taxes he imposed, and the cruelties which he exercised upon people of all ranks. In order to familiarize himself to blood and carnage, he descended so low as to contract an intimacy with the public executioner, whom he dis- tinguished by the appellation of his gossip ; and in one of his fits of intoxica- tion, he is said to have ordered his cook to be roasted alive. (2) On account of these irregularities, and of selling the rights of the empire, both in Italy and Germany, the electors assembled at the castle of Laenstein on the Rhine, deposed Winceslaus, and raised to the imperial dignity Frederic duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg; but he being basely murdered by count Waldeck before his coronation, they elected in his stead Rupert or Robert count Palatine of the Rhine. Winceslaus was so little mortified at the news of his deposition, that he is reported to have said, when he received the intelligence, " We are overjoyed to be delivered from the burden of the empire ; because we shall have more leisure to apply ourselves to the government of our own kingdom ;" and it must be owned that, during the nineteen years which he afterward reigned in Bohemia, his conduct was much less exceptionable. But although the indo- lent Winceslaus was so little concerned at the loss of the empire, he appears to have been sensibly affected by some of its probable consequences, though seemingly of less moment-; for he is said to have desired as a last mark of the fidelity of the imperial cities, that they would send him " some butts of their best wine."(3) The first expedition of the new emperor was against Galeazo Visconti, whom Winceslaus had created duke of Milan, and who, not contented with this promotion, proposed by force of arms to make himself master of Flo- rence, Mantua, Bologna, and other tOAvns and countries, to be incorporated with his dutchy. In order to preserve these territories, and recover the im- perial authority in Italy, Robert marched into the dutchy of Milan, and en- camped before the city of Brixen. But Galeazo was so well provided with troops and military stores, that the emperor was obliged to return to Germany without being able to effect any thing of importance. (4) The retreat of Robert left the field open to Galeazo, who now projected nothing less than the conquest of the whole kingdom of Italy : and fortune at first seemed to second his views. He made himself master of the city of Bologna, and had almost reduced Florence, when he was attacked by a malig- nant fever, which at once put an end to his life and his projects. As he left only one daughter, who was not of age, a favourable opportunity was offered Robert of retrieving the affairs of the empire in Italy. But the Ger- man princes were so little pleased with his first expedition, that they would not grant him supplies for a second. He therefore employed himself in appeasing the troubles of Germany, and aggrandizing his own electorate ; to which he added the fiefs of Gegenbach, Ortemberg, Offenburg, Zell, Her- manbach, and several other lordships of Alsace, purchased of the bishop oJ Strasburg.(5) In the mean time Bohemia was involved in new disorders by the preaching of John Huss, professor of divinity in the university of Prague, who had embraced the opinions of Wickliffe, and was excommunicated by the pope. (1) Nuitfel. Hist. Dan. torn. iv. (2) Duhrav. lib. xxiii. Jlnnal. de VEmp. torn, ii '3) Barre, torn. vii. (4) Hei*s, lib. ii. cap. xxviii. (5) Barre, torn vto LET. XLIII.] MODERN EUROPE. 267 The publication of this sentence was followed by troubles and seditions. Winceslaus shut himself up in the fortress of Visigrade, and John Huss retired to Hussinet, the place of his nativity; where he appealed from the judgment of the pope to the Holy Trinity, and wrote to the cardinals, offering to give an account of his faith, even at the hazard of fire, before the univer- sity of Prague, and in the presence of those who had attended his lectures and sermons.(l) The Roman church not only suffered from these innovations, but also con- tinued in a state of distraction from the schism which still remained, and which the emperor attempted in vain to cement. Gregory XII., who was ac- knowledged pope in Italy, convened a council at Aquileia, to which he invited Robert, and other Christian princes, in order to consider this matter. Bene- dict XIII., who was owned in France, held another council at Catalonia: the cardinals convoked a third at Pisa, and the emperor appointed a diet for the same purpose at Frankfort ; where, after long debates, the opinions of the assembly were divided between the two popes. The greater part of the arch- bishops, prelates, and princes, espoused the cause of the cardinals ; but the emperor, the archbishop of Triers, the duke of Bavaria, and some others, declared for Gregory, who proposed that a council should be held at Udina, in Friuli, under the direction of Robert, by whose decision he promised to abide. The emperor therefore sent an archbishop, two bishops, two doctors, and his chancellor, as ambassadors to Pisa, to prove by learned arguments that the cardinals ought not to depose Gregory. But these ambassadors, find- ing they could make no converts to their opinion, and that the cardinals, attached to Winceslaus, would not even acknowledge their master as emperor, appealed from the council of Pisa to an ecumenical council, and retired with- out taking leave. The cardinals, however, proceeded to the deposition of the two popes, and raised to the apostolic chair Alexander V. By this measure the schism was increased, there being now three popes instead of two. (2) Robert died soon after this pious negotiation, and before he was able to settle the affairs of the Holy See. He was succeeded in the empire, after a disputed election, by Sigismund, brother to the deposed Winceslaus, and king of Hungary ; a prince of experience and abilities, and whose first care was to heal the wounds of the church. For that purpose, he convoked a genera] council at Constance, with the concurrence of pope John XXIII., successoi to Alexander V. At this council, where Sigismund appeared in all his glory, were present a prodigious number of cardinals, prelates, doctors ; more than a hundred sove- reign princes ; one hundred and eight counts ; two hundred barons ; and twenty-seven ambassadors from the several European courts : who all vied with each other in luxury and magnificence. There were also five hundred players on instruments, called in those times minstrels ; and seven hundred and eighteen courtezans, who were protected by the magistracy. (3) In the first session, the fathers of the council concluded that nothing could so effectually contribute to re-establish the union of the church as the resig- nation of the competitors for the papacy. John XXIII., who presided in the council, assented to this opinion, and promised to renounce his title, provided Angelo Corrario, who had assumed the name of Gregory XII., and Peter de Luna, distinguished by that of Benedict XIII., would imitate him in that act of self-denial. This declaration was no sooner made than the emperor rose from his chair, and ran and embraced the feet of his holiness, applauding his Christian resignation. He was also solemnly thanked by the patriarch of Antioch, in the name of the whole council. But John afterward repented of this condescension ; and, by the assistance of Frederic duke of Austria, fled from Constance in the night, disguised in the habit of a postillion. (4) This unexpected retreat at first disconcerted the council, which John (1) Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. iii. et. Auct. cit. in loc. (2) Id. ibid. C3) Anr.u.1. de VEmp. torn. ii. (4) Thod. de Niem. in Fit. Jo. XXIII 268 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. declared to be dissolved in consequence of his secession. But the fathers at length agreed, after many learned arguments, that a council is superior to the pope; confirmed the sentence of John's deposition; decreed that no other pope should be chosen without the consent of the council ; and that John, together with his competitors, Angelo Corrario and Peter de Luna, should be for ever excluded from the papacy. Finding them thus determined, John thought proper to yield to the torrent rather than run the risk of worse fortune in attempting to oppose it. He quietly acquiesced in the sentence of the council, and freely renounced the pontificate, the ensigns of which he immediately laid aside.(l) Soon after this resignation, Gregory XII. sent a legate to the emperor and council to renounce his title in the same manner ; but the proud Spaniard, Peter de Luna, would not yield : he remained obsti- nate to the last. The affair of John Huss came next upon the carpet. John, as has been already observed, had imbibed the opinions of Wickliffe, and converted to his own way of thinking an infinite number of people of all ranks. Among others, his doctrine was embraced by Jerome of Prague, a man of learning, whom he engaged as his colleague, and who propagated the new religion with great warmth. They had been summoned to appear before the court of Rome, but refused to obey the citation. They condescended, however, to attend the council of Constance, in order to justify the doctrine they pro- fessed; and Huss, being provided with a safe-conduct from the emperor, boldly attempted to defend the articles of his faith before the fathers of the council. That venerable body, however, seemed inclined to condemn him unheard, when the emperor desired them to listen to what Huss had to say in his own defence. He was accordingly questioned in presence of Sigismund, and accused of heresy in thirty-nine articles. Part of these lie denied, and part he offered to defend. But his voice was drowned by the noise purposely made by the cardinals ; and on his refusing to abjure all the thirty-nine arti- cles, he was immediately declared a sower of sedition, a hardened heretic, a disciple and defender of Wickliffe. As such he was degraded by four bishops, stripped of his sacerdotal habit, and clothed in a lay dress. His hair was cut in the form of a cross : upon his head was put a paper mitre, painted with the representation of three devils ; and he was delivered over to the secular judge, who condemned him and his writings to the flames, and fixed the day of his execution. (2) He died with great constancy. After the execution of John Huss, the council resumed the affair of Peter de Luna, who still obstinately refused to quit his pretensions to the papacy. On this occasion Sigismund offered to go into Spain in person, and engage the mediation of Ferdinand king of Arragon, with whom Peter had taken refuge. By such a journey the emperor hoped to obtain a voluntary renun- ciation, like that of the other two, before the council should proceed to extremity. He set out accordingly for Spain, accompanied by twelve deputies from the council; and on his arrival at Perpignan, he entered into a negotia- tion with Benedict, otherwise Peter de Luna, the result of which was sent to the council, though by no means answerable to his expectations. The obsti- nacy of Benedict was insurmountable, and incensed the emperor to such a degree, that he threatened to obtain by force that assent which the pope refused to grant by fair means; and Benedict, in consequence of these menaces, retired to the fortress of Paniscola, where he resolved to preserve his pontifical dignity to his latest breath. This unexpected flight deprived him of all his partisans. The king of Arragon, with all the princes and bishops of his party, sent deputies to the emperor at Narbonne ; where it was agreed, that the council should invite all the former adherents of Benedict to come to Constance, and join their endeavours for re-establishing the peace of the church ; and that, on their arrival, a new pope should be chosen.(S) During the absence of Sigismund, the trial of Jerome of Prague engaged (1) Thod. de Niem. in Vit. Jo. XXIII. (i2) Laur. Byzin. Diar. Hustitic. Chron. Mag-deb. Biblioth. /?**' /3) Thod. deJViem. ubi sup. Heiss, lib. ii. cap. 30. LET. XLIIL] MODERNEUROPE. 269 the attention of the council. This man had repaired to Constance, with a design to assist John Huss in making his defence ; but perceiving he had nothing to hope from the clemency of the fathers, he resolved to retire with all expedition into Bohemia. Being apprehended, however, upon the road, he was loaded with chains, and brought back to Constance ; where, in order to avoid the punishment of fire, he solemnly abjured the opinions of Wickliffe and Huss. But ashamed to survive his master, who had encountered death with so much firmness, or not deriving the advantages he expected from his submission, he professed anew the same doctrines ; was condemned to the flames as a wicked apostate, and suffered with great fortitude.(l) Poggio the Florentine, secretary to pope John, and one of the first restorers of letters, who was present on this occasion, says he never heard any thing that approached so nearly to the eloquence of the ancient Greeks and Romans, as the speech which Jerome made to the judges. "He spoke," exclaims Poggio, " like Socrates ; and walked to the stake with as much cheerfulness as that great philosopher drank the cup of hemlock !" After the return of Sigismund, the council proceeded against Benedict for contumacy, when the definitive sentence of his deposition was pronounced. Their next care was the election of a new pope : and Otho Colonna, who possessed the accomplishments of a prince and the virtues of a prelate, was unanimously chosen on St. Martin's day, whence he took the name of Martin V. Never was the inauguration of any pontiff attended with greatei pomp. He rode in procession to the cathedral, mounted on a white horse ; the emperor and the elector of Brandenburg on foot, leading it by the reins. A numerous crowd of princes, the ambassadors of all the kings, and the fathers of the council, closed the train. When he entered the cathedral, the triple crown was placed upon his head, and he returned in the same august manner. (2) The important affair of the schism being thus concluded, every thing else was regulated by the council, which broke up in its forty-fifth session. The disputes about religion, however, still raged with greater violence than ever. The Hussites in Prague were so much offended at being prohibited the cup in the sacrament of the eucharist (contrary, as they affirmed, to the express words of our Saviour, who says, " Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you !") that they raised a furious tumult, forced the town-house, and murdered the magistrates who were con- cerned in publishing the order. (3) The news of this massacre filled the court of Winceslaus with the utmost consternation, and made so strong an impression on that pusillanimous prince, that he was seized with an apoplexy, of which he died in a few days. He was succeeded in the kingdom of Bohemia by his brother Sigismund, already emperor, and king of Hungary; yet this powerful prince was several times defeated by Ziska, then general of the Hussites, who revenged the death of their apostle by the most terrible outrages. A particular account of the war between the emperor and the Hussites would interfere with more important matters, without answering any valuable purpose: I shall therefore only observe, that Ziska continued master of Bohemia till his death, when he ordered a drum to be made of his skin, which was long the symbol of victory. He was succeeded in the command by Procopius surnamed the Shaven, because he had been a priest, and who supported his party with no less valour than his predecessor. He boldly defended their cause in the council of Basil, where many things were dis- puted which it is of little consequence to know : and although he was unsuc- cessful in that negotiation, and also in a battle with the Catholics, in which he was mortally wounded, yet the Hussites, even in this extremity, obtained a general amnesty, the confirmation of their privileges, and the right of using the cup in the communion; a concession which, to them, was a kind of triumph. (4) f (1) Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. Hi. Spend. Contin. torn. ii. (2) Barre, torn. vii. Aunal. de CEmp. torn. ii. (3) Byzinii Diarium Hussiticmn. Mosheim ubi supra. (4) Mosheim, ubi supii 270 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. After this pacification, Sigismund enlisted the Hussites in his army, and led them against the Turks, who had made an irruption into Hungary, and were defeated with great slaughter by these hardy veterans. But although Sigismund had been so fortunate as to regain the affections of the Bohemians, he lost it anew by attempting to tyrawiize over their consciences ; and death only saved him from a second revolt. He nominated as his successor, in the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, Albert, duke of Austria, his son-in-law, who was recognised by these states, and also raised to the empire. The house of Austria has ever since held the imperial throne. Sigismund, with many respectable qualities, Avas a narrow-minded bigot ; \nd, contrary to the dictates of sound policy as well as of humanity, was guilty of the most detestable of all tyranny, that of violence on the will. His wife Barbara, is said to have been a person of a more enlarged way of thinking, though not more to her honour. She denied a future state, and held the supreme good to consist in sensual delight. Conformably to this opinion, she set no bounds to her licentious amours after the death of the emperor. And when a certain lady of reputation mentioned to her the example of the turtle, which, after having lost its mate never chooses another, " Why," cried she, " instance a bird that lives in perpetual solitude, far from the habitations of men, and of which we know little ? Is the ex- ample more forcible, or more fit for imitation, than that of the pigeon and the sparrow, birds always in our view, and whose loves and joys are in continual succession ?"(!) The affairs of France now claim our attention. LETTER XLIV. France, from the Death of Charles V. in 1380, to the Invasion of that Kingdom by Henry V. of England, in 1415. THE death of Charles V. of France, my dear Philip, which happened, as I have already observed, soon after that of Edward III. of England, and the youth of his son Charles VI., put the two kingdoms in a similar situation. Both were under the government of minors : and the jealousies between the three uncles of Charles VI., the dukes of Anjou, Berri, and Burgundy, dis- tracted the affairs of France even more than the rivalry between the dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, the three uncles of Richard II. Disordered those of England. But a particular account of these distractions would be inconsistent with my present purpose, which is only to delineate the great line of history, and make you acquainted with the more remarkable events, or such as have had a particular influence upon government and manners. In the reign of Charles VI. no enterprise of consequence was undertaken, and government and manners, properly speaking, were equally unknown. I shall, therefore, consider the history of France, during this distracted period, as only an introduction to the invasion of that kingdom by Henry V. of England. In proportion as the king advanced in years, the factions were composed. His uncle, the duke of Anjou, died ; and Charles himself, assuming the reins of government, discovered symptoms of genius and spirit which revived the drooping hopes of his countrymen. But this promising state of things was of short duration. The unhappy Charles fell suddenly into a fit of frenzy, which rendered him incapable of exercising his authority ; and although lie partly recovered from that disorder, he was subject to such frequent relapses, that his judgment was gradually impaired, and he became incapable of pur- suing dny steady plan of government. (2) The kirg's first relapse is said to have been occasioned by the following (i) JEa. P/lv. cap. xxxiii Dubrav. lib. xxviii (2) Hist. Anonym, de Charles ff LET.XLIV.J MODERN EUROPE. . 271 accident. The queen having married one of her maids of honour to a person of distinction, the nuptials were intended to be celebrated with great pomp at the palace of the queen-dowager, relict of Philip of Valois. Among other amusements, there was to be a masquerade a circumstance which furnished five young noblemen with the extravagant idea of appearing as naked savages ; and such was the indelicacy of the times, that the king made one of the party. Their dress, contrived to sit close to their bodies, was of linen, covered with rosin ; which, while hot, had been powdered with fur. And the secret was so well kept, that, when they appeared, they were not known; but their whim was highly applauded. The dutchess of Berri laid hold of the king, seeing him robust and well made, and told him she would not let him go till she knew who he was. In the mean time, the rest began to dance ; when the duke of Orleans, out of levity, making a feint of running a lighted torch against one of the savages, set his combustible habit on fire. The flame Avas quickly communicated to the rest, and this scene of wanton mirth was instantly changed into sorrow and distress. But in the midst of their tor- ments the masks cried out continually, "Save the king! save the king!" And the dutchess of Berri, suddenly recollecting that he must be the mask that stood next her, immediately threw her robes over him, and, wrapping them close about him, put out the fire. One of the masks, by jumping into a cistern of water, saved his life ; the other four were so terribly burned that they died in two days ; and the king was so much affected with the fright, that it occasioned a return of his disorder, which afterward generally attacked him four or five times a year to the end of his life.(l) History scarce affords any parallel of a court or country more corrupt, and at the same time more miserable, than that of this unfortunate monarch and his subjects, in consequence of his infirmity. The administration fell again into the hands of the dukes of Berri and Burgundy, who excluded the duke of Orleans, the king's brother, under pretence of his youth, from any share in the government, and even from the shadow of authority. The case, how- ever, was very different in regard to the dutchess of Orleans. Young, beau tiful, and insinuating, she acquired such an ascendant over the king that she governed him at her pleasure. Nay, what is yet more extraordinary, it was she only that could govern him ; for in the time of his malady he knew nobody else, not even the queen. Hence it was rumoured by the dutchess of Burgundy, who envied the influence of the dutchess of Orleans, that sjie had bewitched the king ; and, in order to heighten the odium, it was insinuated that the duke of Orleans had also bewitched the queen.(2) That both were under the influence of enchantment is not to be doubted : but it was only that of youth, wit, and beauty, whose assiduities so often fascinate the sus- ceptible heart ; and, when unrestrained by principle or sentiment, lead it in the chains of loose desire. (3) While things were in this situation, the duke of Burgundy died. He was succeeded in the dutchy by his son John, count of Nevers, who disputed the administration with the duke of Orleans, and hoped to govern France as his father had done. Propinquity to the crown pleaded in favour of the latter ; the former derived consequence from his superior power, the death of his mother having added the county of Flanders to his father's extensive domi- nions. The people were divided between these contending princes, and the king, now resuming and now dropping his authority, kept the victory unde- cided, and prevented any regular settlement of the state by the final preva- lence of either party. But at length the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, seemingly moved by the cries of the nation, and swayed by the interposition of common friends, agreed to bury all past quarrels in oblivion, and entered into a league of mu- tual amity. They swore before the altar to the sincerity of this friendship ; the priest administered the sacrament to both of them ; and they gave to (1) Juv. des Urs. Hist. Anonym. &c. (2) Juv. des Ursins. Du Tillet. Le Gcr.dre. (3) Isabella of Bavaria, queen of France, and Valentinia of Milan, dutchess of Orleans, were Imth remarkably handsome and accomplished ; and the duke was alike amorous and ambitions. 272. THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. each other every pledge that could be deemed sacred among men. All this solemn preparation, however, appears to have been only a cover for the basest treachery, deliberately premeditated by the duke of Burgundy. He had hired ruffians, who assassinated his rival in the streets of Paris. (l) The author of the crime was for some days unknown, as the assassins escaped, and the duke . endeavoured to conceal the part which he had taken in it ; but being detected, he embraced a resolution still more criminal, and more dangerous to society. He openly avowed and justified the action. ' ' This cause was brought before the. parliament of Paris ; and that august tribunal of justice heard the .karangues of the duke of Burgundy's advocate in defence of assassination, which he denominated tyrannicide, without pro- nouncing any sentence or condemnation against the detestable doctrine. The same question was afterward agitated before the council of Constance ; and it was.with difficulty that a feeble decision in favour of the contrary opinion was ob'tained from those fathers of the church, the ministers of the Prince of Peace.(2) But the mischievous effects of that tenet, had they been before anywise /loubtful, appeared sufficiently from the subsequent incidents. The commis- sion of this crime, which destroyed all trust and security, rendered the war implacable between the French parties, and cut off every means of peace and accommodation. Th,e princes of the blood, combining with the young duke of Orleans and his brothers, made violent war on the duke of Burgundy ; and the unhappy king, seized sometimes by one party, sometimes by an- , other, transferred alternately to each of them the appearance of legal autlio- ' rity. The provinces were laid waste by mutual depredations : assassinations were every where committed, from the animosity of the several leaders ; or, what was equally terrible, executions were ordered, without any legal trial. by pretended courts of judicature. The whole kingdom was distinguished into two parties, the Burgundians gpid the Armagnacs ; for so the adherents of the young duke of Orleans were called, from the count of Armagnac, father-in-law to that prince. The city of Paris, distracted between them, but inclining more to the Burgundians, was a peVpetual scene of blood and violence. The king and royal family were often Detained captives in the hands of the populace : their ministers were butchered or imprisoned before their eyes ; and it was dangerous for any nrnn, amid these enraged factions, to be distinguished by a strict adhe- rence to the principles of probity and honour. During this scene of general violence, there arose into some consideration a body of men, which usually makes no figure in public transactions, even during the most peaceful times ; namely, the heads of the university of Paris, whose opinion was sometimes demanded, and more frequently offered, in the multiplied disputes between the parties. This schism, by which the church was at that time divided, and which occasioned frequent controversies in the university, had raised the professors to an unusual degree of importance ; and this connexion between literature and religion, had bestowed on the former a consequence which reason and knowledge have seldom been able to obtain among men. But there was another society, whose sentiments were still more decisive at Paris, the fraternity of butchers ; who, under the di- rection of their ringleaders, had declared for the duke of Burgundy, and committed the most violent outrages against the opposite party. In order to counterbalance this power, the Armagnacs made interest with the fraternity of carpenters : the populace ranged themselves on the one side or the other ; and the fate of the capital depended on the prevalence of either party. ( MODERN EUROPE. 273 1 he advantage which might be taken of these confusions was easily per- ceived in England; and according to the maxims which usually prevail among nations, it Avas determined to lay hold of the favourable opportunity. Henry IV., who was courted by both the French parties, fomented the quar- rel, by alternately sending assistance to each ; and his son, Henry V., im- pelled by the vigour of youth, and the ardour of ambition, determined to push his advantages to a greater length, and to carry war into the heart of France. In consequence of this resolution, he assembled a great fleet and army at Southampton, and invited ^11 the military men in the kingdom to attend him. But before I speak of the success of that enterprise, I mus f say a few words of the reign of Henry V. prior to this period. LETTER XLV. Kngland and France, from the Invasion of the latter Kingdom by Henry P; to the Death of Charles VL THE precarious situation of Henry IV., with whose character, my dear Philip, you are already well acquainted, had so much infected his temper with jealousy, that he entertained unreasonable suspicions with regard to the loyalty of his eldest son : and, during the latter years of his life, he excluded that prince from all share in public business. The active spirit of young Henry, restrained from its proper exercise, broke out in extravagancies of every kind. The riot of pleasure, the frolic of debauchery, and the outrage of intoxica- tion, filled the vacancies of a mind better adapted to the pursuits of ambition and the cares of government. Such a course of life naturally threw him among companions very unbecoming his rank, but whose irregularities, if accompanied with gallantly and humour, he seconded and indulged. And he was detected in many sallies, which, to severer eyes, appeared totally un- worthy of his station. (1) But the nation, in general, considered the young prince with more indul- gence. They observed so many gleams of generosity, spirit, and magnani- mity, breaking continually through the cloud, which a wild conduct threw over his character, that they never ceased hoping for his amendment. And the first steps taken by young Henry, after the death of his father, confirmed all those prepossessions entertained in his favour. He called together his former companions ; acquainted them with his intended reformation ; ex- horted them to imitate his example ; but strictly prohibited them, until they had given proofs of their amendment, from appearing any more in his pre- sence : while the wise ministers of his father, who had checked his riots, were received with all the marks of favour and confidence. They found that they had unknowingly been paying the highest court to him. (2) The satis- factions of those who feared an opposite conduct, was augmented by their surprise ; so that the character of the young king appeared brighter than if it had never been shaded by any errors. Henry's first care was to banish, as much as possible, all party distinctions. The instruments of the violences of the preceding reign, who had been ad- vanced from their blind zeal for the Lancastrian interest, more than from their integrity or abilities, gave place every where to men of more honour- able characters ; and virtue and talents seemed now to have a spacious field,' in which they might display themselves to advantage. One party distinc- tion, however, remained, which the popularity of Henry was not able to overcome. The Lollards, or disciples of Wickliffe, fast increasing in the kingdom, were become a formidable body, which appeared dangerous to the church, and even to the civil power. The head of this sect was sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, a nobleman (1) Walsinglmm. Hall. Holingshed. (2) Hall. Holingshed. Hume, chap. xix. Godwin, Life of Hen. V. Vot. T S 274 THE HISTORY OF [PART! who had distinguished himself by his military talents, and who had, on many occasions, acquired the esteem both of the late and of the present king. His high character, and zeal for the new sect, pointed him out to Arundel, arch- bishop of Canterbury, as the proper victim of ecclesiastical severity. The primate accordingly applied to the king for permission to indict lord Cobham. The generous nature of Henry was averse from such sanguinary methods oi conversion ; but after trying all gentle means in vain, and finding that noble- man obstinate in his opinions, he gave ful} reins to priestly vengeance against the inflexible sectary. Cobham was condemned to the flames, but made his escape from the Tower before the day appointed for his execution. Provoked oy persecution, and stimulated by zeal, he was now incited to attempt those criminal measures formerly imputed to him. The king was informed of his designs : his followers were every where persecuted ; and he himself, after a variety of distresses, was seized' and hanged as a traitor, and his body was burned on the gibbet, in consequence of the sentence pronounced against him as a heretic.(l) The Lollards being thus suppressed, Henry had leisure to consider the dying injunction of his father, not to let the English remain long in peace, which was apt to breed intestine commotions, but to employ them in 'foreign expeditions; by which the prince might acquire honour, the nobility, in sharing his dangers, attach themselves to his person, and all the restless spirits find occupation for their inquietude. The natural disposition of Henry sufficiently inclined him to follow this advice, arid the civil disorders of France, as you have already seen, opened a full career for his ambition. He accord- ingly set sail from Southampton, the place of general rendezvous, and landed near Harfleur, at the head of an army of six thousand men at arms, and twenty-four thousand foot, mostly archers. The king of England, on landing, immediately invested Harfleur; which was taken by assault, after a siege of six weeks, and -the garrison put to the sword. The fatigue of this siege, however, and the unusual heat of the season, had so much wasted the English army, that Henry could enter on no further enterprise, and was obliged to think of returning to England. He had dismissed his transports, which could not safely anchor in an open road upon the enemy's coast ; so that he lay under the necessity of marching by land to Calais, before he could reach a place of safety. Nor was this all. A French army of fourteen thousand men at arms, and forty thousand foot, was already assembled in Normandy under the constable d' Albert ; a force, rightly managed, sufficient either to trample down the English in the open field, or to harass and reduce to nothing their small body, before they could finish so long and difficult a march. Henry, therefore, prudently offered to sacrifice his conquest of Harfleur, for a safe passage to Calais ; but his pro- posal being rejected by the French court, he determined to make his way by valour and policy through all the opposition of the enemy. And that he might not discourage his army by the appearance of flight, or expose them to those hazards which naturally attend precipitate marches, he made slow and deliberate journeys. (2) But notwithstanding these precautions, the English monarch was continu ally harassed on his march, by flying parties of the enemy ; and when he approached the Somme, he saw bodies of troops on the opposite bank ready to obstruct his passage. His provisions were cut off; his soldiers languished ,under sickness and fatigue ; and his situation seemed altogether desperate. In this extremity, he was so fortunate as to seize an unguarded ford, ovei which he safely carried his army, and bent his march towards Calais. But he was still exposed to great and imminent danger from the enemy who had also passed the Somme, and threw themselves full in his way, with a design of intercepting his retreat. The whole French army was drawn up in the plains of Azincour, or Agincourt, and posted in such a manner, that it was impossible for the king of England to proceed on his march without coming to an engagement. I Walsingham Ouerbiirnc. nuliupslii.-d. (2) L,.- I,:tboureux. T. T/ivii. T. Walsingham. LET. XLV.] M O DE RN E UR OP E. 275 Nothing in appearance could be more unequal than the battle, upon which the safety and fortune of Henry now depended. The English army consisted of little more than half the number which had disembarked at Harfleur: and the troops laboured under every discouragement and necessity. The enemy was four times more numerous, headed by the dauphin and all the princes of the blood, and plentifully supplied with provisions. Henry's situation was exactly similar to that of Edward III. at the battle of Cressy, and of the Black Prince at that of Poictiers ; and the memory of these great events inspired the English with courage and made them hope for a like deliverance from their present difficulties. The king also observed the same prudent conduct which had been followed by those great commanders. He drew up his army on a narrow ground, between two woods which guarded each flank ; Hiid in that posture he patiently waited the attack of the enemy. Had the French commander been able to reason justly on the circumstances of the two armies, or to profit by past experience, he would have declined a 'ombat, and have waited till necessity had obliged the English to advance, ind relinquish the advantages of their situation; but the impetuous valour of ilie French nobility, and a vain confidence in superior numbers, made him hazard an action, which proved the source of infinite calamities to his coun- ; !y . The French archers on horseback, and their men at arms, advanced precipitantly on the English archers, who had fixed palisades in their front to break the impression of the enemy, and who safely plied them, from behind that defence, with a shower of arrows which nothing could resist. The clayey soil, moistened by rain, proved another obstruction to the force of the French cavalry. The wounded men and horses discomposed their ranks ; the narrow compass in which they were pent prevented them from recovering any order; the whole army was a scene of confusion, terror, and dismay; when Henry, perceiving his advantage, ordered the English archers, who were light and unencumbered, to advance upon the enemy, and seize the mo- ment of victory. They accordingly fell with their battle-axes upon the French, who were now incapable of either flying or defending themselves, and hewed them in pieces without obstruction. Seconded by the men at arms, who also pushed on against the enemy, they covered the field with the killed, wounded, dismounted, and overthrown. Every appearance of opposition being now over, the English had leisure to make prisoners ; but having advanced to the open plain, they there saw the remains of the French rear-guard, which still maintained the form of a line of battle. At the same time they heard an alarm from behind. Some gentlemen of Picardy having collected about six hundred peasants, had fallen upon the English baggage, and were doing exe- cution on the unarmed followers of the camp, who fled before them. On this alarm, Henry began to entertain apprehensions from his prisoners, and he thought it necessary to issue general orders for putting them to death; but on discovering the truth, he stopped the slaughter, and great numbers of those unhappy men were saved.(l) No victory was ever more honourable or more complete than this of Azin- cour. The loss of the French was incredibly great. The constable d' Albert and seven princes of the blood were slain: five princes were taken prisoners, together with fourteen thousand persons of different ranks ; and above ten thousand Frenchmen were left dead on the field of battle. (2) Yet this vic- tory, so fatal to France, was more ostentatious than useful to the conquerors, though their loss was very inconsiderable. Henry was obliged to return to England, in order to raise a fresh supply of men and money ; and it was not till after an interval of two years, that any body of English troops appeared again in France. In the mean time, France was exposed to all the furies of civil war ; and the several parties became every day more enraged against each other. . The duke of Burgundy, who had been worsted by his antagonists, attempted to reinstate himself in possession of the government, as well as of the person fj) T.Elmham. T.Livii. T. Walsingham. (2) Ibid S3 276 THE HISTORY OF f PART I of the king ; and some quarrels in the royal family enabled him to carry his scheme into execution. Louis Bois Bourdon, favourite to queen Isabella, after the death of the elder duke of Orleans, having- been accused by the count d' Armagnac of a commerce of gallantry with that princess, had been put to the torture, and afterward thrown into the Seine, in consequence of his forced but indiscreet confession. The queen herself was sent to Tours, and confined under a guard. After suffering these multiplied insults, she no longer scrupled to enter into a correspondence with the duke of- Burgundy, though hitherto an enemy to that prince; and as her son Charles, the dauphin, was entirely governed by the faction of Armagnac, she extended her animo- sity even to him, and sought his destruction with the most unrelenting hatred.(l) She had soon an opportunity of rendering her unnatural purpose in some measure effectual. The duke of Burgundy entered France at the head of a great army of Flemings ; overran most part of the kingdom, and relieved the queen from her confinement. At the same time the duke's partisans raised a commotion in Paris, which always inclined to the Burgundian faction ; the person of the king was seized ; the dauphin made his escape with difficulty ; great num bers of the Armagnac faction were instantly butchered ; the count himself, and many persons of note were thrown into prison; and the populace, deeming the course of public justice too dilatory, broke open the prisons, and put to death that nobleman and all the other noblemen who were there confined. (2) While France was thus rent in pieces by civil dissensions, Henry V., having recruited his forces and finance, landed in Normandy at the head of twenty-five thousand men, and carried every thing before him. When the pope's legate attempted to incline him towards peace, he replied, " Do you not see, that God has led me hither as by the hand 1 France has no sove- reign : I have just pretensions to that kingdom : every thing here is in the utmost confusion : no one thinks of resisting me. Can I have a more sen- sible proof, that the Being who disposes of empires, has determined to put the crown of France upon my head ?"(3) Such has ever been the language of force ; to which weakness, crawling in the dust, has too often listened with an ear of credulity. Hence conquerors, while alive, have been con- sidered as the sons of gods, and the delegates of heaven ; and, after being consigned to that earth which they had desolated, have themselves been exalted into divinities. But although Henry seemed so fully assured of the conquest of France, he was induced, by prudential motives, to negotiate with his enemies. He made at the same time offers of peace to both the French parties ; to the queen and the duke of Burgundy, on the one hand, who, having possession of s the king's person, carried the appearance of legal authority ; and to the dauphin on the other, who, being the rightful heir of the monarchy, was adhered to by all men who paid any regard to the true interests of their country. These two parties also carried on a continual negotiation with each other ; and all things seemed settled to their mutual satisfaction, when the duke of Burgundy was slain by the dauphin's party, during an interview at Monterau. In consequence of this act of barbarity, and the progress of Henry's arms, the queen and the new duke of Burgundy, breathing vengeance for the murder of his father, concluded the famous treaty of Troye, by which the crown of France was transferred to the house of Lancaster. The principal articles were, that the king of England should espouse the princess Catha- rine ; that her father, Charles VI., should enjoy, during his lifetime, the title and dignity of king of France; that Henry V. should be declared and acknowledged heir of the monarchy, and be intrusted with the present administration of the government ; that all the princes, peers, vassals, and communities of France, should swear, that they would both adhere to the .'!) SL Remi. Monir|pi. (2> Id. ibid. i3) Juv des Ursins LET. XLV.l MODERN E UROPE. 277 future succession of Henry, and pay him present obedience as regent ; and that this prince should unite his arms to those of the French king and the duke of Burgundy, in order to subdue the adherents of Charles the pretended dauphin.(l) A few days after the signing of this treaty, Henry espoused the princess Catharine. He carried his father-in-law to Paris ; he put himself in pos- session of that capital, and he obtained from the parliament and the three estates, a ratification of the treaty of Troye. He supported the duke of Bur- gundy in procuring a sentence against the murderers of his father ; and he turned his arms with success against the adherents of the dauphin ; who, as soon as he heard of the treaty of Troye, took on him the style and authority of regent, and appealed to God and his sword for the maintenance of his title. But, notwithstanding the bravery and fidelity of his officers, Charles saw himself unequal to his enemies in the field ; and found it necessary to temporize, and avoid all hazardous actions, with a rival who had acquired 1 so manifest a superiority. To crown all the other prosperities of Henry, his queen was delivered of a son, who was called by his father's name, and whose birth was celebrated by rejoicings no less pompous, or less sincere, at Paris than at London. The infant prince seemed to be universally regarded as the heir of both mon- archies. But the glory of Henry, when near its height, was suddenly restrained by the hand of nature, and all his towering projects vanished into air. He was seized with a malady which the surgeons of that age wanted skill to treat with judgment, namely, a fistula, which proved mortal. When he found his end approaching, he sent for his brother the duke of Bedford, the earl of Warwick, and a few more noblemen, whom he had honoured with his con- fidence. To them he delivered, in great composure, his last will with regard to the government of his kingdom and family. He left the regency of France to his eldest brother, the duke of Bedford ; that of England to his younger brother, the duke of Gloucester ; and the care of his son's person to the earl of Warwick.(2) Henry V. possessed many eminent virtues, and his abilities were equally conspicuous in the cabinet and the field. The boldness of his plans was no less remarkable than his personal valour in carrying them into execution. He had the talent of attaching his friends by affability, and of gaining his enemies by address and clemency. His exterior figure, as well as his deportment, was engaging ; his stature somewhat above the middle size ; his countenance beautiful, his proportions elegant ; and he excelled in all warlike and manly exercises. (3) In less than two months after Henry's death, his father-in-law, Charles VI. of France, terminated his unhappy life. He had for many years possessed only the shadow of royalty ; yet was this mere appearance of considerable advantage to the English : it divided the duty and affections of the French between the king and the dauphin, who was now crowned at Poictiers, under the name of Charles VII. Rheims, the usual place of such ceremony, being then in the hands of his enemies. Catharine of France, widow of Henry V. married soon after his death sir Owen Tudor, a gentleman of Wales, said to be descended from the ancient princes of that country. She bore him two sons ; the eldest of whom was created earl of Richmond, the second earl of Pembroke. The family of Tudor, first raised to distinction by this alliance, afterward mounted, as we shall have occasion to see, the throne of England. (1) Ryiner, vol. ix. St Remi. Monstrelet (2) Id. ibid. (3) T. Lnrii. 378 THE HISTORY OF [PART! LETTER XLVI. The Affairs of France and England continued, from the Accession of Charles Vtt to the Expulsion of the English from their Continental Territories, in 1453. IN considering, with a superficial eye, the state of affairs between France and England, at the accession of Charles VII., every advantage seems to lie on the side of the latter kingdom ; and the total expulsion of Charles appears an event which might naturally be expected from the superior power of hio competitor. Though Henry VI. was yet in his infancy, the duke of Bedford, the most accomplished prince of his age, was intrusted with the administra tion. And the experience, prudence, valour, and generosity, of the regent qualified him for his high office, and enabled him both to maintain union among his friends, and to gain the confidence of his enemies. But Charles VII., notwithstanding the present inferiority of his power, possessed some advantages which promised him success. As he was the true and undoubted heir of the monarchy, all Frenchmen, who knew the interests or desired the independency of their native country, turned their eyes towards him as its sole resource : and Charles himself was of a character well calculated to become the object of these benevolent sentiments. He was a prince of the most friendly and benign disposition ; of easy and familiar manners ; and of a just and sound, though not a very vigorous, understanding. Sincere, gene- rous, affable, he engaged from affection the services of his followers, even while his low fortune might have made it their interest to desert him ; and the lenity of his temper could pardon those sallies of discontent to which princes in his situation are naturally exposed. The love of pleasure often seduced him into indolence ; but, amid all his irregularities, the goodness of his heart still shone forth : and by exerting, at intervals, his courage and activity, he proved that his general remissness proceeded neither from the want of ambition, nor of personal valour. (1) Sensible of these advantages on the side of Charles, the duke of Bedford took care to strengthen the English interest by fresh alliances with the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany ; and observing the ardour of the Scots to serve in France, where Charles treated them with great honour and distinction, he persuaded the English council to form an alliance with James I., their pri- soner ; to free that prince from his long captivity, and to connect him with England, by marrying him to a daughter of the earl of Somerset, and cousin to the young king. The alliance was accordingly formed: James was restored to the throne of his ancestors ; and proved, during his short reign, one of the most illustrious princes that had ever swayed the Scottish sceptre. His affections, inclined to the party of France; but the English had never reason, while he lived, to complain of any breach of the neutrality by Scot- land. He was murdered by his traitorous kinsman, the earl of Athol, in 1437. Bedford, however, was not so much employed in negotiations as to neglect the operations of war. He reduced almost every fortress on this side of the Loire; and the battle of Verneuil, in which the Scots and French were defeated, threatened Charles with the total loss of his kingdom, when a train of singular circumstances saved him on the brink of ruin, and lost the Eng- lish such an opportunity of completing their conquests, as they were never afterward able to recall. Instead of taking any possible advantage of the victory gained at Verneuil, or those which he wished, and could not fail to see, the duke of Bedford was obliged to go over to England, in order to compose some dissensions among the ministry, and to endeavour to moderate the measures of his brother, the duke of Gloucester, who had inconsiderately kindled a war in the Low Coun- (I P. Xm. DuTilet. LeGndre. LBT. XLM.j MODERN EUROPE. 279 tries, and carried thither the troops destined for ihe reinforcement of the English army in France. The affections of the duke of Burgundy were alienated, and his forces diverted by the same war. The duke of Brittany returned to his allegiance under Charles VII. The French had leisure to re-collect themselves, and gained some inconsiderable advantages. But the regent, soon after his return, retrieved the reputation of the English arms, by humbling the duke of Brittany, and resolved on an undertaking which he Hoped would prepare the way for the final conquest of France. The city of Orleans was so situated between the provinces commanded by Henry and those possessed by Charles, that it opened an easy entrance to either ; and as the duke of Bedford intended to make a great effort for pene- trating into the south of France, it was necessary to begin with the siege of this place, now become the most important in the kingdom. The French king used every expedient to supply the city with a garrison and provisions, and the English left no method unemployed for reducing it. The eyes of all Europe were turned towards this scene of action, where it was reasonably supposed the French were to make their last stand for maintaining the inde- pendency of their monarchy, and the rights of their sovereign. After num- berless feats of valour, performed by the besiegers and the besieged, the attack was so vigorously pushed by the English, although the duke of Bur- gundy had withdrawn his troops in disgust, that Charles gave over the city for lost; and even entertained thoughts of retiring into Languedoc and Dau- phiny with the remains of his forces, which were insufficient to attempt the enemy's intrenchments, and of defending himself as long as possible in these remote provinces. (1) But it was fortunate for that gay prince, who lay entirely under the do- minion of the softer sex, that the women whom he consulted on this occa- sion, had the spirit to support his sinking resolution. Mary of Anjou, his queen, a princess of great merit and prudence, vehemently opposed such a measure, which she foresaw would discourage all his partisans, and serve as a general signal for deserting a prince who seemed himself to despair of suc- cess. His mistress, too, the fair Agnes Soreille, who lived in perfect amity with the queen, seconded all her remonstrances, and threatened if he thus pusillanimously threw away the sceptre of France, that she would seek in the coiljof England a fortune more correspondent to her wishes. Love was able to rouse, in the breast of Charles, that courage which ambition had failed to excite. He resolved to dispute every inch of ground with an imperious enemy: to perish with honour, in the*midst of his friends, rather than yield ingloriously to his bad fortune. (2) And this resolution was no sooner formed, than relief was unexpectedly brought him by another female of a very different character. In the village of Domremi near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lonrain, lived a country girl, whose name was Joan d'Arc : and who, in the humble station of servant at an inn, had been accustomed to tend the horses of the guests ; to ride them without a saddle to the watering-place, and to perform other offices which commonly fall to the share of men-servants. This girl, inflamed by the frequent accounts of the rencounters at the siege of Orleans, and affected with the distresses of her country, but more especially with those of the youthful monarch, whose gallantry made him the idol of the whole sex, was seized with a wild desire of bringing relief to her sovereign in his present unhappy circumstances. Her inexperienced mind, working day and night on this favourite object, mistook the impulses of passion for heavenly inspirations ; and she fancied that she saw visions, and heard voices exhort- ing her to re-establish the throne of France, and expel the foreign invaders. An uncommon intrepidity of spirit made her overlook all the dangers which might attend her in such a path ; and the apprehension of her divine mis- sion, dispelled all that bashfulness so natural to her sex, her years, and her low condition. She went to Vaucouleurs, procured admission to Baudri- (1) Monstrelet. Polyd. Virg. Stow. Hall. Holingshed. (2) Id 'birt. 880 THE HISTORY OF [PARTI. court the governor, and informed him of her inspirations and intentions. Baudri court observed something extraordinary in the maid, or saw the use that might be made of such an engine, and sent her to the French court, which then resided at Chinon.(l) Joan was no sooner introduced to the king, than she offered, in the name of the Supreme Creator, to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheims, to be there crowned and anointed : and she demanded, as the instru- ment of her future victories, a particular sword which was kept in the church of St. Catharine de Fierbois. The more the king and his ministers were determined to give into the illusion, the more scruples they pretended. An assembly of grave and learned divines was appointed to examine Joan's mission, and pronounced it undoubted and supernatural ; the parliament also attested her inspiration; and a jury of matrons declared her an unspotted virgin. Her requests were now granted. She was armed cap-a-pie, mounted on horseback, and shown in that martial habiliment to the whole people. Her dexterity in managing her steed, though acquired in her former station, was regarded as a fresh proof of her mission ; her former occupation was even denied ; she was converted into a shepherdess, an employment more agreeable to the imagination than that of an ostler-wench. Some years were subtracted from her age, in order to excite still more admiration ; and she was received with the loudest acclamations, by persons of all ranks. (2) A ray of hope began to break through that cloud of despair in which the minds of men were involved. Heaven had now declared itself in favour of France, and laid bare its outstretched arm to take vengeance on her invaders. The English at first affected to speak with derision of the Maid and hei heavenly commission ; but their imagination was secretly struck with the strong persuasion which prevailed in all around them. They found theii courage daunted by degrees, and thence began to infer a Divine vengeance hanging over them. A silent astonishment reigned among those troops, formerly so elated with victory, and so fierce for the combat. The Maid entered the city of Orleans at the head of a convoy, arrayed in her military garb, and displaying her consecrated standard. She was received as a celes- tial deliverer by the garrison and inhabitants; and by the instructions of count Dunois, commonly called the Bastard of Orleans, who command^! in the place, she actually obliged the English to raise the siege of that cityjfc"ter driving them from their intrenchments, and defeating them in several des- perate attacks. (3) The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of the Maid's promise to Charles ; the crowning him at Rheims was the other : and she now vehe- mently insisted, that he should set out immediately on that journey. A few weeks before, such a proposal would have appeared altogether extravagant. Rheims lay in a distant quarter of the kingdom ; was then in the hands of a victorious enemy; the whole road that led to it was occupied by their garri- sons : and no imagination could have been so sanguine as to hope that such an attempt could possibly be carried into execution. But as things had now taken a turn, and it was extremely the interest of the king of France to maintain the belief of something extraordinary and divine in these events, he resolved to follow the exhortations of his warlike prophetess, and avail himself of the present consternation of the English. He accordingly set out for Rheims, at the head of twelve thousand men, and scarcely perceived, as he passed along, that he was marching through an enemy's country. Every place opened its gates to him : Rheims sent him its keys ; and the ceremony of his inauguration was performed with the holy oil, which a pigeon is said to have brought from heaven to Clovis, on the first establishment of the French monarchy. (4) Charles, thus crowned and anointed, became more respectable in the eyes of all his subjects ; and he seemed to derive, from a heavenly commission, a uew title to their allegiance. Many places submitted to him immediatelv '!) Hall. Monitrelet. ;>) Id. ibid. (3) Monstrelet. Villar. (4) Id. ibid LET. XLVI.] MODERN E UROPE. 281 after his coronation, and the whole nation was disposed to give him the most zealous testimonies of duty and affection. The duke of Bedford, in this dangerous crisis, employed every resource which fortune had yet left him. He acted with so much prudence and address as to renew his alliance with the duke of Burgundy, who had been long wavering in his fidelity. He seemed present every where, by his vigilance and foresight; and although his supplies from England were very inconsider- able, he attempted to restore the courage of his troops by boldly advancing to face the enemy. But he chose his posts with so much caution as always to decline a combat, and to render it impossible for the French monarch to attack him. He still attended that prince in all his movements, covered his own towns and garrisons, and kept himself in a posture to reap advantage from every imprudent or false step of the enemy. He also endeavoured to revive the declining state of his affairs, by bringing over the young king of England, and having him crowned and anointed at Paris. All the vassals of the crown, who lived within the provinces possessed by the English, swore anew allegiance, and did homage to Henry VI.(l) But this ceremony was cold and insipid, in comparison with the coronation of Charles at Rheims, and the duke of Bedford expected more effect from an incident which put into his hands the author of all his misfortunes. The Maid of Orleans, as she is called, declared, after the coronation of Charles, that her mission was now accomplished, and expressed her inclina- tion to retire to the occupations and course of life which became her sex. But Dunois, sensible of the great advantages which might still be reaped from her presence in the army, exhorted her to persevere till the final expulsion of the English. In pursuance of this advice, she threw herself into the town of Compeigne, at that time besieged by the duke of Burgundy, assisted by the earls of Arundel and Suffolk. The garrison on her appearance 'believed themselves invincible. But their joy was of short duration. The Maid was taken prisoner in a sally ; and the duke of Bedford, resolved upon her ruin, ordered her to be tried by an ecclesiastical court for sorcery, impiety, idolatry, and magic. She was found guilty, by her ignorant or iniquitous judges, of all these crimes, aggravated by heresy; her revelations were declared to be inventions of the devil to delude the people ; and this admirable heroine was cruelly delivered over alive to the flames, and expiated by the punishment of fire the signal services which she had rendered to her prince and her native country. (2) The English affairs, however, instead of being advanced by this act of cruelty, went every day more and more to decay. The great abilities of the regent was unable to restrain the strong inclination which had seized the French of returning under the obedience of their rightful sovereign. The duke of Burgundy deserted the English interest, and formed an alliance with the French king ; the duke of Bedford died soon after ; and the violent fac- tions which prevailed in the court of England, between the duke of Gloucester and the cardinal of Winchester, prevented the nation from taking proper measures for repairing these signal losses. In proportion as Henry advanced in years, his feeble character became more fully known in the court, and was no longer ambiguous to either fac- tion. Of the most harmless, inoffensive, simple manners, but of the most slender capacity, he was fitted, both by the softness of his temper, and the weakness of his understanding, to be perpetually governed by those who surrounded him ; and it was easy to foresee that his reign would prove a per- petual minority. As he had now reached the age of manhood, it was natural to think of choosing him a queen : and each party was ambitious of making him receive one from their hand, as it was probable this circumstance would decide for ever the victory between them. The cardinal of Winchester proved successful ; and Henry was contracted to Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnicr, titular king of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem, descended from a (1) Ryraer, vol. x. &) Polyd. Virg. Monstrelel 382 THEHISTORYOF [PART I count of Anjou, who had left these magnificent titles to his posterity, without any real power or possessions. She was the most accomplished princess of that age both in body and mind, and seemed to possess those qualities which would enable her to acquire an ascendant over Henry, and to supply all his defects and weaknesses. The treaty of marriage was ratified in England : and Margaret, on her arrival, fell immediately into close connexions with the cardinal and his party; who, fortified by her powerful patronage, resolved on the final ruin of the duke of Gloucester.(l) This generous prince, worsted in all court intrigues, for which his temper was not suited, but possessing in an eminent degree the favour of the public, had already received from his rivals a cruel mortification, which it was impos- sible a person of his spirit could ever forgive, although he had hitherto borne it without violating public peace. His dutchess, the daughter of Richard lord Cobham, had been accused of the crime of witchcraft ; and it was pretended, that there was found in her possession a waxen figure of the king, which she and her associates, Sir Roger Bolingbroke, a priest, and one Mary Jordan of Eye, melted in a magical manner before a slow fire, with an intention of making Henry's force and vigour waste away by the like insensible degrees. The nature of this crime, as the philosophic Hume ingeniously observes, so opposite to all common sense, seems always to exempt the accusers from observing the rules of common sense in their evidence. The prisoners were pronounced guilty : the dutchess was condemned to do public penance, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment ; and her supposed accomplices were executed. But the people, contrary to their usual practice on such marvellous trials, acquitted the unhappy sufferers, and ascribed these violent proceedings solely to the malice of the duke's enemies. The cardinal of Winchester and his party, therefore, became sensible that it was necessary to destroy a man whose popularity made him dangerous, and whose resentment they had so much cause to apprehend. He was accused of treason, and thrown into pri- son, where he was soon after found dead in bed ; and although his body bore no marks of outward violence, no one doubted but he had fallen a victim to the vengeance of his enemies. (2) While England was thus a prey to faction, the king of France employed himself, with great industry and judgment, in removing those numberless ills to which France had been so long exposed from the continuance of wars both foreign and domestic. He restored the regular course of public justice; he introduced order into the finances ; he established discipline among his troops ; he repressed faction in his court ; he revived the languid state of agriculture and the arts ; and in the course of a few years rendered his king- dom flourishing within itself, and formidable to his neighbours. The English were expelled from all their possessions on the continent, except Calais ; and although no peace or truce was yet concluded between the two nations, the war was in a manner at an end.(3) England, torn in pieces by civil dissen- sions, made but one more feeble effort for the recovery of Guienne. And Charles, occupied at home in regulating the government of his kingdom, and fencing against the intrigues of his son Lewis, scarcely ever attempted to avail himself of her intestine broils. The affairs of the two kingdoms there- fore became for a while distinct. But before I carry farther the history of either, we must take a view of the state of the German empire, from the dealt of Sigismund to the accession of Maximilian. (1) Grafton. Holingshed. (2) Grafton. Stowe. Holingshed. (3) Monstrelet Henault. Grafton. Holingshed. LET. XLVII.] MODERN EUROPE. LETTER XLVII. The German Empire and its Dependencies, Rome, and the Italian States, from the Death of Sigismund to the Accession of Maximilian. SIGISMUND, my dear Philip, was succeeded in the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, and also in the empire, as I have already observed, by his son-in- law, Albert II. duke of Austria. The only enterprise of moment, in which this prince was engaged during his short reign, was an expedition against the Turks in Bulgaria, where he was seized with a violent dysentery, before any action took place, and died at the village of Long, in his return to Vienna.(l) Albert was succeeded in the imperial throne by his cousin Frederic of Aus- tria, the third emperor of that name. The kingdoms of Hungary and Bohe- mia were settled on Ladislaus, Albert's infant son, who was committed to the guardianship of Frederic. The emperor's first care was to heal a schism, which had rent anew the church. With this view he set out for Basil, where a council was assembled for " the reformation of the church universal, both in its head and its mem- bers," conformable to a resolution of the council of Constance; and that council had raised to the papacy Amadeus duke of Savoy, under the name of Felix V., in opposition to Eugenius IV., who had attempted to defeat the purpose of their meeting. Frederic exhorted the fathers to concord, and an accommodation with Eugenius. He had also an interview with Felix, whom he refused to acknowledge for pope, though tempted by an offer of his daughter, a young princess of exquisite beauty, and two hundred thousand ducats as her portion. " This man," said Frederic to one of his courtiers, in a contemptuous tone, " would fain purchase holiness, if he could find a seller." The schism was at length, however, happily closed by the resignation of Felix, who was prevailed upon by the emperor to abdicate the apostolic chair on certain conditions, which were confirmed by Nicholas V., who had suc- ceeded Eugenius. (2) The peace of the church being thus restored, and the affairs of Germany in tolerable order, Frederic began to turn his eyes towards Italy, where the imperial authority was gone to utter decay. Alphonso of Arragon reigned at that time in Naples, and joined the emperor, because he feared the power of the Venetians, who were masters of Ravenna, Bergamo, Brescia, and Cre- mona. Milan was in the hands of Francis Sforza, a peasant's son, but one of the greatest warriors of his age, and now become the most powerful man in Italy. He had married Blanche Maria, natural daughter of Philip Maria Galeazo, duke of Milan, by whom he was adopted. Florence was in league with the pope against Sforza : the Holy See had recovered Bologna ; and all the other principalities belonging to different sovereigns, who had mastered them. (3) In this situation were the affairs of Italy, when the emperor resolved upon a journey to Rome, in order to be crowned by the pope, together with Eleanora, sister of the king of Portugal, to whom he was contracted in mar- riage, and whom he promised to meet at Sienna. As soon as Frederic had crossed the Alps, he was met by the Venetian am- bassadors, who conducted him to their city, where he made his public entry with great magnificence. He thence repaired to Ferrara, where he found ambassadors from Francis Sforza, duke of Milan, inviting him to return by that city, where he should receive the iron crown ; and here he also received deputies from Florence and Bologna, craving the honour of entertaining him at their respective cities, which he accordingly visited.(4) From Florence (1) Heiss, liv. iii. chap. i. (2) Georgii, Pit. Jfichol. V. Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. iii. ^En. Sylv. Vit. Fred. III. (31 jinnaldcrf'.-np. toin. ii. (4) Machiavel. Hist. Flor. lib. ri. S84 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. the emperor look the route of Sienna, where he was joined by the princess Eleanora. And in that city he gave audience to the pope's legates, who represented to him, that, by ancient custom, the emperors always took an oath to the pope before they entered the territories of St. Peter's patrimony ; and requested that he would conform to the same usage. Frederic, in this particular, complied with the desire of his holiness. The oath which he took was 'conceived in these terms : " I, Frederic, king of the Romans, promise and swear, by the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by the wood of the vivifying cross, and by these relics of saints, that if, by permission of the Lord, I shall come to Rome, I will exalt the holy Roman church, and his holiness, who presides over it, to the utmost of my power. Neither shall he lose life, limb, or honour, by my counsel, consent, or exhortation. Nor will I, in the city of Rome, make any law or decree touching those things which belong to his holiness or the Romans, without the advice of our most holy lord Nicholas. Whatever part of St. Peter's patrimony shall fall into our hands, we will restore it to his holiness ; and he, to whom we shall com- mit the administration of our kingdom of Italy, shall swear to assist his holiness in defending St. Peter's patrimony to the utmost of his power. So help me God, and his holy Evangelists !"(!) The emperor now proceeded to Viterbo, where he was in danger of his life from a tumult of the populace ; so indifferently attended was this successor of Charlemagne ! From Viterbo he repaired to Rome, where he was met by the whole college of cardinals ; and as it had been customary for the late emperor, who went, thither to be crowned, to continue some time without the walls, Frederic ordered tents to be pitched, and there passed one night. He made his public entry next day, Avhen he was crowned king of Lombardy, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the deputies of Milan ; he not choosing to put himself in the power of Sforza, who was master of that city, and which properly belonged to the empire, the last duke having died without legitimate issue. Three days after this ceremony he was married to Eleanora, and together with her received the imperial crown. The emperor and the pope next ratified the Concordata of the German nation, touching the collation to prelacies and other benefices, which had some years before been agreed to by cardinal Carvajal, Nicholas's legate at the imperial court.(2) Having thus transacted matters at Rome, Frederic set out on his return to Germany ; and in his passage through Ferrara was waited upon by Borsi, marquis of Este, a prince of extraordinary merit, whom he created duke of Modena and Reggio.(3) On his arrival in Austria, he found himself involved in a number of difficulties, out of which he was never able fully to extricate himself. The Hungarians had often entreated Frederic to send home their king Ladislaus, whom h.e still detained at the imperial court, under pretext of being guardian to that young prince : and they had, by the most earnest and repeated instances, besought him to restore their crown and regalia, which were in his custody. But he found means, under various pretences, to postpone his com- pliance with these demands. The Austrians, joined by a number of Bohe- mians, and encouraged by several princes of the empire, also sent a deputa- tion to expostulate with Frederic on the same subject ; and as he lent a deaf ear to their request likewise, and amused them with fresh evasions, they had recourse to arms, and compelled him to sign an accommodation, ft was agreed, that Ladislaus, being yet of too tender years to take upon himself the government of his kingdoms, should be put under the tuition of Ulric, count Celley, his uncle by the mother's side, and that the dispute touching the wardship of the emperor should be determined at Vienna.(4) Count Celley's ambition was elated by the power which he derived from being tutor to Ladislaus. He attempted to make himself absolute master in Austria : he secured the principal fortresses, by giving the command of them (1) Fugger. lib. v. (2) Barre, torn. vii. Neucler. sub. ann. O W. ibid. (4) JEa. Sylv. Hist. Been. LET. XLVII.J MODERN EUROPE. 285 to his creatures ; and he gradually removed Elsinger, a Bohemian gentleman who*had headed the insurrection, and the Austrian nobility, from all offices of importance. His friends and favourites only were trusted. The people were incensed at such proceedings ; and Elsinger, profiting by their discon- tent, roused their resentment to such a degree, that the count was obliged to retire into Hungary, after having delivered up the person of Ladislaus, who consented to take the oath imposed upon him by the Bohemians, and was crowned with great solemnity at Prague.(l) During these contests the city of Constantinople was taken by the Turks, after they had subdued the rest of Greece ; and by this blow the Roman empire in the East was utterly annihilated, as shall be related more at length in its proper place. Here it is only necessary to observe, that the progress of the Mahometans alarmed all the princes of Christendom, and made them think of uniting, though too late, in order to oppose the common enemy. A dirt was convoked at Ratisbon on this subject, and the members unanimously agreed, that there was a necessity for taking some speedy measures to stop the progress of the Infidels. But what these measures should be, was a con- sideration referred to another diet assembled at Frankfort : where, although there was a vast concourse of princes, and great appearance of zeal, very little was done for the common cause. Other diets were afterward held for the same purpose, but with no better success ; a backwardness which was chiefly owing to the timid and slothful disposition of the emperor, who would never heartily embark in the undertaking. (2) The German princes, however, at the solicitation of Carvajal, the pope's legate, sent a body of troops to the assistance of John Hunniades, a famous Hungarian general, who had long gallantly defended his country against the Turks, and gained several advantages over them. Hunniades, thus rein- forced, marched to the relief of Belgrade, which was besieged by Mahomet II. the conqueror of Constantinople, and the terror of Christendom : and com- pelled the sultan, after an obstinate engagement, to raise the siege, and retreat with the loss of four thousand men, left dead on the spot. (3) But the death of Hunniades, which happened a few days after the battle, prevented the Christian army from making any progress against the Infidels. The fruits of their victory, and their future projects, perished with their illustrious leader. In the mean time, Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, died, and various competitors arose for those crowns, as well as for the dominions of Upper Austria, which belonged to that prince. Among these was the emperor Frederic III., who reaped nothing but damage and disgrace from a civil war which desolated Germany for many years, but which was productive of no event that merits attention. His son Maximilian was more fortunate, and better deserved success. This young prince, who was as active and enterprising as his father was indolent and timid, married, at twenty years of age, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy. She brought him Flanders, Franche- Comte, and all the Low Countries. " Lewis XL, who disputed some of these territories, and who, on the death of the duke, had seized Burgundy, Picardy, Ponthieu, and Artois, as fiefs of France, which could not be possessed by a woman, was defeated by Maximilian at Guinegaste; and Charles VIII., who renewed the same claims, was obliged to conclude a disadvantageous peace.(4) About this time died Casimir IV. king of Poland, and father of Uladislaus, who now reigned over Hungary and Bohemia. The death of the Polish monarch had been preceded by that of pope Innocent VIII. who was succeeded in the papacy by Roderick Borgia, under the name of Alexander VI. Nor did the emperor Frederic III. long survive these alterations. He died in the seventy-ninth year of his age, and the fifty-fourth of his reign. No emperor had ever reigned longer, and none less gloriously. (1) JEn. Sylv. Hist. Boem. (2) JEn. Sylv. Europ. (31 Id. ibid. (4) Mezeray, Chronol. Abreg. torn, ii 286 THE HISTORY OF [PART I The reign of Maximilian, already elected king of the Romans, introduces a more interesting period than that over which we have now travelled, and opens a vista into some of the grandest scenes of history. But a variety of objects, my dear Philip, must occupy your attention before I 2arry further the affairs of the empire. LETTER XLVIII. England during the Contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster, and hi its final Extinction in the Accession oj the House of Tudor. I HAVE already had occasion to notice the weakness of Henry VI. His incapacity appeared every da} 7 in a stronger light. The more he was known, the more his authority was despised; and as the English had abandoned their dominions in France, and were now engaged in no foreign wars, men of rest less and ambitious spirits took occasion to disturb his government, and tear with intestine commotions the bowels of their native country. But the miseries of Henry and of England did not arise solely from these causes : a pretender to the crown appeared ; and a title which had never been disputed during the prosperous reign of Henry V. was now called in question under his feeble successor. This competitor was Richard duke of York, descended by his mother from Philippa, only daughter of the duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., and consequently stood in the order of succession before the king, who derived his descent from the duke of Lancaster, third son of that monarch. Such a claim could not, in many respects, have fallen into more dangerous hands. The duke of York was a man of valour and abilities, which he had found frequent opportunities of displaying. In the right of his father, the earl of Cambridge, he bore the rank of first prince of the blood : he possessed an immense fortune ; and was allied by marriage, and otherwise, to most of the principal families in the kingdom. He was generally beloved by the people ; whose discontents, at this time, rendered every combination of the great more dangerous to the throne. The administration of government was now in the hands of the queen and the earl of Suffolk, who had attracted universal odium. Margaret was still regarded as a Frenchwoman, and a latent enemy to the kingdom, who had betrayed the interests of England, in favour of her family and her country. Suffolk was considered as her accomplice ; and the murder of the duke of Gloucester, in which both were known to have been concerned, rendered them yet more obnoxious to the nation. The partisans of the duke of York took advantage of these causes of po- pular discontent to impeach the earl of Suffolk in parliament of various crimes and misdemeanours ; and the king, in order to save his minister, banished him the kingdom for five years. But his enemies, sensible that he still pos- sessed the queen's confidence, and would be recalled on the first favourable opportunity, employed a captain of a ship to intercept him in his passasre to France. He was accordingly seized near Dover ; his head was struck off on the side of a long-boat, and his body thrown into the sea.(l) The duke of Somerset succeeded to Suffolk's power in the administration and credit with the queen : and as he was the person under whose govern- ment the French provinces had been lost, the people, who always judge by events, soon made him equally the object of their animosity. In consequence of these discontents, the house of commons presented a petition to the king, praying him to remove the duke of Somerset for ever from his person and counsels ; and as Henry fell about this time into a distemper which increased his natural imbecility, the queen and the council, unable to resist the popular a) Hall. Slavic. Contln. Hist. Croyland. LET. XLVIII.] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 29? party, were obliged to yield to the torrent. They sent Somerset to the tower, and appointed the duke of York lieutenant of the kingdom, with powers to hold and open a session of parliament : and that assembly created him Pro- tector during pleasure.(l) In the mean time, Henry recovering from his distemper so far as to be able to maintain the appearance of royal authority, his friends urged him to resume the government ; and to annul the regency of Richard, to release Somerset from the tower, and to commit the administration into the hands of that no- bleman. The duke of York, sensible of his danger, levied an army, in order to support his parliamentary commission, but without advancing any preten- sions to the crown, though his title was generally acknowledged. A battle was fought near St. Albans, where the Lancastrians were routed, and the dukes of Somerset and Northumberland slain. The king himself was made prisoner by the duke of York, who treated him with great tenderness : and Henry was obliged to resign (what he valued little) the whole authority of the crown into the hands of his rival. (2) Richard, however, did not yet lay claim to the royalty; he was still content with the title of Protector ; and an outward reconciliation took place between the parties. A solemn procession to St. Paul's was appointed, in order to make known this amity to the people. The duke of York led queen Marga- ret ; and a chieftain of one party marched hand in hand with a chieftain of the opposite. But a contest for a crown could not be thus peaceably accom- modated. Each party watched only for an opportunity of subverting the other ; and the smallest incident, without any formed design, was sufficient to dissolve the seeming harmony. Two servants of the rival houses quar- relled ; their companions took part in the fray ; a fierce combat ensued ; and both parties, in every county in England, openly made preparations for de- ciding the contest by arms. (3) A battle was fought at Blore-heath, on the borders of Staffordshire ; where the Lancastrians were defeated, and chased off the field with considerable loss. But that victory was not sufficient to decide the fate of England ; and fortune soon shifted sides. When the two armies approached each other near Ludlow, and a general action was every hour expected, Sir Andrew Trollop, who commanded a choice body of veterans, deserted to the king; and the Yorkists were so much dismayed at that instance of treachery, which made every man suspicious of his fellow, that they separated without striking a blow. (4) In this extremity the duke of York fled to Ireland, where he had formerly acquired much popularity ; and his partisans in England kept themselves every where in readiness to rise on the first summons from their leaders. That summons was given by the earl of Warwick, governor of Calais, the most extraordinary man of his time ; and, from the subsequent events, commonly known by the appellation of the King-maker. He landed in Kent, where he was joined by several persons of distinction : and as the people bore him an unlimited affection, his army increased every day. He entered London amid the acclamations of the populace : he advanced to meet the royal army, which hastened from Coventry to attack him ; and a battle was fought at Northampton, where the Lancastrians were totally routed. Henry himself, that empty shadow of a king, was again made prisoner, and once more carried in triumph to his capital. (5) A parliament was now summoned at Westminster, where the duke*>f York soon'appeared from Ireland, and put in his claim to the crown. He advanced towards the throne ; and, addressing himself to the house of peers, pleaded his cause before them as his natural and legal judges. He gave them a deduc- tion of his title by descent; mentioned the cruelties by which the house of Lancaster had paved its way to sovereign power ; insisted on the calamities which had attended the government of Henry ; and exhorted them to returr (1) Par/. Hint. voL ii. Rymer, vol. si. (2) Stowe. Hall. Hollingshed. (3) Fabian. Oiron. See also Grafton. (4) Grafton. Hall. HoUingahed. 15; Id. ibid 288 THE HISTORY OF [PART I to the right path, by doing justice to the lineal heir; then respectfully left the house, as no one desired him to seat himself on the throne. Such a degree of moderation is not perhaps to be paralleled in history; and was little to be expected in those violent and licentious times, from a prince who had a victorious army at his command. The peers, on their part, dis- covered an equal share of firmness and composure. They called in some of the most considerable members among the commons to assist in their deli- berations : and, after having heard, for several successive days, the reasons alleged for the duke of York, they declared his title certain and indefeasible ; but, in consideration that Henry had enjoyed the crown, without dispute or controversy, during a course of years, they determined that he should con- tinue to possess the title and dignity of king during the remainder of his life : that the administration of government, in the mean while, should remain with Richard, and that he should be acknowledged the true and lawful heir of the monarchy. The duke acquiesced in this decision; and Henry himself, being a prisoner, could not well oppose it.(l) The duke of York, however, enjoyed but a short while the honour of this new settlement, and never attained the envied title of king. After the unfor- tunate battle of Northampton, queen Margaret had fled with her infant son to Durham, and thence to Scotland ; but soon returning, she applied to the northern barons, and employed every argument to procure their assistance. Her affability, insinuation, and address, talents in which she excelled, aided by caresses and promises, wrought a powerful effect on all who approached her. The admiration of her great qualities Avas succeeded by compassion towards her helpless condition. The nobility of that quarter entered warmly into her cause ; and she soon found herself at the head of an army of twenty thousand men, collected with a celerity which was neither expected by her ffiends nor apprehended by her enemies. In the mean time, the duke of York hastened northward with a body of five thousand men, to suppress, as he imagined, the beginnings of an insurrection. He met the queen near Wakefield ; and though he found himself so much outnumbered by the enemy, his pride would not permit him to fly before a woman. He gave battle, was killed in the action ; and his body being found among the slain, his head was cut off by Margaret's orders, and fixed on the gates of York, with a paper crown upon it, in derision of his pretended title. His second son, the earl of Rutland, was taken prisoner, and barbarously murdered in cool blood by lord Clifford, in revenge of the death of his father, who had fallen in the battle of St. Alban's. The earl of Salisbury also was taken prisoner, and immediately beheaded, with several other persons of dis- tinction. (2) This inhuman practice, thus begun, was continued by both parties, from a vindictive spirit, which affected to conceal its enormity under the pretence of retaliation. Immediately after this important victory queen Margaret marched towards London, where the earl of Warwick was left with the command of the York- ists. On the approach of the Lancastrians, that nobleman led out his army reinforced by a strong body of Londoners, and gave battle to the queen at St. Alban's. Margaret was again victorious, by the treachery of one Lovelace, who commanded a considerable body of the Yorkists, and withdrew from the combat. She had the pleasure of seeing the formidable Warwick fly before her, and of rescuing the king her husband from captivity. But Margaret's triumph, though glorious, was of short duration, and not altogether complete. Warwick was still in possession of London, on which she made an unsuccessful attempt ; and Edward earl of Marche, eldest son of the late duke of York, having gained an advantage over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, near Hertford, advanced upon her from the other side, and was soon in a condition to give her battle with superior forces. She was (1) Par/. Hint. vol. ii. Cotton. Grnftnn. Hullingslied. The account of this revolution as here given, and generally received, is contradicted in some particulars by J. Wethamatede, abbot of St. Alban's. But a single authority, how respectable soever, is not sufficient to overthrow universal testimony. IS) Polyd. Virg! Hollingslied. Stowe. Contin. Hit I. Croyland. LET. XLVUL] MODERN EUROPE. 289 sensible of her danger, in such a situation, and retreated with her army to the north ; while Edward entered the capital amid the acclamations of the citizens, and immediately opened a new scene to his party. This young prince, who was remarkable for tfle beauty of his person, foi his bravery, his activity, his affability, and every popular quality, found him- self so high in public favour, that he resolved no longer to confine himself within those narrow limits which had been found by experience so prejudicial to his father's cause. He determined to assume the name and dignity of king ; to insist openly on his claim ; and thenceforth to treat the opposite party as traitors and rebels to his lawful authority. But a national consent, or the appearance of it at least, seemed necessary to precede so bold a measure and for this purpose, instead of convening a parliament, which might have been attended with, dangerous consequences, the populace were assembled in St. John's Fields. An harangue was pronounced to this mixed multitude by Warwick, setting forth the title of Edward, and inveighing against the tyranny and usurpation of the house of Lancaster ; after which the people were asked, whether they would have Henry or Edward for their king 1 They universally exclaimed, " Edward of York !" This popular election was ratified by an assembly of lords and bishops, and the new king was proclaimed under the title of Edward IV.(l) Young Edward, now in his twentieth year, was of a temper well fluted to make his way through such a scene of war, havoc, and devastation, as was presented before him. He was not only bold, active, and enterprising, but his hardness of heart, and severity of character, rendered him impregnable to all those movements of compassion which might relax his vigour in the pro- secution of the most bloody designs upon his enemies. Hence the scaffold, as well as the field, during this reign, incessantly smoked with the noblest blood of England. The animosity between the two contending families was now become implacable ; and the nation, divided in its affections, took different symbols of party. The adherents of the house of Lancaster chose, as their mark of distinction, the Red Rose ; those of York assumed the White ; and these civil wars were thus known over Europe by the name of the "Quarrel between the Two Roses." Queen Margaret, as I have observed, had retired to the north. There great multitudes flocked to her standard ; and she was able, in a few weeks, to assemble an army of sixty thousand men. The king and the earl of War- wick hastened with an army of forty thousand, to check her progress. The two armies met at Towton, and a fierce and bloody battle ensued. The bow, then commonly in use, was soon laid aside, and the sword decided the com- bat, which terminated in a total victory on the side of the Yorkists. Edward issued orders to give no quarter, and the routed army was pursued as far as Tadcaster, with great bloodshed and confusion. Above thirty-six thousand men are said to have fallen in the battle and pursuit. Henry and Margaret had remained at York during the action ; but learning the defeat of their army, and being sensible that no place in England could now afford them shelter, they fled with great precipitation into Scotland. (2) I must here say a few words of the state of that country. The Scots, not- withstanding the animosity between the two nations, had never made any vigorous attempts to take advantage either of the wars which England car- ried on with France, or of the civil commotions which arose from the com- petition for the crown. James I., who had been long a prisoner in England, and had received his education there, as I have had occasion to notice, avoided all hostilities with foreign nations. He was more laudably employed in civilizing his subjects, and training them to the salutary restraints of law and justice. After the murder of this excellent prince, whose maxims and manners were too refined for the people whom he had to govern, the minority of his son and successor James II. and the distractions incident on it, prevented the Scots from molesting England. But when the quarrel between the rival (r> Wethamstede. Hall. Stowe- (2) Id. ibid. VOL. I. T 13 290 T H E II I S T O R Y P [PART L houses of Vork and Lancaster \vas become incurable, unless by the total extinction of one of the parties, James II., who had now risen to man's estate, was tempted to make use of that opportunity, in hopes of recovering those places which the English l&d conquered from his ancestors. He invested the castle of Roxburgh, and had provided himself with some pieces of cannon in order to forward the siege ; but one of them unhappily bursting, as he was firing it, put an end at onoe to his life and his undertaking. His son and suc- cessor James III. was yet a minor; and the disturbances common to minori- ties ensued in the government. The queen dowager, Anne of Guelders, aspired to the regency ; the house of Douglas opposed her pretensions :(l) so that the queen of England, when she arrived in Scotland, found there a people little less divided by faction than those from whom she had fled. The Scottish council, however, agreed to assist Margaret, on her offering to deliver up to them the important fortress of Berwick, and to contract her son ;n marriage with a sister of James their king. And Margaret with her northern auxiliaries, and some succours from France, ventured once more to take the field, and to make an inroad into England. But she was able to penetrate no further than Hexham. There she was attacked by Lord Mon- tague, brother to the earl of Warwick, and warden of the Marches, who totally routed her motley army.(2) All who were spared in the field suffered on the scaffold. The fate of the unfortunate royal family, after this overthrow, was equally singular and affecting. Margaret fled with her son into a forest, Avhere she endeavoured to conceal herself, but was beset during the darkness of the night by robbers, who despoiled her of her jewels, and treated her with the utmost indignity. She made her escape, however, while they were quarrelling about the booty ; and wandered some time with her son in the most unfre- quented thickets, spent with hunger and fatigue, and ready to sink beneath the load of terror and affliction. In this wretched condition she was met by a robber with his sword naked in his hand ; and seeing no means of escape, she suddenly embraced the bold resolution of trusting entirely to his faith and generosity. " Approach, my friend !" cried she, presenting to him the young prince ; " to you I commit the safety of your king's sow." Struck with the singularity of the event, and charmed with the confidence reposed in him, the robber became her protector. By his favour she dwelt concealed in the forest, till she found an opportunity to make her escape into Flanders ; whence she passed to her father in France, where she lived several years in privacy and retirement. (3) Henry was less fortunate in finding the means of escape. He lay concealed during twelve months in Lancashire ; but was at last detected, delivered up to Edward, and thrown into the tower.(4) The youthful monarch, thus rid of all his enemies, resigned himself freely to those pleasures and amusements which his rank, his time of life, and his natural temper, no less turned for love than war, invited him to enjoy. The cruel and unrelenting Edward lived in the most familiar and social manner with his subjects. He was the peculiar favourite of the young and gay of both sexes ; and the beauty of his person as well as the gallantry of his address, which even in the humblest condition would have rendered him acceptable to the fair, facilitated all his applications for their favour. But it is difficult to confine the ruling passion within the bounds of prudence. The ardent temperament of Edward led him into a share, which proved fatal to his repose, and to the stability of his throne. This young king, while in the height of dissipation, had resolved to marry, in order to secure his throne by issue, as well as by alliances ; and he had cast his eyes on Bona of Savoy, sister to the queen of France. The negotia- tion was committed to the earl of Warwick, who went over to Paris, where the princess then resided : his proposals were accepted, and the treaty was fully concluded. Nothing remained but the ratification of the terms agreed on, and the bringing of the princess over to England. Meanwhile the charms (1) Hall. Cotton. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Monstrelet, torn. iii. (4) Hall. Hol'ingslied LET. XLVIII.J MOD E RN E UROP E. 291 of lady Elizabeth Gray, one of the finest and most accomplished women of her time, had inflamed the amorous heart of Edward. Her husband, sir John Gray of Groby, had been slain in the second battle of St. Alban's, fighting on tne side of Lancaster, and his estate confiscated ; and when the king came accidentally, after a hunting party, to the house of her father, sir Richard Wideville, to whom she had retired, she threw herself at his feet, and entreated him to take pity on her impoverished and helpless children. The sight of so much beauty in distress strongly affected the suscejitible Edward. Love insensibly stole into his heart, under the disguise of compas. sion. He raised the fair supplicant from the ground with assurances oi favour; and as his passion was increased by the winning conversation oi Elizabeth, he soon found himself reduced to that posture and style of solici- tation which had been so lately hers. But all his solicitations were in vain : she obstinately refused to gratify his passion ; and the young and gallant monarch found for once a virtue which his fondest assiduities could not bend. Inflamed by opposition, and filled with veneration for such honourable senti- ments, Edward lost sight of all but love. He offered to share his throne, as well as his heart, with the woman whose beauty of person, and dignity of character, seemed so well to entitle her to both ; and the marriage was pri- vately celebrated at her father's seat in Northamptonshire. (1) Warwick, who was still at Paris, no sooner received intelligence of the king's marriage than he returned to England, flaming with rage and indigna- tion, as being employed in a deceitful treaty, and kept a stranger to the inten- tions of the prince, who owed every thing to his friendship. The king was sensible that Warwick had been ill used ; but his pride, or false shame, pre- vented him from making an apology : and that nobleman was permitted to depart the court in the same hot temper that he came. The advancement of the queen's relations into offices of power and trust, to the exclusion of those of Warwick, whom she regarded as her mortal enemy, heightened his dis- content, and made him resolve to ruin the king he had made. In order to effect his purpose, Warwick drew over to his interest the duke of Clarence, the king's second brother, by offering him in marriage his eldest daughter, and co-heiress of his immense fortune. Many of the ancient nobility envied the sudden growth of the Widevilles. They associated them- selves with Warwick ; who, finding his own name insufficient, and being chased to France, after some unsuccessful struggles, entered into a league with queen Margaret, his inveterate enemy. On his return to England, he was joined by the whole body of Lancastrians. Both parties now prepared for a general decision by arms ; and a decisive action was every moment expected, when Edward, finding himself betrayed by the marquis of Montague, and suspi- cious of his other commanders, suddenly abandoned his arrny, and fled to Holland. Henry VI. was taken from his confinement in the tower, and placed once more upon the English throne ; and a parliament, called under the influence of Warwick, declared Edward IV. a usurper. (2) But this revolution was only the effect of the giddiness of faction. War- wick was no sooner at the helm of government than his popularity began to decline, though he appears to have been guilty of no unpopular act ; so fugi- tive a thing is public favour ! The young king was emboldened to return. He landed at Ravenspur, as Henry IV. had formerly done, upon a like occa- sion ; and although he brought with him only two thousand men, he soon found himself in a condition to face the earl of Warwick, who had taken post at Barnet. The city of London opened its gates to Edward ; who thus became at once master of his capital, and of the person of his rival Henry, doomed to be the perpetual sport of fortune. The arrival of queen Marga- ret, whose presence would have been of infinite service to her party, was every day expected. In the mean time, the duke of Clarence, Warwick's son-in-law, deserted to the king, and carried along with him a body of twelve thousand men. But Warwick was now too far advanced to retreat ; and as (1) Hall. Grafton. (2) Stowe HalL T2 892 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. he rejected with disdain all terms of peace offered him by Edward and Cla- rence, he was obliged to hazard a general engagement. The battle was fought with great obstinacy on both sides. The two armies, in imitation of their leaders, displayed uncommon acts of valour, and the contest for victory remained long undecided; but an accident threw at last the balance on the side of the Yorkists. Edward's cognizance was a sun, Warwick's a star with rays j and the mistiness of the morning rendering it difficult to distin- guish them, a body of the Lancastrians were attacked by their friends, and driven off the field. Warwick did all that experience, conduct, or valour could suggest, to retrieve the mistake, but in vain. He had engaged on foot that day, contrary to his usual practice, in order to show his troops that he was resolved to share every danger with them ; and now, sensible that all was lost, unless a reverse of fortune could be wrought by some extraordinary effort, he rushed into the thickest of the engagement, and fell, covered with a multitude ef wounds. His brother, the marquis of Montague, underwent the same fate ; and as Edward had issued orders to give no quarter, a great and undistinguished slaughter was made in the pursuit.(l) Queen Margaret and her son prince Edward, now about eighteen years of age, landed from France the same day on which that decisive battle was fought. She had hitherto sustained the shocks of fortune with surprising fortitude ; but when she received intelligence of her husband's captivity, and of the defeat and death of the earl of Warwick, her courage failed her, and she took sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu, in Hampshire. Encouraged, however, by the appearance of Tudor, earl of Pembroke, and several other noblemen, who exhorted her still to hope for success, she resumed her former spirit, and determined to assert, to the last, her claim to the crown of England. She accordingly put herself once more at the head of the army, which increased in every day's march, and advanced through the counties of Devon, Somerset, and Gloucester. But the ardent and expeditious Edward overtook her at Tewksbury, on the banks of the Severn, where the Lancastrians were totally routed and dispersed. Margaret and her son were taken prisoners, and brought to the king, who asked the prince, in an imperious tone, how he dared to invade his dominions 1 "I came hither," replied the undaunted youth, more mindful of his high birth than his present fortune, " to revenge my father's wrongs, and rescue my just in- heritance out of your hands." Incensed at his freedom, instead of admiring the boldness of his spirit, the ungenerous Edward barbarously struck him on the face with his gauntlet ; and the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, lord Hastings, and sir Thomas Gray, taking this blow as a signal for further violence, hurried the prince aside, and instantly despatched him with their daggers. Margaret was thrown into the tower, where her husband Henry had just expired. Whether he died a natural or violent death is uncertain ; though it is generally believed that the duke of Gloucester killed him with his own hand.(2) The hopes of the house of Lancaster being thus extinguished, by the death of every legitimate prince of that family, Edward, who had no longer any enemy that could give him anxiety or alarm, was encouraged once more to indulge himself in pleasure and amusement ; and he recovered, by his gay humour, and his easy, familiar manners, that popularity which must have been in some degree impaired by the cruelties exercised upon his enemies. The example also of his jovial festivity served to abate the acrimony oi faction among his subjects, and to restore the social disposition which had been so long interrupted between the opposite parties. But although Edward was fond of pleasure, he was not deaf to the calls of ambition ; and a pro- jected invasion of France, in order to recover the dominions lost under his 1 predecessor, tended still further to increase his popularity. The prospect of a French war has always proved a sure means of uniting the people of England, and of making the members of parliament open theij U) Grafton. Hall Contin. Hist. Oroj/land. Phil, de Comities, liv. iii (2) Stowe. Hall LET. XLVIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 293 purses. Edward received a considerable supply, and passed over to Calais with an army of fifteen hundred men at arms, and fifteen thousand archers. He was attended by all his chief nobility, who, animated by former successes, were eager to appear once more on the theatre of honour. But their ardour was damped when the}* found, on entering 1 the French territories, that their ally, the duke of Burgundy, did not bring them the smallest assistance. Transported by his fervid temper, that prince had carried his troops to the frontier of Germany, where they were employed in hostilities against the duke of Lorrain. Lewis XI., however, alarmed at the presence of so warlike and powerful a monarch as Edward, proposed an accommodation; and a truce was concluded on terms by no means honourable to France. Lewis stipulated to pay the king of England immediately seventy-five thousand crowns, in order to defray the expense of his armament, on condition that he should quietly withdraw his troops, and fifty thousand crowns a year during their joint lives. (1) This treaty reflected little honour on either of the monarchs; It disco- vered the imprudence of the one, and the pusillanimity of the other. But is Lewis made interest the sole test of his honour, he thought he had over- reached Edward, by sending him out of France on such easy terms. The most honourable article on the side of Lewis was the stipulation for the 'iberty of queen Margaret, who was still detained in custody by Edward. Lewis paid fifty thousand crowns for her ransom ; and this princess, who, in active scenes of life, had experienced so remarkably the vicissitudes of for- tune, passed the remainder of her days in tranquillity and privacy. Margaret seems neither to have possessed the virtues, nor been subject to the weak- nesses, of her sex : and she was as much tainted with the ferocity, as endowed with the courage, of the age in which she lived The dark and unrelenting disposition of Richard, duke of Gloucester, the future scourge of England, began more particularly to discover itself after Edward's return from France. The duke of Clarence, by all his services in deserting Warwick, had never been able to regain the king's friendship, which he had forfeited by his former confederacy with that nobleman. He had also the misfortune to offend his brother Gloucester, who secretly con- spired his ruin. Several of his friends were accused and executed, under frivolous pretences, in hopes that his resentment would betray him into measures which might furnish matter for an impeachment. He fell into the snare. Instead of securing his own life against the present danger by silence and reserve, he was open and loud in asserting the innocence of his friends, and in exclaiming against the iniquity of their prosecutors. The king ordered him to be committed to the tower ; and he was sentenced to die by the house of peers, the supreme tribunal of the nation, for arraigning public justice, by maintaining the innocence of men who had been condemned in courts of judicature. The only favour which the king granted him was the choice of his death ; and he was privately drowned in a butt of malmsey ;(2) a whimsical choice, which leads us to suppose that he was passionately fond of that liquor. The remaining part of Edward's reign was distinguished by no remarkable event. He sunk again into indolence and pleasure, from which he was once more roused by the prospect of a French war. While making preparations with that view, he was seized with a violent distemper, of which he died, hi the forty-second year of his age. He was a prince of more vigour than pru- dence ; and consequently less fitted to prevent ills by wise precautions, than to remedy them after they took place. As a man, he possessed many accom olishments: his virtues were few, his vices a numerous catalogue. Edward IV. left two sons ; the prince of Wales, now Edward V., in his thirteenth year; and Richard duke of York, in his ninth. The duke of Gloucester, their uncle, whose sanguinary disposition I have had occasion to aotice, was appointed regent by Edward's desire, and chosen protestor by \1, Rymer, vol. xii. Phil, de Comines, liv. iv. (2) Fabian Stawe. Hall. Hollingshed 294 THE HISTORx OF [PART L his own artifices. He had already got the two young princes into his pos- session, contrary to the inclination of their mother, who seemed struck with a kind of presage of their future fate ; and his eye was fixed upon the throne, though not only the sons of Edward, but those of the duke of Clarence, stood between him and it. An attempt to exclude or destroy so many persons possessed c f a prefer- able right, may seem equally imprudent and impracticable. But a man like Gloucester, who had abandoned all principles of honour and humanity, was soon carried, by his predominant passion, beyond the reach of fear or pre- caution : and having so far succeeded in his views, he no longer hesitated in removing the other obstructions in his way. He ordered earl Rivers, the queen's brother, sir Richard Gray, her son by her former husband, and sir Thomas Vaughan, who possessed a considerable place in the young king's household, and was firmly attached to his person, to be thrown into prison, and executed without any form of trial. His next step was to draw into his views the duke of Buckingham and lord Hastings. With the first he suc- ceeded; but the last remained firm in his allegiance to the children of Edward, who had ever honoured him with his friendship. His death was therefore resolved upon, and for that purpose a council was summoned in the tower, whither that nobleman, suspecting no harm, repaired without hesitation. Gloucester, on taking his place at the council board, appeared in the easiest and most facetious homour imaginable ; but making a pretence soon after to retire, as if called away by urgent business, he returned, knitting his brows, grinding his teeth, and exhibiting, by frequent change of countenance, symp- toms of inward perturbation. A general silence ensued : every one dread- ing some terrible catastrophe, and all gazing with looks of doubt and anxiety upon each other. Richard at last relieved them from their awful suspense. " What punishment do they deserve," said he, " who have conspired against my life ?" " The death of traitors !" replied lord Hastings. " These trai- tors," cried Richard, " are the sorceress, my brother's wife, and that witch Shore, his mistress, with others their associates. See to what a condition they have reduced me by their spells and incantations !" laying bare his arm, all shrivelled and decayed. The amazement of the council was increased, it being well known this infirmity had attended him from his childhood ; and lord Hastings, who, since Edward's death, engaged in an intrigue with Jane Shore, was naturally alarmed at such an accusation. " Certainly, my lord," said he, with some hesitation, "if they are guilty of such a crime, they deserve punishment." "And do you," exclaimed Richard, "reply to me with your ifs ? You know their guilt : you are yourself a traitor, and the chief abettor of the witch Shore ; and I swear by St. Paul, that I will not dine until your head is brought me !" He struck the table with his hand : armed men rushed in at the signal : Hastings was seized, hurried away, and instantly beheaded on a log of wood, which accidentally lay in the court-yard of the tower. (1) Richard having thus got rid of the man lie most feared, and of all who were most likely to oppose his views, ordered lord Stanley, the archbishop of York, the bishop of Ely, and other counsellors of whom he was sus- picious, to be committed prisoners to the tower ; and in order to carry on the farce of accusations, he commanded the goods of Jane Shore to be seized, and summoned her to answer before the council for sorcery and witchcraft. But as beauty was her only witchcraft, and conversation her most dangerous spell, no proofs were produced against her which could be received even in that ignorant age. Her persecution, however, did not end here. Though framed for virtue, she had proved unable to resist temptation, and had left her husband, a goldsmith in Lombard street, to live with Edward, who solicited hei favours. But while seduced from her fidelity by this gay and amorous monarch, she still made herself respectable by her other virtues. (11 Conlin. Hiit. Croyland. Sir T. More. LET. XLVIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 295 She never sold her influence. Her good offices, the genuine dictates of her heart, waited not the solicitation of presents, or the hopes of reciprocal benefit ; to protect the oppressed, and relieve the indigent, were her highest pleasures. Yet all her amiable qualities could not save her from the bitter- ness of shame, cruelly imposed upon her by a barbarous tyrant. Richard ordered her to be tried in the spiritual court for adultery. The charge was too notorious to be denied. She pleaded guilty, and was condemned to do public penance in a white sheet at St. Paul's, after walking barefooted through the city. Her future life was long and wretched. She experienced, in old age and poverty, the ingratitude of those courtiers whom she had raised into favour. Not one of all the multitudes she had obliged, had the humanity to bring her consolation or relief. Her frailties, as a woman, amid a court inured to the most atrocious crimes, were thought sufficient to justify all violations of friendship towards her, and all neglect of former obligations ; and she was permitted to languish out her days in solitude and want.(l) So rr .any acts of violence, exercised against all the nearest relations of the late k ng, prognosticated the severest fate to his defenceless children ; and, after the murder of Hastings, Richard no longer made a secret of his inten- tion to usurp the crown. As a colour to his pretensions, he not only main- tained, that his two nephews were illegitimate, but also his two brothers, Edward IV., and the duke of Clarence ; that his mother had admitted differ- ent lovers into her bed, who were the fathers of these children ; that their resemblance to those gallants was a sufficient proof of their spurious birth and that he alone of all her sons, as appeared by his features, was the true offspring of the duke of York. The place chosen for promulgating this foul and impudent assertion was the pulpit, before a large congregation, and in Richard's presence. Dr. Shaw, a sycophant entirely at his devotion, was appointed to preach in St. Paul's ; and having chosen for his text, from Scrip- ture, "Bastard slips shall not thrive !" he enlarged on every circumstance that could discredit the birth of Edward IV., the duke of Clarence, and of all their children. He then broke out into a panegyric on the duke of Glou- cester, exclaiming, " It is he who carries in his face, in his soul, the image of virtue, and the marks of a true descent !" And it was expected, as soon as the doctor had pronounced these words, that the audience would cry out, "God save king Richard!" a salutation which would immediately have been laid hold of as a popular consent, and interpreted to be the voice of the nation. But the audience kept a profound silence, and disappointed both the protector and his preacher. (2) Richard, however, had gone too far to recede from his criminal and ambi- tious purpose. Another place was chosen for a popular harangue : a place where a popular speaker never fails to persuade, and where a voice may be obtained for any measure, however atrocious or absurd. The citizens of London, with the rabble at their heels, were assembled in Guildhall, where the duke of Buckingham addressed them in an eloquent harangue, setting forth the title and virtues of the protector, and " God save king Richard !" was at last returned by the mob. The sentiments of the nation were now thought sufficiently declared. The voice of the people was the voice of God ! Richard was prevailed upon, though with seeming reluctance, to accept of the crown; and he thenceforth acted as legitimate and lawful sovereign. (3) This ridiculous farce was soon followed by a scene truly tragical the mur- der of the two young princes. Richard gave orders to sir Robert Brakenbury, constable of the tower, to put his nephews to death; but that gentleman refused to bear any part in the infamous office. The usurper then sent for sir James Tyrrell, who promised obedience, and the government of the tower was given him for one night. He chose three associates, whom he employed to execute his barbarous commission, and conducted them, about midnight, to the door of the chamber where the princes were lodged. They were in bed, and fallen into a profound sleep. The ruffians suffocated them 1) Contin. Hist. Croylcmd. Sir T. More. (2) Si- T. More. (J) Id. ibid. 296 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. with bolsters and pillows, and afterward showed their naked bodies to Tyr- rell, who ordered them to be buried at the foot of the stair-case, under a heap of stones. (1) These circumstances were confessed by the perpetrators, in the following reign. Richard, having thus extirpated all whom he feared might disturb his government, endeavoured to gain by favours those whom he thought could give stability to his throne. Several noblemen received new honours ; and lord Stanley was set at liberty, and made steward of the household. But Richard's danger arose from a quarter where he least expected it. The duke of Buckingham did not think himself sufficiently rewarded for his services in promoting the usurpation : he observed the general detestation of Richard ; and, by the advice of Morton, bishop of Ely, he turned his eye towards the young earl of Richmond, now an exile in Brittany, as the only person capable of freeing the nation from the tyranny under which it groaned. Henry, earl of Richmond, was grandson of sir Owen Tudor and Catharine of France, relic of Henry V. By his mother he was descended from John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III., and was the only remaining branch of that family, which had so long contended for the crown. In order to strengthen his interest, a match was concerted between him and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV. Money was sent over to him, for the purpose of levying foreign troops ; and the queen-dowager promised to join him, on his first appearance, with all the friends and partizans of her family. But so extensive a conspiracy, though laid on the solid foundations of good sense and sound policy, could not escape the jealous and vigilant eye of Richard. He soon received intelligence that his enemies, headed by the duke of Buckingham, were forming some designs against him. The duke, unable to resist the force of Richard, was obliged to seek safety in retreat ; he was discovered, condemned, and executed; and the other conspirators, who had taken arms in different parts of the kingdom, when informed of this misfor tune, despaired of success, and immediately separated themselves. (2) Mean- time the earl of Richmond appeared on the coast of England, with a body of five thousand men ; but hearing of the fate of Buckingham, and the dispersion of his friends, he returned to the coast of Brittany. Richard, thus triumphant in every quarter, arid fortified by an unsuccessful attempt to dethrone him, ventured at last to summon a parliament ; a mea- sure which his multiplied crimes, and flagrant usurpation, had hitherto induced him to decline. The parliament had no choice left but to recognise his authority, and acknowledge his right to the crown. His son Edward, a youth of twelve years of age, was created prince of Wales : and the king passed some popular laws in order to reconcile the nation to his government. All Richard's other measures tended to the same object. His queen being now dead, he proposed, by means of a papal dispensation, to marry the princess Elizabeth, the true heiress of the crown, and intended for the earl of Rich- mond, if his enterprise had succeeded. And, strange as it may sound in civilized ears, the queen-dowager neither scrupled this alliance, which was very unusual in England, and regarded as incestuous, nor felt any horror at (1) Sir T. More. An attemprtias lately been made by an ingenious but whimsical writer, to invalidate the particulars of this relation, and even to bring into question the fact it tends to establish. But in answer to the Historic Doubts of Mr. Walpole, it will be sufficient to reply, in the words of the profound and sagacious Hume, that the singular magnanimity, probity, and judgment of sir Thomas More, make his narrative and evidence beyond all exception ; that the testimony of no historian, either of ancient or modern limes, can possibly have more weight ; that he may justly be esteemed a contemporary with regard to the murder of the two princes : for, although he was but five years of age when that event happened, e lived and was educated among the persons concerned in the principal transactions during the adminis- ration of Richard III. And it is plain from his narrative itself, which is often extremely circumstantial, lat he had the particulars from eye-witnesses themselves. This authority, therefore, is irresistible, and . ron. .) Comines supports his accusation with very strong circumstances. The court of France, ne tells us, was so much struck with horror at Richard's treason and usurpation, that the English aniba* sador was refused an audience. Mem. ubi sup. 2) Sir T. More. Contin. Hut. Oroyland. LET. XLVIII.] MODERNEUROPE. 297 the thought of marrying her daughter to the murderer of her three sons, and of her brother. But the earl of Richmond, alarmed at an alliance which must prove fatal to all his hopes, and encouraged by the English exiles, resolved upon a new invasion. All men of probity and honour, he was assured, were desirous to prevent the sceptre from being any longer polluted by that bloody and faithless hand which held it.(l) In consequence of these representa- tions, he set sail from Harfleur, in Normandy, with a retinue of about two thou- sand men, and landed at Milford Haven, in Wales. The Welch, who con- sidered him as their countryman, flocked to his standard ; and his cause immediately wore a favourable aspect. Richard, who knew not in what quarter he might expect the invader, had taken post at Nottingham, in the centre of the kingdom ; and having given commissions to different persons in the several counties, whom he employed to oppose his enemy, he proposed in person to haste, on the first alarm, to the place most exposed to danger. The Welch governors had already deserted to Henry. But the danger to which Richard was chiefly exposed, proceeded not so much from the zeal of his open enemies, as from the infi- delity of his pretended friends. Scarce any nobleman was sincerely attached to his cause except the duke of Norfolk ; and some, who had feigned the greatest loyalty, were only watching for an opportunity to betray and aban- don him. Among these was lord Stanley ; who raised a numerous body of his friends and retainers in Cheshire and Lancashire, but without openly declaring himself, his son being in the tyrant's power. And although Henry had received secret assurances of Stanley's friendly intentions, the armies on both sides knew not what to infer from this equivocal behaviour, when they met at Bosworth, near Leicester. Henry's army consisted of six thousand men, Richard's of double that number, and he hastened to decide by arms the quarrel with his competitor. Soon after the battle began, lord Stanley appeared in the field, and declared for the earl of Richmond. This measure had a proportional effect upon both armies : it inspired unusual courage into Henry's soldiers ; it threw Richard's into dismay and confusion. The intrepid tyrant, now sensible of his desperate situation, cast his eye across the field ; and, descrying his rival at no great distance, attempted to decide the victory by a blow. He killed, with his own nand, sir William Brandon, standard-bearer to the earl : he dismounted sir John Cheney ; and he was within reach of Henry himself, who declined not the combat, when sir William Stanley broke in between them, and sur- rounded Richard with his troops. Though overwhelmed by numbers, he still maintained the combat ; and at last sunk amid heaps of slain, who had fallen by his arm.(2) A life so infamous, it has been said by Voltaire, and by Hume after him, did not merit so glorious a death ; but every man surely merits what his talents enable him to earn. Richard was a blood-thirsty tyrant ; but he was brave, and he died as a brave man should, with his sword in his hand : he was brave to the last. It would indeed have been matter of regret had he died in his bed, after disturbing so cruelly the repose of mankind; but his death was sufficiently violent to prevent his life from becoming an object of imitation. This battle was entirely decisive; the king not only being slain, but the whole royal army totally routed and dispersed. The victorious troops, in a transport of joy, bestowed on their general the appellation of king; and "Long live Henry the Seventh!" resounded from all quarters and was con- tinued with repeated acclamations. In order to give some kind of form to this military election, the ornamental crown, which Richard wore in battle, was placed upon Henry's head : his title was confirmed by the parliament ; and his marriage with the princess Elizabeth, which took place soon after, united the jarring claims of the houses of York and Lancaster. (3) Thus ended the race of the Plantagenets, who had sat upwards of three hundred years upon the throne of England ; and thus the civil wars which had so long desolated the kingdom. We must now return to the history of France. '11 Sir T. More. Contin. Hist. Croyland. (2) Kennet. Sir T. More. (3) Id. ibid. THE HISTORY OF [PART f LETTER XLIX. France, frtitn the Expulsion of the English by Charles Vll., to the Invasion of Italy by Charles Vlltin 1494. WHILE England, my dear Philip, was torn in pieces by civil wars, France was increasing both in power and dominion. Most of the great fiefs were reunited to the crown : the authority of the prince was raised to such a height, as enabled him to maintain law and order ; a considerable military force was established, and the finances were able to support it. The means by which these changes were effected require your particular attention. Charles VII. no sooner found himself in quiet possession of France, by the expulsion of the English, than he devoted himself to the cares of govern- ment : he endeavoured to repair the ravages of war by promoting the arts of peace, and to secure the tranquillity and good order of his kingdom by wise regulations. He established a regular army, instead of those troops required to be furnished by the crown vassals, and levied a tax for their support. Besides that army, which was kept in constant pay, each village maintained a free archer, who was exempted from the king's tax ; and it was in conse- quence of this exemption, otherwise peculiar to the nobility, that such a number of persons soon claimed the title of gentlemen, both by name and arms. These politic measures were followed by the most important consequences. A force, always at command, gave vigour to the royal authority ; the possess- ors of fiefs being no longer called upon, had no longer any pretence for arm- ing their followers, to disturb the peace of the state ; so that the feudal polity went rapidly to decay in France, and Charles beheld himself at the head of the largest and best regulated kingdom in Europe. But all the wisdom and generosity of this great monarch could not secure to him that happiness which he endeavoured to procure for his subjects. His son Lewis revolted, and imbittered his latter days with sorrow; nay, brought him to an untimely grave : for, being informed that this prince intended to take him off by poison, he abstained from all food, till it was too late ; and literally died of hunger, that his unnatural son might not be guilty of parri- cide.(l) Lewis XL, so much celebrated as a politician and despised as a man, now succeeded to that crown, which he had traitorously attempted to seize, in prejudice to the best of kings and of fathers. His leading object was the aggrandizement of the monarchy, by depressing the power of the nobles, and reuniting the great fiefs to the crown. And as he knew that men of honour and character would not be concerned in an attempt upon the rights and properties of others, he immediately dismissed the respectable ministers, who had ably and faithfully served his father, and selected from among the lowest of the people men of a disposition similar to his own subtle, deceitful, un- feeling, and cruel. But craft may sometimes overshoot its aim, especially when accompanied with rapacity. The nobles were alarmed ; they entered into an association, and took arms to humble their oppressor. The king also took arms and prepared to face them. A battle was fought, which decided nothing ; and as Lewis was fonder of negotiating than fighting, a peace was concluded on terms advantageous to the rebels, but which the perfidious tyrant never meant to fulfil. He took into favour many of those whom he had formerly disgraced : he detached from the confederacy the dukes of Bourbon and Brittany ; and he got an assembly of the states to declare those articles of the treaty void which were most detrimental to his interest.(S) (1) Monstrelet. Du Tillet. Mezeray. (2) Mem. dc Phil, de Comines. Dupleix. Mezeray. By exerting all his power and address in infill dicing the election of the representatives lv bribing or overawing the members, and by various change* LET. XLIX.] M D E R N E U R O P E. 299 But although Lewis thus artfully defeated a conspiracy that seemed to endanger his throne, his rapacity soon brought him into new troubles ; he became the dupe of his own artifice, and had almost perished in his own snare. Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, was succeeded in his extensive dominions by his son Charles the Bold. Charles had an antipathy against Lewis ; and, what more alarmed that arch-politician, knew him better than any man in Europe. Both parties assembled forces, and the fate of one ol them was expected to be decided; when Lewis, who hated coming to extremi- ties, agreed to pay the duke thirty-six thousand crowns to defray his military expenses, and appointed a personal interview at Peronne, in Picardy, then in possession of Charles. The proposal was agreed to, and the king went to the place of meeting accompanied only by a few domestics. By such an act of confidence, he hoped to throw Charles off his guard, and take advantage, during their conferences, of that friendly temper which he had inspired. As a further means of forwarding his negotiation, he commanded some of his emissaries to enter Liege, and persuade the inhabitants to revolt against the duke. Thus wrapped in perfidy and deceit, Lewis thought himself sure of concluding an advantageous treaty. He was mistaken, however, for once. The duke indeed received him with all possible marks of friendship and respect, and seemed highly pleased with so much confidence in an adversary ; but the face of affairs was as soon changed. Intelligence arrived that the people of Liege had broken out into open rebellion at the instigation of the French emissa- ries, and had cut the garrison in pieces. Charles, in the first transports of his rage, ordered the king to be shut up in the castle of Peronne ; posted double guards at the gates, and made him thoroughly sensible that he was a prisoner, and at the mercy of his vassal. In that wretched condition Lewis had continued three days, when he again attempted to set his crooked policy at work, by distributing large sums among the duke's officers ; and Charles's anger being now somewhat abated, he was prevailed upon to enter into a negotiation with his prisoner, or rather to pre- scribe such terms as he thought proper, to a prince whose life and liberty were in his power. The most mortifying of these conditions was, that Lewis should march with him against Liege, and be active in the reduction of that place, which had revolted at his own request. Liege was reduced ; and Lewis having thus fulfilled, in every particular, the purpose of his vassal, was per- mitted to depart, before the duke set fire to the town, and massacred the inhabitants. (1) This affair was treated with so much ridicule at Paris, that all the magpies and jays were taught to cry, " Peronne! Peronne !" a circum- stance that proved fatal to many of them ; for Lewis, after his return, issued an edict for destroying all those talkative birds, as unnecessary remem- brancers of his disgrace. (2) The subsequent part of Lewis's reign was one continued scene of execu- tions, wars, and negotiations. He and his infamous ministers divided the possessions of those whom his tyrannies had caused to rebel; his ministers themselves conspired against him ; and the bishop of Verdun, and cardinal Balue, men as wicked as himself, suffered those tortures which they had invented for others. His brother Charles, who had been always a thorn in his side, was taken off by poison ; the constable de St. Paul, his brother-in-law, the count of Armagnac, the dukes of Alencon and Nemours, lost their heads on the scaffold; and the children of the last named nobleman, by an un- heard-of piece of barbarity, were sprinkled with their father's blood, yet reeking from his veins, and sent in that condition to the Bastile.(3) which be artfully made in the form of their deliberations, Lewis XI. acquired such entire direction of the national assemblies, that, from being the vigilant guardians of the privileges and property of the people, he rendered them tamely subservient, in protecting the most odious measures of his reign. (Phil, de Com torn, i.) He first taught other modern princes the fatal art of becoming arbitrary, by corrupting the fonn tain of public liberty. (1) Phil, de Com. liv. ii. chap. vii. xiv. (2) J. Troyes Hist. Secrete de Lewis XI. (3) Du. Tillet. The king ordered, says Mezeray, that the two sons of the duke of Nemours, yet infante, should be placed beneath the scaflbld on which he was executed U ' llei * ' a her's blood might fall on theit heads Jtbrtgt Gironol. de Hist de France. 300 THE HISTORY OF [PART! With the ignominious but politic treaty of Lewis with Edward IV., by which he purchased the retreat of that monarch, you are already acquainted He was always engaged, either in war or negotiations, with his natural enemy the duke of Burgundy, till the death of that prince, who fell in an ambitious and unprovoked attempt upon the liberty of the Swiss. This was a fortunate event for Lewis, and he endeavoured to make the most of it. The duke left no male issue, and but one .daughter, the sole heiress of his extensive dominions, which comprehended not only the dutchy of Burgundy, but Franche- Comte", Artois, Flanders, and almost all the Netherlands. Lewis proposed a marriage between this princess and his son Charles, the dauphin, a boy only seven years old. In the mean time, he seized Burgundy, as a male fief, and made himself master of Artois, Benzan5on, and several other places, by the most atrocious acts of treachery and cruelty.(l) This was the way to make sure of something, but surely not to bring about a marriage treaty : the rapa- city of this arch-politician, notwithstanding all his penetration, once more betrayed him The princess Mary was filled with diffidence, and her Fle- mish subjects with detestation. By their advice she married the archduke Maximilian,(2) son of the emperor Frederic III., and hence arose new wars, which long desolated the Low Countries, and bred an implacable hatred between the houses of France and Austria. Lewis, however, put a stop to these wars (as he did, as soon as possible, to all in which he was engaged) by a truce ; and though he could not boast of his success in arms, he retained Burgundy, and all the other places he had seized. Anjou, Maine, Provence, and Bar were soon after left him by Charles count du Maine, the last prince of the house of Anjou, who died without issue. He united to the crown Roussillon and Cerdagne, under pretence of mortgage, and the county of Boulogne by purchase. Thus Lewis, amid all his crimes, and after all his struggles, and all his blunders, saw his kingdom much enlarged, his subjects in obedience, and his government revered at home and abroad. But he had only a glimpse of that agreeable prospect ; for he was suddenly seized with a fit of the apoplexy, which threw him into a lin- gering illness ; and he expected death with all those horrors which a life of such complicated guilt deserved. It at last overtook him ; but not before he had suffered more severe tortures than any criminal punished during his reign. (3) r .._ (1) Phil, de Com. liv. v. chap. xv. Du CIos, Hist. Lewis XI. (2) There is reason however to believe, that the heiress of Burgundy was influenced, in her choice, by other motives than those of policy ; for we are told by Philip de Comines, that while her marriage with the dauphin was under deliberation. Madame Hallewin, first lady of the bed-chamber to thai princess, gave it as her opinion, " That there was more need of a man than a boy !" (Mem. liv. vi. chap, iii.) Admitting this to be the case, and the marriage with the dauphin impracticable, Lewis might still have prevented the dominions of Burgundy from being conveyed to a rival power, by favouring tjje suit of the count of An- goulAme, a prince of the blood- royal of France, and father of Francis I., towards a match with whom the princess Mary had indicated her good-will. (Comines, ubi sup.) But the rapacious disposition and intriguing spirit of the French monarch, which obscured his naturally clear and sound understanding, with his jealous dread of so highly exalting a subject, made him discourage that alliance, and pursue a line ot insidious policy, disgraceful even to Lewis XI., and which contributed, eventually, to raise up in the house of Austria, a rival power that thwarted the measures, opposed the arms, and checked, during two centuries, the progress of the successors of a prince, who first united the interior force of France, and established it on such a footing as to render it formidable to the rest of Europe. (3) Phil, de Com. liv. vi. chap. xxi. xxii. Du Clos, Hist. Lewis XL The picture drawn by these two writers, of the last scene of this monarch's life, in contrast with his cruelties, is deeply shaded with horror. He put to death, we are told, more than four thousand persons, by different kinds of torture, and without any form of trial ; that he was usually present himself at their execution, in beholding which, he seemed to enjoy a barbarous satisfaction or triumph ; that many of the nobility were, by his order, confined in iron cages, invented by the ministers of his tyrannies, and carried about like wild beasts ; while others were excepting his own son, his daughter, and his son-in-law, the lord of Beaujeau, afterward duke of Bourbon, though in the last two he placed more confidence than in all the others. After often shifting his residence and his domestics, under pretence that nature delights in change, he took up his abode at the castle of ii/.-les-Tours, which he ordered to be encompassed with large bars of iron, in the form of a grate, with lour watch-towers of iron at the four corners of the building. The grates were without the wall, on the ler side of the ditch, and went to the bottom : spikes of iron, set as thick as possible, were fastened ie wall; and cross-bow men were placed in the ditches and in the watch-towers, to shoot at any man 3 dard approach the castle till the opening of the gate. The gate was never opened, nor the draw- bridge let down, before eight in the morning, when the courtiers were permitted to enter. Through the ly the captain* were ordered to guard their everal posts, with a main guard in the middle of the co'urt aa LET. XLIX.J MODERN EUROPE. 301 Tho character of Lewis XI. is one of the most complicated in history He obtained the end which he proposed by his policy, but at the expense of hia peace and reputation. His life was a jumble of crimes and contradictions, Absolute, without dignity; popular (because he humbled the great), without geaetosity; unjust by system, yet zealous for the administration of justice; living in op*n violation of the first principles of morals, but resigning him- self to the most ridiculous superstitions ; the tyrant of his subjects, and the timid slave of his physicians ; he debased the royalty at the same time that he strengthened it. Yet, this prince, who rendered religion contemptible, and royalty disgraceful, assumed the title of Majesty and Most Christian, since given to his successors, and formerly not claimed by the kings of France. Lewis was succeeded by his son Charles VIII., a young prince ill educated, rash, and incapable of application. As he had entered the fourteenth year of his age, he was no longer a minor by the law ; but he was still so by nature : and Lewis had wisely intrusted the government, during the youth of the king, to his daughter Anne, lady of Beaujeau, a woman of great spirit and capacity. The administration, however, was disputed by the duke of Orleans, first prince of the blood, and afterward the celebrated Lewis XII., who, proving unsuccessful in his intrigues, betook himself to arms, and entered into a league with the duke of Brittany, and the archduke Maximilian. The Bretons were defeated in the battle of St. Aubin, and the duke of Orleans was taken prisoner.(l) The death of the duke of Brittany, which happened soon after this defeat, threw the affairs of that dutchy into the utmost confusion, and seemed to threaten the state with final subjection. It was the only great fief which now remained disunited from the crown of France ; and as the duke had died without male heir, some antiquated claims to its dominion were revived by Charles VIII. But force is the best claim between princes ; of that Charles was possessed; and the conquest of Brittany seemed inevitable, unless pre- vented by some foreign power. The prince to whom the distressed Bretons looked up for aid was Henry VII. of England, who was highly interested in preventing the reduction of their country, as well as bound by ties of gratitude to return that protection to the young dutchess which had been generously yielded him by her father. But the parsimonious temper of Henry, which rendered him averse to all warlike enterprises, or distant expeditions, prevented him from sending them any effectual support. They therefore applied to Maximilian of Austria, now king of the Romans, whose wife, Mary of Burgundy, was lately dead, and offered him their dutchess in marriage. The proposal was readily accepted ; the nuptials were celebrated by proxy ; and the dutchess of Brittany assumed the august title of quSen of the Romans. But this honour was all she gained by her marriage ; for Maximilian, destitute of money and troops, and embar rassed by the continual revolts of the Flemings, was able to send no succours to his consort. The French made progress every day : yet the conquest of Brittany seemed still so distant, and accompanied with so many difficulties, that the court of France changed its measures, and, by a masterstroke in policy, astonished all Europe. Charles VIII. had been affianced to Margaret, daughter of Maximilian. Though too young for the nuptial union, she had been sent to Paris to be educated, and at this time bore the title of queen of France. Engagements in a town closely besieged. (Phil, de Com. liv. yi. chap, xii.) Nor was this all. Every secret of medicine, every allurement of sensuality, and every sacrifice of superstition, was exhausted, in order to protract the tyrant's miserable existence, and set at a distance the ills he feared. The pope sent him the vest which St. Peter wore when he said mass ; the sacred phial was brought from Rheims to reanoint him ; and he Invited a holy hermit from Calabria, at whose feet he kneeled, and whose intercession with Heaven he attempted to buy, by building him two convents; the most beautiful country girls were procured to dance around him to the sound of music ; he paid his physician, whom he feared, the enormous sum often thou- sand crowns a month ; and the blood of infants is said to have been spilled in order to soften the acrimony of his scorbutic humours. Phil, de Com. et Du Cloa, ubi sup. (1) Mezeray, torn. vi. Renault, torn. i. Could the duke of Orleans have flattered the passion of Ann* of Beaujeau, he might, if we believe Brantome not only have escaped this misfortune, but shared the administration. 302 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 so solemnly entered into could not easily be set aside ; but the marriage of Charles with the dutchess of Brittany seemed necessary to reannex that important fief to the crown; and, as a yet stronger motive for such alliance, the marriage of Maximilian with this princess appeared destructive to the grandeur, and even to the security, of the French monarchy. The only means of obviating every inconveniency was therefore concluded to be the disso- lution of the two marriages, which had been celebrated but not consummated, and the espousal of the dutchess of Brittany to the king 1 of France. The measures by which the French ministry carried this delicate scheme into execution were wise and political. While they pressed Brittany with all the violence of war, they secretly negotiated with the men of most influence in the dutchy, representing to them, that the happiest event which in their present situation could befall the Bretons, would be a peace with France, though purchased by a final subjection to that monarchy. These arguments had some weight with the barons ; but the grand difficulty was, how to obtain the consent of the dutchess, who had fixed her affections on Maximilian. In order to subdue her obstinacy, the duke of Orleans was set at liberty ; and though formerly her suitor, and favoured with her smile, he now zealously employed all his interest in favour of the king. By his advice, Charles advanced with a powerful army to Rennes, at that time the residence of the dutchess. Finding herself without resource, she opened the gates of the city, and agreed "to the proffered marriage ; which was soon after solemnized, and justly considered as the most fortunate event that could have befallen the French monarchy.(l) The success of Charles, in this negotiation, was the most sensible morti- fication to the king of the Romans. He was deprived of a considerable territory which he thought he had acquired, and an accomplished princess, whom he had espoused: he was affronted in the person of his daughter Margaret, who was sent back to him, after she had been treated, during seven years, as queen of France ; and he had reason to reproach himself with his own supine security, in neglecting the consummation of his marriage, which was easily practicable for him, and would have rendered the tie indissoluble. The king of England had also reason to accuse himself of misconduct, in regard to this important transaction : for, although the affair had terminated in a manner which he could not precisely foresee, his negligence in leaving his most useful ally so long exposed to the invasion of a superior power, could not but appear, on reflection, the result of timid caution, and narrow politics ; and, as Henry valued himself on his extensive foresight, and sound judgment, the ascendant acquired over him, by such a youth as Charles, roused his indignation, and prompted him to seek vengeance, after all remedy for his miscarriage was become impracticable. He accordingly entered into a league with the king of the Romans, and the king of Spain, who also interested himself in this matter : he obtained liberal supplies from his parlia- ment ; and he landed in France with one of the largest and best appointed armies that had ever been transported from England. (2) But Charles and his ministers found means to divert the impending storm, by dissolving the confederacy. They drew the king of Spain into a separate treaty, by restoring to him the counties of Roussillon and Cerdagne ; and as they knew Henry's ruling passion to be money, he was bought off by the famous treaty of Estaples, the particulars of which I shall afterward have occasion to mention. Maximilian now alone remained of all those hostile powers ; and he was content to conclude a peace, on obtaining restitution of Artois, Franche-ComteS, and Carolois, which had been ceded as the dowry of his daughter, when she was affianced to the king of France. (3) Charles's motives for purchasing peace at so high a price were neither those of indolence nor timidity, but of ambition and youthful ardour. He had determined to vindicate his title to the kingdom of Naples, supposed to descend to him from the second house of Anjou, which ended in Charles count fl) Mezeray. Henault, ubi sup. Ba.con.Uiit.JIen I* (2) Bacon ubl sup ft) Phil, de Com. liv. vii. chap. iii. LET. L.] MODERN EUROPE. 303 of Maine, who had bequeathed all his rights and possessions to the crown of France. This project had long- engaged the mind of Charles ; but, in. order to carry it effectually into execution, it was necessary to be at peace with his neighbours ; and that being now secured, he set out for Italy with as little concern as if it had been a mere journey of pleasure.(l) But before I speak of the success of that expedition, and the wars in which it involved Europe, several important matters merit your attention the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, and the expulsion of the Moors out of Spain. LETTER L. The Progress of the Turks, and the Fall of the Greek Empire. You have already seen, my dear Philip, the weakness of the empire ol Constantinople at the time of the crusades : you have seen the imperial city sacked, and the government seized by the champions of the cross. The Greeks recovered their empire from the French in 1261, but in a mangled and impoverished condition. It continued in the same weak state. The monastic ' passion seemed to have obscured the rays of common sense. Andronicus, son of Michael Paleologus, who had restored the Greek empire, allowed him- self to be persuaded, that God being his protector, all military force was unnecessary ; and the superstitious Greeks, regardless of danger, employed themselves in disputing about the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, when they should have been studying the art of war, and training themselves to military discipline. One half of the empire pretended, that the light upon Mount Tabor had been from all eternity ; and the other half affirmed, that it had been produced by God only for the purpose of the transfiguration.(2) In the mean time, the Turks, whose force had been broken by the Mogul Tartars, were strengthening themselves in Asia Minor, and soon overran Thrace. Othman, from whom the present sultans are descended, and to whom the Ottoman empire owes its establishment, fixed the seat of his government at Prusa, in Bythinia, about the beginning of the fourteenth cen- tury. His son Orcan advanced as far as the borders of the Propontis ; and John Cantacuzenus, colleague of the emperor Paleologus, was glad to pur- chase the friendship of an infidel and Barbarian, according to the haughty language of the Greeks, by giving him his daughter in marriage. (3) Cantacuzenus, who had usurped the imperial dignity, ended his days in a monastery ; and John Paleologus, after having in vain implored succours in Italy, and humbled himself at the feet of the pope, was obliged to return and conclude a shameful treaty with Amurath, the son of Orcan, whose tributary he consented to become. The Turkish army had crossed the straits of Cali polls, taken the city of Adrianople, and marched into the heart of Thrace before the return of the emperor. (4) Amurath first gave to the janizaries that form under which they at present subsist. In order to create a body of devoted troops that might serve as the imme diate guards of his person and dignity, the sultan commanded his officers to seize annually, as the imperial property, the third part of the young males taken in war. After being instructed in the Mahometan religion, inured to obedience by severe discipline, and trained to warlike exercise, these youths were formed into regular bands, distinguished by the name of janizaries or new soldiers. And as every sentiment which enthusiasm can inspire, and every mark of honour that the favour of the prince could confer, were em ployed to animate them with martial ardour, and fill them with a sense of their own pre-eminence, the janizaries soon became the chief strength and (1) Phil, de Com. liv.vii. chap. v. Mezeray. torn. iv. (2) Pachymer '3) Ducas. (4) Ibid. 304 THE HISTORY OP [PART pride of the Ottoman armies. By their valour Amurath defeated, in the of Cassovia, the united forces of the Wallachians, Hungarians, Dalmatians, and Triballians, under the conduct of Lascaris, prince of Servia ; but walk- ing carelessly over the field of victory, he was assassinated by a Christian soldier, who had concealed himself among the slain. He was succeeded by his son Bajazet, surnamed Ilderim, or the Thunderbolt, on account of the rapidity of his conquests.(l) The Greeks, though surrounded by such dangerous enemies, and though their empire was almost reduced to the boundaries of Constantinople, were not more united among themselves than formerly. Discord even reigned in the imperial family. John Paleologus had condemned his son Andronicus to lose his eyes : Andronicus revolted against him, and, by the assistance of the Genoese, who were masters of the commerce, and even part of the suburbs, of Constantinople, he shut his father up in prison. After two years' confine- ment, the emperor recovered his liberty and his authority, and built a citadel in order to obstruct the designs of the Turks ; but Bajazet, the terrible Baja- zet, ordered him to demolish his works and the works were demolished !(2) What but ruin, and that both sudden and inevitable, could be expected from a people, whose timidity induced them to destroy the very column of their security 1 In the mean time, the progress of the Turks in Europe alarming the Chris- tian princes, Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and the flower of the French nobility, took arms, and followed the call of John-without-Fear, count of Nevers. The main army, which consisted of about one hundred thousand men, of different nations, was commanded by Sigismund, king of Hungary, afterward emperor of Germany. The Christians besieged Nicopolis, upon the Danube. Bajazet came to relieve it. He examined the disposition of his enemies : he tried their spirit by skirmishes, and found they had courage, but wanted conduct : he drew them into an ambuscade, and gained a com- plete victory over them. Bajazet has been justly blamed for massacring his prisoners ; but it ought to be remembered that the French had shown him the example, by putting to death all the Turks they had seized before the battle. (3) Constantinople was immediately threatened by the conqueror. But Ma- nuel Paleologus, the son and successor of John, purchased a seeming peace, by submitting to an annual tribute of six hundred pieces of gold ; by obliging himself to build a mosque, and receive into the city a cadi, or judge, to de- cide the differences between the Mahometans settled there on account of trade. Perceiving, however, a new storm arising, he withdrew, and went to the several courts of Europe to petition assistance, as his father had formerly done : and with no better success. Nobody would stir in his defence. Few princes indeed were in a condition so to do, almost all Christendom being in- volved in civil wars. The Turks, meanwhile, had laid siege to Constantino- ple, and its ruin seemed inevitable ; when the fatal blow was diverted for a time, by one of those great events that fill the world with confusion. The dominions of the Mogul Tartars, under Genghiz Khan, and his im- mediate successors, (extended as we have had occasion to see) from the Wolga to the frontier of China, and as far east as the river Ganges. Tamer- lane, or Timur Beck, one of the princes of those Tartars, and a descendant of Genghiz Khan, by the female line, though born without dominions (in the ancient Sogdiana, at present the country of the Usbecs) subdued almost as great an extent of territory as his victorious ancestor ; and, in the sweep of his conquests, gave a blow to the empire of the Turks. He had subjected Persia, India, and Syria, when the Greek emperor, and five Mahometan princes, whom the sultan had stripped of their dominions, invited him into Asia Minor, as the only potentate able to deliver them from the tyranny of Bajazet. Tamerlane was no doubt glad of an opportunity of extending his conquests (1) Cantemir, Hist. Oth. Emp. (2) Ducas. (3) Cantemir, ubi sup. LET. L.] MODERN EUROPE. 305 and his renown ; but as he had still some respect for the laws of nations, he sent ambassadors to Bajazet, before he commenced hostilities, requiring him to raise the siege of Constantinople, and do justice to the Mahometan princes, whom he had deprived of their territories. The haughty sultan received these proposals with the highest rage and indignation. He abandoned his enterprise, and prepared to face his rival. Tamerlane continued his march, denouncing his vengeance. They met between Caesaria and Ancyra, where all the forces in the world seemed assembled, and a great and terrible battle was fought. The dispute was long and obstinate, but fortune at length de- clared for Tamerlane; Bajazet himself was taken prisoner, and had the afflic- tion to see one of his sons fall by his side, and the mortification to find another the companion of his chains. They were treated with great humanity by the victor, notwithstanding the vulgar story of the iron cage, in which the captive sultan is said to have been shut up. Three hundred and forty thousand men are computed to have fallen on both sides. (1) In consequence of this victory, Tamerlane became master of Prusa, the seat of the Turkish empire. He pillaged Nice ; ravaged all the country as far as the Thracian Bosphorus, and took Smyrna by assault, after one of the most memorable sieges recorded in history. Every place either yielded to the terror of his name or the force of his arms. The victorious Tartar, how- ever, soon abandoned his acquisitions in Asia Minor, which he found it would be difficult to preserve against so brave a people as the Turks, and went to secure those conquests more likely to prove durable.(2) Meanwhile Manuel Paleologus, the Greek emperor, thinking the Turkish power entirely broken, destroyed the mosque in Constantinople, and retook several places in its neighbourhood. The civil wars between the sons of Bajazet, after the death of their father, and the departure of Tamerlane, for- tified Manuel in his ill-founded security. But the Greeks were in time made sensible of their mistake. On the death of Mahomet I., who had dethroned and put to death his brother Musa, Amurath II., the son of this Mahomet, immediately sat down before Constantinople. He raised the siege to quell the revolt of his brother Mustapha ; he took Thessalonica and returned to the imperial city, which was in more danger than ever. The emperor Manuel had died in the habit of a monk ; and his successor, John Paleolo- gus II., threw himself into the arms of the Latins. He hoped to procure as- sistance from the West, by uniting the Greek and Roman churches ; but he gained by this scheme only the hatred of his subjects. They considered him, and the bishops of his train, who had assisted at the council of Florence, as no better than infidels. The bishops were obliged to retract their opinions ; and John was much less zealous in maintaining that so much desired union when he found it would not answer his purpose.^3) The Turks, in the mean time, were happily diverted from Constantinople by their wars in Hungary ; Avhere Amurath found an antagonist worthy of himself, in the celebrated John Hunniades, vaivode of Transylvania, and general to Ladislaus VI. king of Poland, whom the Hungarians had raised to their throne. This great commander obliged the sultan to raise the siege of Belgrade ; defeated him in a general engagement, and made him sue for peace. Amurath and Ladislaus accordingly concluded a solemn truce of ten years ; to which the one swore upon the Koran, the other upon the gospels : and the sultan, tired of the toils of empire, resigned the sceptre to his son, Mahomet II. But an atrocious perfidy, disgraceful to the Christian name, obliged him to resume it, to the confusion of his enemies. The Turks, reposing on the faith of the treaty, which they religiously observed, had carried their forces into Asia. This seemed a favourable opportunity to attack them on the side of Europe : and cardinal Julian Caesa- (1) Sharisod. Hist. Timur-Beck. Cantemir, Hist. Oth. Emp. (2) Sharisod, ubi sup. (3) jEneas Sylvius, Europ. Mosheim, Hist. Eccles. vol. iii. Besides acknowledging that the Roman pontiff was the supreme judge, the true head of the universal church, the Greek emperor and his bishops were obliged to admit, that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son, as well as from the Father, and that departed souls are purified in the infernal regions, by a certain kind of fire, before their introduction to the presence or participation of the vision of the Deity. Mosheim. ubi sup. VOL. I. U 306 THE HISTORY OF [PART I, rini, the pope's legate in Germany, a man of a violent and deceitful charac ter, who had signalized himself in a crusade against the Hussites, persuaded Ladislaus that the treaty with the Turks was of no obligation, as it had been concluded without the consent of his holiness ; and that it not only might, nut ought to be violated. The pope confirmed this opinion ; ordered the truce to be broken, and released Ladislaus from his oath. In so doing, he acted according to the established usage of the church of Rome, and in conformity with the maxim, that " no faith is to be kept with heretics," and consequently not with infidels : one of the most pernicious doctrines ever devised by superstition ; a doctrine which not only contradicts the first principles of reason and conscience, but which, if carried into practice, must destroy all moral and political order. It would authorize enemies to sport even with oaths ; put an end to public faith ; dissolve the links of society ; and substi- tute robbery and bloodshed, instead of the laws of nations and the ties of duty. The arguments of the pope and his legate however prevailed. All the Polish and Hungarian chiefs, except the brave Hunniades, suffered themselves to be carried away by the torrent ; and Ladislaus, seduced by false hopes, and influenced by false principles, invaded the sultan's territories. The Turks, enraged at such a breach of faith, breathed nothing but vengeance. The janizaries went in a body to beg Amurath to quit his retreat, and put himself at their head, his son Mahomet being yet young and inexperienced. He consented, and marched in quest of the Christian army, which he found encamped near the city of Varna, in Moldavia. Ladislaus was ready to receive him, and both armies joined battle. Amurath wore in his bosom the treaty which had been so solemnly sworn to, and so shamefully violated : he held it up in the height of the engagement, when he found the vigour of his troops beginning to slacken, appealing to God, as a witness of the perjury of the Christians, and beseeching him to avenge the insult offered to the laws of nations. Perjury for once received its just reward. The Christians were defeated with great slaughter, after an obstinate resistance. Ladislaus fell with his sword in his hand, all covered with wounds : cardinal Julian sunk by his side ; and ten thousand Poles, who guarded their monarch, covered with their dead bodies nearly the same ground on which they were drawn up.(l) Amurath, thus victorious, resigned once more the rod of empire what a rare example of philosophy in a Turk ! and was again obliged to resume it. The person who drew the sultan a second time from his retreat was George Castriot, surnamed Scanderbeg, the son of a prince of Albania, formerly Epirus. This young hero had been delivered as a hostage on the subjection of his father's kingdom; had been educated in the court of Amurath, and had risen into favour by his valour and talents. But he still cherished the idea of becoming one day the deliverer of his country : and a favourable opportunity at last offered. He had been sent with the command of an army into Servia, when he heard of his father's death ; and as he understood a secretary of the Ottoman court was to pass near his camp, he caused him to be seized, loaded with chains, and compelled him to sign and put the sultan's signet to an order, enjoining the governor of Croia, the capital of Albania, to deliver up the town and citadel to himself. This false order had the desired effect. The place was delivered up, and Scanderbeg massacred the Turkish garrison. The Albanians crowded to his standard ; and he made so good a use of the mountainous situation of his country, as to defy all the efforts of the sultan's power. (2) Amurath was succeeded in his extensive dominions by his son Mahomet II., justly surnamed the Great, who had been formerly crowned, and obeyed as emperor, but had resigned to his father the reins of government, as you have already seen, on account of the exigencies of the times an example of mo- deration no less extraordinary than the philosophy of Amurath in retiring from the honours of empire in the hour of victory, especially as Mahomet (I) Mat. de Michov. lib. iv. Herbert de Fulatin, lib. xiv. P. Cantemir, ubi aup. (3) P. Cantemir. Sir Paul B< LET. L.1 MODERN EUROPE. 307 was naturally of a fiery and ambitious temper. The character of this prince has been very differently represented by historians. Voltaire is his professed panegyrist ; and, in order to free him from the imputation of certain cruel and ferocious actions, has combated the most incontestible facts. Other writers have gone equal lengths to degrade him : he has been painted as a rude and ignorant Barbarian, as well as a scholar and a patron of the liberal arts. But they who would do justice to the character of Mahomet must trace it by other lineaments. He was both a scholar and a Barbarian : he united the knowledge of the one to the savage ferocity of the other. He was enlightened, but not civilized. With some taste for the liberal arts, or at least some sense of the value of their productions, he entertained a general contempt for their professors : the Turk always predominated. He was a -varrior and a politician in the most extensive meaning of the words : as such ne was truly great : and whether we consider the conception or the execution of his enterprises, we shall find equal cause to admire the extent of his understanding and the vigour of his spirit. His first enterprise was against Constantinople, which had so long been the object of the ambition of his ancestors. The Greek emperor, John Paleologus II., had been succeeded, in 1449, by his son Constantine. This prince possessed courage, but little capacity. He took care, however, to strengthen the fortifications of his capital, as soon as he was apprised of the designs of Mahomet : and he made many advances to the sultan, in order to conciliate matters, and induce him to lay aside his project. But Mahomet's resolution was taken. Though only twenty-one years of age when he ascended the Ottoman throne, he had already conceived the design of making Constantinople the seat of his empire ; and nothing could divert him from his purpose. If he sometimes seemed to listen to terms of accommodation, it was only that he might lull his enemies into secu- rity, while he carried on his military preparations with unremitted assi- duity. At last he cut off all communication with the city, both by sea and land, and laid siege to it in form. Though the garrison was but small, the walls were defended with great gallantry on the land side, the Greeks being actuated by the courage of despair ; and the Turks were incapable of annoying them from the sea, by reason of large chains and booms which se- cured the mouth of the harbour. But nothing is impossible to human genius, when aided by the necessary force. In order to overcome this difficulty, Mahomet caused a passage of near two leagues to be dug o^er land, in the form of a ship's cradle, lined with planks, besmeared with grease ; and by the help of engines, and a prodigious number of men, he drew up, in the space of one night, eighty galleys, and seventy vessels of smaller size, out of the water, upon these planks, and launched them all into the harbour.(l) What must have been the surprise of the besieged at morning, to behold a large fleet riding in their port, and yet all their booms secure. The city was now assailed on all sides. Mahomet caused a bridge of boats to be built across the harbour, upon which he raised a battery of cannon. And here I cannot, help remarking, that the artillery of the Greeks must have been very indifferent, or very ill served, otherwise this bridge could never have been built. The cannon employed by the Turks are said to have been of an enormous size, some of them carrying balls of one hundred pounds weight. With these great guns they beat down the Walls faster than the besieged could repair them : a body of janizaries entered the breach, with Maholnet at their head, while another broke in at a sally port. The emperor Constantine, whose valour merited a more distinguished fate, was slain among the crowd, and his capital became a prey to the conqueror. But for the honour of Mahomet II., I must observe, that few of the garrison were put to the sword. He arrested the fury of his troops, and granted conditions to the inhabitants, who had sent deputies to implore his clemency. (2) They were allowed a magistrate to decide their civil differences, a patriarch, and the (1) Ducas. Cantemit (2) Cantemir. Ricaut ua 308 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. public exercise of their religion. This spiritual indulgence they still enjoy, under certain limitations, and also their patriarch, and the benefit of their civil magistrate. Here I might remark, as has been remarked by graver historians, that Con- stantinople (built by the first Christian emperor, whose name it bears) sub- mitted to the Turks under a Constantine, and Rome to the Barbarians under an Augustus ! but such accidental coincidence of names and circumstances is more worthy the notice of a monkish chronologer than an observer of human nature. Mahomet continued to push his conquests on all sides, and with unvaried fortune, till he received a check from John Hunniades, who obliged him to raise the siege of Belgrade. The knights of Rhodes, at present of Malta, opposed him in their island with like success. But he subdued Albania, after the death of Scanderbeg ; and Trebisond, where the family of Comnenus had preserved an image of the Greek empire. He carried his arms on the other side as far as Trieste ; took Otranto, and fixed the Mahometan power in the heart of Calabria.(l) He threatened Venice and Rome itself with subjec- tion ; hoping to make himself master of Italy, as well as of Greece ; and then the triumph of barbarism would have been complete. All Europe trembled at his motions : and well it might ; for Europe, unless united, must have sunk beneath his sword. But death freed Christendom from this terrible con- queror, at an age when he might have executed the greatest enterprises, being only in his fifty-first year. His descendants, however, still possess the finest country in our quarter of the globe. Greece, where civil liberty was first known, and where arts and letters were first brought to perfection, con- tinues to be the seat of ignorance, barbarism, and despotism. LETTER LI. Spain, from the Death of Peter the Cruel, in 1369, till the Conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. PETER the Cruel, my dear Philip, after being deserted by the Black Prince on account of his perfidy, was subdued and slain, as you have already seen, by his bastard brother Henry count of Trastamara, who succeeded to the throne of Castile. Nothing remarkable happened during the reign of this prince, or under his descendants, for almost a century. They were engaged in frequent wars with their neighbours, the kings of Portugal and Arragon. But these wars were seldom decisive ; so that Spain continued in nearly the same situation, from the death of Peter till the reign Henry IV. of Castile, whose debaucheries roused the resentment of his nobles, and produced a most singular insurrection, which led to the aggrandizement of the Spanish monarchy. This prince, surnamed the Impotent, though continually surrounded with women, began his unhappy reign in 1454. He was totally enervated by his pleasures ; and every thing in his court conspired to set the Castilians an example of the most abject flattery, and most abandoned licentiousness. The queen, a daughter of Portugal, lived as openly with her parasites and her gallants as the king did with his minions and his mistresses. Pleasure was the only object, and effeminacy the only recommendation to favour. The affairs of the state went every day into greater disorder ; until the nobility, with the archbishop of Toledo at their head, combined against the weak and flagitious administration of Henry ; arrogated to themselves, as one of the privileges of their order, the right of trying and passing sentence on their sovereign, which they executed in a manner unprecedented in history. All the malecontent nobility was summoned to meet at Avila. A spacious (!' Canteinir. Ricaut LET. LL] MODERN EUROPE. 309 theatre was erected in a plain, without the walls of the town ; an image, representing the king, was seated on the throne, clad in royal robes, with a crown on its head, a sceptre in its hand, and the sword of justice by its side. The accusation against Henry was read, and the sentence of deposition pro- nounced, in presence of a numerous assembly. At the close of the first article of the charge, the archbishop of Toledo advanced, and tore the crown from the head of the image ; at the close of the second, the Conde de Pla- centia snatched the sword of justice from its side ; at the close of the third, the Conde de Benevente wrested the sceptre from its hand ; and at the close of the last, Don Diego Lopez de Stuniga tumbled it headlong from the throne. At the same instant, Don Alphonso, Henry's brother, a boy about twelve years of age, was proclaimed king of Castile and Leon in his stead.(l) This extraordinary proceeding was followed by all the horrors of civil war, which did not cease till some time after the death of the young prince, on whom the nobles had bestowed the kingdom. The archbishop and his party then continued to carry on war in the name of Isabella, the king's sister, to whom they gave the title of Infanta ; and Henry could not extricate himself out of these troubles, nor remain quiet upon his throne, till he had signed one of the most humiliating treaties ever extorted from a sovereign. He ac- knowledged his sister Isabella the only lawful heiress of his kingdom, in pre- judice to the rights of his reputed daughter Joan, whom the malecontents affirmed to be the offspring of an adulterous commerce between the queen and Don la Cueva.(2) At such a price did this weak prince purchase from his subjects the empty title of king ! The grand object of the malecontent party now was, the marriage of the princess Isabella ; upon which, it was evident, the security of the crown and the happiness of the people must in a great measure depend. The alliance was sought by several princes. The king of Portugal offered her his hand; the king of France demanded her for his brother, and the king of Arragon for his son Ferdinand. The malecontents wisely preferred the Arragonian prince, and Isabella prudently made the same choice. Articles were drawn up, and they were privately married by the archbishop of Toledo.(S) Henry was enraged at this alliance, which he foresaw would utterly ruin his authority, by furnishing his rebellious subjects with the support of a powerful neighbouring prince. He disinherited his sister, and established the right of his daughter. A furious civil war desolated the kingdom. The names of Joan and Isabella resounded from every quarter, and were every where the summons to arms. But peace was at length brought about. Henry was reconciled to his sister and to Ferdinand, though it does not appear that he ever renewed Isabella's right to the succession ; for he affirmed in his last moments that he believed Joan to be his own daughter. The queen swore to the same effect ; and Henry left a testamentary deed, transmitting the crown to this princess, who was proclaimed queen of Castile at Placentia. But the superior fortune, and superior arms, of Ferdinand and Isabella prevailed : the king of Portugal was obliged to abandon his niece and intended bride, after many ineffectual struggles and several years of war. Joan sunk into a con- vent, when she hoped to ascend a throne ; and the death of Ferdinand's father, which happened about this time, added the kingdoms of Arragon and Sicily to those of Leon and Castile. (4) Ferdinand and Isabella were persons of great prudence, and as sovereigns, nighly worthy of imitation ; but they did not seem to have merited all the praises bestowed upon them by the Spanish historians. They did not live like man and wife, having all things in common under the direction of the husband, but like two princes in close alliance. They neither loved nor hated each other ; were seldom in company together ; had each a separate council, and were frequently jealous of one another in the administration. But they were inseoarably united in their common interests ; always acting upon the same (1) Mariana, lib. xxiii. Diego Henriques del Castillo. (2) Rod. Sanctii, Hist. Hisp. Ckron. del ReyDon Jfenriq. (3) 2M.rH. Ji*nal Arrag. Mariana, ubi sup. (4) Id. ibid. 310 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. principles, and forwarding the same ends. Their first object was the regula- tion of their government, which the civil wars had thrown into the greatest disorder. Rapine, outrage, and murder were become so common, as not only to interrupt commerce, but in a great measure to suspend all intercourse between one place and another. These evils the joint sovereigns suppressed by their wise policy, at the same time that they extended the royal preroga- tive^!) About the middle of the thirteenth century the cities in the kingdom of Arragon, and, after their example, those in Castile, had formed themselves into an association, distinguished by the name of the Holy Brotherhood. They exacted a certain contribution from each of the associated towns ; they levied a considerable body of troops in order to protect travellers, and pursue criminals ; and they appointed judges who opened courts in various parts oi the kingdom. Whoever was guilty of murder, robbery, or any act that violated the public peace, and was seized by the troops of the Brotherhood, was carried before their judges ; who, without paying any regard to the ex- clusive jurisdiction which the lord of the place might claim, who was gene- rally the author or abettor of the injustice, tried and condemned the crimi- nals. The nobles often murmured against this salutary institution; they complained of it as an encroachment on one of their most valuable privileges, and endeavoured to get it abolished. But Ferdinand and Isabella, sensible of the beneficial effects of the Brotherhood, not only in regard to the police of their kingdoms, but in its tendency to abridge, and by degrees to annihilate, the territorial jurisdiction of the nobility, countenanced the institution upon every occasion, and supported it with the whole force of royal authority. By these means the prompt and impartial administration of justice was re- stored, and with it tranquillity and order returned. (2) But at the same time their Catholic Majesties (for such was the title they now bore, conferred on them by the pope) were giving vigour to civil govern- ment, and securing their subjects from violence and oppression, an intempe- rate zeal led them to establish an ecclesiastical tribunal, equally contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and the mild spirit of the Gospel I mean the court of Inquisition ; which decides upon the honour, fortune, and even life of the unhappy wretch who happens to fall under the suspicion of heresy, or a contempt, of any thing prescribed by the church, without his knowing his accusers, being confronted with them, or permitted either defence or appeal. Six thousand persons were burnt by order of this sanguinary tribunal, within four years after the appointment of Torquemada, the first fnquisitor-general, and upwards of one hundred thousand felt its fury. The same zeal, however, which led to the depopulation, and the barbarizing of Castile and Arragon, led also to their aggrandizement. The kingdom of Granada now alone remained of all the Mahometan posses- sions in Spain. Princes equally zealous and ambitious, like Ferdinand and Isabella, were naturally disposed to turn their eyes on that fertile territory; and to think of increasing their hereditary dominions by expelling the ene- mies of Christianity, and extending its doctrines. Every thing conspired to favour their project. The Moorish kingdom was a prey to civil wars, when Ferdinand, having obtained a bull from Sextus IV. authorizing a crusade, put himself at the head of his troops and entered Granada. He continued the war with rapid success. Isabella attended him in several expeditions : and they were both in great danger at the siege of Malaga, an important city, which was defended with great courage, and taken in 1487. Baza was re- duced in 1489, after the loss of twenty thousand men. Guadix and Almeria were delivered up to them by the Moorish king Alzagel, who had at first de- throned his brother Alboacen, and afterward been chased from his capital. by his nephew Abdali. That prince, so blind or so base as to confound the ruin of his country with the humiliation of his rival, engaged in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella, who, after reducing every other place of eminence, II) Zurita. Mariana. Zuniga. ') Id. ibid LET. L1I.J MODERN EUROPE. 311 undertook the siege of Granada. Abdali made a gallant defence ; but all communication with the country being cut off, and all hopes of relief at an end, he capitulated, after a siege of eight months, on conditions that he should enjoy the revenue of certain places in the fertile mountains of Alpujarros ; that the inhabitants should retain the undisturbed possession of their houses, goods, and inheritances ; the use of their laws, and the free exercise of their religion.(l) Thus ended the empire of the Arabs in Spain, after it had continued about eight hundred years. They introduced the arts and sciences into Europe, at a time when it was lost in darkness: they possessed many of the luxuries of life, when they were not even known among the neighbouring nations ; and they seem to have given birth to that romantic gallantry, which so eminently prevailed in the ages of chivalry, and which, blending itself with the venera- tion of the northern nations for the softer sex, still particularly distinguishes modern from ancient manners. But the Moors, notwithstanding these ad- vantages, and the eulogies bestowed upon them by Voltaire and other writers, appear to have been always destitute of the essential qualities of a polished people humanity, generosity, and mutual sympathy. The conquest of Granada was followed by the expulsion, or rather the pillage or banishment, of the Jews who had engrossed all the wealth and com- merce of Spain. The inquisition exhausted its rage against these unhappy people, many of whom pretended to embrace Christianity, in order to pre- serve their property. About the same time their Catholic Majesties con- cluded an alliance with the emperor Maximilian, and a treaty of marriage for their daughter Joan with his son Philip, archduke ftf Austria, and sovereign of the Netherlands. About this time also the contract was concluded with Christopher Columbus for the discovery of new countries ; and the counties of RoHssillon and Cerdagne were agreed to be restored by Charles VIII. of France, before his expedition into Italy. But the consequences of these mea- sures, and the interest which Ferdinand took in the Italian wars, must form the subject of future letters. I should now, my dear Philip, return to the great line of European history ; but, for the sake of perspicuity, I shall first make you acquainted with the affairs of England under Henry VII. as his son Henry VIII. had a consi- derable share in the continental transactions, and derived his importance chiefly from the prudent policy of his father. LETTER LII. England, during the Reign of Henry FIT. HENRY VII., the first prince of the house of Tudor, ascended the throne of England, as you have already seen, in consequence of the victory at Bosworth, and the death of Richard III. His title was confirmed by the parliament : his merit was known ; and his marriage with the princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV., united the jarring claims of the houses of York and Lancaster, and seemed to give universal satisfaction to the nation. He had therefore every reason to promise himself peace and security. But Henry, although in many respects a prudent and politic prince, had unhappily imbibed a violent antipathy against the adherents of the house of York, which no time or experience was ever able to efface. Instead of em- bracing the present favourable opportunity of abolishing party distinctions by bestowing his smile indiscriminately on the friends of both families, he carried to the throne all the partialities that belong to the head of a faction. To exalt the Lancastrian party, and depress the retainers of the house of York, were still the favourite ideas of his mind. The house of York was (1) Fran. Berraud. dc Pedraz .ttntia K-r-cel de Grnnad. Mariana Herman del Pulgar. 312 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. generally beloved by the nation ; and for that very reason it became every day more the object of Henry's hatred and aversion : hence his amiable consort was treated with contempt, his government grew unpopular, and his reign was filled with plots and insurrections. The first insurrection was headed by the viscount Lovel, sir Humphry Stafford, and Thomas, his brother, who had all fought in the cause of Richard, and against whom, among many others, the parliament, at Henry's instigation, had passed an act of attainder ; though it is not conceivable, how men could be guilty of treason for supporting the king in possession, against the earl of Richmond, to whom they had never sworn allegiance, and who had not even assumed the title of king. Enraged at such an instance of severity, they left their sanctuary at Colchester, and flew to arms. The king sent the duke of Bedford against them with a chosen body of troops, and a promise of pardon to such as would return to their duty. Lovel, afraid of the fidelity of his followers, privately withdrew, and fled to Flanders. His army sub- mitted to the king's clemency. The other rebels, who had undertaken the siege of Worcester, immediately dispersed themselves. The two Staffords took sanctuary in the church of Golnham, a village near Abingdon ; but as it was found that church had not the privilege of protecting rebels, they were taken thence. The elder was executed at Tyburn, the younger obtained a pardon.(l) This rebellion was immediately followed by another, of a more dangerous nature, as it laid deeper hold of the public discontents. Henry's jealousy confined in the tower Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence. This unhappy prince had been formerly detained, in a like confinement, at Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, by the jealousy of his uncle Richard. A comparison was drawn between Henry and that tyrant ; and as the tower was the place where Edward's children had been murdered, a fate not more gentle was feared for Warwick. W T hile the compassion of the nation was thus turned towards youth and innocence exposed to oppression, a report was spread that Warwick had made his escape. A general joy com- municated itself from face to face, and many seemed desirous to join him. Such a favourable opportunity was not neglected by the enemies of Henry's government. One Richard Simon, a priest of Oxford, and a zealous partisan of the house of York, attempted to gratify the popular wish by holding up an impostor to the nation. For this purpose he cast his eyes upon Lambert Simnel, a baker's son, who, being endowed with understanding beyond his years, and address above his condition, seemed well calculated to personate a prince of royal extraction. Simnel was taught to assume the name and character of the earl of Warwick ; and he soon appeared so perfect in many private particulars relative to that unfortunate prince, to the court of king Edward, and the royal family, that the queen-dowager was supposed to have given him a lesson. But how apt soever father Simon might find his pupil, or whatever means he might take to procure him instruction, he was sensible that the imposture would not bear close inspection ; he therefore determined to make trial of it first in Ireland. That island was zealously attached to the house of York, and bore an affec- tionate regard to the memory of Clarence, Warwick's father, who had resided there as lord lieutenant : and Henry had been so impolitic as to allow it to remain in the same condition in which he found it. All the officers appointed by his predecessor still retained their authority ; so that Simnel no sooner presented himself to Thomas earl of Kildare, the deputy, and claimed his protection as the unfortunate Warwick, than that credulous nobleman believed his tale, and embraced his cause. Other noblemen, to whom he communi- cated the fiction, were no less sanguine in their zeal and belief; the story diffused itself among the people of inferior condition, naturally more violent md credulous, who listened to it with still greater ardour ; and the inhabitants (1) Polycl. Virg. LET. LIL] MODER N E UROPE. 313 of Dublin, with one consent, tendered their allegiance to Simnel, as the true Plantagenet. They lodged the pretended prince in the Castle of Dublin, crowned him with a diadem taken from a statue of the blessed Virgin, and publicly proclaimed him king, under the appellation of Edward VI. The whole island followed the example of the capital : not a sword was drawn in favour of Henry.(l) The king was a good deal alarmed, when he received intelligence of this revolt. Though determined always to face his enemies, he scrupled at pre- sent to leave England, where he suspected the conspiracy had been framed, and where he knew many persons of condition, and the people in general, were disposed to give it countenance. He therefore held frequent consulta- tions with his ministers and counsellors relative to the measures most proper for the safety of his kingdom, and the means of discovering the origin of the imposture. In consequence of these deliberations, the queen-dowager was taken into custody, and confined in the nunnery of Bermondsey for life. Un- willing, however, to accuse so near a relation of a conspiracy against him, the king alleged, that she was thus punished for yielding up the princess Eliza- beth, now queen, to the tyrant Richard, after she had been secretly promised to him. Henry's next step was no less deliberate. He ordered Warwick to be taken from the tower, led in procession through the streets of London, conducted to St. Paul's, and there exposed to the view of the whole people.(2) This expedient had its full effect in England, but in Ireland the people still persisted in their revolt : and Henry had soon reason to apprehend, that the attempt to disturb his government was not laid on such slight foundations as the means employed seemed to indicate. John, earl of Lincoln, son of John de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, and of Eliza- beth, eldest sister of Edward IV., was engaged to take part in the conspiracy. This nobleman, alarmed at the king's jealousy of all eminent persons of the York parly, and more especially at his rigour towards Warwick, had retired into Flanders, where lord Lovel was arrived a little before him. He resided some time in the court of his aunt, the dutchess of Burgundy, by whom he had been invited over. Margaret's bosom flamed with indignation against the oppressor of her family: and she determined to make him repent of his unreasonable enmity. After consulting with Lincoln and Lovel, she there- fore hired a body of two thousand veteran Germans, under the command of Martin Swart, a brave and experienced officer, and sent them over along with these noblemen to join Simnel in Ireland. The courage of the Irish was much raised by this accession of military force, and the countenance of persons of such high rank ; so that they formed the bold resolution of invading England, where they believed the spirit of disaffection to be no less prevalent than in Ireland. They accordingly landed at Foudrey in Lancashire, and were joined by Sir Thomas Broughton, a man of great interest in that county; but the people in general, averse against an association with Irish and German invaders, convinced of Simnel's impos- ture, and kept in awe by the king's reputation in arms, either remained in tranquillity, or gave assistance to the royal army, which was advancing towards the enemy. The earl of Lincoln, therefore, who commanded the rebels, finding no hopes but in victory, determined to bring the matter to a speedy decision ; and Henry, emboldened by his native courage no less than by the superiority of his numbers, intrepidly advanced to the combat. The two armies met at Stoke, in the county of Nottingham, where a bloody and obstinate battle was fought. All the leaders of the rebels were resolved to conquer or die, and they inspired their troops with the like resolution. They were at last, however, obliged to give way; and if Henry's victory was pur- chased with loss, it was entirely decisive. Lincoln, Broughton, and Swart perished in the field of battle, together with four thousand of their followers. Lovel is supposed to have undergone the same fate, as he was never more heard of. Simnel and his tutor Simon were taken prisoners. Simon \raa (1 Polyd Virg. (2) Bacon's Ilist. of Henry ni 14 314 THE HISTORY OF [PART L committed to close custody for life : and his sacred character only could have saved him from a severer fate. Simnel was too contemptible either to excite apprehension or resentment in Henry: he was therefore pardoned, and em- ployed as a scullion in the king's kitchen; from which condition he was afterward advanced to the rank of one of his majesty's falconers. (1) Henry, having thus restored tranquillity to his kingdom, and security to his government, had leisure not only to regulate his domestic affairs but also to look abroad. From Scotland, the most contiguous state, he had nothing to fear. There reigned James III., a prince of little industry and narrow genius. With him Henry concluded a treaty, when he might have demanded his crown: so truly pacific was the disposition of this monarch! Of the states on the continent I have already spoken. They were fast hastening to that situation, in which they have rerriained, without any material alteration, for near three centuries. The balance of power began to be understood. Spain was become formidable by the union of the crowns of Arragon and Castile, in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella ; but these princes were employed in wresting Granada from the Moors. France, during the last fifty years, had made a mighty increase in power and dominion : and she was now attempting to swallow up Brittany, the last independent fief of the monarchy. England alone was both enabled by her power, and engaged by her interests, to support the independency of that dutchy; the most dangerous opposition was therefore expected from this quarter. But Henry's parsimonious temper and narrow politics, as I have had occasion to mention in the history of France, prevented him from yielding the Bretons any effectual support ; and Maximilian, king of the Romans, to whom they afterward applied, being unable to protect them, they were obliged to submit- to the arms of Charles VIII., who prudently married the heiress of that dutchy, in order to conciliate their affections. Henry, who saw the importance of Brittany to France, and who valued himself on his extensive foresight and sound judgment, was now ashamed of having allowed his most useful ally to be crushed by a superior power. All remedy for his miscarriage was become impracticable, but he talked loudly of vengeance. The conquest of France, in his language, was an easy matter : and he set out on that enterprise at the head of a splendid army, after ob- taining large supplies from his parliament. The nobility, who had credulously swallowed all the boasis of the king, were universally seized with a thirst of military glory: they dreamed of nothing less than carrying their triumphant banners to the gates of Paris, and putting the crown of France on the head of their sovereign. Henry, in the mean time, had nothing less at heart than war; the gratification of his ruling passion was the only purpose of this mighty armament avarice being in him a more powerful motive than either revenge or glory. Secret advances had been made towards peace before his invasion, and commissioners had been appointed to treat of the terms. The demands of Henry were wholly pecuniary; and the king of France, who deemed the peaceable possession of Brittany an equivalent for any sum, and who was all on fire for his projected expedition into Italy, readily agreed to the proposals made him. He engaged, by the treaty of Estaples, concluded about a month after the English landed in France, to pay Henry seven hun- dred and forty-five thousand crowns : partly as a reimbursement of the sums advanced to the dutchess of Brittany, partly as arrears of the pension due to Edward IV. and not hitherto discharged : and he stipulated a yearly pension to Henry and his heirs of twenty-five thousand crowns.(2) Thus, as Lord Bacon observes, the English monarch made profit upon his subjects for the war, and upon his enemies for the peace. But although the treaty of Estaples filled the coffers of Henry, it did very little honour to Eng- land ; as it put a shameful seal to the subjection of Brittany, which, properly supported, would have been a continual thorn in the side of France, and have effectually prevented that monarchy from ever becoming formidable to the (1) Polyd. Virg. Bacon, ubi. sup. (2) Id. ibid. LET. LII.] MODERN EUROPE. 315 liberties of Europe. The people however agreed, that the king had fulfilled the promise which he made to the parliament when he said that he would make the war maintain itself, and all ranks of men seemed now perfectly satisfied with his government. He had every reason to natter himself wfth durable peace and tranquillity. His authority was fully established at home, and his reputation for policy was great abroad : the hopes of all pretenders to his throne were cut off, as well by his marriage as the issue which it had brought him ; yet at this height of his prosperity, his indefatigable enemies raised against him an adversary, who long gave him inquietude, and some- times even brought him into danger. The old dutchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., still burning with resentment on account of the depression of her fanjily and its partisans, determined to play off another impostor upon Henry. With that view she caused a report to be propagated, that her nephew, Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, had made his escape from the tower, when his elder brother was murdered, and that he was still alive. Finding this rumour greedily received, her next care was to provide a young man proper to personate the unfor- tunate prince : and for that purpose she fixed upon Perkin Warbec, the son of a renegado Jew of Tournay. This youth was born in England, and by some believed to be the son of Edward IV., on account of a certain resemblance observable between him and that amorous monarch. A few years after the birth of Perkin, his reputed father returned to Tournay; where his son did not long remain, but, by dif- ferent accidents, was carried from place to place ; so that his parentage and past life became thereby unknown, and difficult to be traced by the most dili- gent inquiry. The variety of his adventures had happily favoured the natural versatility and sagacity of his genius ; and he seemed to be a youth perfectly fitted to act any part, or assume any character. In this light he had been represented to the dutchess of Burgundy, who immediately desired to see him, and found him to exceed her most sanguine expectations ; so comely did he appear in his person ! so graceful in his air ! so courtly in his address ! so full of dignity in his whole demeanour, and good sense in his conversation ! A young man of such quick apprehension soon learned the lessons neces- sary to be taught him in order to his personating the duke of York ; but as some time was required, before every thing requisite could be prepared fo this enterprise, Margaret sent him into Portugal, where he remained a year unknown to all the world. When that term was expired he landed in Ire land, which still retained its attachment to the house of York : and imme diately assuming to himself the name of Richard Plantagenet, there drew tc him many partisans among that ignorant and credulous people. The news, of this phenomenon reached France ; and Charles VIII., prompted by the secret solicitations of the dutchess of Burgundy, sent Perkin an invitation tc visit him at Paris. The impostor repaired to the court of France, where he was received with all the marks of respect due to the duke of York. The whole kingdom was full of the accomplishments, as well as the singular adventures and misfortunes, of the young Plantagenet. From France, the tide of admiration and credulity diffused itself into England ; and sir George Nevil, sir John Taylor, and above a hundred gentlemen more, went over to Paris, in order to offer their services to the supposed duke of York, and to share his fortunes. Perkin however was dismissed France, in consequence of the peace of Estaples. He now retired to the dutchess of Burgundy, craving her protec- tion, and offering to exhibit before her all the proofs of that birth to which he laid claim. Margaret affected ignorance of his pretensions ; she even put on the appearance of distrust, and desired to be instructed, before all the world, in his reasons for assuming the name which he bore. She put many particular questions to him, seemed astonished at his answers, and at last burst into joy and admiration of his wonderful deliverance, embracing him as her nephew, the true image of Edward, the sole heir of the Plantagenets, and the legiti- mate successor to the English throne She assigned him an equipage suit- 316 THEHISTORYOF [PART!. able to his pretended birth, appointed him a guard, engaged every one to pay court to him, and on all occasions honoured him with the appellation oil The White Rose of England. The Flemings, swayed by Margaret's authority, readily adopted the fictioi of Perkin's royal descent ; and as no surmise of his real birth had yet beer given, the English, from their frequent communication with the Low Coun tries, were every day more and more prepossessed in favour of the impostor Not only the populace, ever fond of novelty and desirous of change, but mec of the highest birth and quality, disgusted at the severity of Henry's govern ment, began to turn their eyes towards this new claimant. Their passions and prejudices inclined them to give credit to Perkin's pretensions ; and as little opposition had been made to the prevailing opinion, a regular conspiracy was formed against the king's authority, and a correspondence settled between the malecontents in Flanders and those in England. (1) Henry was informed of all these particulars, and proceeded resolutely, though deliberately, in counter-working the designs of his enemies. His first object was, to ascertain the death of the real duke of York, which he was able to do with a tolerable degree of certainty, two of the persons concerned in the murder being yet alive, and agreeing in the same story. But he found more difficulty, though in the end he was no less successful, in discovering who" the extraordinary person was that so boldly advanced pretensions to his crown. For this purpose he dispersed his spies over all Flanders and Eng- land : he engaged many to pretend that they had embraced Perkin's party : he bribed the young man's servants, his confidants, and even his confessor. By these means he was at last made acquainted with the whole plan of the conspiracy, and with the pedigree, adventures, life, and conversation of the pretended duke of York. The impostor's story was immediately published for the satisfaction of the nation ; and as soon as Henry's projects were matured, he made the con- spirators feel the weight of his resentment. Almost in the same instant he arrested lord Fitzwalter, sir Simon Mountfort, and sir Thomas Thwaites, who were convicted of high treason for promising to aid Perkin, and presently executed. Sir William Stanley, the lord high chamberlain, was also arrested ; but greater and more solemn preparations were thought necessary for the trial of a man, whose authority in the nation, and whose domestic intimacy with the king, as well as his former services, seemed to secure him against any accusation or punishment. Henry however was determined to take ven- feance on all his enemies. He therefore won over sir Robert Clifford, Per- in's particular confidant, who, returning to England, on a promise of pardon, accused Stanley as his chief abettor ; and after six weeks' delay, which was interposed in order to show the king's lenity and coolness, the chamberlain was brought to his trial, condemned, and beheaded. (2) The fate of Stanley made great impression on the minds of the people, and struck Perkin's adherents with the deepest dismay ; as they found, from Clif- ford's desertion, that all their secrets were betrayed. The jealous and severe temper of the king kept men in awe, and quelled not only the movements of sedition, but the very murmurs of faction. A general distrust took place : all mutual confidence was destroyed, even among particular friends. Henry, in the mean time, elated with success, and little anxious of dispelling those ter- rors, or of gaining the affections of the nation, gave every day more and more rein to his rapacious temper, and employed the arts of perverted law and jus- tice in order to extort fines and compositions from his subjects. His govern- ment was in itself highly oppressive ; but it was so much the less burden- some, as he took care, like Lewis XL, to restrain the tyranny of the nobles, and permitted nobody to be guilty of injustice or oppression but himself. Perkin, now finding his correspondence with the nobility cut off by Henry's vigilance and severity, and the king's authority daily gaining ground among the people, resolved to attempt something which might revive the drooping (I) Polyd. Virg. Bacon, Bist. Hen. VII. (21 Id ibid. LET. LIL] MODERNEUROPE. 211 hopes of his party. With this view he gathered together a band of outlaws, pirates, robbers, and necessitous persons of all nations, with whom he put to sea, and appeared off the coast of Kent; but finding the inhabitants deter- mined to oppose him, he returned to Flanders, and afterward made a descent upon Ireland. The affairs of Ireland, however, were now in so good a posture, that he there met with little success ; and being tired of the savage life he was obliged to lead, while skulking among the wild natives, he bent his course towards Scotland, and presented himself to James IV., who then reigned in that kingdom. Perkin had been previously recommended to this prince by the king of France ; and the insinuating address, and plausible behaviour of the youth himself, seem further to have gained him credit with James, whom years had not yet taught distrust or caution, and who carried* his confidence so far, as to give him in marriage the lady Catharine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntley, a young lady eminent both for bea'uty and virtue. The jealousy which then subsisted between the courts of England and Scotland was a new recommendation to Perkin ; so that James, who had resolved to make an inroad into England, attended by some of his borderers, carried the impostor along with him, in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. But in this expectation he found himself deceived. Perkin's pretensions were now become stale even in the eyes of the populace ; no Englishman of any condition joined him. James, after repeated incursions, attended with various success, therefore, found it necessary to conclude a truce with Henry, Perkin being privately ordered to depart the kingdom.(l) Ireland once more afforded a retreat to the impostor. There he hid him- self for some time in the wilds and fastnesses : but impatient at a condition which was both disagreeable and dangerous, he held a consultation with his followers, Home, Skelton, and Astley, three broken tradesmen, and by their advice resolved to try the affections of the Cornish malecontents, who had lately risen in rebellion on account of an oppressive tax, and whose mutinous disposition still subsisted, notwithstanding the lenity that had been shown them. No sooner therefore did the pretended prince appear at Bodmin in Cornwall, than the populace, to the number of three thousand, flocked to his standard ; and Perkin, elated with this appearance of success, took on him, for the first time, the appellation of Richard IV., king of England. That the expectations of his followers might not be suffered to languish, he presented himself before Exeter: and, by many fair though fruitless promises, invited that city to join him. The inhabitants shut their gates against him, and he laid siege to the place. Henry was happy to hear that the impostor had landed in England, and prepared himself with alacrity to attack him : for, as he usually said, he desired only to see his enemies. Perkin, informed of the king's prepara- tions, immediately raised the siege of Exeter; and although his followers now amounted to the number of seven thousand, and seemed still resolute to maintain his cause, he himself despaired of success, and secretly withdrew to the sanctuary of Beaulieu in the New Forest. The Cornish rebels sub- mitted to the king's mercy, and found it was not yet exhausted in their behalf: a few of their chiefs excepted, they were dismissed with impunity. Henry was more at a loss how to proceed with regard to Perkin himself. Some counselled him to make the privileges of the church yield to reasons of state; to drag the impostor from the sanctuary, and inflict on him the punishment due to his temerity. But Henry did not think the evil so dangerous as to require such a violent remedy. He therefore employed some sagacious per- sons to persuade Perkin to deliver himself into the king's hands under pro- mise of pardon. He did so ; and Henry conducted him, in a kind of mock triumph, to London. But although the impostor's life was granted him, he was still detained 11 Custody; and having broke from his keepers, he was afterward confined in (1) Bacon, Hist. Hen. VII. Polyd. Virj. 318 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. the tower, where his habits of restless intrigue and enterprise followed him. He found means to open a correspondence with the earl of Warwick, who was confined in the same prison ; and he engaged that unfortunate prince to embrace a project for his escape, which Perkin offered to conduct, by mur- dering the lieutenant of the tower. The conspiracy did not escape the king's vigilance ; and Perkin, by this new attempt, after so many enormities, having rendered himself totally unworthy of mercy, was arraigned, con- demned, and hanged at Tyburn. Warwick was also brought to trial, found guilty, and executed.(l) This violent act of tyranny, by which Henry destroyed the last remaining male of the line of Plantagenet, begat great discontent among the people. They saw, with concern, an unhappy prince, who had long been denied the privileges of his birth, and even cut off from the common benefits of nature, now deprived of life itself, merely for attempting to shake off that oppression under which "he laboured. But these "domestic discontents did not weaken the king's government ; and foreign princes, deeming his throne now per- fectly secure, paid him rather more deference and attention. The prince whose alliance Henry valued most was Ferdinand of Spain, whose vigorous and steady policy, always attended with success, had ren- dered him in many respects the most considerable monarch in Europe. And the king of England hud at last the satisfaction of completing a marriage which had been projected and negotiated during the course of seven years, between Arthur prince of Wales and the infanta Catharine, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella : he near sixteen years of age, she eighteen. But this marriage proved unprosperous. Prince Arthur died a few months after the celebratioji of the nuptials ; and the king, desirous to continue his alli- ance with Spain, and also unwilling to restore Catharine's dowry, obliged his second son Henry, now prince of Wales, to be betrothed to the infanta. Prince Henry made all the opposition of which a youth only twelve years old could be supposed capable ; but as the king persisted in his resolution, the marriage was at last concluded between the parties. It was productive of the most important consequences. Another marriage was also celebrated the same year, which, in the next age, gave birth to great events the union of Margaret, Henry's eldest daughter, with James IV. of Scotland. When this alliance was deliberated on in the English council, some objected that England might, in consequence of such marriage, fall under the dominion of Scotland. " No !" replied Henry; "though Scotland should give an heir to the English crown, that kingdom will only become an accession to England :"(2) and the event has proved the justice of the observation. The situation of Henry's affairs, both at home and abroad, was now in every respect fortunate. All the efforts of the European princes, as we shall afterward have occasion to see, were turned to the side of Italy; and the various events which there arose made Henry's alliance be eagerly courted by each party, yet interested himself so little as never to touch him with concern or anxiety. Uncontrolled therefore by apprehension or opposition, he gave full scope* to his natural propensity ; and avarice, which had ever been his ruling passion, being increased by age, and encouraged by absolute authority, broke through all restraints of shame or justice. He had found two ministers, Empson and Dudley, perfectly qualified to second his rapacious and tyrannical inclinations, and to prey upon his defenceless people. These instruments of oppression were both lawyers ; the first of mean birth, of brutal manners, and of unrelenting temper ; the second better born, better educated, and better bred, but equally unjust, severe, and inflexible. By their knowledge of law, they were qualified to pervert the forms of justice to the oppression of the innocent : and Henry supported them in all their ini- quities. The sole purpose of the king and his ministers was to amass money and bring every one under the lash of their authority. (1, Bacon Hist. Hen. VII. Polyd. Vir* (2) Bacon, Hist. Sen. Vll L*T. LII.] MODERN EUROPE. 319 But while Henry was enriching himself with the spoils of his oppressed people, he did not neglect the political interests of the nation. Philip, arch- duke of Austria, and his wife Joan, heiress of Castile, being thrown upon the English coast on their passage to Spain, Henry entertained them with a mag- nificence suitable to his dignity, and at an expense by no means agreeable to his temper. Bat notwithstanding so much seeming cordiality, interest in this, as in all other things, was the only rule of his conduct. He resolved to draw some advantage from the involuntary visit paid fcim by his royal guests ; and while he seemed only intent on displaying his hospitality, and in furnish- ing the means of amusement, he concluded a treaty of commerce highly beneficial to England.(l) Henry's views did not terminate here : from the interests of the nation he turned them to his own. Edmund de la Pole earl of Suffolk, nephew to Ed- ward IV., and brother to the earl of Lincoln slain at the battle of Stoke, had retired to Flanders in disgust. The king did not neglect the present oppor- tunity of complaining to the archduke of the reception which Suffolk had met with in his dominions. "I really thought," replied Philip, "that your greatness and felicity had set you far above apprehensions from any person of so little consequence : but to give you satisfaction, I shall banish him my state." "I expect that you will carry your complaisance further," said Henry : " I desire to have Suffolk put into my hands, where alone I can depend on his submission and obedience." " That measure," observed Philip, " will reflect dishonour upon you, as well as myself. You will be thought to have used me as a prisoner." " Then," replied Henry, " the matter is settled : I will take upon me that dishonour : and so your honour is safe." Philip found himself under the necessity of complying : but he. first exacted a promise from Henry, that he would spare Suffolk's life.(2) Henry sur^ved these transactions about two years, but nothing memorable occurs in the remaining part of his reign. His declining health made him turn his thoughts towards that future state of existence, which the severities of his government had rendered a very dismal prospect to him. In order to allay the terrors under which he laboured, he endeavoured to procure a recon- ciliation witli Heaven by distributing alms, and founding religious houses. Remorse even seized him at times for the abuse of his authority by Empson and Dudley, though not to such a degree as to make him stop the rapacious hands of those oppressors, until death, by its nearer approaches, appalled him with new terrors ; and then he ordered, by a general clause in his will, that restitution should be made to all those whom he had injured.(3) He died of a consumption, at his favourite palace of Richmond, in the fifty-second year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign; whrch was, on the whole, for- tunate for his people at home, and honourable abroad. Henry VII. was a prince of great talents, both civil and military. He put an end to the civil wars with which the English nation had long been harassed : he maintained the most perfect order in the state : he repressed the exorbitant power of the barons : and he indirectly increased the consequence of the commons, by enabling the nobility to break their ancient entails ; as the prodigal were thereby encouraged to dissipate their fortunes and dismember their estates, Avhich became the property of men who had acquired money by trade or industry. And while he possessed the friendship of some foreign princes, he commanded the respect of all. Hence his sou, Henry VIII., as we shall afterward have occasion to see, became the arbiter of Europe. In the mean time, we must take a view of transactions in which England had no share, and which introduced the most important era in the history of modern Europe. (1) Rymer, vol. xiii. (2) Bacon, ubi sup '3) Bacon, ubi sup. Holingshed. Polyd. Virg. 32ft THE HISTORY OF [PAKT I. LETTER LIH. A General View of the Continent of Europe, fromthe Invasion of Italy by Charles Fnl. in 1494, till the League of Cambray, in 1508. 1 HAVE hitherto, my dear Philip, generally given you a separate history o' all the principal European states ; because each state depended chiefly on itself, and was in a great measure distinct from every other in its political interests. But that method will, in future, often be impracticable, by reason of the new system of policy which was adopted about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in consequence of which a union of interest became necessary in order to form a balance of power. This system took its rise from the political state of Europe at that time, and was perfected by the Italian wars, which commenced with the expedition of Charles VIII. in support of his claim to the kingdom of Naples. This prince having married the heiress of Brittany, as I have already had occasion to observe, and purchased peace from the only powers able to molest him, the emperor of Germany, and the kings of England and Spain, set out on his favourite project, the conquest of Naples. To that kingdom he had pretensions as heir to the house of Anjou. The army with which Charles undertook this great enterprise did not exceed twenty thousand men : yet with these he was able to overrun all Italy. The Italians, who had utterly lost the use of arms, and who, amid continual wars, had become every day more unwarlike, were astonished to meet an enemy that made the field of battle not a pompous tournament but a scene of blood: they were terrified at the aspect of real war, and shrunk on its approach. The impetuosity of the French valour appeared to them irresistible. Pope Alex- ander VI. of infamous memory, the Venetians, and Ludovico Sforza, surnamed the Moor, duke of Milan, who had invited Charles into Italy, alarmed at its progress, which was equally unwished and unexpected, endeavoured to throw obstacles in his way almost as soon as he had crossed the Alps. All opposition however was in vain. Charles entered in triumph the city of Florence, where the family of Medicis still held the chief authority. He delivered Sienna and Pisa from the Tuscan yoke : he prescribed such terms to the Florentines as his circumstances rendered necessary, and their situation obliged them to comply with : he marched to Rome, where Alexander VI. had ineffectually intrigued against him ; and he took possession of that city as a conqueror. The pope had taken refuge in the castle of St. Angelo: but no sooner did he see the French cannon pointed against its feeble ramparts, than he offered to capitulate ; and it cost him only a cardinal's hat to make his peace with the king. The president Brissonet, who from a lawyer was become an archbishop, persuaded Charles to this accommodation. In reward of his services he obtained the purple. (1) The king's confessor was likewise in the secret ; and Charles, whose interest it was to have deposed the pope, forgave him, and afterward repented of his lenity. No pontiff surely ever more deserved the indignation of a Christian prince. He and the Venetians had applied to the Turkish emperor Bajazet II., son and successor of Mahomet II., to assist them in driving the French monarch out of Italy. It is also asserted, that the pope had sent one Bozzo in quality of nuncio to the court of Constantinople, and that the alliance between his holi- ness and the sultan was purchased by one of those inhuman crimes which are not committed without horror even within the walls of the seraglio. Alexander VI., by an extraordinary chain of events, had at that time in his possession the person of Zizim, brother to Bajazet II. The manner in which this unfortunate prince fell into the hands of the pope was as follows : (1) Georgii Flori, de Bel. Ital. Phil, de Comin. liv. vii. chap. xii. LET. LIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 321 Zizim, who wis adored by the Turks, had disputed the empire with Bajazet, and was defeated. Fortune prevailed over the prayers of the people ; and this unhappy son of Mahomet II., the terror of the Christian name, had -ecourse in his distress to the knights of Rhodes, now the knights of Malta, ^hey at first received him as a prince to whom they were bound to afford orotection by the laws of hospitality, and who might one day be of use to ;hem in their wars against the Infidels ; but they soon afterward treated him is a prisoner, and Bajazet agreed to pay them forty thousand sequins annually, on condition that they should not suffer Zizim to return into Turkey. The knights conveyed him to one of their commanders at Poitou in France ; and Charles VIII. received, at the same time, an ambassador from Bajazet IL, and a nuncio from pope Innocent VIII., Alexander's predecessor, relative to this valuable captive. The sultan claimed him as his subject, and the pope wanted to have possession of his person, as a pledge for the safety of Italy against the attempts of the Turks. Charles sent him to the pope. The pontiff received him with all the splendour and magnificence which the sove- reign of Rome could show to the brother of the sovereign of Constantino- ple ; and Paul Jovius says, that Alexander VI. sold Zizim's life in a treaty which he negotiated with Bajazet. But be that as it may, the king of France, full of his vast projects, and certain of the conquest of Naples, now wanted to become formidable to the sultan, by having the person of this unfortu- nate prince in his power. The pope delivered him to Charles, but poisoned, as is supposed. It is at least certain that he died soon after ; and the cha- racter of Alexander VI. makes it probable, that three hundred thousand ducats, said to have been offered by Bajazet, were esteemed an equivalent for such a crime.(l^ Matters being thus settled between the king and the pope, who took an oath not to disturb Charles in his conquests, Alexander was set at liberty, and appeared again as pontiff on the Vatican theatre. There, in a public consistory, the French monarch came to pay him what is called the homage of obedience, assisted by John Gannai, first president of the parliament of Paris, who might certainly have been better employed elsewhere than at such a ceremony. Charles now kissed the feet of the person whom, two days before, he would have condemned as a criminal ; and to complete the ludi- crous scene, he served his holiness at high mass. (2) Charlemagne, as we have seen, caused himself to be declared emperor of the West at Rome ; Charles VIII. was, in the same city, declared emperor of the East ; but after a very different manner. One Paleologus, nephew to the prince of that name, who lost Constantinople and his life, made an empty cession, in favour of Charles and his successors,, of an empire which could not be recovered. (3) After this ceremony, Charles continued his progress towards Naples; where Alphonso IL, struck with terror at the approach of the French army, gave the world an example of a new kind of cowardice and pusillanimity. He fled privately to Sicily, and took refuge in a cloister ; while Ferdinand, his son, now become king by his abdication, finding himself unable to retrieve the public affairs, rendered desperate by his father's flight, released his sub- jects from their oath of allegiance, and retired to the island of Ischia. Charles, thus left master of his favourite object, the kingdom of Naples, after having marched thither, from the bottom of the Alps, with as much rapidity, and almost as little opposition, as if he had been on a progress through his own dominions, took quiet possession of the Neapolitan throne, and intimidated, or gave law, to every power in Italy. (4) Such, my dear Philip, was the result of this expedition, which must be con- sidered as the first great exertion of those new powers which the princes of Europe had acquired, and now began to exercise. Its effects were no less tonsiderable than its success had been astonishing. The Italians, unable to v 'l) Phil, de Comin. Paul. Jov. Arnold! Feroni. (2) G. Flori. Guicciardini. (3) Phil, de Comin. (4) And. de la Vig. Cong, de la Nap. Phil, de Comin. VOL. I. X 322 THE HISTORY OF [PAST I resist the force of Charles, permitted him to hold on his course undisturbed. But they quickly perceived, that although no single power which they could rouse to action was a match for such an enemy, yet a confederacy might accomplish what its separate members durst not attempt. T-o this expedient, therefore, they had recourse the only one that remained, to deliver or pre- serve them from the French yoke ; and while Charles inconsiderately wasted his time at Naples, in festivals and triumphs on account of his past successes or was fondly dreaming of future conquests in the East, to the empire of \vhich he now aspired, they formed against him a powerful combination of almost all the Italian princes and states ; the heads of which were the pope the Venetians, the duke of Milan, supported by the emperor Maximilian, who' had lately succeeded his father Frederic III., and by their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella. (1) The union of so many powers, who suspended or forgot their particular animosities that they might act with concert against an enemy who had be- come formidable to them all, awakened Charles from his thoughtless security. He saw now no prospect of safety but in returning to France. The con- federates had assembled an army of thirty thousand men, in order to obstruct his march. Charles had only nine thousand men with him. The two armies met in the valley of Fornova ; and though the French, with a daring courage, which more than made up for their inferiority in numbers, broke the army of the allies, and gained a victory, which opened to their monarch a safe pas- sage into his own territories, he was stripped of all his conquests in Italy in as short a time as he had gained them. The exiled Ferdinand, by the help of Gonsalvo de Cordova, surnamed the Great Captain, whom their Catholic majesties had sent to his assistance, speedily recovered the whole kingdom of Naples. He died soon after, and left his uncle Frederic in full possession of the throne ;(2) so that the political system of Italy resumed the same appearance as before the French invasion. Charles, after his return to France, gave himself up to those pastimes and pleasures which had been the bane of his Italian expedition. In the mean time, his health decayed, and he died without issue in the twenty-eighth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign : " a man of small body and short stature," says Comines ; " but so good that it is not possible to see a better creature ; and so sweet and gentle in disposition, that it is not known that he ever either gave or took offence in his life." He was succeeded in the throne of France by the duke of Orleans, under the title of Lewis XII., to which was afterward added the most glorious of all appellations, that of Father of his People. Lewis was thirty-six years of age when he ascended the throne ; and from .that moment he forgot all his personal resentments. When some of his courtiers put him in mind, that certain persons who had formerly been his enemies were now in his power, he made that ever memorable reply : " The king of France revenges not the injuries of the duke of Orleans." It is one thing, however, to deliver a fine maxim, and another to make it the rule of one's conduct. Lewis did both. But his fatal ambition of reigning in Italy brought many misfortunes upon himself and his kingdom, notwithstanding his prudence and paternal affection for his subjects. The claim of Lewis XII. to Naples was the same as that of Charles VIII., and he demanded the dutchy of Milan in right of one of his grandmothers, daughter of John Galeazo Visconti, first duke of that territory : who had stipulated in the marriage contract of his daughter Valentine, that in case of failure of heirs male in the family of Visconti, the dutchy of Milan should descend to the posterity of this Valentine and the duke of Orleans. That event took place. The family of Visconti became extinct in 1447 ; but the house of Orleans had hitherto been prevented, by various accidents, from making good their claim : aud the dutchy of Milan was still held by the de- ncendants of Francis Sforza, a soldier of fortune, who, having married the (11 Phil. deComin. Mariana (2) G.FIori Guicciardini. LET. LIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 323 natural daughter of the last legal duke, raised himself by his valour and talents to the ducal throne. Lewis now prepared to assert his right with ardour, and he succeeded. But before I relate the particulars of that con- quest, it will be necessary to say a few words of pope Alexander VI. and h : s son Caesar Borgia, on account of their alliance with the king of France, and the share which they had in the wars of Italy : remarking by the way, that Ludovico Sforza, surnamed the Moor, having murdered his nephew, and taken possession of the dutchy of Milan, had been confirmed in it, in 1494, by the investiture of the emperor Maximilian, who married his daughter.(l) Alexander VI. was at that time engaged in two great designs : one was to ' recover for the patrimony of St. Peter the many territories of which it was said to have been deprived ; and the other, the exaltation of his son Caesar Borgia. Infamous as his conduct was, it did not in the least impair his au- thority. He was publicly accused of a criminal correspondence with his own sister, whom he took away from three husbands successively ; and he caused the last to be assassinated, that he might bestow her in marriage on the heir of the house of Este. The nuptials were celebrated in the Vatican by the most shameless diversions that debauch had ever invented for the confusion of modesty. Fifty courtesans danced naked before this incestuous family ; and prizes were given to those who exhibited the most lascivious motions. The duke of Gandia and Caesar Borgia, at that time cardinal and archbishop of Valentia in Spain, are said to have publicly disputed the favours of their sister Lucretia. The duke of Gandia was assassinated at Rome, and Caesar Borgia was the supposed author of the murder. (2) The personal estates of the cardinals, at their, decease, belong to the pope : and Alexander VI. was strongly suspected of hastening the death of more than one member of the sacred college, that he might become possessed of their treasures. But, notwithstanding these enormities, the people of Rome obeyed without mur- muring, and this pontiff's friendship was courted by all the potentates in Europe. Lewis XII. had many reasons for desiring the friendship of Alexander. He wanted to be divorced from his wife Joan, the daughter of Lewis XL, who was crooked and ugly, and with whom he had lived in wedlock above twenty-two years, without having any children. No law but the law of nature could authorize such a separation ; and yet disgust and policy made it necessary. The king disliked his wife, and was desirous of posterity. Anne of Brittany, the queen-dowager, still retained that tenderness which she had felt for him, when duke of Orleans. His passion for her was not yet extinguished ; and unless he married her, or at least if she married another, Brittany must be for ever dismembered from the French monarchy. These were powerful motives ; but the authority of the Holy See was necessary to give a sanction to them. It had long been customary to apply to the pope for permission to marry a relation, or put away a wife : Lewis applied to Alexander VI., who never scrupled at any indulgence in which he could find his interest. The bull of divorce was issued ; and Caesar Borgia was sent with it into France, with power to negotiate with the king on the subject of his Italian claims. But this son of the church, in a double sense, did not leave Rome till he was assured of the dutchy of Valentinois, a com- pany of one hundred armed men, and a pension of twenty thousand livres. All these Lewis not only agreed to, but also promised to procure for him the sister of the king of Navarre. The ambitious Borgia, though a cardinal and an archbishop, now changed his ecclesiastical character for a secular one i and pope Alexander granted, at one and the same time, a dispensation for his son to quit the church, and for the king of France to quit his wife. (3) Matters . (l)DuMont. Corp. Diplom. torn. iii. (2) Paul. Jov. Arnoldi Feroiii. (3) DuClos. Guicciardini. Some particulars relative to this separation are sufficiently curious to deserve notice Lewis XII. pretended that he had never consummated his marriage with the princess Joan, and the pope admitted his assertion as an argument for the divorce. But Joan herself, when questioned, de- clared in the most solemn manner that the marriage had been consummated. She even mentioned tl time, place, and circumstances : and on being asked by the king's proctor, whether she had not some natu- ral defects unusual in her sex ? she promptly replied: " I know I am neither so well made nor we X2 324 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. were quickly settled between Lewis and the queen-dowager, and the French prepared for a fresh invasion of Italy. In this enterprise Lewis had the Venetians on his side, who were to have share in the spoils of the Milanese. The emperor Maximilian, whose busi- ness it was to have defended the duke of Milan, his father-in-law and vassal, was not at that time in a condition to assist him. He could with difficulty make head against the Swiss, who had entirely freed themselves from the Austrian dominion : he therefore acted, upon this occasion, the feigned pan of indifference. The French monarch terminated amicably some disputes which he had with Philip the Handsome, the emperor's son, and father of Charles V., and this Philip did homage to France for the counties of Flanders and Artois. Lewis likewise renewed the treaty concluded by Charles VIII. with England; and being now secure on all sides, he made his army cross the Alps. This army did not exceed twenty thousand men; yet in the space of twenty days, the French made themselves masters of the dutchy of Milan, and the republic of Genoa, while the Venetians occupied the territory of Cremona. The king, clad in ducal robes, entered the city of Milan, in triumph ; and the duke, Ludovico Sforza, being betrayed soon after, by the Swiss in his pay, was sent prisoner into France, and shut up in the castle of Loches, where he lay unpitied during the remainder of his days,(l) Could Lewis here have set bounds to his ambition, satisfied with the con- quest of Milan, he was enabled by his situation to prescribe laws to all the Italian princes and states, and to hold the balance among them. But the de- sire of recovering the kingdom of Naples engaged him in new projects ; and as he foresaw opposition from Ferdinand, the Catholic king, who had formerly expelled the French from that country, and who was connected both by treaties and affinity with Frederic king of Naples, he endeavoured by offers of interest, to which the ears of that monarch were never deaf, to engage him in an opposite confederacy. A plan was accordingly settled for the ex- pulsion of Frederic, and the partition of his dominions. Frederic, unable to resist the force of the combined monarchs, each of whom was far his supe- rior in power, resigned his sceptre. But he had the satisfaction to see Naples prove the source of contention among his conquerors. Lewis and Ferdinand, though they had concurred in making the conquest, differed about the division of it. From allies they became enemies ; and Gonsalvo de Cordova, partly by the exertion of those military talents which gave him a just title to the appellation of the Great Captain, bestowed upon him by his countrymen, partly by such shameless and frequent violations of the most solemn engage- ments as leave an indelible stain upon his memory, stripped the French of all they possessed in the Neapolitan dominions, and secured the entire possession of the disputed kingdom to his no less perfidious rnaster.(2) Meanwhile Alexander VI. subdued the fiefs in Romania by the arms of his son Caesar Borgia. There is not one act of oppression, subtle artifice, heroic- courage, or atrocious villany, which his son left unpractised. He made use of more art and dexterity to get possession of eight or ten little towns, and to rid himself of a few noblemen that stood in his way, than Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghiz-Khan, or Tamerlane had employed to subdue the greater part of the habitable globe. Every thing seemed to conspire to his aggrandizement. His father was armed with the spiritual, and he with the temporal power, of the church. But his good fortune was of short duration : he laboured, without knowing it, for the patrimony of St. Peter. Alexander VI. died in 1503, and left behind him a more detestable memory in Europe that Nero or Caligula had done in the Roman empire ; the sanctity of his station adding a double tinge to his guilt. The papacy, however, was indebted to him for an accession to its temporal dominions. Caesar Borgia lost all the fruits of his crimes, and the church profited by them. favoured, as the greater part of my sex ; but I have no imperfection that renders me unfit for marriage " Procet du Divorce de Jeanne de France. II) Brantome. Guicciardint (2) Paul. Jov. Guicciardini. Mezeray LET. LIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 325 Most of the cities wnich he had conquered chose another master on the death of his father: and pope Julius II. obliged him soon after to deliver up the rest. Abandoned by friends, allies, and relations, Borgia, in a short time, had nothing left of all his wicked greatness ; and, to complete his miserable catastrophe, he who had betrayed so many, was at last betrayed. Gonsalvo de Cordova, the Great Captain, with whom he had trusted his person, sent him prisoner into Spain. Lewis XII. took from him the dutchy of Valentinois ind his pension. All the world forsook him. Having found means, however, to escape from prison, he sought refuge in Navarre ; and courage, which is not properly a virtue, but a happy qualification, common alike to the wicked and the virtuous, did not desert him in his distresses. While in this asylum, he still maintained every part of his character. He carried on intrigues, and he commanded in person the army of the king of Navarre, his father-in-law, during a war which that prince entered into by the persuasion of Borgia, to dispossess his vassals of the Holy See. He was slain fighting :(l) " A glo- rious end !" says Voltaire ; but it is surely only glorious to fall in a good cause, and Borgia's was confessedly a bad one. We have no occasion therefore, to think his fall too favourable. He wrought his own ruin, after having completed his disgrace ; a lesson more striking than if he had suffered by the hands of the public executioner. Lewis XII. made a new attempt to recover the kingdom of Naples, and was again disappointed. This second disappointment was occasioned by the ambition of his minister, cardinal d'Amboise, who sold his master's interest for a promise of the papacy: by the policy of Ferdinand, and by the bravery of the Great Captain. Lewis was now sincerely desirous of peace; and willing to secure the possession of Milan, he engaged, by the treaty of Blois, (o pay the emperor Maximilian a large sum for the investiture of that dutchy. By this treaty also, the king of France promised his daughter in marriage to Charles of Austria, grandson of Maximilian and Ferdinand, with Brittany, Burgundy, and all his Italian dominions as her dower, in case he died with out heirs male. But this article of the treaty was wisely opposed by the states of France :(2) and the princess Anne was given in marriage to the count of Angouleme, first prince of the bloody and presumptive heir to the crown, afterward Francis I. Thus Brittany, which had been twice annexed to the French monarchy, and twice near being severed from it, was incorpo- rated with it, and Burgundy also was preserved. During the course of these transactions, Isabella, queen of Castile, died, and Philip of Austria went to take possession of that kingdom, as heir to his mother-in-law. He also died in a short time ; and, to the astonishment of all Europe, left the king of France governor to his son Charles. The balance of power was now happily poised among the principal Euro- pean states, and might long have maintained general tranquillity, had not the active and enterprising genius of an ambitious pontiff excited anew the flames of war and discord among them. But the cause of that discord, my dear Philip, and its consequences, must be investigated in a future Letter LETTER LIV. Europe, from the League of Cambray to the Death of Lewis XII. JULIUS II. to whom the popes are particularly indebted for their temporal dominion, had formed the project of driving all foreigners out of Italy. But he was desirous, in the first place, of humbling the Venetians, who had not only declined entering into his views, but had refused to restore the places which they had dismembered from the territory of the church. The league of Cambray was the consequence of their refusal. 0) Paul. Jov. Guicciardini. Mezeray. (2) Mezeray, torn. !v. Henault torn, i 326 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. Let us take a view of that republic, which excited the jealousy of so many princes and states, and cemented this famous confederacy. Venice, my dear Philip, took its rise, as I have had occasion to notice, during the inroads of the Barbarians, in the fifth century. The little islands of the Adriatic gulf afforded an asylum to the neighbouring inhabitants, who originally lived by fishing, and afterward grew rich and powerful by com- merce. They again got footing on the terra firma ; and Venice now ex- tended her dominion from the lake of Como to the middle of Dalmatia. The Turks had despoiled her of what she had taken from the Christian emperors in Greece: but she still retained the large island of Candia or Crete, and soon got possession of Cyprus. The civil constitution of Venice, established on a firm basis, had suffered no considerable alteration for several centuries ; and the republic, during the same course of time, had conducted its affairs with a uniform and vigorous spirit of policy, which gave it great advantage over other states, whose views and measures changed as- often as the form of their government, or the per- sons who administered it. But the constitution of this republic had one essential fault ; it wanted a counterpoise to the power of the nobles, and did not offer proper encouragement to the common people. No private citizen of Venice can rise to the rank of a senator, or occupy any considerable em- ployment in the state. Such a partial aristocracy, which lodges all power in the hands of a few members of the community, is naturally jealous. The Venetian nobles dis- trusted their own subjects, and were afraid of allowing them the use of arms : the military force of the republic, therefore, consisted wholly of foreign mer- cenaries. Nor was the command of these ever trusted to noble Venetians, lest they should acquire such influence over the army as might endanger public liberty. A soldier of fortune was placed at the head of the armies o ( the commonwealth ; and to obtain that honour was the great object of the Italian condottieri, or leaders of bands, who made a trade of war, during tlu. fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and hired out troops to different princes and states. (1) A republic that disarmed its,subjects, and excluded its nobles from military command, must have carried on warlike enterprise^ at great disadvantage but its commerce was an inexhaustible source of opulence. All the nations, in Europe depended upon the Venetians, not only for the precious commo dities of the East, which they imported by the way of Egypt, but for varioui manufactures fabricated by them alone, or finished with a dexterity and ele gance unknown in other countries. From this extensive commerce, the statt derived such immense supplies, as concealed the vices in its constitution, anc enabled it to keep on foot such armies as were an overmatch for the forc< which any of its neighbours could bring into th r . fieJ J. Venice became a*t object of terror to the Italian states. Her wealtn w is viewed with envy b; the greatest monarchs, who could not vie with her private citizens in tha magnificence of their buildings, in the richness of their dress and furniture, or in splendour and elegance of living. And Julius II., whose ambitk>;.i and abilities were equal to those of any pontiff who had ever sat on the papai throne, by working upon the fears of the Italians, and upon the avarice of the princes beyond the Alps, induced them to form against this proud republi ; one of the most extensive confederacies that Europe had ever beheld. The emperor, the king of France, the king of Spain, and the pope were principals in the league of Cambray, to which almost all the princes of Italj acceded ; the least considerable of them hoping for some share in the spoils of a state which they deemed to be devoted to inevitable destruction. The Venetians might have diverted this storm, or have broken its force; but with a presumptuous rashness, to which there is nothing similar in the course of their history, they waited its approach. The impetuous valour of the French rendered ineffectual all their precautions for the safety of the if) Sandi. Storia Civil ^enezitaia LKT. LIV.] MODERNEUROPE. 327 republic ; and the battle of Aignadel, fought near the river Adda, entirely ruined the army on which they relied for defence. Julius II. seized all the towns which they held in the ecclesiastical territories ; and Ferdinand re- annexed the places which they had got possession of on the coast of Calabria to his Neapolitan dominions. Maximilian, at the head of a powerful army, advanced towards Venice on one side ; the French pushed their conquests on the other ; and the Venetians, surrounded by so many enemies, and left without one ally, sunk from the height of presumption to the depths of despair. They abandoned all their territories on the continent, and shut themselves up in their capital, as their last refuge, and the only place which they hoped to preserve. (1) Julius, having thus, in the humiliation of the Venetians, attained his first object, began to think of the second, more worthy of his enterprising genius, " the expulsion of every foreign power out of Italy." For this purpose it was necessary to dissolve the league of Cambray, and sow dissensions' among those princes whom he had formerly united. He absolved the Vene- tians, on their ceding to him the places claimed by the Holy See, from that anathema which had been pronounced against them ; and he concluded an alliance with the republic against those very French whom he had called in to oppress it. Their imperiousness had rendered them peculiarly obnoxious to the Italians; and Julius II., who was a native of Genoa, was greatly desirous of revenging upon Lewis the triumphant ostentation with which he had punished the revolt of that city, whose records he caused to be burnt, and whose prin- cipal citizens he obliged to kneel at the foot of his throne, while he pronounced their sentence ; which, after all, was only to pay a trifling fine. On Lewis, therefore, the haughty pontiff was determined that the tempest first should fall; and in order to pave the way for this bold project, he at once sought for a ground of quarrel with that monarch, and courted the alliance of foreign princes. He declared war against the duke of Ferrara, the confederate of Lewis ; he solicited the favour of Henry VIII., who had lately ascended the throne of England, by sending him a sacred rose, perfumed with musk, and anointed with chrism : he detached Ferdinand from the league, and drew him over to his party, by granting him the full investiture of the kingdom of Na- ples ; and, what he chiefly valued, he formed a treaty with the Swiss, whose subsidy Lewis had refused to augment, and whom he had offended by some contumelious expressions. (2) The confederacy of Cambray being thus dissolved, the face of affairs soon began to wear a very different appearance in Italy. The Venetians, now recovered from their consternation, were able to make head against the em- peror, and even to regain part of the territory which they had lost. The pope and his allies made war upon the duke of Ferrara, the ally of France. They were opposed by the French troops, and obliged to raise the siege of Bologna ; but they afterward formed that of Mirandola, where Julius appeared in person, visited the trenches, hastened the operations, and entered the breach, with all the ardour of a young soldier in pursuit of military glory. (3) Lewis, in the mean time, was at a loss how to act: overawed by his vene- ration for the vicar of Christ, he was afraid to let his generals take those advantages which fortune threw in their way. He was, therefore, desirous to divest Julius of that sacred character, which chiefly rendered him formidable. With this view, in conjunction with Maximilian, who was himself ambitious of the papacy, and by the authority of some disgusted cardinals, he summoned a general council at Pisa, in order to reform the church, and check the exor- bitancies of the sovereign power. But Lewis was as irresolute in supporting the council, as in instructing his generals. Julius saw his timidity, and availed himself of it. He summoned a council at the Lateran : he put Pisa under an interdict, and all the places that should give shelter to the schisma- tical council ; he excommunicated the cardinals and prelates who attended (1) Guicciardini. Mezeray. Hist, de la Ligue faite a Cambray, par M. 1'AbW du Bos. (2) Guicciardini. Mezeray. Hist, de la Ligue faite a Cambray, par M. 1'AbW du Boa. Spelm. Ctmcil (3. Guicciardini. 328 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. it ; he even pointed his spiritual thunder against the princes who adhered to it : he freed their subjects from all oaths of allegiance, and gave their domi- nions to every one who could take possession of them.(l) Ambition lays hold of the slightest pretences to accomplish its designs. The crafty Ferdinand, who had obtained the surname of Catholic, but who regarded the cause of the pope and religion solely as a cover to his selfish politics, made this anathema of Julius a pretext for robbing the king of Na- varre of his dominions, as an ally of France, and consequently included in the bull fulminated against the adherents of the council of Pisa. The method which he took to effect this conquest was no less singular than the measure. Henry VIII., his son-in-law, naturally sincere and sanguine in temper, was moved with a hearty desire of protecting the pope from that oppression to which he believed him exposed from the French monarch. Impatient also of acquiring that distinction in Europe to which his power and opulence entitled him, he could not long remain neuter amid the noise of arms : he was, there- fore, led to join that alliance, which the pope, Spain, and Venice had formed against Lewis. Ferdinand saw his intemperate ardour, and made him the instrument of his own base ambition. This artful prince, who considered his close connexion with Henry only as the means of taking advantage of his inexperience, advised him not to invade France by the way of Calais, where he himself should not have it in his power to assist him : he exhorted him rather to send forces to Fontarabia, whence he could easily make a conquest of Guienne, a province in which it was imagined the English had still some adherents. He promised to forward this conquest by the junction of a Spanish army : and so zealous did he seem to promote the interests of his son-in-law, that he even sent vessels to Eng- land, in order to transport the forces which Henry had levied for that purpose. But the marquis of Dorset, who commanded the English army, was no sooner landed in Guipuscoa, than Ferdinand suggested the necessity of first subdu- ing the kingdom of Navarre, which lies on the frontier between France and Spain. Dorset, however, having no orders to make war any where but in France, refused to take any part in that enterprise : he therefore remained in his quarters at Fontarabia. But so subtle was the contrivance of Ferdinand, that the English army, even while it lay in that situation, was almost equally serviceable to his purpose, as if it had acted in conjunction with his own. It kept the French army in awe, and prevented it from advancing to succour the kingdom of Navarre ; so that the duke of Alva, the Spanish general, having full leisure to conduct his operations, after subduing 1 the smaller towns, made himsfilf master of Pampeluna, the capital, and obliged John d' Albert, the sovereign, to take refuge in France. Dorset was obliged to return to England, with his army much diminished by want and sickness, without being able to effect any thing for the interests of his master ; and Henry, enraged at his ill success, was with difficulty made sensible of the fraudulent conduct of Fer- dinand, his deceitful father-in-law. (2) While these things were transacting on the other side of the Pyrenees, events of still greater moment happened beyond the Alps. Though the war which England waged against France brought no advantage to the former kingdom, it was of much prejudice to the latter; and by obliging Lewis to withdraw his forces from Italy, lost him the superiority which his arms, in the beginning of the campaign, had acquired in that country. Gaston de Foix, his nephew, had been intrusted with the command of the French forces ; and, at the age of twenty-three, exhibited in a few months such feats of military skill and valour, as were sufficient to render illustrious the life of the oldest general. His career terminated with the famous battle of Ravenna : which, after the most obstinate dispute, he gained over the Spanish and papal armies. He perished the moment his victory was complete, and with him perished the fortune of the French arms in Italy. The Swiss, who had now Ui Spelra. ConciJ. (2) Herbert. Hist. Hen. VIII. Polyd. Virg. LET. LIV.y MODERN EUROPE. 329 endered themselves formidable by their bands of disciplined infantry, invaded the dutchy of Milan with a numerous army, and excited its inconstant inhabit- ants to revolt against the dominion of France. Genoa followed the example of that dutchy ; and Lewis, in the course of a few weeks, totally lost his Italian conquests. Maximilian Sforza, the son of Ludovico, was again rein- stated in the possession of Milan, and the Genoese recovered their liberty.(l) The expulsion of the French gave much pleasure to the pope; more espe- cially as he owed it to the Swiss, whom he had honoured with the title of Defenders of the Holy See, and whose councils he hoped always to govern. Julius II., however, enjoyed this satisfaction but a short time. He died sud- denly, at an advanced age, and was succeeded in the pontificate by John of Medicis, son of the celebrated Laurence, who had governed Florence with so much reputation, and obtained the appellation of Father of the Muses. John took the name of Leo X., and proved one of the most illustrious pontiffs that ever sat on the papal throne. Humane, generous, affable, the patron of every art, and the friend of every virtue, he had a soul no less capable of forming great designs than his predecessor ; but he was more delicate in em- ploying means for the execution of them. By the negotiations of Leo, who adhered to the political system of Julius, the emperor Maximilian was de- tached from the French interest; and Henry VIII., notwithstanding his dis- appointments in the former campaign, was still encouraged to prosecute his warlike measures against Lewis. (2) In order to prevent disturbance from Scotland, while the English arms should be employed on the continent, Henry despatched an ambassador to James IV., his brother-in-law, with instructions to accommodate all differ- ences between the two kingdoms. Some complaints had already been made on both sides; but matters might easily have been settled, had it not been for Henry's projected invasion of France, which roused the jealousy of the Scottish nation. The ancient league which subsisted between France and Scotland was esteemed the most sacred bond of connexion, and universally believed by the Scots essential to the preservation of their independency, against a people so much superior as the English. Henry's ambassador therefore easily foresaw, though James still made professions of maintaining a neutrality, that a war with Scotland would, in the end, prove inevitable ; and he gave warning of the danger to his master, who sent the earl of Surry to put the borders in a posture of defence, and to resist the expected inroad of the enemy. (3) Meanwhile, the king of England, all on fire for military fame, invaded France by the way of Calais. " But of all the allies, on whose assistance he relied, the Swiss alone fully performed their engagements. Maximilian, among others, failed to perform his ; although he had received, in advance, a subsidy of a hundred and twenty thousand crowns. That he might make some atonement, however, for his breach of faith, he appeared in person in the Low Countries, and joined the English army with a small body of German and Flemish troops, that were useful in giving an example of discipline to Henry's new levied forces. The emperor carried his condescension yet fur- ther ; he did not pretend, with a handful of men, to act as an auxiliary, but enlisted himself in the service of the English monarch ; wore the cross of St George, and received a hundred ducats a day for the use of his table. (4) An emperor of Germany, serving under a king of England, and living by his bounty, was surely a spectacle truly extraordinary ; but Henry treated him with the highest respect, and he really directed all the operations of the war. The first enterprise which they undertook was the siege of Terouane, a town situated on the borders of Picardy. During the attack of this place was fought the famous battle of Guinegate, where the cavalry of France fled at the first onset, and in which the duke of Longueville, Bussi d' Amboise, Clermont, Imbercourt, the chevalier Bayard, and many other officers of dis- tinction were made prisoners. This action, or rather rout, is commonly called il) Guicciardim. (2) Father Paul. Guicciardini. Herbert (3) Buchanan. Drummond. Herbert (4) Polydore Virg. 330 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. the Battle of Spurs ; because the French on that occasion made more use of their spurs than their military weapons.(l) After so considerable an advantage, Henry, who was at the head of a com- plete army of fifty thousand men, might have made incursions to the gates of Paris, and spread confusion and desolation every where. It therefore gave Lewis great joy, when he heard that the king of England, instead of pushing his victory, had returned to the siege of Terouane. That place, however, was soon obliged to capitulate, and the anxieties of the French were again renewed with regard to the motions of the English. The Swiss, at the same time, had entered Burgundy with a formidable army; and the Catholic king, though he had made a truce with Lewis, seemed disposed to seize every advantage which fortune should present to him. Never was the French monarchy in greater danger, or less in a condition to defend itself against those powerful armies which assailed or threatened it on every side. Lewis, though fruitful in expedients, was now at a loss what course to follow, or where to place his safety : his troops were dismayed, his people intimidated, and he had no ally to assist him. But France was saved by the blunders of her enemies. The Swiss allowed themselves to be wheedled into a negotiation by Tremouille, governor of Burgundy, without inquiring whe- ther he had any powers to treat ; and that nobleman, who knew he should be disavowed by his master, stipulated whatever they were pleased to demand, happy to get rid of such dangerous invaders at the expense of a little money and many empty promises. Henry discovered no less ignorance in the con- duct of war than the Swiss in negotiation. By the interested counsel of Maximilian, he laid siege to Touniay, which then belonged to France, and afforded the troops of that kingdom a passage into the heart of the Nether- lands. Soon after the reduction of this place, which nowise advanced the conquests of Henry, he was informed of the retreat of the Swiss ; and as the season was now far advanced, he thought proper to return to England, and carried with him the greater part of his army.(2) Such, my dear Philip, was the issue of a campaign much boasted of by the English monarch ; but which, all circumstances considered, was unprofitable, if not inglorious. The success which, during this season, attended the English arms in North Britain was more decisive. James IV. had assembled the whole force of his dominions, and crossed the Tweed at the head of a brave though tumultuous army of fifty thousand men. But instead of making use of the opportunity which the absence of Henry afforded him to push his conquests, he wasted his time in the arms of a fair captive. His troops became dissatisfied, and ^egan to be pinched with hunger ; and as the authority of the prince was yet feeble among the Scots, and military discipline extremely lax, many of them Stole from the camp, and retired homewards. Meanwhile, the earl of Surry, having collected a body of twenty-six thousand men, approached the enemy, 'vho lay on some high grounds near the hills of Cheviot. He drew them from their station, by feigning to enter their country ; and an obstinate battle was fought in the field of Flouden, where the king of Scotland and the flower of his nobility were slain.(3) Henry, on this occasion, discovered a mind truly great and generous. Though an inviting opportunity was now offered him of extending his dominion over the whole island, he took compassion on the helpless condition of his sister Margaret and her infant son; and readily granted peace to Scotland, as- soon as it was applied for. Soon after this peace, which put Henry in a condition to prosecute his views on the continent to more advantage, as he had nothing to fear from his northern neighbours, and a general pacification took place between the con- Bending powers. Lewis renounced the council of Pisa, now transferred to Lyons, and Leo X. granted him absolution. Ferdinand the Catholic renewed the truce with France ; and he and Maximilian entered into a treaty with Lewis for the marriage of his second daughter, Renee, to Charles, prince 01 Spain, their common grandson. Lewis himself espoused the princess Mary 1 1) Hitt. de Chen. Bayard. Mem. de Bellai. (2) Mem. de Flevranges. Guicciardini. '3) Buchanan. Drummond. Herbert. LET. LV.] MODERN EUROPE. 331 of England, and agreed to pay Henry a million of crowns, the arrears due by the treaty of Estaples. These two monarchs also entered into an alliance for their mutual de fence. (1) Lewis XII., thus rescued from his numerous difficulties, had the happiness of beholding once more his affairs in good order, and all Europe in tranquillity. But he enjoyed this happiness only a short while. Enchanted with the beauty and elegant accomplishments of his young queen, he forgot in her arms his advanced age, and was seduced into such a round of gayety and pleasure as proved very unsuitable to his declining health.(2) He died about three months after the marriage, in his fifty-fourth year, and when he was meditating anew the conquest of Milan which was left to immortalize the name, and swell the misfortunes, of his successor. There is no perfection in human beings, my dear Philip, and consequently not in kings, whatever their flatterers may tell them ; but few men, either princes or subjects, seem to have possessed more social and benevolent virtues than fell to the share of Lewis XII. He was universally beloved by his people : the populace and the nobility equally adored him, and unanimously called him their Father : a title with which he was particularly pleased, and which he made it the study of his life to deserve. He began his reign with abolishing many taxes ; and at the time of his death, notwithstanding his wars and his disasters, he had diminished the public burdens above one half. His very misfortunes, or, in a political sense, his errors, endeared him to his subjects ; for it was well known, that he might have maintained his conquests in Italy, if he would have levied larger sums upon his people. But his heart would not permit him to distress them : he esteemed any loss light compared with that of their affections. His moderation was no less remarkable than his humanity. When told that some of his courtiers smiled at his economy, which they considered as too rigid, and that certain authors had taken the liberty to ridicule it in their writings, he was by no means displeased. " I would rather," replied he, magnanimously, " that my people should laugh at my parsimony, than weep at their own oppressions."(3) LETTER LV. The general View of Europe continued, from the Accession of Francis I. in 1515, to the Death of trie Emperor Maximilian, in 1519 ; including the Rise of the Reformation in Germany. LEWIS XII. was succeeded on the throne of France by his son-in-law Francis, count of Angouleme, first prince of the blood, whose military genius, it was foreseen, would soon disturb the peace of Europe. Young, brave, ambitious, and enterprising, he immediately turned his eyes towards Italy as the scene of glory and of conquest. His first object was the recovery of Milan. But before he sat out on that expedition, he renewed the treaty which his predecessor had concluded with England; and having nothing to fear from Spain, where Ferdinand was on the verge of the grave, he marched his army towards the Alps, under pretence of defending his kingdom against the incursions of the Swiss. Informed of his hostile intentions, that warlike people had taken up arms, at the instigation of the pope, in order to protect Maximilian Sforza, duke of Milan, whom they had restored to his dominions, and thought, themselves bound in honour to support. These hardy mountaineers took possession of all those passes in the Alps, (1) DuTillet. (2) Brantome. Eloge de Louis XII. " The good king," says another writer, "for the sake of his wife totally altered his manner of living. Whereas before he used to dine at eight o'clock in the morning, he now did not dine till noon. He had also been accustomed to go to bed at six in the evening, and he new frequently sat vp till midnight." (Hist de Chev. Bayard.) Nothing can mark more strongly than thw passage the difference between the mode of living in that and the present age. <3) Hist, de Louis XII. pub. par Theod. Godefroy. 332 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. through which they thought the French must enter Italy ; and when informed that Francis had made his way into Piedmont, by a secret route, they descended undismayed into the plain, and gallantly opposed themselves on foot to the heavy-armed cavalry of France. The two armies met at Marignan, near Milan ; where was fought one of the most furious and obstinate battles men- tioned in the history of modern times. The action began towards evening : night parted the combatants ; but next morning the Swiss renewed the attack with unabated ardour, and it required all the heroic valour of Francis to inspire his troops with courage sufficient to resist the shock. The Swiss, though broken at last by the cavalry, and galled by the cannon, long kept their ground ; and did not retire till they had lost upwards of twelve thousand of their best troops, about one half of their whole number. The loss of the French was very considerable ; twenty thousand men fell on both sides ; and the old marshal Trivulzio, who had been present at eighteen pitched battles, used to declare, that in comparison of the battle of Marignan every other engagement he had seen was but the play of children, but that this was a combat of heroes.(l) The surrender Oif the city of Milan, and the conquest of the whole dutchy, were the consequences of this victory. Maximilian Sforza resigned his claim, in consideration of a pension ; and Francis, having concluded a treaty with the pope and with the Swiss, returned into France, leaving to Charles duke of Bourbon the government of his Italian dominions.(2) In the mean time, the success and glory of the French monarch began to excite jealousy in the breast of the old emperor Maximilian: nor was the rapid progress of Francis, though in so distant a country, regarded with indif- ference even by the king of England. Henry despatched a minister to the court of Vienna, with secret orders to propose certain payments to the em- peror : and Maximilian, who was ever ready to embrace any overture to excite fresh troubles, and always necessitous, immediately invaded Italy with a con- siderable army. But that prince being repulsed before Milan, by the French garrison, and hearing that twelve thousand Swiss were advancing to its relief, retired hastily into Germany ; made peace with France and with Venice ; ceded Verona to that republic for a sum of money; and thus excluded himself, in some measure, from all future access into Italy. (3) This peace, which restored universal tranquillity to Europe, was preceded by the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, and the succession of his grandson Charles to his extensive dominions ; an event which had long been looked for, and from which the most important consequences were expected. Charles, who had hitherto resided in the Low Countries, which he inherited as heir of the house of Burgundy, was now near the full age of sixteen, and possessed a recollection and sedateness much above his years ; but his genius had yet given no indications of that superiority which its maturer state displayed That capacious and decisive judgment, which afterward directed so ably the affairs of a vast empire, was left to be discovered by those great events to which it gave birth, and those occasions which made it necessary. At present there was little call for it. Cardinal Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, a person of equal virtue and saga- city, had prudently been appointed, by the will of Ferdinand, sole regent of Castile till the arrival of his grandson. This man, whose character is no less singular than illustrious, who united the abilities of a great statesman with the abject devotion of a superstitious monk, and the magnificence of a prime minister with the austerity of a mendicant, maintained order and tran- quillity in Spain, notwithstanding the discontents of a turbulent and high- spirited nobility. When they disputed his right to the regency, he coolly showed them the testament of Ferdinand, and the ratification of that deed by Charles ; but these not satisfying them, and arguments proving ineffectual, he led them insensibly towards a balcony, whence they had a view of a large body of troops under arms, and a formidable train of artillery. " Behold." fl) Mem de Fleurtmga. (2) Guicciardini. Mezeray. (3) Id. ibid. LET LV.J MODERN EUROPE. 333 said the cardinal, raising his voice, and extending his arm, "the powers which I have received from his Catholic majesty: by these I govern Castile! and will govern it, till the king, your master and mine, shall come to take possession of his kingdom." A declaration so bold and determined silenced all opposition, and Ximenes maintained his authority till the arrival of Charles.(l) The fate of this minister merits our attention, though not immediately con- nected with the line of general history. The young king was received with universal acclamations of joy; but Ximenes found little cause to rejoice. He was seized with a violent disorder, supposed to be the effect of poison ; and when he recovered, Charles, prejudiced against him by the Spanish grandees and his Flemish courtiers, slighted his advice, and allowed him every day to sink into neglect. The cardinal did not bear this treatment with his usual firmness of spirit. He expected a more grateful return from a prince, to whom he delivered a kingdom far more flourishing than it had been in any former age, and authority more extensive and better established than the most illustrious of his ancestors had ever possessed. Conscious of his own inte- grity and merit, he could not therefore refrain from giving vent, at times, to indignation and complaint. He lamented the fate of his country, and fore- told the calamities to which it would be exposed from the insolence, the rapaciousness, and the ignorance of strangers. These persons agitated the soul of Ximenes, when he received a letter from the king, genteelly dis- missing him from his councils, under pretence of easing his age of that bur- den which he had so long and so ably sustained. This letter proved fatal to the minister. His haughty mind could not endure disgrace, nor his gene- rous heart the stings of ingratitude : he expired a few hours after reading it.(2) While Charles was taking possession of the throne of Spain, in consequence of the death of one grandfather, another was endeavouring to obtain for him the imperial crown. With this view Maximilian assembled a diet at Augs- burg, where he strove to gain the favour of the electors by many acts of beneficence, in order to engage them to choose that young prince as his suc- cessor. But Maximilian himself having never been crowned by the pope, a ceremony deemed essential in that age, as well as the preceding, he was con- sidered only as king of the Romans, or emperor elect; and no example occurring in history of any person being chosen successor to a king of the Romans, the Germans, ever tenacious of their forms, obstinately refused to confer upon Charles a dignity for which their constitution knew no name. (3) But the diet of Augsburg had other business. Thither was summoned Martin Luther, for "propagating new and dangerous opinions." These opinions were no other, my dear Philip, than the first principles of the Re- formation ; which soon diffused themselves through Germany, which were afterward embraced by so many nations, and which separated one half of Europe from the Romish church. Of the origin of this great schism some account will be necessary ; for, although I would by no means engage you in theological disputes, you ought to know the grounds of a controversy which produced so remarkable a revolution in the religious world, in the creeds and ceremonies of Christians, that you may be the better enabled to judge of its effects upon society, upon industry, literature, policy, and morals. In that light only I mean to consider it : the road to heaven I leave to heavenly directors. Ill the course of these Letters I have had occasion to observe the rise of the pope's spiritual power, as well as of his temporal dominion ; to trace the progress, and to remark the abuses of each. A repetition here would there- fore be unnecessary. The spiritual despotism of Gregory VII. the temporal tyranny of Alexander VI. and the bloody ambition of Julius II. make too strong an impression on the mind to be soon effaced. After that enormous (1) Flechier, Vie. de Ximen. , (2) Marsallier, Vie. de Ximm. Baudier, Hist, 'de Xime*. (3) Barre, turn. vi. 334 THE HISTORY OP [PART I. privilege which the Roman pontiffs assumed of disposing of crowns, and of releasing- nations from their oath of allegiance, the most pernicious to society was that of absolving individuals from the ties of moral duty. This dan- gerous power, or one equh ilent to it, the pope claimed as the successor of St. Peter, and the keeper of the spiritual treasury of the church, supposed to contain the superabounding good works of the saints, together with the in- finite merits of Jesus Christ Out of this inexhaustible storehouse of super- abundant merit, his holiness might retail, at pleasure, particular portions to those who were deficient. He assumed, in short, and directly exercised, the right of pardoning sins ; wTiioh was, in other words, granting a permission to commit them: for, if it is k^ own, as had long been the case in the Romish ;hurch, at what price the punishment of any crime may be bought off, the encouragement to vice is tne same as if a dispensation had been granted be- forehand. And even that was frequently indulged. The influence of such indulgences upon morals may easily be imagined; especially in ages when superstition had silenced the voice of conscience, and reason was bewildered in Gothic darkness ; when the church had everywhere provided sanctuaries, which not only screened from the arm of the civil ma- gistrate persons guilty of the greatest enormities, but often enabled them to live in affluence. Yet that j'reat historian, and profound philosopher, Mr. Hume, has endeavoured to prove, that Protestant writers are mistaken in supposing that a dissolution of mora's should ensue, "because a man could purchase for a shilling an indulgenct for the most enormous and unheard-of crimes !"(!) But you, I hope, will think otherwise, when you have duly weighed the fore- going considerations. Mr. Hume seems here to have forgot, that all men are not philosophers ; or, olinded by the love of paradox, to have lost sight of common sense. He seems even to have lost sight of his argument ; for he adds, that " after these in- dulgences, there still remained hell-fire, the civil magistrate, and the remorses of conscience," to awe mankind to their duty. Now the first of these asser- tions is literally false -, for the very words of an indulgence bore, that it re- stored the person to whom it was granted " to that innocence and purity which he possessed at baptism :" and, according to the doctrine of the Romish church, the infant is then fit for heaven. But the indulgence did not stop here : it concluded thus ; " so that, when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened."(2) The terror of the civil magistrate, as I have already shown, could be very small, when the church afforded shelter to every criminal that sought her sanctuaries, and took into her bosom the whole body of the clergy. Con- science, indeed, so often represented by this doubting sage as an erring guide, as a principle superinduced and local, conscience could not be banished the human breast ; but its voice, if not entirely silenced by superstition, was too feeble to be listened to by the self-deluding and headstrong passions ol Tnan, when flattered by the hope, or encouraged by the assurance, of a papal indulgence. These indulgences, or plenary pardons, of which I have been led insensibly to speak, and which not only served as a remission of sins to the living, but as a release to the dead from the pains of purgatory, were first invented by Urban II. as a recompense for those who engaged in the wild expeditions to the Holy Land. They were afterward granted to such as contributed money for that or any other pious purpose : and the sums so raised were frequently diverted to other uses. They were employed to swell the state, to furnish the luxuries, or accomplish the ambitious enterprises, of the popes. John XXII. reduced this spiritual traffic into a system : and Leo X. that great patron of arts and of letters, having exhausted the papal treasury in rewards to men of genius, in magnificent works, and expensive pleasures, thought that he might attempt, without danger, those pious frauds so successfully practised (1) Hist, of England, vol. iv. note A. (2) Seckend, Comment, lib. i. Robertson, Hiit. Charles V. book ii LET. LV.] M O D E R N E U R P E. 335 by the most ignorant of his predecessors : Leo published a general sale of indulgences. If any thing could apologize for a religious cheat that tends to the subver- sion of morals, Leo's apology was ready. He was engaged in building that superb temple, St. Peter's cathedral, founded by his predecessor, and the Turks were preparing to enter Germany. He had no occasion to forge pretences for this extension of papal authority. But Leo, though a polite scholar, and a fine gentleman, was but a pitiful pope. Liberal-minded himself, and surrounded by liberal-minded men, he did not foresee that the lamp of Know- ledge, which he held up to mankind, would light them to the abode of Super- stition ; would show them her errors, her impostures, her usurpations, and their own slavish condition. He did not reflect, that impositions employed with success in one age may prove dangerous experiments in another. But he had soon occasion to remember it. The abuse of the sale of indulgences in Germany, where they were pub- licly retailed in ale-houses, and where the produce of particular districts was farmed out, in the manner of a toll or custom, awakened the indignation of Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, and professor of theology in the university of Wittemberg. Lamer was also incensed, it is said, that the privilege of vending this spiritual merchandise had been taken from his order, and given to the Dominicans. But, be that as it may, he wrote and he preached against indulgences. His writings were read with avidity, and his discourses were listened to with admiration. He appealed to reason and Scripture for the truth of his arguments, not to the decisions of councils or of popes. A cor- ner of the veil was now happily lifted. The people, ever fond of judging for themselves (and in matters which concern themselves only, they have an undoubted right), flattered by this appeal, began to call in question that authority which they had formerly reverenced, which they had blindly adored ; and Luther, emboldened by success, extended his views, and ventured to de- claim against other abuses. From abuses he proceeded to usurpations ; from usurpations to errors ; and from one error to another, till the whole fabric of the Romish church began to totter. Leo, in the mean time, alarmed at the progress of this daring innovator, had summoned him to answer for his doctrines at Rome. But that citation was remitted at the intercession of Frederic, surnamed the Wise, elector of Sax- ony, who had hitherto protected Luther ; and his cause was ordered to be tried in Germany, by cardinal Cajetan, a Dominican, eminent for sholastic learning, and the pope's legate at the imperial 'court. For this end, among others, Cajetan attended the diet at Augsburg ; and thither Luther repaired .without hesitation, after having obtained the emperor's safe-conduct, though ne had good reason to decline a judge chosen from among his avowed ad- versaries. The cardinal received him with decent respect, and endeavoured, at first, to gain him by gentle treatment ; but finding him firm in his princi- ples, and thinking it beneath the dignity of his station to enter into any for- mal dispute, he required him, by virtue of the apostolic powers with % which he was vested, to retract his errors (without showing that they were such), and to abstain, for the future, from the publication of new and dangerous opinions. Luther, who had flattered himself with a hearing, and hoped to distinguish himself in a dispute with a prelate of such eminent abilities, was much mortified at this arbitrary mode of proceeding. His native intrepidity of mind, however, did not forsake him : he boldly replied, that he could not, with a safe conscience, renounce opinions which he believed to be true ; but offered to submit the whole controversy to the judgment of the learned, naming certain universities. This offer was rejected by Cajetan, who still insisted on a simple recantation ; and Luther, by the advice of his friends, after appealing to a general council, secretly withdrew from Augsburg, and returned to his own country.(l) The progress of this extraordinary man, and of that reformation to which he gave birth, I shall afterward have occa- sion to trace. '3.) Sleid. Hist. Reform Robertson, ubi sup. 336 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The diet of Augsburg was soon followed by the death of the emperor Maximilian ; an event in itself of little moment, as that prince had, for some years, ceased to be of any consequence. But as it left vacant the first sta- tion among Christian princes, of which two great monarchs were equally ambitious, it became memorable by its effects. It gave rise to a competition, and awakened a jealousy, which threw all Europe into agitation : it broke that profound peace which then reigned in Christendom, and kindled wars more general and lasting than any which modern times had beheld. But before we enter on that interesting era, I must carry forward the Progress of Society ; notice the improvements in arts and in letters ; and exhibit some account of those great naval discoveries which produced so important a revolution in the commercial world, and gave to Europe a new continent, while religion and ambition were depopulating the old. Meanwhile it will be proper to remark, that, during the reign of Maximilian, Germany was divided into circles, in each of which a provincial and particular jurisdiction was established to supply the place of a public and common tribunal. In this reign also was instituted the Imperial Chamber, composed of judges nominated partly by the emperor, partly by the several states, and vested with authority to decide finally concerning all differences among the mem- bers of the Germanic body. The Aulic Council too, which takes cognizance of all feudal cases, and such as belong to the emperor's immediate jurisdic- tion, received under this prince a new form.(l) By*these regulations, order was given to that confused government, and some degree of vigour restored to the imperial authority. LETTER LVi. Progress of Society in Europe from the beginning of the Fourteenth to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century, with a retrospective View of the Revival of Letters. WE have already, my dear Philip, traced the Progress of Society to the beginning of the fourteenth century. We have seen corporation-charters granted ; civil communities formed ; and the great body of the people, re- leased from that servitude under which they had so long groaned, applying themselves to trade and industry. We have also seen universities generally established ; the study of the Roman law introducing a more perfect system of jurisprudence ; an acquaintance with the learned languages awakening an ambition of literary merit ; manners taking a more liberal turn ; and com- merce beginning to circulate the conveniences of life. But society had still many advances to make, before it arrived at that state of refinement in which we now behold it, or to which it had attained under the pontificate of Leo X. Thpse advances it is now our business to trace. By the way, however, I must remind you, that, in the course of the general narrative, I have taken occasion to notice the Progress of Society with respect to the command of national force ; the vigour which government acquired, by the increase of the royal authority ; the alterations which took place in the art of war, in consequence of the invention of gunpowder ; the establishment of standing armies, and the supplies necessary for the support of such a body of men. I have also had occasion to mention the new system adopted by princes, for national defence and safety, by maintaining a balance of political power, and the means by which that system was perfected. I shall, therefore, devote this letter solely to sucH objects as cannot come within the line of general history; the progress of manners, of arts, and of polite literature. Th& sciences, as since cultivated, were not yet known. True philosophy belongs to a more modern era. (1) Dull. Ve Pace Publica. Imperil LET. LVI.] M O I>ERN EU ROP E. 337 Mankind are no soonei- in possession of the conveniences of life, than they begin to aspire after its elegancies. About the beginning of the fourteenth century, such a taste became general in Europe. The Italian cities, which had early acquired liberty, .and obtained municipal charters, carried on at that time a flourishing trade with India, through the ports of the Red Sea They introduced into their own country manufactures of various kinds, and- carried them on with great ingenuity and vigour. In the manufacture o^ silk in particular, they made so rapid a progress, that about the middle o the fourteenth century, a thousand citizens of Genoa appeared in one procesf sion, clad in silk robes. They attempted new arts ; among which may be numbered the art of taking impressions from engravings on plates of cop- per, the manufacture of crystal glass for mirrors, of paper made of linen rags, and of earthen ware in imitation of porcelain. And they imported from warmer climates the art of raising several natural productions, formerly un- known in Europe, which now furnish the materials of a lucrative and ex- tended commerce ; particularly the culture of silk, and the plantation of the sugar-cane. Originally the produce of Asia, and esteemed peculiar to the East, the sugar-cane was transplanted from the Greek islands in Sicily, from Sicily into Italy, from Italy into Spain, and from Spain and Portugal into the newly discovered islands in the Western Ocean.(l) The discovery of those islands, and also of the American continent, was the effect of another modern invention, namely, the mariner's compass ; which, by rendering navigation at once more secure and more adventurous, facili- tated the intercourse between remote nations, and may be said to have brought them nearer to each other. But the progress of navigation, and the discoveries to which it gave birth, demand a particular Letter. Yet here I must observe, that commerce, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was by no means confined to the Italian states. Flanders had long been as famous for the manufacture of linen and woollen cloths, as Italy was for that of silk. All the wool of England, before the reign of Edward III. except a small quantity wrought into coarse cloths for home consumption, was sold to the Flemings or Lombards, but chiefly to the former, and manufactured by them ; and it was not till the middle of the fifteenth century (so late were our ancestors of availing themselves of their natural commercial advantages !) that the English were capable of fabri- cating cloth for foreign markets. Bruges was at once the staple for English wool, for the woollen and linen manufactures of the Netherlands, for the naval stores and other bulky commodities of the North, and for the precious com- modities of the East, as well as domestic productions, carried thither by the Italian states.(2) It was the greatest emporium in Europe. Nothing so much advances society as an intercourse with strangers. In proportion as commerce made its way into the different countries of Europe, they successively turned their attention to those objects, and adopted those manners, which occupy and distinguish polished nations. Accordingly we find the Italians and Flemings taking the lead in the liberal as well as in the commercial arts, and exhibiting the first examples of cultivated life. Painting and architecture were revived in Italy towards the end of the thirteenth century. They continued to make rapid progress under different masters, and were both carried to perfection during the period under review. Tapestry, then in high estimation, had long been manufactured with the greatest ingenuity in the Low Countries ; and the Flemings, in their turn, became painters and architects, before the rest of Europe were furnished with the necessary arts. Ghent and Bruges, Venice and Genoa, were splendid cities, adorned with stately buildings, while the inhabitants of London and Paris lived in wretched cottages, without so much as a chimney to carry up the smoke. The fire was made on the ground in the middle of the apartment, and all the family sat round it, like the Laplanders in their (1) Guicciardini, Descrit. Paesi Basse. (2) Guicciardini, Descrit. Paesi Basse. Anderson, Hist. Com. vol. i VOL. I. Y 15 338 THE HISTORY OF |PAT I. huts.(l) This rude method of building and living continued to be common in considerable towns, both in France and England, as late as the beginning of the sixteenth century. Learning and politeness are supposed to keep pace with each other. But this observation seems to have been made without due attention, to have been formed into a maxim by some dogmatist, and implicitly adopted by succeeding writers; for, if applied to the abstract sciences, it seems equally void of foundation, whether we consider the fact itself, the nature of those sciences, or the manners of the literati in different ages. Politeness arises from the habits of social life, and the intercourse of men and nations ; it is therefore more likely to accompany commerce than learning. But it must be allowed, at the same time, that manners receive their last polish from works of imagi- nation and sentiment ; which soften the mind by pictures of natural and moral beauty, and dispose it to tenderness and social affection. These reflections, my dear Philip, naturally lead u to the most curious and interesting inquiries ; " the revival of letters, and the progress of genius and manners." The method in which you now study history does not per- mit me to treat those subjects so fully as their importance may seem to require : yet shall I take care to omit nothing essential for a gentleman to know, while I studiously avoid every thing that belongs to the mere anti- quary. An attempt to trace, with critical minuteness, through dark and igno- rant ages, the obscure sources of refinement, is like travelling over barren mountains and uninhabited deserts, in search of the remote fountain of the Nile, instead of contemplating the accumulated majesty of that river ; when greatly bountiful its mysterious Avaters shed health and plenty over an ex- tensive kingdom, and furnish the means of an enriching commerce, which feeds and employs millions, and calls forth every power of the mind, and cherishes every virtue of the heart. The first permanent step towards the revival of letters in Europe was the erection of schools under lay preceptors. Alfred and Charlemagne, those early luminaries of the modern world, had shed a temporary lustre over the ages in which they lived. They had encouraged learning both by their ex- ample and patronage, and some gleams of genius began to break forth ; but the promising dawn did not arrive at perfect day. The schools erected by these great monarchs were confined solely to the churches and monasteries, and monks were almost the only instructers of youth. The contracted ideas of such men, partly arising from their mode of life, partly from their reli- gious opinions, made them utterly unfit for the communication of liberal knowledge. Science, in their hands, degenerated into a barbarous jargon, and genius again sunk in the gloom of superstition. A long night of igno- jance succeeded. Learning was considered as dangerous to true piety, and darkness was necessary to hide the usurpations of the clergy, who were then exalting themselves on the ruins of the civil power. The ancient poets and orators were represented as seducers to the path of destruction. Virgil and Aorace were the pimps of hell, Ovid a lecherous fiend, and Cicero a vain de- elaimer, impiously elated with the talent of heathenish reasoning. Aristotle's logic alone was recommended, because it was found capable of involving the simplest arguments, and perplexing the plainest truths. It became the uni- versal science : and Europe for almost three centuries produced no composi- i>n that can afford pleasure to a classical reader. Incredible legends, unedi- ving homilies, and trite expositions of Scripture, were the only labours of the learned during that dark period. But the gloom at last began to disappear, and the sceptre of Knowledge was wrested from the hand of Superstition. Several enlightened persons among the laity, who had studied under the Arabs in Spain, undertook the education of youth about the beginning of the eleventh century, in the chief cities of Italy; and afterward in those of Fiance, England, and Germany. Instruction was communicated in a more rational manner : more numerous and more useful branches of science wero (1) Erasmus. Holingshed. LET. LVI.] MODERN EUROPE. 339 taught; a taste for ancient literature was revived; and some Latin poems were written, before the close of the twelfth century, not unworthy of the latter times of the Roman empire. (1) The human soul during this period seems to have roused itself as from a lethargy. The same enthusiasm, which prompted one set of men to signalize their valour in the Holy Land, inspired another with the ardour of trans- mitting to posterity the gallant actions of the former, and of animating the zeal of those pious warriors, by the fabulous adventures of former Christian heroes. These performances were composed in verse ; and several of them with much elegance, and no small degree of imagination. But many bars were yet in the way of literary refinement. The taste of the age was too rude to relish the beauties of classical composition : the Latin language, in which all science was conveyed, was but imperfectly known to the bulk of readers ; and the scarcity of parchment, together with the expense of transcribing, rendered books so extremely dear, as to be only within the reach of a few. Learning, however, continued to advance, in spite of every ob- struction ; and the invention of paper in the fourteenth century, and of print- ing about the middle of the fifteenth, made knowledge so general within a century after, that Italy began to compare, in arts and in letters, her modern with her ancient state, and to contrast the age of Leo X. with that of the second Caesar. In the mean time, a singular revolution had taken place in the empire of Genius, introduced by one no less singular in the system of manners. Women, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, seem to have been considered merely as objects of sensuality, or of domestic conveniency. They were devoted to a state of seclusion and obscurity, had few attentions offered them, and were permitted to take as little share in the conversation as in the general commerce of life. But the northern nations, who paid a kind of devotion to the softer sex, even in their native forests, had no sooner settled them- selves in the provinces of the Roman empire, than the female character began to assume new consequence. Those fierce barbarians, who seemed to thirst only for blood, who involved in one undistinguished ruin the monu- ments of ancient grandeur and ancient ingenuity, and who devoted to the flames the knowledge of ages, always forebore to offer any violence to the women. They brought along with them the respectful gallantry of the North, which had power to restrain even their savage ferocity ; and they introduced into the West of Europe a generosity of sentiment, and a com- plaisance towards the ladies, to which the most polished nations of antiquity were strangers. These sentiments of generous gallantry were fostered by the institution of chivalry, which lifted women yet higher in the scale of life. Instead of being nobody in society, she became its primum mobile. Every knight devoting himself to danger, declared himself the humble servant to some lady, and that lady was generally the object of his love. Her honour was supposed to be intimately connected with his, and her smile was the reward of his valour : for her he attacked, for her he defended, and for her he shed his blood. Courage, animated by so powerful a motive, lost sight of every thing but enterprise. Incredible toils were cheerfully endured ; incredible actions were performed ; and the boldest inventions of fiction were more than realized. The effect was reciprocal. Women, proud of their influence, became worthy of the heroism they had inspired: they were not to be approached but by the high-minded and the brave ; and men, in those gallant times, eould only hope to be admitted to the bosom of the chaste fair, after having proved their fidelity and affection by years of perseverance and of peril. A similar change took place in the operations of war. The perfect hero of antiquity was superior to fear, but he made use of every artifice to annoy his enemy: impelled by animosity and hostile passion, like the savage in the fl) Warton, Hist, of English Poetry, vol. ii. *a 340 THE HISTORY OF [PART J. American woods, he was only anxious of attaining his end, without regard whether fraud or force were the means. But the true knight, or modern hero of the middle ages, who seemed to have had, in all his rencounters, his eye fixed on the judicial combat, or Judgment of God, had an equal contempt for stratagem and danger. He disdained to take advantage of his enemy: he desired only to see him, and to combat him upon equal terms, trusting that Heaven would interpose in behalf of the just ; and as he professed only to vindicate the cause of religion, of injured beauty, or oppressed innocence, he was further confirmed in this enthusiastic opinion of his own heated ima- gination. Strongly persuaded that the decision must be in his favour, he fought as if under the influence of divine inspiration rather than of military ardour.(l) Thus the system of chivalry, by a singular combination of man ners, blended the heroic and sanctified characters, united devotion and valour, zeal and gallantry, and reconciled the love of God and of the ladies. From these new manners arose a new species of composition ; namely, the romance, or modern heroic fable. It was originally written in verse, and, by giving a new direction to genius, banished for a time that vein of ancient, poetry which had been so successfully revived and cultivated during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Modern poetry, however, lost nothing by this relapse. Had classical taste and judgment been so early established, imagination must have suffered : truth and reason, as an ingenious writer observes, would have chased before their time those visions of illusive fancy which delight to hover on the gloom of superstition, and which form so con- siderable a part of our polite literature. We should still have been strangers to the beautiful extravagancies of romantic fabling. This new species of composition took its rise, in the thirteenth century, among the Troubadours or minstrels of Provence ; and was originally written in the Provenal dialect, then the most polished and universal of any modern tongue. These Troubadours, who seem to have been the lineal successors of the Celtic bards, had followed in crowds to the Holy Land the princes and nobles by whom they were patronised. They had seen the riches and splen- dour of oriental cities, and the pomp of oriental princes ; they had beheld the greatest scene of war that modern times had yet exhibited. They had seen the combined armies of Europe and of Asia encamp in the plains of Palestine ; they had also seen them engage. Their imagination was inflamed by the sumptuous equipages, gorgeous banners, armorial cognizances, and grand pavilions, in which the champions of the cross strove to excel each other ; but still more by the enthusiastic valour of the combatants. They had seen many wonderful things, and heard many marvellous tales ; and they gave to the whole, on their return, the colouring of poetic fancy, heightened by all the exaggerations of Asiatic imagery, and filled with all the extrava- gancies of Asiatic fiction. (2) The ignorance and credulity of the age, the superstitious veneration paid to the heroes of the crusades, the frightful ideas formed of the infidels, and the distance of country, made the wildest conceptions of the poet be received with all the avidity of truth. The romance became the favourite mode of composition; and as every kingdom in Europe had its valorous knights, every kingdom soon had its romances ; and every romance was nearly the same. Whether the scene was laid in ancient or in modern times, in Spain or in Syria, the same set of ideal beings were introduced, the same kind of plot was pursued, and the same manners were painted. A lady miraculously fair and chaste, and a knight more than humanely brave and constant, en- countering monsters, and resisting the allurements of enchantresses, formed the ground-work of all those unnatural compositions. Modern poetry, however, did not long remain in this rude state. The romance, which had its rise in the manners of chivalry, and which rendered 1 I) Mem. sur tAncitnne Chevalerie, par M. de la Curne de St. Palaye. (2) Among these may be numbered dwarfs, giants, dragons, and necromancers; for I am unwilling to eive up to the East, with a certain learned critic the honour of the beautiful invention of fairies. See Warton, Hist. English Poetry,vol i LET. LVL] MODERN EUROPE. 341 ihem still more romantic, fell into disrepute as soon as those manners began to decline. It was succeeded by the allegorical tale; in which the virtues and vices, appetites and passions, took the place of human beings, and were made subservient to the design of the poet. This shadowy production was followed by the Italian epic ; which, like the heroic poem of the Greeks, con- sist of a compound of mortal, immortal, and allegorical personages. . Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso are supposed to have carried if to perfection. Dante, the father of Italian poetry, flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century. His Inferno, though full of extravagancies, is one of the greatest efforts of human genius. No poem, ancient or modern, affords more striking instances of the true sublime, and true pathetic.(l) He was succeeded by Petrarch and Boccacio, who perfected the Italian language. Petrarch is the first modern poet who writes with classical elegance and purity. He appears to have been intimately acquainted with the beauties of the ancients, and to have studied their graces. His Canzoni, or lyric pieces, have often all the ease of Horace, and all the delicacy of Tibullus. In many of them, however, we discover a degree of that puerile conceit or affectation of wit, that perpetual effort to say something brilliant, which seems insepa- rable from Italian poetry; and the Platonic ideas with which all his pas- sionate writings abound, though admired by his countrymen as a decent veil to love, give to his celebrated sonnets to Laura too much the air of hymns to a divinity to interest the human heart. His elegy on the death of that lady, whose story is well known, has been much and deservedly admired. It par- takes of the faults and of the beauties of all his compositions, as will appear from the following lines, translated by Sir William Jones in the true spirit of the original : " Go, plaintive breeze, to Laura's flow'ry bier, , Heave the warm sigh, and shed the tender tear. There to the awful shade due homage pay, And softly thus address the sacred clay: Say, envied earth, that dost those charms infold, Where are those cheeks, and where those locks of gold ! Where are those eyes, which oft the muse has sung? Where those sweet lips, and that enchanting tongue ? Ye radiant tresses, and thou nectar'd smile, Ye looks that might the melting skies beguile, You robb'd my soul of rest, my eyes of sleep, You taught me how to love, and how to weep." Boccacio has great and various merit. He is chiefly known as a prose writer ; and his prose compositions are superior, in purity of diction, to those of any other Italian author. But if his modesty had not led him to commit to the flames his poetical performances, from an apprehension of their infe- riority to those of his master Petrarch, he might possibly have appeared no less considerable as a poet. One piece, which paternal tenderness preserved, (1) Since the first publication of this work, Mr. Hayley has given to the world an Essay on Epic Poetry , a performance, whatever may be its poetical merit, which abounds with much good sense and sound criticism. And I am happy to find my opinion of the higher Italian poets supported by the suffrage of an author, who possesses so large a share of public favour. He thus concludes the character of Dante, after judiciously observing, that he raised to epic pomp his native tongue: " Unequal spirit ! in thy various strain, With all their influence light and darkness reign ; In thy strange verse and wayward theme alike New forms of beauty and disorder strike ; Extremes of harmony and discord dwell, The seraph's music and the demon's yell ! The patient reader, to thy merit just, With transport glows, and shudders with disgust. Thy failings spring from thy disastrous time ; Thy stronger beauties from a soul sublime, Whose vigour burst, like the volcano's flame, From central darkness to the sphere of fame." Essay on Epic Paetry, epist ill 342 THE HISTORY OF [PAHT I. and three more that escaped the general ruin, give reason for this opinion. The favourite piece is entitled the Theseid; and although it confounds, like all the poems of that age, ancient and modern manners, time, and ceremo- nies, it abounds with so many native beauties as to leave criticism only room for admiration. It is of the heroic kind ; and the fable is better constructed, and filled with more interesting incidents, than that of any other Italian poem of the same period. (1) It has been rendered into English, witli altera- tions and additions, by Chaucer, under the name of the Knight's Tale; and, as modernized by Dryden, is perhaps the most animated and truly har- monious piece of versification, of the same extent, in our language. The reputation of Boccacio, however, with the world in general, is chiefly founded on his Decameron ; which is truly an enchanting work. It contains more good tales, of the gay and humorous kind, than had then been pro- duced by all former w'riters, ancient or modern. The most celebrated mo- derns, in that walk, have indeed borrowed from it their best pieces. Chaucer and Fontaine, though they lived at almost three hundred years distance from each other, are equally indebted to the Decameron. Those tales of Boccacio, which may be considered as the most early gleanings of popular anecdote, are the first modern compositions that give us any just idea of the manners of domestic life ; and both the style in which they are related, and the sub- jects which they unfold, prove that civilization was then in an advanced state in Italy. But Italy was not the only country where civilization had made advances. The English court was, in that age, the most splendid in Europe, and one of the most polished. Thither many accomplished foreigners resorted, to behold the grandeur, and to enjoy the bounty, of the third Edward. The spoils of France swelled the pomp of England in his reign ; while a captive king, and his unfortunate nobles, civilized its manners, by accustoming his haughty and insolent barons to the exercise of mutual complaisance. Edward III. him- self, and his illustrious son, the Black Prince, were the examples of all thai was great in arms, or gallant in courtesy. They were the patrons and the mirrors of chivalry. The stately castle of Windsor, built in this illustrious reign, saw the round table of king Arthur restored, and the Order of the Garter instituted; that glorious tribute to gallantry, and sacred badge of honour. Tilts, tournaments, and pageants were constantly exhibited, and with a magnificence formerly unknown. The ladies, who thronged the court of Edward, and crowded to such spec- tacles, arrayed in the richest habits, were the judges in those peaceful, though not always bloodless, combats ; and the victorious knight, in receiving from the hand of beauty the reward of his prowess, became desirous of exciting other passions besides that of admiration. He began to turn his eyes from fancy to the heart. He aspired at an interest in the seat of the affections. Instead of the cold consent of virtue, he sought the warm return of love ; instead of acquiescence, he demanded sensibility. Female pride was roused at such a request : assiduities and attentions were employed to sooth it ; and nature and custom, vanity and feeling, were long at war in the breast of woman. During the course of this sentimental struggle, which had its rise in a more rational mode of thinking, which opened more freedom of inter- course, and terminated in our present familiar manners, the two sexes mu- tually polished each other ; the men acquired more softness and address, the women more knowledge and graces. In a reign of so much heroism and gallantry, the Muses were not likely to sleep. Jeffery Chaucer, the father of English poetry, was the brightest ornament of Edward's court. He added to a lively genius and a learned education, a thorough knowledge of life and manners. He was perfectly a man of the world ; had frequently visited France and Italy, and sometimes (1) " The gay Boccacio tempts tlie Italian Muse, More varied notes and different themes to choose ; Themes which her voice had dared not yet to found, Valour's heroic feats by beauty crown'd." Essay on Epic Poetry, cpisl. iii- LET. LVI.] MODERN EUROPE. 343 under the advantage of a public character. He had studied the Italian and Proven$al poets, was intimately acquainted with both languages, and attempted successfully all the kinds of poetry then in use. His translation of the Theseid of Boccacio 1 have already mentioned. He also translated, and greatly improved, the famous allegorical poem, called the Romance of the Rose, written by William of Lorris and John of Meun, two celebrated French poets of those times : and he composed the Canterbury Tales after the model of the Decameron. They abound with much true humour and pleasantry; and, though chiefly borrowed, entitle their author to a distin- guished rank among the writers of his age. The prologues, in particular, which are wholly his own, contain a vein of moral satire that has not hitherto been exceeded. Chaucer, however, had many disadvantages to struggle with, from which his contemporaries were in a great measure free. Wilfeim the Conqueror had attempted to extirpate the English tongue. The Norman language was ordered to be used in all public writings, and taught in all public schools. It was also the dialect of the court. That badge of slavery was only abolished by Edward III. It had continued almost three hundred years. Chaucer had therefore to create, or at least to form, a new dialect. This circumstance ought always to be attended to in contemplating the writings of our vene- rable bard, as it alone can account for that prodigious disparity observable, after all his diligence, between the progress of English manners and of the English language. Had things continued to proceed in their natural order, Chaucer's style would now have been nearly as intelligible as that of Shakspeare. But this bright dawn of English literature and English refinement was deeply obscured by the civil wars that followed, and which continued, with little interruption, till the accession of Henry VII. During that long period of anarchy, genius went to decay; and the animosities of faction had rendered the manners of the people almost altogether savage. The severity of Henry's temper and government was little calculated to promote either letters or politeness ; and the religious disputes which took place under the reign of his son, were a new bar in the way of civilization. Chaucer had no suc- cessor worthy of himself till the days of Elizabeth. Like circumstances obstructed the progress of literature in France till the reign of Francis I. of whom I shall afterward have occasion to speak, and who is deservedly styled the Father of the French Muses. Chants Royaux, Balades, Rondeaux, and Pastorales had taken place of the Prove^al poetry about the beginning of the fourteenth century ; but Froissart, who cultivated with success this New Poetry, as it was called, cannot be considered as equal to William of Lorris or John of Meun. The Romance of the Rose was still the finest French poem. Genius, in the mean time, continued to advance, with giant strides, in Italy. A succession of great poets followed Dante in the highest walk of the Muse : at length appeared Ariosto and Tasso, the glory of the sixteenth century, and whose celebrated works are supposed to contain all that is excellent in poetry. The Orlando of Ariosto is a wonderful production. It is formed upon the Gothic plan, if it can be said to have any, and consequently is wild and extravagant ; but it abounds with so many and such various beauties, that, whether considered as a whole or in parts, it commands our fondest admira- tion.(l) The Jerusalem of Tasso is a more classical performance.' It is (1) " High in mid air, between the moon and earth, The bard of pathos now, and now of mirth, Pois'd with his lyre between a griffin's wings, Her sportive darling, Ariosto, sings. As the light clouds, whose varying vapours fly, Driven by the zephyr of the evening sky, Fixes and charms the never-wearied view, By taking every shape and every hue; Bo, by Variety's supreme control, His changeful numbers seize the willing soul." Hayley, Essay on Epic Poetry, epiat 111 344 THE HISTORY OF [PART I constructed after the Grecian model ; and adds to an interesting and happily conducted fable, a number of striking and well drawn characters, all ope- rating to one end, together with a profusion of beautiful machinery, affecting situations, sublime images, and bold descriptions^ 1) Voltaire prefers the first to the Odyssey, and the second to the Iliad of Homer ; but you, I hope, have a juster taste of solid elegance, and of what is truly great in nature and in poetry, than to be swayed by such an opinion. The progress of genius in Italy, however, during this period, was not con- fined to poetry, and still less to one species of it. Petrarch and Boccacio had their successors, as well as Dante. The dramatic talent began to disclose itself. Theatrical representation was revived. Both tragedy and comedy had been attempted with success before the middle of the sixteenth century; but that musical drama, which has long been so universal in Italy, and which in excluding too oftea nature and probability has enlarged the bounds of har- mony, was yet in its infancy. Music is one of the first sciences that is cultivated, and the last that is per- fected in any country. The rude tale of the bard is accompanied with wild notes of his voice and harp, in order to atone for his want of ideas, and to engage attention ; but as fable becomes more extensive and rich, the legendary poet disdains to court the ear with any thing but the harmony of his numbers. He relies for interest solely on the powers of imagination and sentiment ; and these, without any adventitious aid, produce their effect upon a people civilized, but not corrupted. The dramatic writer, in like manner, obtains his end, for a time, by the happy disposition of plot, the force of dialogue, and the strength and variety of his characters. But in proportion as mankind become more refined they become more effeminate, and the luxury of har- mony is found necessary to give to theatrical representation its proper influ- ence. Then, and not till then, does the musical science attain perfection ; and then poetry begins to decline. Every thing is sung ; every thing is com- posed to be warbled through the eunuch's throat, and sense is sacrificed to sound. A similar observation may be extended to history. The deeds of the hero are the first objects of human curiosity ; yet mankind in almost every country, have ceased to act with dignity before their actions have been properly recorded. Truth appears cold and insipid to a people inclined to wonder, and wonder is the predominant passion of all uncivilized nations. Fiction is called in to gratify it ; and fable is for a time received as history. But when men come to be more employed about political objects, they become more desirous of being informed than amazed : they wish to know the real actions of their ancestors, and the causes and the consequences of such actions. The historian takes advantage of this disposition of mind to procure admission to his labours ; but as it is more difficult to ascertain facts than to assume them, and easier to assign motives of action, and deduce incidents ingeniously from them, than to trace the motives of men in their actions, and give to truth such a degree of colouring as will make it interest, without rendering its validity suspected, history has every where been later in attaining perfection than the highest works of imagination. Italy had at last her historians, and excellent ones. Machiavel successfully courted the comic muse, unfolded the principles of a dark and pernicious policy, and digested the annals of his native country with all the discernment of Tacitus ; while Guicciardini, a more amiable writer, related the transac- tions of his own times with the elegance and exactness of Thucydides. 1) After having characterized Ariosto, Mr. Hayley proceeds thus, in perfect conformity with the text " Of chaster fire a rival name succeeds, Whose hold and glowing hand religion leads; In solemn accent and in sacred state, With classic lore and Christian zeal elate, Sweetly pathetic and sublimely strong, Tasso begins his more majestic song ; The Muse of Sion, not implor'd in vain, Guides to th' impassion'd soul his heavenly strain." Hayley, Essay on Epic Poetry, epirt. U. LET. LVIL] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 346 Philosophy was only wanting, in the sixteenth century, to bring Itaty within the line of comparison with ancient Greece, when Greece was in hex glory. A number of independent and free states vied with each other in all the ele- gant and commercial arts ; in wealth and in luxury, in manners and in talents, in pomp and in power. Proud of her privileges, and of her liberal acquisi- tions, she looked down with contempt upon every other country, and branded every other people with the name of Barbarians. Two great monarchs, like those of Persia and Macedon, were contending who should be her master. She wanted only the lights of philosophy to render the parallel complete. Bewildered in the mazes of scholastic reasoning, or lost in the dreams of perverted Platonism, her sages were still alike ignorant of the system of man and of the universe. And before they could know either, it was necessary that the veil of superstition should be rent; that mankind, beholding the ouppet to which they had kneeled, and by which they .had been overawed, might fearlessly look through the range of nature, and contemplate its phy- sical and moral order. LETTER LVIL The Progress of Navigation, and particularly among the Portuguese. A short Introduction to the History of Portugal. The Discoveries and Settlements of the Portuguese on the Coast of Africa, and in the East Indies, by the Cape of Good Hope. The Discovery oj America by the Spaniards; the Settlement of the West Indies, and the Conquest of Mexico and Peru, together with some Reflections on the moral and political Consequences of those great Events. FROM the arts that polish nations, my dear Philip, let us turn our eyes more particularly towards those that aggrandize them ; which supply the wants of one people with the superfluities of another, and make all things common to all. Such are navigation and commerce. By these, and the arts to which they gave birth, the Phrenicians and Carthagenians crowded with cities their barren shores, and attained the first rank among ancient nations ; by these, in latter times, the Venetians and Dutch, struggling from dirt and sea-weed, crowned with palaces their lakes and marshes, and became, in different eras, the most opulent and powerful people in modern Europe ; by these Britain now governs the ocean, and gives law to the opposite extremities of the globe, at the same time that she wafts from pole to pole the luxuries and conve- niences of life.(l) The navigation of Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century, though much improved since the age of Charlemagne, was chiefly confined to the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, and was still little more than what is now called coasting. Flanders was the great theatre of commerce. Thither, as I have already had occasion to observe, the Italian states conveyed, from the ports of Egypt, the precious commodities of the East : and thither the Han- seatic merchants carried from the shores of the Baltic the naval stores and other rude merchandise of the North. To this common mart all European nations resorted. Here they sold or exchanged the produce of their several countries, and supplied themselves with what they wanted, without dreaming of new ports, or suspecting that the system of commerce could be altered. Dantzic, Lisbon, and Alexandria continued to mark the limits of practical navigation when the enlightened and enterprising genius of Don Henry of Portugal extended the views of the mariner, and emboldened him to pilot the Atlantic or Great Western Ocean. But before I speak of that prince, and the discoveries which he accomplished, I must say a few words of his country, which I have hitherto considered only as an appendage of Spain. Portugal, which forms the western coast of the southern peninsula of Europe, (1) This letter was written before the revolt of our American colonies. 346 THE HISTORY OF [PART I had no existence as a separate state till towards the close of the eleventh century. About that time Alphonso VI. king- of Castile and Leon, having conquered from the Moors the northern provinces of the present kingdom of Portugal, bestowed them, together with his natural daughter, upon Henry of Burgundy, a noble volunteer, who had assisted him in his wars. Henry took only the title of count ; but his son Alphonso, having- recovered other pro- vinces from the Moors, assumed the regal dignity in 1139. The kings of Portugal, like those of Spain, long spent their force in combating the Moors, and had no connexion with the rest of Europe. A detail of those barbarous wars would be equally void of instruction and amusement. I shall therefore only observe, that the succession continued uninterrupted in the line of Bur- gundy till the death of Ferdinand, in 1383 ; when John of Castile, who had married the infanta of Portugal, claimed the crown, as the king had left no male issue. But the states of Portugal, after an interregnum of eighteen months, gave it to John, natural brother of their deceased sovereign, and at that time regent of the kingdom. (1) This John, surnamed the Bastard, no less politic than enterprising, proved worthy of his new dignity. He was the first European prince who formed a respectable navy ; which he employed, with equal success, in annoying his enemies and in protecting his subjects. He took Ceuta from the Moors, and overawed the states of Barbary during his whole reign. He had several sons, who all signalized themselves by their valour and abilities ; but more especially the third, Don Henry, whose bold and enlightened genius, assisted by the reports of travellers, led him to project discoveries in the Western Ocean. This amiable prince who joined the virtues of a hero and a patriot to the knowledge of a philosopher, turned to use that astronomy which the Arabs had preserved. He had a considerable share in the invention of the astro- labe, and first perceived the advantage that might be derived from the direc- tion of the magnetic needle to the North ; which, though already known in Europe, had not hitherto been employed with any success in navigation. He established an observatory at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, where many persons were instructed in astronomy and the art of sailing. The pilots formed under his eye, not only doubled Cape Non, long supposed an insur- mountable barrier, but advanced as far as Cape Bajadore, and in their return discovered the island of Madeira. Other pilots, yet more bold, Avere sent out. They doubled Cape Bajadore, Cape Blanco, Cape Verd, and at last Cape Sierra Leona, within eight degrees of the line, before the death of Don Henry. In the course of these voyages, the Azores, and Cape de Verd islands had been discovered, and the vine and the sugar-cane introduced into the island of Madeira, and there cultivated with success. Under the reign of John II., a prince of the most profound sagacity and most extensive views, who first made Lisbon a free port, the Portuguese prosecuted their discoveries with equal ardour and success. The river Zara, on the other side of the line, conducted them to the kingdom of Congo, in the interior part of Africa, where they made easy conquests, and established an advantageous commerce. Captain Diaz passed the extreme point of Africa, to which he gave the name of the Stormy Cape ; but the kinj, who saw more fully the importance of that discovery, styled it the Cape of Good Hope. Emmanuel I. pursued the great projects of his predecessors. He sent out a fleet of four ships, under the command of Vasco de Gama, a noble Portu- guese, in order to complete the passage to India by sea. This admiral pos- sessed all the knowledge and talents necessary for such an expedition. After being assailed by tempests, encircling the eastern coast of Africa, and ranging through unknown seas, he happily arrived at the city of Calicut on the coast of Malabar, or the higher part of the western side of the great peninsula of India, fa) 'D NeusvUIe, Hitt. Oen. de Portugal. (2) Hilt. Ge*. des Voyages, torn. L LET LVII.] MODERN EUROPE. 347 Calicut was at that time the emporium of Indostan. Thither the Arabs resorted for all the rich products and precious manufactures of the East. These they carried in ships to the ports of the Red Sea, and sold to the Ita- lian merchants from Alexandria. This information Gama received at Melinda, on the coast of Zanquebar, the most eastern part of Africa, where he had touched ; and engaged a pilot, who conducted him into the harbour of Calicut, when the trade was at its height. Here he fortunately met with a native of Barbary, named Monzaida, who understood the Portuguese language, and whose admiration of that people overbalanced the prejudices of religion and country. This admiration determined Monzaida to do every thing in his power to serve strangers who unbosomed themselves to him without reserve. He procured Gama an audience of the Samorin or emperor, who received him very favourably; and a treaty of commerce was set on foot in the name of the king of Portugal. But this negotiation, when almost completed, was broken off by the insinuations of the Arabs. Jealous of their lucrative trade, they represented so strongly the danger of such an alliance, and the ambition of the Portuguese, that Samorin took the ungenerous resolution of putting to death those bold navigators, whom he had lately treated with kind- ness, and whose friendship he seemed to desire. Informed of his danger by the faithful Monzaida, Gama sent his brother on board the fleet. " Should you hear," said he, " of my death or imprisonment, I prohibit you, as your commander, either to attempt to release me or to avenge my fate. Set sail immediately and inform the king of the success of our voyage. I am happy in having performed his orders, and discovered a passage to India for Portugal. "(1) Fortunately, however, matters were not pushed to that extremity. Gama lived to carry to Portugal the news of his own success. The Samorin per- mitted him to join his fleet, he departed soon after for Europe. No language can express the joy of the Portuguese on the return of Gama to Lisbon. They saw themselves, by one daring enterprise, in possession of the richest commerce in the world; and no less superstitious than avaricious, they flattered themselves with the project of extending their religion along with their dominion. The pope further encouraged this hope. Glad of an occasion of asserting his universal sovereignty, he granted to the Portuguese all the countries which they had discovered, or should discover, in the East, on condition that they should there plant the Catholic faith. The whole nation was seized with the enthusiasm of conversion and of conquest. They presented themselves in crowds to man the new fleet destined for India ; and thirteen ships sailed, as soon as the season would permit, from the Tagus to Calicut, under the command of Alvarez de Cabral. This admiral in his passage keeping out to sea, in order to avoid the calms on the coast of Africa, and the storms which had been met with in doubling the Cape of Good Hope, discovered the rich country now called Brazil, to which he gave the name of the Land of the Holy Cross. He took possession of it in the name of the king his master, and proceeded on his voyage. When he arrived at the coast of Malabar, the Samorin made him an offer of friendship, and invited him to Calicut, where he had an audience of that Indian prince, and was permitted to open a magazine of commerce. But this good understanding was of short duration. The Arabs again found means to poison the mind of the Samorin : the admiral did not behave with the greatest discretion: mutual jealousies took place, mutual fears, and mutual injuries. At last the inhabitants of Calicut rose, murdered fifty Portuguese, and burnt their magazine. This act of hostility did not escape unpunished. Cabral, in revenge of such a breach of faith, and such undermining perfidy, destroyed all the Arabian vessels in the port, beat down great part of the city, and left it in flames. (2) After this second rupture with the Samorin the measures of the Portuguese (1) Fariay Sousa, Port. j9sia, vol. i. (2) Massed, Hist. Indica, lib. ii.cap.lv S48 THE HISTORY OF [PART I in India were totally changed. The peaceful system of Gama was laid aside : the maxims of mutual advantage gave place to those of violence, ol force, and of fear; and commerce was established by the sword. Cabral, on leaving Calicut, entered into a negotiation with the kings of Cochin, Cananor, Onor, Culan, and other Indian princes, who were tributaries of the Samorin, and desirous of independency. This love of freedom procured the Portuguese the sovereignty of Malabar, and the trade of India. Cabral pro- mised those deluded princes support, and carried their ambassadors to the court of Lisbon, where such political steps were taken as rendered success infallible. A force was sent out sufficient to combat the Samorin. But no prince could obtain the protection of Portugal without first acknowledging himself its vassal, permitting a fortress to be erected in his capital, and sell- ing his commodities to its subjects at their own price. No strange merchant might load a cargo, till the Portuguese were served ; nor any mariner ravage those seas, but with their passports. They were the terror and admiration of the East, the wonder and envy of the West. All European merchants soon resorted to Lisbon for Indian commodities ; because they could there purchase them much cheaper than at Venice, or any other mart to which they were brought by the way of Egypt. And, happily for Portugal, the Vene- tians were then sinking under the pressure of the league of Cambray. In order to secure and render perpetual these invaluable advantages, the chief command in India was given to Alphonso Albuquerque, a man of sin- gular sagacity and penetration, and equally distinguished by his military and political talents. Albuquerque was no sooner invested with the government, than he began to form the most extensive projects ; many of which he exe- cuted, and with a facility that is altogether incredible. The Arabs settled in India, and their associates, he had long been sensible, were the only power in the East that the Portuguese had to fear. These traders had secretly entered into a league with the Samorin, the sultan of Egypt, and the Vene- tians, who were gainers by their commerce, and whose interest it was to destroy the trade of Portugal. The furnishers of the caravans, and naviga- tors of the Red Sea, were the natural enemies of the circumnavigators of the Cape. Albuquerque saw it early, while a private commander. He had therefore done every thing in his power to ruin their settlements on the coast of Arabia, and their united naval force had received a signal overthrow in the Indian Ocean. He now extended his views : he projected nothing less than the conquest of Ormus in the Persian Gulf, and of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea; where Portuguese squadrons stationed might command the trade of Persia and of Egypt. The immediate execution of these projects would at once have proved fatal to the commerce of the Arabs and their allies ; but Albuquerque, upon mature deliberation, perceived the necessity of establishing the Portuguese more fully on the coast of Malabar, before he divided his forces. He accordingly burnt Calicut, which had long been a thorn in the side of his countrymen ; and observing that the Portuguese had yet no good port in a wholesome air, where they might refit their ships and recruit their seamen, after the fatigues of the European voyage, he resolved to procure one. He found that Lisbon had need of Goa. Goa, which rises to view in the form of an amphitheatre, is situated towards the middle of the coast of Malabar, in an island detached from the continent by two branches of a river that throws itself into the sea at some distance from the city, after having formed beneath its walls one of the finest harbours in the world. It properly belonged to the king of Decan ; but a Moor, named Idalcan, to whom the government of it had been intrusted, had rendered him- self its sovereign. While this usurper was occupied on the continent, Albu- querque appeared before the city, and carried it by assault.(l) It was after- ward recovered, but soon retaken : and Goa became the capital of the Por- tuguese empire in India. (J) Lafitau. Hist, du Cony, dcs Port Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn. I. LET. LVII.] MODERN EUROPE. 349 Albuquerque, whose ambition was boundless, attempted next to establish the Portuguese on the coast of Coromandel. With this view he made an attack upon Malacca, situated near the straits of Sincapore, one of the richest cities in India, and the best adapted for commerce. It was the centre of the trade between Japan, China, the Spice islands, and the other Indian ports. When Albuquerque appeared before Malacca, he found it in a posture of defence : and a new obstacle conspired to retard his progress. His friend Araujo was there a prisoner, and threatened with death the moment the city should be besieged. Deliberating how to act, while the sen- timents of friendship and ambition, perhaps of duty, struggled in his breast, he received the following billet from Araujo : " Think only of the glory and advantage of Portugal : if I cannot be an instrument of your victory, let me not retard it." The place was carried by storm, after an obstinate defence, and several changes of fortune. The Portuguese found in it an immense booty, both in treasure and precious commodities. (1) Albuquerque, whose heart was superior to the charms of gold, erected a citadel to secure his conquest, and returned to Goa. The friendship of the Portuguese was now courted by the Samorin, Idalcan, and all the most formidable Indian princes, who offered to permit fortresses to be built, and factories to be established in any part of their dominions. Albuquerque did not fail to profit by these offers ; and judging that the season was now arrived for giving the final blow to the Arabian commerce in the East, he embarked in his original projects, the conquests of Aden and Ormus. In his attempt upon Aden, which was then the key of Egypt, Albuquerque miscarried : but he committed so many ravages on the coasts of the Red Sea, and in the straits of Babelmandel, as entirely ruined the commerce of the Arabs and Egyptians. He was more successful in his expedition against Ormus, at that time the most opulent and splendid city in the East. It appears to have been nothing inferior to what we are told of ancient Tyre either in wealth or in splendour, in industry or in pleasure : and, like Tyre, if was seated in a barren isle. Like Tyre, it seemed only to have been dis- joined from the land, that it might become queen of the sea. It was one ot the greatest marts in the universe. But its voluptuous inhabitants were little able to withstand the impetuous and hardy valour of the Portuguese. Albu- querque soon made himself master of the place, and had the honour of there receiving an embassy from the king of Persia. (2) The reduction of Ormus, which was the last enterprise of this truly great man, together with the possession of Goa and Malacca, gave perfect secu- rity to "the Portuguese commerce in India. His successors afterward extended it into China and Japan; but it was never more respectable than under Albuquerque. Yet this founder of his country's greatness died in disgrace, and of a broken heart, if ever any man may be said to have done so. That dauntless spirit which had encountered so many enemies, and sur- mounted so many dangers, could not support the frown of his prince. Em- manuel, become jealous of his glory, had listened to the insinuations of his enemies ; had appointed another governor in his stead ; and promoted those whom he sent home as criminals. When Albuquerque received this intelli- gence, he sighed and said, " Can these things be so? I incurred the hatred of men by my love for the king, arid am disgraced by him through his pre- possession for other men : to the grave, unhappy old man ! to the grave ! thy actions will speak for themselves and for thee."(3) While the Portuguese, my dear Philip, were thus employed in making acquisitions in the East, and appropriating to themselves the most lucrative commerce in the known world, the Spaniards had discovered a new continent towards the West. They had called into existence, as it were, another world ; (1) Lafitau. Hist, du Cong, des Port. Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn. i. (2) Guyon. Hist, des Ind. Orient, torn. i. Hist. Gen. des royaget, torn. I (3) Hist. Gen. des Voyages, torn. i. 350 THE HISTORY OF [PART I had opened new sources of trade; expanded new theatres of dominion; and displayed new scenes of ambition, of avarice, and of blood. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, who resided at Lisbon, and who had devoted himself to the study of astronomy, first conceived the idea of this new continent. Perfectly acquainted with the figure of the earth, the notion of the antipodes, considered by reason as a chimera, and by reli- gion as impiety, appeared to him an incontestable fact. But if Columbus had not added the stout heart of a hero to the enlightened mind and perse- vering spirit of a philosopher, the world might still have been ignorant of his discoveries. The Genoese, his countrymen, whom he proposed to put in possession of another hemisphere, treated him as a visionary. He also un- folded his project, the grandest that human genius ever formed, in 1484, to the court of Portugal, without success. He next laid it before the court of Spain ; where he long suffered all that supercilious neglect which unsupported merit so often meets with from men in office, who are too apt to despise what they do not understand. Ferdinand and Isabella were then engaged in the conquest of Granada. The Spanish treasury was exhausted. But no sooner were the Moors sub- dued, than the ambitious mind of Isabella seemed to sympathize with the bold spirit of Columbus. She offered to pledge her jewels, in order to furnish him with a fleet. Three small vessels were fitted out by other means ; and Co- lumbus set sail from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, on the third of August, in the year 1492, in quest of a Western continent, with the title of Admiral and Viceroy of the Isles and Lands which he should discover.(l) Transcendant genius and superlative courage experience almost equal difficulty in carrying their designs into execution, when they depend on the assistance of others. Columbus possessed both he exerted both ; and the concurrence of other heads and other hearts were necessary to give success to either ; he had indolence and cowardice to encounter, as well as ignorance and prejudice. He had formerly been ridiculed as a visionary, he was now pitied as a desperado. The Portuguese navigators, in accomplishing their first discoveries, had always some reference to the coast : cape had pointed them to cape ; but Columbus, with no land-mark but the heavens, nor any guide but the compass, boldly launched into the ocean, without knowing what shore should receive him, or where he could find rest for the sole of his foot. His crew murmured they mutinied : they proposed to commit him to those waves with which he so wantonly sported, and return to Spain. (2) This was a severe trial to the courage of Columbus, and Columbus only, perhaps, could have supported it. The enthusiasm of genius added strength to his natural fortitude. Cool and unconcerned himself about every thing but his great object, he had recourse to the softest language. He encouraged his men by fair promises, he deceived his officers by false reckonings. But all these expedients proving at last ineffectual, he demanded three days in- dulgence ; at the end of which, if he did not discover land, he promised to abandon his project. His request was granted ; and on the morning of the second day, being the twelfth of October, to his inexpressible joy, he got sight of one of the Bahama islands, to which he gave the name of San .Salvador. He took possession of it in the name of their Catholic majesties and pro- ceeded on his course. (3) After leaving San Salvador, now better known by the name of Guanahani, given to it by the natives, Columbus fell in with several other small islands, to one of which he gave the name of Isabella, in honour of his patroness, and to another that of Ferdinand, in compliment to the Catholic king. These he rightly judged to belong to that Western continent which he sought, and which he conjectured must reach to the Portuguese settlements in India: hence the name of West Indies. At length he arrived at the island of Cuba, where he entered into some correspondence with the natives, and particularly (1) Life of Columbus, written by Ins son, cnap. xv. (2) Ovicdo. Hist des Ind. Xk iii. (3) Life of Columbus, chap, xxiii. LET. LVIL] MODERN EUROPE. 351 with the women, from whom he learned, that the gold ornaments which they wore came from Bohio, a large island to the south-east. Thither Columbus steered : what heart does not pant after gold 1 he soon reached Bohio, 01 Hayti, as it was called by the natives, to which he gave the name of Espag- nola, altered by us into Hispaniola. Here Columbus built a fort, and planted a little colony ; after which, having taken a general survey of the island, and settled a friendly intercourse with the natives, he set out on his return t Spain, carrying along with him a sufficient quantity of gold to evince the im portance of his discoveries, and some of those new people to complete the astonishment of Europe. The natives of Hispaniola, and indeed of all the islands which Columbus had visited, were an easy, indolent, harmless race. They were of a coppei colour. The men and the girls were entirely naked : the women had a mat of cotten wrapped about their loins. They had no hair on any part of theii body but the head; a distinction which also is common to the natives of the American continent. They considered the Spaniards as divinities, and the dis- charge of the artillery as their thunder : they fell on their faces at the sound. The women, however, seem very early to have had less awful apprehensions of their new guests : for they no sooner saw them than they offered their favours, and courted their embraces as men.(l) Some wicked wit may indeed say, that women from the beginning may have been fond of superior beings and if we credit ancient story, they have often good reason for such fondness. But be that as it may, it is certain that the women of Hispaniola were fonder of the Spaniards than of their husbands. Their husbands were not jealous of them. And in the arms of those wantons the companions of Columbus are said to have caught that fatal malady which has strewed with new thorns the paths of love ; and which, if human happiness is to be computed by the oalance of pain and pleasure, will be found to be more than a counterpoise to all the gold of Mexico, the silver of Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil. But let not this misfortune be brought as a charge against the great navi- gator. He could not know that the new hemisphere contained new maladies ; he could not foresee, that he should import into Europe a distemper that would poison the springs of life ; which would propagate disease from gene- ration to generation, emasculate the vigour of nations, and multiply a thou- sand ways the miseries of mankind '.And, happily for him, his enemies were ignorant of it at his return. He again entered the port of Palos, on the fifteenth of March, 1493, after a voyage of seven months and eleven days, and was received with universal acclamations of joy. Those who had ridi- culed his project, were the readiest to pay court to him. He was ordered into the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella, and desired to sit covered like a grandee of Spain. Royal favour beamed upon him with unremitting bright- ness, and the church loaded him with its benedictions. Superstition lent its sanction to those discoveries which had been made in its defiance. Pope Alexander VI. issued a bull, granting to the sovereigns of Spam all the coun- tries which they had discovered, or should discover a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores. A fleet of seventeen sail was fitted out m a few months ; and Columbus, vested with yet more extensive powers, and furnished with every thing necessary for discovery, for colonization, or for conquest again committed himself to the waves in quest of a Western Contment.(2) Great things were expected from this second voyage; and many new islands were discovered ; yet it ended in general disappointment, misfortune, and disgust. When Columbus arrived at Hispaniola, with a multitude of missionaries, soldiers, and settlers, he found the fortresses utterly ruined, and the garrison all massacred. They had drawn upon themselves this un- timely fate by their arrogance, licentiousness, and tyranny. These particu- lars he learned from the natives, accompanied with such marking circum- stances, as left him no room to disbelieve them. He therefore entered once more into friendly correspondence with those artless people, established a new (1) Herrera, dec. i. (2) W f Columbus, chap, xlii xliii. S52 THE HISTORY OF [PART L colony, and built the town of Isabella afterward abandoned for that of St. Domingo, which became the capital of the island. His next care was to dis- cover the mines ; near which he erected forts, and left garrisons to protect the labourers. But neither the wisdom nor humanity of this great man were sufficient to preserve order among his followers, or to teach them fellow- feeling. They roused anew, by their barbarities, the gentle spirit of the natives ; they quarrelled among themselves ; they rose against their com- mander. Mortified by so many untoward circumstances, Columbus committed the government of the island to his brother Bartholomew, and returned to Spain in 1496, with some samples of gold dust and gold ore, pearls, and other precious products, after having a second time attempted in vain to discover a Western Continent. (1) Bartholomew Columbus suffered many hardships, and was on the point of sinking under the mutineers, before he received any assistance from the court of Spain ; and although the great Christopher was able to clear himself of all the aspersions of his enemies, some years elapsed before he could obtain a third appointment for the prosecution of his favourite project. At last a small fleet was granted him, and he discovered the continent of America, near the mouth of the river Orinoco, on the first day of August, in the year 1498. He carried off six of the natives, and returned to Hispaniola, con- vinced that he had now reached the great object of his ambition. But while Columbus* was employed in reducing to obedience the mutineers in that island, another navigator unjustly took from him the honour of the discovery of the Western Continent. The merchants of Seville having ob- tained permission to attempt discoveries, as private adventurers, sent out four ships in 1499, under the command of Alonzo de Ojeda, who had accom- panied Columbus in his second voyage, assisted by Americus Vespucius, a Florentine gentleman deeply skilled in the science of navigation. This fleet touched on the part of the Western Continent already discovered by Columbus whose tract Ojeda followed ; and Americus, who was a man of much address, as well as possessed of considerable literary talents, by publishing the first voyages on the subject, and other artful means, gave his name to the New World, in prejudice to the illustrious Genoese. (2) Mankind are now become sensible of the imposture, but time has sanctified the error ; and the great Western Continent, or fourth division of the globe, so long unknown to the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and Africa, still continues to be distinguished by the name of AMERICA. This, however, was but a small misfortune in comparison of what Columbus was doomed to suffer. His enemies having prevailed at the court of Madrid, a new governor was sent out to Hispaniola. The great discoverer and his brother were loaded with irons, and sent home in that condition, in different ships. Touched with sentiments of veneration and pity, Vallejo, captain of the vessels on board of which the admiral was confined, approached his pri- soner with profound respect, as soon as he was clear of the island, and offered to strike off the fetters with which he was unjustly bound. " No, Vallejo !" replied Columbus, with a ge'nerous indignation, " I wear these fetters in con- sequence of an order from my sovereigns. They shall find me as obedient to this, as to all their other injunctions. By their command I have been confined, and their command alone shall set me at liberty."(3) The Spanish ministry were ashamed of the severity of their creature, Bovadilla: Columbus was set at liberty on his arrival, and a fourth command granted him in 1502, for the prosecution of farther discoveries. But this expedition did not prove more fortunate than the former; for although Colum- bus touched at several parts of the American continent, where he exchanged trinkets for gold and pearls, to a considerable amount, he failed in an attempt to establish a colony on the river Yebra or Belem, in the province of Veragua, and lost every thing in his course home. He was shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica : his followers mutinied ; and, after being alternately in danger of (1) Herrera, dec. i. lib. iii. (2) Herrera, dec. i. lib. tv 13) Life of Celumbui, chap, xxxiii. LET. LVIL] MODERN EUROPE. 353 perishing by hunger, or by violence, he arrived in Spain in 1505, to experience a more severe fate than either.(l) Queen Isabella was dead at his return. With her all his hopes of future favour perished. The court received him coldly. His services were too great for humility : his proud heart disdained to sue, and his aspiring spirit could not submit to neglect. He retired to Valadolid, where he was suffered to fall a martyr to the ingratitude of that monarch, to whom he had given the West Indies, and for whom he had opened a passage into a richer and more extensive empire than was ever subdued by the Roman arms. He died with firmness and composure on the 20th of May. 1506, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. (2) There is something in true genius which seems to be essentially connected with humanity. Don Henry, Gama, and Columbus prosecuted their disco- veries upon the most liberal principles, those of mutual advantage ; they sought to benefit, not to destroy, their species. After the death of Columbus, the maxims of Spain, like those of Portugal, became altogether bloody. Religion, avarice, and violence walked hand in hand. The cross was held up as an object of worship to those who had never heard of the name of Jesus : and millions were deliberately butchered, for not embracing tenets which they could not understand, not delivering treasures which they did not possess, or not suffering oppressions which man was never born to bear, and which his nature cannot sustain. (3) The leader who pursued these new maxims with least violence to huma- nity, and most advantage to his country, was Fernando Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico. Before the discovery of that rich and powerful empire, the Spa- nish colonies of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico were in a flou- rish ing condition : frequent expeditions had been made to the continent, tne settlements established in Castello del Oro and the isthmus of Darien. At last a descent was made in the gulf of Mexico, and information received of the opulence and grandeur of the emperor Montezuma and his capital. Velasquez, governor of Cuba, to whom this intelligence was communicated, immediately resolved upon the conquest of Mexico, and committed to Cortez, an officer hitherto more distinguished by his merit than his rank, the execu- tion of the enterprise : and that gallant soldier accomplished, what appears too bold even for fiction, the overthrow of an empire that could send millions tnto the field, with so small a force as five hundred men.(4) A success so unexampled, in an unknown country, must have been accom- panied with many favourable circumstances, independent of the ability of the general, the courage of the troops, and even the superiority of weapons. Some of these we know. When Cortez landed with his little army on the coast of Mexico, he met with a Spanish captive, who understood the dialect of tne country, and whose ransom he obtained. He also formed an intimacy with a fair American named Marina, who soon learned the Castilian language, and became both his mistress and his counsellor. Her attachment commu- nicated itself to all the Mexican women, who were generally neglected by their husbands for the most abominable of all debaucheries; that which per- verts the animal instinct, confounds the distinction of sex, and defeats the leading purpose of nature. While the men opposed their naked breasts to the weapons of the Spaniards, fell by their blows, 'or fled from their fury, the women every where flew to their embrace, rioted in their arms, and ren- dered them all the services in their power. To these fortunate occurrences may be added, the- arrival of the ambassa- dors of Montezuma, who endeavoured, by presents, to engage the invaders to :e-embark. The delay which this negotiation produced was of infinite service 10 Cortez. An army, instead of an embassy, on his first landing, might have uined him. He replied, by his female interpreter, who best understood the Wxican tongue, that he was only an ambassador himself, and, as such, could (1) Lift of Columbus, chap, buutix. xc. xci. (2) Ibid. cbap. cviii. Herrera, dec. i. lib. vi 3) Relation de Destrvya de las Indias. oar Bart, de Ias_Casa. i4> De Soils, lib. ii. Herrera, dec. iU Vot J Z 354 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. not depart without an audience of the emperor. This answer put the ambas- sadors of Montezuma to a stand. They reported U to the emperor. He was alarmed at the request. They redoubled their presents : they employed persuasions, but to no purpose. Cortez was inflexible. At last they had recourse to threats, according to their instructions, and talked loudly of the forces and treasures of their country. " These," said Cortez, turning to his companions, " these are what we seek ; great perils, and great riches." Stronger motives could not have been offered to needy adventurers, burning with the spirit of chivalry and the lust of plunder. Their leader saw con- quest in their looks ; and having now received the necessary informations, and prepared himself against all hazards, he boldly inarched towards the seat of the empire.(l) The Spanish general, however, though so little diffident of his own strength, prudently negotiated with such princes and states as he found to be ene- mies of the Mexicans. Among these the most powerful was the republic of Tlascala. Cortez proposed an alliance to the senate. It divided upon the subject : but at last came to a resolution, not only to deny assistance to the Spaniards, but to oppose them. This resolution had almost proved fatal to Cortez and his enterprise. The Tlascalans were a brave people, and brought a formidable army into the field ; but by the help of firearms, artillery, and cavalry, to these republicans above all things tremendous, the Spaniards, after repeated struggles, were enabled to humble them. They saw their mistake, entered into a treaty with Cortez, and were highly serviceable in his future operations. The invaders now advanced without interruption to the gates of Mexico. Montezuma was all irresolution and terror. That mighty emperor, whose treasures were immense, and whose sway was absolute ; who was lord ovei thirty princes, each of whom could bring a numerous army into the field, was so intimidated by the defeat of the Tlascalans, that he wanted resolu* tion to strike a blow in defence of his dignity. The haughty potentate, who had ordered Cortez to depart his coast, introduced him into his capital. In- stead of making use of force he had recourse to perfidy. While he professed friendship to the Spanish general, he sent an army to attack the Spanish colony, newly settled at Vera Cruz, and yet in a feeble condition. Cortez received intelligence of this breach of faith, and took one of the boldest resolutions ever formed by man. He immediately proceeded to the impe- rial palace, accompanied by five of his principal officers ; and arrested Mon- tezuma as his prisoner ; carried him off to the Spanish quarters ; made him deliver to punishment the officer who had acted by his orders, and publicly acknowledge himself, in the seat of his power, the vassal of the king of Spain.(2) In the height of these successes Cortez was informed that a new general, sent by the governor of Cuba, was arrived with a superior force to supplant him in the command, and reap the fruits of his victories. He marched against his rival : he defeated him ; he took him prisoner ; and the van- quished army, gained by the magnanimity and confidence of the victor, ranged themselves under his standard. Thus reinforced, by an occur- rence which threatened the extinction of his hopes, he returned with rapidity to the city of Mexico, where he found full occasion for this accession of strength. The Mexicans were all in arms, and had surrounded the party which Cortez had left to guard the emperor. This insurrection was occasioned by tl.e avarice and intemperate zeal of the Spaniards ; who, on a solemn festi- val in honour of the gods of the country, had massacred two thousand of the Mexican nobles, under pretence of a secret conspiracy, and stripped them of their precious ornaments. The spirit of the people was roused : they were incensed at the confinement of their prince ; they were filled with holy in- dignation at the insult offered to the gods, and they longed to revenge the fate of their nobility. Cortez found it difficult to resist their fury.' They '11 Herren dec. il. De Solig, lib. Hi. ir. '*> De Soils, lib. iv. Herrera, dec. ii. LET. LVII.] MODERNEUROPE. 355 permitted him, however, to join his detachment, though not from motiv^- of friendship or generosity : they hoped to involve the whole body of th Spaniards in one undistinguished ruin. " We have discovered," said they, "that you are not immortal; and although the death of every Spaniard should cost us a thousand lives, we are determined to complete your de- struction. After so great a slaughter, there will still remain a sufficient number to celebrate the victory."(l) In consequence of this resolution, the Mexicans attacked the Spanish quarters with incredible bravery. They were several times repulsed, and as often returned to the charge with undiminished ardour. They devoted themselves cheerfully to death ; boldly advanced in the face of the artillery ; threw themselves in crowds upon the musketry, and fearlessly grappled the mouths of the guns in attempting to ascend the fortifications. Monte- zuma judged this a favourable opportunity for obtaining his freedom and the departure of the Spaniards. On those conditions he consented to em- ploy his good offices with his people. He showed himself on the ramparts, clad in his royal robes, and endeavoured to induce the multitude to retire. They at first seemed overawed by the presence of their sovereign, and ready to obey his commands ; but suddenly recollecting the pusillanimity of his behaviour, their love was changed into hate, their veneration into con- tempt, and a stone, launched by an indignant arm, at once deprived Monte- zuma of the empire and his life.(2) That accident gave sincere concern to Cortez, and was a real misfortune to the Spaniards. The successor of Montezuma was a fierce and warlike prince, and resolutely determined to support the independency of his country. Cortgz, after several ineffectual struggles, found himself under the necessity of quit- ting the city. The Mexicans harassed him in his retreat ; they took from him all his baggage and treasure ; and they engaged him in the field, before he had time to recruit his forces, with an army of two hundred thousand men. The ensigns of various nations waved in the air, and the imperial standard of massy gold was displayed. Now was the time for heroism ; and stronger proofs of it were never exhibited than in the valley of Otumba. " Death or victory !" was the charge, and the resolution of every Spaniard. The Mexicans were soon broken, and a terrible slaughter ensued ; but fresh crowds still pressing on, supplied the place of the slain, and the Spaniards must have sunk under the fatigue of continual fighting, had not Cortez, by a happy presence of mind, put an end to the dispute, and rendered the victory decisive. He rushed, at the head of his cavalry, towards the imperial stan- dard, closed with the Mexican general who guarded it, and at one stroke of his lance tumbled him out of his litter. The standard was seized, and the consequence proved as Cortez had expected : the Mexicans threw down their arms, and fled with precipitation and terror. (3) This victory, and the assistance of the Tlascalans, encouraged Cortez to undertake the siege of Mexico : and another fortunate circumstance enabled him to complete his conquest. The new emperor Guatimozin was taken prisoner in attempting to make his escape out of his capital, in order to rouse to arms the distant provinces of his dominions. The metropolis surrendered, and the whole empire submitted to the Spaniards. The city of Mexico is represented as one of the most striking monuments of human grandeur. Its spacious squares, its sumptuous palaces, its magni- ficent temples, are pompously displayed by the Spanish historians; but we must not give entire credit to those splendid descriptions. The mechanical arts could not be carried to great perfection in a country where the use of iron was unknown ; nor could the sciences or liberal arts be cultivated with suc- cess among a people ignorant of letters. The hieroglyphics which the Mex- icans are said to have made use of for communicating their ideas, could but imperfectly answer that end, in comparison of general symbols or signs ; (1) De Soils, lib. iv. Herrera, dec. ii. (2) Herrera, dec. ii. lib. viii. De Soils, lib iv. cap. xiv. xv. (3) De Sohs, hb. iv. cap. . Z 2 356 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1 and without a facile method of recording past transactions, and of preserv- ing our own thoughts and those of others, society can never make any con- siderable progress. The ferocious religion of the Mexicans is another proof of their barbarity ; for although we frequently find absurd ceremonies prevail among polished nations, we seldom or never meet with those that are cruel. Civilized man has a feeling for man. Human blood was profusely spilled upon the altars of the Mexican gods : and, if we believe the most respectable Spanish historians, human flesh (though only that of enemies) was greedily devoured both by the priests and the people. Enormous superstition and ex- cessive despotism always go hand in hand. When the mind is enslaved, it is easy to enslave the body. Montezuma was the most absolute sovereign upon earth, and his subjects the most abject slaves. The conquest of Mexico was followed by that of Peru, another country in the New World, abounding yet more in precious metals. Peru had long been governed by a race of emperors, under the name of Incas, who were supposed to be the descendants of the Sun. The name of the Spanish invader was Pizarro, and that of the Inca in possession of the crown Atahualpa. Alarmed at the ravages of the Spaniards, this prince agreed to an interview with their general, in order to settle the conditions of a peace. Though Pizarro solicited the conference, he had no thoughts but of war. The Inca, it is said, was not more sincere in his professions. He came to the place of meeting carried upon a throne of gold, and attended by up- wards of ten thousand men : twenty thousand more are reported to have waited his signal ; but for this report, or the insincerity of the Inca, there sijems to have been no foundation in fact. All the Peruvians were richly dressed, and their arms glittered with gold and precious stones. The avarice of the Spaniards was inflamed. Pizarro disposed his followers, who did not exceed two hundred, in the most advantageous order, while Vincenti Val- verde, a Dominican friar, advanced towards Atahualpa, with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other. He addressed to the Inca, by the help of an interpreter, a long discourse, unfolding the principles of the Christian faith, and pressing him to embrace that religion, and submit himself to the king of Spain, to whom the pope had given Peru. Atahualpa, who had listened with a good deal of patience, replied thus to his pious admonisher : " How extravagant is it m the pope, to give away so liberally that which doth not belong to him ! He is inferior, you own, to God the Father, to God the Son, and to God the Holy Ghost : these are all your gods : and the gods only can dispose of kingdoms. I should like to be a friend to the king of Spain, who has sufficiently displayed his power by sending armies to such distant countries ; but I will not be his vassal. I owe tribute to no mortal prince : I know no superior upon earth. The religion of my ancestors I venerate : and to renounce it would be equally absurd and impious, until you have convinced me it is false, and that yours, which you would have me embrace, is true. You adore a God who died upon a gibbet ; I worship the Sun, who never dies." " Vengeance !" cried Valverde, turning towards the Spaniards ; " ven- geance ! my friends ; kill these dogs who despise the religion of the cross."(l) The word of command was given ; the artillery played ; the musketry fired ; the cavalry spread confusion and terror ; while Pizarro advanced at the head of a chosen band, and seized the person of the Inca. The slaughter was dreadful, and the pillage immense. The blow was final : Peru ceased to be an empire. The descendants of the Sun, who united in their person both the regal and pontifical dignity, sunk under a set of banditti that knew not their birth. After draining Atahualpa of his treasure, under pretence of a ransom for his liberty, Pizarro condemned him to be burnt alive, as an obsti- nate idolater. But through the mediation of father Valverde, blessed inter- cessor ! the Inca's sentence was changed into strangling, on condition that he should die in the Christian faith !(2) U) Bensoni, Hist. Jfov. Orb. lib. iii. Herrera, dec. HI. Zarete. Mb. iii. Garcilasso, lib. I. (2) Id. ibid LET. LVII.' M O D E R N E (J R O P E. .'- i>7 The conquest of Mexico and Peru put the Spaniards at once in possession of more specie than all the other nations- of Europe. Yet Spain from that era has continued to decline. It has declined in population, industry, and vigour. The vices attendant upon riches have corrupted all ranks of men, and enervated the national spirit. From being the first kingdom in Europe, it has become one of the less considerable. Portugal has experienced a like fate, since the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and the settlement of Brazil ; and from the same cause, a too great and sudden influx of wealth. These reflections naturally lead us to inquire, " How far the discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards have been advantageous to Europe, or beneficial to mankind ?" The subject is complicated, and will best be illustrated by the sequel of events, and the ideas suggested by such a train of particulars. Meanwhile I shall observe, that writers in general are wrong in ascribing to those discoveries our present improvements in commerce and civilization. Commerce and civilization v\-ere fast advancing in Europe before the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and this quarter of the globe would have been nearly in^e situation in which we now find it, though no such discoveries had been made. We should not indeed have had so much specie, but we should have had less occasion for it: the price of labour would have been lower, and would have borne the same proportion to the price of provisions, which would have answered the purpose of a larger quantity of circulating money. Our resources in war would have been fewer; but our real strength might perhaps have been greater, as we should not have had occasion to colonize and combat at both extremities of the globe. it must, however, be owned, that the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, in the first instance, has been of singular service to the general commerce of Europe. Our trade with India was formerly conducted by means of the Arabs, who, consequently, had a share in the profits : it is now entirely carried on by Europeans. European ships and European sailors import the commo- dities of the East into our harbours. But in balance of this advantage, the new passage, by being open to every nation, has increased the taste for Indian commodities, and whetted the avarice of man. It has made the nations of Europe massacre one another in the South of Asia, and rob and murder the industrious natives, without feeling or remorse ; while it has hurt the European manufacturer, by furnishing foreign fabrics of superior quality, at a lower price than he can afford to sell. It has encouraged a losing trade ; for stfch, in general, that with India must be accounted; a trade which continues to drain Europe of its bullion and specie, the commodities of the East being chiefly purchased with gold and silver. The mines of Mexico and Peru are necessary to supply that drain. So far the discovery of America must be accounted a good, or at least the palliation of an evil. Besides, the colonies established on the continent, and in the islands of America, depend chiefly upon Europe for their manufactures, and furnish an honest and comfortable maintenance to millions of our people, who must otherwise have wanted bread, or have lived in the lowest state of wretchedness. In this view, America is favourable both to industry and population. These are solid advantages; and the superabundance of the precious metals alone could make Spain and Portugal overlook them. They are poor amid their treasures ; while other nations, profiting by their indo- lence, grow wealthy by supplying their wants. The labour of a people is the only desirable source of their riches, and the only certain road to their felicity; though mankind, in general, are so ignorant as to suppose, that they should be happier without toil. The discovery of America has increased the labour of Europe, and conse- quently its happiness, collectively considered. It has also increased the number of the civilized part of the human species, by opening a boundless region for the planting of European colonies ; which have greatly flourished in many parts, and supplied the inhabitants of the mother-countries with a, S58 THE HISTORY OF [PART I variety of commodities, formerly unknown, that contribute to the more com- fortable enjoyment of life, and to 'the extension of trade. But the violent means by which those colonies were generally established, and the outrages which continue to be exercised against the injured natives, as often as they attempt to reinstate themselves in their original rights, together with the brutal slavery to which another race of men are condemned, in order to cultivate the lands so unjustly seized and held, are circumstances over which humanitiy must ever mourn, and which the heart of every lover of his species will tell him no commercial, no political motives can authorize or vindicate. We must now, my dear Philip, return to the line of general history, and enter upon that important era, when all the great powers on the European continent made a trial of their strength in Italy ; when religion united with ambition to give new energy to the sword ; when creeds, no less than king- doms, became the source of war ; and fire and fagot were employed to en- force human belief. LETTER LVIII. # general View of the Affairs of Europe from the Election of Charles V, in 1519, till the Peace of Cambray, in 1529, including the Progress of the Reformation. THOUGH Maximilian could not prevail upon the German electors to choose his grandson of Spain king of the Romans, he had disposed their minds in favour of that prince : and other circumstances, on the death of the emperor, conspired to the exaltation of Charles. The imperial crown had so long continued in the Austrian line, that it began to be considered as hereditary in that family ; and Germany, torn by religious disputes, stood in need of a powerful emperor, not only to preserve its own internal tranquillity, but also to protect it against the victorious arms of the Turks, who, under Selim I., threatened the liberties of Europe. This fierce and rapid conqueror, had already subdued the Mamalukes, a barbarous militia that had dismem- bered the empire of the Arabs, and made themselves masters of Egypt and, Syria. The power of Charles appeared necessary to oppose that of Selim. The extensive dominions of the house of Austria, which gave him an interest in the preservation of Germany; the rich sovereignty of the- Netherlands and Franche-Comte ; the entire possession of the great and war- like kingdom of Spain, together with that of Naples and Sicily, all united to hold him up to the first dignity among Christian princes : and the New World seemed only to be called into existence, that its treasures might enable him to defend Christendom* against the Infidels. Such was the language of his partisans. Francis I., however, no sooner received intelligence of the death of Maxi- milian than he declared himself a candidate for the empire ; and with no less confidence of success than Charles. He trusted to his superior years and experience, with his great reputation in arms, acquired by the victory at Marignan, and the conquest of Milan. And it was farther urged in his favour, that the impetuosity of the French cavalry, added to the firmness of the German infantry, would prove irresistible ; and not only be sufficient, under a warlike emperor, to set limits to the ambition of Selim, but to break entirely the Ottoman power, and prevent it from ever becoming dangerous again to Germany. Both claims were plausible. The dominions of Francis were less exten- sive but more united than those of Charles. His subjects were numerous, active, brave, lovers of glory, and lovers of their king. These were strong arguments in favour of his power, so necessary at this juncture ; but he had no natural interest in the Germanic body and the electors, hearing so much LET. LV111.) MODERN EUROPE. 359 of military force on each side, became more alarmed for their own privileges than the common safety. They determined to reject both candidates, and offered the imperial crown to Frederic, surnamed the Wise, duke of Saxony. But he, undazzled by the splendour of an object courted with so much eager- ness by two mighty monarchs, rejected it with a magnanimity no less singular than great. " In times of tranquillity," said Frederic, " we wish for an emperor who has no power to invade our liberties ; times of danger demand one who is able to secure our safety. The Turkish armies, led by a warlike and victorious monarch, are now assembling : they are ready to pour in upon Germany with a violence unknown in former ages. New conjunctures call for new expedients. The imperial sceptre must be committed to some hand more powerful than mine, or that of any other German prince. We possess neither dominions, nor revenues, nor authority, which enable us to encounter such a formidable enemy. Recourse must be had, in this exigency, to one of the rival monarchs. Each of them can bring into the field forces suffi- cient for our defence. But as the king of Spain is of German extraction, as he is a member and prince of the empire by the territories which descend to him from his grandfather, and as his dominions stretch along that frontier which lies most exposed to the enemy, his claim, in my opinion, is preferable to that of a stranger to our language, to our blood, and to our country."(l) Charles was elected in consequence of this speech. The two candidates had hitherto conducted their rivalship with emulation, but without enmity. They had even softened their competition by many expressions of friendship and regard. Francis in particular declared, with his usual vivacity, that his brother Charles and he were fairly and openly suitors to the same mistress : " The most assiduous and fortunate," added he, " will win her ; and the other must rest contented."(2) But although a generous and high-minded prince, while animated by the hope of success, might be capable of forming such a philosophic resolution, it soon appeared that he had promised a moderation too refined for humanity, and which he was little able to practise. The preference was no sooner given to his rival than Francis discovered all the passions natural to disappointed ambition. He could not suppress his chagrin and indignation, at being balked in his favourite purpose, and rejected in the face of all Europe, for a youth yet un- known to fame. The spirit of Charles resented such contempt: and from this jealousy, as much as from opposition of interest, arose that emulation between those two great monarchs, which involved them in almost perpetual hostilities, and kept their whole age in agitation. When princes or private persons are resolved to quarrel, it is easy to find a brand of discord. Charles and Francis had many interfering claims in Italy; and besides these obvious sources of contention and competition, the latter thought himself bound in honour to restore the king of Navarre to his dominions, unjustly seized by the crown of Spain. They immediately began to negotiate ; and as Henry VIII. of England was th'e third prince of the age in power and in dignity, his friendship was eagerly courted by each of the rivals. He was the natural guardian of the liberties of Europe. Sensi- ble of the consequence which his situation gave him, and proud of his pre- eminence, Henry knew it to be his interest to keep the balance even between the contending powers, and to restrain both, by not joining constantly with either. But he was seldom able to reduce his ideas to practice : he was governed by caprice more than by principle : the passions of the man were ever an overmatch for the maxims of the king. Vanity and resentment were the great springs of all his actions ; and his neighbours, by touching these, found an easy way to draw him into their measures. All the impolitic steps in Henry's government, however, must not be im- puted to himself: many of them were occasioned by the ambition and avarice (1) Scard. Rer. Germ. Script. Sockend. Comment. Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book i. (21 Guicciardini, lib. xiii. 360 THE HISTORY OF [PART I of his prime minister and favourite, cardinal Wolsey. This man, who, by his talents and accomplishments had risen from one of the lowest conditions in life to the highest employments both in church and state, and who lived with regal splendour, governed the haughty, presumptuous, and intractable spirit of Henry with absolute ascendancy. Equally rapacious and profuse, he was insatiable in desiring wealth ; vain and ostentatious, he was greedy of adulation ; of boundless ambition, he aspired after new honours with an eagerness unabated by his former success. To these passions he himself sacrificed every consideration, divine and human ; and whoever sought to obtain his favour, or that of his master, found it necessary also to sacrifice liberally to them. Francis was equally well acquainted with the character of Henry and of his minister. He had successfully flattered Wolsey's pride, by honouring him with particular marks of his confidence, and bestowing upon him the appellations of Father, Tutor, and Governor ; and he had obtained the resti- tution of Tournay, by adding a pension to these respectful titles. He now solicited an interview with the king of England near Calais ; in hopes of being able, by familiar conversation, to attach him to his friendship and inter- est, while he gratified the cardinal's vanity, by affording him an opportunity of displaying his magnificence in the presence of two courts, and of dis- covering to the two nations his influence over their moriarchs. Politic though young, Charles dreaded the effects of this projected inter- view between two gallant princes, whose hearts were no less susceptible of friendship than their manners were of inspiring it. Finding it impossible, however, to prevent a visit, in which the vanity of all parties was so much concerned, he endeavoured to defeat its purpose, and to preoccupy the favour of the English monarch, and of his minister, by an act of complaisance still more flattering and more uncommon. Relying wholly upon Henry's gene- rosity for his safety, he landed at Dover, in his way from Spain to the Low Countries. The king of England, who was on his way to France, charmed with such an instance of confidence, hastened to receive his royal guest ; and Charles, during his short stay, had the address not only to give Henry favourable impressions of his character and intentions, but to detach Wolsey entirely from the interests of Francis. The tiara had attracted the eye of that ambitious prelate ; and as the emperor knew that the papacy was the sole point of elevation, beyond his present greatness, at which he could aspire, he made him an offer of his interest on the first vacancy.(l) On the day of Charles's departure, Henry went over to Calais with his whole court, in order to meet Francis. Their interview was in an open plain between Guisnes and Ardres ; where the two kings and their attendants dis- played their magnificence with such emulation and profuse expense, as pro- cured it the name of the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Here Henry erected a spacious house of wood and canvass, framed in London, on which, under the figure of an English archer, was inscribed the following motto : " He prevails whom I favour !" alluding to his own political situation, as holding in his hands the balance of power, between the emperor and French monarch. Feats of chivalry, however, parties of gallantry, and such exercises as were in that age reckoned manly or elegant, rather than serious business, occupied the two courts, during the time they continued together, which was eighteen days. And here I cannot help noticing a circumstance that strongly marks the manners of those times, and their contrast to ours, if not their compara- tive rusticity. After the French and English wrestlers had exercised their strength and agility, which, according to the phrase of the historian, afforded excellent pastime, the kings of France and England, says Fleuranges, retired to a tent, where they drank together ; and the king of England, seizing the king of France by the collar, said, " My brother, I must wrestle with you !" and attempted once or twice to trip up his heels ; but the king of France, who was an excellent wrestler, twisted him round, and threw him on the (1) Polyd. Virg. Holingshed. Herbert, Hist. Henry VIII. Fiddes, Life of Wolsey LET. LVIII. MODERN EUROPE. 361 ground with great violence. Henry wanted to renew the struggle, but was prevented. (1) After taking leave of this scene of dissipation, the king of England paid a visit to the emperor and Margaret of Savoy at Gravelines, and engaged them to go along with him to Calais ; where the artful and politic Charles com- pleted the impression which he had begun to make on Henry and his favour- ite, and effaced all the friendship to which the frank and generous nature of Francis had given birth. He renewed his assurance of assisting Wolsey in obtaining the papacy ; and he put him in present possession of the revenues of the sees of Badajox and Palencia, in Spain. He flattered Henry's pride, by convincing him of his own importance, and the justness of the motto which he had chosen ; offering to submit to his sole arbitration any difference that might arise between him and Francis. (2) This important point being secured, Charles repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was solemnly invested with the crown and sceptre of Charlemagne, in presence of a more splendid and numerous assembly than had appeared on any former inauguration. About the same time Solyman II. surnamed the Magnificent, one of the most accomplished, enterprising, and warlike of the Turkish princes, and a constant and formidable rival of the German emperor, ascended the Ottoman throne, in consequence of the death of Selim. The first act of Charles's administration was the appointing a diet to be held at Worms, in order to concert with the princes of the empire proper measures for checking the progress of " those new and dangerous opinions, which threatened to disturb the peace of Germany, and to overturn the reli- gion of their ancestors." The opinions propagated by Luther and his fol- lowers were here meant. That bold innovator, after the diet at Augsburg, and the death of Maximilian, had freely promulgated his opinions, under the protection of the elector of Saxony, to whom the vicariate of that part of Germany which is governed by the Saxon-taws was committed, during the interregnum that preceded the election of Charles V. And these opinions were suffered to take root in different places, and to grow up to some degree of strength and firmness. But Leo X., though little skilled in such contro- versies, came at last to be alarmed at Luther's progress ; and, convinced that all hopes of reclaiming him by forbearance were in vain, issued a bull of excommunication against him. His books were ordered to be burned, and he himself was delivered over to Satan, as an obstinate heretic, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly recant his errors. This sentence neither disconcerted nor intimidated Luther. After renew- ing his appeal to a general council, he published remarks upon the bull of excommunication, and boldly declared the nope to be the man of Sin, or An- tichrist, whose appearance is foretold in me Revelations of St. John ; de- claimed against the tyranny and usurpations of the court of Rome with greater vehemence than ever, exhorted all Christian princes to shake off such an ignominious yoke, and boasted of his own happiness in being marked out as the object of ecclesiastical indignation, because he had ventured to assert the rights of religion, and the mental liberty of mankind. Nor did he con- fine his contempt of the papal power to words alone. He assembled all the professors and students of the university of Wittemberg, and with great pomp, and before a vast multitude of spectators, cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into the flames ; and his example was imitated in several other cities. (3) While the credit and authority of the Roman pontiff were thus furiously shaken in Germany, an attack no less violent, and occasioned by the same causes, was made upon them in Switzerland. The Franciscans being in- trusted with the sale of indulgences in that country, executed their commis- sion with the same unblushing rapaciousness which had rendered the Domi- nicans so odious in Saxony. They proceeded, however, with uninterrujried (1) Mem. de Flevranges. (2) Polyd. Virg. Fiddes, ubi sup. (3) Seckend. Comment. Luth. Oper. vol. ii. lo 3C2 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. success till they arrived at Zurich ; where they received a mortal blow from Zuinglius, canon of that place, a man of extensive learning, uncommon saga- city, and heroic intrepidity of spirit. Animated with a republican boldness, and free from those restraints which subjection to the will of a prince, and perhaps a remnant of original prejudice, imposed upon the German reformer, he advanced with more daring and rapid steps to overturn the whole fabric of the established religion ; and the pope's supremacy was soon denied in the greater part of Switzerland. (1) Such was the state of the Reformation, when Charles V. arrived in Ger- many. No secular prince had yet embraced the new opinions ; no change in the established forms of worship had been introduced, nor any encroachments made upon the possessions or jurisdiction of the clergy : a deep impression, however, was made upon the minds of the people ; their reverence for an- cient institutions and doctrines was shaken ; and the materials were already scattered, which produced the conflagration that afterward spread over all Europe. Charles saw the flames gathering ; and, as he found it necessary to secure the friendship of Leo X., he cited Luther to appear before the diet at Worms. Luther did not hesitate a moment about yielding obedience : he accompanied the herald who brought the emperor's letter and safe-conduct, " I am lawfully called to appear in that cit)-," said he to some of his friends, who were anxious for his safety; " and thither I will go in the name of the Lord, though as many devils as tiles upon the houses were there assembled against me."(2) Had vanity and the love of applause, from which no human heart is free, oeen the sole principles by which Luther was influenced, his reception at Worms was such as he might have reckoned a full reward for all his labours. Vast crowds assembled to see him whenever he walked abroad; and his apartments were daily filled with princes and personages of the highest rank, who treated him with all the respect that is due to superior merit, but which is more particularly commanded by those who possess the power of directing the understanding and the sentiments of others. Rank or birth can receive no homage so flattering ; for they can receive none so sincere, or which has so immediate a reference to those* qualities, which men call their own. Lu- ther was not, however, intoxicated : he behaved before the diet with equal decency and firmness. He readily acknowledged an excess of vehemence and acrimony in his controversial writings ; but he refused to retract his opinions, till convinced of their falsehood, or consent to their being tried by any other standard than the Scripture. Neither threats nor entreaties could prevail on him to depart from this resolution. Some of the fathers, there- fore, proposed to imitate the example of the council of Constance, in its pro- ceedings relative to John Huss ; to commit to the flames the author of this pestilent heresy, now in their power, and deliver the church at once from so dangerous an enemy ; but the members of the diet refusing to expose the German integrity to fresh reproach by a second violation of public faith, and Charles being no less unwilling to bring a stain upon the beginning of his administration by such an ignominious measure, Luther was permitted to depart in safety.(3) A few days after he left the city, a severe edict was issued in the emperor's name, and by authority of the diet, forbidding any prince to harbour him, and requiring all to concur in seizing his person as soon as his safe-conduct was expired. But the elector of Saxony, his faith- ful patron, took him again, though secretly, under protection. Luther, in solitude, propagated his opinions ; and Charles, for a time, found other mat- ters to engage his attention. The Spaniards, who were dissatisfied with the departure of their sovereign, whose election to the empire they foresaw would interfere with the adminis- tration of his own kingdom, and incensed at the avarice of the Flemings, to whom the direction of public affairs had been committed since the death of (1) Riirliart. Jfiat. de la Reformat, en Swiss liv i. (2) Luth. Oper. vol. li. (3) F.Paul. Seckend LET. LVIII.] MODERNEUROPE. 363 cardinal Ximenes, broke out into open rebellion. Several grandees, in order to shake off that oppression, entered into an association, to which they gave the name of the Sancta Juncta : and the sword was appealed to, as the means of redress. This seemed, to Francis, a favourable juncture for reinstating the family of John d' Albert in the kingdom of Navarre. Charles was at a distance from that part of his dominions, and the troops usually stationed there had been recalled to quell the commotions in Spain. A French army, under Andrew de Foix, speedily conquered Navarre ; but that young and inexperienced nobleman, dazzled with success, and pushed on by military ardour, ventured to enter Castile. Though divided among themselves, the Spaniards united against a foreign enemy ; routed his forces, took him pri- soner, and recovered Navarre in a shorter time than he had spent in sub- duing it. Hostilities, thus began in one quarter, between the rival monarchs, rapidly spread to another. The king of France encouraged the duke of Bouillon to make war upon the emperor, and invade Luxembourg. Charles, after humbling the duke, attempted to enter France, but was repelled and worsted before Mezieres, by the famous chevalier de Bayard ; distinguished among his contemporaries by the appellation of The Knight without fear and without reproach, and who united the talents of a consummate general to the punc- tilious honour and romantic gallantry of the heroes of chivalry. Francis broke into the Low Countries ; where, by an excess of caution, an error not natural to him, he lost an opportunity of cutting off the whole imperial army ; and, what was still greater misconduct, he disgusted the constable Bourbon, by giving the command of the van to the duke of Aleii9on.(l) During these operations in the field, an unsuccessful congress was held at Calais, under the mediation of Henry VIII. It served only to exasperate the parties it was intended to reconcile. And a league was soon after con- cluded at Bruges, through the intrigues of Wolsey, between the pope, Henry, and Charles, against France. Leo had already entered into a separate league with the emperor, and the French were fast losing ground in Italy. (2) The insolence and exactions of mareschal de Lautrec, governor of Milan, had totally alienated the affections of the Milanese from France. They resolved to expel the troops of that nation, and put themselves under the government of Francis Sforza, brother of Maximilian their late duke. In this resolution they were encouraged by the pope, who excommunicated Lau- trec, and took into his pay a considerable body of Swiss. The papal army, commanded by Prosper Colonna, an experienced general, was joined by rein- forcements from Germany and Naples ; while Lautrec, neglected by his court, and deserted by the Swiss in its pay, was unable to make head against the enemy. The city of Milan was betrayed by the inhabitants to the confede- rates ; Parma and Placentia were united to the ecclesiastical state : and of their conquests in Lombardy, only the town of Cremona, the castle of Milan, and a few inconsiderable forts remained in the hands of the French.(S) Leo X. received the account of his rapid success with such transports of joy as are said to have brought on a fever which occasioned his death. The spirit of the confederacy was broken, and its operations suspended by that event. The Swiss were recalled ; some other mercenaries were disbanded for want of pay: so that the Spaniards, and a few Germans in the emperor's service, only- remained to defend the dutchy of Milan. But Lautrec, who, with the remnant of his army, had taken shelter in the Venetian territories, destitute of both men and money, was unable to improve this favourable opportunity. All his efforts were rendered ineffectual by the vigilance and ability of Colonna and his associates. Meantime, high discord prevailed in the conclave. Wolsey's name, not- withstanding all the emperor's magnificent promises, was scarcely mentioned there. Julio of Medicis, Leo's nephew, thought himself sure of the election ; when, by an unexpected turn of fortune, Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht, Charles's (1) (Euvr. de Brantome, torn. vi. Mem. de Bellay. (2) Rymer, Fad, vol. xiii. Herbert, Hist. Hen. Vlll. (3) Guicciaidini lib. xiv. Mem de fttllay 364 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. preceptor, who at that time governed Spain in the character of viceroy, was unanimously raised to the papacy, to the astonishment of all Europe, and the great disgust of the Italians. Francis, roused by the rising consequence of his rival, resolved to exert himself with fresh vigour, m order to wrest from him his late conquests in Lombardy. Lautrec received a supply of money, and a recruit of ten thou- sand Swiss infantry. With this reinforcement he was enabled once more to act offensively, and even to advance within a few miles of the city of Milan ; when money again failing him, and the Swiss growing mutinous, he was obliged to attack the imperialists in their camp at Bicocca, where he was repulsed with great slaughter, having lost his bravest officers and best troops. All the Swiss that survived immediately set out for their own country ; and Lautrec, despairing of being able to keep the field, retired into France. Genoa, which still remained subject to Francis, and which made it easy for him to execute any scheme for the recovery of Milan, was soon after taken by Colonna: the authority of the emperor and his faction was every where established in Italy. The citadel of Cremona was the sole fortress that remained in the hands of the French.(l) The affliction of Francis for such a succession of misfortunes, was aug- mented by the unexpected arrival of an English herald, who, in the name of his sovereign, declared war against France. The courage of this high- spirited prince, however, did not forsake him. Though his treasury was exhausted by expensive pleasures no less than by hostile enterprises, he assembled a considerable army, and put his kingdom in a posture for resisting his new enemy, without abandoning any of the schemes which he was forming against the emperor. He was surprised, but not alarmed, at such a denunciation. Willing to derive as much advantage as possible from so powerful an ally, Charles paid a second visit to the court of England in his way to Spain, where his presence was become highly necessary. And his success here exceeded his most sanguine expectations. He not only gained the entire friendship of Henry, who publicly ratified the treaty of Bruges, but disarmed the resent- ment of Wolsey, by assuring him of the papacy on Adrian's death, an event seemingly not distant, by reason of his age and infirmities. In consequence of these negotiations, an English army invaded France under the command of the earl of Surry ; who, at the close of the campaign, was obliged to retire with his forces greatly diminished, without being able to make himself master of one place within the French frontier. Charles Avas more fortunate than his ally. He soon quelled the tumults that had arisen in Spain during his absence. While the Christian princes were thus wasting each other's strengjh, Soly- man the Magnificent entered Hungary, and made himself master of Belgrade, reckoned the chief barrier of that kingdom against the Turkish power. Encouraged by his success, he turned his victorious arms against the island of Rhodes, then the seat of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem ; and although every prince in that warlike age acknowledged Rhodes to be the principal bulwark of Christendom in the Levant, so violent was their animosity against each other, that they suffered Solyman without disturbance to carry on his operations against that city and island. Lisle Adam, the grand master, made a gallant defence ; but after incredible efforts of courage^ patience, and military skill, during a siege of six months, he was obliged to surrender the place, having obtained an honourable capitulation from the sultan, who admired and respected his heroic qualities. (2) Charles and Francis were equally ashamed of having occasioned, through their contests, such a loss to the Christian world ; and the emperor, by way of reparation, granted to the knights of St. John the small island of Malta, where they fixed their resi- dence, and continue still to retain their ancient spirit, though much reduced in power and splendour. Adrian VI., though the creature of the emperor, and devoted to his interest, (1) Gulcciardini, ubi gup. (2) Fontan. de Bell. Rhod. Barre, Hist. d'Mlcmag torn, viii LRT. LVIII.] MODERN EUROPE 365 endeavoured to assume the impartiality winch became the common father of Christendom, and laboured to reconcile the contending princes, that they might unite in a league against Solyman, whose conquest of Rhodes rendered him more formidable than ever to Europe. The Italian states were no less desirous of peace than the pope : and so much regard was paid by the hostile powers to the exhortations of his holiness, and to a bull which he issued, requiring all Christian princes to consent to a truce for three years, that the imperial, the French, and the English ambassadors at Rome, were empowered to treat of that matter. But while they wasted their time in fruitless nego- tiations, their masters were continuing their preparations for war ; and other negotiations soon took place. The confederacy against France became more formidable than ever. The Venetians who had hitherto adhered to the French interest, formed engagements with the emperor for securing Francis Sforza in the possession of the dutchy of Milan ; and the pope, from a persuasion that the ambition of the French monarch was the only obstacle to peace, acceded to the same alliance. The Florentines, the dukes of Ferrara and Mantua, with all the other Italian powers, followed this example. Francis was left without a single ally to resist the efforts of a multitude of enemies, whose armies every where threatened, and whose territories encompassed, his dominions. The emperor in person, at the head of a Spanish army, menaced France on the side of Guienne : the forces of England and the Netherlands hovered over Picardy, and a numerous body of Germans was preparing to ravage Bur- gundy. (1) The dread of so many and such powerful adversaries it was thought would have obliged Francis to keep wholly on the defensive, or at least have pre- vented him from entertaining any thoughts of marching into Italy. But it was the peculiar characteristic of this prince, too apt to become negligent on ordinary occasions, to rouse at the approach of imminent danger, and not only to encounter it with spirit and intrepidity, but to provide against it with diligence and industry. Before his enemies were able to strike a blow, Francis had assembled a powerful army, with which he hoped to disconcert all the emperor's schemes, by leading it in person into Italy; and this bold measure could scarcely have failed of the desired effect, had it been imme- diately carried into execution. But the discovery of a domestic conspiracy which threatened the destruction of his kingdom, obliged Francis to stop short at Lyons. Charles, duke of Bourbon, high constable of France, was a prince of the most shining talents. His great abilities equally fitted him for the council or the field, while his eminent services to the crown entitled him to its first favour. But, unhappily, Louisa, dutchess of Angoul&ne, the king's mother, had contracted a violent aversion against the house of Bourbon ; and had taught her son, over whom she had acquired an absolute ascendant, to view all the constable's actions with a jealous eye. After repeated affronts he retired from court, and began to listen to the advances of the emperor's ministers. Meantime, the dutchess of Bourbon happened to die ; and as the constable was no less handsome than accomplished, the dutchess of Angouleme, still susceptible of the tender passions, formed the scheme of marrying him. But Bourbon, who might have expected every thing to which an ambitious mind can aspire, from the doting fondness of a woman who governed her son and the kingdom, incapable of imitating Louisa in her sudden transition from love to hate, or of meanly counterfeiting a passion for one who had so long pursued him with unprovoked malice, treated toe proposal with disdain, and even turned it into ridicule. At once refused aid insulted by the man whom love only could have made her cease to persecute, Louisa was filled with all the rage of disappointed woman : she resolved to ruin, since she could not marry, Bourbon. For this purpose she commenced an iniquitous suit against him ; and by the chicanery of chancellor Du Prat, the constable was stripped (11 Guicciardini, lib. xv. 366 THE HISTORY OF [?A f i of his whole family estate. Driven to despair by so many injuries, he had recourse to measures which despair only could have dictated. He entered into a secret correspondence with the emperor and the king of England ; and he proposed, as soon as Francis should have crossed the Alps, to raise an insurrection among his numerous vassals, and to introduce foreign troops into the heart of France. (1) Happily, Francis got intimation of this conspiracy before he left the king- dom. But not being sufficiently convinced of the constable's guilt, he suf- fered so dangerous an enemy to escape ; and Bourbon, entering into the em- peror's service, employed all the resources of his enterprising genius, and his military skill, to the prejudice of his sovereign and his native country. He took a severe revenge for all his wrongs. In consequence of the discovery of this plot, and the escape of the power- ful conspirator, Francis relinquished his intention of leading his army in person into Italy. He was ignorant how far the infection had spread among his subjects, and afraid that his absence might encourage them to make some desperate attack in favour of a man so much beloved. He did not, how- ever, abandon his design on the dutchy of Milan ; but sent forward, in order to subdue it, an army of thirty thousand men, under the command of admiral Bonnivet. Colonna, who was intrusted with the defence of that dutchy, was in no condition to resist such a force ; and the city of Milan, on which the whole territory depends, must have fallen into the hands of the French, had not Bonnivet, who possessed none of the talents of a general, wasted his time in frivolous enterprises, till the inhabitants recovered from their con- sternation. The imperial arrny Avas reinforced. Colonna died, and Lannoy, viceroy of Naples, succeeded him in the command. But the military opera- tions were chiefly conducted by the duke of Bourbon and the marquis de Pescara, the two greatest generals of their age. Bonnivet, destitute of the talents necessary to oppose such able commanders, was reduced, after various movements and encounters, to the necessity of attempting a retreat into France. He was pursued by the imperial generals, and routed at Biagrassa. Here fell the chevalier Bayard, whose contempt of the arts of courts pre- vented him from ever rising to the chief command, but who was always called, in times of real danger, to the posts of difficulty and importance. Bonnivet being wounded, the conduct of the rear was committed to Bayard. He put himself at the head of the heavy-armed cavalry, and, animating them by his presence and example to sustain the whole shock of the imperial army, he gained time for the body of his countrymen to make good their retreat. But in that service he received a mortal wound ; and 1>eing unable any longer to continue on horseback, he ordered one of his attendants to place him under a tree, where he calmly waited the approach of death. In this situation he was found by Bourbon, who led the van of the imperialists, and expressed much sorrow for his fate. " Pity not me !" cried the high-minded chevalier: "I die, as a man of honour ought, in the discharge of my duty; but pity those who fight against their king, their country, and their oath."(2) The emperor and his allies were less successful in their operations on the frontier of France. They were baffled on all sides. And Francis, though stripped of his Italian dominions, might still have enjoyed in safety the glory of having defended his native kingdom against one half of Europe, and have bid defiance to all his enemies, could he have moderated his military ardour. But understanding that the king of England, discouraged by his former fruitless enterprises, and disgusted with the emperor, was making no prepa- rations for invading Picardj, his rage for the conquest of Milan returned ; and he determined, notwithstanding the approach of winter, to march into Italy. The French army no sooner appeared in Piedmont, than the whole dutchy of Milan was thrown into consternation. The capital opened its gates. The forces of the emperor and Sforza retired to Lodi : and had Francis been so (1) Thuanus, lib. i. cap. ii. Mem. de Bellay, liv. ii. (2) Mem. dc Bellay, ubi sup. (Etivr. de Brantome, torn, ri LET. LVI1I.J MODERN EUROPE. 367 fortunate as to pursue them, they must have abandoned that post, and been totally dispersed. But his evil genius led him to besiege Pavia, a town of considerable strength, well garrisoned, and defended by Antonio de Leyva, one of the bravest officers in the Spanish service. Every thing known to" the engineers of that age, or which could be effected by the valour of his troops, was attempted in vain by the French monarch against this important place, during a siege of three months. In the mean time, confident of success, he had detached a considerable part of his army to invade the kingdom of Na- ples : and tHe main body was much wasted by the fatigues of the siege and the rigour of the season. The imperial generals had not hitherto molested him, but they were not idle. Pescara and Lannoy had assembled forces from all quarters ; and Bourbon, having pawned his jewels, had gone into Ger- many, and levied at his own expense a body of twelve thousand Lansquenets. The united army advanced to the relief of Pavia, now reduced to extremity for want of ammunition and provisions. Prudence, and the advice of his most experienced officers, dictated to Francis the propriety of a retreat ; but his own romantic notions of honour, and the opinion of Bonnivet, unhappily determined him to keep his post. Having said that he would take Pavia or perish in the attempt, he thought it ignominious to depart from that resolu- tion ; and he anxiously waited the approach of the enemy. The imperial generals found the French so strongly intrenched, that they hesitated long before they ventured to attack them. But the necessities of the besieged, and the murmurs of their own troops, obliged them at last to put every thing to hazard. Never did armies engage with greater ardour, or with a higher opinion of the battle they were going to fight ; never were men more strongly animated with personal emulation, national antipathy, mutual resentment, and all the passions which inspire obstinate bravery. The first efforts of the French valour made the firmest battalions of the mperialists give ground; but the fortune of the day was soon changed. The Swiss troops in the service of France, unmindful of their national honour, shamefully deserted their post. Pescara fell upon the French cavalry with the imperial horse, and broke that formidable body, by a mode of attack with which they were wholly unacquainted ;(1) while Leyva, sallying out with his garrison, during the heat of action, made a furious assault on the enemy's rear, and threw every thing into confusion. The rout became general. But Francis himself, surrounded by a brave nobility, many of whom fell by his side, long sustained the combat. His horse being killed under him, he fought on foot, undistinguished but by his valour, and killed seven men with his own hand. At last he was observed by Pomperant, a French gentleman, who had followed the fortunes of Bourbon, and who now saved the life of his sovereign, ready to sink beneath an enraged soldiery. By his persuasion Francis was prevailed upon to surrender; yet he obsti- nately refused, imminent as the danger was, to deliver up his sword to Bour- bon. Lannoy received it. But Bourbon had the cruel satisfaction of exult- ing over his sovereign's distress, and of repaying, from revenge, the insults offered by jealousy. (2) This victory, and the captivity of Francis, filled all Europe with alarm. Almost the whole French army was cut off: Milan was immediately aban- doned ; and in a few weeks not a Frenchman was left in Italy. The power of the emperor, and still more his ambition, became the object of universal terror : and resolutions were every where taken to set bounds to it. Mean- while, Francis, deeply impressed with a sense of his fortune, wrote to his mother Louisa, whom he had left regent of the kingdom, the following short but expressive letter: "All is lost, but honour!" The same courier that delivered this letter carried also despatches to Charles, who received the news of the signal and unexpected success which had crowned his arms with the most hypocritical moderation. He would not (1) Pescara had intermingled with the imperial horse a considerable number of Spanish foot, armed with the heavy muskets then in use. Guicciardini, lib. xv (2) Mem. de Bellay. Brantome. Guicciardini. 368 THEHISTORYOF [PART! suffer any public rejoicings to be made on account of it ; and said, he only valued it as it would prove the occasion of restoring peace to Christendom. Louisa, however, did not trust to those appearances. Instead of giving her- self up to such lamentations as were natural to a woman remarkable for maternal tenderness, she discovered all the foresight, and exerted all the activity, of a consummate politician. She took every possible measure for putting the kingdom in a posture of defence, while she employed all her address to appease the resentment and to gain the friendship of England ;(1) and a ray of comfort from that quarter soon broke in upon the French affairs. Though Henry VIII. had not entered into the war against France from any concerted political views, he had always retained some imperfect idea of that balance of power necessary to be maintained between Charles and Francis, the preservation of which he boasted was his peculiar office. By his alliance with the emperor he hoped to recover some part of those territo- ries on the continent which had belonged to his ancestors ; and in that hope he willingly contributed to give Charles the ascendancy above his rival. But having never dreamed of any event so decisive and fatal as the victory at Pavia, which seemed not only to have broken but to have annihilated the power of Francis, Henry now became sensible of his own danger, as well as of that of all Europe, from the loss of a proper counterpoise to the power of Charles. Instead of taking advantage of the distressed condition of France, the English monarch therefore determined to assist her in her present cala- mities. Other causes conspired to enforce this resolution. The elevation of the cardinal of Medicis to St. Peter's chair, on the death of Adrian VI., under the name of Clement VII., had made the English minister sensible of the insincerity of the emperor's promises, while it extinguished all his hopes of the papacy; and Wolsey resolved on revenge. His master too had ground of complaint. Charles had so ill supported the appearance of moderation which he assumed when first informed of his good fortune, that he had already changed his usual style to Henry ; and instead of writing to him with his own hand, and subscribing himself " your affectionate son and cousin," he dictated his letters to a secretary, and simply subscribed himself " Charles." Influenced by all these considerations, together with the glory of raising a fallen enemy, Henry listened to the flattering submis- sions of Louisa; entered into a defensive alliance with her, as regent of France; and engaged to use his best offices in order to procure a deliverance of her son from a state of captivity. (2) Meanwhile, Francis was rigorously confined ; and hard conditions being proposed to him, as the price of his liberty, he drew his dagger, and pointing it at his breast, cried, " 'T were better that a king should die thus !" But flat- tering himself, when he grew cool, that such propositions could not come directly from Charles, he desired that he might be removed to Spain, where the emperor then resided. His request was complied with ; but he languished long before he could obtain a sight of his conqueror. At last he was favoured * with a visit ; and the emperor, dreading a general combination against him, or that Francis, if driven to despair, might, as he threatened, resign his crown to the dauphin, agreed to abate somewhat of his former demands. A treaty was accordingly concluded at Madrid, in consequence of which Francis obtained his liberty. The chief article in this treaty was, that Burgundy should be restored to Charles as the rightful inheritance of his ancestors, and that Francis's two eldest sons should be immediately delivered up as hostages for the performance of the conditions stipulated. The exchange of the captive monarch for his children was made on the frontiers of France and Spain. And the moment that Francis entered his own dominions, he mounted a Turkish horse, and putting it to its speed, waved his hand, and cried aloud several times, " I am yet a king ! I am yet a king !"(3) The reputation of the French monarch, however, would have stood in a fairer light had he died a captive ; for the unhappy situation of his affairs, (1) Mem. de Bellay. Brantomc. Guicciardini. (?) Herbert. Mezeray. Mem. At Bellay. Fiddes, Life of Wolsey (31 Guiceiardini, lib. ?L LET. LVIII.J MODERN EUROPE. 369 delicate as h.s notions of honour appear to have been, led him henceforth to act a part very disadvantageous to his moral character. He never meant to execute the treaty of Madrid : he had even left a protest in the hands of notaries before he signed it, that his consent should be considered as an involuntary deed, and be deemed null and void.(l) Accordingly, as soon as he arrived in France, he assembled the states of Burgundy, who protested against the article relative to their province ; and when the imperial ambas- sadors urged the immediate execution of the treaty, the king replied, that he would rigorously perform the articles relative to himself, but in those affecfr ing the French monarchy he must be directed by the sense of the nation. He made the highest acknowledgments to the king of England for his friendly interposition, and offered to be entirely guided by his counsels. Charles and his ministers now saw that they were overreached in those very arts of negotiation in which they so much excelled, while the Italian states observed with pleasure that Francis was resolved to evade the execu- tion of a treaty, which they considered as dangerous to the liberties of Europe. Clement VII. absolved him from the oath which he had taken at Madrid; and the kings of France and England, the pope, the Swiss, the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Milanese, entered into an alliance, to which they gave the name of the Holy League, because his holiness was at the head of it, in order to oblige the emperor to deliver up Francis's two sons on the payment of a reasonable ransom, and to re-establish Sforza in the quiet possession of the dutchy of Milan. (2) In consequence of this league, the confederate army took the field, and Italy became once more the scene of war. But Francis, who it was expected would infuse spirit and vigour into the whole body, had gone through such a scene of distress, that he was become diffident of his talents, and distrust- ful of his fortune. He had flattered himself, that the dread alone of such a confederacy would induce Charles to listen to what was equitable, and there- fore neglected to send sufficient reinforcements to his allies in Italy. Mean- time, the duke of Bourbon, who commanded the imperialists, overran the whole dutchy of Milan, of which the emperor had promised him the investi- ture ; and his troops beginning to mutiny for want of pay, he boldly led them to Rome, in spite of every obstacle, by offering to their avidity the rich spoils of that ancient capital. Nor did he deceive them ; for although he himself was slain, while encouraging their efforts by his brave example, in planting \vith his own hands a scaling ladder against the walls, they, more enraged than discouraged by that misfortune, mounted to the assault with the greatest ardour ; and entering the city sword in hand, pillaged it for many days, and made it a scene of horrid carnage and abominable lust. Never did Rome experience in any age so many calamities, not even from the Barbarians by whom she was successively subdued from the followers of Alaric, Geuseric, or Odoacer, as now from the subjects of a 'Christian and Catholic monarch. Whatever was respectable in modesty or sacred in religion seemed only the more to provoke the rage of the soldiery. Virgins suffered violation in the arms of their mothers, and upon those altars to which they had fled for safety. Venerable prelates, after being exposed to every indignity, not excepting the abuse of unnatural desire, and enduring every torture, were thrown into dungeons, and menaced with the most cruel deaths, in order to make them reveal their secret treasures. Clement himself, who had taken refuge in the castle of St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender at discretion ; and found that his sacred character could neither procure him liberty nor respect. He was doomed to close confinement, until he should pay an enormous ransom, imposed by the victorious army, and surrender to the emperor all the places of strength belonging^to the apostolic see.(3) (1) Recueil de Traitez, torn. ii. (2) Goldast. Polit. Imperial. vocal, that the Roman 'ladies reciprocated the transports of the rapacious and blood-thirsty, but brawny followers of Bourbon. VOL. L A a 370 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. Charles received the news of this extraordinary event with equal surprise and pleasure ; but in order to conceal his joy from his Spanish subjects, who were filled with horror at the insult offered to the sovereign pontiff, and to lessen the indignation of the other powers of Europe, he expressed the deepest sorrow for the success of his arms. He put himself and his whole court into mourning ; stopped the rejoicings for the birth of his son Philip ; and ordered prayers to be put up in all the churches of Spain for the libera- tion of the pope, which he could immediately have procured by a letter to his generals.(l) The concern expressed by Henry and Francis, for the calamity of their ally, was more sincere. Alarmed at -the progress of the imperial arms, they had, even before the sacking of Rome, entered into a closer alliance, and proposed to invade the Low Countries with a powerful army ; but no sooner did they hear of Clement's captivity than they changed, by a new treaty, the scene of the projected war from the Netherlands to Italy, and resolved to take the most vigorous measures for restoring his holiness to liberty. Henry, however, contributed only money. A French army crossed the Alps, under the command of marshal Lautrec ; Clement obtained his freedom ; and war was, for a time, carried on by the confederates with success. But the death of Lautrec, and the revolt of Andrew Doria, a celebrated Genoese admiral, at that time in the service of France, totally changed the face of affairs. He obliged the French garrison in Genoa to surrender, and restore the liber- ties of his country. The French army was utterly ruined before Naples ; and Francis, discouraged, and almost exhausted by so many unsuccessful enterprises, began at length to think of peace, and of obtaining the release of his sons by concessions, instead of the terror of his arms. At the same time, Charles, notwithstanding the advantages he had gained, had many reasons to wish for an accommodation. Solyman the Magnificent, having overrun Hungary, was ready to break in upon the Austrian territories with the whole force of the Ottoman empire ; and the progress of the Re- formation in Germany threatened the tranquillity of that country. In conse- quence of this situation of affairs, while pride made both parties conceal or dissemble their real sentiments, two ladies were permitted to restore peace to Europe. Margaret of Austria, Charles's aunt, and Louisa, Francis's mother, met at Cambray, and settled the terms of pacification between the French king and the emperor. Francis agreed to pay two millions of crowns, as the ransom of his two sons ; to resign the sovereignty of Flanders and Artois, and forego all his Italian claims ; and Charles ceased to demand the restitu- tion of Burgundy. (2) All the steps of this negotiation had been communicated to the king of England ; and Henry was, on that occasion, so generous to his friend and ally Francis, that he sent him an acquittal of near six hundred thousand crowns, in order to enable him to fulfil his agreement with Charles. But Francis's Italian confederates were less satisfied with the treaty of Cambray. They were almost wholly abandoned to the will of the emperor, and seemed to have no other means of security left but his equity and moderation. Of these, from his past conduct, they had not formed the most advantageous idea. But Charles's present circumstances, more especially in regard to the Turks, obliged him to behave with a generosity inconsistent with his character. The Florentines alone, whom he reduced under the dominion of the family of Medicis, had reason to complain of his severity. Sforza obtained the inves- titure of the dutchy of Milan and his pardon : and every other power expe- rienced the lenity of the victor. Charles, who, during this full tide of his fortune, having quieted all the discon- lents in Spain, had appeared in Italy with the pomp and power of a conqueror, and received the imperial crown from the hands, of the pope, now prepared to revisit Germany, where his presence was become highly necessary; for although the conduct and valour of his brother Ferdinand, on whom he had fl) Muroc. Hi$t. Venet. lib. iii. (2) Sandov Hist del Emp. Carl. V Robertson, book T LET. LIX.] M O BERN EUROPE. 371 conferred the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria, and who had been elected king of Hungary, had obliged Solyman to withdraw his forces, his return was to be feared, and the disorders of religion were daily increasing. But these disorders, and the future exploits of the emperor, must form the subject of another Letter. LETTER LIX. The general View of the J(ffairs of Europe, and of the Progress of the Re- formation on the Continent, continued from the Peace of Cambray to that of Crepy, in 1544. THE Reformation, my dear Philip, had gained much ground in Germany, during that long interval of tranquillity which the absence of the emperor, the contests between him and the pope, and his attention to the war with France, afforded its promoters. Most of the princes who had embraced Luther's opinions had not only established in their territories that form of worship which he approved, but had entirely suppressed the rites of the Romish church. Many of the free cities had imitated their conduct. Almost one half of the Germanic body had revolted from the papal see ; and its do- minion, even in that part which had not yet shaken off the yoke of Rome, was considerably weakened by the example of the neighbouring states, or by the secret progress of those doctrines which had undermined it among them. Whatever satisfaction the emperor, while at open enmity with the pope, might have felt in those events which tended to mortify and embarrass his holiness, he was at the same time sensible that the religious divisions in Germany would, in the end, prove hurtful to the imperial authority. Accord- ingly, the prospect of an accommodation with Clement no sooner opened, than Charles appointed a diet of the empire to be held at Spire, in order to take into consideration the state of religion. The diet, after much dispute, issued a decree confirming the edict published against Luther at Worms, and prohibiting any farther innovations in religion, but particularly the abolition of the mass, before the meeting of a general council. Against this decree, as unjust and impious, the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, the duke of Lunenburg, the prince of Anhalt, together with the deputies of four- teen imperial or free cities, entered into a solemn protest. On that account they were called PROTESTANTS ;(1) an appellation which has since become common to all the sects, of whatever denomination, that have revolted from the church of Rome. Such was the state of religious matters when Charles returned to Germany. He assisted in person at the diet of Augsburg ; where the Protestants pre- sented their system of opinions, composed by Melancthon, the most learned and moderate of all the reformers. This system, known by the name of the Confession of Augsburg from the place where it was presented, was pub- licly read in the diet. Some popish divines were appointed to examine it ; they brought in their animadversions : a dispute ensued between them and Melancthon, seconded by some of his disciples ; and, as in most cases of that kind, nothing was determined. Every one remained in his own way of thinking. From the Protestant divines Charles turned to the princes their patrons, but with no better success : they refused to abandon what they deemed the cause of God, for any earthly advantage. Coercive measures were resolved upon. A decree was issued condemning most of the peculiar tenets held by the Protestants, and prohibiting any one to tolerate those who taught them. In consequence of this decree, which they considered as a prelude to the most violent persecution, the Protestant princes assembled at Smalkalde, (1) Sleidan Father Paul. Seckend. Aa2 J72 THE HISTORY OF [PART I and concluded a league of mutual defence ; and the emperor's ambition, which led him to get his brother elected king of the Romans, in order to continue the imperial crown in his family, furnished the confederates with a decent pretence for courting the alliance of foreign princes. The kings of France and England secretly agreed to support them. Meanwhile, many circum- stances and reflections convinced Charles that this was not a proper season to attempt the extirpation of heresy by the sword. He saw Solyman ready- to enter Hungary, with the whole force of the Turkish empire, in order to wipe off the disgrace which his arms had sustained in the former campaign : he felt the necessity of union, not only for the accomplishment of his future schemes, but for ascertaining his present safety. The peace with France was precarious ; and he was afraid that the followers of Luther, if treated with severity, might forget that they were Christians, and join the Infidels. Policy made him drop the mask of zeal. By a treaty concluded at Nuremburg, and solemnly ratified in the diet at Ratisbon, the emperor granted the Protestants liberty of conscience until the meeting of a general council : and they agreed, on their part, to assist him powerfully against the Turks. (1) This treaty was no sooner signed than Charles received information that Solyman had entered Hungary at the head of three hundred thousand men. The imperial army, consisting of ninety thousand disciplined foot, and thiru thousand horse, besides a prodigious swarm of irregulars, immediately as- sembled in the neighbourhood of Vienna. Of this vast body the emperor, for the first time, took the command in person ; and Europe waited, in anxious suspense, the issue of a decisive battle between the two greatest potentates in the universe. But each dreading the other's power and good fortune, both conducted their operations with so much caution, that a campaign, from which the most important consequences had been expected, was closed without any memorable event. Solyman finding it impossible to take advantage of an enemy always on his guard, marched back to Constantinople ; and Charles, freed from so dangerous an invader, set out for Spain. (2) During the emperor's absence, great disorders prevailed in Germany, oc- casioned by the fanaticism of a sect of reformers distinguished by the name of Anabaptists ; because they contended, that the sacrament of baptism should be administered only to persons grown up to years of understanding, and should be performed not by sprinkling them with water, but by dipping them in it. This tenet was at least harmless ; but they held others of a more enthusiastic, as well as dangerous, nature. They maintained, that, among Christians, who have the precepts of the Gospel to direct, and the spirit of God to guide them, the office of magistrate is unnecessary, and an encroach- ment on spiritual liberty ; that all distinctions of birth or rank ought to be abolished ; that a community of goods should be established, and that every man may lawfully marry as many wives as he thinks proper. Tenets so flattering to human weakness and human pride naturally pro- duced a number of converts, especially among the lower class of people. The peasants greedily embraced opinions which promised to place them on a level with their imperious masters. They assembled in great bodies, and spread devastation wherever they came. But being destitute of a skilful leader, they were soon dispersed ; and Muncer, the first Anabaptist prophet, perished on a scaffold at Mulhausen in 1525. Several of his followers, how- ever, lurked in different places, and secretly propagated the opinions of their aect. A.t last, two Anabaptist prophets, John Matthias, a baker of Harlem, and John Bocold, a journeyman tailor of Leyden, possessed with the rage of making proselytes, fixed their residence at Munster, an imperial city in Westphalia ; and privately assembling their associates, from the neighbouring country, made themselves masters of the town, and expelled the inhabitants. Here the Anabaptists formed a singular kind of republic, over which Matthias assumed absolute authority, and wrote to his brethren in the Low Countries, inviting them to assemble at Mount Sion, (so he termed Munster) (1) Du Mont. Corps Diplomatique, torn. iv. (S) Sandov. Hist, del Etna. Carl. V. vol ii Robertson, book v LET. LIX.) MODERN EUROPE. 373 that they might thence set out in a body to reduce all nations under theii dominion. Meanwhile, the bishop of Munster having assembled a consider- able army, advanced to besiege the town. On his approach, Matthias sallied out, at the head of a chosen band, forced his camp, and returned to the city loaded with glory and spoil. But his success proved fatal to him. Thinking nothing now impossible for the favourites of heaven, he went out to meet the enemy, accompanied by no more than thirty of his followers ; boasting, that, like Gideon, he would smite the host of the ungodly with a handful of men. The prophet and his thirty associates were slain. The Anabaptists, however, did not despair : John of Leyden, their other light, still remained. This man, less bold, but more ambitious than Mat- thias, assumed the title of king: and being young, and of a complexion equally amorous and enthusiastic, he exercised* in their utmost latitude, those principles of his sect which favoured sensual gratification. He took, in a short time, no less than fourteen wives. His example was followed by his brethren : no man remained satisfied with a single wife. The houses were searched ; and young women grown up to maturity were instantly seized, and compelled to marry. Notwithstanding this sensuality, Munster made a gallant defence: but the bishop's army being reinforced, and the besieged greatly distressed for want of provisions, one of their own body de- serted, and betrayed them. The city was taken by surprise : most of the Anabaptists were slain ; and their king was made prisoner, and put to death by the most exquisite and lingering tortures, all of which he bore with as- tonishing fortitude.(l) So wonderful are the effects of enthusiasm in com- municating courage, even to minds naturally the most timid and feeble ! and so difficult is it, in such cases, to distinguish between the martyr and the visionary ! While these things were transacting in Germany, Charles undertook an expedition against the piratical states of Africa. Barbary, or that part of the African continent which lies along the coast of the Mediterranean sea, was then nearly in the same condition it is at present. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis were its principal governments ; and the two last were nests of pirates. Barbarossa, a famous corsair, had succeeded his brother in the kingdom of Algiers, which he formerly assisted him to usurp. He regulated with much prudence the interior police of his kingdom, carried on his pira- cies with great vigour, and extende*his conquests on the continent of Africa ; but perceiving that the natives submitted to his government with impatience, and fearing that his continual depredations might draw upon him a general combination of the Christian powers, he put his dominions under the protection of the Turkish emperor. Solyman, flattered by such an act of submission, and charmed with the boldness of the man, offered him the command of the Ottoman fleet. Proud of this distinction, Barbarossa repaired to Constantinople, and made use of his influence with his sultan to extend his own dominions. Partly by force, partly by treachery, he usurped the kino-dom of Tunis ; and being now possessed of greater power, he carried on his depredations against the Christian states with more destructive vio- lence than ever. Daily complaints of the piracies and ravages committed by the galleys of Barbarossa were brought to the emperor by his subjects, both in Spam and Italy ; and all Christendom seemed to look up to Charles, as its greatest and most fortunate prince, for relief from this new and odious species of op- pression. At the same time, Muley-Hascen, the exiled king of Tunis, finding none of the African princes able or willing to support him in recovering his throne, applied to the victorious Charles for assistance against the usurper. Equally desirous of delivering his dominions from the dangerous neighbour- hood of Barbarossa, of appearing as the protector of an unfortunate prince (1) Ant Lamb. Hortens. Tumult. Anabaptut. Jo. Bapt. Ottii, Annal. Jtnabaftigt. Mosbeim, Hut. Rcclet. vol. iv. 374 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. and of acquiring the glory annexed in that age to every expedition against the Mahometans, the emperor readily concluded a treaty with Muley-Hascen, and set sail for Tunis with a formidable armament. The Goletta, a strong fortress on an island in the bay of Tunis, and the key of the capital, planted with three hundred pieces of cannon, was taken by storm, together Avith all Barbarossa's fleet. He was defeated in a pitched battle ; and ten thousand Christian slaves having knocked off their fetters, and made themselves masters of the citadel, Tunis offered to surrender at discretion. But while Charles was deliberating on the means of preserving the lives of the inhabitants, his troops, fearing that they would be deprived of the booty?which they had expected, broke suddenly into the town, and pillaged and massacred without distinction. Thirty thousand persons perished by the sword, and ten thousand were made prisoners. The sceptre, drenched in blood, was restored to Muley-Hascen, on condition that he should ac- knowledge himself a vassal of the crown of Spain, put into the emperor's hands all the fortified seaports in the kingdom of Tunis, and pay annually twelve thousand crowns for the subsistence of a Spanish garrison in the Goletta. These points being settled, and twenty thousand Christian slaves freed from bondage, either by arms or by treaty, Charles returned to Europe, where his presence was become necessary ; while Barbarossa, who had re- tired to Bona, recovered new strength, and again became the tyrant of the ocean.(l) The king of France took advantage of the emperor's absence, to revive his claims in Italy. The treaty of Cambray had covered up, but not ex- tinguished, the flames of discord. Francis in particular, who waited only for a favourable opportunity of recovering the territories and reputation which he had lost, continued to negotiate against his rival with different courts. But all his negotiations were disconcerted by unforeseen accidents. The death of Clement VII. (whom he had gained by marrying his son, the duke of Orleans, afterward Henry II., to Catharine of Medicis, the niece of that pontiff) deprived him of all the support which he hoped to receive from the court of Rome. The king of England, occupied with domestic cares and projects, declined engaging in the affairs of the continent ; and the Protestant princes, associated by the league of Smalkalde, to whom also Francis had applied, and who seemed z\. first disposed to listen to him, filled with indignation and resentment at tne cruelty with which some of their reformed brethren had been treated in France, refused to have any connexion with the enemy of their religion. The particulars of this persecution it will be proper to relate, as they serve to illustrate the manners of the times. Francis was neither cruel nor bigoted. His levity and love of pleasure allowed him little leisure to con- cern himself about religious disputes ; but his principles becoming suspected, at a time when the emperor was gaining immortal glory by his expedition against the infidels, he found it necessary to vindicate himself by some ex- traordinary demonstration of reverence for the established faith. The in- discreet zeal of some Protestant converts furnished him with the occasion. They had affixed to the gates of the Louvre, and other public places, papers containing indecent reflections on the rites of the Romish church. Six of the persons concerned in this rash action were seized ; and the king, pre- tending to be struck with horror at their blasphemies, appointed a solemn procession, in order to avert the wrath of Heaven. The Host was carried through the city of Paris in great pomp : Francis walked uncovered before it, bearing a torch in his hand; the princes of the blood supported the canopy over it ; the nobles walked behind. In presence of this numerous assembly, the king declared, that if one of his hands were infected with heresy, he would cut it off with the other : " and I would sacrifice," added he, "even my own children, if found guilty of that crime." As an awful '!) Sandov. vol. ti. Robertson. Hist. Charles P. t book v. LET. L1X. MODERNEUROPE. 375 proof of his sincerity, the six unhappy persons who had beeiv seized were publicly burned, before the procession was finished, and in the most cruel manner. They were fixed upon a machine which descended into the flames and. retired alternately, until they expired.(l) Little wonder that the Pro- testant princes were incensed at such barbarity ! But Francis, though unsupported by any ally, commanded his army to ad- vance towards the frontier of Italy, under pretence of chastising the duke of Milan for a breach of the law of nations, in putting to death his ambassador. The operations of war, however, soon took a new direction. Instead of marching directly to the dutchy of Milan, Francis commenced hostilities against the duke of Savoy, with whom he had cause to be dissatisfied, and on whom he had some claims ; and before the end of the campaign, that feeble prince saw himself stripped of all his dominions, except the province of Piedmont. To complete his misfortunes, the city of Geneva, the sovereignty of which he claimed, and where the reformed religion was already established, threw off his yoke : and its revolt drew along with it the loss of the adjacent territory. Geneva was then an imperial city, and now became the capital of an independent republic. In this extremity the duke of Savoy saw no resource but in the emperor's protection ; and as his misfortunes were chiefly occasioned by his attachment to the imperial interest, he had a title to immediate assistance. But Charles, who was just returned from his African expedition, was not able to lend him the necessary support. His treasury was entirely drained, and he was obliged to disband his army, until he could raise new supplies. So wasting is the continued practice, even of successful war, to the most opulent princes and states ! Meantime, the death of Sforza, duke of Milan, totally changed the nature of the war, and afforded the emperor full leisure to prepare for action. The French monarch's pretext for taking up arms was at once cut off; but as the duke had died without issue, all Francis's rights to the dutchy of Milan, which he had yielded only to Sforza and his descendants, returned to him in full force. He accordingly renewed his claim to it : and if he had ordered his army immediately to advance, he might have made himself master of it. But he unfortunately wasted his time in fruitless negotiations, while his more politic rival took possession of the long-disputed territory, as a vacant fief of the empire. And although Charles seemed still to admit the equity of Fran- cis's claim, he delayed granting the investiture under various pretences, and was secretly taking every possible measure to prevent his recovering footing in Italy. During the time gained in this manner, Charles had recruited his finances, and of course his armies ; and finding himself in a condition for war, he at last threw off the mask, under which he had so long concealed his designs from the court of France. Entering Rome with great pomp, he pronounced, before the pope and cardinals assembled in full consistory, a violent invective against Francis, by way of reply to his propositions concerning the investiture of Milan. Yet Francis, by an unaccountable fatality, continued to negotiate, as if it had still been possible to terminate their differences in an amicable manner ; and Charles, finding him so eager to run into the snare, favoured the deception, and, by seeming to listen to his proposals, gained yet more time for the execution of his own ambitious projects.(2) If misfortune had rendered Francis too diffident, success had made Charles too confident. He presumed on nothing less than the subversion of the French monarchy; nay, he considered it as an infallible event. Having chased the forces of his rival out of Piedmont and Savoy, he pushed forward at the head of fifty thousand men, contrary to the advice of his most expe- rienced ministers and generals, to invade the southern provinces of France ; while two other armies were ordered to enter that kingdom, the one on the side of Picardy, the other on the side of Champagne. He thought it impos (1) Belcarii, Comment. Rer. Gallic. Steid. Hist. Reformat. (2) Mem. de Bellay. 376 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. sible that Francis could resist so many unexpected attacks, on such different quarters ; but he found himself mistaken. The French monarch fixed upon the most effectual plan for defeating the mvasion of a powerful enemy : and he prudently persevered in following it, though contrary to his own natural temper, and to the genius of his people. He determined to remain altogether upon the defensive, and to deprive the enemy of subsistence, by laying waste the country before them. The exe- cution of this plan was committed to the mareschal de Montmorency, its author, a man happily fitted for such service, by the inflexible severity of his disposition. He made choice of a strong camp, under the walls of Avignon, at the confluence of the Rhone and Durance, where he assembled a consi- derable army; while the king, with another body of troops, encamped at Valence, higher up the Rhone. Marseilles and Aries were the only towns he thought it necessary to defend, and each of these he furnished with a nume- rous garrison of his best troops. The inhabitants of the other towns were compelled to abandon their habitations ; the fortifications of such places as might have afforded shelter to the enemy were thrown down ; corn, forage, and provisions of every kind, were carried off or destroyed ; the mills and ovens were ruined, and the wells filled or rendered useless. ' This devastation extended from the Alps to Marseilles, and from the sea to the confines of Dauphiny ; so that the emperor, when he arrived with the van of his army on the confines of Provence, instead of that rich and populous country which he expected to enter, beheld nothing but one vast and desert solitude. He did not, however, despair of success, though he saw that he would have many difficulties to encounter ; and, as an encouragement to his officers, he made them liberal promises of lands and honours in France. But all the land which any of them obtained was a grave, and their master lost much honour by this rash and presumptuous enterprise. After unsuccess- fully investing Marseilles and Aries ; after attempting in vain to draw Mont- morency from his camp at Avignon, and not daring to attack it ; Charles having spent two inglorious months in Provence, and lost one half of his troops by famine or disease, was under the necessity of ordering a retreat ; and although he was some time in motion before the enemy suspected his intention, his retreat was conducted with so much precipitation and disorder as to deserve the name of a flight, the light troops of France having turned his march into a perfect rout ; the invasion of Picardy was not more effectual ; the imperial forces were obliged to retire without effecting any conquest of importance. ( 1) Charles had no sooner conducted the shattered remains of his army to the frontier of Milan, than he set out for Genoa ; and, unwilling to expose him- self to the scorn of the Italians, after such a reverse of fortune, he embarked directly for Spain.(2) Meanwhile, Francis gave himself up to that vain resentment which had formerly disgraced the prosperity of his rival. They had frequently, in the course of their quarrels, given each other the lie, and mutual challenges had been sent ; which, though productive of no serious consequences between the parties, had a powerful tendency to encourage the pernicious practice of duelling. Charles, in his invective pronounced at Rome, had publicly accused Francis of perfidy and breach of faith: Francis now exceeded Charles in the indecency of his accusations. The dauphin dying suddenly, his death was imputed to poison : Montecuculi, his cup-bearer, was put to the rack and that unhappy nobleman, in the agonies of torture, accused the emperor's generals, Gonzaga and de Leyva, of instigating him to the detestable act. The emperor himself was suspected ; nay, this extorted confession, and some obscure hints, were considered as incontestible proofs of his guilt ; though it was evident to all mankind, that neither Charles nor his generals could have any inducement to perpetrate such a crime, as Francis was still in the vigour of life himself, and had two sons besides the dauphin.(S) 03 Sandov. Jfitt. del Emp. Carl, r Robertson, book vi (2; Id. ibid. (3) Sandov. ubi. sup LET. LIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 377 But the incensed monarch's resentment did not stop here. Francis was not satisfied with endeavouring to blacken the character of his rival by an ambiguous testimony, which led to the most injurious suspicions, and upon which the most cruel constructions had been put: he was willing to add rebellion to murder. For this purpose he went to the parliament of Paris ; where, being seated with the usual solemnities, the advocate-general ap- peared, and accused Charles of Austria (so he affected to call the emperor) of having violated the treaty of Cambray, by which he Avas freed from the homage due to the crown of France for the counties of Artois and Flanders ; adding, that this treaty being now void, he was still to be considered as a vassal of France, and consequently had been guilty of rebellion, in taking arms against his sovereign. The charge was sustained by the court, and Charles was summoned to appear before the parliament of Paris at a day fixed. The term expired ; and no person appearing in the emperor's name, the parliament gave judgment, that Charles of Austria had forfeited, by re- bellion and contumacy, the counties of Flanders and Artois, and declared these fiefs reunited to the crown of France. (1) Francis soon after this vain display of his animosity, inarched into the Low Countries, as if he had intended to execute the sentence pronounced by his parliament. But a suspension of arms took place, through the inter- position of the queens of France and Hungary, before any thing of conse- quence was effected : and this cessation of hostilities was followed by a truce concluded at Nice, through the mediation of the reigning pontiff, Paul III., of the family of Farnese, a man of venerable character and pacific disposition. Each of these rival princes had strong reasons to incline them to peace. The finances of both were exhausted ; and the emperor, the most powerful of the two, was deeply impressed with the dread of the Turkish arms, which Francis had drawn upon him by a league with Solyman. In consequence of this league, Barbarossa, with a great fleet, appeared on the coast of Naples ; filled that kingdom with consternation ; landed without resistance near Ta- ranto ; obliged Castro, a place of some strength, to surrender ; plundered the adjacent country, and was taking measures for securing and extending his conquest, when the unexpected arrival of Doria, the famous Genoese admiral, together with the pope's galleys and a squadron of the Venetian fleet, made it prudent for him to retire. The sultan's forces also invaded Hungary, where the Turkish general after gaining several inferior advantages, defeated the Germans in a great battle at Essek on the Drave. Happily for Charles and for Europe, it was not in Francis's power, at this juncture, either to join the Turks, or to assemble an army strong enough to penetrate into the dutchy of Milan. The emperor however was sensible, that he could not long resist the efforts of two such powerful confederates, nor expect that the same fortunate circumstances would concur a second time in his favour. He therefore thought it necessary, both for his safety and repu- tation, to give his consent to a truce ; and Francis chose rather to run the risk of disobliging his new ally the sultan, than to draw on his head the indig- nation, and perhaps the arms, of all Christendom, by obstinately obstructing the re-establishment of tranquillity, and contributing to the aggrandizement of the infidels.(2) These considerations inclined the contending' monarchs to listen to the arguments of the pope ; but his holiness found it impossible to bring about a filial accommodation between them, each inflexibly persisting in asserting his own claims. Nor could he prevail on them to see one another, though both came to the place of rendezvous ; so great were the remains of distrust and rancour, or such the difficulty of adjusting the ceremonial ! Yet, impro- bable as it may seem, a few days after signing the truce, the emperor, in his passage to Barcelona, btflng driven on the coast of Provence, Francis invited him to come ashore ; frankly visited him on board his galley, and wa (1) Mem. de Ribier. <2) Jovii. Hist. lib. XMV. 378 THE HISTORY OP [PART I received and entertained with the warmest demonstrations of esteem and affection. Charles, with an equal degree of confidence, paid the king next day a visit at Aigues-mortes ; where these two hostile rivals, and vindictive enemies, who had accused one another of every kind of baseness, conversing together with all the cordiality of brothers, seemed to vie with each other in expressions of respect and friendship !(1) Such sudden transitions from snmity to affection, and from suspicion to confidence, can only be accounted for from that spirit of chivalry, with which the manners of both princes were strongly tinctured. Besides the glory of having restored tranquillity to Europe, Paul III. secured a point of much consequence to his family. He obtained in mar- riage, for his grandson, Margaret of Austria, the emperor's natural daughter, formerly wife to Alexander of Medicis, whom Charles had raised to the supreme power in Florence. Lorenzo of Medicis, the kinsman and intimate companion of Alexander, had assassinated him by one of the blackest treasons recorded in history. Under pretence of having secured him an assignation with a lady of great beauty, and of the highest rank, he drew him into a secret apartment of his palace, and there stabbed him, as he lay carelessly on a couch, expecting the presence of the lovely fair, whom he had often solicited in vain. Lorenzo, however, did not reap the fruits of his crime ; for although some of his countrymen extolled him as a third Brutus, and endeavoured to seize this occasion for recovering their liberties, the govern- ment of Florence passed into the hands of Cosmo II., another kinsman of Alexander. (2) Cosmo was desirous of marrying the widow of his prede- cessor ; but the emperor chose rather to oblige the pope, by bestowing his daughter upon Octavio Farnese, son of the duke of Parma, and grandson of his holiness. Charles had soon farther cause to be sensible of his obligations to Paul III. for negotiating the truce of Nice. His troops, every where, mutinied for want of pay, and the abilities of his generals only could have prevented a total revolt. He had depended upon the subsidies which he expected from his Castilian subjects for discharging the arrears of his army. He accord- ingly assembled the Cortes of Castile at Toledo ; and having represented to them the great expense of his military operations, he proposed to levy such supplies as the present exigency of his affairs demanded, by a general excise on commodities. But the Spaniards, who already felt' themselves oppressed with a load of taxes unknown to their ancestors, and who had often com- plained, that their country was drained of its wealth and its inhabitants, in order to prosecute quarrels in which they had no interest, determined not to add voluntarily to their own burthens. The nobles, in particular, inveighed with great vehemence against the measure proposed ; as it would encroach on the most valuable and distinguished privilege of their order, that of being exempted from the payment of any tax. After employing arguments and promises in vain, Charles therefore dismissed the assembly with indignation : and from that period neither the nobles nor the prelates have been called to the Cortes, on pretence that such as pay no part of the public taxes should not claim a vote in laying them on. These assemblies have since consisted merely of the procurators or representatives of eighteen cities, two from each ; in ail, thirty-six members, who a?e absolutely at the devotion of the crown. (3) The citizens of Ghent, still more bold, broke out not long after into open rebellion against the emperor's government, on account of a tax which they judged contrary to their ancient privileges, and a decision of the council of Mechlin in favour of the imperial authority. Enraged at an unjust imposi- tion, and rendered desperate on seeing their rights betrayed by that very court which was bound to protect them, they flew to arms ; seized several of the emperor's officers, and drove such of the nobility as resided among (1) Sand. Jfitt. del. Emp. Carl. V. (2) Lett, di Prineip <3) La. Science de Giro, par M. de Real. Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book vi LET. LIX.] M D E R N E U R O P E. 379 them out of the city. Sensible, however, of their inability to support what their zeal had prompted them to undertake, and desirous of securing a pro- tector against the formidable forces with which they might expect soon to be attacked, they offered to acknowledge the king of France as their sovereign ; to put him into immediate possession of their city, and to assist him in reco- vering those provinces in the Netherlands which had anciently belonged to his crown. True policy directed Francis to comply with this proposal. The counties of Flanders and Artois were more valuable than the dutchy of Milan, for which he had so long contended ; and their situation in regard to France, made it more easy to conquer or to defend them. But we are apt to estimate the value of things by the trouble which they have cost us. Francis, computing in this manner, overrated the territory of Milan. He had lived in friendship with the emperor ever since their interview at Aigues-mortes, and Charles had promised him the investiture of that dutchy. Forgetting therefore all his past injuries, and the deceitful promises by which he had been so often duped, the credulous, generous, but unprincipled Francis, not only rejected the propositions of the citizens of Ghent, but communicated to the emperor his whole negotiation with the malecontents.(l) Judging of Charles's heart by his own, Francis hoped, by this seemingly disinterested proceeding, to obtain at once the investiture of Milan : and the emperor, well acquainted with the weakness of his rival, flattered him in this hope, for his own selfish purposes. His presence being necessary in the Netherlands, he demanded a passage through France. It was immediately granted him ; and Charles, to whom every moment was precious, set out, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his council, and fears of his Spanish subjects, with a small but splendid train of a hundred persons. He was met on the frontiers of France by the dauphin and the duke of Orleans, who offered to go into Spain, and remain there as hostages, till he should reach his own dominions ; but Charles replied, that the king's honour was sufficient for his safety, and prosecuted his journey without any other security. The king entertained him with the utmost magnificence at Paris, and the two young princes did not take leave of him till he entered the Low Countries ; yet he still found means to evade his promise, and Francis continued to believe his professions sincere. (2) The citizens of Ghent, alarmed at the approach of the emperor, who was joined in the Netherlands by three armies, sent ambassadors to implore his mercy, and offered to throw open their gates. Charles only condescended to reply, that he would appear among them, " as a sovereign and a judge, with the sceptre and the sword." He accordingly entered the place of his nati- vity, on the anniversary of his birth ; and, instead of that lenity which might have been expected, exhibited an awful example of his severity. Twenty-six of the principal citizens were put to death ; a greater number were banished ; the city was declared to have forfeited its privileges ; a new system of laws and political administration was prescribed ; and a large fine was imposed on the inhabitants, in order to defray the expense of erecting a citadel, together with an annual tax for the support of a garrison. They were not only de- spoiled of their ancient immunities, but made to pay, like conquered people, for the means of perpetuating their own slavery. (3) Having thus re-established his authority in the Low Countries, and being now under no necessity of continuing that scene of falsehood and dissimu- lation with which he had amused the French monarch, Charles began gradually to throw aside the veil under which he had concealed his intentions with respect to the dutchy of Milan, and at last peremptorily refused to give up a territory of such value, or voluntarily to make such a liberal addition to the strength of an enemy, by diminishing his own power. He even denied, that he had ever made any promise which could bind him to an action so foolish, and so contrary to his own interest. (4) (i; Sandov. ubi sup. Mem.de Bellay. (2) Mem. de Ribier. Thuan. lib. I Mem. de Bellai. (3) Harcei, Jlnnal. Brabantia. (4) Mem. de Bellay. 380 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. This transaction exposed the king of France to as much scorn as it did the emperor to censure. The blind credulity of Francis, after he had expe- rienced so often the duplicity and artifices of his rival, seemed to merit 110 other return. He remonstrated, however, and exclaimed, as if this had been the first instance in which the emperor had deceived him. The insult offered to his understanding affected him even more sensibly than the injury done to his interest ; and he discovered such resentment as made it obvious that he would seize on the first opportunity of revenge, and that a new war would soon desolate the European continent. Meanwhile, Charles was obliged to turn his attention towards the affairs of Germany. The Protestants having in vain demanded a general council, pressed him earnestly to appoint a conference between a select number of divines of each party, in order to examine the points in dispute. For this purpose a diet was assembled at Ratisbon: and such a conference, notwith- standing the opposition of the pope, was held with great solemnity in the presence of the emperor. But the divines chosen to manage the controversy, though men of learning and moderation, were only able to settle a few specu- lative opinions, all points relative to worship and jurisdiction serving only to inflame the minds of the disputants. Charles, therefore, finding his endeavours to bring about an accommodation ineffectual, and being impatient to close the diet, prevailed on a majority of the members to approve of the following edict of recess : That the articles concerning which the divines had agreed, should be held as points decided; that those about which they had differed should be referred to the determination of a general council, or, if that could not be obtained, to a national synod ; and should it prove impracticable also to assemble a synod of Germany, that a general diet of the empire should be called within eighteen months, in order to give final judgment on the whole controversy ; that, in the mean time, no innovations should be made, nor any means employed to gain proselytes. (l) This edict gave great offence to the pope. The bare mention of allowing a diet, composed chiefly of laymen, to pass judgment in regard to articles of faith, appeared to him no less criminal and profane than the worst of those heresies which the emperor seemed so zealous to suppress. The Protestants also were dissatisfied with it, as it considerably abridged the liberty which they at that time enjoyed. They murmured loudly against it; and Charles, unwilling to leave any seeds of discontent in the empire, granted them a private declaration, exempting them from whatever they thought injurious or oppressive in the edict of recess, and ascertaining to them the full possession of all their former privileges. (2) The situation of the emperor's affairs at this juncture made these extraor- dinary concessions necessary. He foresaw a rupture with France to be unavoidable, and he was alarmed at the rapid progress of the Turks in Hun- gary. A great revolution had happened in that kingdom. John Zapol Scaepius, by the assistance of Solyman, had wrested from the king of the Romans a considerable part of the country. John died, and left an infant son. Fer- dinand attempted to take advantage of the minority, in order to repossess himself of the whole kingdom ; but his ambition was disappointed by the activity and address of George Martinuzzi, bishop of Waradin, who shared the regency with the queen. Sensible that he was unable to oppose the king of the Romans in the field, Martinuzzi satisfied himself with holding out the fortified towns, all which he provided with every thing necessary for defence ; and he at. the same time sent ambassadors to Solyman, beseeching him to extend towards the son, that imperial protection which had so generously maintained the father on the throne. Ferdinand used his utmost endeavours to thwart this negotiation, and even meanly offered to hold the Hungarian crown on the same ignominious conditions by which John had obtained it, that of paying tribute to the Porte. But the sultan saw such advantages from espousing the interest of the young king, that he instantly marched into U) Father Paul, lib. i. Seckead, lib. iii. Dumont, Carps Diplam. torn, iv f2) Id. ibid. LET. LIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 381 Hungary ; and the Germans, having formed the siege of Buda, were defeated with great slaughter before that city. Solyman, however, instead of becoming the protector of the infant sovereign whom he had relieved, made use of this success to extend his own dominions : he sent the queen and her son into Transylvania, which province he allotted them, and added Hungary to the Ottoman empire. (1) Happily for the Protestants, Charles had received intelligence of this revo- lution before the close of the diet at Ratisbon ; and in consequence of the concessions Avhich he made them, he obtained such liberal supplies, both of men and money, in order to prosecute the war against the Turks, as left him little anxiety about the security of Germany. He therefore hastened to join his fleet and army in Italy, on purpose to carry into execution a great and favourite enterprise which he had concerted against Algiers ; though it would certainly have been more consistent with his dignity to have conducted the whole force of the empire against Solyman, the common enemy of Christen- dom, who was preparing to enter his Austrian dominions. But many reasons induced Charles to prefer the African expedition. He wanted strength to combat the Turks in so distant a country as Hungary ; and the glory which he had formerly acquired in Barbaiy led him to hope for like success, while the cries of his Spanish subjects roused him to take vengeance on their ravagers. Algiers, since the taking of Tunis, was become the common receptacle of all the Barbary corsairs ; and from the time that Barbarossa, as captain-basha, commanded the Turkish fleet, it had been governed by Hascen Aga, a rene- gado eunuch, who outdid, if possible, his master in boldness and cruelty. The commerce of the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted by his galleys ; and such frequent alarms were given to the coasts of Spain, that there was a necessity for erecting watch-towers at certain distances, and of keeping a guard constantly employed, in order to descry the approach of his squadrons, and to protect the inhabitants from the depredations of the rapacious ruffians, with which they were manned. Charles, before he left Spain, had resolved to humble this daring corsair, and to exterminate the lawless crew who had so long infested the ocean. With this view he had ordered a fleet and army to assemble on the coast of Italy : and although the autumn was now far advanced, he obstinately per- sisted in his purpose, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Andrew Doria, who conjured him not to expose so noble an armament to almost inevitable destruction, by venturing, at so late a season, to approach the stormy coast of Algiers. Doria's words proved prophetical. No sooner had the emperor landed in Barbary, than a frightful hurricane arose, scattered his fleet, and dashed great part of it in pieces ; while he and his land forces were exposed to all the fury of the elements, in an enemy's country, without a hut or a tent to shelter them, or so much as a spot of firm ground on which they could rest their wearied bodies. In this calamitous situation, cold and wet, they continued during several days, harassed at the same time by the attacks of the Algerines. At last Doria, happily being able to assemble the remains of the fleet, Charles was glad to re-embark, after having lost the greater part of his army, by the inclemency of the weather, famine, or the sword of the enemy. And the men who yet survived were doomed to encounter new miseries in their return ; the fleet being scattered by a fresh storm, and the ships obliged to take shelter, separately, in those parts of Spain or Italy they could first reach. (2) Such, my dear Philip, was the result of the emperor's pompous expedition against Algiers, the most unfortunate enterprise of his reign, and that on which he built the highest hopes. But if Charles failed to acquire the glory which ever attends success, he secured that which is more essentially con- nected with merit. He never appeared greater than amid his misfortunes. His firmness and constancy of spirit, his magnanimity, fortitude, humanity, (1) Istuanhaffe, HTist. ffunf. lib. xlv. (8) Nic. Villag. Expedit. Car. V. ad Jlrgyriam. Sandov. vol. ii. Robertson, book rt. 382 THE HISTORY OF fPART 1. and compassion were eminently conspicuous. He endured as severe hard- ships as the meanest soldier ; he exposed his own person to whatever dangei appeared ; he encouraged the desponding, visited the sick and wounded, and animated all by his words and example.(l) He paid dearly for his obstinacy and presumption ; but he made mankind sensible that he possessed many valuable qualities, Avhich an almost uninterrupted flow of prosperity had hitherto afforded him little opportunity of showing. The loss which the emperor suffered in this calamitous enterprise encou- raged the king of France to begin hostilities, on which he had been for some time resolved ; an action dishonourable to civil society having furnished him with too good a pretext for taking arms. The marquis del Guasto, governor of the dutchy of Milan, had got intelligence of the motions and destination of two ambassadors, Rincon and Fergoso, whom Francis had despatched, the one to the Ottoman Porte, the other to the republic of Venice ; and knowing how much his master wished to discover the intentions of the French mo- narch, and of what consequence it was to retard the execution of his mea- sures, he employed some soldiers belonging to the garrison of Pavia to lie in wait for these ambassadors as they sailed down the Po. The ambassadors and most of their attendants were murdered, and their papers seized. (2) Francis immediately demanded reparation for that barbarous violence ; and as Charles endeavoured to put him off with an evasive answer, he appealed to all the courts of Europe, setting forth the heinousness of the injury, the iniquity of the emperor in disregarding his just request, and the necessity of vengeance. But Charles, who was a more profound negotiator, defeated in a great measure the effects of these spirited representations. He secured the fidelity of the Protestant princes in Germany, by granting them new con- cessions ; and he engaged the king of England to espouse his cause, under pretence of defending Europe against the infidels ; while Francis was only able to form an alliance with the kings of Denmark and Sweden (who for the first time interested themselves in the quarrels of the sovereigns of the South), and to renew his treaty with Solyman, which drew on him the indignation of Christendom. But the activity of Francis supplied all the defects in his negotiation. Five armies were soon ready to take the field, under different generals, and with different destinations. Nor was Charles wanting in his preparations. He and Henry, a second time, made an ideal division of the kingdom of France. But as the hostilities that ensued were followed by no important consequence, nor distinguished by any memorable event, except the battle of Cerisoles, gained by count d'Enguien over the imperialists, and in which ten thousand of the emperor's best troops fell, I shall not enter into particulars. It will be sufficient to observe, that, after France, Spain, Piedmont, and the Low Countries had been alternately, or at once, the scene of war ; after the Turkish fleet, under Barbarossa, had ravaged the coasts of Italy, and the lilies of France and the crescent of Mahomet had appeared in conjunction before Nice, where the cross of Savoy was displayed, Francis and Charles, mutually tired of harassing each other, concluded at Crespy a treaty of peace, in which the king of England was not mentioned ; and, from being implacable enemies, became once more, in appearance, cordial friends, and even allies by the ties of blood.(3) The chief articles in this treaty were, that all the conquests which either party had made since the truce of Nice should be restored ; that the emperor should give in marriage to the duke of Orleans, either his own eldest daughter, with the Low Countries, or the second daughter of his brother Ferdinand, with the investiture of the dutchy of Milan ; that Francis should renounce all pretensions to the kingdom of Naples, as well as to the sovereignty of Flanders and Artois, and Charles gave up his claim to the dutchy of Burgundy and that both should unite in making war upon the Turks. (4) (1) Nic.Villag. F.xpedit Car. V. ad Jlrgynam. Sandov. vol. ii. Robertson, book vi. '*i Mem. de BeUay. (3) Mem. de JUoulii*. Mem. de Bellay. (4) Recucil dee Trailer torn. L ET. LX.J MODERN EUROPE. 383 The emperor was chiefly induced to grant conditions so advantageous to France, by a desire of humbling the Protestant princes in Germany. With the papal jurisdiction, he foresaw they would endeavour to throw off the im- perial authority ; and he had determined to make his zeal for the former a pretence for enforcing and extending the latter. But before I speak of the wars in which that resolution involved him, I must carry forward the do- mestic history of England, the knowledge of which will throw light on many foreign transactions. Meanwhile, I shall observe, for the sake of perspicuity, that the death of the duke of Orleans, before the consummation of his marriage, disentangled the emperor from the most troublesome stipulation in the treaty of Crespy; and that the French monarch, being still engaged in hostilities with Eng- land, was unable to obtain any reparation for the loss which he suffered by this unforeseen event. These hostilities, like those between Charles and Francis; terminated in nothing decisive. Equally tired of a struggle, attended with no glory or advantage to either, the contending parties concluded at Campe, near Ardres, a treaty of peace, in which it was stipulated, that France should pay the arrears due by former treaties to England. But these arrears did not amount to more than one-third of the sum expended by Henry on his military operations ; and Francis being in no condition to discharge them. Boulogne (a chargeable pledge) was left in the hands of the English monarch as a security for the debt.(l) Such was the result of a war which had wasted the wealth and strength of both kingdoms, and threatened the final ruin of one of them. LETTER LX. The domestic History of England during the Reign of Henry VIII., with some Account of the Affairs of Scotland, and of the Rise of the Reformation in both Kingdoms. No prince ever ascended the throne of England with more advantages than Henry VIII. You have already had occasion, my dear Philip, to observe his fortunate situation with respect to the great powers on the continent : he was no less happy in regard to the internal state of his kingdom, and other domestic circumstances. His title to the crown was undisputed; his trea- sury was full; his subjects were in tranquillity; and the vigour and comeli- ness of his person, his freedom of manners, his love of show, and his dex- terity in every manly exercise, rendered his accession highly popular, while his proficiency in literature, and his reputation for talents, made his cha- racter respectable. Every thing seemed to prognosticate a happy and pros- perous reign. The first act of Henry's administration confirmed the public hopes : it was the prosecution of Empson and Dudley, the two unfeeling ministers whom his father had employed in his extortions. They insisted, and perhaps justly, that they had acted solely by royal authority; but the jury was so far moved by popular prejudices as to give a verdict against them ; and Henry, at the earnest desire of the people, granted a warrant for their execution.(2) Having punished the instruments of past oppression, the king's next con- cern was to fulfil his former engagements. He had been affianced during his father's lifetime to the infanta Catharine, his brother's widow; and, not- withstanding some scruples on that step, he now agreed that their nuptials should be celebrated. We shall afterward have occasion to observe the extraordinary effects of this marriage, and of the king's remorse, either real or pretended. Some princes nave been their own ministers, but almost every one has (1) Heroert. Stowe. (2, Holingshed 384 THEHISTORYOF I FART I. either had a minister or a favourite : Wolsey, whose character has already been delineated, was both to Henry. Being admitted to the youthful mo- narch's pleasures, he took the lead in every jovial conversation, and pro- moted, notwithstanding his religious habit, all that frolic and gayety which he found to be agreeable to the age and inclinations of the king. During the intervals of amusement, he introduced business and state affairs, and insi- nuated those maxims of conduct which he was desirous his master should pursue.(l) By these means he insensibly acquired that absolute ascendant over Henry, which distinguished his administration ; and the people saw with concern every day new instances of his uncontrolled authority. The duke of Buckingham, lord high constable of England, the first noble- man in the kingdom, both in family and fortune, having wantonly given dis- gust to Wolsey, soon found reason to repent his imprudence. He was de- scended by a female from the duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III., and being infatuated with judicial astrology, he consulted with a Car thusian friar, named Hopkins, who flattered him with the hope of ascending one day the English throne. He had even been so unguarded as to utter some expressions against the king's life. The cardinal made these the grounds of an impeachment ; and although Buckingham's threats seem to have proceeded more from indiscretion than deliberate malice, he was brought to trial, condemned, and executed.(2) The office of high constable, which this nobleman inherited from the Bohuns, earls of Hereford, being forfeited by his attainder, was never afterward revived in England. The next memorable event in the domestic history of this reign, is the divorce of queen Catharine. The king's scruples in regard to the lawfulness of his marriage increased with the decay of the queen's beauty. She had borne him several children; but they were all dead except the princess Mary; and Henry was passionately fond of male issue. He consulted his confessor, the bishop of Lincoln, on the legality of marrying a brother's widow, and found that prelate possessed with some doubts and difficulties. He next proceeded to examine the question by his own learning and study, being himself a great divine and casuist : and having had recourse to the works of his oracle, Thomas Aquinas, he discovered that this celebrated doctor had expressly declared against the lawfulness of such marriages. The archbishop of Canterbury was now applied to, and desired to consult his brethren. All the prelates of England, except Fisher, bishop of Roches- ter, unanimously declared, under their hand and seal, that they deemed the king's marriage unlawful.(S) Wolsey also fortified his master's scruples; and the bright eyes of Anne Boleyn, maid of honour to the queen, carried home every argument to the heart of Henry, more forcibly than even the suggestions of that powerful favourite. This young lady was daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, who had been em- ployed by Henry in several embassies, and was allied to all the chief nobility in the kingdom. She had been carried over to Paris in early youth, by the king's sister, when espoused to Lewis XII. of France ; and the graces of her mind, no less than the beauty of her person, had distinguished her even in that polished court. The time at which she returned to England is not cer- tainly known; but it appears to have been after the king had entertained doubts concerning the lawfulness of his marriage. She immediately caught the roving and amorous eye of Henry; and as her virtue and modesty left him no hope of licentious indulgences, he resolved to raise her to the throne, which her accomplishments, both natural and acquired, seemed equally fitted to adorn. But many bars were yet in the way of Henry's wishes. It was not only necessary to obtain a divorce from the pope, but a revocation of the bull which had been granted for his marriage with Catharine, before he could marry Anne : and he had to combat all the interest of the emperor, whose aunt he was going to degrade. The king of England, however, did not despair of 'JO Cavendish (2) Herbert (3) Burnet, Hist. Reformat .book LET. LX.] MODERN EUROPE. 383 success. He was in high favour with the court of Rome, and he deserved to be so. He had not only opposed the progress of the Lutheran tenets, by all the influence which his extensive and almost absolute authority conferred upon him, but he had even written a book against them : a performance in itself not contemptible, and which gave so much pleasure to Leo X., that he conferred upon Henry the title of Defender of the Faith. Sensible therefore of his importance, as the chief pillar of the church, at a time when it stood in much need of support, he confidently applied to Clement VII., the reigning pontiff, for a dissolution of his marriage with Catharine. The pope seemed at first favourable to Henry's inclinations ; but his dread of displeasing the emperor, whose prisoner he had lately been, prevented him from coming to any fixed determination. He at last, however, empowered Campeggio and Wolsey, his two legates in England, to try the validity of the king's marriage. They accordingly opened their court at London, and pro- ceeded to the examination of the matter. The first point which came before them, and that which Henry wanted chiefly to establish, was Arthur's con- summation of his marriage with Catharine ; and although the queen protested that her virgin honour Avas yet untainted, when the king received her into his bed, and even appealed to his grace (the title then taken by our kings) for the truth of her asseveration, stronger proofs than were produced could not be expected of such a fact, after so long an interval. But when the business seemed drawing near to a close, and while Henry was in anxious expectation of a sentence in his favour, all his hopes were suddenly blasted. Campeg- gio, on the most frivolous pretences, prorogued the court ; and Clement, at the intercession of the emperor, -revoked the cause soon after to Rome.(l) This finesse occasioned the fall of Wolsey. Anne Boleyn imputed to him the failure of her expectations ; and Henry, who entertained the highest opinion of the cardinal's capacity, ascribed his miscarriage in the present undertaking not to misfortune or mistake, but to the malignity or infidelity of that minister. The great seal was taken from him, and given to sir Thomas More, a man of learning, virtue, and capacity. He was indicted in the Star- Chamber ; his lands and goods were declared forfeited ; his houses and fur- niture were seized ; he was pronounced without the protection of the laws, and his person liable to be committed to custody.(2) The king's heart, how- ever, relented, and the prosecution was carried no further ; but the cardinal was ordered to remove from court, and his final ruin was hanging over him. The parliament laid hold of the present opportunity to pass several bills, restraining the impositions of the clergy; and Henry was not displeased, that the pope and his whole militia should be made sensible of their dependence upon him, and of the willingness of his subjects, if he was so disposed, to reduce the power and privileges of ecclesiastics. Amid the anxieties with which he was agitated, he was often tempted to break off all connexion with Rome : and Anne Boleyn used every insinuation, in order to make him pro- ceed to extremities with Clement ; both as the readiest and surest means of her exaltation to the royal dignity, and of spreading the new doctrines, in which she had been initiated under the dutchess of Alenc, on, a warm friend to the Reformation. But Henry, notwithstanding these inducements, had still many reasons to desire a good agreement with the sovereign pontiff. Having been educated in a superstitious veneration for the holy see, he dreaded the reproach' of heresy ; and he abhorred all alliance with the Lutherans, the chief opponents of the papal power, because Luther, their apostle, had handled him roughly, in an answer to his book in defence of the Romish communion. While Henry was fluctuating between these contrary opinions, two of his courtiers fell accidentally, one evening, into company with Dr. Thomas Cran- mer, fellow of Jesus college, in Cambridge, a man distinguished by his learn- ing, but still more by his candour ; and as the affair of the divorce became IS) Strvne ' Cavendish" The richness of Wolsey's furniture was such as must astonish even the present age. The principal apartments of his palace were lined with cloth of gold or cloth of silver ; he had a side board of plate of massy gold : and every other article for domestic use or ornament was proporuonahlr sumptuous. Ibid. 17 VOL. I. B b 386 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. the subject of conversation, he observed that the best way, either to quiet the king's conscience or to obtain the pope's consent, would be to consult all the universities in Europe with regard to that controverted point. When Henry was informed of this proposal, he was delighted with it, and swore with great violence, " By God! Cranmer has got the right sow by the ear." The doctor was immediately sent for, and taken into favour ; the universities were consulted, according to his advice ; and all of them declared the king's marriage invalid. (1) Clement, however, lying still under the influence of the emperor, continued inflexible ; and as Henry was sensible that the extremities to which he was pushed, both against the pope and the ecclesiastical order, must be disagree- able to Wolsey, whose opposition he dreaded, he renewed the prosecution against his ancient favourite. The cardinal, after his disgrace, had remained for some time at Richmond ; but being ordered to remove to his see of York, he took up his residence at Cawood, in Yorkshire, where he rendered himself extremely popular in the neighbourhood, by his affability and hospitality. In this retreat he lived, when the earl of Northumberland received orders to arrest him for high- treason, and conduct him to London, as a prelude to his trial. On his journey he was seized with a disorder, which turned into a dysentery : and it was with much difficulty that he was able to reach Leicester Abbey. " I am come to lay my bones among you," said Wolsey to the abbot and monks, who came out to receive him : and he immediately took to his bed, whence he never rose more. " O, had I but served my God," cried he, a little before he expired, " as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have deserted me in my gray hairs."(2) His treason, indeed, seems rather to have been against the people than the prince, or even the state ; for although the violence and obstinacy of Henry's character ought perhaps to apologize for many of the cardinal's public measures, his continued extortions upon the subject, by the most iniquitous methods, in what he called his legantine court, admit of no alleviation. Thus freed from a person whom he considered as an obstacle in the way of his inclinations, and supported by the opinion of the learned in the step which he intended to take, Henry ordered a parliament, together with a con- vocation, to meet; in which he was acknowledged, "the Protector and supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England." And being now fully determined in his own mind relative to a matter which had long engaged his thoughts, and resolved to administer ecclesiastical affairs without having fur- ther recourse to Rome, as well as to abide all consequences, he privately celebrated his marriage with Anne Boleyn, whom he had previously created marchioness of Pembroke. Cranmer, now become archbishop of Canterbury, annulled soon after the king's marriage with Catharine (a step which ought to have preceded his second nuptials), and ratified that with Anne, who was publicly crowned queen, with all the pomp and dignity suited to such a ceremony. (3) And, to complete the satisfaction of Henry on the conclusion of this troublesome business, the queen was safely delivered of a daughter, who received the name of Elizabeth, and whom we shall afterward see swaying the English sceptre with equal glory to herself and happiness to her people. When intelligence was conveyed to Rome of these transactions, -the con- clave was all in a rage, and the pope was urged by the cardinals of the impe- rial faction to dart his spiritual thunders against Henry. But Clement was still unwilling to proceed to extremities : he only declared Cranmer's sen- tence null, and threatened the king with excommunication, if he did not put things in their former condition, before a day named. In the mean time, Henry was prevailed upon, by the mediation of the king of France, to submit his cause to the Roman consistory, provided the cardinals of the imperial fac- tion weie excluded from it. The pope consented ; and promised, that if the . ) Herbert. Burnet. ( Coke, Imt. fol. 44. (2) Stat. 31 Henry VIII. cap. xiv. LET. LX.J MODERN EUROPE. 391 to the tower, condemned, and executed.(l) He was a man of low birth, but worthy, by his integrity and abilities, of the high station to which he 'was raised; worthy of a better master and a better fate. The measures for divorcing Henry from Anne of Cleves were carried for- ward at the same time with the bill of attainder against Cromwell. Henry pleaded, that when he espoused Anne, he had not inwardly given his con- sent ; and that, notwithstanding the near approach he had made, he had not thought proper to consummate the marriage. The convocation sustained these reasons, and solemnly annulled the engagements between the king and queen. The parliament, ever obsequious to Henry's will, ratified the decision of the church. The marriage of the king with Catharine Howard, which followed soon after his divorce from Anne of Cleves, was regarded as a favourable incident by the Catholic party; and the subsequent events corresponded with their expectations. The king's councils being now directed by the duke of Nor- folk and bishop Gardiner, a furious persecution was begun against the Pro- testants. The Law of the Six Articles, which Cromwell had, on all occa- sions, taken care to soften, was executed with rigour ; and Dr. Barnes, and several other clergymen, were prosecuted and brought to the stake. But Henry's attention was soon turned to prosecutions of a very different kind, and on a subject which affected him still more sensibly than even the violation of his favourite theological statute. He had thought himself extremely happy in his new consort. The elegant person and agreeable manners of Catharine had entirely captivated his heart ; and he had publicly, in his chapel, returned thanks to Heaven for the felicity which the conjugal state afforded him. This happiness, however, was of short duration. It disappeared like a gaudy meteor, almost as soon as perceived ; and its loss afflicted the king the more keenly, by reason of the circumstances with which it was accompanied. It not only vanished on a point which inti- mately concerned his peace, but on which he peculiarly valued himself, his skill in distinguishing a true maid. It at once wounded his pride and his passion. The queen had led a dissolute life before marriage'. She had abandoned herself to the footmen of her grandmother, the old dutchess of Norfolk, while her maid was in the same chamber, and even along with her in the same bed. The proofs of this licentiousness were positive. There was also room to believe, notwithstanding her declaration to the contrary, that she had not been faithful to the king's bed ; for it appeared, that one Colepepper had passed the night with her alone since her marriage, and that she had taken Derham, one of her old paramours, into her service. (2) When these proofs of Catharine's incontinence were laid before Henry, he was so deeply affected, that he remained for some moments speechless, and at last burst into tears. The natural ferocity of his temper, however, soon returned ; and he assembled a parliament, the usual instrument of his tyranny, in order to satiate his vengeance. A bill of attainder was voted against the queen and the viscountess of Rochford, who had conducted her criminal amours. A singular bill was also passed at the same time, making it treason in any person to conceal the incontinence of a queen of England ; and farther enacting, that if a king of England should marry any woman who had been incontinent, taking her for a true maid, she likewise should be deemed guilty of treason, in case she did not previously reveal her shame to him. And the queen and lady Rochford were beheaded on Tower-hill, though their guilt had preceded the framing of that statute. (3) Having got over this troublesome business, Henry again turned his atten- tion to the affairs of religion; altering several times the national creed, according to his own capricious humour. And he turned his arms against his nephew, James V., of Scotland, because that prince had refused to imi- tate his conduct, in throwing off the jurisdiction of the pope. The principles of the Reformation had already found their way into Scot- (1) Btirnet, vol. i (2) Id. ibid. (3) Id. ubi sup. 392 . THE HISTORY OF [PART I land. Several persons there had fallen martyrs to the new faith : and the nobility, invited by the example of England, had cast a wishful eye on the ecclesiastical revenues ; hoping, if a change in religion should take place, to enrich themselves with the plunder of the church. But the king, though very poor, not superstitious, and somewhat inclined to magnificence, fortified by the arguments of the clergy, and guided by the inclinations of his queen, a daughter of the duke of Guise, resisted every temptation to such robbery, and continued faithful to the see of Rome. This respect for the rights of the church proved fatal to James, and brought many miseries on his kingdom, both before and after his death. Had the king of Scotland flattered the pride of Hemy, by following his example in ecclesiastical affairs, he would have been supported in his mea- sures with the whole force of England ; whereas he now had that force to oppose, and a dissatisfied people to rule. Flushed, however, with an ad vantage gained over a detachment from the English army by lord Hume, he marched at the head of thirty thousand men to meet their main body, com- manded by the duke of Norfolk, who had advanced as far as Kelso ; and as that nobleman retreated on the approach of the Scottish army, the king resolved to enter England, and take vengeance on the invaders. But his nobility, dissatisfied on account of the preference shown to the clergy, op posed his resolution, and refused to attend him. Equally enraged and sur- prised at this mutiny, he reproached them with cowardice, he threatened punishment ; and still determined to make some impression on the enemy's country with the forces that adhered to him, he despatched ten thousand men to ravage the western border. They entered England near Solway Frith, while he himself followed, at a small distance, ready to join them upon occasion. But this expedition also proved unsuccessful, and even highly unfortunate , and from a cause allied to that which had ruined the former enterprise. The king of Scotland, become peevish by disappointment, and diffident of all his nobility, deprived lord Maxwell of the command of the army, and conferred it on Oliver Sinclair, a private gentleman. The Scots, displeased with this alteration, were preparing to disband; when a small body of English forces appearing, they suddenly took to flight, and were all either killed or made prisoners.(l) This disaster had such an effect on the haughty mind of James, that he would admit of no counsel or consolation, but abandoned himself wholly to despair. All the passions that are inimical to human life, shame, rage, and despondency, took hold of him at once. His body wasted daily by sympa- thizing with his anxious mind; and he was brought to the verge of the grave, when his queen was safely delivered of the celebrated and unfortunate Mary Stuart. Having no former issue living, he anxiously inquired whether his consort had brought him a son or a daughter; and being told a daughter, he turned himself in his bed, said, " The crown came with a woman, and it will go with a woman ! Many woes await this unhappy kingdom : Henry will make it his own, either by force of arms or by marriage." He expired soon after uttering these sorrowful words. What James had foretold came in part to pass. Henry was no sooner informed of the victory at Solway, and the death of his nephew, than he formed the project of uniting Scotland to his own dominions, by marrying prince Edward, his only son, to the heiress of that kingdom. For this pur- pose he called together such of the Scottish nobility as were his prisoners, and offered them their liberty without ransom, provided they would second his views. They readily agreed to a proposal so favourable to themselves, and which seemed so natural and so advantageous to both kingdoms ; and by % their means, notwithstanding the opposition of cardinal Beaton, archbishop* of St. Andrews, who had placed himself at the head of the regency, by forging a will in the name of the late king, the parliament of Scotland con- (I/ Buchanan, lib. ziv. Hume, chap cxslii LET. LX. M O D E R N E U R O P E. 393 sented to a treaty of marriage and union with England. (1) The stipulations in that treaty it would be of little consequence to enumerate, as they were never executed. Henry now finding himself at peace with all his neighbours, began to look out for another wife ; and by espousing Catharine Parr, relict of lord Latimer, he confirmed what had been foretold in jest, that he would be obliged to marry a widow, as no reputed maid would ever be persuaded to incur the penalty of his statute respecting virginity. Catharine was a woman of virtue and good sense : and though somewhat inclined to promote the Reformation, a circumstance which gave great joy to the Protestant party, she delivered her sentiments with much caution in regard to the new doctrines. Henry, however, whose favourite topic of conversation was theology, by engaging her frequently in religious disputes, found means to discover her real prin- ciples ; and his unwieldy corpulence and ill health having soured his temper, and increased the severity of his naturally passionate and tyrannical dispo- sition, he ordered an impeachment to be drawn up against her: and the greatest prudence and address only could have saved her from the block. Having happily-got information of the king's displeasure, Catharine replied, when he next offered to converse with her on theological subjects, that such profound speculations were little suited to the natural imbecility of her sex ; observing, at the same time, that though she declined not discourse on any topic, however sublime, when proposed by his majesty, she well knew that her conceptions could serve no other purpose than to afford him a momentary amusement ; that she found conversation apt to languish when not revived by some opposition, and had ventured, at times, to feign a contrariety of senti- ment, in order to afford him the pleasure of refuting her. And she inge- niously added, that she also proposed by this innocent artifice to engage the king in arguments, whence she had observed, by frequent experience, that she reaped much profit and instruction. " And is it so, sweetheart ?" said Henry; "then we are friends again!" embracing her tenderly, and assuring her of his affection. The chancellor, however, ignorant of this reconcilia- tion, came next day to arrest Catharine, pursuant to the king's warrant, but was dismissed by Henry with the opprobrious appellations of knave, fool, and beast.(2) So violent and capricious was the temper of that prince ! But although the queen was so fortunate as to appease Henry's resentment against herself, she could not save those whom she most respected. Catha- rine and Cranmer excepted, the king punished with unfeeling rigour all others who presumed to differ from him in religious opinions ; but more especially in the capital tenet, transubstantiation. Among the unhappy victims committed to the flames for denying that absurd doctrine, was Anne Ascue, a young woman of singular beauty and merit, connected with the principal ladies at court, and even with the queen. She died with great tran- quillity and fortitude, refusing to earn, by recantation, a pardon, though offered her at the stake. (3) Nor did Henry's tyrannical and persecuting spirit confine its vengeance to religious offenders : it was no less severe against such as excited his political jealousy. Among these were the duke of Norfolk, and his gallant son the the earl of Surry. The duke had rendered considerable services to the crown ; and although understood to be the head of the Catholic party, he had always conformed to the religion of the court. He had acquired an immense fortune in consequence of the favours bestowed upon him by Henry, and was confessedly the first subject in England. That eminence drew upon him the king's jealousy. As Henry found his death approaching, he was afraid that Norfolk might disturb the government during his son's minority, or alter his religious system. The earl of Surry was a young nobleman of the most promising hopes, distinguished by every accomplishment which could adorn a scholar, a (1) Buchanan, lib. xiv. Hume, chap, xzziii. See also sir Ralph Sadler's Lettert. (2) Burnet, voii Herbert, p. 560. Fox, Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. (3) Id. ibid. 394 THE HISTORY OF [PART I courtier, or a soldier of that age. But he did not always regulate his con- duct by the caution and reserve which his situation required : and as he had declined all proposals of marriage among the nobility, Henry imagined that he entertained hopes of espousing his eldest daughter, the princess Mary. The suspicion of such a dangerous ambition was enough. Both he and his father, the duke of Norfolk, were committed to the tower ; tried for high- treason, and condemned to suffer death, without any evidence of guilt being produced against either of them ; unless that the earl had quartered the arms of Edward the Confessor on his scutcheon, which was considered as a proof of his aspiring to the crown, although the practice and privilege of so doing had been openly avowed by himself, and maintained by his ancestors. Surry was immediately executed, and an order was issued for the execution of Norfolk ; but the king's death happening in the interval, nothing further was done in the matter. (1) Henry's health had long been declining, and his approaching dissolution had been foreseen by all around him for some days ; but as it had been declared treason to foretell the king's death, no one durst inform him of his condition, lest he should, in the first transports of his fury, order the author of such intelligence to immediate punishment. Sir Anthony Denny, how- ever, at last ventured to make known to him the awful truth. He signified his resignation, and desired that Cranmer might be sent for. The primate came, though not before the king was speechless ; but as he still seemed to retain his senses, Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the faith of Christ. He squeezed the primate's hand, and immediately expired, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and thirty-eighth of his reign ;(2) affording, in his end, a striking example, that composure in the hour of death is not the inseparable characteristic of a life well spent, nor vengeance in this world the universal fate of blood-thirsty tyrants. Happily, we know that there is a state beyond the grave, where all accounts will be settled, and a tribunal before which every one must answer for the deeds done in the flesh ; other- wise we should be apt to conclude, from seeing the same things happen to the just and to the unjust, to the cruel and the merciful, that there was no eye in heaven that regarded the actions of man, nor any arm to punish. But the history of this reign, my dear Philip, yields other lessons than those of a speculative morality; lessons which come home to the breast of every Englishman, and which he ought to remember every moment of his existence. It teaches us the most alarming of all political truths ; " That absolute despotism may prevail in a state, and yet the form of a free con- stitution remain." Nay, it even leads us to a conjecture still more interesting to Britons, " That in this country, an ambitious prince may most successfully exercise his tyrannies under the shelter of those barriers which the con- stitution has placed as the security of national freedom of our lives, our liberty, and our property." Henry changed the national religion,' and, in a great measure, the spirit of the laws of England. He perpetrated the most enormous violences against the first men in the kingdom ; he loaded the people with oppressive taxes, and he pillaged them by loans which it was known he never meaned to repay ; but he never attempted to abolish the parliament, or even to retrench any of its doubtful privileges. The parliament was the prime minister of his tyrannical administration: it authorized his oppressive taxes, and absolved him from the payment of his debts : it gave its sanction to his most despotic and sanguinary measures ; to measures, which, of himself, he durst not have carried into execution; or which, if supposed to be merely the result of his own arbitrary will, would have roused the spirit of the nation to assert the rights of humanity, and the privileges of a free people ; and law would have been given to the tyrant's power, or some arm would have been found bold enough to rid the world of such a scourge, by carrying vengeancp to his heart. (I) Burnet, vol. i. Fox, vol. }< ffl) Burnet. Herbert Fuller LET. LXL] M O D E R N E U R P E. 395 The conclusion which I mean to draw from these facts and reasonings is, and it deserves our most serious attention, that the British constitution, though so happily poised, that no one part of it seems to preponderate ; though so admirably constructed that every one of the three estates is a check upon each of the other two, and both houses of parliament upon the crown ; though the most rational and perfect system of freedom that human wisdom has framed, it is no positive security against the despotism of an artful or tyrannical prince ; and that, if Britons should ever become slaves, such an event is not likely to happen, as in France, by the abolition of our national assembly, but by the corruption of its members ; by making that proud bulwark of our liberty, as in ancient Rome, the means of our slavery. Our admirable constitution is but a gay curtain to conceal our shame, and the iniquity of our oppressors, unless our senators are animated by the same spirit which gave it birth. If they can be overawed by threats, seduced from their duty by bribes, or allured by promises, another Hemy may rule us with a rod of iron, and drench once more the scaffold with the best blood of the nation : the parliament will be the humble and secure instrument of his tyrannies. We must now, my dear Philip, return to the continent, where we left Charles V. attempting that despotism which Henry VIII. had accomplished. LETTER LXL A general View of the Continent of Europe, including the Progress of the Reform ation in Germany, from the first Meeting of the Council of Trent, in 1546, to the Peace of Religion concluded at Passau, in 1552. IN consequence of the resolution of the emperor Charles V. to humble the Protestant princes, his chief motive, as has been 'observed, for concluding a disadvantageous peace with Francis I., he sent ambassadors to Constanti- nople, and concluded a dishonourable truce with Solyman II. He stipu- lated that his brother Ferdinand should pay an annual tribute to the Porte for that part of Hungary which still acknowledged his sway, and that the sultan should retain the imperial and undisturbed possession of the other.(l) Charles at the same time entered into an alliance with Paul III., the reigning pontiff, for the extirpation of heresy ; or, in other words, for oppressing the liberties of Germany, under pretence of maintaining the jurisdiction of the holy see. Meanwhile, a general council had been assembled at Trent, by the autho- rity of the pope, in order to regulate the affairs of religion. But the Protes- tants, though they had appealed to a general council, refused to acknowledge the legality of this, which they were sensible was convoked to condemn, not to examine, their opinions. The proceedings of the council confirmed them in this resolution ; they therefore renounced all connexion with it ; and as they had discovered the emperor's ambitious views, they began to prepare foi their own defence. The emperor, whose schemes were not yet ripe for execution, though much chagrined at this obstinacy, smothered his resentment ; and, in order to gain time, he attempted anew that dissimulation which he had so often practised with success. He assured, and endeavoured to persuade, the princes of the Smalkaldic league, that he had no design to abridge their spiritual liberty. It being impossible, however, to conceal his military preparations he declared, that he took arms, not in a religious, but in a civil quarrel; not to oppress those who continued to behave as quiet and dutiful subjects, but to humble the arrogance of such as had thrown off all sense of that subordina- (1) Barre, torn, vfii Mem. tie Ribier. 396 T H E H I S T O R Y P [PART I tion in which they were placed under him, as the head of the Germanic body. But the substance of his treaty with the pope coming' to light, these artifices did not long impose on the greater and sounder part of the Protestant con- federacy. Its more intelligent members saw, that not only the suppression of the reformed religion, but the extinction of the German liberties was intended ; and as they determined neither to renounce those sacred truths, the knowledge of which they had attained by means so wonderful, nor to abandon those civil rights which had been transmitted to them from their ancestors, they had immediately recourse to arms.(l) In the mean time, the death of Luther, their great apostle, threw the Ger- man Protestants into much consternation, and filled the Catholics with exces- sive and even indecent joy; neither party reflecting that his opinions were now so firmly rooted as to stand in no further need of his fostering hand. The members of the Smalkaldic league were also discouraged by the little success of their negotiations with foreign courts ; having applied in vain for assistance, not only to the republic of Venice, and to the Swiss cantons, but to the kings of France and England. But they found at home no difficulty in bringing a sufficient force into the field. Germany abounded at that time in inhabitants. The feudal institutions subsisted in full force, and enabled the nobles to call out their numerous vas- sals, and to put them in motion on the shortest warning. The martial spirit of the people, not broken or enervated by the introduction of commerce and arts, had acquired additional vigour during the continual wars in which they had been employed, for half a century, either by the emperors or the kings of France. On every opportunity of entering upon action, they were accus- tomed to run eagerly to arms ; and to every standard that was erected, volun- teers flocked from all quarters. Zeal seconded on this occasion their native ardour. Men, on whom the doctrines of the Reformation had made that deep impression which accompanies truth when first discovered, prepared to maintain it with proportional courage ; and, among a warlike people, it appeared infamous to remain inactive, when the defence of religion and liberty were the motives for drawing the sword. The confederates were therefore able, in a few weeks, to assemble an army of seventy thousand foot and fifteen hundred horse, provided with every thing necessary for the opera- tions of war. (2) The emperor was in no condition to resist such a force : and had the Protestants immediately proceeded to hostilities, they might have dictated their own terms. But they imprudently negotiated instead of acting, till Charles received supplies from Italy and the Low Countries. He still, how- ever, cautiously declined a battle, trusting that discord and the want of money would oblige the confederates to disperse. Meantime, he himself began to suffer from the want of forage and provisions. Great numbers of his foreign troops, unaccustomed to the climate or the food of Germany, were become unfit for service ; and it still remained a doubtful point, whether his steadi- ness was most likely to fail, or the zeal of the confederates to be exhausted, when an unexpected event decided the contest, and occasioned a fatal reverse in their affairs. Several of the Protestant princes, overawed by the emperor's power, had remained neutral : while others, allured by the prospect of advantage, had voluntarily entered into his service. Among the latter was Maurice, marquis of Misnia and Thuringia, of the house of Saxony; a man of bold ambi- tion, extensive views, and profound political talents. After many con- ferences with Charles and his ministers, he concluded a treaty, by which he engaged to concur in assisting the emperor as a faithful subject ; and Charles, in return, stipulated to bestow on him all the spoils of his relation and bene- factor, the elector of Saxony, his dignities as well as territories. These engagements, however, so contradictory to all that is just and hon- ourable among men, Maurice was able to conceal, as they had been formed fl) Sleid. Thuan. Father Paul. (2) Seckend. lib. iii. Thuan. i. LET. LX1.J MODERN EUROPE. 397 with the most mysterious secrecy. And so perfect a master was he in the art of dissimulation, that the confederates, notwithstanding his declining all connexion with them, and his singular assiduity in paying court to the em peror, seem to have entertained no suspicion of his designs ! The electoi of Saxony, when he marched to join his associates, even committed his dominions to the protection of Maurice, who undertook the charge with an insidious appearance of friendship. But scarce had the confederates taken the field, when he began to consult with the king of the Romans, how to invade those dominions he had engaged to defend; and no sooner did he receive a copy of the imperial ban denounced against his cousin and his father- in-law, the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse, as leaders of the confederacy, than he suddenly entered one part of the electoral territories, at the head of twelve thousand men; while Ferdinand, with an army of Bohemians and Hungarians, overran the other.(l) The news of this violent invasion, and the success of Maurice, who in a short time made himself master of the whole electorate of Saxony, except Wittemberg, Gotha, and Eisenach, no sooner reached the camp of the con- federates than they were filled with astonishment and terror. The elector immediately proposed to return home with his troops, in order to recover his hereditary dominions ; and his associates, forgetting that it was the union of their forces which had hitherto rendered the confederacy formidable, and more than once obliged the imperialists to think of quitting the field, con- sented to his proposal of dividing the army. Ulm, one of the chief cities of Suabia, highly distinguished by its zeal for the Smalkaldic league, submitted to the emperor. An example once set for deserting the common cause, the rest of the members became instantly im- patient to follow it, and seemed afraid lest others, ( by getting the start of them in returning to their allegiance, should on that account obtain more favourable terms. All the terms, however, were sufficiently severe. Charles, being -in great want of money, not only imposed heavy fines upon the princes and cities that had taken arms against him, but obliged them to deliver up their artillery and warlike stores, and to admit garrisons into their principal towns and places of strength. (2) Thus a confederacy, so powerful lately as to shake the imperial throne, fell to pieces, and was dissolved in the space of a few weeks ; scarce any of the associates now remaining in arms, except the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse, whom the emperor was at no pains to reconcile, having marked them out as the victims of his vengeance. Meanwhile, the elector having expelled the invaders from Saxony, not only recovered in a short time possession of his own territories, but overran Mis- nia, and stripped his rival of all that belonged to him, except Dresden and Leipsic ; while Maurice, obliged to abandon the field to superior force, and to shut himself up in his capital, despatched courier after courier to the em- peror, representing his dangerous situation, and soliciting him with the mosl earnest importunity to march immediately to his relief. But many causes conspired to prevent the emperor from instantly taking any effectual step in favour of his ally. His army was diminished by the departure of the Flemings, and by the number of garrisons which he hae been obliged to throw into the towns that had capitulated ; and the pope now perceiving that ambition, not religion, was the chief motive of Charles's hostilities, had weakened the imperial army still farther, by unexpectedly recalling his troops. Alarmed at the rapid progress of Charles, Paul began to tremble, and not without reason, for the liberties of Italy. Francis also, the emperor's ancient lival, had observed with deep concern the humiliation of Germany, and was become sensible, that if some vigorous and timely effort was not made, Charles must soon acquire such a degree of power as would enable him to give law to the rest of Europe. He therefore resolved to form such a com (11 Seckend. lib. iii. Thuan. \ (21 Sleidan. Thuan. Mem. de Ribier 398 THE H STORY OF [PART!, bination against the emperor as should put a stop to his dangerous career. He accordingly negotiated for this purpose with Solyman II., with the pope, the Venetians, and with England. He encouraged the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse, by remitting them considerable sums, to continue the struggle for their liberties : he levied troops in all parts of his dominions, H he contracted for a considerable body of Swiss mercenaries. (1) Measures so complicated could not escape the emperor's observation, nor fail to alarm him : and the news of a conspiracy at Genoa, where Fiesco, count of Lavigna, an ambitious young nobleman, had almost overturned the government in one night, contributed yet farther to divert Charles from marching immediately into Saxony, as he was uncertain how soon he might be obliged to lead his forces into Italy. The politic Maurice, however, found means to save himself during this delay, by a pretended negotiation with his injured kinsman ; while the death of Francis I., which happened before he was able to carry any of his schemes into execution, together with the final extinction of Fiesco's conspiracy, by the vigilance of the celebrated Andrew Doria, equally a friend to the emperor and republic, encouraged Charles to act with vigour in Germany ; more especially as he foresaw that Henry II., who had succeeded his farther in the throne of France, though a prince of vigour and ability, would be so much occupied at home in forming his new ministry, that he had nothing- to fear for some time, either from the negotia- tions or personal efforts of that young monarch. This interval of security the emperor seized to take vengeance on the elector and the landgrave : and as he was uncertain how long the calm might continue, he instantly marched into Saxony, at the head of sixteen thousand veterans. The elector's forces were more numerous, but they were divided. Charles did not allow them time to assemble. He attacked the main body at Mulhausen, near Mulb'erg ; defeated it after an obstinate dispute, and took the elector prisoner. The captive prince was immediately conducted to the emperor, whom he found standing on the field of battle, in the full ex- ultation of victory. The elector's behaviour, even in his present unfortunate and humbling condition, was alike equal, magnanimous, and decent. It was worthy of his gallant resistance. He alike avoided a sullen pride and a mean submission. " The fortune of war," said he, " most gracious emperor, has made me your prisoner, and I hope to be treated" Here Charles rudely interrupted him : " And am I then, at last, acknowledged to be emperor ? Charles of Ghent was the only title you lately allowed me. You shall be treated as you deserve!" turning from him with a haughty air. To this cruel repulse the king of the Romans added reproaches in his own name, using expressions still more harsh and insulting. The elector made no reply ; but with an unaltered countenance, which discovered neither aston- ishment nor dejection, accompanied the Spanish soldiers appointed to guard him. (2) The emperor speedily marched towards Wittemberg (the capital, in that age, of the electoral branch of the Saxon family) hoping that, while the con- sternation occasioned by his victory was still recent, the inhabitants would submit as soon as he appeared before their walls. But Sybilla of Cleves, the elector's wife, a woman equally distinguished by her virtue and abilities, in- stead of obeying the imperial summons, or abandoning herself to tears and lamentation on account of her husband's misfortunes, animated the citizens by her example, as well as exhortation, to a vigorous defence ; and Charles, finding that he could not suddenly reduce the place by force, had recourse to means at once ungenerous and unwarlike, but more expeditious and certain. He summoned Sybilla a second time to open the gates ; informing her, that in case of refusal, the elector should answer with his head for her obstinacy. And, in order to convince her that he was in earnest, he brought his prisoner to an immediate trial, subjecting the greatest prince in the empire to the (1) Sleidan. Thuan. Mm.jit Ribier. '21 Hortens. de Bell. Germ. Robertson, Hist. Charles V., book ix. LET. LXI.l MODERN EUROPE. 399 jurisdiction of a court-martial, cpmposed of Spanish and Italian officers; who, founding their charge against him upon the imperial ban, a sentence pro- nounced by the sole authority of Charles, and destitute of every legal for- mality which could render it valid, presumed the elector convicted of treason and rebellion, and condemned him to suffer death by being beheaded. (1) Frederic was amusing himself in playing at chess with his fellow-prisoner, Ernest of Brunswick, when this decree was intimated to him. He paused for a moment, though without any symptom of surprise or terror; and after taking notice of the irregularity as well as injustice of the proceedings against him, ' It is easy," said he," " to comprehend the emperor's scheme. I must die because Wittemberg refuses to surrender: and I will lay down my life with pleasure, if by that sacrifice I can preserve the dignity of my house, and transmit to my posterity the inheritance which I received from my ancestors. Heaven grant," continued he, " that this sentence may affect my wife and children no more than it does me ! that they may not, for the sake of adding a few years to a life already too long, renounce honours and terri- tories which they were born to possess !" He then turned to his antagonist, challenged him to continue the game, and played with his usual attention and ingenuity.(2) It happened as the elector had feared : the account of his condemnation was not received with the same indifference at Wittemberg. Sybilla, who had supported with such undaunted fortitude her husband's misfortunes, while she imagined his person was free from danger, felt all her resolution fail the moment his life was threatened. Anxious for his safety, she despised every other consideration ; and was willing to make any sacrifice in order to appease the rage of an incensed conqueror. Meantime, Charles, perceiving that the expedient he had tried began to produce the intended effect, fell by degrees from his former firmness, and allowed himself to soften into promises of cle- mency and forgiveness, if the elector would show himself worthy of favour, by submitting to certain conditions. Frederic, on whom the consideration of what he himself might suffer had made no impression, was melted by the tears of a wife whom he loved. He could not resist the entreaties of his family. In compliance with their repeated solicitations, he agreed to articles of accommodation, which he would otherwise have rejected with disdain; to resign the electoral dignity, to put the imperial troops immediately in pos- session of his capital, and to remain the emperor's prisoner. In return for these important concessions, the emperor promised not only to spare his life, but to settle on him and his posterity the city of Gotha and its territory, to- gether with a revenue of fifty thousand florins.(3) The Saxon electorate was instantly bestowed upon Maurice. This sacrifice, though with no small reluctance, Charles was obliged to make : as it would neither have been safe nor prudent to violate his engagements with a warlike prince, whom he had seduced by ambitious hopes to abandon his natural allies, and whose friend- ship was still necessary. The lando-rave of Hesse, Maurice's father-in-law, was still in asms, but n thouo-ht no more of resistance. Alarmed at the fate of the elector of^Saxony, his only care was how to procure favourable terms from the emperor, whom he now viewed as a conqueror, to whose will there was a necessity of sub- mitting. Maurice encouraged this tame spirit, by magnifying Charles s , power, and boasting of his own interest with his victorious ally. The land crrave accordingly threw himself at the emperor's feet, after ratifying what Terms he was pleased to impose, Maurice and the elector of Brandenburg beino- sureties for his personal freedom. But his submission was no sooner made, than Charles ordered him to be arrested, and detained prisoner under the custody of a Spanish guard; and when the elector and Maurice, fill' with indignation at being made the instruments of deceiving and ruining their friend, represented the infamy to which they would be exposed, unles (1) Horte.i9. de Bell. Qerm. Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book ix. (2) Thuanus, lib i (3) Du Mont, Corps Diplont. torn. iv. 400 THEHISTORYOF [PART I. the landgrave was set at liberty ; that they were bound to procure his release, having pledged their faith to that effect, and even engaged their own persons as sureties for his, the emperor, who no longer stood in need of their services, coolly replied, that he was ignorant of their particular or private transactions with the landgrave, nor was his conduct to be regulated by theirs. " I know," added he, in a decisive tone, "what I myself have promised; for that alone I am answerable."( 1) These words put an end to the conference, and all future entreaties proved ineffectual. Charles having now in his power the two greatest princes of the empire, carried them about with him in triumph ; and having humbled all whom he had not attached to his interest, proceeded to exercise the rights of a con- queror. He ordered his troops to seize the artillery and military stores of all who had been members of the Smalkaldic league ; and he levied, by his sole authority, large sums, as well upon those who had served him with fidelity, as upon such as had appeared in arms against him. Upon the former, as their contingent towards a war undertaking, as he pretended, for the common benefit ; upon the latter, as a fine, by way of punishment, for their rebellion. His brother Ferdinand tyrannized with still more severity over his Bohemian subjects, who had taken arms in support of their civil and religious liberties : he stripped them of all their ancient privileges, and loaded them with oppres- sive taxes. (2) The good fortune, or, as it has been called, the STAR of the house of Austria, was now at its height. The emperor having humbled, and, as he imagined, subdued the independent spirit of the Germans, summoned a diet to meet at Augsburg, " in order to compose finally the controversies with regard to religion, which had so long disturbed the empire ;" or, in other words, to enslave the minds of those whose persons and properties were already at his disposal. He durst not, however, commit to the free suffrage of the Germans, broken as their spirit was by subjection, the determination of a matter so interesting. He therefore entered the city at the head of his Spanish troops, and assigned them quarters there. He cantoned the rest of his army in the adjacent villages ; and he took possession by force of the cathedral, together with one of the principal churches, where his priests re-established with great pomp the rites of the Romish worship. These preliminary steps being taken, in order to intimidate the members, and to make them acquainted with the emperor's pleasure, he opened the diet with a speech, in which he pointed out the fatal effects of the religious dissensions which had arisen in Germany ; exhorted them to recognise the authority of the general council, which he had taken so much pains to procure ; and to stand the award of an assembly to which they had originally appealed, as having the sole right of judgment in the case. But the council, to which Charles wished to refer all controversies, had undergone by this time a violent change. The same jealousy, which had made the pope recall his troops, had also made him translate the council to Bologna, a* city subject to his own jurisdiction. The diet of Augsburg, over- awed by threats, and influenced by promises, petitioned the pope, at the emperor's desire, in the name of the whole Germanic body, to enjoin the prelates who had retired to Bologna to return again to Trent, and renew their deliberations in that place. But Paul eluded the demand. He made the fathers at Bologna, to whom he referred the petition of the diet, put a direct negative upon the request ; and Charles, as he could no longer hope to acquire such an ascendant in the council as to render it subservient to his ambi- tious aim, and to prevent the authority of so venerable an assembly from being turned against him, sent two Spanish lawyers to Bologna, who, in pre- sence of the legates, protested, that the translation of the council to that place had been unnecessary, and founded on false or frivolous pretexts ; that while it continued to meet there, it ought to be deemed an unlawful and schismatical conventicle, and all its decisions held null and void ; and that as the pope, (1) Thuanus, lib. iv. Struv. Corps, ftitt. Germ, tom.ii. (2) Id. 'Aid. LET. LXI.] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 401 together with the corrupt ecclesiastics who depended upon him (those who depended upon Charles having remained at Trent), had abandoned the care of the church, the emperor, as its protector, would employ all the power which God had committed to him, in order to preserve it from those calamities with which it was threatened. In consequence of this resolution, Charles employed some divines of known abilities and learning, to prepaid a system of doctrine, which he presented to the diet, as what all should conform to, " until a council, such as they wished for, could be called." Hence the name Interim, by which this system is known. It was conformable in almost every article to the tenets of the Romish church, and the Romish rites were enjoined ; but all disputed doc- trines were expressed in the softest words, in Scripture phrases, or in terms of studied ambiguity. In regard to two points only, some relaxation of popish rigour was granted, and some latitude in practice admitted. Such ecclesiastics as had married, and did not choose to part from their wives, were allowed nevertheless to perform their sacred functions ; and those pro viuces which had been accustomed to partake of the cup as well as of the bread in the communion were still indulged the privilege of receiving both.(l) This treatise being read in presence of the members, according to form, the archbishop of Mentz, president of the electoral college, rose up hastily, as soon as it was finished, and having thanked the emperor for his unwearied endeavours to restore peace to the church, signified, in the name of the diet, their approbation of the system of doctrine which his imperial majesty had prepared, together with their resolution of conforming to it in every par- ticular. And although the whole assembly was amazed at a declaration so unprecedented and unconstitutional, as well as at the elector's presumption, in pretending to deliver the sense of the diet upon a point which had not hitherto been the subject of consultation or debate, not one member had the courage to contradict what he had said. Charles therefore held the arch- bishop's declaration to be a ratification of the Interim, and prepared to enforce the observance of it as a decree of the empire.(2) The Interim was accordingly published, immediately after the dissolution of the diet, in the German as well as in the Latin language; but, like all con- ciliatino- schemes proposed to men heated by disputation, it pleased neither party The Protestants thought it granted too little indulgence ; the Catho- lics, too much; both were dissatisfied. The emperor, however, fond of his plan, adhered to his resolution of carrying it into execution. But this proved one of the most difficult and dangerous undertakings m his reign ; for although three Protestant princes, Maurice, the elector Palatine, and the elector" of Brandenburg, agreed to receive the Interim, several others remon- strated against it: and the free cities, with one voice, joined in refusing to admit it, till force taught them submission. Augsburg and Ulm being bar- barously stripped of their privileges, on account of th3ir opposition, many other cities feigned compliance. But this obedience, extorted by the rigour of minority? produced no change in the sentiments of the Germans. They sub- rnitted with reluctance to the power that oppressed them; and although for me they concealed their resentment, it was daily gathering force, and soon broke forth with a violence that shook the imperial throne. In this moment of general submission it is worthy of remark, that the elector of Saxony, though the emperor's prisoner, and tempted both by threats and promises, refused to lend his sanction to fe Interim His rea- sons were those of a philosopher, not of a bigot. After declaring his fL belief m the doctrines of the Reformation, " I cannot now," said he, in m> old age, abandon the principles for which 1 early contended ; nor, m order to procure freedom during a few declining years, will I betray that good cause, on account of which I have suffered so much, and am still willing to suffer better for me to enjoy, in this solitude, the esteem of virtuous men, together with the approbation of my own conscience, than to return into the world (!) Father Paul, lib. iii. Goldast. Const. Imp. vol. i. (2) M- "<* VOL. I. C c 402 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. with the imputation and guilt of apostacy, to disgrace and imbitter the remainder of my days."(l) The contents of the Interim were no sooner known at Rome than the mem- bers of the sacred college were filled with rage and indignation. They exclaimed against the emperor's profane encroachment on the sacerdotal function, in presuming with the concurrence of an assembly of laymen, to define articles of faith, and regulate modes of* worship. They compared this rash deed to that of Uzziah, who, with an unhallowed hand, had touched the ark of God. But the pope, whose judgment was improved by longer expe- rience in great transactions, and more extensive observation of human affairs, though displeased at the emperor's encroachment on his jurisdiction, viewed the matter with more indifference. He perceived that Charles, by joining any one of the contending parties in Germany, might have had it in his power to have crushed the other, but that the presumption of success had now inspired him with the vain thought of being able to domineer over both ; and he fore- saw that a system, which all attacked and none defended, could not be of long duration.(2) He was more sensibly affected by the emperor's political measures, and his own domestic concerns. Charles, as I have already had occasion to notice, had married Margaret of Austria, his natural daughter, to Octavio Farnese, the pope's grandson. On his own son Lewis, Octavio's father, whose aggrandizement he had sin- cerely at heart, Paul bestowed the dutchies of Parma and Placentia, then part of St. Peter's patrimony. But the emperor less fond of aggrandizing his daughter, whose children were to succeed to the inheritance, refused to grant to Lewis the investiture of those territories, under pretence that they were appendages of the dutchy of Milan. Enraged at such ungenerous conduct, the pope undertook to bestow himself that investiture which he craved, and the emperor persisted in refusing to confirm the deed. Hence a secret enmity took place between Paul and Charles, but one still stronger between Charles and Lewis. To complete the pope's misfortunes, Lewis became one of the most detestable tyrants that ever disgraced human nature, and justly fell a sacrifice to his own crimes, and to the injuries of his oppressed subjects. Gonzaga, governor of Milan, who had watched for such an opportunity, and even abetted the conspirators, immediately took possession of Placentia in the emperor's name, and reinstated the inhabitants in their ancient privileges. The imperialists likewise attempted to surprise Parma, but were disappointed by the vigilance and fidelity of the garrison. (3) Paul was deeply afflicted for the loss of a son, whom, notwithstanding his vices, he loved with an excess of parental affection, and immediately demanded of the emperor the punishment of Gonzaga, and the restitution of Placentia to his grandson Octavio, its rightful heir. But Charles evaded both demands ; he chose rather to bear the infamy of defrauding his own son-in-law of his patrimonial inheritance, and even to expose himself to the imputation of being accessery to the crime which had given an opportunity of seizing it, than quit a possession of such value. An ambition so rapacious and which no consideration either of decency or justice could restrain, transported Paul beyond his usual moderation. Eager to take arms against the emperor, but conscious of his own inability to contend with such an enemy, he warmly solicited the king of France and the republic of Venice to take part in his quarrel; but finding all his negotiations ineffectual, he endeavoured to acquire by policy what he could not recover by force. Upon a supposition that Charles would not dare to detain the possessions of the holy see, he proposed to reunite to it Parma and Placentia, by recalling his grant of Parma from Octavio, whom he could indemnify in the mean time for the loss, by a new establishment in the ecclesiastical state ; and by de- manding Placentia from the emperor, as part of the patrimony of the church. But while Paul was priding himself in this happy device, Octavio, an ambi- (1) Sleid. p. 4fi2. Robertson, Charles V., book ix (2) Father Paul, lib. iii. Palavicini, lib. ii , : 3) Thuanus, lib. iv. Mem. de Kibier. LET. LXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 403 tious and high-spirited young man, having little faith in such a refinement in policy, and not choosing to abandon certainty for hope, applied to the emperor to protect him in his dutchy.(l) This unexpected defection of one of his own family, of the grandson whose fortune it had been the care of his declining years to build, to an enemy whom he hated, agitated the venerable pontiff beyond his strength, and is said to have occasioned that illness of which he soon after died. (2) An historian more sprightly than profound, and more keen than candid, has here affected to raise a smile, that " any other cause than old age should he assigned for the death of a man of' fourscore;" (3) and a more respectable historian, one equally elegant and learned, and no less intelligent than judi- cious, has taken much pains to prove that the pope's " disease was the natural effect of old age, not one of those occasioned by violence of passion "(4) But both allow that Paul was violently affected when informed of Octavio's undutiful conduct ; and the latter informs us, that " he was seized with such a transport of passion, and cried so bitterly, that his voice was heard in several apartments of the palace;" that "his mind was irritated almost to mad- ness."(5) And weak and credulous as some historians may be, and fond of " attributing the death of illustrious persons to extraordinary causes," there is surely nothing extraordinary in supposing that mental irritation and bitter crying might occasion a catarrh, the distemper of which the pope died, or a violent transport of passion increase the natural imbecility of old age, and hasten a man of fourscore to the grave. It is more extraordinary, how violently some great men, from a desire of being thought superior to vulgar prejudices, will struggle against common sense. Paul was succeeded in the papacy by the cardinal de Monte, who had been employed as principal legate in the council of Trent, and owed his election to the Farnese party. He assumed the name of Julius III., and in order to express his gratitude towards his benefactors, he put Octavio Farnese in possession of Parma, which had been delivered up to his predecessor. " I would rather," replied he, when told what injury he did the holy see by alienating a territory of such value, " be a poor pope with the reputation of a gentleman, than a rich one with the infamy of having forgot the obliga- tions conferred upon me, and the promises I made. (6) He discovered less inclination, however, to observe the oath which each cardinal had taken when he entered the conclave, that if the choice should fall on him, he would immediately call the general council to resume its deliberations. He knew, by experience, how difficult it was to confine the inquiries, or even the decisions of such a body of men, within the narrow limits which it was the interest of the court of Rome to prescribe. But as the emperor persisted in his resolution of forcing the Protestants to return into the bosom of the church, and earnestly solicited that a council might be called, in order to combat their prejudices, and to support his pious intentions, Julius could not with decency reject his request ; and, willing to assume to himself the merit of a measure become necessary, and also to ingratiate himself more particularly with Charles, he pretended to move, and to deliberate on the matter, and afterward issued a bull for the council to reassemble at Trent. (7) Meanwhile, the emperor held a diet at Augsburg, m order to enforce the observation of the Interim, and to procure a more authentic act of the empire, acknowledging the jurisdiction of the council, as well as an explicit promise of conforming to its decrees. And such absolute ascendancy had Charles acquired over the members of the Germanic body, that he procured a recess, in which the authority of the council was recognised, and declared to be the proper remedy for the evils which afflicted the church. The ob- servation of the Interim was more strictly enjoined than ever; and the emperor threatened all who had hitherto neglected or refused to conform to m Thuanus, lib. vi. Palav. lib. ii. (2) Id. ibid (3) Voltaire, Hist. Gen. (4) Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book x. (5) Id. ibid. (6) Mem. de Ribttr (T) Father Pavl, lib. iii. Cc 2 404 T H E H I S T O R Y O F [PART f , it with the severest effects of his vengeance, if they persisted in their dis obedience. During the meeting of this diet, a new attempt was made to procure liberty to the landgrave. Nowise reconciled by time to his condition, he grew every day more impatient of restraint; and having often applied to his sureties, Maurice and the elector of Brandenburg, who took every oppor- tunity of soliciting the emperor in his behalf, though without effect, he now commanded his sons to summon them, with legal formality, to perform their engagements, by surrendering themselves to be treated as the emperor had treated him. Thus pushed to extremity, the sureties renewed their appli- cation to Charles. Resolved not to grant their request, but anxious to get rid of their incessant importunity, the emperor endeavoured to prevail on the landgrave to give up the obligation which he had received from them ; and when that prince refused to part with a security which he deemed essen- tial to his safety, Charles, by a singular act of despotism, cut the knot which he could not untie. As if faith, honour, and conscience had been subjected to his sway, he, by a public deed, annulled the bond which Maurice and the elector of Brandenburg had granted, and absolved them from all their obli- gations to the landgrave !(1) A power of cancelling those solemn contracts,, which are the foundation of that mutual confidence whereby men are held together in social union, was never claimed by the most despotic princes or arrogating priests of heathen antiquity: that enormous usurpation AV;H- reserved for the Roman pontiffs, who had rendered themselves odious by the exercise of such a pernicious prerogative. All Germany was therefore filled with astonishment when Charles assumed the same right. The princes who had hitherto contributed to his aggrandizement began to tremble for their own safety, and to take measures for preventing the danger. The first check which Charles met with in his ambitious projects, and which convinced him that the Germans were not yet slaves, was in his attempt to transmit the empire, as well as the kingdom of Spain, and his dominions in the Low Countries, to his son Philip. He had formerly assisted his brother Ferdinand in obtaining the dignity of king of the Romans ; and that prince had not only studied to render himself acceptable to the people, but had a son, who was born in Germany, grown up to the years of manhood, and who possessed in an eminent degree such qualities as rendered him the darling of his countrymen. The emperor, however, warmed with contemplating this vast design, flattered himself that it was not impossible to prevail on the electors to cancel their former choice of Ferdinand, or at least to elect Philip a second king of the Romans, substituting him as next in succession to his uncle. With this view he took Philip, who had been educated in Spain, along with him to the diet at Augsburg, that the Germans might have an opportunity to observe and become acquainted with the prince in whose behalf he solicited their interest; but no sooner was the proposal made known, than all the electors, the ecclesiastical as well as secular., concurred in expressing such strong disapprobation of the measure, that Charles was' obliged to drop his project as impracticable. (2) They foresaw, that by con- tinuing the imperial crown, like an hereditary dignity, in the same family, they should give the son an opportunity of carrying on that system of op- pression which the father had begun, and put it in his power to overturn whatever was yet left entire in the ancient and venerable fabric of the Ger- man constitution. This plan of domestic ambition, which had long engrossed his thoughts, being laid aside, Charles imagined he should now have leisure to turn all his attention towards his grand scheme of establishing uniformity of religion in the empire, by forcing all the contending parties to acquiesce in the decisions of the council of Trent. But the machine which he had to conduct was so great and complicated, that an unforeseen irregularity, or obstruction HI one of the inferior wheels, often disconcerted the motion of the whole, and disappointed him of the effect which he depended upon with most confidence. (1} Thuanus, lib. vi. (1) Thuanus, lib. vi. .Mem. dc. Ribier LET. LXL] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 405 fSuch an unlooked-for occurrence now happened, and created new obstacles against the execution of his plan in regard to religion. Though Julius III. during the first effusions of joy and gratitude on his promotion to the papal throne, had confirmed Octavio Farnese in the pos- session of the dutchy of Parma, he soon began to repent of his generosity. The emperor still retained possession of Placentia ; and Gonzaga, governor of Milan, a sworn enemy to the family of Farnese, was preparing, by Charles's permission, to make himself master of Parma. Octavio saw his danger; and, sensible of his inability to defend himself against the imperial troops, he 'applied to the pope for protection, as a vassal of the holy see. But the impe- rial minister having already preoccupied the ear of Julius, Octavio's petition met with a cold reception. Despairing, therefore, of support from his holi- ness, he began to look elsewhere for assistance : and Henry II. of France, the only prince powerful enough to protect him, was fortunately in a situation to lend'him that assistance. Having not only settled his own domestic concerns, but brought his trans- actions with the two British kingdoms, which had hitherto diverted his attention from the affairs of the continent, to such an issue as he desired, Henry was at full leisure to pursue the measures which his hereditary jealousy of the emperor's power naturally suggested. He accordingly listened to the overtures of Octavio; and, glad of an opportunity of regaining footing in Italy, furnished him with what assistance he desired. The war of Parma, where the French took the field as the allies of the duke, and the imperialists as the protectors of the koly see, the pope having declared Octavio's fief forfeited, was distinguished by no memorable event; but the alarm which it occasioned in Italy prevented most of the Italian prelates from repairing to Trent on the day appointed for reassembling the council ; so that the legate and nuncios found it necessary to adjourn to a future day, hoping that such a number might then assemble as would enable them in decency to begin their deliberations. When that day came, the French ambassador demanded audience, and protested, in his master's name, against an assembly called at such an improper juncture; when a war, wan- tonly kindled by the pope, made it impossible for the deputies from the Gallican church to resort to Trent in safety, or to deliberate concerning articles of faith and discipline with the requisite tranquillity. He declared, that Henry did not acknowledge this to be a general cecumenic council, but must consider and would treat it as a particular and partial convention.(l) That declaration gave a deep wound to the credit of the council, at the commencement of its deliberations. The legate, however, affected to despise Henry's protest ; the prelates proceeded to determine the great points in con- troversy concerning the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, penance, and extreme unction ; and the emperor strained hie authority to the utmost, in order to establish the reputation and jurisdiction of that assembly. The Protestants were prohibited to teach any doctrine contrary to its decrees, or to the tenets of the Romish church ; and on their refusing compliance, their pastors were ejected and exiled ; such magistrates as had distinguished themselves by their attachment to the new opinions were dismissed ; their offices were filled with the most bigoted of their adversaries ; and the people were compelled to attend the ministration of priests, whom they regarded as idolaters, and to submit to the authority of rulers, whom they detested as usurpers. (2) These tyrannical measures fully opened the eyes of Maurice of Saxony and other Lutheran princes, who, allured by the promise of liberty of conscience, and the prospect of farther advantages, had assisted the emperor in the war against the confederates of Smalkalde. Maurice, in particular, who had long beheld with jealous concern the usurpations of Charles, now saw the neces- sity of setting bounds to them ; and he who had perfidiously stripped his nearest relation and benefactor of his hereditary possessions, and been chiefly instru- (1) Father Paul, lib. iv. Robertson, Hitt. Charles V., book . (2) Id. ibid. 406 THE HISTORY OF [PART I, mental in bringing to the brink of ruin the civil and religious liberties of his country, became the deliverer of Germany. The policy with which Maurice conducted himself in the execution of his design was truly admirable. He was so perfect a master of address and dissimulation, that he retained the emperor's confidence, while he recovered the good opinion of the Protestants. As he knew Charles to be inflexible with respect to the submission which he required to the Interim, he did not hesitate a moment whether he should establish that form of doctrine and worship in his dominions : he even undertook to reduce to obedience the citizens of Magdeburg, who persisted in rejecting it ; and he was chosen general, by a diet assembled at Augsburg, of the imperial army levied for that purpose. But he at the same time issued a declaration, containing pro- fessions of his zealous attachment to the reformed religion, as well as of his resolution to guard against all the errors and encroachments of the papal see; and he entered his protest against the authority of the council of Trent, unless the Protestant divines had a full hearing granted them, and were allowed a decisive voice in that assembly ; unless the pope renounced his pretensions to preside in it, should engage to submit to its decrees, and to absolve the bishops from their oath of obedience, that they might deliver their sentiments with greater freedom. He reduced Magdeburg, after a siege of twelve months, protracted by design, in order that his schemes might be ripened before his army was disbanded. (1) The public articles of capitu- lation were perfectly conformable to the emperor's views, and sufficiently severe. But Maurice ga,ve the magistrates secret assurances that their city should not be dismantled, and that the inhabitants should neither be disturbed in the exercise of their religion, nor deprived of any of their ancient privi- leges ; and they, in their turn, elected him their burgrave a dignity which had formerly belonged to the electoral house of Saxony, and which entitled its possessor to very ample jurisdiction both in the city and its dependencies. Far from suspecting any thing fraudulent or collusive in the terms of ac- commodation, the emperor ratified them without hesitation, freely absolving the Magdeburgers from the sentence of ban denounced against them ; and Maurice, under various pretences, kept his veteran troops in pay; while Charles, engaged in directing the affairs of the council, entertained no appre- hension of his designs. But, previous to the unfolding of these designs, some account must be given of a new revolution in Hungary, which contributed not a little towards the extraordinary success of Maurice's operations. When Solyman deprived the young king of Hungary of the dominions which his father had left him, he granted that unfortunate prince, as has been already related, the country of Transylvania, a province of his paternal kingdom. The government of this province, together with the care of edu- cating the infant king (for the sultan still allowed him to retain that title,) was committed to Isabella the queen-mother, and Martinuzzi, bishop of Wa- radin, whom the late king of Hungary had appointed his son's guardians, and regents of his dominions. This co-ordinate jurisdiction occasioned the same dissensions in a small principality which it would have excited in a great monarchy. The queen and bishop grew jealous of each other's autho- rity : both had their partisans among the nobility ; but as Martinuzzi by his superior talents, began to acquire the ascendant, Isabella courted the pro- tection of the Turks. The politic prelate saw his danger, and, through the mediation of some of the nobles, who were solicitous to save their country from the calamities of civil war, he concluded an agreement with the queen. But he, at the same time, secretly despatched one of his confidants to Vienna, and entered into a negotiation with the king of the Romans, whom he offered to assist in expelling the Turks, and in recovering possession of the Hunga- rian throne. Allured by such a flattering prospect, Ferdinand agreed, notwithstanding his truce with Solyman, to invade the principality of Transylvania. The 1) Sebast. Besselm. Obrid. Magdeb. Arnold!, Vit. Mattrit Lfc-r. LXL] M D E R N E U R O P E. 407 troops destined for that service, consisted of veteran Spanish and German soldiers, were commanded by Castaldo marquis de Piadena, an officer of great knowledge in the art of war, who was powerfully seconded by Martinuzzi and his faction among- the Hungarians ; and the sultan being then at the head of his forces on the borders of Persia, the Turkish bashaws could not afford the queen such immediate or effectual assistance as the exigency of her affairs required. She Avas, therefore, obliged to listen to such conditions as she would at any other time have rejected with disdain. She agreed to give up Transylvania to Ferdinand, and to make over to him her son's title to the crown of Hungary, in exchange for the principalities of Oppelen and Ratibor in Silesia, for which she immediately set out. Martinuzzi, as the reward of his services, was appointed governor oi Transylvania, with almost unlimited authority: and he proved himself worthy of it. He conducted the war against the Turks with equal ability and success : he recovered some places of which they had taken possession ; he rendered their attempts to reduce others abortive ; and he established the dominion of the king of the Romans, not only in Transylvania, but in several of the adjacent countries. Always, however, afraid of the talents of Mar- tinuzzi, Ferdinand now became jealous of his power ; and Castaldo, by im- puting to the governor designs which he never formed, and charging him with actions of which he was not guilty, at last convinced the king of the Romans that, in order to preserve his Hungarian crown, he must cut off that ambitious prelate. The fatal mandate was accordingly issued: Castaldo willingly undertook to execute it : Martinuzzi was assassinated. But Fer- dinand, instead of the security which he expected from that barbarous measure, found his Hungarian territories only exposed to more certain danger. The nobles, detesting such jealous and cruel policy, either retired to their own estates, or grew cold in the service, if they continued with the Austrian army ; while the Turks, encouraged by the death of an enemy whose vigour and abilities they dreaded, prepared to renew hostilities with fresh vigour. (1) Maurice, in the mean time, having almost finished his intrigues and pre- parations, was on the point of taking the field against the emperor. He had concluded a treaty with Henry II. of France, who wished to distinguish himself, by trying his strength against the same enemy whom it had been the glory of his father's reign to oppose. But as it wouldjiave been indecent in a popish prince to undertake the defence of the Protestant church, the interests of religion, how much soever they might be affected by the treaty, were not once mentioned in any of the articles. The only motives assigned for now leaguing against Charles were to procure the landgrave's liberty, and to prevent the subversion of the ancient constitution and laws of the German empire. Religious concerns the confederates pretended to commit entirely to the care of Providence. Having secured the protection of the French monarch, Maurice proceeded with great confidence, but equal caution, to execute his plan. As he judged it necessary to demand once more, before he took off the mask, that the landgrave should be set at liberty, he sent a solemn embassy, in which most of the German princes joined, to the emperor at Inspruck, in order to enforce his request. Constant to his system with regard to the captive prince, Charles eluded the demand, though urged by such powerful intercessors. But this application, though of no benefit to the landgrave, was of infinite sen ice to Maurice. It served to justify his subsequent proceedings, and to demonstrate the necessity of taking arms, in order to extort that equitable concession which his mediation or entreaty could not obtain. He accord- ingly despatched Albert of Brandenburg to Paris, to hasten the march of the French army he took measures to bring his own troops together on the first summons ; and he provided for the security of Saxony, while he should be absent. (1) fetuanliaffi, Hist. Reg Hung. lib. xvi. Mem. de Ribier, torn. U 408 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. All these complicated operations were carried on with so much secrecy, as to elude the observation of Charles, whose sagacity in observing- the conduct of all around him commonly led him to excess of distrust. He remained in perfect tranquillity at Inspruck, solely occupied in counteracting the in- trigues of the pope's legate at Trent, and in settling the conditions on which the Protestant divines should be admitted into the council. Even Granville, bishop of Arras, his prime minister, though one of the most subtle statesmen of that, or perhaps of any age, was deceived by the exquisite addross with which Maurice concealed his designs. "A drunken German head," replied he to the duke of Alva's suspicions, concerning the elector's sincerity, " is too gross to form any scheme which I cannot easily penetrate and baffle." Granville was on this occasion, however, the dupe of his own artifice. He had bribed two of Maurice's ministers, on whose information he depended for their master's intentions ; but that prince having fortunately discovered their perfidy, instead of punishing them for their crime, dexterously availed himself of the fraud. He affected to treat these ministers with greater con- fidence than ever : he admitted them into his consultations, and seemed to lay open his heart to them ; but he took care all the while to make them acquainted with nothing but what it was his interest should be known, and they transmitted to Inspruck such accounts as lulled the crafty Granville in security. (1) At last, Maurice's preparations were completed : and he had the satisfac- tion to find, that his intrigues and designs were still unknown. But although ready to take the field, he did not yet lay aside the arts he had hitherto employed. Pretending to be indisposed, he despatched one of the ministers whom Granville had bribed to inform the emperor that he meant soon to wait upon him at Inspruck, and to apologize for his delay.(2) In the mean time, he assembled his army, which amounted to twenty thousand foot and five thousand horse, publishing at the same time a manifesto, containing his reasons for taking arms ; namely, to secure the Protestant religion, to main- tain the German constitution, and deliver the landgrave of Hesse from the miseries of a long and unjust imprisonment. To this the king of France, in his own name, added a manifesto, in which he assumed the extraordinary appellation of Protector of the Liberties of Germany and its captive Princes. (3) No words can express the emperor's astonishment at events so unexpected. He was not in a condition to oppose such formidable enemies. His embar- rassment increased their confidence : their operations were equally bold and successful. The king of France immediately entered Lorrain, made himself master of Toul, Verdun, and Metz; while Maurice, no less intrepid and enterprising in the field than cautious and crafty in the cabinet, traversed all Upper Germany, every where reinstating the magistrates whom Charles had deposed, and putting the ejected Protestant ministers in possession of the churches. The emperor had recourse to negotiation, the only recourse of the weak, and Maurice, conscious of his own political talents, and willing to manifest a pacific disposition, agreed to an interview with the king of the Romans, in the town of Lintz, in Austria, leaving his army to proceed on its march, under the command of the duke of Mecklenburg. Nothing was determined in the conference at Lintz, except that another should be held at Passau. Meanwhile, Maurice continued his operations with vigour. He marched directly towards Inspruck ; and hoping to surprise the emperor in that open town, he advanced with the most rapid motion that could be given to so great a body of men, forcing several strong passes, and bearing down all resistance. Charles was happily informed of his danger a few hours before the enemy's arrival ; and although the night was far advanced, dark, and rainy, he imme- diately fled over the Alps in a litter, being so much afflicted with the gout as to be incapable of any other mode of travelling. Enraged that his prey should escape him, when he was just on the point of seizing it, Maurice pur- (11 MelviPa Memoir*. (2) Id. Ibid. (3) JUcm. dt Ribier, torn. ii. LET. LX1.J MODERN El" ROPE. 405 sued the emperor and his attendants some miles : but finding it impossible to overtake men whose flight was hastened by fear, he returned to Inspruck, and abandoned the emperor's baggage to the pillage of his soldiers.(l) Meantime, Charles pursued his journey, and arrived in safety at Villach in Carinthia, where he continued till matters were finally settled with the Pro- testant princes. In consequence of Maurice's operations, the council of Trent broke up. The German prelates, anxious for the safety of their territories, returned home ; the rest were extremely impatient to be gone ; and the legate, who had hitherto disappointed all the endeavours of the imperial ambassadors to procure the Protestant divines an audience in the council, gladly laid hold on such a plausible pretext for dismissing an assembly, which he had found it so difficult to govern. (2) The breach which had unhappily been made in the church, instead of being closed, was widened ; and all mankind were made sensible of the inefficacy of a general council for reconciling the contending parties. The victorious Maurice repaired to Passau, on the day appointed for the second conference with the king of the Romans; and as matters of the greatest consequence to the future peace and independency of the empire were then to be agitated, thither resorted the ministers of all the electors, together with deputies from most of the considerable princes and free cities. The elector limited his demand to three articles set forth in his manifesto ; namely, the liberty of the landgrave, the public exercise of the Protestant religion, and the re-establishment of the ancient constitution of Germany. These demands appearing extravagant to the imperial ambassadors, they were presented by Ferdinand to the emperor in person, at Villach, in the name of all the princes of the empire, Popish as well as Protestant ; in the name of such as had assisted in forwarding his ambitious schemes, as well as those who had viewed the progress of his power with jealousy and dread. Unwilling, however, to forego at once objects, which he had long pursued with ardour and hope, Charles, notwithstanding his need of peace, was deaf to the united voice of Germany. He rejected the proffered terms with dis- dain ; and Maurice, well acquainted with the emperor's arts, suspecting that he meant only to amuse and deceive by a show of negotiation, immediately rejoined his troops, and laid siege to Frankfort on the Maine. This measure had the desired effect. Firm and haughty as his nature was, Charles found it necessary to make concessions ; and Maurice thought it more prudent to accept of conditions less advantageous than those he had proposed, than again commit all to the doubtful issue of \var.(3) He therefore repaired once more to Passau, renewed the congress, and concluded a peace on the following terms : "The confederates shall lay down their arms before the 12th day of -Yuo-ust ; the landgrave shall be set at liberty, on or before that day ; a diet shall be held within six months, in order to deliberate concerning the most effectual method of preventing for the future all dissensions concerning religion; in the mean time, no injury shall be offered to such as adhere to the Confession of Augsburg, nor shall the Catholics be molested in the exercise of their religion; the imperial chamber shall administer justice im- partially to persons of both parties, and Protestants be admitted indiscrimi- nately with Catholics to sit as judges in that court; the encroachments, said to have been made upon the constitution and liberties of Germany, shall be remitted to the consideration of the approaching diet of the empire ; and it that diet should not be able to terminate the disputes respecting religion, tti stipulations in the present treaty, in behalf of the Protestants, shall continue for ever in full force. "(4) Such, my dear Philip, was the memorable treaty of Passau, which se limits to the authority of Charles V., overturned the vast fabric which he had employed so many years in erecting, and established the Protestant church (1) Arnoldi, Vit. Maurit. (2) Father Paul, lib. iv. (3) Thuanus, lib.i '4) Reeueil de Ti-aitez, torn. ii. , Q 410 THE HISTORY OF [PART! in Germany, upon a firm and secure basis. It is singular, that in this treaty no article was inserted in favour of the king of France, to whom the confede- rates had been so much indebted for their success. But Henry II. expe- rienced only the treatment which every prince, who lends his aid to the authors of a civil war, may expect. (1) As soon as the rage of faction began to subside, and any prospect of accommodation to open, his services were for- gotten, and his associates made a merit with their sovereign of the ingratitude with which they had abandoned their protector. The French monarch, however, sensible that it was more his interest to keep on good terms with the Germanic body than to resent the indignities offered him by any particular member of it, concealed his displeasure at the perfidy of Maurice and his associates. He even affected to talk, in the same strain as formerly, of his zeal for maintaining the ancient constitution and liberties of the empire. And he prepared to defend, by force of arms, his conquest in Lorrain, which he foresaw Charles would take the first opportu- nity of wresting from him. But before I relate the events of the new wars to which those conquests gave birth, we must take a view of the affairs of our own island ; a more contracted but not less turbulent scene, and dis coloured by more horrors and cruelties than the continent, during the dark and changeable period that followed the death of Henry VIII., and terminated in the steady government of Elizabeth. LETTER LXII. England, from the Death of Henry VllL until the Accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, together with an Account of the Affairs of Scotland, during that Period, and of the Progress of the Reformation in both the British Kingdoms. HENRY VIII. by his will, made near a month before his death, left the crown, first to prince Edward, his son by Jane Seymour; then to the princess Mary, his daughter by Catharine of Arragon ; and lastly to the princess Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne Boleyn, though both princesses had been declared ille- gitimate by parliament. These particulars, my dear Philip, are necessary to be mentioned here, in order to the better understanding of the disputes which afterward arose in regard to the succession. Edward VI. being only nine years of age at the time of his father's death, the government of the kingdom was committed to sixteen executors, among whom was Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, the chancellor, chamberlain, and all the great officers of state. They chose one of their number, namely, the earl of Hertford, the king's maternal uncle, instantly created duke of Somerset, to represent the royal majesty, under the title of Protector ; to whom despatches from English ministers abroad should be directed, and whose name should be employed in all orders and proclamations. Him they invested with all the exterior symbols of regal dignity; and he procured a patent from the young king, investing him also with regal power. (2) This patent, in which the executors are not so much as mentioned, being surreptitiously obtained from a minor, the protectorship of Somerset was a palpable usurpation ; but as the executors acquiesced in the new establish- ment, and the king discovered an extreme attachment to his uncle, who was a man of moderation and probity, few objections were made to his power or title. Other causes conspired to confirm both. Somerset had long been regarded as the secret partisan of the Reformers, become by far the most numerous and respectable body of men in the kingdom ; and, being now freed from restraint, he scrupled not to discover his intention of correcting all abuses in the ancient religion, and of adopting still more of the Protestant innovations. He also took care that the king should be educated in the (I) Bobertton, Hitt. Charles V.t book jc. t2) Bumet, Hist. Ilefornat. vol. H. LET. LXIL] M O D E R N E U R P E. 41 , same principles. To these Edward soon discovered a zealous attachment and all men foreseeing, in the course of his reign, the total abolition of the Catholic faith in England, they began early and very generally to declare themselves in favour of those tenets, which were likely to become in the end triumphant, and of that authority by which they were propagatecl. In his schemes for advancing the progress of the Reformation, the pro- tector had always recourse to the counsels of Cranmer, whose moderation and prudence made him averse against all violent changes, and determined him to draw over the people, by insensible gradations, to that system of doctrine and discipline which he esteemed the most pure and perfect.(l) And to these moderate counsels we are indebted, not only for the full establishment of the Protestant religion in England, but also for that happy medium between superstition and enthusiasm observable in the constitution of the English church. The fabric of the secular hierarchy was left and maintained entire ; the ancient liturgy was preserved, as far as was thought consistent with the new principles ; many ceremonies, become venerable from age and preceding use, were retained ; and the distinctive habits of the clergy, according to their different ranks, were continued. No innovation was admitted merely from a spirit of opposition, or a fanatical love of novelty. The establishment of the Church of England was a work of reason. As soon as the English government was brought to some degree of com- posure, Somerset made preparations for a war with Scotland; determined to execute, if possible, that project of uniting the two kingdoms by marriage, on which the late king had been so intent, and which seemed once so near a happy issue, but which had been defeated by the intrigues of cardinal Bea- toun. This politic and powerful prelate, though not able to prevent the par- liament of Scotland from agreeing to the treaty of marriage and union with England, being then in the hands of the Protestant party, afterward regained his authority, and acquired sufficient influence, not only to oblige the earl of Arran, who had succeeded him in the regency, to renounce his alliance with Henry VIII., but also to abjure the principles of the Reformation, to which he seemed zealously attached, and to reconcile himself in 1543, to the Romish communion, in the Franciscan church at Stirling. (2) The fatal effects of this change in the religious and political sentiments of the regent were long- felt in Scotland. Arran's apostacy may even perhaps be considered as the remote cause of all the civil broils which afflicted both kingdoms in the subsequent century, and which terminated in the final expulsion of the house of Stuart, of which the infant queen of Scots was now the sole representative. The southern and most fertile parts of the kingdom were suddenly laid waste by an English army. Various hostilities ensued with various success, but without any decisive event. At last an end was put to that ruinous and inglorious warfare, by the peace concluded between Henry VIII. and Francis I., at Campe, in 1546; the French monarch generously stipulating, that his Scottish allies should be included in the treaty. The religious consequences were more serious and lasting, and their political influence was great. The Scottish regent consented to every thing that the zeal of the cardinal thought necessary for the preservation of the established religion. The Reformers were every where cruelly persecuted, and many were condemned to that dreadful punishment which the church has appointed for its enemies. Among those committed to the flames was a popular preacher named George Wishart ; a man of honourable birth, and of primitive sanctity, who pos- sessed in an eminent degree the talent of seizing the attention and engaging the affections of the multitude. Wishart suffered with the patience of a martyr; but he could not forbear remarking the barbarous triumph of his insulting adversary, who beheld, from a window of his sumptuous palace, the inhuman spectacle : and he foretold, that in a few days the cardinal should, (1) Burnet, Hist. Reformat, vol. ii. (2) Robertson, Hist. Scot, book ii 412 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. in the same palace, lie as low as now he was exalted high, in opposition to trne piety and religion. (1) This prophecy, like many others, was probablj the cause of the event which it foretold. The disciples of Wishart, enraged at his cruel execution, formed a conspiracy against Beatoun; and having associated with them Norman Lesley, eldest son of the earl of Rothes, who was instigated by revenge on account of private injuries, they surprised the cardinal in his palace or castle at St. Andrews, and instantly put him to death. One of the assassins, named James Melvil, before he struck the fatal blow, turned the point of his sword towards Beatoun, and in a tone of pious exhortation called to him, "repent thee, thou wicked cardinal ! of all thy sins and iniquities ; but especially of the murder of George Wishart, that instrument of Christ for the conversion of these lands. It is his death which now cries for vengeance. We are sent by God to inflict the deserved punishment upon thee."(2) The conspirators, though only sixteen in number, took possession of the castle, after turning out one by one the cardinal's formidable retinue ; and being reinforced by their friends, they prepared themselves for a vigorous defence, and sent a messenger to London, craving assistance from Henry VIII. The death of that prince, which happened soon after, blasted all their hopes. They received, however, during the siege, supplies both of money and pro- visions from England ; and if they had been able to hold out only a few weeks longer, they would have escaped that severe capitulation to which they were reduced, not by the regent alone, but by a body of troops sent to his assistance from France. Somerset entered Scotland at the head of eighteen thousand men ; while a fleet of sixty sail, one half of which consisted of ships of war, and the other of vessels laden with provisions and military stores, appeared on the coast, in order to second his operations, and supply his army. The earl of Arran, regent of Scotland, had for some time observed this storm gathering, and was prepared to meet it. He had summoned together the whole force of the kingdom ; and his army, double in number to that of the enemy, was posted to the greatest advantage on a rising ground, guarded by the banks of the river Eske, a little above Mnsselburgh, when the protector came in view. Alarmed at the sight of a force so formidable, and so happily disposed, Somerset made an overture of peace to the earl of Arran, on conditions very admissible He offered to withdraw his troops, and compensate the damage he had done by his inroad, provided the Scottish regency would engage to keep their young queen at home, and not to contract her to any foreign prince, until she should arrive to the age of maturity, when she might choose a husband without the consent of her council. But this moderate demand was rejected by the Scottish regent with disdain, and merely on account of its moderation. It was imputed to fear; and Arran, confident of success, was afraid of nothing but the escape of the English army. He therefore left his strong camp, as soon as he saw the protector begin to move towards the sea, suspecting that he intended to embark on board his fleet ; and passing the river Eske, advanced into the plain, and attacked the English army near the village of Pinkey, with no better success than his rashness deserved. Having drawn up his troops on an eminence, Somerset had now the advantage of ground on his side. The Scottish army consisted chiefly of infantry, whose principal weapon was a long spear, and whose files for that reason were deep, and their ranks close. A body so compact and firm easily resisted the attack of the English cavalry, broke them, and drove them off the field. Lord Grey, their commander, was dangerously wounded; lord Edward Seymour, son of the protector, had his horse killed under him, and the royal standard was near falling into the hands of the enemy. But the Scots being galled by the protector's artillery in front, and by the fire from the ships in flank, while the English archers, and a body of foreign fusileers U) Spotswood. Buchanan. (2) Knox. Keith. LET. LXII.] MODERN EUROPE. 413 poured in vollies of shot upon them from all quarters, they at last tegan to give way : the rout became general, and the whole field was soon a scene of confusion, terror, flight, and consternation. The pursuit was long and bloody, Ten thousand of the Scots are said to have fallen, and but a very inconsider- able number of the conquering enemy.(l) This victory, however, which seemed to threaten Scotland with final SUD- jection, was of no real utility to England. It served only to make the Scots throw themselves inconsiderately into the arms of France, and send their young queen to be educated in that kingdom ; a measure universally regarded as a prelude to her marriage with the dauphin, and which effectually disap- pointed the views of Somerset, and proved the source of Mary's accomplish- ments as a woman, and of her misfortunes as a queen. The Scottish nobles, in taking this step, hurried away by the violence of resentment, seem to have forgot that zeal for the independency of their crown which had made them violate their engagements with Henry VIII. , and oppose with so much ardour the arms of the protector. The cabals of the English court obliged the duke of Somerset to return before he could take any effectual measures for the subjection of Scotland ; and the supplies which the Scots received from France enabled them, in a great measure, to expel their invaders, while the protector was employed in re-establishing his authority, and in quelling domestic insurrections. His brother, lord Seymour, a man of insatiable ambition, had married the queen- dowager, and openly aspired at the government of the kingdom. In order to attain this object, he endeavoured to seduce the young king to his interests ; found means to hold a private correspondence with him, and publicly decried the protector's administration. He had brought over to his party many of the principal nobility, together with some of the most popular persons of inferior rank ; and he had provided arms for ten thousand men, whom it was computed he could muster from among his own domestics and retainers.(2) Though apprized of all these alarming circumstances, Somerset showed no inclination to proceed to extremities. He endeavoured by the most friendly expedients, by reason, entreaty, and even by loading Seymour with new favours, to make him desist from such dangerous politics. But finding all his endeavours ineffectual, he began to think of more serious remedies ; and the earl of Warwick, who hoped to raise his own fortune on the ruin of both, inflamed the quarrel between the brothers. By his advice lord Seymour was committed to the tower, attainted of high-treason, condemned, and exe- cuted. (3) The protector had now leisure to complete the Reformation, the great work which he had so successfully begun, in conjunction with Cranmer, the primate, and which was now the chief object of concern throughout the nation. A committee of bishops and divines had been appointed by the privy-council to compose a liturgy : they had executed the work committed to them, as already observed, with judgment and moderation ; and they not unreasonably flattered themselves, that they had framed a service in which every denomination of Christians might concur. This form of worship, which was nearly the same with that at present authorized by law, was established by parliament in all the churches, and uniformity was ordered to be observed in all the rites and ceremonies. (4) Thus, my dear Philip, in the course of a few years, was the Reformation happily completed in England ; and its civil and religious consequences have since been deservedly valued. But there is no abuse in society so great as not to be attended with some advantages ; and in the beginnings of innova- tion the loss of those advantages is always sensibly felt by the bulk of a nation, before it can perceive the benefits resulting from the desirable change. No institution can be imagined less favourable to the interests of mankind than that of the monastic life ; yet was it followed by many effects, which having ceased with the suppression of monasteries, were much regretted by (1) Patten. Holtngsned. (2) Haynes, p. 105, 106 (3) Burnet, voL ii. (4) 2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. i. 4U THE HISTORY OF [PART! the people of England. The monks, by always residing at their convents, in the centre of their estates, spent their money in the country, and afforded a ready market for commodities. They were also acknowledged to have oeen in England, what they still are in kingdoms where the Romish religion is established, the best and most indulgent landlords ; being limited by the rules of their order to a certain mode of living, and consequently having fewer motives for extortion than other men. The abbots and priors were besides accustomed to grant leases at an undervalue, and to receive a pre- sent in return. But the abbey-lands fell under different management, when distributed among the principal nobility and gentry ; the rents of farms were raised, while the tenants found not the same facility in disposing of the pro- duce. The money was often spent in the capital ; and, to increase the evil, pasturage in that age being found more profitable than tillage, whole estates were laid waste by enclosure. The farmers, regarded as a useless burden, were expelled their habitations: and the cottagers, deprived even of the commons, on which they had formerly fed' their cattle, were reduced to beg- gary.(l) These grievances of the common people occasioned insurrections in several parts of England ; and Somerset, who loved popularity, imprudently encou- raged them, by endeavouring to afford that redress which was not in his power. Tranquillity, however, was soon restored to the kingdom by the vigilance of lord Russel and the earl Warwick, who cut many of the unhappy malecontents in pieces, and dispersed the rest. But the protector never reco- vered his authority. The nobility and gentry were in general displeased with the preference which he seemed to have given to the people ; and as they ascribed all the insults to which they had been lately exposed to his procras- tination, and to the countenance shown to the multitude, they apprehended a renewal of the same disorders from his passion for popular fame. His ene- mies even attempted to turn the rage of the populace against him, by working upon the lower class among the Catholics ; and having gained over to their party the lord-mayor of London, the lieutenant of the tower, and many of the great officers of state, they obliged Somerset to resign the protectorship, and committed him to custody. A council of regency was formed, in which the earl of Warwick, who had conducted this revolution, bore the chief sway, and who actually governed the kingdom without the invidious title of protector. (2) The first act of Warwick's administration was the negotiation of a treaty of peace with France and with Scotland. Henry II. had taken advantage of the disturbances in England to recover several places in the Boulonnois, and even to lay siege, though without effect, to Boulogne itself. He now took advantage, in treating, of the state of the English court. Sensible of the importance of peace to Warwick and his party, the French monarch abso- lutely refused to pay the two millions of crowns which his predecessor had acknowledged to be due to the crown of England, as arrears of former sti- pulations. He would never consent, he said, to render himself tributary to any prince, alluding to the reversion of annual payments demanded ; but he offered a large sum for the immediate restitution of Boulogne and its territory. F'our hundred thousand crowns were agreed on as the equivalent. Scotland was comprehended in this treaty. The English stipulated to restore some fortresses, which they still held in that kingdom. (3) Having thus established his administration, freed the kingdom from all foreign danger, and gained partisans, who were disposed to second him in every domestic enterprise, the earl of Warwick began to think of carrying into execution those vast projects which he had formed for his own aggran- dizement. The last earl of Northumberland had died without issue ; and as his brother, sir Thomas Percy, had been attainted on account of the share which he took in the Yorkshire insurrection during the late reign, the title was at present extinct, and the estate was vested in the crown. Warwick (T\ Strype vol. 11. t2) Stowe. Burnet. Holingshcd. (3) Burnet, vol. ii Rymer, vol. xv LET. LXIL] MODERN EUROPE. 415 procured for himself a grant of that large estate, which lay chiefly in the North, the most warlike part of the kingdom, and was dignified with the title of duke of Northumberland. This was a great step ; but there was yet a strong bar in the way of his ambition. Somerset, though degraded, and lessened in the public esteem in consequence of his spiritless conduct, con- tinued to possess a considerable share of popularity. Northumberland, therefore, resolved to ruin the man he had injured, and whom he still regarded as the chief obstacle against the full attainment of his views. For that purpose, he employed his emissaries to suggest desperate projects to this unguarded nobleman, and afterward accused him of high-treason for seeming to acquiesce in them. Somerset was tried, condemned, and executed on Tower-hill ; and four of his friends shared the same unjust and unhappy fate. His death was sincerely lamented by the people, to whom he had been peculiarly indulgent, and who regarded him as a martyr in. their cause. Many of them dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, which they long preserved as a precious relic. (1) Northumberland might seem to have now attained the highest point of elevation to which a subject could aspire, and the greatest degree of power. His rank was second only to the royal family, his estate was one of the largest in the kingdom, and the government was entirely under his direction. But he aspired after yet greater power and consequence : his ambition knew no bounds. Having procured a parliament, which ratified his most despotic measures, and regulated its proceedings according to his will, he next en- deavoured to ingratiate himself, particularly with the young king, by mani- festing an uncommon zeal for the reformed religion ; to which the opening mind of Edward was warmly devoted, and the interests of which more sen- sibly touched him than all other objects. In his frequent conversations on this subject, North umberJand took occa- sion to represent to that pious prince, whose health began visibly to decline, the danger to which the Reformation would be exposed, should his sister Mary, a bigoted Catholic, succeed to* the throne of England; that although no such objection lay against the princess Elizabeth, he could not, with any degree of propriety, exclude one sister, without also excluding the other : that both had been declared illegitimate by parliament ; that the queen of Scots stood excluded by the late king's will, and was besides attached to the church of Rome ; that these three princesses being set aside for such solid reasons, the succession devolved on the marchioness of Dorset, eldest daughter of the duke of Suffolk and the French queen, his father's youngest sister ; that the apparent successor to the marchioness was her daughter, lady Jane Gray, who was every way worthy of a crown. These arguments made a deep impression upon the mind of Edward. He had long lamented the obstinacy of his sister Mary, in adhering to the Romish communion, and seemed to foresee all the horrors of her reign. He respected, and even loved, Elizabeth. But lady Jane Gray, being of the same age, had been educated along with him, and had commanded his esteem and admiration, by the progress which she made in every branch of literature. He had enjoyed full opportunity of becoming acquainted with the purity of her religious principles, a circumstance that weighed with him above every other consideration in the choice of a successor ; and it seems besides pro- bable, that her elegant person and amiable disposition had inspired his heart with a tender affection. He therefore listened to the proposal of disin- heriting his sisters, with a patience which would otherwise have been highly criminal. Meanwhile, Northumberland, finding he was likely to carry his principal point with the king, began to propose the other parts of his scheme. Two sons of the duke of Suffolk, by a marriage subsequent to the death of the French queen, having died this season of the sweating sickness (an epide- mical malady which raged all over the kingdom), that title was become U) Hayward, p. 324, 325. Holingshed, j 1068. 116 T HE HISTORY OF [PART i, extinct. Northumberland persuaded the king to bestow it on the marquia of Dorset ; and by means of this and other favours, he obtained from the new duke and dutchess of Suffolk their eldest daughter lady Jane, in marriage to his fourth son, lord Guilford Dudley. ( 1) In order to complete his plan of ambition, it now only remained for North- umberland to procure the desired change in the succession ; and, in the present languishing state of the king's health, after all the arguments that had been used, it was no difficult matter to obtain a deed to that effect from Edward. He met with more opposition from the judges, and other persons necessary to the execution of such a deed. But they, at last, were all silenced, either by threats or promises ; and the great seal was affixed to the king's letters patent, settling the crown on the heirs of the dutchess of Suf- folk, she herself being content to give place to her daughters, or, in other words, to lady Jane, for whom she was sensible the change in the succession had been projected. The king died soon after this singular transaction; and so much the sooner by being put into the hands of an ignorant woman, who undertook to restore him, in a little time, to his former state of health. Most of our historians out especially such as were well affected to the Reformation, dwell with pe culiar pleasure on the excellent qualities of this young prince, whom (as HI. elegant writer observes) the flattering promises of hope, joined to many rea ; virtues, had made an object of fond regard to the public : and making allow ance for the delicacy of his frame, and the manners of the age in which he lived, he seems to have possessed all the accomplishments that could be exp ".ted in a youth of sixteen : re of the opposition that would be made to the concerted change IL the succession, Northumberland had carefully concealed the destination of the crown signed by Edward. He even kept that prince's death secret for a while, in hopes of getting the two princesses into his power. With this view, he engaged the council to desire their attendance at court, under pre- tence that the king's infirm state of health required the assistance of their advice, and the consolation of their company. All obedience or anxiety, they instantly left their several retreats in the country, and set out for Lon- don; but happily, before their arrival, they both got intelligence of their brother's death, and of the conspiracy formed against themselves. Mary, who had advanced as far as Hodsdon, Avhen she received this notice, made haste to retire, and wrote letters to the nobility and most considerable gentry m every county of England, commanding them to assist her in the defence of her crown and person. (2) Farther dissimulation, Northumberland now saw, would be fruitless ; he therefore went to Sion-house, where lady Jane Gray resided, accompanied hy a body of the nobility, and, approaching her with the respect usually paid to the sovereign, informed her of her elevation to the throne. Lady Jane, who was in a great measure ignorant of the intrigues of her father- in-law, received this information with equal grief and. surprise. She even refused to accept the crown ; pleaded the preferable title of the two prin- cesses ; expressed her dread of the consequences attending an enterprise so dangerous, nay, so criminal, and begged to remain in that private station in which she was born. Her heart, full of the passion for literature and the elegant arts, and of affection for her husband, who was worthy of all her regard, had never opened itself to the flattering allurements of ambition. Overcome, however, at last, by the entreaties rather than the reasons of her relations, she submitted to their will ; and Northumberland immediately con veyed her to London, where she was proclaimed queen, but without one ap plauding voice. The people heard the proclamation with silence and concern ; the very preachers employed their eloquence in vain to convince their auditors of the justice of lady Jane's title. Respect for the royal line, and indignation (1) Strypc. Hcylin. Stowe. (2) Burnet Fox. Heylin. LET. LX1I.] MODERN EUROPE. 417 against the Dudleys, Ayas stronger, even in the breasts of the Protestants, than the dread of popery.(l) Meantime, the inhabitants of Suffolk, whither the princess Mary had fled, resorted to her in crowds ; and when she assured them, that she never meant to alter the laws of Edward VI. concerning religion, they zealously enlisted themselves in her cause. The nobility and gentry daily flocked to her with reinforcements. Sir Edward Hastings, brother to the earl of Huntingdon, carried over to her four thousand men, levied for the support of her rival. The fleet declared for her. Even the earl of Suffolk, who commanded in the tower, finding resistance fruitless, opened the gates of that fortress : and lady Jane, after the vain pageantry of wearing a crown during ten days, returned without a sigh to the privacy of domestic life. The council ordered Mary to be proclaimed ; and Northumberland, deserted by his followers, and despairing of success, complied with that order with exterior marks of joy and satisfaction. He was brought to trial, however, and condemned and executed for high-treason. Sentence was also pronounced against lady Jane Gray and lord Guilford Dudley ; but they were respited on account of their youth, neither of them having attained the age of seventeen.(2) No sooner was Mary seated on the throne than a total change took place both in men and measures. They who had languished in confinement were lifted to the helm of power, and intrusted with the government of the church as well as of the state. Gardiner, Bonner, and other Catholic bishops were restored to their sees, and admitted to the queen's favour and confidence ; while the most eminent Protestant prelates and zealous reformers, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, Coverdale, and Cranmer, were thrown into prison. The men of Suffolk were brow-beaten, because they presumed to plead the queen s promise of maintaining the reformed religion ; and one, more bold than the rest, in recalling to her memory the engagements into which she had entered, when they enlisted themselves in her service, was set in the pillory. A parliament was procured entirely conformable to the sentiments of the court, and a bill passed declaring the queen to be legitimate ; ratifying the mar- riage of Henry VIII. with Catharine of Arragon, and annulling the divorce pronounced by Cranmer. All the statutes of Edward VI. respecting religion were repealed ; and the queen sent assurances to the pope of her earnest desire of reconciling herself and her kingdoms to the holy see, and request- ing that cardinal Pole might be appointed legate for the performance o tha P1 Reg^nald Pole was descended from the royal family of England, being fourth son of the countess of Salisbury, daughter of the duke of Clarence. He gave early indications of that fine genius, and generous disposition, by which he was so much distinguished during his more advanced age ; an< Henrv VIII., having conceived great friendship for him, proposed to raise mm to the highest ecclesiastical dignities. As a pledge of future favours, Henry conferred on him the deanery of Exeter, the better to support hnnin his edu- cation. But when the king of England broke with the court of Rome, Pole not only refused to second his measures, but wrote against him in a treatise on the Unity of the Church. This performance produced an irreparable bre^h between the young ecclesiastic and his sovereign, and blasted all Pole s hopes of rising in the English church. He was not, however, allowed to sink. The pope and the emperor thought themselves bound to provide for a man oi so much eminence ; who, in support of their cause, had sacrificed all his pre- tensions to fortune in his own country. Pole was create da car dinal, and sent legate into Flanders. But he took no higher than deacon's orders, whi did not condemn him to celibacy ; and he was suspected of having aspir to the English crown, by means of a marriage with the princes s Mary, during the life of her father. The marquis of Exeter, lord Montacute, the cardinal s b other, and several other persons of rank, suffered for this conspirg, whether real or pretended. To hold a correspondence with that obnoxioi (DBurnet Fox. Heylin. Cft Heylin Bumel 1 Bumet, voL tt Vol. I. D A 418 THE HISTORY OF [PiRT i. fugitive was deemed perhaps sufficient guilt. It was enough at least to expose them to the indignation of Henry ; and his will, on many occasions, is known to have usurped the place of both law and equity. But whatever doubt may remain of Pole's intrigues for obtaining the crown of England, through an alliance with Mary, it is certain SHE was no sooner seated upon the throne than she thought of making him the partner of her sway. The cardinal, however, being now in the decline of life, was represented to the queen as unqualified for the bustle of a court, and the fatigue of business. She therefore laid aside all thoughts of him as a hus- band : but as she entertained a high esteem for his wisdom and virtue, she still proposed to reap the benefits of his counsels in the administration of her government ; and hence her request to the pope. This alliance, and one with the earl of Devonshire, being rejected for various reasons, the queen turned her eye towards the house of Austria, and there found a ready correspondence with her views. Charles V. whose am- bition was boundless, no sooner had heard of the accession of his kins- woman Mary to the crown of England, than he formed the scheme of obtain- ing the kingdom for his son Philip ; hoping by that acquisition to balance the losses he had sustained in Germany : and Philip, although eleven years younger than Mary, who was destitute of every external beauty or grace, gave his consent without hesitation, to the match proposed by his father. The emperor, therefore, immediately sent over an agent to signify his inten- tions to the queen of England ; who, flattered with the prospect of marrying the presumptive heir of the greatest monarch in Europe, pleased with the support of so powerful an alliance, and happy to unite herself more closely to her mother's family, to which she had always been warmly attached, gladly embraced the proposal. The earls of Norfolk and Arunde],, lord Paget, whom she had promoted, and bishop Gardiner, now become prime minister, finding how Mary's inclinations leaned, gave their opinion in favour of the Spanish alliance ; but as they were sensible the prospect of it diffused uni- versal apprehension and terror, for the liberty and independency of the king- dom, the marriage articles were drawn up with all possible attention to the interest and security, and even to the grandeur, of England. The emperor agreed to whatever was thought necessary to sooth the fears of the people or quiet the jealousies of the nobility. The chief articles were, that Philip, during his marriage with Mary, should bear the title of king, but that the ad- ^linistration should be vested solely in the queen ; that no foreigner shouM be capable of holding any office in the kingdom ; that no innovation should be made in the English laws, customs, or privileges ; that Philip should not carry the queen abroad without her consent, nor any of her children without the consent of the nobility; that the male issue of the marriage should inherit, together with England, Burgundy and the Low Countries ; that if Don Carlos, Philip's son by a former marriage, should die without issue, Mary's issue whether male or female, should succeed to the crown of Spain, and all the emperor's hereditary dominions ; and that Philip, if the Dueen should die before him, without issue, should leave the crown of England to the lawful heir, without claiming any right of administration whatsoever. (1) But this treaty, though framed with so much caution and skill, was far from reconciling the English nation to the Spanish alliance. It was univer- sally said, that the emperor, in order to get possession of England, would agree to any terms ; and that the more favourable the conditions which he had granted, the more certainly might it be concluded he had no serious intention of observing them. His general character was urged in support of these observations; and it was added that Philip, while he inherited his father's vices, fraud and ambition, united to them more dangerous vices of his own, sullen pride and barbarity. England seemed already a province of Spain, groaning under the load of despotism, and subjected to all the horrors Hi Rvmer vol. xv. Burnet vo' LET. LXIL] MODERN EUROPE. 419 of the inquisition. The people were every where ripe for rebellion, and wanted only an able leader to have subverted the queen's authority. No such leader appeared. The more prudent part of the nobility thought it would be soon enough to correct ills when they began to be felt. Some turbulent spirits, however, judged it safer to prevent than to redress grievances. They accordingly formed a conspiracy to rise in arms, and declare against the queen's marriage with Philip. Sir Thomas Wyat proposed to raise Kent ; sir Peter Carew, Devonshire ; and the duke of Suffolk Avas engaged, by the hopes of recovering the crown for lady Jane Gray, to attempt raising the midland counties. But these conspirators imprudently breaking concert, and rising at different times, were soon humbled. Wyat and Suffolk lost their heads, as did lady Jane Gray and her husband lord Guilford Dudley, to whom the duke's guilt was imputed. This fond and unfortunate couple died with much piety and fortitude. It had been intended to execute them on the same scaffold on Tower-hill ; but the council, dreading the compassion of the people for their youth, beauty, and innocence, changed its orders, and gave directions that lady Jane should be beheaded within the verge of the tower. She refused to take leave of her husband on the day of their execution ; assigning as a reason, that the tenderness of parting might unbend their minds from that firmness which their approaching doom required of them. " Our separation," added she, " will be but for a moment, we shall soon rejoin each other in a scene where our affections will be for ever united, and where death, disappointment, and mis- fortune can no longer disturb our felicity."(l) She saw lord Guilford led to execution, without discovering any sign of weakness; she even calmly met his headless body, as she was going to execution herself, returning to be interred in the chapel of the tower, and intrepidly desired to proceed to the fatal spot, emboldened by the reports which she had received of the magna- nimity of his behaviour. On that occasion she wrote in her table-book three sentences ; one in Greek, one in Latin, and one in English. The meaning of them was, that although human justice was against her husband's body, divine mercy would be favourable to his soul ; that if her fault deserved punishment, her youth and inexperience ought to plead her excuse; and that God and posterity, she trusted, would show her favour. On the scaffold she behaved with great mildness and composure, and sub- mitted herself to the stroke of the executioner with a steady and serene countenance. (2) The queen's authority was much strengthened by the suppression of this rebellion, commonly called Wyat's from the figure which he made in it; and the arrival of Philip in England gave still more stability to her govern- ment. For although that prince's behaviour was ill calculated to remove the prejudices which the English nation had entertained against him, being dis- tant in his address, and so intrenched in form and ceremony as to be in a manner inaccessible, his liberality, if money disbursed for the purposes of corruption can deserve that name, made him many friends among the nobi- lity and o-entry. Cardinal Pole also arrived in England about the same time, with legantine powers from the pope ; and both houses of parliament voted an address to Philip and Mary, acknowledging that the nation had been guilty of a most horrible defection from the true church; declaring their resolu- tion to repeal all laws enacted in prejudice of the Romish religion; and praying their majesties, happily uninfected with that criminal schism ! to inter- cede with the holy father for the absolution and forgiveness of their penitent subjects. The request was readily granted. The legate, in the name of his holiness, gave the parliament and kingdom absolution, freed them from all eccle- siastical censures, and received them again into the bosom of the church.(3) In consequence of this reconciliation with the see of Rome, the punish, ment by fire, that frightful expedient of superstition for extending her empire, <1) Heylin, p. 167. Fos * Hi. (2) Id. ibid. v3) Burnet vol. ii. Foi, vol. iii 420 THE HISTORY OF and preserving her dominion, was rigorously employed against the most emi- nent Reformers. The mild councils of cardinal Pole, who was inclined to toleration, were overruled by Gardiner and Bonner, and many persons, of all conditions, ages, and sexes, were committed to the flames. The persecutors made their first attack upon Rogers, prebendary of St. Paul's ; a man equally distinguished by his piety and learning, but whose domestic situation, it was hoped, would bring him to compliance. He had a wife whom he tenderly loved, and ten children : yet did he continue firm in his principles ; and such was his serenity after condemnation, that the jailers, it is said, waked him from a sound sleep, when the hour of his execution approached. He suffered in Smithfield. Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, was condemned at the same time with Rogers, but sent to his own diocess to be punished, in order to strike the greater terror into his flock. The constancy of his death, however, had a very contrary effect. It was a scene of consolation to Hooper to die in their sight, bearing testimony to that doctrine which he had formerly taught among them. He continued to exhort them, till his tongue, swollen by the violence of his agony, denied him utterance : and his words were long remembered.(l) Ferrar, bishop of St. David's, also suffered this terrible punishment in his own diocess. And Ridley, bishop of London, and Latimer, formerly bishop of Worcester, two prelates venerable by their years, their learning. and their piety, perished together in the same fire at Oxford, supporting each other's constancy by their mutual exhortations. Latimer, when tied to the stake, called to his companion, " Be of good cheer, my brother '. We shall this day kindle such a flame in England, as, I trust in God, will nevei be extinguished."(2) Sanders, a respectable clergyman, was committed to the flames at Coventry. A pardon was offered him if he would recant : but he rejected it with disdain, and embraced the stake, saying, " Welcome, cross of Christ ! welcome, ever- lasting life !" Cranmer had less courage at first. Overawed by the prospect of those tortures which awaited him, or overcome by the fond love of life, and by the flattery of artful men, who pompously represented the dignities to which his character still entitled him, if he would merit them by a recant- ation, he agreed, in an unguarded hour, to subscribe the doctrines of the papal supremacy and the real presence. But Mary and her council, no less perfidious than cruel, determined that this recantation should avail him nothing; that he should acknowledge his errors in the church before the people, and afterward be led to execution. Whether Cranmer received secret intelligence of their design, or repented of his weakness, or both, is uncer- tain, but he surprised the audience by a declaration very different from that which was expected from him. After explaining his sense of what he owed to God and his sovereign, " There is one miscarriage in my life," said he, "of which, above all others, I severely repent the insincere declaration of faith to which I had the weakness to subscribe ; but I take this opportunity of atoning for my error by a sincere and open recantation, and am willing to seal with my blood that doctrine which I firmly believe to have been commu- nicated from Heaven." As his hand, he added, had erred, by betraying his heart, it should first be punished by a severe but just doom. He accordingly stretched out his arm, as soon as he came \o the stake, to which he was instantly led ; and without discovering, either by his looks or motions, the least sign of com- punction, or even of feeling, he held his right hand in the flames, till it was utterly consumed. His thoughts appeared to be totally occupied in reflect- ing on his former fault ; and he called aloud several times, " This hand has offended!" When it dropped off, he discovered a serenity in his counte- nance, as if satisfied with sacrificing to divine justice the instrument of his firime ; and when the fire attacked his body, his soul, wholly collected within (1) Burnet, vol. ii. Fox, vol. iii. i Id. ibid. LET. LXII.] MODERNEUROPE. 421 itself, seemed fortified against every external accident, and altogether inac eessible to pain.(l) It would be endless, my dear Philip, to enumerate all the cruelties prac- tised in England during this bigoted reign, near three hundred persons having been brought to the stake in the first rage of persecution. Besides, the savage barbarity on one hand, and the patient constancy on the other, are so similar, in all those martyrdoms, that a narration, very little agreeable in itself, would become altogether disgusting by its uniformity. It is sufficient to have mentioned the sufferings of our ntost eminent Reformers, whose cha- racter and condition make such notice necessary. I shall therefore conclude this cubject with observing, that human nature appears on no occasion so detestable, and at the same time so absurd, as in these religious horrors, which sink mankind below infernal spirits in wickedness, and beneath the brutes in folly. Bishop Bonner seemed to rejoice in the torments of the victims of persecution. He sometimes whipped the Protestant prisoners, with his own hands, till he was tired with the violence of the exercise : he tore out the beard of a weaver who refused to relinquish his religion ; and, in order to give the obstinate heretic a more sensible idea of burning, he held his finger to the candle, till the sinews and veins shrunk and burst. (2) All these examples prove that no human depravity can equal revenge and cruelty, inflamed by theological hate. But the members of the English parliament, though so obsequious to the queen's will in reuniting the kingdom to the see of Rome, and in authorizing the butchery of their fellow-subjects who rejected the Catholic faith, had still some regard left both to their own and the national interest. They refused to restore the possessions of the church. And Mary failed, not only in an attempt to get her husband declared presumptive heir to the crown, and to obtain the consent of parliament for vesting the administration in his hands, but in all her political hopes. She could not so much as obtain a parliament- ary consent to his coronation. The queen likewise met with much and long*opposition from parliament in another favourite measure; namely, in an attempt to engage the nation in the war which was kindled between France and Spain. The motion was for a time laid aside ; and Philip, disgusted with Mary's importunate love, which was equal to that of a girl of eighteen, and with her jealousy and spleen, which increased with her declining years and her despair of having issue, had gone over to his father Charles V. in Flanders. The voluntary resignation of the emperor, soon after this visit, put Philip in possession of all the wealth of America, and of the richest and most extensive dominions in Europe. He did not, however, lay aside his attention to the affairs of Eno-land, of which he still hoped to have the direction; and he came over to London, in order to support his parliamentary friends in a new motion for a French war. This measure was zealously opposed by several of the queen most able counsellors, and particularly by cardinal Pole, who, having taken priest's orders, had been installed in the see of Canterbury, on the death Cranmer. But hostilities having been begun in France, as was pretended, war was at last denounced against that kingdom; and an army of ten thpn sand men was sent over to the Low Countries, under the command of the earl of Pembroke.(3) A like attempt was made in Scotland by the French monarch to engage that kingdom in a war with England. Mary of Guise, the queen dowager, had obtained the regency through the intrigues of the court of France, ai Henry II. now requested her to take part in the common quarrel, accordingly summoned a convention of the states, and asked their concurrence for commencing hostilities against England. But the Scottish nobles, who were become as jealous of the French as the English were of Spanish influ- ence, refused their assent; and the regent had in vain recourse to stratagem in order to accomplish her purpose. )Fox,TOLiiL Bumet, vol.lt (8) M. ibid. (3) Burnet, vol. ii. Strype, voL U* 422 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The French monarch, however, without the assistance of his ancient allies, and notwithstanding the unfortunate battle of St. Quintin, of which I shall afterward have occasion to. speak, made himself master of Calais, which the English had held upwards of two hundred years ; and which, as it opened to them an easy and secure entry into the heart of France, was regarded as the most valuable foreign possession belonging to the crown. This important place was recovered by the vigilance and valour of the duke of Guise ; who, informed that the English, trusting to the strength of the town, deemed in that age impregnable, were accustomed to recall, towards the close of sum- mer, great part of the garrison, and to replace it in the spring, undertook, in the depth of winter, and succeeded in an enterprise that surprised his own countrymen no less than his enemies. As he knew that success depended upon celerity, he pushed his attacks with such vigour, that the governor was obliged to surrender on the eighth day of the siege. (1) The joy of the French on that occasion was extreme. Their vanity in- dulged itself in the utmost exultation of triumph, while the English gave vent to all the passions which agitate a high-spirited people, when any great national misfortune is evidently the consequence of the misconduct of their rulers. They murmured loudly against the queen and her council, who, after engaging the nation in a fruitless war, for the sake of foreign interest, had thus exposed it, by their negligence, to so severe a disgrace. This event, together with the consciousness of being hated by her sub- jects, and despised by her husband, so much affected the queen of England, whose health had long been declining, that she fell into a low fever, which put an end to her short and inglorious reign. " When I am dead," said she to her attendants, "you will find Calais at my heart." Mary possessed few qualities either estimable or amiable. Her person was, as little engaging as her manners ; and amid that complication of vices which entered into her composition, namely, obstinacy, bigotry, violence, and cruelty, we scarcely find any virtue but sincerity. Before the queen's death,4iegotiations had been opened for a general peace. Among other conditions, the king of France demanded the restitution of Navarre to its lawful owner ; the king of Spain, that of Calais and its terri- tory to England. But the death of Mary somewhat altered the firmness of the Spanish monarch in regard to that capital article. And before I speak of the treaty which was afterward signed at Chateau Cambresis, and which restored tranquillity to Europe, I must carry forward the affairs of the conti- nent. Meantime, it will be proper to say a few words of the princess Eliza- beth, who now succeeded to the throne of England. The English nation was under great apprehensions for the life of this princess, during her sister's whole reign. The attachment of Elizabeth to the reformed religion offended Mary's bigotry ; and menaces had been em- ployed to bring her to a recantation. The violent hatred which the queen entertained against her broke out on every occasion ; and all her own dis- tinguished prudence was necessary, in order to prevent the fatal effects of it. She retired into the country; and knowing that she was surrounded with spies, she passed her time wholly in reading and study. She complied with he established mode of worship, and eluded all questions hi regard to religion. \Vhen asked, on purpose to gather her opinion of the real presence, what she thought of these words of Christ, " This is my body ?" and whethei she believed it the true body of Christ that was in the sacrament of the Lords' Supper 1 she replied thus : " Christ was the Word that spake it ; He took the bread and brake it ; And what the Word did make it, That I believe and take it."(2) U) fhuanus, lib. xx. cap ii "Jaker Strype. Camdea LET. LXIII.1 MODERN EUROPE. 433 After the death of her sister, Elizabeth delivered her sentiments more freely : arid the first act of her administration was the re-establishment of the Protestant religion. The liturgy was again introduced in the English tongue, and the oath of supremacy was tendered to the clergy. The number of bishops had been reduced to fourteen, by a sickly season which preceded this change ; and all these, except the bishop of Landaff, having refused compliance, were deprived of their sees. But of the great body of the English clergy, only eighty rectors and vicars, fifty prebendaries, fifteen heads of colleges, twelve archdeacons, and as many deans, sacrificed their livings for their theological opinions. (1) This change in religion completed the joy of the people, on account of the accession of Elizabeth ; the auspicious commencement of whose reign may be said to have prognosticated that felicity and glory which uniformly at- tended it. These particulars, my dear Philip, will make all retrospect in the aft'airs of England unnecessary, beyond the treaty of Chateau Cambresis. LETTER LXIII. Tlie Continent of Europe, from the Peace of Passau, in 1552, to the Peace of Ch&teau Cambresis, in 1559. THE treaty of Passau was no sooner signed, than Maurice, the deliverer of Germany, marched into Hungary against the Turks, at the head of twenty thousand men, in consequence of his engagements with Ferdinand, whom the hopes of such assistance had made the most zealous advocate of the confe- derates. But the vast superiority of the Turkish armies, together with the dissensions between Maurice and Castaldo, the Austrian general, who was piqued at being superseded in the command, prevented the elector from per- forming any thing in the country worthy of his former fame, or of much benefit to the king of the Romans. In the mean time, Charles V., deeply affected for the loss of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which had formed the barrier of the empire on the side of France, and would now secure the frontier of Champagne, left his inglorious retreat at Villach, and put himself at the head of those forces which he had assembled against the confederates, determined to recover the three bishopricks. In order to conceal the destination of his army, he circulated a report that he intended to lead it into Hungary, to second Maurice in his operations against the infidels ; and as that pretext failed him when he began to approach the Rhine, he pretended that he was marching first to chastise Albert of Branden- burg, who had refused to be included in the treaty of Passau, and whose cruel exactions in that part of Germany called loudly for redress. The French, however, were not deceived by these artifices. Henry II. immediately guessed the true object of the emperor's armament, and resolved to defend his conquests with vigour. The defence of Metz, against which k was foreseen the whole weight of the war would be turned, was committed to Francis of Lorrain, duke of Guise, who possessed in an eminent degree all the qualities that render men great in military command. To courage, sagacity, and presence of mind, he added that magnanimity of soul which delights in bold enterprises, and aspires after fame by splendid and extraor- dinary actions. He repaired with joy to the dangerous station ; and many of the French nobility, and even princes of the blood, eager to distinguish themselves under such a leader, entered Metz as volunteers. They were all necessary. The city was of great extent, ill fortified, and the suburbs large. For all these defects the duke endeavoured to provide a remedy. He repaired the old fortifications with all possible expedition, labouring with his own hands : the officers imitated his example ; and the soldiers, thus encouraged, Haker. Strype. Camden 424 THEHISTORYOF [PART 1. cheerfully submitted to the most severe toils. He erected new works, and he levelled the suburbs with the ground. At the same time he filled the magazines with provisions and military stores, compelled all useless persons to leave the place, and laid waste the neighbouring country ; yet such were his popular talents, and his power of acquiring an ascendant over the minds of men, that the citizens not only refrained from murmuring, but seconded him with no less ardour than the soldiers, in all his operations in the .ruin of their estates, and in the havoc of their public and private buildings. (1) Meanwhile, the emperor continued his inarch towards Lorrain at the head of sixty thousand men. On his approach, Albert of Brandenburg, whose army did not exceed twenty thousand, withdrew into that dutchy, as if he intended to join the French king; and Charles, notwithstanding the declining season, it being the month of October, laid siege to Metz, contrary to the advice of his most experienced officers. The attention of both the besiegers and the besieged was turned for a time to the motions of Albert, who still hovered in the neighbourhood, undeter- mined which side to take, though resolved to sell his services. Charles at last came up to his price, and he joined the imperial army. The emperor now flattered himself that nothing could resist his force ; but he found himself deceived. After a siege of almost sixty days, during which he had attempted all that was thought possible for art or valour to effect, and had lost upward of thirty thousand men by the inclemency of the weather, diseases, or the sword of the enemy, he was obliged to abandon the enterprise. " Fortune," said Charles, " I now perceive, like other fine ladies, chooses to confer her favours on young men, and forsake those advanced in years."(2) This saying has been thought gallant, and perhaps it is so ; but the occasion merited more serious reflections. When the French sallied out to attack the enemy's rear, a spectacle presented itself to their view which extinguished at once all hostile rage, and melted them into compassion. The imperial camp was filled with the sick and wounded, with the dead and the dying. All the roads by which the army retired were strewed with the same miserable objects ; who having made an effort beyond their strength to escape, and not being able to proceed, were left to perish without assistance. Happily, that, and all the kind offices which their friends had not the power to perform, they received from their enemies. The duke of Guise ordered them all to be taken care of, and supplied with every necessary. He appointed physicians to attend, and direct what treatment was proper for the sick and wounded, and what refreshments for the feeble ; and such as recovered he sent home, under a safe escort, and with money to bear their charges. (3) By these acts of humanity, less common in that age than the present, the duke of Guise completed that heroic character which he had justly acquired by his brave and successful defence of Metz. The emperor's misfortunes were not confined to Germany. During his residence at Villach he had been obliged to borrow two hundred thousand crowns from Cosmo of Medicis ; and so low was his credit, that he was obliged to put that prince in possession of the territory of Piombino, as a security for the repayment of the money. By this step he lost the footing he had hitherto maintained in Tuscany, and nearly at the same time he lost Sienna. The Siennese, who had long enjoyed a republican government, rose against the Spanish garrison, which they had admitted as a check upon the tyranny of the nobility, but which they now found was meant to enslave them. Forgetting their domestic animosities, they recalled the exiled no- bles, demolished the citadel, and putt hemselves under the protection of France. (4) These unfortunate events were followed by the most aKrmipg danger? The severe administration of the Viceroy of Naples had filled that kingdom (1) Thuan. lib. xi. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Thuan. lib. vi. P. Daniel, Ifist. de France, torn. iv. Father Daniel's act one to/" tbii siege is coplec from the Journal of the Sieur de Salignac, who was present at it. '4 % Mem. de Ribier. LET. LXIII.J MODERN EUROPE. 425 with murmuring' and dissatisfaction. The prince of Salerno, the head of the malecontents, fled to the court of France. The French monarch, after the example of his father, had formed an alliance with the grand-seignior ; and Solyman, at that time highly incensed against the house of Austria, on ac- count of the proceedings in Hungary, sent a powerful fleet into the Mediter- ranean, under the command of the corsair Dragut, an officer trained up under Barbarossa, and litle inferior to his master in courage, talents, or in good fortune. Dragut appeared on the coast of Calabria, where he expected to be joined by a French squadron ; but not meeting with it according to concert, he returned to Constantinople, after plundering and burning several places, and filling Naples with consternation.(l) Highly chagrined by so many disasters, Charles retired into the Low Countries, breathing vengeance against France. Meantime, Germany was still disturbed by the restless ambition of Albert of Brandenburg ; and as that prince obstinately continued his violences, notwithstanding a decree of the imperial chamber, a league was formed against him by the most powerfu/ princes in the empire, of which Maurice was declared the head. This con- federacy, however, wrought no change in the sentiments of Albert. But as he knew that he could not resist so many princes, if they had leisure to unite their forces, he marched directly against Maurice, whom he dreaded most, and hoped to crush before he could receive support from his allies ; though in that he was deceived. Maurice was ready to oppose him. These hostile chiefs, whose armies were nearly equal in numbers, each consisting of twenty-four thousand men, met at Siverhausen, in the dutchy of Luneifburg. There an obstinate battle was fought, in which the combat long remained doubtful, each gaining ground upon the other alternately ; but at last victory declared for Maurice, who was superior in cavalry. Albert's army fled in confusion, leaving four thousand men dead on the field, and their baggage and artillery in the hands of the enemy. But the allies bought their victory dear. Their best troops suffered greatly ; several persons of distinction fell ; and Maurice himself received a wound of which he died two days after, in the thirty-second year of his age. No prince, ancient 01 modern, ever perhaps discovered such deep political sagacity at so early a period of life. As he left only one daughter, afterward married to the fa- mous William prince of Orange, John Frederic, the degraded elector, claimed the electoral dignity, and that part of his patrimonial estate of which he had oeen stripped during the Smalkaldic war ; but the states of Saxony, forget- ting the merits and sufferings of their former master, declared in favour of Augustus, Maurice's brother. The unfortunate, but magnanimous, John Frederic died soon after this disappointment, which he bore with his usual firmness ;(2) and the electoral dignity is still possessed by the descendants of Augustus. The consternation which Maurice's death occasioned among his troops prevented them from making a proper use of their victory; so that Albert, havin^ reassembled his broken forces, and made fresh levies, renewed his depredations with additional fury. But being defeated in a second battle, scarce less bloody than the former, by Henry of Brunswick, who had taken the command of the allied army, he was driven from all his hereditary do- minions, as well as from those he had usurped; was laid under the ban of the empire, and obliged to take refuge in France, where he lingered out a few years in an indigent and dependent state of exile.(3) Durin^ these transactions in Germany, war was carried on in the Low Countries with considerable vigour. Impatient to efface the stain which hi military reputation had received before Metz, Charles laid siege to Terouane, and the fortifications being out of repair, that important place was carried by assault. Hesden also was invested, and carried in the same manner. H kin? of France was too late in assembling his forces, to afford relief to either of these places; and the emperor afterward cautiously avoided an engage ment, during the remainder of the campaign. Q Mem. d, Ribier. (2) Avnoldi, Vit. Maurit. Robertson, Hist Charles V. book x. (3) Id. Ibid. 426 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The imperial arms were less successful in Italy. The viceroy of Naples failed in an attempt to recover Sienna ; and the French not only established themselves more firmly in Tuscany, but conquered part of the island of Corsica. Nor did the affairs of the house of Austria wear a better aspect in Hungary during the course of this year. Isabella and her son appeared once more in Transylvania, at a time when the people were ready for revolt, in order to revenge the death of Martinuzzi, whose loss they had severely felt. Some noblemen of eminence declared in favour of the young king : and the bashaw of Belgrade, by Solyman's order, espousing his cause, Cas- taldo, the Austrian general, was obliged to abandon Transylvania to Isabella and the Turks.(l) In order to counterbalance these and other losses, the emperor, as has been already related, concerted a marriage between his son Philip and Mary of England, in hopes of adding this kingdom to his other dominions. Meanwhile, the war between Henry and Charles was carried on with various success in the Low Countries, and in Italy much to the disadvantage of France. The French, under the command of Strozzi, a Florentine nobleman, were defeated in the battle of Marciano ; Sienna was reduced by Medicino, the imperial general, after a siege of ten months, and the gallant Siennese were again subjected to the Spanish yoke. Nearly at the same time a plot was formed by the Franciscans, but happily discovered before it could be carried into execution, for betraying Metz to the imperialists. The father guardian and twenty other monks received sentence of death on account of this con- spiracy ; but the guardian, before the time appointed for his execution, was murdered by his incensed accomplices, whom he had seduced from their alle- giance, and six of the youngest were pardoned. (2) While war thus raged in Italy and the Low Countries, accompanied with all its train of miseries, and all the crimes to which ambition gives birth, Germany enjoyed such profound tranquillity, as afforded the diet full leisure to confirm and perfect the plan of religious pacification agreed upon at Passau, and referred to the consideration of the next meeting of the [Ger manic body. For this purpose a diet had been summoned to meet at Augs- burg, soon after the conclusion of the treaty ; but the commotions excited by Albert of Brandenburg, and the attention which Ferdinand was obliged to pay to the affairs of Hungary, had hitherto obstructed its deliberations. The following stipulations were at last settled, and formally published ; namely, " That such princes and cities as have declared their approbation of the Concession of Augsburg shall be permitted to profess and exercise, without molestation, the doctrine and worship which it authorizes ; that the popish ecclesiastics shall claim no spiritual jurisdiction in such cities or principalities, nor shall the Protestants molest the princes and states that adhere to the church of Rome ; that no attempt shall be made for the future towards terminating religious differences, except by the gentle and pacific methods of persuasion and conference ; that the supreme civil power in every state may establish what form of doctrine and Avorship it shall deem proper, but shall permit those who refuse to conform to remove their effects ; that such as had seized the benefices or revenues of the church, pre- vious to the treaty of Passau, shall retain possession of them, and be subject to no prosecution in the imperial chamber on that account ; but if any prelate or ecclesiastic shall hereafter abandon the Romish religion, he shall instantly relinquish his diocess or benefice, and that it shall be lawful for those in whom the right of nomination is vested to proceed immediately to an elec- tion, as if the office was vacant by death or translation."(3) These, my dear Philip, are the principal articles in the famous recess of Augsburg, which is the basis of religious peace in Germany. The followers of Luther were highly pleased with that security which it afforded them, and the Catholics seemed to have had no less reason to be satisfied. That article which preserved entire to the Romish church the benefices of such eccle- <1) Thunus,lib. xv. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Father Paul, lib. v. Pallavic'ni, !ib. xiit LKT. LXIII.] MODERN EUROPL. 427 siastics as should hereafter renounce its doctrines, at once placed a hedge around its patrimony, and effectually guarded against the defection of its dignitaries. But cardinal Caraffa, who was now raised to the papal throne, under the name of Paul IV., full of high ideas of his apostolic jurisdiction, and animated with the fiercest zeal against heresy, regarded the indulgence given to the Protestants, by an assembly composed of laymen, as an impious act of that power which the diet had usurped. He therefore threatened the emperor and the king of the Romans with the severest effects of his ven- geance, if they did not immediately declare the recess of Augsburg illegal and void ; and as Charles showed no disposition to comply with this demand, the pope entered into an alliance with the French king, in order to ruin the imperial power in Italy. During the negotiation of that treaty, an event happened which astonished all Europe, and confounded the reasonings of the wisest politicians. The emperor Charles V., though no more than fifty-six, an age when objects of ambition operate with full force on the mind, and are generally pursued with the greatest ardour, had for some time formed the resolution of resigning his hereditary dominions to his son Philip. He now determined to put it in exe- cution. Various have been the opinions of historians concerning a resolution so sino-ular and unexpected ; but the most probable seem to be, the disappoint- ments which Charles had met with in his ambitious hopes, and the daily decline of his health. He had early in life been attacked with the gout ; and the fits were now become so frequent and severe, that not only the vigour of his constitution was broken, but the faculties of his mind were sensibly impaired. He therefore judged it more decent to conceal his infirmities in some solitude, than to expose them any longer to the public eye : and as he was unwillina to forfeit the fame, or lose the acquisitions of his better years, by attempting to guide the reins of government, when he was no longer able to hold them with steadiness, he prudently determined to seek in the tran- quillity of retirement that happiness which he had in vain pursued amid the tumults of war and the intrigues of state. In consequence of this resolution, Charles, who had already ceded to his son Philip the kingdom of Naples and the dutchy of Milan, assembled the states of the Low Countries at Brussels: and seating himself, for the last time, in the chair of state, he explained to his subjects the reasons , resignation, and solemnly devolved his authority upon Philip. He recounted with dignity, but without ostentation, all the great things which he had under taken and performed since the commencement of his admimstra ion: and that enumeration gives us the highest idea of his activity and mdustry. I have dedicated," observed he, "from the seventeenth year of my .age, all my thoughts and attention to public objects, reserving no portion of my tin I indulgence of ease, and very little for the enjoyment of private pleasure. Either in a pacific or hostile manner, I have visited Germany nine times Snain six times- France four times; Italy seven times; the Low I fen toet Sand twice; Africa as often: and while my health permitted B discharge the duties of a sovereign, and the vigour of my constitution was equal I in Sy degree to the arduous office of governing such extensive wi T npver shunned labour, nor repined under fatigue; butnow,Avne mTheaUh is broken, and my vigour exhausted by the rage of 'an incurable distemper my grow ng infirmities admonish me to retire; nor am 1 so fond of reSning^? to retain the ? sceptre in an impotent hand, which is no longer ^VnTaTof^ half Tve I give you one in the prime of life, already accustomed to govern, ami who -idds to the vigour of youth all the attention and sagacity of maturer wars " Then turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees and kissed his fathers hand " lUs hi your power," said Charles, " by a wise and virtuous 428 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. gion; maintain the Catholic faith in its purity ; let the laws of your country be sacred in your eyes ; encroach not on the rights of your people : and if the time should ever come, when you shall wish to enjoy the tranquillity of private life, may you have a son to whom you can resign your sceptre with as much satisfaction as I give mine to you." A few weeks after the emperor also resigned to Philip the Spanish crown, with all the dominions depending upon it, in the Old as well as in the New World ; reserving nothing to him- self, out of all those vast possessions, but an annual pension of one hundred thousand ducats.(l) Charles was now impatient to embark for Spain, where he had fixed on a place of retreat. But, by the advice of his physicians, he put off his voyage for some months, on account of the severity of the season : and by yielding to their judgment, he had the satisfaction, before he left the Low Countries, of taking a considerable step towards a peace with France. This he ardently longed for ; not. only on his son's account, whose administration he wished to commence in quietness, but that he might have the glory, when quitting the world, of restoring to Europe that tranquillity which his ambition had banished from it, almost since the day that he assumed the reins of government. The great bar against such a pacification, on the part of France, was the treaty which Henry II. had concluded with the court of Rome ; and the emperor's claims were too numerous to admit any hope of adjusting them suddenly. A truce of five years was therefore proposed by Charles, during which term, without discussing their respective pretensions, each should retain what was in his possession ; and Henry, through the persuasion of the constable Montmorency, who represented the imprudence of sacrificing the true interests of his kingdom to the rash engagements he had come under with the pope, authorized his ambassadors to sign at Vaucelles a treaty which would ensure to him, for so considerable a period, the important conquests which he had made on the German frontier, together with the greater part of the duke of Savoy's dominions. Paul IV., when informed of this transaction, was filled no less with terror and a$tonishment than with rage and indignation. But he took equal care to conceal his fear and hrs anger. He affected to approve highly of the truce ; and he offered his mediation, as the common father of Christendom, in order to bring about a permanent peace. Under this pretext he despatched car- dinal Rebiba, as his nuncio, to the court of Brussels ; and his nephew, cardinal Caraffa, to that of Paris. The public instructions of both were the same ; but Caraffa, besides these, received a private commission, to spare neither entreaties, promises, nor bribes, in order to induce the French monarch to renounce the truce, and renew his engagements with the court of Rome. He flattered Henry with the conquest of Naples : he gained, by his address, the Guises, the queen, and even the famous Diana of Poictiers, dutchess of Valentinois, the king's mistress : and they easily swayed the king him- self, who already leaned to that side, towards which they wished to incline him. All Montmorency's prudent remonstrances were disregarded. The nuncio, by powers from Rome, absolved Henry from his oath of truce ; and that rash prince signed a new treaty with the pope, which rekindled with fresh violence the flames of war, both in Italy and the Low Countries. No sooner was Paul made acquainted with the success of this negotiation, than he proceeded to the most indecent extremities against Philip II. He ordered the Spanish ambassador to be imprisoned : he excommunicated the Colonnas, because of their attachment to the imperial house ; and he con- sidered Philip as guilty of high-treason, and to have forfeited his right to the kingdom of Naples, which he was supposed to hold of the holy see, for afterward affording them a retreat in his dominions. (2) Alarmed at a quarrel with the pope, whom he had been taught to regard with the most superstitious veneration, as the vicegerent of Christ, and the (1) Godlev. Relat. Jtbdicat. Car. V . Thuan. lib. xvi. Sandov. vol. ii. Robertson, book U. (2) Pallav. lib. xiii. LET. LXIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 429 common father of Christendom, Philip tried every gentle method before he made use of force. He even consulted some Spanish divines on the lawful- ness of taking arms against a person so sacred. They decided in his favour ; and Paul continuing inexorable, the duke of Alva, to whom the conduct of the negotiation as well as of the war had been committed, entered the eccle- siastical state at the head of ten thousand veterans, and carried terror to the gates of Rome. The haughty pontiff, though still obstinate and undaunted himself, was force dto give way to the fears of the cardinals, and a truce was concluded for forty days. Meantime, the duke of Guise arriving with an army of twenty thousand French troops, Paul became more arrogant than ever, and banished from his mind all thoughts but those of war and revenge. The duke of Guise, however, who is supposed to have given his voice for this war, chiefly from a desire of acquiring a field where he might display his military talents, was able to perform nothing in Italy worthy of his former fame. He was obliged to abandon the siege of Civetella; he could not bring the duke of Alva to a general engagement ; his army perished by diseases, and the pope neglected to furnish the necessary reinforcements. He begged to be recalled : and France stood in need of his abilities. Philip II., though willing to have avoided a rupture, was no sooner in formed that Henry had violated the truce of Vaucelles, than he determined to act with such vigour as should convince all Europe that his father had not erred in resigning to him the reins of government. He immediately as- sembled in the Low Countries a body of fifty thousand men: he obtained a supply of ten thousand from England, which he had engaged, as we have seen, "in this quarrel; and not being ambitious of military fame, he gave the command of his army to Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, one of the greatest generals of that warlike age. The duke of Savoy kept the enemy for a time in utter ignorance of his destination. At length he seemed to threaten Champagne, towards which the French drew all their troops ; a motion which he no sooner perceived, than, turning suddenly to the right, he advanced by rapid marches into Picardy, and laid siege to St. Quintin. It was deemed in that age a place of consi- derable strength, but the fortifications had been much neglected, and the garrison did not amount to a rifth part of the number requisite for its defence ; it must therefore have surrendered in a few days, if the admiral de Coligny had not taken the gallant resolution of throwing himself into it with such a body of men as could be suddenly collected for that purpose. He effected his design in spite of the enemy, breaking through their main body with seven hundred horse and two hundred foot. The town, however, was closely invested ; and the constable Montmorency, anxious to extricate his nephew out of that perilous situation, in which his zeal for the public good had engaged him, as well as to save a place of great importance, rashly advanced to its relief with forces one half inferior to those of the enemy. His army was cut in pieces, and he himself made prisoner.(l) The cautious temper of Philip, on this occasion, saved France from devas- tation, if not ruin. The duke of Savoy proposed to overlook all inferior objects, and march directly to Paris of which, in its present consternation, he could not have failed to make himself master. But the Spanish monarch, afraid of the consequences of such a bold enterprise, desired him to continue the siege of St. Quintin, in order to secure a safe retreat, in case of any disastrous event. The town, long and gallantly defended by Coligny, was at last taken by storm ; but not before France was in a state of defence. Phili - was now sensible he had lost an opportunity, that could never be recalled, of distressing his enemy, and contenting himself with reducing Horn and Catelet, two petty towns, which, together with St. Quintin, were the sole fruits of one of the most decisive victories gained in the sixteenth century. The Catholic king, however, continued in high exultation, on ' > Thuan. lib. six. 430 THE HISTORY OF |PART I- account of his success; and as all his passions were tinged with superstition, he vowed to build a church, a monastery, and a palace in honour of St. Lawrence, on the day sacred to whose memory the battle of St. Quintin had been fought. He accordingly laid the foundation of an edifice, in which all these buildings were included, and which he continued to forward at a vast expense, for twenty-two /ears. The same principle that dictated the vow directed the construction of the fabric. It was so formed as to resemble a gridiron ! on which culinary instrument, according to the legendary tale, St. Lawrence had suffered martyrdom. (1) Such, my dear Philip, is the origin of the famous Escurial, near Madrid, the royal residence of the kings of Spain. The earliest account of that fatal blow which France had received at St. Quintin was carried to Rome by the courier whom Henry had sent to recall the duke of Guise. Paul remonstrated warmly against the departure of the French army; but Guise's orders were peremptory. The arrogant pontiff therefore found it necessary to accommodate his conduct to the exigency of his affairs, and to employ the mediation of the Venetians, and of Cosmo of Medicis, in order to obtain peace from Spain. The first overtures to this purpose were easily listened to by the Catholic king, who still doubted the justice of his cause, and considered it as his greatest misfortune to be obliged to contend with the pope. Paul agreed to renounce his league with France ; and Philip stipulated, on his part, that the duke of Alva shouid repair in person to Rome ; and after asking pardon of the holy father, in his own name, and in that of his master, for having invaded the patrimony of the church, should receive absolution from that crime ! Thus the pope, through the superstitious timidity of Philip, not only finished an unpropitious war without any detriment to the apostolic see, but saw his conqueror humbled at his feet : and so excessive was the veneration of the Spaniards in that age for the papal character, that the duke of Alva, the proudest man perhaps of his time, and accustomed from his infancy to converse with princes, acknow- ledged, that, when he approached Paul, he was so much overawed, that his voice failed, and his presence of mind forsook him.(2) But although this war, which at its commencement threatened mighty revolutions, was terminated without occasioning any alteration in those states which were its immediate object, it produced effects of considerable conse- quence in other parts of Italy. In order to detach Octavio Farnese, duke of Parma, from the French interest, Philip restored to him the city of Placentia and its territory, which had been seized, as we have seen, by Charles V. ; and he granted to Cosmo of Medicis the investiture of Sienna, as an equi- valent for the sums due to him. (3) By these treaties the balance of power among the Italian states was poised more equally, and rendered less variable, than it had been since it received the first violent shock from the invasion of Charles VIII., and Italy henceforth ceased to be the theatre on which the sovereigns of Spain, France, and Germany contended for fame and domi- nion. Their hostilities, excited by new objects, stained other regions of Europe with blood, and made other states feel, in their turn, the calamities of war. The duke of Guise, who left Rome the same day that his adversary the duke of Alva made his humiliating, submission to the pope, was received in France as the guardian angel of the kingdom. He was appointed com- mander-in-chief, with a jurisdiction almost unlimited ; and, eager to justify the extraordinary confidence which the king had reposed in him, as well as to perform something suitable to the high expectations of his countrymen, he undertook the siege of Calais. The extraordinary success of that enter- prise, and its different effects upon the English and French nations, we have already had occasion to observe. Guise next invested Thionville, in the dutchy of Luxembourg, one of the strongest towns on the frontier of the Netherlands, and forced it to capitulate after a siege of three weeks. But Oh Ooltnenar. Annal. d'Espagn. torn. ii. (9 "allav. lib. xiii. (31 Thuan. lib. xvili. LET. LXI1I.] MODERNEUROPE. 431 the advantages in this quarter were more than balanced by an event which happened in another part of the Low Countries. The mareschal de Termes, governor of Calais, who had penetrated into Flanders, and taken Dunkirk, was totally routed near Gravelines, and taken prisoner by count Egmont.(l) This disaster obliged the duke of Guise to relinquish all his other schemes, and hasten to the frontier of Picardy, that he might there oppose the progress of the enemy. The eyes of France were now anxiously turned towards the operations of a general on whose arms victory had always attended, and in Avhose conduct, as well as good fortune, his countrymen could confide in every danger. Guise's strength was nearly equal to that of the duke of Savoy, each com- manding about forty thousand men. They encamped at the distance of a few leagues from one another ; and the French and Spanish monarchs having joined their respective armies, it was expected that, after the vicissitudes of war, a single victory would at last determine which of the rivals should take the ascendant for the future in the affairs of Europe. But both monarchs, as if by agreement, stood on the defensive ; neither of them discovering any inclination, though each had it in his power, to rest the decision of a point of such importance on the issue of a single battle. During this state of inaction, peace began to be mentioned in each camp, and both Henry and Philip discovered an equal disposition to listen to any overture that tended to re-establish it. The private inclinations of both kings concurred with their political interests and the wishes of their people. Philip languished to return to Spain, the place of his nativity ; and peace only could enable him, either with decency or safety, to quit the Low Coun- tries. Henry was no less desirous of being freed from the avocations of war, that he might have leisure to turn the whole force of his government to the suppressing of the opinions of the Reformers, which were spreading with such rapidity in Paris and the other great towns, that the Protestants began to grow formidable to the established church. Court intrigues conspired with these public and avowed motives to hasten the negotiation, and the abbey of Cer- camp was fixed on as a place of congress. (2) While Philip and Henry were making these advances towards a treaty, which restored tranquillity to Eurppe, Charles V., whose ambition had so long disturbed it, but who had been for some time dead to all such pursuits, ended his days in the monastery of St. Justus, in Estramadura, which he had chosen as the place of his retreat. It was seated in a valley of no great extent, watered by a small brook, and surrounded by rising grounds, covered with lofty trees. In this solitude Charles lived on a plan that would have suited a private gentleman of moderate fortune. His table was plain, his domestics few, and his intercourse with them familiar. Sometimes he culti- vated the plants in his garden with his own hands, sometimes he rode out to the neio-hbourino- wood on a little horse, the only one which he kept, attended by a single servant on foot : and when his infirmities deprived him of these more active recreations, he admitted a few gentlemen who resided near the monastery to visit him, and entertained them as equals ; or he employed him- self in studying the principles, and in framing curious works of mechanism, of which he had always been remarkably fond, and to which his genius was peculiarly turned. But, however he was engaged, or whatever might be the state of his health, he always set apart a considerable portion of his t>me for religious exercises, regularly attending divine service in the chapel ot monastery morning and evening. . In this manner, not unbecoming a man perfectly disengaged from the aftairs of the world, did Charles pass his time in retirement. But some months -efore his death, the gout, after a longer intermission than usual, returned f with a proportional increase of violence, and enfeebled both his body and jiind to such a degree as to leave no traces of that sound and masculine understanding, which had distinguished him among his contemporaries. (1) Thuan. lib. xx (21 Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book xii 432 THE HISTORY OF [PART 1. sunk into a deep melancholy. An illiberal and timid superstition depressed his spirit. He lost all relish for amusements of every kind, and desired no other company but that of monks. With them he chanted the hymns in the Missal, and conformed to all the rigours of monastic life, tearing his body with a whip, as an expiation for his sins ! Not satisfied with these acts of mortification, and anxious to merit the favour of Heaven by some new and singular instance of piety, he resolved to celebrate his own obsequies. His tomb was accordingly erected in the chapel of the monastery : his attendants walked thither in funeral procession. Charles followed them in his shroud. He was laid in his coffin, and the service of the dead was chanted over him ; he himself joined in the prayers that were put up for the repose of his soul, and mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral. (l) The fatiguing length of the ceremony, or the awful sentiments which it inspired, threw Charles into a fever, of which lie died in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His enterprises speak his most eloquent panegyric, and his history forms his highest character. As no prince ever governed so extensive an empire, including his American dominions, none seems ever to have been endowed with a superior capacity for sway. His abilities as a statesman, and even as a general, were of the first class ; and he possessed in the most eminent degree, along with indefatigable industry, the science which is of the greatest importance to a monarch, that of discerning the characters of men, and of adapting their talents to the various departments in which they are to be employed. But, unfortunately for the reputation of Charles, his insatiable ambition, which kept himself, his neighbours, and his subjects in perpetual inquietude, not only frustrated the chief end of government, the felicity of the nations committed to his care, but obliged him to have recourse to low artifices, unbecoming his exalted station, and led him into such devia- tions from integrity as were unworthy of a great prince. This insidious policy, in itself sufficiently detestable, was rendered still more odious by a comparison with the open and undesigning character of Francis I.; and served, by way of contrast, to turn on the French monarch a degree of admiration, to which neither his own talents nor his virtues as a sovereign seem to have entitled him Before Charles left the Low Countries he made a second attempt to induce his brother Ferdinand to give up his title to the imperial throne to Philip II., and to accept the investiture of 1 some provinces, either in Italy or the Nether- lands, as an equivalent. But finding Ferdinand inflexible on that point, he desisted finally from his scheme, and resigned to him the government of the empire. The electors made no hesitation in recognising the king of the Romans, whom they put in possession of all the ensigns of the imperial dig- nity, as soon as the deed of resignation was presented to them ; but Paul IV.. whose lofty ideas of the papal prerogative neither experience nor disappoint- ments could moderate, refused to confirm the choice of the diet. He pre- tended that it belonged alone to the pope, from whom, as vicegerent of Christ, the imperial power was derived, to nominate a person to the vacant throne : and this arrogance and obstinacy he maintained during his whole pontificate. Ferdinand I., however, did not enjoy the less authority as emperor. Soon after the death of Charles V., Mary of England ended her short and inglorious reign, and her sister Elizabeth, as we have already seen, succeeded to the throne, to the general joy of the nation, notwithstanding some sup- posed defects in her title. Henry and Philip beheld Elizabeth's elevation with equal solicitude ; and, equally sensible of the importance of gaining her favour, both set themselves with emulation to court it. Henry endeavoured, by the warmest expressions of regard and friendship, to detach her from the Spanish alliance, and to engage her to consent to a separate peace with him ; while Philip, unwilling to lose his connexion in England, not only vied with in declarations of esteem for Elizabeth, and in professions of hb J) Zunlg. Vit. de Carlos Robertson, ubi sup. LET. LXIIL] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 433 resolution to cultivate the strictest amity with her, but, in order to confirm and perpetuate their union, he offered himself to her in marriage, and under- took to procure a dispensation from the pope for that purpose. Elizabeth weighed the proposals of the two monarchs with that provident discernment of her true interest which was conspicuous in all her delibera- tions ; and although secretly determined to yield to the solicitations of neither, she continued for a time to amuse both. By this happy artifice, as well as by the prudence with which she at first concealed her intentions concerning religion, the young queen so far gained upon Philip, that he warmly espoused her interest in the conferences at Cercamp, and afterward at Chateau Cam- bresis, whither they were removed. The earnestness, however, with which lie seconded the arguments of the English plenipotentiaries began to relax in proportion as his prospect of espousing the queen became more distant ; and the vigorous measures that Elizabeth took, as soon as she found herself firmly seated on the throne, not only for overturning all that her sister had done in favour of popery, but for establishing the Protestant church on a sure foundation, convinced Philip that his hopes of a union with her had been from the beginning vain, and were now desperate. Henceforth decorum alone made him preserve the appearance of interposing in her favour. Elizabeth, who expected such an alteration in his conduct, quickly perceived it. But as peace Avas necessary to her, instead of resenting this coolness, she became more moderate in her demands, in order to preserve the feeble tie by which she was still united to him ; and Philip, that he might not seem to have abandoned the English queen, insisted that the treaty of peace between Henry and Elizabeth should be -concluded in form, before that between France and Spain. (1) The treaty between Henry and Elizabeth contains no article of importance, except that which respected Calais. It was stipulated that the king of France should retain possession of that town, with all its dependencies, during eight years, at the expiration of which term he should restore it to England. But as the force of this stipulation was made to depend on Elizabeth's preserving inviolate, during the same number of years, the peace both with France and Scotland, all men of discernment saw, that it was but a decent pretext for abandoning Calais ; and, instead of blaming her, they applauded her wisdom, in palliating what she could not prevent. The expedient which Montmorency employed, in order to facilitate the conclusion of peace between France and Spain, was the negotiating two treaties of marriage ; one between Elizabeth, Henry's eldest daughter, and Philip II. the other between Margaret, Henry's only sister, and the duke of Savoy. The principal articles of the treaty of peace were, that all conquests made by either party, on this side of the Alps, since the commencement of the war in 1551, should be mutually restored ; that the dutchy of Savoy, the principality of Piedmont, the county of Bresse, and all the other territories formerly subject to the dukes of Savoy, should be restored to Emanuel Philibert, immediately after the celebration of his marriage with Margaret of France (a few towns excepted, which Henry should retain, till his claims on that prince were decided in a court of law) ; that the French king should im- mediately evacuate all the places which he held in the dutchy of Tuscany and the territory of Sienna, and renounce all future pretensions to them; that he should receive the Genoese into favour, and give up to them the towns which he had conquered in the island of Corsica. But he was allowed to keep pos- session of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, because Philip had little at heart the interests of his uncle Ferdinand. All past transactions, either of princes or subjects, it was agreed should be buried in oblivion. (2) Thus the great causes of discord that had so long embroiled the powerful monarchs of France and Spain seemed to be wholly removed, or finally annihilated, by this famous treaty, which re-established peace in Europe ; almost every prince and state in Christendom being comprehended in the treaty of Chateau Cambresis, as allies either of Henry or of Philip. ' r. Strype's Annals, vol. i. Forbes's Full View, vol. i. (2) Recueil des Trotter, torn. ii. VOL. I. Ee 19 434 THE HISTORY OF [PART! Among these contracting powers were included the kings of Denmark, Sweden, and Poland. This circumstance naturally leads us to cast an eye on those countries, which we have not for some time had an opportunity of noticing, as they had no connexion with the general 'system of European affairs. Meantime, I must observe, for the sake of perspicuity, that Henry II. being killed in a tournament, while celebrating the espousals of his sister with the duke of Savoy, his son Francis II., a weak prince, and under age, already married to the queen of Scots, succeeded to the crown of France. A few weeks after, Paul IV. ended his violent and imperious pontificate : and thus, as a learned historian observes,(l) all the personages who had long sustained the principal characters on the great theatre of Europe disappeared nearly at the same time. At this era, my dear Philip, a more known period of history opens. Other actors appeared on the stage, with different views and passions ; new contests arose ; and new schemes of ambition, as we shall have occasion to see, occupied and disquieted mankind. But, before we enter on that period, we must take a view of the state of the North. LETTER LXIV. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, from the Union of these Kingdoms, under Margaret Waldemar, surnamed the Semiramis of the North, to the Death of Gustavus Vasa; together with an Account of the State of Russia, Poland, and Prussia, in the Sixteenth Century. THE kingdoms of the north of Europe, that great storehouse of nations, 1 have hitherto chiefly considered as dependencies on the German empire, to which they long continued to pay some degree of homage. In what manner they were subjected to that homage we have already had occasion to observe, and also to notice the union of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the ancient Scandinavia, under Margaret Waldemar, surnamed the Semiramis of the North. Margaret was daughter of Waldemar III., king of Denmark. She had been married to Hacquin, king of Norway, and son of Magnus IH., king of Sweden. On the death of her son Olaus, the hst male heir of the three northern crowns, (which were, however, more elective than hereditary) she succeeded, by the consent of the states, to the Danish throne. She was elected soon after queen of Norway, which she had governed as regent ; and the Swedes being oppressed by Albert of Mecklenburg, whom they had chosen king, made Margaret a solemn tender of their crown. She marched to their assistance, expelled Albert, and assumed the reins of government.(2) Margaret's ambition, however, was not yet satisfied. The three northern crowns were no sooner seated upon her head, than she laboured to render their union perpetual. For this purpose, after taking preparatory measures, she convoked the states of all the three kingdoms to meet at Calmar ; where it was established, as a fundamental law of the whole, that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway should thenceforth have but one and the same sovereign, who should be chosen successively by each of these kingdoms, and then approved by the other two ; that each nation should retain Us own laws, customs, pri- vileges, and dignities ; and that the natives of one kingdom should not be raised to posts of honour or profit in another, but should be reputed foreigners, except in their own country. (2) But this union, seemingly so well calculated for the tranquillity as well as security of the North, proved the source of much discontent, and of many barbarous wars. The national antipathy between the Swedes aad Danes, now heightened by national jealousy, was with difficulty restrained by the (n Robertson, Hist. Charles V. book xii. (21 Puffend. Fontan. (3) Meurs, lib. y LET. LXIV.J MODERN EUROPE. 435 vigorous administration of Margaret, whose partiality to the natives of Den- mark is said to have been but too evident; and under her successor Eric, still more unjustly partial to the Danes, the Swedes openly revolted, choosing their grand-marshal, Charles Canutson, descended from the illustrious family of Bonde, which had formerly given kings to Sweden, first regent and after- ward king. The Swedes, however, returned to their allegiance under Chris- tian I. of Denmark. But they again revolted from the same prince ; again renewed the union of Calmar, under John his successor ; revolted a third time ; and were finally subdued by the arms of Christian II., who reduced them to the condition of a conquered people. (1) The circumstances of this last revolution are sufficiently singular to merit our attention ; and the consequences by which it was followed render a reca- pitulation necessary. The Swedes, on revolting from Christian I., had conferred the administra- tion of the kingdom on Steen Sture, whose son, of the same name, succeeded him in the regency. The authority of young Sture was acknowledged by th* body of the nation, but disputed by Gustavus Trolle, archbishop of Upsal, and primate of Sweden, whose father had been a competitor for the adminis- tration, and whom Christian II. of Denmark had brought over to his interest. Besieged in his castle of Stecka, and obliged to surrender, notwithstanding the interposition of the Danish monarch, the archbishop was degraded by the diet, and deprived of all his benefices. In his distress he applied to Leo X., who excommunicated the regent and his adherents, committing the execution of the bull to the king of Denmark. Pursuant to this decree, the Nero of the North (as Christian II. is deservedly called) invaded Sweden with a powerful army ; but being worsted in a great battle, he pretended to treat, and offered to go in person to Stockholm, in order to confer with the regent, provided six hostages were sent as a pledge for his safety. The proposal was accepted, and six of the first nobility (among whom was Gustavus Vasa, grand-nephew to king Canutson) were put on board the Danish fleet. These hostages Christian carried prisoners to Denmark. Next year he returned with a more formidable armament, and invaded West Gothland ; where Steen Sture, advancing to gire him battle, fell into an ambuscade, and received a wound, which proved mortal. The Swedish army, left without a head, first treated, and afterward dispersed. The senate was divided about the choice of a new regent, and the conqueror allowed them no leisure to deliberate. He immediately marched towards the capital, wasting every thing before him with fire and sword. Stockholm surrendered; and Gustavus Trolle, resuming his archiepiscopal function, crowned Christian king of Sweden. This coronation was followed by one of the most tragical scenes m tfc history of the human race. Christian, affecting clemency, went to the cathedral and swore that he would govern Sweden, not with the severe hand of a conqueror, but with the mild and beneficent disposition of a prince raised to the throne by the universal voice of the people : after which he invite the senators and grandees to a sumptuous entertainment, that lasted for three days. Meanwhile, a plot was formed for extirpating the Swedish nobility. On the last day of the feast, in order to afford some pretext for the mtende massacre, archbishop Trolle reminded the king, that though his majesty by a general amnesty, had pardoned all past offences, no satisfaction had yet been given to the pope, and demanded justice in the name of his holiness. The hall was immediately filled with armed men, who secured the guests : the primate proceeded against them as heretics ; a scaffold was erected before the palace gate ; and ninety-four persons of distinction, among whom was Eric Vasa, father of the celebrated Gustavus, were publicly executed for defending the liberties of their country. Other barbarities succeeded to these the rage of the soldiery was let loose against the citizens, who were butchered without mercy; and the body of the late regent was dug from th (1) Vertot Revolut. Sued. Ee2 436 THE HISTORY OF [PiBT I. grave, exposed on a gibbet, quartered, and nailed up in different parts of the kingdom.(l) But Sweden soon found a deliverer and an avenger. Gustavus Vasa had escaped from his prison in Denmark, and concealed himself in the habit of a peasant, among the mountains of Dalecarlia. There, deserted by his sole companion and guide, who carried off his little treasure ; bewildered, desti- tute of every necessary, and ready to perish of hunger, he entered himself among the miners, and worked under ground for bread, without relinquishing the hope of one day ascending the throne of Sweden. Again emerging to light, and distinguished among the Dalecarlians by his lofty mien and by the strength and agility of his body, he had acquired a considerable degree of ascendancy over them, before they were acquainted with his rank. He made himself known to them at their annual feast, and exhorted them to assist him in recovering the liberties of their country. They listened to him with admiration : they were all rage against their oppressors. But they did not resolve to join him, till some of the old men among them observed (so inconsiderable often are the causes of the greatest events !) that the wind had blown directly from the north, from the moment that Gustavus began to speak. This they considered as an infallible sign of the approbation of Heaven, and an order to take up arms under the banners of the hero : tliej already saw the wreath of victory on his brow, and begged to be led againsi the enemy. Gustavus did not suffer their ardour to cool. He immediately attacked the governor of the province in his castle, took it by assault, and sacrificed the Danish garrison to the just vengeance of the Dalecarlians. Like animals that have tasted the blood of their prey, they were now furious, and fit for any desperate enterprise. Gustavus every where saw himself victorious, and gained partisans in all corners of the kingdom. Every thing yielded to his valour and good fortune. His popularity daily increased. He was first chosen regent, and afterward king of Sweden.(2) Meanwhile, Christian II., become obnoxious by his tyrannies even to hi Danish subjects, was degraded from the throne. The inhabitants of Jutland first renounced his authority. They deputed Munce, their chief justice, to signify to the tyrant the sentence of deposition. " My name," said Munce, glorying in the dangerous commission, "ought to be written over the gates of all wicked princes !" and it ought certainly to be transmitted to posterity, as a warning to both kings and inferior magistrates, of the danger of abusing power. The whole kingdom of Denmark acquiesced in the decree; and Christian, hated even by his own officers, and not daring to trust any one, retired into the Low Countries, the hereditary dominions of his brother-in-law Charles V., whose assistance he had long implored in vain.(3) Frederick, duke of Holstein, Christian's uncle, was elected king of Den- mark and Norway. He aspired also to the sovereignty of Sweden; but finding Gustavus firmly seated on the throne of that kingdom, he laid aside his claim. Frederick afterward entered into an alliance with Gustavus and the Hanse-towns, against the deposed king, Christian II., who, after several unsuccessful attempts to recover his crown, died in prison : a fate too gentle for so barbarous a tyrant. Frederick was succeeded in the Danish throne by his son, Christian III., one of the most prudent and prosperous princes of his age. He established the Protestant religion at the same time in Denmark and Norway, in imita- tion of the example of Gustavus, who had already introduced it into Sweden. The doctrines of Luther had spread themselves over both kingdoms, and both princes saw the advantage of retrenching the exorbitant power of the clergy. Christian died in 1558, and Gustavus in 1560, leaving behind him the glorious character of a patriot king.(4) He rescued Sweden from the Danish yoke, by his valour; he made commerce and arts flourish, by his wise policy; and me liberality of his bold and independent spirit, by making him superior to (1) Vertot. Revolut. Sued. (2) Loccen. Puffend. Vcrtot. 13) Id. ibid. C4) Vertot LET. LXV.J MODERN EUROPE. 437 vulgar prejudices, enabled him to break the fetters of priestly tyranny, and enfranchise the minds as well as the bodies of his countrymen. While Denmark and Sweden were thus rising 1 to distinction, Russia remained buried in that barbarism and obscurity, from which it was called about the beginning- of the last century, by the creative genius ot Peter the Great, who made his country known and formidable to the rest of Europe. But the names of patriots and of heroes, however rude or enlightened, ought to be transmitted to posterity. John Basilowitz I., great duke of Muscovy threw off the yoke of the Tartars, to whom Russia had been long tributary; expelled the Tartar officers from Moscow ; invaded their territories ; made himself master of Novogorod, and also of Cassan, where he was crowned with the diadem of that country; and assumed the title of czar, which, in the Sclavonian language, signifies king or emperor. To these acquisitions his grandson, John Basilowitz II., added Astracan, and also Siberia, hitherto as little known to the Russians as Mexico was to the Spaniards before the expedition of Cortez, and as easily conquered. This prince sent ambassa- dors to the court of England, and concluded a treaty of commerce with Elizabeth ;(1) Richard Chancellor, an English navigator, having discovered some years before, by doubling the North Cape, the port of Archangel in the river Dwina. Poland, still a scene of anarchy, began to be of some consideration in the North, after the race of the Jagellons came to the throne, and united Lithuania to that kingdom. Though the crown is elective, the succession continued uninterrupted in the same family for almost two hundred years, and Sigismund I., contemporary with Charles V., was esteemed a great prince. (2) But while the most inconsiderate of the nobles, by the word veto, can prevent the enacting of the most salutary law; and while the great body of people remain in a state of slavery, Poland can never obtain any rank among the civilized nations. So true it is, my dear Philip, that the character of a people, their virtue, their genius, and their industry, depend chiefly on their civil and political institutions ! Prussia, which has lately made so great a figure in the affairs of Europe, was only erected into a kingdom in the year 1700. It was originally con- quered from the Pagans of the North, by the knights of the Teutonic order, wHo held it upwards of three hundred years. At last Albert, margrave of Brandenburg, grand-master of the order, embracing the doctrines of Luther, and willing to aggrandize himself at the expense of the knights, agreed to share Prussia with his uncle, Sigismund I., king of Poland, on condition of paying homage for the protection of that crown. The proposal was accepted. Alberf took the title of duke in his new territory; hence the present kingdom is called Ducal Prussia, and that part in the possession of Poland, and on the western side of the Vistula, Regal Prussia.(3) The future transactions of the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia 1 have occasion to relate, as formerly, in treating of the affairs of the empire and the house of Austria. More interesting objects at present claim oui attention. LETTER LXV. England, Scotland, and France, from the Peace of CMteau-Cambresis, in 1559, to the Death of Francis #., and the Return of Mary Queen of Scots to her native Kingdom. THE treaty of Chateau-Cambresis, my dear Philip, though it re-established peace, by settling the claims of the contending powers, by no means secured lasting tranquillity to Europe. The Protestant opinions had already made a)Petnh Caraden. (2) Flor. Polon '3) JWm. de Brandenburff , torn. i. 438 THE HISTORY OF [PART I considerable progress both in France and the Low Countries, and Philip and Henry were equally resolved to extirpate heresy throughout their dominions. The horrors of the inquisition, long familiar to Spain, were not only increased in that kingdom, but extended to Italy and the Netherlands ; and although the premature death of Henry II. suspended for a while the rage of persecution in France, other causes of discontent arose, and religion was made use of by each party to light the flames of civil war.(l) A new source of discord also arose between France and England. Thr princes of Lorrain, the ambitious family of Guise whose credit had long been great at the French court, and who had negotiated the marriage between the dauphin, now Francis II., and their niece the queen of Scots, extended still further their ambitious views. No less able than aspiring, they had governed both the king and kingdom, since the accession of the young and feeble Francis. But they had many enemies. Catharine of Medicis, the queen- mother, a woman who scrupled at no violence or perfidy to accomplish her ends ; the two princes of the blood, Anthony de Bourbon king of Navarre, and his brother Lewis prince of Conde, besides the constable Montmorency and his powerful family, were alike desirous of the administration, and envious of the power of the Guises. (2) In order to acquire this power, the duke of Guise and his five brothers, the cardinal of Lorrain, the duke of Aumale, the cardinal of Guise, the marquia of Elbeuf, and the grand prior, men no less ambitious than himself, had not only employed the greatest military and political talents, but to all the arts of insinuation and address had added those of intrigue and dissimulation. In negotiating the marriage between their niece, Mary Stuart, and the dau- phin, these artful princes, while they prevailed on the French court to grant the Scottish nation every security for the independency of that crown, engaged the young queen of Scots to subscribe privately three deeds, by which, failing the heirs of her own body, she conferred the kingdom of Scotland, with whatever inheritance or succession might accrue to it, in free gift upon the crown of France ; declaring any deed which her subjects had, or might,' extort from her to the contrary, to be void, and of no obligation.(S) By the succession mentioned in. these deeds, the crown of England seems to have been meant ; for no sooner were the Guises informed of the death of queen Mary, and the accession of her sister Elizabeth (whose birth in the opinion of every good Catholic, excluded her from any legal right to the throne), than they formed a project worthy of their ambition. In order to exalt still higher their credit, and secure their power, they attempted to acquire also for France the southern British kingdom. For this purpose, they solicited at Rome, and obtained a bull, declaring Elizabeth's birth ille- gitimate ; and as the queen of Scots, then married to the dauphin, was the next heir by blood, they persuaded Henry II. to permit his son and daughter in-law to assume the title and arms of England. (4) Elizabeth complained of this insult, by her ambassador at the court of France, but could obtain only an evasive answer. No obvious measure, how- ever, was taken, during the reign of Henry II., in support of the claim of the queen of Scots ; but no sooner were the princes of Lorrain in full possession of the administration under his successor, Francis II., than more vigorous and less guarded counsels were adopted. Sensible that Scotland was the quarter whence they could attack England to most advantage, they gave, as a prepara- tory step, orders to their sister, the queen-regent, and encouraged her by promises of men and money, to take effectual measures for humbling the Scottish malecontents, and suppressing the Protestant opinions in that king- dom ; hoping that the English Catholics, formidable at that time by their zeal and numbers, and exasperated against Elizabeth, on account of the change which she had made in the national religion, would rise in support of the succession of the queen of Scots, when animated by the prospect of protec- (1) Thuanus. Cabrera. Davila. (2) Davila, lib. i. Mezeray, torn. V (3) Du Mont, Corps Diplomat, torn v. Robertson, Hist. Scot, book ii. 14) Robertson, Hist. Scot. Anderson. Diplom. Scot- No- 68 and 164. LET. LXV.J M O D E R N E U ROP E. 439 lion, and throw themselves into the arms of France, as the only power that church* a)" 1 " 6 t0 anCiCnt W0rship ' and the P rivile g es of ^e Romish No stranger to these violent counsels, Elizabeth saw her danger, and de- ttrmmed to provide against it. Meanwhile, the situation of affairs in Scotland tfforded her a favourable opportunity, both of revenging the insult offered to her crown, and of defeating the ambitious views of France. The Reformation was fast advancing in Scotland. All the Low Country was deeply tinctured with the Protestant opinions ; and as the converts to the new religion had been guilty of no violation of public peace since the murder of cardinal Beaton, whose death was partly occasioned by private revenue, the queen-regent, willing to secure their favour, in order to enable her to maintain that authority which she had found so much difficulty to acquire, connived at the progress of doctrines which she wanted power utterly to suppress. Too cautious, however, to trust to this precarious indulgence for the safety of their religious principles, the heads of the Protestant party in Scotland entered privately into a bond of association, for the mutual protection and the propa- gation of their tenets, styling themselves the Congregation of the Lord, in con- tradistinction to the established church, which they denominated the Congre- gation of Satan. (2) Such associations are generally the forerunners of rebellion; and it appears that the heads of the Congregation in Scotland carried their views farther than a mere toleration of the new doctrines. So far they were to blame, as enemies to civil authority ; but the violent measures pursued against their sect, before this league was known or avowed, sufficiently justified the assoy ciation itself, as the result of a prudent foresight, and a necessary step to secure the free exercise of their religion. Alarmed at the progress of the Reformation, the popish clergy had attempted to recover their sinking autho- rity by enforcing the tyrannical laws against heresy ; and Hamilton, the pri- mate, formerly distinguished by his moderation, had sentenced to the flames an aged priest, convicted of embracing the Protestant opinions.(3) This was the last barbarity of the kind that the Catholics had the power to exercise in Scotland. The severity of the archbishop rather roused than intimidated the Reformers. The Congregation now openly solicited subscrip- tions to their league ; and not satisfied with new and more solemn promises of the regent's protection, they presented a petition to her, craving a reforma- tion of the church, and of the wicked, scajidalous, and detestable lives of the clergy. They also framed a petition, which they intended to present to par- liament, soliciting some legal protection against the exorbitant and oppressive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. They even petitioned the convoca- tion ; and insisted that prayers should be said in the vulgar tongue, that bishops should be chosen by the gentry of the diocess, and priests with the consent of the parishioners. Instead of soothing the Protestants by any prudent concessions, the convo- cation rejected their demands with disdain ; and the queen-regent, who had hitherto wisely temporized between the parties, and whose humanity and sagacity taught her moderation, having received during the sitting of the assembly the violent commands of her brother, prepared to carry their despotic plan into execution, contrary to her own judgment and experience. She publicly expressed her approbation of the decrees, by which the principles of the Reformers were condemned in the convocation, and cited the most eminent Protestant teachers to appear before the council at Stirling.(4) The members of the Congregation, alarmed but not overawed by this dan- ger, assembled in great numbers, agreeable to the custom of Scotland at that time, in order to attend their pastors to the place of trial,(5) to protect and (1) Forbes, vol. i. Thuan. lib. xxiv. (2) Keith. Knox (3) Id. ibid. (4) Melvil. Jebb. Castelneau. (5) In consequence of this custom, originally introduced by vassalage and clanship, and afterward tola- rated through the feebleness of government, any person of eminence accused of a crime was accompanied to the place of trial by a body of his friends and adherent. Robertson, Hist. Scot, book ii. 440 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. to countenance them : and the queen-regent, dreading the approach of so for- midable a body, empowered Erskine of Dun, a person of high authority with the Reformers, to assure them that she would put a stop to the intended pro- ceedings, provided they advanced no further. They listened with pleasure, and perhaps with too much credulity, to so pacific a proposition ; for men whose grievances obliged them to fly in the face of the civil power, under whatever plausible pretext their purpose may be concealed, should trust to nothing less than the solemnity of a contract. The regent broke her promise, conformable to her maxim, that " the promises of princes ought not to be too carefully remembered, nor the performance of them exacted, unless it suits their own conveniency." She proceeded to call to trial the persons formerly summoned ; and on their not appearing, though purposely prevented, they were pronounced outlaws. (1) By this ignoble artifice, the queen-regent forfeited the esteem and confi- dence of the whole nation. The Protestants boldly prepared for their own defence; and Erskine, enraged at being made the instrument of deceiving his party, instantly repaired to Perth, whither the leaders of the Congregation had retired, and inflamed the zeal of his associates, by his representations of the regent's inflexible resolution to suppress their religion. His ardour was powerfully seconded by the rhetoric of John Knox, a preacher possessed of a bold and popular eloquence. Having been carried prisoner into France, together with other persons taken in the castle of St. Andrews soon after the murder of cardinal Beaton, Knox made his escape out of that kingdom; and, after residing sometimes in England, sometimes in Scotland, had found it necessary, in order to avoid the vengeance of the popish clergy, to retire to Geneva. There he imbibed all the enthusiasm, and heightened the natural ferocity of his own character by the severe doctrines of Calvin, who had succeeded Zuinglius in the apostleship of that republic, and completed its ecclesiastical establishment. Invited home by the heads of the Protestant party in Scotland, Knox had arrived in his native country a few days before the trial appointed at Stir- ling, and immediately joined his brethren, that he might share with them in the common danger, as well as in the glory of promoting the common cause. In the present ferment of men's minds, occasioned by the regent's deceitful conduct, and the sense of their own danger, he mounted the pulpit, and de- claimed with such vehemence against the idolatry and other abuses of the church of Rome, that his audience were strongly incited to attempt its utter subver- sion. During those movements of holy indignation, the indiscreet bigotry of a priest, who immediately after that violent invective was preparing to cele- brate mass, and had opened all his repository of images and reliques, hurried the enthusiastic populace into immediate action. They fell with fury upon the de*vout Catholic, broke the images, tore the pictures, overthrew the altars, and scattered about the sacred vases. They next proceeded to the monasteries, against which their zeal more particularly pointed its thunder. Not content with expelling the monks, and defacing every instrument of idolatrous wor- ship, as they termed it, they vented their rage upon the buildings which had been the receptacles of such abomination ; and, in a few hours, those superb edifices were level with the ground.(2) Provoked at these violences, and others of a like kind, the queen-regent assembled an army composed chiefly of French troops ; and being assisted by such of the nobility as still adhered to her cause, she determined to inflict the severest vengeance on the whole Protestant party. Intelligence of her preparations, as well as of the spirit by which she was actuated, soon reached Perth ; and the heads of the Congregation, who had given no countenance to the late insurrection in that city, would gladly have soothed her by the most dutiful and submissive addresses ; but finding her inexorable, they prepared for resistance, and their adherents flocked to them in such numbers, tha' (1) Knox, p. 127. Robertson, book li (2) Spotswood, p. 121. Knox o 127 128 Robertoon book ii. Huwe, chap, xsjcviii. LET. LXV.] M ODE RN E U ROPE. 441 within a few days they were in a condition not only to defend the town, but to take the field with superior forces. Neither party, however, discovered much inclination to hazard a battle, both being afraid of the dangerous consequences of such a trial of strength ; and through the mediation of the earl of Argyle, and of James Stuart, prior of St. Andrews, the young queen's natural brother, who, although closely connected with the Reformers, had not yet openly leserted the regent, a treaty was concluded with the Congregation. In this treaty it was stipulated, among other provisions, that indemnity should be granted to all persons concerned in the late insurrection, and that the parliament should immediately be assembled; in order to compose religious differences. Both these stipulations the queen-regent broke by neglecting to call the parliament, by fining some of the inhabitants of Perth, banishing others, turning the magistrates out of office, and leaving a garrison in the town, with orders to allow the exercise of no other religion but the Roman Catholic. (1) The Protestants renewed the league, ami had again recourse to arms ; despoiling, wherever they turned their route, the churches of their sacred furniture, and laying the monasteries in ruins. New treaties were concluded, and again broken, and new ravages were committed on the monu- ments of ecclesiastical pride and luxury. Meanwhile, the Congregation had been joined not only by the earl of Argyle and the prior of St. Andrews, but also by the duke of Chatelrault and his son the earl of Arran, the presumptive heirs of the crown, and had possessed themselves of the capital. They now aimed at the redress of civil as well as religious grievances ; requiring, as a preliminary towards settling the kingdom, and securing its liberties, the immediate expulsion of the French forces out of Scotland. The queen-regent, sensible of the necessity of giving way to a torrent which she could not resist, amused them for a time, with fair pro- mises and pretended negotiations; but being reinforced with a thousand foreign troops, and encouraged by the court of France to expect soon the arrival of an army so powerful as the zeal of her adversaries, however des- perate, would not dare to encounter, she listened to the rash counsels of her brothers, and at last gave the Congregation a positive denial. She was not answerable to the confederate lords, she said, for any part of her conduct; nor should she, upon any representation from them, abandon measures which she deemed necessary, or dismiss forces that she found useful ; ordering them, at the same time, on pain of her displeasure, and a3 they valued their alle- giance, to disband the troops which they had assembled. This haughty reply to their earnest and continued solicitations determined the leaders of the Congregation to take a step worthy of a brave and free people. They assembled the whole body of peers, barons, and representa- tives of boroughs, that adhered to their party ; and the members of this bold convention (which equalled in number, and exceeded in dignity, the usual meetings of parliament), after examining the most delicate and important ques- tion that can possibly fall under the consideration of subjects" the obedience due to an unjust and oppressive administration," gave their suffrage, without one dissenting voice, for depriving Mary of Guise of the office of regent, which she had exercised so much to the detriment of the kingdom. (2) The queen-dowager had already retired into Leith, the sea-port of Edin- burgh, which she had fortified and garrisoned with French troops, and where she daily expected new reinforcements. Leith was immediately invested by the forces of the Congregation ; but the confederate lords soon found that their zeal had engaged them in an undertaking which exceeded their ability to accomplish. The French garrison, despising the tumultuous efforts of raw and undisciplined troops, refused to surrender the town : and the Pro- testant leaders were neither sufficiently skilful in the art of war, nor possessed of the artillery or magazines necessary for the purpose of a siege. Norw this their only misfortune : their followers, accustomed to decide every quarrel (1) Buchanan, lib. xvi. Robertson, book ii. (2) Buchanan, lib xvi. Robertson, book ii. Knox, p. 184. 442 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. by immediate action, were strangers to the fatigues of a long campaign, and soon became impatient of the severe and constant duty which a siege requires. They first murmured, then mutinied; the garrison took advantage of their discontents; and, making a bold sally, cut many of them in pieces, and obliged the rest to abandon the enterprise. Sooiv after this victory the queen-dowager received from France a new reinforcement of a thousand veteran foot, and some troops of horse. These, together with a detachment from the garrison of Leith, were sent out to scour the country, and to pillage and lay waste the houses and lands of the Protestants. Already broken and dispirited, and hearing that the marquis of Elbeuf, the queen-dowager's brother, was suddenly expected with a great army, the leaders of the Congregation began to consider their cause as des- perate, unless the Lord, whose holy name they had assumed, should miracu- lously interpose in their behalf. But whatever confidence they might place in divine aid, they did not neglect human means. The Scottish Protestants, in this pressing extremity, thought themselves excusable in craving foreign help. They turned their eyes towards England, which had already supplied them with money, and resolved to implore the assistance of Elizabeth to enable them to finish an undertaking in which they had so fatally experienced their own weakness ; and as the sympathy of religion, as well as regard to civil liberty, had now counterbalanced the ancient animosity against that sister-kingdom, this measure was the result of incli- nation no less than of interest or necessity. Maitland of Lethington, formerly the regent's principal secretary, and Robert Melvil, already acquainted with the intrigues of courts, were therefore secretly despatched, as the most able negotiators of the party, to solicit succours from the queen of England. The wise counsellors of Elizabeth did not long hesitate in agreeing to a request, which corresponded so perfectly with the views and interests of theii mistress. Secretary Cecil, in particular, represented to the English queen the necessity, as well as equity, of interposing in the affairs of Scotland, and of preventing the conquest of that kingdom, at which France openly aimed. Every society, he observed, has a right to defend itself, not only from present dangers, but from such as may probably ensue ; that the invasion of England would immediately follow the reduction of the Scottish malecontents, by the abandoning of whom to the mercy of France, Elizabeth would open a way for her enemies into the heart of her own kingdom, and expose it to all the calamities of war, and the danger of conquest. Nothing therefore remained, he added, but to meet the enemy while yet at a distance; and, by sup- porting the leaders of the Congregation with an English army, to render Scotland the scene of hostilities ; to crush the designs of the princes of Lor- rain in their infancy ; and, by such an early and unexpected effort, finally to expel the French out of Britain, before their power had time to grow up to any formidable height.(l) Elizabeth, throughout her whole reign, was cautious but decisive; ana by her promptitude in executing her resolutions, joined to the deliberation with which she formed them, her administration became as remarkable for its vigour as for its wisdom. No sooner did she determine to afford assist- ance to the leaders of the Congregation, a measure to which the reasoning of Cecil effectually swayed her, than they experienced the activity as well as the extent of her power. The season of the year would not permit, her troops to take the field : but, lest the French army should, in the mean time, receive an accession of strength, she instantly ordered a squadron to cruise in the Frith of Forth; and early in the spring, an English army consisting of six thousand foot and two thousand horse, entered Scotland, under the com- mand of lord Grey of Wilton. The leaders of the Congregation assembled from all parts of the kingdom to meet their new allies ; and having joined them with vast numbers of their followers, the combined army advanced towards Leith. The French, little (11 Keith, Append. No. XVII. Forbes, vol. i. Jebb, vol. i. LET. LXV.] M O D E R N E U R O P E. 443 able to keep the field against so superior a force, confined themselves within the walls of the fortification. The place was immediately invested; and although the fleet that carried the reinforcement under the marquis of Elbeul had been scattered by a violent storm, and was either wrecked on the coast of France, or with difficulty recovered the ports of that kingdom, the garri son, by an obstinate defence, protracted the siege to a great length.(l) Meantime, the queen-dowager died; and many of the Catholic nobles, jealous of the French power, and more zealous for the liberty and indepen- dency of their country than for their religion, subscribed the alliance with England. Nothing therefore could now save the garrison of Leith but the immediate conclusion of a treaty, or the arrival of a powerful army from France ; and the situation of that kingdom constrained the princes of Lorrain to turn their thoughts, though with reluctance, towards pacific measures. The Protestants in France were become formidable by their numbers, and still more by the valour and enterprising genius of their leaders. Among these, the most eminent were the prince of Conde, the king of Navarre (no less distinguished by his abilities than his rank), the admiral de Coligny, and his brother Andelot, who no longer scrupled to make open profession of the reformed opinions, and whose high reputation both for valour and conduct gave great credit to the cause. Animated with zeal, and inflamed with resentment against the Guises, who had persuaded Francis II. to imitate the rigour of his father, by reviving the penal statutes against heresy, the Protes- tants or Hugenots, as they were styled by way of reproach, not only pre- pared for their own defence, but resolved, by some bold action, to anticipate the execution of those schemes which threatened the extirpation of their religion, and the ruin of those who professed it. Hence the famous conspi- racy of Amboise, where they intended to seize the person of the king, and wrest the government out of the hands of the Guises, if not to despatch them ; and although the vigilance and good fortune of the princes of Lorrain dis- covered and disappointed that design, the spirit of the Protestant party was rather roused than broken by the tortures inflicted upon the conspirators.(2) The admiral de Coligny had even the boldness to present to the king, in a grand council at Fontainebleau, a petition from the Hugenots, demanding the public exercise of their religion, unless they were allowed to assemble pri- vately with impunity. He was treated as an incendiary by the cardinal of Lorrain ; but his request was warmly seconded by Monluc bishop of Valence, and by Marillac archbishop of Vienne, who both spoke with force against the abuses which had occasioned so many troubles and disorders, as well as against the ignorance and vices of the French clergy. An assembly of the states was convoked, in order to appease the public discontents ; the edicts against heretics were, in the mean time, suspended, and an appearance of toleration succeeded to the rage of persecution ; but the sentiments of the court were well known, and it was easy to observe new storms gathering in every province of the kingdom, and ready to break forth with all the violence of civil war. (3) This distracted state of affairs called off the ambition of the princes ol Lorrain from the view of foreign conquests, in order to defend the honoiu and dignity of the French crown, and made it necessary to withdraw t! few veteran troops already employed in Scotland, instead of sending lien reinforcements into that kingdom. Plenipotentiaries were thereiore sent to Edinburgh, where a treaty was signed with the ambassadors of Llizabetl In this treaty it was stipulated that the French forces should instantly evacuate Scotland, and that Francis and Mary should thenceforth abstain from assuming the title of king and queen of England, or bearing the arms of t kingdom. Nor were the concessions granted to the Congregation less im- portant ; namely, that an amnesty should be published for all past offences ; that none but natives should be put into any office in Scotland; that no foreign troops should be hereafter introduced into the kingdom without the (I) Mem. de Castelneau. (2) Davila, lib. i. ii. Mezeray, torn v. (3) Davila, lib. ii. Mezeray, torn. v. 444 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. consent of parliament ; that the parliament should name twenty-four per sons, out of whom the queen should choose seven, and the parliament five ; and in the hands of these twelve, so elected, should the whole administra- tion be vested during Mary's absence ; that she should neither make peace nor war without the consent of parliament ; and that the parliament at its first meeting, which was fixed to a certain day, should take into consideration the religious differences, and represent its sense of them to the king and queen.(l) A few days after the conclusion of this treaty, both 'the French and English armies quitted Scotland ; and the leaders of the Congregation being now absolute masters of the kingdom, made no further scruple or ceremony in completing the work of reformation. The parliament, which was properly an assembly of the nobles, or great barons, and dignified clergy, met on the day named ; and on this occasion the burgesses and less barons, who had also a right to be present in that assembly, but who seldom exercised it, stood forth to vindicate their civil and religious liberties, eager to aid with their voice in the senate that cause which they had defended with their sword in the field. The Protestant members, who greatly out-numbered their adversaries, after ratifying the principal articles of the late treaty, and giving their sanction to a confession of faith presented to them by their teachers, prohibited the exercise of religious worship according to the rites of the Romish church, under the penalty of forfeiture of goods, as the punishment of the first act of disobedience ; banishment as the punishment of the second; and death as the reward of the third.(2) With such indecent haste did the very persons who had just escaped the rigour of ecclesiastical tyranny, proceed to imitate those examples of severity, of which they had so justly complained ! A law Was also passed for abolishing the papal jurisdic- tion in Scotland; and the Presbyterian form of worship was established, nearly as now constituted in that kingdom. Francis and Mary refused to ratify these proceedings ; which, by the treaty of Edinburgh ought to have been presented for approbation, in the form of deliberations, not of acts. But the Scottish Protestants gave themselves little trouble about their sovereign's refusal. They immediately put the statutes in execution ; they abolished the mass ; they settled their ministers ; and they committed furious devastations on the sacred buildings, which they considered as dangerous relics of idolatry, laying waste every thing vene- rable and magnificent, that had escaped the storm of popular insurrection. Abbeys, cathedrals, churches, libraries, records, and even the sepulchres of the dead, perished in one common ruin.(3) United by the consciousness of such unpardonable stretches of authority, and well acquainted with the imperious character of the princes of Lorrain, the Protestant part of the Scottish parliament, seeing no safety for themselves but in the protection of England, despatched ambassadors to Elizabeth, to express their sincere gratitude for her past favours, and represent to her the necessity of continuing them. Elizabeth, on her part, had equal reason to desire a union with these northern Reformers. Though the disorders in France had obliged the princes of Lorrain to remit their efforts in Scotland, and had been one chief cause of the success of the English arms, they were determined not to relinquish their authority, or yield to the violence of their enemies. Nor had they yet laid aside their design of subverting Elizabeth's throne. Francis and Mary, whose councils were still wholly directed by them, obstinately refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, and persisted in assuming the title and arms of England. Aware of the danger attending such pretensions, Elizabeth not only promised support to the Protestant party in Scotland, but secretly encouraged the French malecontents :(4) and it was with pleasure that she heard of the violent factions which prevailed in the court of France, and of the formidable opposition against the measures of the duke of Guise. But that opposition must soon have been crushed by the vigorous and (1) Keith. Spotewood. Knox. (3) Id. ibid. (3) Robertson, book iii. Hume, chap, xxiviii. (4) Id. ibid. LET. LXV.] MODERN EUROPE. 445 decisive administration of the princes of Lorrain, if an unexpected event had not set bounds to their power. They had already found an opportunity of seizing the king- of Navarre and the prince of Conde ; they had thrown the ' former into prison ; they had obtained a sentence of death against the latter ; and they were proceeding to put it in execution, when the sudden death of Francis II. arrested the uplifted blow, and brought down the duke of Guise to the level of a subject. Catharine of Medicis, the queen-mother, was appointed guardian to her son Charles IX., only ten years of age at his accession, and invested with the administration of the realm, though not with the title of regent. In consequence of her maxim, " divide and govern !" the king of Navarre was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom ; the sentence against Conde was annulled; the constable Montmorency was recalled to court; and the princes of Lorrain, though they still enjoyed high offices arid great power, found a counterpoise to the weight of their influence.(l) The death of Francis II., without issue by the queen of Scots, and the change which it produced in the French councils, at once freed the queen of England from the perils attending a union of Scotland with France, and the Scottish Protestants from the terror of the French power. The joy of the Congregation was extreme. They ascribed those events to the immediate interposition of Providence in favour of his chosen people ; and Elizabeth, without looking so high for their causes, determined to take advantage of their effects, in order more firmly to establish her throne. She still regarded the queen of Scots as a dangerous rival, on account of the number of English Catholics, who were generally prejudiced in favour of Mary's title, and would now adhere to her with more zealous attachment, when they saw that hei succession no longer endangered the liberties of the kingdom. She there- fore gave orders to her ambassador at the court of France to renew his appli cations to the queen of Scots, and to require her immediate ratification of the treaty of Edinburgh. (2) Mary, slighted by the queen-mother, who imputed to that princess all the mortifications she had met with during the life of Francis ; forsaken by the swarm of courtiers, who appear only in the sunshine of prosperity ; and over- whelmed with all the sorrow which so sad a reverse of fortune could occa- sion, had retired to Rheims ; and there, in solitude, indulged her grief, or hid her indignation. But notwithstanding her disconsolate condition, and though she had desisted after her husband's death from bearing the arms or assuming the title of England, she still eluded ratifying the treaty of Edinburgh, and refused to make any solemn renunciation of her pretensions to the English crown. (3) Meanwhile, James Stuart, prior of St. Andrews, her natural brother, arrived at Rheims, in deputation from the states of Scotland, inviting the queen to return into her native kingdom, and assume the reins of government. But Mary, though severely sensible she was no longer queen of France, was in no haste to leave a country where she had been educated from her earliest infancy, and where so many attentions had been paid to her person as well as to her rank. Accustomed to the elegance, gallantry, and gayety of a splendid court, and to the conversation of a polished people, by whom she had been loved and admired, she still fondly lingered in the scene of all these enjoyments, and contemplated with horror the barbarism of her own country, and the turbulence of her native subjects, who had so violently spurned all civil and religious authority. By the advice of her uncles, however, she determined at last to set out for Scotland ; and as the course, in sailing from France to that kingdom, lies along the English coast, she demanded of Eliza- beth, by the French ambassador D'Oisel, a safe-conduct during her voyage. That request, which decency alone obliged one sovereign to grant to another Elizabeth rejected in such a manner as gave rise to no slight suspicion of a design either to obstruct the passage or intercept the person of the queen of Scots.(4) (l)Mem.deCastelneau. Davila, lib. ii. (2) Keith. Castelneau. (3) Id. ibii. (4) Keith. Caniden. Robertson, Append. No. VL 446 THE HISTORY OF [PART I This ungenerous behaviour of Elizabeth filled Mary with indignation, but did not retard her departure from France. Having cleared the room of her attendants, she said to Throgmorton, the English ambassador, "How weak I may prove, or how far a woman's frailty may transport me, 1 cannot tell; however, I am resolved not to have so many witnesses of my infirmity as your mistress had at her audience of my ambassador D'Oisel. There is nothing disturbs me so much, as having asked with so much importunity a favour, which it was of no consequence for me to obtain. I can, with God's leave, return to my own country, without her leave, as I came to France in spite of all the opposition of her brother, king Edward : neither do I want friends both able and willing to conduct me home, as they have brought me hither; though I was desirous rather to make an experiment of your mis- tress's friendship, than of the assistance of any other person."(l) She embarked on board a galley at Calais ; and passing the English fleet, under cover of a thick fog, arrived safely at Leith, attended by the duke of Aumale, the grand prior, and the marquis of Elbeuf, three of her uncles of the house of Lorrain, together with the marquis of Damville, and other French courtiers. (2) The circumstances of Mary's departure from France are truly affecting. The excess of her grief seems to have proceeded from a fatal presage of that scene of misfortune on which she was about to enter. Not satisfied with mingling tears with her mournful attendants, and bidding them adieu with a sorrowful heart, she kept her eyes fixed upon the French coast after she was at sea, and never turned them from that darling object till darkness fell and intercepted it from her view. Even then she would neither retire to the cabin, nor take food ; but, commanding a couch to be placed on the deck, she there waited, with fond impatience, the return of day. Fortune soothed her on this occasion. The weather proving calm, the galley made but little way during the night, so that Mary, at morning, had once more an opportunity of seeing the French coast. She sat upon her couch, and, still anxiously look- ing towards the land, often repeated with a sigh, " Farewell, France ! farewell, beloved country, which I shall never more behold !"(3) The reception of the queen of Scots in her native kingdom, the civil wars of France, and the share which Elizabeth took in the affairs of both king- doms must furnish the subject of another Letter. LETTER LXVI. /Vance, England, and Scotland, from the Return of Mary Stuart to her native Kingdom, in 1561, till her Imprisonment, and the Proclamation of her Son James VI., together with a retrospective View of the Jtjff'airs of Spain. THE first appearance of affairs in Scotland was more favourable than M had reason to expect. She was received by her subjects with the loud acclamations of joy, and every demonstration of welcome and regard. Bern now in her nineteenth year, the bloom of youth, and the beauty and grace fulness of her person, drew universal admiration, while her elegant manners and enlightened understanding commanded general respect. To the accom- plishments of her own sex she added many of the acquisitions of ours. She was skilled in most languages, ancient as well as modern. The progress she had made in poetry, music, rhetoric, and all the arts and sciences then esteemed useful or ornamental, was far beyond what is commonly attained by the eons or daughters of royalty, who are born and educated as the imme- diate heirs of a crown and a courteous affability, which, without lessening the dignity of a sovereign, steals on the hearts of subjects with a bewitching insinuation, rendered all her other qualities more engaging.(4) (]) Cabala, p. 374. Spotswood, p. 177. (2) Robertson, book lil (3) Brantome. He himself was in the same galley with the queen. (4) Robertson, book iii. from Brantome. LET. LXVI.] MODE RN E UROPE. 447 The first measures of Mary's administration confirmed the prepossessions entertained in her favour. According to the advice of D'Oisel and her uncles, she bestowed her confidence entirely on the leaders of the Protestant party,(l) who were alone able, she found, to support her government. The prior of St. Andrews, her natural brother, whom she soon after created earl of Murray, obtained the chief authority ; and under him, Maitland of Lethington, a man of great sagacity, had a principal share in her confidence. Her choice could not have fallen upon persons more agreeable to her people. But there was one circumstance which blasted all these promising appeai- ances, and deprived Mary of that general favour which her amiable manners and prudent measures gave her just reason to expect. She was still a papist ; and although she published, soon after her arrival, a proclamation enjoining every one to submit to the reformed religion, as established by parliament,(2) the more zealous Protestants could neither be reconciled to a person polluted by such an abomination, nor lay aside their jealousies of her future conduct. It was with much difficulty she obtained permission to celebrate mass in her own chapel. " Shall that idol again be suffered to be erected within the realm ?" was the common cry ; and the usual prayers within the churches were, that God would turn the queen's heart, which was obstinate against his truth : or, if his holy will were otherwise, that he would strengthen the hearts and hands of the elect, stoutly to oppose the rage of all tyrants.(3) Nay, lord Lindsey and the gentlemen of Fife exclaimed, " The Idolater shall die the death I" The ringleader in all these insults on majesty was John Knox, who pos- sessed an uncontrolled authority in the church, and even in the civil affairs of the nation, and who triumphed in the contumelious usage of his sovereign. His usual appellation for the queen was JEZEBEL; and though she endeavoured by the most gracious condescension to win his favour, all her kind advances could gain nothing on his obdurate heart. The pulpits became mere stages for railing against the vices of the court ; among which were always noted as the principal, feasting, finery, dancing, balls, and whoredom, their necessary attendant. (4) Curbed in all amusements, by the absurd severity of these Reformers, Mary, whose age, condition, and education invited her to liberty and cheerfulness, found reason every moment to look back with a sigh to that country which she had left. After the departure of the French courtiers, her life was one scene of bitterness and sorroAV. And she perceived that her only expedient for maintainingtranquillity, while surrounded by a turbulent nobility, a bigoted people, and insolent ecclesiastics, was to preserve a friendly correspondence with Elizabeth, who, by former connexions and services, had acquired much authority over all ranks of men in Scotland. She therefore sent Maitland of Lethington to London, in order to pay her compliments to the English queen, and express a desire of future good understanding between them. Maitland was also instructed to signify Mary's willingness to renounce all present right to the crown of England, provided she was declared, by act of parliament, next heir to the succession, in case the queen should die without offspring. (5) But so great was the jealous prudence of Elizabeth, that she never would hazard the weakening of her authority by naming a successor, or allow the parliament to interpose in that matter ; much less would she make, or permit such a nomination to be made, in favour of a rival queen, who possessed pre- tensions so plausible to supplant her, and who, though she might verbally renounce them, could easily resume her claim on the first opportunity. Sen- sible, however, that reason would be thought to lie wholly on Mary's side, as she herself had frequently declared her resolution to live and die a virgin- queen, she thenceforth ceased to demand the ratification of the treaty of Edinburgh ; and though farther concessions were never made by either prin- cess, they put on all the appearance of a cordial reconciliation and friendship with each other.(6) (1) Robertson, book iii. from Brantome. (2) Knox. Spotsvvqod. Keith. '3) Id. ibid. (4) Knox, p. 333, 333, (5) Keith. Camden. fiaynea. (6) Id. ibid. 448 THE HISTORY OF [PART I Elizabeth saw, that, without her interposition, Mary was sufficiently de- pressed by the mutinous spirit of her own subjects. Having, therefore, no apprehensions from Scotland, nor any desire to take part at present in its affairs, she directed her attention to other objects. After concerting the necessary measures for the security of her kingdom and the happiness of her people, she turned an eye of observation towards the great powers on the continent. France, being still agitated with religious factions, big with all the horrors of civil war, excited less the jealousy than the compassion of its neighbours ; so that Spain, of all the European kingdoms, could alone be considered as the formidable rival of England. Accordingly, an animosity, first political, then personal, soon appeared between the sovereigns of the two crowns. Philip IT., as has been already observed, immediately after concluding the peace of Chateau-Cambresis, commenced a furious persecution against the Protestants in Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries. That violent spirit of bigotry and tyranny by which he was actuated gave new edge even to the usual cruelty of priests and inquisitors. He threw into prison Constantine Ponce, who had been confessor to his father Charles V. and in whose arms that great prince had breathed his last. This venerable ecclesiastic died in confinement; but Philip ordered, nevertheless, the sentence of heresy to be pro- nounced against his memory. He even deliberated whether he should not ex- ercise like severity against the memory of his father, who was suspected, during his latter years, of indulging a propensity towards Lutheranism. In his unrelenting zeal for orthodoxy, he spared neither age, sex, nor condition. He appeared with an inflexible countenance at the most barbarous executions ; and he issued rigorous orders for the prosecution of heretics, even in his American dominions. (1) The limits of the globe seemed only enlarged to extend human misery. Having founded his deliberate tyranny on maxims of civil policy, as well as on principles of religion, Philip made it evident to all his subjects, that there was no means of escaping the severity of his vengeance, except by the most abject compliance or obstinate resistance. And by thus placing himself at the head of the Catholic party, the determined champion of the Romish church, he every where converted the zealots of the ancient faith into parti- sans of Spanish greatness. Happily, the adherents of the new doctrines were not without a supporter, nor the Spanish greatness without a counterpoise. The course of events had placed Elizabeth in a situation diametrically opposite to that of Philip. For- tune, guiding choice, and concurring with policy and inclination, had raised her to the glory, the bulwark, and the stay of the numerous but generally persecuted Protestants throughout Europe. And she united her interests, in all foreign negotiations, with those who were struggling for their civil and religious liberties, or guarding themselves against ruin and extermination. Hence the animosity between her and Philip. While the queen of Scots continued in France, and asserted her claim to the southern British kingdom, the dread of uniting England to the French monarchy engaged the king of Spain to maintain a good correspondence with Elizabeth. But no sooner did the death of Francis II. put an end to Philip's apprehensions in regard to Mary's succession, than his rancour began openly to appear, and the interests of Spain and England were found opposite in every negotiation and public transaction. Philip, contrary to the received maxims of policy in that age, saw an advantage in supporting the power of the French monarch ; and Elizabeth, by a concurrence of circumstances no less singular, in protecting a faction ready to subvert it. Catharine of Medicis, the queen-mother of France, in consequence of hei maxim of dividing in order to govern, only increased the troubles of the state. By balancing the Catholics against the Protestants, the duke of Guise against the prince of Cond6, she endeavoured to render herself necessary to both, (1) Thuanas, lib. xxiii. Grotius, Annal. lib. ii. Mariana, lib. v. LET. LXVL] MODERN EUROPE. 449 and to establish her own dominion on their constrained obedience. But an equal counterpoise of power, which among foreign nations is the source of tranquillity, proves always the cause of quarrel among domestic factions ; and if the animosities of religion concur with the frequent occasions of mutual injury, it is impossible to preserve, for any time, a firm concord in such a situation. Moved by zeal for the ancient faith, the constable Montmorency joined himself to the duke of Guise ; the king of Navarre, from his inconstant temper, and his jealousy of the superior genius of his brother, embraced the same party ; and the queen-mother, finding herself depressed by this com- bination, had recourse to Conde and the Hugonots, who gladly embraced the opportunity of fortifying themselves by her countenance and protection. (1) An edict had been published in the beginning of the year, granting to the Hugonots, or Protestants, the free exercise of their religion without the walls of towns ; provided they taught nothing contrary to the council of Nice, to the Apostles' Creed, or the books of the Old and New Testament. This edict had been preceded by a famous conference, held at Poissy, between the divines of the two religions ; in which the cardinal of Lorrain, on the part of the Catholics, and the learned Theodore Beza, on that of the Protestants, dis- played, beyond others, their eloquence and powers of argument. The Pro- testant divines boasted of having greatly the advantage in the dispute, and the concession of liberty of conscience made their followers happy in that opinion. But the interested violence of the duke of Guise, or the intempe- rate zeal of his attendants, broke once more the tranquillity of religion, and gave a beginning to a frightful civil war. Passing by the little town of Vassy, on the frontiers of Champagne, where some Protestants, having assembled in a barn, under the sanction of the edict, were peaceably worshipping God in their own way, his retinue wantonly insulted them. A tumult ensued : the duke himself was struck, it is said with a stone : and sixty of the unarmed multitude were sacrificed in revenge of that pretended or provoked injury, and in open violation of the public faith. (2) The Protestants, over all the kingdom, were alarmed at this massacre, and assembled in arms under Conde, Coligny, and Andelot, their most distin- guished leaders ; while the duke of Guise and the constable Montmorency, having got possession of the king's person, obliged the queen-mother to join the Catholic party. Fourteen armies were levied and put in motion in dif- ferent parts of France. Each province, each city, each family, was dis- tracted with intestine rage and animosity. The father was divided against the son, brother against brother ; and women themselves, sacrificing their humanity, as well as their timidity, to the religious fury, distinguished them- selves by acts of valour and cruelty. (3) Wherever the Protestants prevailed, the images were broken, the altars pillaged, the churches demolished, the monasteries consumed with fire ; and where success attended the Catholics, they burned the Bibles, rebaptized the infants, and forced married persons to pass anew through the ceremony. (4) Plunder, desolation, and bloodshed attended equally the triumph of both parties ; and, to use the words of a profound historian, it was during that period, when men began to be some- what enlightened, and in this nation, renowned for polished manners, that the theological rage, which had long been boiling in men's veins, seems to have attained its last stage of virulence and acrimony.(5) Philip II., jealous of the progress of the Hugonots, who had made them- selves masters -of Orleans, Bourges, Lyons, Poitiers, Tours, Angers, An- gouleme, Rouen, Dieppe, Havre de Grace, and other places of less note ; and afraid that the contagion might spread into the Low Countries, had formed a secret alliance with the princes of Lorrain, for the protection of the ancient faith, and the suppression of heresy. In consequence of that alliance, he now sent six thousand men to reinforce the Catholic party ; and the prince of Conde, finding himself unable to oppose so strong a confederacy, coun (1) Davila, lib. ii. (2) Henault. Mezeray Dupleii. 0) Davila, lib. iil Ilayues, p. 391. (4) Id. ibid. (5) Hume, chap, mix. VOL. I. F f 450 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. tenanced by royal authority, was obliged to crave the assistance of the queen of England. As an inducement, he offered to put her in possession of Havre de Grace ; on condition that, together with three thousand men for the garri- son of the place, she should likewise send over other three thousand to defend Dieppe and Rouen, and furnish him with a supply of one hundred thousand crowns. (1) Elizabeth, besides the general and essential interest of supporting the Pro- testants, and opposing the rapid progress of her enemy the duke of Guise, had other motives to induce her to accept of this proposal. She was now sensible, that France never would voluntarily fulfil the article in the treaty of Chateau-Cambresis, which regarded the restitution of Calais ; and wisely concluded that, could she get possession of Havre de Grace, which commands the mouth of the Seine she should easily constrain the French to execute their engagements, and have the honour of restoring Calais to England. She therefore sent over immediately three thousand men, under the command of sir Edward Poynings, and three thousand more soon after, under the earl of Warwick,- who took possession of Havre. But Rouen having been invested by the Catholics, under the command of the king of Navarre and the con- stable Montmorency, before the arrival of the English, it was with difficulty that Poynings could throw a small reinforcement into the place ; and although the king of Navarre was mortally wounded during the siege, the Catholics still continued the attack with vigour. The town was at last carried by assault, and the garrison and inhabitants put to the sword. (2) It was now expected that the Catholics, flushed with success, would im- mediately form the siege of Havre, which was as yet in no state of defence ; but the intestine disorders of the kingdom diverted their attention to another enterprise. Andelot, seconded by the negotiations of Elizabeth, had 'levied a considerable army in Germany ; and arriving at Orleans, the seat of the Protestant power in France, he enabled the prince of Conde and Coligny to take the field, and oppose the progress of their enemies. After threatening Paris for some time, they took their march towards Normandy, with a view of engaging the English to act in conjunction with them. The Catholics, commanded by Montmorency, and under him by the duke of Guise, hung on the rear of the Hugonots, and, overtaking them near Dreux, obliged them to give battle. The field was disputed with much obstinacy on both sides, and the action was distinguished by a very singular event. Conde and Montmo- rency, the commanders of the opposite armies, both remained prisoners in the hands of their enemies : and what is yet more singular, the prince not only supped at the same table, but lay all night in the same bed with his hostile rival the duke of Guise !(3) So unaccountable were the manners of that age, which could blend the most rancorous animosity Avith a familiar hospitality, that appears altogether disgusting in these days of superior refinement. The semblance of victory remained with the Catholics. But Coligny, whose lot it was ever to be defeated, and ever to rise more terrible after his misfortunes, collected the remains of the Protestant army, and inspiring his own unconquerable courage into every breast, not only kept them in a body, but took some considerable places in Normandy ; and Elizabeth, in order to enable him to support the cause of his party, sent over a new supply of a hundred thousand crowns. Meanwhile, the duke of Guise, aiming a mortal blow at the power of the Hugonots, had commenced the siege of Orleans, of which Andelot was governor, and where Montmorency was detained prisoner : and he had the prospect of speedy success in his undertaking, when he was assassinated by a young gentleman, named Poltrot, whose fanatical zeal for the interests of the Protestant religion instigated him to that atrocious violence. (4) The death of this great man was an irreparable loss to the Catholic party. His brother, the cardinal Lorrain, though eloquent, subtle, and intriguing, (1) Forbes, vol. ii (2) Davila, lib. iii. (3) Id. ibid. (t\ Mczeray, torn v. LET. LXVL] MODERN EUROPE. 451 wanted that enterprising and undaunted spirit which had rendered the ambition of the duke so formidable ; and therefore, though he still pursued the bold schemes of his family, the danger of their progress appeared not now so imminent either to Elizabeth or the French Protestants. Of course, the union between these allies, which had been cemented by their common fears, was in some measure loosened ; and the leaders of the Hugonots were persuaded to listen to terms of a separate accommodation. Conde and Montmorency, equally tired of captivity, accordingly held conferences for that purpose, and soon came to an agreement with respect to the conditions. A toleration of their religion, under certain restrictions, was again granted to the Protestants ; a general amnesty was published, and every one was reinstated in his offices, dignities, and all civil rights and privileges. (1) The leaders of the Protestants only comprehended Elizabeth so far in this treaty, as to obtain a promise, that, on her relinquishing Havre de- Grace, her charges and the money which she had advanced them should be repaid her by the king of France ; and that Calais, on the expiration of the stipulated term, should be restored to her. Disdaining to accept these conditions, she sent Warwick orders to prepare himself against an attack from the now united power of the French monarchy. The garrison of Havre consisted of six thousand men, independent of seven hundred pioneers : and a resolute defence was expected. But a contagious distemper made its appearance among the English troops ; and, being increased by their fatigue and bad diet, madesuch ravages in a short time, that there did not remain fifteen hundred men in a condition to do duty. Warwick, who had frequently warned the English ministry of his danger, and loudly demanded a supply of men and provisions, was therefore obliged to capitulate, and content himself with the liberty of withdrawing his garrison. (2) Elizabeth, whose usual vigour and foresight had failed her in this transac- tion, now found it necessary to accede to a compromise ; and as the queenr mother of France desired to obtain leisure, in order to concert measures for the extirpation of the Hugonots, she readily hearkened to any reasonable terms of accommodation with England. It was accordingly agreed, that the hostages which the French had given for the restitution of Calais should be delivered up for two hundred and twenty thousand crowns ; and that both parties should retain all their pretensions. (3) Peace still subsisted between England and Scotland ; and a cordial friend- ship even seemed to have taken place between Elizabeth and Mary, made professions of the most sipoere affection : they wrote complimentary letters every week to each o'ner; and had adopted, m all appearance, the sentiments as Avell as the style of sisters. But the negotiations for the mar- riaf e of the queen of Scots awakened anew the jealousy of Elizabeth, and roused the zeal of the Scottish Reformers. Mary's hand was solicited by the archduke Charles, the emperor's third son ; by Don Carlos, heir apparent to the Spanish monarchy ; and by the duke of Anjou, her former husband's brother, who succeeded soon after to the crown of France. Either of those foreio-n alliances would have been alarming to Elizabeth, and to Mary's Protestant subjects. She therefore resolved, notwithstanding the arguments of her uncle the cardinal of Lorrain, to sacrifice her ambition to domestic peace ; and as Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, eldest son of the earl of Lennox, was the first British subject whom sound policy seemed to point out to her choice, she determined to make him the partner of her sway.(4) Darnley was Mary's cousin-german by lady Margaret Douglas, niece to Henry VIII., and daughter of the earl of Angus, by Margaret queen of Scot- land. He was, after herself, next heir to the English crown. He was also, by his father, a branch of her own family: and would, in espousing her, pre- serve the royal dignity in the house of Stuart. He had been born and educated in England, where his father had constantly resided, since banished by the prevailing power of the house of Hamilton ; and as Elizabeth had often (V Davila, lib. iii. (2) Forbes, vol. ii. (3) Davila, iib. iii. (4' Forbes, vol. ii. Ff 2 452 T H E H I S T R Y F [PART I intimated to the queen of Scots, that nothing would so competely allay all jealousy between them as Mary's espousing an English nobleman,(l) the prospect of the ready approbation of that rival queen was an additional motive for the proposed marriage. But although Mary, as a queen, seemed to be solely influenced by political considerations in the choice of a royal consort, she had other motives, as a woman, for singling out Darnley as a husband. He was in the full bloom and vigour of youth, tall and well proportioned, and surpassed all the men of his time in every exterior grace. He eminently excelled in all the arts which display a handsome person to advantage, and which, in polished nations, are dign >ted with the name of elegant accomplishments. Mary was at an age and of a complexion to feel the force of such attractions. Lord Darnley accordingly made a conquest of her heart at their first interview ; and it cannot be. doubted but she made a deep impression upon his. Thus inclina- tion conspired with policy to promote their union ; nor was it once suspected that any opposition would be made by the English queen. Secretly, Elizabeth was not displeased with Mary's choice ; as it freed her at once from the dread of a foreign alliance ; and from the necessity of part- ing with the earl of Leicester, her own handsome favourite, whom she had pro- posed as a husband to the queen of Scots. But besides, a womanish jealousy and envy, proceeding from a consciousness of Mary's superior charms, which led her on all occasions to thwart the matrimonial views of that princess, certain ungenerous political motives induced her to show a disapprobation of the projected marriage with Darnley, though she either did not wish, or was sensible that she could not obstruct it. By declaring her dissatisfaction with Mary's conduct, Elizabeth hoped to alarm the party in Scotland that was attached to the English interest ; and to raise, by their means, intestine com- motions, which would not only secure her own kingdom from all disturbance on that side, but enable her to become the umpire between the Scottish queen and her contending subjects.(2) The scheme immediately succeeded in part, and afterward had its full effect. The earl of Murtay, and other Protestant noblemen, were the dupes of Elizabeth's intrigues. Under pretence of zeal for the reformed religion, because the family of Lennox was believed to adhere to the Catholic faith, but in reality to support their own sinking authority, they formed among themselves bonds of confederacy and mutual defence. They entered into a secret correspondence with the English resident, in order to secure Eliza- beth's assistance when it should become necessary ; and, despairing of being able to prevent the marriage of the queen of S^ots by any other means, they concerted measures for seizing Darnley, and carrying him prisoner into Eng- land.^) They failed, however, in the attempt; aivl Mary, having obtained the general consent of the Scottish nation, and being anxious to bring to a period an affair which had long engaged her heart and occupied her atten- tion, celebrated her marriage with the captivating young nobleman who had been the object of their conspiracy. Conscious that all hopes of reconciliation were now at an end, the asso- ciated lords assembled their followers and flew to arms ; but by the vigour and activity of Mary, who appeared herself at the head of her troops, rode with loaded pistols, and endured, with admirable fortitude, all the fatigues of war, the rebels were obliged to fly into England. (4) There they met with a reception very different from what they expected, and which strongly marks the character of Elizabeth. That politic princess had already effectually served her purpose, by exciting in Scotland, through their means, such dis- cord and jealousies as would in all probability long distract and weaken Mary's government. It was now her business to save appearances ; and as the male- contents had failed of success, she thought proper to disavow all connexions with them. She would not even grant an audience to the earl of Murray ind the abbot of Kilwinning, appointed by the other fugitives to wait on her, II) Keith. (t) Ibid. (3) Melvil. (4) Keith, Append. MODERN EUROPE. 453 till they had meanly consented to acknowledge, in the presence of the French and Spanish ambassadors, who accused her of fomenting the troubles in Scotland by her intrigues, that she had given them no encouragement to take up arms. " You have spoken the truth !" replied she, as soon as they had made this declaration : " I am far from setting an example of rebellion to my own subjects, by countenancing those who rebel against their lawful sovereign. The treason of which you have been guilty is detestable ; and, as traitors, I banish you my presence."(l) So little feeling had she for men, who, out of confidence in her promises, had hazarded their lives and fortunes to serve her! The Scottish exiles, finding themselves so harshly treated by Elizabeth, had recourse to the clemency of their own sovereign ; and Mary, whose tem- per naturally inclined her to lenity, seemed determined to restore them to favour, when the arrival of an ambassador from France altered her resolu- tion. (2) The peace granted to the Reformers in that kingdom was intended only to lull them asleep, and prepare the way for their final and absolute destruction. For this purpose an interview had been appointed at Bayonne, between Charles IX., now in his sixteenth year, and his sister the queen of Spain. Catharine of Medicis accompanied her son; the duke of Alva at- tended his mistress. Gayety, festivity, love, and joy seemed to be the sole occupation of both courts ; but under these smiling appearances was hatched a scheme the most bloody and the most destructive to the repose of mankind that had ever been suggested by superstition to the human heart. Nothing less was resolved upon and concerted than the extermination of the Hugo- nots in France, the Protestants in the Low Countries, and the extinction of the reformed opinions throughout all Europe. (3) Of this Catholic or Holy League (for so that detestable conspiracy was called) an account was. brought, by the French ambassador, to the queen of Scots; conjuring her at the same time, in the name of the king of France, and the cardinal of Lorrain, not to* restore the leaders of the Protestants in her kingdom to power and favour, at the very time when the popish princes on the continent were combined for the total extirpation of that sect. (4) Deeply tinctured with all the prejudices of popery, and devoted with the most humble submission to her uncles the princes of Lorrain, whose counsels from her infancy she had been accustomed to receive with filial respect, Mary instantly joined the confederacy: and hence the change of her resolution in regard to the banished lords. (5) The effects of this new system were soon visible in the conduct o the queen of Scots. The parliament was summoned for the attainder of the rebels, whose guilt was palpable, and some measures were concerted for re- establishing the Romish religion in Scotland ;(6) so that the ruin of Murray and his party seemed now inevitable, and the destruction of the reformed church no distant event, when an unexpected incident saved both, and brought on, in the sequel, the ruin of Mary herself. The incident to which I allude is the murder of David Rizzio, a man whose hirth and education afforded little reason to suppose that he should evei attract the historian's notice, but whose tragical death, and its consequences, make it necessary to record his adventures. The son of a teacher of music at Turin, and himself a musician, Rizzio had accompanied the Piedmontese ambassador into Scotland, where he gained admittance into the queen' family by his skill in his profession ; and as Mary found him necessary to complete her musical band, she retained him in her service, by permission, after the departure of his master. Shrewd, supple, and aspiring, beyond his condition, he quickly crept into the queen's favour ; and her French secretary happening to retire into his own country, she promoted Rizzio to that office. which gave him frequent opportunity of approaching her person, and of in- sinuating himself still farther into her good graces. He now began to make (1) Melvil. (2) Ibid. (3) Thuan, lib xxxvii. Davila, lib. iii. (4) Melvil. <$) Robertson, Hist, Scvt. Append. No. XIII. (6) Keith, p. 316. 454 THE HISTORY OF [PART I a figure at court, and to appear as a man of weight and consequence : and he availed himself so well of the access which fortune had procured him, that he was soon regarded not only as the queen's chief confidant, but even as her minister. To him the whole train of suitors and expectants applied; and among the rest Darnley, whose marriage Rizzio promoted, in hopes of acquiring a new patron, while he co-operated with his mistress's wishes. But this marriage, so natural and so inviting in all its circumstances, disap- pointed the expectations both of the queen and her favourite, and terminated in events the most shocking to humanity. Allured by the stature, sym- metry, and exterior accomplishments of Darnley, Mary, in her choice, had overlooked the qualities of his mind, which corresponded ill with those of his person. Violent yet variable in his temper, she could neither by her gentleness bridle his insolent and imperious spirit, nor preserve him by hei vigilance from rash and imprudent actions. Of mean understanding, but like most fools, conceited of his own abilities, he was devoid of all gratitude because he thought no favours equal to his merit ; and being addicted to low pleasures, to drunkenness and debauchery, he was incapable of any true sen timents of love or tenderness. (1) All Mary's fondness and generosity made no lasting impression on such a heart. He became, by degrees, careless of her person, and a stranger to her company. To a woman and a queen such behaviour was intolerable; but more especially to Mary, who possessed great sensibility of temper, and who, in the first effusions of her love, had taken a pride in exalting her husband beyond measure. She had granted him the title of king, and had joined his name with her own in all public acts. Hei disappointed passion was therefore as violent, when roused into resentment, as her first affection had been strong; and his behaviour appeared ungenerous and criminal, in proportion to the distance she had stooped to raise him, and the honour and consequence to which she had lifted him. The heart, sore from the wounds and the agitations of unrequited love, naturally seeks the repose, the consolation, and the lenient assuasives of friendship. Rizzio still possessed the confidence of Mary ; and as the brutal behaviour of her husband rendered a confidant now more necessary, she seems not only to have made use of her secretary's company and his musical talents to sooth her disquieted bosom, but to have imprudently shared with him her domestic griefs. To suppose that lie also shared her embraces is to offer an injury to her character, for which history affords no proper foun- dation.^) But the assuming vanity of the upstart, who affected to talk often amHamiliarly with the queen in public, and who boasted of his intimacy in private ; the dark and suspicious mind of Darnley, who, instead of imputing Mary's coldness to his own misconduct, which had so justly deserved it, ascribed the change in her behaviour (so different from the first and happy days of their union !) to the influence of a new passion ; together with the rigid austerity of the Scottish clergy, who could admit of no freedoms ; con- tributed to spread this opinion among the people, ever ready to listen to any slander on the court ; and the enemies of the favourite, no less ready to take advantage of any popular clamour, made it a pretence for their unjust and inhuman vengeance. Rizzio, who had connected his interests with the Roman Catholics, was the declared enemy of the banished lords ; and by promoting the violent prose- cution against them, he had exposed himself to the animosity of their nume rous friends and adherents. Among these were the lords Ruthven and Lindsay, the earl of Morton, and Maitland of Lethington. While they were ruminating upon their grievances, and the means of redress, the king commu- nicated his resolution to be avenged of Rizzio to lord Ruthven, and implored (1) Goodall, vol. i. Robertson, book iv. (2) Buchanan, whose prejudices are well known, is the only Scottish historian who directly accuse* Mary of a criminal love for Rizzio. Knox, notwithstanding his violence and inveteracy, only slightly insintiates that such a suspicion was entertained. But the silence of Randolph, the English resident, a man abundantly ready to mention, and to aggravate, Maiy's faults, and who does not once insinuate tint her confidence in Rizzio contained any tiling criminal, is a sufficient vindication of her innocence against all such aspersions LET. LXVI.] MODERN EUROPE. 455 his assistance and that of his friends towards the execution of his design. Nothing could be more acceptable to the whole party than such an overture. The murder of the favourite was instantly agreed upon, and as quickly carried into execution. Morton having secured the gates of the palace with a hundred and sixty armed men, the king, accompanied by the other conspi rators, entered the queen's apartment, by a private passage, while she was at supper with her natural sister, the countess of Argyle, Rizzio, and a few more of her courtiers. Mary, who was now in the sixth month of her preg- nancy, alarmed at such an unusual visit, demanded the reason of this rude intrusion. They answered her by pointing to Rizzio ; who, immediately apprehending that he was the devoted victim, retired behind the queen's chair, and seized her by the waist, hoping that the respect due to her royal person would prove some protection to him. But the conspirators had gone too far to be restrained by punctilios. George Douglas, one of their number, laying hold of Darnley's dagger, stuck it in the body of Rizzio, who, screaming with fear and agony, was torn from Mary, and pushed into the antichamber, where he was despatched with many wounds."(l) " I will weep no more," said the queen, drying her tears, when informed ol her favourite's fate ; " I shall now think of revenge." The insult on her person, the stain attempted to be fixed on her honour, and the danger to which her life was exposed on account of the advanced State of her pregnancy, were injuries so atrocious and complicated, as scarcely indeed to admit of pardon, even from the greatest lenity. Mary's resentment, however, was implacable against her husband alone. She artfully engaged him, by her persuasions and caresses, to disown all connexion with the conspirators, whom he had promised to protect ; to deny any concurrence in their crime ; nay, to publish a proclamation containing so notorious a falsehood !(2) And having thus made him expose himself to universal contempt, and rendered it impracticable for him to acquire the confidence of any party, she threw him off with disdain and indignation. Meanwhile, the anger of the queen of Scots, absorbed by injuries more recent and violent, having subsided from former offenders, she had been reconciled to the banished lords. They were reinstated in their honours and fortunes. The accomplices in Rizzio's murder, who had fled into England on being deserted by Darnley, also applied to her for pardon : and although she at first refused compliance, she afterward, through the intercession of Bothwell, a new favourite, who was desirous of strengthening his party by the accession of their interest, permitted them to return into their own country-(3) The hour of Mary's labour now approached ; and as it seemed imprudent to expose her person, at such a time, to the insults which she might suffer in a kingdom torn by factions, she left the palace, and made the castle of Edin- buro-h the place of her residence. There she was safely delivered of a son ; andthis being a very important event to England as well as to Scotland, she instantly despatched sir James Melvil to London with the interesting intel- lio-ence. It struck Elizabeth forcibly and by surprise. She had given a ball tocher court at Greenwich on the evening of Melvil's arrival, and was dis- play ino- all that spirit and gay ety which us ually attended her on such occasions ; but nosooner was she informed of the prince of Scotland's birth, than all her vivacity left her. Sensible of the superiority her rival had now acquired, she Btmk into deep melancholy: she reclined her head upon her hand, the tears trickling down her cheek, and complained to some of her attendants, that the queen of Scots was mother of a fair son, while she herself was but a barren stock. (4) Next morning, however, at the audience of the ambassador, she resumed her wonted cheerfulness and dissimulation ; thanked Melvil for his haste in bringing her such agreeable news, and expressed the most cordia? friendship for her sister Mary. (5) (1) Melvil. Keith. Crawfurd. (2) Keith, Append. Goodall, vol. i. (3) Melvil. Keith. Knox. (4) Melvil. (5) Ibid 456 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The birth of a son, as Elizabeth foresaw, gave additional zeal as well as weight to the partisans of the queen of Scots in England ; and even men of the most opposite parties began to call aloud for some settlement of the crown. The English queen had now reigned eight years, without discovering the least intention to marry. A violent illness, with which she was seized, had lately endangered her life, and alarmed the nation with a prospect of all the calamities that are occasioned by a disputed and dubious succession. In order to provide against those evils, a motion was made, and eagerly listened to in both houses of parliament, for addressing the queen on the subject. Her love for her people, her duty to the public, her concern to posterity, it was urged, equally called upon her, either to declare her own resolution to marry, or consent to an act establishing the order of succession to the crown. (1) Elizabeth's ambitious and masculine character, and the positive affirma- tion, which she had often and early made, as already observed, that she meant to live and die a VIRGIN-QUEEN, rendered it improbable, notwith standing the insinuations of her ministers, that she would take the first of these steps ; and as no title to the crown could, with any colour of justice, be set in opposition to that of the queen of Scots, most of the English nobility seemed convinced of the necessity of declaring her the presumptive suc- cessor. The union of the two kingdoms was a desirable object to all dis- cerning men ; and the birth of the prince of Scotland gave hopes of its per- petuity. Even the more moderate Protestants, soothed by Mary's lenity to her own subjects, concurred with the Catholics in supporting her claim. (2) Nor would all the policy and address of Elizabeth have been able to prevent the settlement of the crown on her rival, had not Mary's indiscretions, if not her crimes, thrown her from the summit of prosperity, and plunged her in infamy and ruin. James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell, the head of an ancient family in Scot- land, but a man of profligate manners, and by no means eminent for talents either civil or military, had distinguished himself by his attachment to the queen ; and since the death of Rizzio, from the custody of whose murderers he had been the chief instrument of releasing her, Mary's gratitude, and perhaps a warmer sentiment, had loaded him with particular marks of her favour and confidence. She had raised him to offices of power and of trust, and transacted no matter of importance without his advice. Bothwell gained on her affection (for such it certainly soon became) in proportion as her regard for her husband declined ; and her contempt for the latter appears to have been completed, though not occasioned, by her love for the former. The attention and complaisance of a man, who had vindicated her authority, and protected her person ; who entered into all her views, and watched every opportunity of recommending his passion ; could scarce indeed fail of making an impression on a heart naturally too susceptible, or of rousing to the greatest height the indignation of a woman and a queen against an unworthy object, on whom she had placed her love, and who had requited it with neg lect, with insult, and with brutality. (3) Mary was not only suspected of a criminal commerce with Bothwell, but so indiscreet had her familiarity been, and so strongly marked her hatred against her husband, that when Henry, unable to bear that insignificance into which he was fallen, left the court and retired to Glasgow, a distemper of an extraordinary nature, with which he was seized soon after his arrival, was universally ascribed by her enemies to a dose of poison, which it was pre- tended she had procured to be administered to him. The king himself however, seems to have had no such suspicion ; for the queen having paid him a visit during his sickness, and discovered great anxiety for his recovery, ae accompanied her to Edinburgh, as soon as he could be moved, in ordei (1) D'Ewes' Jour*, of Par.iament (?) Melvii. IS) Anderson, vol. i. p. 93, 94. Robertson, book iv. LET. LXVL] MODERNEUROPE. 457 that she herself might be able to attend him without being absent from her son.(l) He was lodged for the benefit of retirement and air, as was pre- tended, in a solitary house called the Kirk of Field, situated on a rising ground at some distance from the palace of Holyrood House. There he was assiduously attended by Mary, who slept several nights in the chamber under his apartment. But on the ninth of February, about eleven o'clock at night, she left the Kirk of Field, in order to be present at a masque in the palace ; and about two o'clock next morning the house in which the king lay was blown up with gunpowder, and his dead body was found in a neighbouring enclosure. (2) The earl of Bothwell was generally considered as the author of this horrid murder ;(3) some suspicions were entertained that the queen herself was no stranger to the crime ; and the subsequent conduct of both, independent of every other circumstance, affords a strong presumption of their mutual guilt. Mary not only industriously avoided bringing Bothwell to a fair and legal trial,(4) notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the earl of Lennox, the king's father, and the general voice of the nation, but allowed the man pub Licly accused of the murder of her husband, to enjoy all the dignity and power, as well as all the confidence and familiarity of a favourite !(5) She committed to him the government of the castle of Edinburgh ;(6) which, with the offices he already possessed, gave him the entire command of the South of Scotland. She was carried off by him, in returning from a visit to her son, and seemingly with her own consent ;(7) she lived with him for some time in a state of supposed violation ; and as soon as he could procure a sentence of divorce, separating him from a young lady of virtue and merit to whom he was lawfully married, she shamefully gave her hand to this reputed ravisher and regicide ! The particular steps by which these events were brought about are of little moment: it is of more importance to mark their consequences. Such a quick succession of incidents, so singular and so detestable, filled all Europe with amazement, and threw infamy not only on the principal actors in the guilty scene, but also on the whole nation. The Scots were universally reproached as men void of courage, or of humanity ; as equally regardless of the reputation of their queen, and the honour of their country, in suffering so many atrocious actions to pass with impunity. (8) These reproaches, so justly merited, together with some attempts made by Bothwell to get the young prince into his power, roused the Scottish nobles from their lethargy. A considerable body of them assembled at Stirling, and entered into an association for the defence of the prince's person, and for punishing the king's murderers. (9) The queen and Bothwell were thrown into the utmost consternation by the news of this league. They were no strangers to the sentiments of the nation with respect to their con duct : they foresaw the storm that was ready to burst on their heads ; and, in order to provide against it, Mary issued a proclamation, requiring her subjects to take arms and attend her husband by a day appointed. She pub- lished, at the same time, a sort of manifesto, in which she endeavoured to vindicate her government from those imputations with which it had been (1) Goodall, vol. ii. Dr. Robertson supposes this confidence to have been inspired by the insidious blandishments of Mary. Hist. Scot, book iv. (2) Crawfurd. Spotswood. Keith. (3) Melvil's Mem. p. 155. Anderson, vol. i. (4) A kind of mock trial was held, but hurried on with indecent precipitancy, and preceded by so many indications of violence, that Lennox was afraid to appear in support of his charge. After in vain craving j his innocence. Besides other suspicious circumstances, he was accompanied to the place of trial by a large body of armed men. Anderson, vol. i. Keith, p. 375, 376. (5) Even when lying under the accusation of the king's murder, Bothwell lived for sometime in the same house with Mary, and took his seat in the council as usual, instead of being confined to close prison Anderson, vol. i. ii. (6) Spotswood, p. 201. (7) Melvil's Mem. p. 158. Melvil, who was himself one of Mary's attendants, tells us not only that he *aw no signs of reluctance, but that he was informed the whole transaction was managed in concert with her. (8) Anderson, vol. i. Melvil, p. 163. Robertson, Append. No. XX -cautioner. Their ardour was not inferior to his own; and being strength I ) CaroUen, p. 428. (2) Pavila, lib. iv. Mezeray, torn, v (3) Id. ibid. (4) Mezeray, ubi sup. Henaull, torn. L Vol. I GC 466 T H E H I S T O R Y O F [PART I ened by a new reinforcement of Germans, they obliged the duke of Anjou to retreat, and invested Poitiers. (I) As. the eyes of all France were fixed on this enterprise, the young duke of Guise, emulous of the renown which his father had acquired by the defence of Metz, threw himself into Poitiers, and so animated the garrison by his valour and conduct, that Coligny was obliged to raise the siege in spite of his most vigorous efforts, after losing three thousand men. (2) Such was the rise of the reputation of the second duke of Guise, whom we shall afterward see attain so distinguished a height of fame and grandeur, and whose ambi- Jtion engaged him in schemes so destructive to the authority of his sovereign, *and the repose of his native country. Elizabeth, ever watchful of the civil commotions in France, was by no means pleased with this revival of the power of the house of Lorrain ; and being anxious for the fate of the Protestants, whose interests were so inti- mately connected with her own, she sent them secretly a sum of money, besides artillery and military stores.(3) She also permitted Henry Cham- pernon to levy and transport over to France a regiment of gentlemen volun- teers. Meanwhile, Coligny, constrained by the impatience of his troops, and the difficulty of subsisting them, fought with the duke of Anjou and the mareschal de Tavannes the memorable battle of Moncontour, in which he was wounded and defeated, with the loss of near ten thousand men. (4) The court of France, and the Catholics, elated with this victory, vainly flattered themselves that the power of the Hugonots was finally broken ; and therefore neglected to take any farther steps for crushing an enemy no longer thought capable of resistance. What was then their surprise to hear that Coligny, still undismayed, had suddenly appeared in another quarter of the kingdom ; had inspired with all his. valour and constancy the two young princes, whom he governed ; had assembled a formidable army, accomplished an incredible march, and was ready to besiege Paris ! The public finances, diminished by the continued disorders, and wasted by so many fruitless wars, could not bear the charge of a new armament. The king was therefore obliged, in 1570, notwithstanding his violent animosity against the Hugonots, to enter into a negotiation with them at St. Germain en Laye ; to grant them a pardon for all past offences ; to declare them capable of all offices, both civil and military ; to renew the edicts for liberty of conscience ; and cede to them for two years, as places of refuge, and pledges of their security, Rochelle, La Charite, Montauban, and Coignac.(5) The first of these cities kept the sea open for receiving succours from England, in case of a new war, the second preserved the passage of the Loire ; the third commanded the frontiers of Languedoc and Querci ; and the fourth opened a passage into Angoumois, where the Hugonots had greater strength than in any other province. Thus an end was seemingly put to the civil wars of France. But Charles was in no degree reconciled to his rebellious subjects ; and this accommoda- tion, like all the foregoing, was employed as a snare, by which the perfidious court might carry more securely into execution that project which had been formed for the destruction of the Protestants. Their leaders were accord- ingly invited to Paris, and loaded with favours ; and, in order to lull the party into yet greater security, Charles not only declared, that, convinced of the impossibility of forcing men's consciences, he was determined to allow every one the free exercise of his religion, but affected to enter into close con- nexions with Elizabeth. (6) Proposals of marriage were made her with the duke of Anjou ; a prince whose youth, beauty, and valour, qualities to which the queen never appeared insensible, it was hoped, would serve for some time to amuse the court of England. Elizabeth, whose artful politics never triumphed so much as in those in- trigues which were connected with her coquetry, immediately founded on 8) Davila, lib. v. (2) Id. ibid. (3) Camden, p. 423, (4) Davila, lib. v. Mezeray torn * ) Id. ibid. (6) Camden. Davila. Digges LET. LXVII. MODERN EUROPE. 467 this offer the project of deceiving the court of France. Negotiations, equally insincere on both sides, were accordingly entered into with regard to the marriage, and broken off under various pretences. Both courts, however, succeeded in their schemes. Charles's artifices, or rather those of the queen- mother, imposed on Elizabeth, and blinded the Hugonots ; and the prospect of that princess's marriage, as she expected, and of an alliance between France and England, discouraged the partisans of the queen of Scots, so ready at all times to disturb the repose of the latter kingdom.(l) Elizabeth had also other motives for her dissimulation. The violent au- thority established by Philip in the Low Countries made her desirous of for- tifying herself even with the shadow of a new confederacy. Not satisfied with having reduced to their former state of obedience the revolted Flemings, whom his barbarous persecutions had roused to arms, that bigoted and yrannical prince seemed determined to make the late popular disorders a pre- ence for utterly abolishing their privileges, and ruling them thenceforth with an arbitrary sway. The duke of Alva, a fit instrument in the hands of such a despot, being employed by Philip to carry this violent design into execution, had conducted into the Low Countries, in 1568, a powerful body of Spanish and Italian veterans. The appearance of such an army, with the inexorable and vindic- tive character of its leader, struck the Flemings with terror and consterna- tion. Their apprehensions were but too just. The privileges of the pro- vinces were openly and expressly abolished by an edict : arbitrary and san- guinary tribunals were erected ; the counts Egmont and Horn, notwithstand- ing their great merit and former services, and although they had been chiefly instrumental in quelling the late revolt, were brought to the block ; multi- tudes were daily delivered over to the executioner ; and nothing was to be heard or seen but seizure, confiscation, imprisonment, torture, and death. (2) Meanwhile, William of Nassau, prince of Orange, surnamed the Silent, whose estate had been confiscated, was employed in raising an army of German Protestants, in order to attempt the relief of his native country ; and, having completed his levies, he entered the Netherlands at the head of twenty-eight thousand men, and offered battle to the duke of Alva. But that prudent general, sensible of the importance of delay, declined the challenge ; and the Spaniards being in possession of all the fortified towns, the prince was obliged, from want of money, to disband his army, without being able to effect any thing of importance. (3) Alva's good fortune only increased his insolence and cruelty. After ente ing Brussels in triumph, he ordered diligent search to be made after all who had been aiding to the prince of Orange, and put them to death by various tortures. He next commanded citadels to be built in all the principal towns, in order to overawe the inhabitants ; and in that of Antwerp he caused his own statue to be erected, in the attitude of treading on the necks of two smaller statues, representing the two estates of the Low Countries, accom- panied with the emblems of heresy and rebellion ! Not satisfied with en- slaving and insulting a free people, he proceeded to pillage and oppress them with exactions altogether ruinous. He demanded the hundredth penny, as a tax on all goods, whether mcveable or immoveable, to supply his present exigencies ; and for the future, the twentieth penny annually on all immove- able goods or heritage ; and the tenth penny on all moveable goods, to b levied at every sale.(4) The inhabitants refused to submit to such oppres- sive taxes. Alva had recourse to his usual severities ; and the Flemings seemed in danger of being reduced to the most abject state of wretchedness, while the courts of France and England were amusing each other with a marriage treaty. Elizabeth, however, was never inattentive to the affairs of the Low Coun- tries. She was equally displeased to see the progress of the scheme laid (1) Camden. Davila. Digges. (2) Temple. Grotiiw (3) Le Clerc, lib. i. Grotius, lib. U. (4) Id ibid. 468 THE HISTORY OF [PART I for the extermination of the Protestants, and to observe the erection of so great a military power in her immediate neighbourhood; and hence, as already observed, she endeavoured to guard herself against the ambition of Philip by the appearance of an alliance with France. But her danger from the Low Countries was greater than she was aware of. The queen of Scots, thinking herself abandoned by the court of France, had applied for protection to that of Spain ; and Philip, whose dark and thoughtful mind delighted in the mystery of intrigue, had held for some time a secret correspondence with Mary, by means of Lesley, bishop of Ross, her ambassador at the court of England, and had supplied both herself and her adherents in Scotland with money. At length, a scheme for rescuing Mary, and subverting the English government, was concerted by the bishop of Ross, the Spanish ambassador, and Rodolphi, a Florentine merchant, who had resided long in London, and acted privately as an agent for the pope. Their plan was, that the duke of Alva should land ten thousand men in the neighbourhood of London ; that the duke of Norfolk, whom they had drawn into their measure, and who had renewed his engagements with the queen of Scots, notwithstanding his solemn promise to hold no correspondence with her, should join the Spaniards with all his friends, together with the English Catholics and malecontents ; that they should march in a body to the capital, and oblige Elizabeth to submit to what conditions they should think fit to impose. (1) But the queen and nation were delivered from this danger by the suspi- cious temper of one of Norfolk's servants. Being intrusted with a bag of money under the denomination of silver, he concluded it to be gold from its weight, and carried it to secretary Cecil, now lord Burleigh, whose pene- trating genius soon discovered, and whose activity brought the whole con- spiracy to light. The duke of Norfolk, betrayed by his other servants, who had been privy to the plot, was seized, convicted of high treason, condemned, and executed. The bishop of Ross was committed to the tower ; the Spanish ambassador was commanded to leave England ; and the earl of Northumber- land, being delivered up to Elizabeth about this time by the regent of Scot- land, was brought to the block for his share in the former rebellion. (2) Ro- dolphi, then on his journey to Brussels, escaped the arm of vengeance. The queen of Scats, who had been either the immediate or remote cause of all these disturbances, was kept under a stricter guard than formerly ; the number of her domestics was abridged, and no person was permitted to see her but in the presence of her keepers. The English parliament was even so enraged against her, that the commons made a direct application for her instant trial and execution. (3) But although Elizabeth durst not carry matters to such extremity against Mary, or was not so disposed, the restless spirit of the captive princess, and her close connexions with Spain, made the queen of England resolve to act without disguise or ambiguity in the affairs of Scotland. That kingdom was still in a state of anarchy. The castle of Edinburgh, commanded by Kirkaldy of Grange, had declared for Mary ; and the lords of her party, encouraged by this circumstance, had taken possession of the capital, and carried on a vigorous war against the regent. By a sudden and unexpected enterprise, they seized that nobleman at Stirling, and slew him in revenge of former injuries. They were, however, overpowered by a detachment from the castle, and an insurrection of the townsmen, and obliged to retire with precipitation. The earl of Marre was chosen regent of Scotland in the room of Lennox, and found the same difficulties to encounter in the government of that divided kingdom. He was therefore glad to accept the mediation of the French and English ambassadors, and to conclude, on equal terms, a truce with the queen's party. He was a man of free and generous spirit ; and finding it (1) State Trials, vol. i. Lesley, p. 155. (2) State Trials, vol. i. Lesley, p. 155. Strype, vol. ii. Camden, p. 3440 (3) D'Ewes, J Robertson, book vU 486 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. The chancellor endeavoured to vindicate its authority, by pleading the supreme jurisdiction of the English laws over every one who resided in England : the lawyers of the crown opened the charge against the queen of Scots ; and the commissioners, after hearing her defence, and adjourning to Westminster, pronounced sentence of death upon that unfortunate princess, and confirmed it by their seals and subscriptions.(l) The chief evidence against Mary arose from the declaration of her secre- taries ; for no proof could otherwise be produced that the letters from Babing- ton were delivered into her hands, or that any answer was returned by her direction ; and the testimony of two witnesses, even though men of cha- racter, who knew themselve's exposed to all the rigours of imprisonment, tor- ture, and death, if they refused to give any evidence which might be required of them, was by no means conclusive. In order to screen themselves, they might throw the blame on her ; but they could discover nothing to her preju- dice, without violating that oath of fidelity which they had taken, in conse- quence of their office ; and their perjury, in one instance, rendered them un- worthy of credit in another. Besides, they were not confronted with her though she desired that they might, and affirmed, that they would never, to her face, persist in their evidence. But the condemnation of the queen of Scots, not justice, was the object of this unprecedented trial; and the sentence, after many hesitations and delays, was carried into execution. Never did Mary appear so great as in this last scene of her life ; she was not only tranquil, but intrepid and magnanimous. When Sir Andrew Melvil, the master of her household, who had been ex- cluded for some weeks from her presence, was permitted to take his last farewell, he burst into tears, bewailing the condition of a mistress whom he loved, as well as his own hard fate, in being appointed to carry into Scotland the news of such a mournful event as the catastrophe that awaited her. " Weep not, good Melvil," said she : " there is at present greater cause for rejoicing. Thou shalt this day see Mary Stuart delivered from all her cares, and such an end put to her tedious sufferings as she has long expected. But witness that I die constant in my religion, firm in my fidelity towards Scotland, and unchanged in my affection to France. Commend me to my son. Tell him I have done nothing injurious to his kingdom, to his honours, or to his rights; and God forgive all those who have thirsted, without cause, for my blood." On ascending the scaffold, she began, with the aid of her women, to take off her veil and upper garments ; and the executioner rudely endeavouring to as- sist them, she gently checked him, and smiling said, " I have not been accus- tomed to undress before so many spectators, nor to be served by such valets !" and soon after, laid her head on the block, with calm but undaunted fortitude. (2) Such, my dear Philip, was the fate of Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, and dowager of France, one of the most amiable and accomplished of her sex ; who, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and the nineteenth of her captivity in England, fell a victim to the jealousy and to the fears of an offended rival. But although Mary's trial was illegal, and her execution arbitrary, history will not permit us to suppose that her actions were at no time criminal. With all the ornaments both of body and mind, which can embellish the female character, she had many of the weaknesses of a woman ; and our sympathy with her long and accumulated sufferings, seen through the medium of her (1) Camden, p. 526. It is remarkable, that among the charges against Mary, she was accused, and seemingly on good grounds, of negotiating with the king of Spain, for transferrin&to him her claim to the English croicn, and disinheriting her heretical son ; that she had eren entered into a conspiracy against James; had appointed lord Claud Hamilton regent of Scotland ; and had insti fated her adherents to seize James's person, and deliver him into the hands of the pope or the king- of Spain ; whence he was never to be freed but on condition of his becomina- Catholic. See Letter to Charles Paget, May 20, 158(5, in Dr. Forbes's Collect. ; and Murden, p. 506. (2) La Mart de la Reine oTF.scosse, ap. Jebb. Camden. Spotswood. The truth of history forbids me to conceal that Mary was supported during this awful catastrophe by the consolations of a superstitious devotion. After throwing herself upon her knees, and repeating prayers from the Office of the Virgin, she pressed the crucifix to her lips ; and then looking upon it, e~agerly exclaimed, " O Christ ! thou wast extended on the cross to save mankind, when they were lost. Pardon my transgressions, and stretch ouJ thy arms to receive me in mercy." Id. ibid Stuart, book viii LET. LXIX.] MODERN EUROPE. 487 hp-uitv only perhaps could prevent us from viewing her, notwithstanding her Sfflt qualities, with some degree of that abhorrence which is excited by the pollution of the marriage-bed and the guilt of murder. (.1) Elizabeth, when informed of Mary's execution, affected the utmost sur- nrise and concern. Sighs, tears, lamentations, and weeds of mourning wer SlUmp oyed to display the greatness of her sorrow. She even under ook to make tlteworld believe, that the queen of Scot,, her dear sister and kins- woman had been put to death without her knowledge, and contrary to her ncSon ; and, to complete this farce, she commanded Davison, her secre- tary to be thrown into prison, under pretence that he had exceeded hs com- mission, in despatching the fatal warrant, which although she had signed, she never meant to carry into execution. (2) . This hypocritical disguise was assumed chiefly to appease the young king of Scotland, who seemed determined to employ the whole force of 1 minions in order to revenge his mother's death. He recalled his ambassador . Son England, refused to admit the English envoy ^J*~"* with difficulty condescended to receive a memorial from the queen. Every hing bore the appearance of war. Many of his nobility instigated him i to take roams immediately, and the Catholics recommended an alliance witl Spain EUzabeUi saw the danger of such a league. After allowing James omedecet interval to vent his grief and anger, she employed her emissaries toTet before m every motive of hope or fear, which might induce him to ^^^^^^-^^^^S^^mm pacific disposition of that prince, prevailed over his resentment. He i< dually into a good understanding with the court of England. While Elizfbeth was thus ensuring the tranquillity of her kingdom from the attempts of her nearest neighbour, she was not inattentive to more distant danSrs Hearing that Philip" was secretly preparing that *& St which had fSr its object no less than the entire Conquest of England, she sent sir Francis Drake with a fleet to intercept his supplies, to pillage 1 coasts of his dominions, and destroy his shipping: and that gallant com- mander^besides other advantages, was so successful as to burn, m the harbour of Cadiz a hundred vessels laden with ammunition and naval stores. About the s same time Thomas Cavendish, a private adventurer, launched into the ^utir^ahuLee smallships; commiUedgreatde^ hi those parts; took many rich prizes; and, returning by the Cape of Goo< (1) AH conte-nporary autho.s agree in ascribing tc of shape of which the human form is capable. "" o ^ ff ^. t bl c a o ^u rs Her eves were a dark gray ; her the times, she frequently ;wo , Borrowed locta and of /^"J^^y"^,^, both as to shape and of Elizabetli. Own Times- book 488 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. against that formidable fleet and army, intended for the invasion of her kingdom. Meanwhile, Philip, whose resolution was finally taken, determined to exe- cute his ambitious project with all possible force and effect. No longer secret in his purpose, every part of his European dominions resounded with the noise of armaments, and the treasures of both Indies were exhausted in vast preparations for war. In all the ports of Sicily, Naples, Spam, and Portugal, artisans were employed in building vessels of uncommon size and force ; naval stores were bought up at great expense ; provisions amassed ; armies levied and quartered in the maritime provinces, and plans laid for such an embarkation as had never before appeared on the ocean. The military preparations in Flanders were no less formidable. Troops from all quarters were every moment assembling to reinforce the duke of Parma ; who employed all the carpenters he could procure, in building flat- bottomed vessels, to transport into England an army of thirty-five thousand men, assembled in the Netherlands. This fleet of transports was intended to join the grand armada, vainly denominated invincible, which was to set sail from Lisbon; and after chasing out of the way all the Flemish and English vessels, which it was supposed would make little if any resistance, to enter the Thames ; to land the whole Spanish army in the neighbourhood of Lon- don, under the command of the duke of Parma, and other experienced officers and to decide, at one blow, the fate of England. The success of the enter- prise was never called in question ; so that several Spanish and Italian noble- men embarked as volunteers, to share in the glory of so great a conquest. Elizabeth was apprized of all these preparations. She had foreseen the invasion; nor was she dismayed at the aspect of that power, by which all Europe apprehended she must be overwhelmed. Her force was indeed very unequal to Philip's ; all the sailors in England did not then exceed fifteen thousand men : the royal navy consisted only of twenty-eight sail, many of which were of small size, and none of them exceeded the bulk of our largest frigates. But the city of London fitted out thirty vessels to reinforce this small navy ; the other seaport towns a proportional number ; and the nobility and gentry hired, armed, and manned forty-three vessels at their own charge. Lord Howard of Effingham, a man of courage and capacity, was appointed admiral, and took on him the chief command ; Drake, Hawkins, and Fro bisher, the most renowned seamen in Europe, served under him. The prin- cipal fleet was stationed at Plymouth ; and a smaller squadron, commanded by lord Seymour, lay off Dunkirk, in order to intercept the duke of Parma.(l) The land forces of England were more numerous than those of the enemy, but inferior in discipline and experience. An army of twenty thousand men was disposed in different bodies along the south coast, with orders to retire backwards, and waste the country, if they could not prevent the Spaniards from landing; twenty-two thousand foot, and a thousand horse, under the command of the earl of Leicester, was stationed at Tilbury, in order to defend the capital ; and the principal army, consisting of thirty-four thousand foot, and two thousand horse, commanded by lord Hunsdon, was reserved for guarding the queen's person, and appointed to march whithersoever the enemy should appear. (2) These armies, though all the Spanish forces had been able to land, would possibly have been sufficient to protect the liberties of their country. But as the fate of England, in that event, must depend on the issue of a single battle, all men of serious reflection entertained the most awful apprehensions of the shock of at least fifty thousand veterans, commanded by experienced officers under so consummate a general as the duke of Parma. The queen alone was undaunted. She issued all her orders with tranquillity, animated her people to a steady resistance, and employed every resource, which either her domes- tic situation or her foreign alliances could afford her. She even appeared on horse-back in the camp at Tilbury; and, riding through the lines, discovered (1) Monson, ubi gup (-2) Camden LET. LXIX.] M O D E R N E [.] R P E. 489 a cheerful and animated countenance, exhorting the soldiers to remember their duty to their country and their religion, and professed her intention, though a woman, to lead them herself into the field against the enemy, and rather perish in battle than survive the ruin and slavery of her people. " I know," said she, intrepidly, " I have but the weak and feeble arm of a woman ; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too !"(l) The heroic spirit of Elizabeth communicated itself to the army, and every man resolved to die rather than desert his station. Meanwhile, the Spanish armada, after various obstructions, appeared in the Channel. It consisted of a hundred and thirty vessels, of which near one hundred were galleons, and carried about twenty thousand land forces. Effingham, who was informed of its approach by a Scotch pirate, saw it, just as he could get out of Ply- mouth Sound, coming full sail towards him, disposed in the form of a crescent, and stretching the distance of seven miles, from the extremity of one division to that of the other. The lofty masts, the swelling sails, and the towering prows of the Spanish galleons, seem impossible to be justly described by the historians of that age, without assuming the language of poetry. Not satis- fied with representing the armada as a spectacle infusing equal terror and admiration into the minds of all beholders, and as the most magnificent that had ever appeared on the main, they assert, that, although the ships bore every sail, it yet advanced with a slow motion, as if the ocean had groaned with supporting, and the winds been tired with impelling so enormous a weight. (2) The English admiral at first gave orders not to come to close fight with the Spaniards, on account of the size of their ships, and the number of sol- diers on board ; but a few trials convinced him, that even in close fight, the size of the Spanish ships was of no advantage to the enemy. Their bulk exposed them to the fire, while their cannon, placed too high, shot over the heads of the English men of war. Every thing conspired to the ruin of this vast armament. Sir Francis Drake took the great galleon of Andalusia, and a large ship of Biscay, which had fallen behind the rest ; while the nobility and gentry hastened out with their vessels from every harbour, and rein- forced Effingham, who filled eight of his smaller ships with combustibles, and sent them into the midst of the enemy. The Spaniards fled with disorder and precipitation; the English commanders fell upon them while in confu- sion ; and, besides doing great damage to their whole fleet, took twelve ships. It was now evident that the purpose of the armada was utterly frustrated ; and the duke of Parma, whose vessels were calculated for transporting sol- diers, not for fighting, positively refused to leave the harbour, while the English were masters of the sea. The Spanish admiral, after many unsuc- ces^ful rencounters, prepared therefore to make his Avay home ; but as the winds were contrary to his return through the Channel, he resolved to take the circuit of the island. The English fleet followed him for some time ; and had not their ammunition fallen short, through the negligence of the public officers in supplying them, they had obliged the armada to surrender at discretion. Such a conclusion of that vainglorious enterprise would have been truly illustrious to the English, but the event was scarce less fatal to the Spaniards. The armada was attacked by a violent storm in passing the Orkneys ; and the ships, having already lost their anchors, were obliged to keep at sea, while the mariners, unaccustomed to hardships, and unable to manage such unwieldy vessels, allowed them to drive on the western isles of Scotland, or on the coast of Ireland, where they were miserably wrecked. Not one-half of the fleet returned to Spain, and a still smaller proportion of the soldiers and seamen : yet Philip, whose command of temper was equal to his ambi- tion received with an air of tranquillity the news of so humbling a disaster. " I sent my fleet," said he, " to combat the English, not the elements. God he praised that the calamity is not greater."(3) (1) Hume, Hist. Eng. vol. v. note (BB.) (3) Ferreras. Strada (2) Camden. Bentivoglio. 490 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. While the naval power of Spain was receiving this signal blow, great revolutions happened in France. The Hugonots, notwithstanding the valour of the king of Navarre, who had gained at Coutras, in 1587, a complete victory over the royal army, were reduced to the greatest extremity by the pOAver of the League ; and the exorbitant ambition of the duke of Guise, joined to the idolatrous admiration of the Catholics, who considered him as a saviour, and the king as unworthy of the throne, only could have preserved the Reformers from utter ruin. The citizens of Paris, where the duke was most popular, took arms against their sovereign, and obliged him to abandon his capital at the hazard of his life ; while the doctors of the Sorbonne declared, " That a weak prince may be removed from the government of his kingdom, as a tutor or guardian, unfit f(** his office, mny be deprived of his trust."(l) Henry's spirit was roused, by the dread of degradation, from that lethargy in which it had long reposed. He dissembled his resentment ; entered into a negotiation with Guise and the League ; seemed outwardly reconciled, but harboured vengeance in his heart. And that vengeance was hastened by an insolent speech of the dutchess of Montpensier, the duke of Guise's sister, who, showing a pair of gold scissors, which she wore at her girdle, said, " The best use that I can make of them is, to clip the hair of a prince un- worthy to sit on the throne of France, in order to qualify him for a cloister, that ONE more deserving to reign may mount it, and repair the losses which religion and the state have suffered through the weakness of his prede- cessor."^) After Henry had fully taken his resolution, nine of his guards, singled out by Loignac, first gentleman of his bed-chamber, were introduced to him in his palace. He put a poniard into each of their hands, informed them of their business, and concluded thus : " It is an execution of justice, which I command you to make on the greatest criminal in my kingdom, and whom all laws, human and divine, permit me to punish ; but not having the ordinary methods of justice in my power, I authorize you, by the right inherent in my royal authority, to strike the blow." They were secretly disposed in the passage which led from the king's chamber to his cabinet ; and when the duke of Guise came to receive audience, six poniards were at once plunged into his breast. (3) He groaned and expired. ' 1 am now a king, madam !" said Henry, entering the apartment of the queen-mother, "and have no competitor; the duke of Guise is dead." The cardinal of Guise also was despatched, a man more violent than even his brother. Among other insolent speeches, he had been heard to say, that he would hold the king's head between his knees till the tonsure was performed at the monastery of the Capuchins. (4) These cruel executions, which their necessity alone can excuse, had an effect very different from what Henry expected. The partisans of the League were inflamed with the utmost rage against him, and every where flew to arms. Rebellion was reduced into a system. The doctors of the Sorbonne had the arrogance to declare, " that the people were released from their oath of allegiance to Henry of Valois :" and the duke of Mayenne, brother to the duke of Guise, was chosen by the League Lieutenant-General of the State Royal and Crown of France ; an unknown and unintelligible title, but which was meant as a substitute for sovereignty. (5) In this extremity, the 1 king, almost abandoned by his Catholic subjects, entered into a confederacy with the Hugonots and the king of Navarre. He enlisted large bodies of Swiss infantry and German cavalry ; and being still supported by his chief nobility, and the princes of the blood, he was enabled, by all those means, to assemble an army of forty thousand men. With these forces the two kings advanced to the gates of Paris, and were ready to crush the League, and subdue all their enemies, when the desperate resolution of one man gave a new turn to the affairs of France, (1) Ca^et. (2) P Daniel. (3i Davila. Du Tillet (4) Thuanus. (5) Mezeray LET. LXX.J MODERN EUROPE. 491 James Clement, a Dominican friar, inflamed by that bloody spirit of bigotry which distinguished the age, and of which we have seen so many horrid examples, had embraced the pious resolution of sacrificing his own me, m order to save the church from the danger which now threatened it, in conse. quence of the alliance between Henry III. and the Hugonots: and being admitted into the king's presence, under pretence of important business, he mortally wounded that prince, while reading some supposed despatches, anc was himself instantly put to death by the guards.(l) *"5f5" J* the succession open to the king of Navarre ; who, as next heir to the ciown, assumed the government under the title of Henry IV. But the reign of that Seat prince, and the various difficulties which he was obliged to encounter, before he could settle his kingdom, must be reserved for a future Letter. In the mean time, I cannot help observing, that the monk who had thus imbrued his hands in the blood of his sovereign was considered at Pans as a saint and a martyr: he was exalted above Judith, and his image was impi- ous y placed on the altars. Even pope Sixtus V. so deservedly celebrated for his dignity of mind, as well as for the superb edifices with wh cl adorned Rome, was so much infected with the general contagion,' that compared Clement's enterprise to the incarnation of the Word, a: oservouea another These holy assassination, sops liar to the period that followed the Reformation, proceeded chiefly from the fai latical application of certain passages in the Old Testament to the . con- iSres?rt imes. Enthusiasm taught both Protestants and Catholics o conSer themselves as the peculiar favourites of Heaven, and possessmg the only true religion, without allowing themselves coolly to reflect that $ adherents of each had an equal right to this vain pretension. Fh e P rotes a nts founded it on the purity of their principles, the Catholics on the antiquity of the r church and while impelled by their own vindictive passions, by per- sSnalantoosity or party zeal, to the commission of murder, they imagined they heard the voice of God commanding them to execute vengeance on his and their enemies. LETTER LXX. The general View of Europe continued from the Accession of Henry IF. to ike Peace of Fervins, in 1598. of Henry IV. justly styled the Great, forms one of the most were fixed upon him, as the hero of its military theatre, and the ?^^ aC The nreiudices entertained against Henry's religion made one-half of the va a?mTdesert him, on his accession ; and it was only by signing certain to their religion, and Fomising to listen the ar duke of Mavenie who had proclaimed the cardinal of Bourbon king, under of Char eTx. ; although that old man, thrown into prison on the still confined in the castle of Fontenai 1 Comte, in. Poitou.(3) (1) Thuanus. Davila. Mezeray. (2) M- lbid - (3) Davila. lib x Mezeray, Mrts* Chranol. torn. vi. 192 T H E HIST O R V O K [PART 1. In this extremity, Henry had recourse to the queen of England, and found her well disposed to assist him; to oppose the progress of the Catholic League, and of the king of Spain, her dangerous and inveterate enemy, who entertained views either of dismembering the French monarchy, or of an- nexing the whole to his own dominions. Conscious of Henry's necessities, Elizabeth sent him immediately a present of twenty-two thousand pounds, in order to prevent the desertion of his Swiss and German auxiliaries ; and embarked, with all expedition, a reinforcement of four thousand men, under the command of lord Willoughby, an officer of abilities. Meanwhile, the king of France had been so fortunate as to secure Dieppe and Caen, and to repulse the duke of Mayenne, who had attacked him under the cannon of the Arques, where he lay intrenched. On the arrival of the English forces, he marched immediately towards Paris, to the great consternation of the inhabitants, and had almost taken the city by storm ; but the duke of Mayenne entering it soon after with his army, Henry judged it prudent to retire. The king's forces were still much inferior to those of the League ; but what was wanting in numbers was made up in valour. He attacked the duke of Mayenne at Irvi, and gained a complete victory over him, though sup- ported by a select body of Spanish troops, detached from the Netherlands. Henry's behaviour on this occasion was truly heroic. " My lads," said he to his soldiers, " if you should lose sight of your colours, rally towards this," pointing to a large white plume which he wore in his hat ; " you will always find it in the road to honour. God is with us !" added he, emphatically, drawing his sword, and rushing into the thickest of the enemy ; but when he perceived their ranks broken, and great havoc committed in the pursuit, his natural humanity and attachment to his countrymen returned, and led him to cry, " Spare my French subjects !"(!) forgetting that they were his enemies. Soon after this victory died the cardinal of Bourbon, and the king invested Paris'. That city contained two hundred and twenty thousand souls, animated by religious enthusiasm, and Henry's army did not amount to fifteen thousand men ; yet he might certainly have reduced it by famine, if not by other means, had not his paternal tenderness for his people, perhaps ill-timed, made him forget the duty of a soldier, and relax the rigour of war. He left a free passage to the old men, women, and children ; he permitted the peasants, and even his own men, to carry provisions secretly to the besieged. " I would rather never possess Paris," s.aid he, when blamed for this indulgence, " than acquire it by the destruction of its citizens."(2) He feared no reproach so much as that of his own heart. Meantime, the duke of Parma, by order of the king of Spain, left the Low Countries, where he was hard pressed by prince Maurice, and hastened to the relief of Paris. On his approach Henry raised the siege, and offered him battle ; but that consummate general, having performed the important service for which he was detached, prudently declined the combat. And so great was his skill in the art of war, that he retired in the face of the enemy, without affording them an opportunity of attacking him, or so much as putting his army into disorder ; and reached his government, where his presence was much wanted, without sustaining any loss in those long marches. The States, however, were gainers by this expedition ; prince Maurice had made rapid progress during the absence of the duke. After the retreat of the Spaniards, Henry made several fresh attempts upon Paris, which was his grand object; but the vigilance of the citizens, particu- larly of the faction of Sixteen, by which it was governed, defeated all his designs ; and new dangers poured in upon him from every side. When the (1) Davila, !ib. xi. The same great historian tells us, that a youth who carried the royal white coronet, and a page who wore a large white plume, like that of the king, being slain, the ranks began to give way some falling to the right, some to the left till they recognised Henry, by his plume and his horse, fighting desperately, with his sword in his hand, in the first line ; and returned to the charge, shutting themselves close together, like a wedge. Id. ibid. (& P. Daniel, torn. ix. Thuan, lib. xcix. LET. LXX.] MODERN EUROPE. 49S duke of Parma retired, lie left eight thousand men with the duke of Mayenne. for the support of the League ; and pope Gregory XIV., at the request of the king of Spain, not only declared Henry a relapsed heretic, and ordered all the Catholics to abandon him, under pain of excommunication, but sent his nephew with troops and money to join the duke of Savoy, who was already in possession of Provence, and had entered Dauphine. About the same time the young duke of Guise made his escape from the castle of Tours, where he had been confined since the* assassination of his father. All that the king said, when informed of these dangers was, " The more enemies we have, the more care we must lake, and the more honour there will be in beating them."(l) Elizabeth, who had withdrawn her troops, on the first prosperous appear- ance of Henry's affairs, now saw the necessity of again interposing. She sent him three thousand men, under sir John Norris, who had commanded with reputation in the Low Countries ; and afterward four thousand, under the earl of Essex, a young nobleman, who, by many exterior accomplish- ments, and much real merit, was daily rising into favour; and seemed to occupy that place in her affections, which Leicester, now deceased, had so long enjoyed. With these supplies, joined to an army of thirty-five thou- sand men, Henry entered Normandy, according to his agreement with Eliza- beth, and formed the siege of Rouen. The place made an obstinate resistance ; but as the army of the League was unable to keep the field, it must soon have been obliged to surrender, if an unexpected event had not procured it relief. The duke of Parma, by order of Philip, again left his government ; and advancing to Rouen, with rapid marches, a second time robbed Henry of his prey, by obliging him to raise the siege. The gallant monarch, burning with revenge, again boldly offered his antagonist battle; again pursued him ; and the duke, by a wonderful piece of generalship, and in spite of the greatest obstacles, a second time made good his retreat to the Netherlands.(2) Henry was in some measure consoled for this disappointment, by hearing I hat Lesdiguieres had recovered Provence, chased the duke of Savoy over the mountains, and made incursions even to the gates of Turin; that the viscount de Turenne had vanquished and slain the mareschal of Lorrain ; while Thammes had defeated the duke de Joeyeuse, who commanded for the League in Languedoc, and killed two thousand men ; that La Valette, the new" governor of Provence had retaken Antibes, and the Spaniards been baffled in an attempt on Bayonne.(3) Meanwhile, all things were hastening to a crisis between the parties. The faction of Sixteen, which was entirely in the interest of Spain, its principal members being pensioners of Philip, had hanged the first president of the parliament of Paris, and two of the judges, for not condemning to death a man obnoxious to the junto, but against whom no crime was found. The duke of Mayenne, on the other hand, afraid of being crushed by that faction, had caused four of the Sixteen to be executed in the same manner. The duke of Parma, on the part of Philip, pressed the duke of Mayenne to call an assembly of the states, in order to deliberate on the election of a king- and the Catholics of Henry's party gave him clearly to understand, that they expected he would now declare himself on the article of religion. The king and the duke of Mayenne were equally sensible of the necessity of complying with these demands, though alike disagreeable to each. The states were convoked ; and the duke of Parma, under pretence of supporting their resolutions, was ready to enter France with a powerful army, in order to forward the views of Philip. But the death of that great general at Arras where he was assembling his forces, freed the duke of Mayenne from a dan- gerous rival, Henry from a formidable enemy, and perhaps France from becoming a province of Spain. The states, however, or more properly the heads of the Catholic faction (1) P. Daniel, torn. 'a. Thuan, lib. xcii. Davila, lib. n. (2) Davila,lib.xii.xiii. Thuan, lib. ciii. (3) Id. ibid. 194 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. met, according to the edict, at Paris ; and the pope's legate there proposed, that they should hind themselves hy an oath never to be reconciled to the king of Navarre, even though he should embrace the Catholic faith. This motion was opposed by the duke of Mayenne and the majority of the assem- bly, but supported by the Spanish faction; and as there was yet no appear- ance of Henry's changing his religion, the duke of Feria, Philip's ambassa- dor, after attempting to gain the duke ,of Mayenne, by offering him the sovereignty of Burgundy, together with a vast sum of money, boldly pro- posed, that the states should choose the infanta Eugenia queen, as the nearest relation of Henry III. ; and the archduke Albert, to whom her father was inclined to give her in marriage, king in her right. The most zealous of the Sixteen revolted against this proposal ; declaring that they could never think of admitting at once of two foreign sovereigns. The duke of Feria changed his ground. He proposed the infanta on condition that she should espouse a prince of France, including the house of Lorrain, the nomination to be left to his Catholic majesty ; and, at length, he fixed on the young duke of Guise. Had the last proposal been made first, it is possible that Philip might have carried his point ; but now the duke of Mayenne, unwilling to become dependent on his nephew, pretended to dispute the ambassador's power: and the parliament of Paris, as supposed through this influence, published a decree, declaring such a treaty contrary to the Salic law, which, being a fundamental principle to the government, could on no account whatsoever be set aside.(l) While these disputes were agitated at Paris, Henry was pushing his mili- tary operations ; but he was become sensible, notwithstanding his successes, that he never could, by force of arms alone, render himself master of his kingdom. The Catholics of his party grew daily more importunate to know his sentiments in regard to religious matters ; and their jealousy on this point seemed to increase, in proportion as he approached to the full posses- sion of his throne. Though a Protestant, he was no bigot to his sect ; he considered theological differences as subordinate to the public good ; and therefore appointed conferences to be held between the divines of the two religions, that he might be enabled to take, with more decency, that step, -which the security of his crown, and the happiness of his subjects, now made necessary. In these conferences, if we may credit the celebrated marquis de Rosni (afterward duke of Sully, and prime minister to Henry), the Protestant divines even allowed themselves to be worsted, in order to furnish the king with a better pretext for embracing that religion which it was so much his interest to believe. But however that might be, it is certain that the more moderate Protestants, and Rosni among others, were convinced of the neces- sity of such a step ; and that Henry, soon after the taking of Dreux, solemnly made his abjuration at St. Dennis, and received absolution from the arch- bishop of Bourges.(2) This measure, however, though highly agreeable to the body of the French nation, was not immediately followed by those beneficial consequences which were expected from it. The more zealous Catholics suspected Henry's sin- cerity: they considered his abjuration merely as a device to deceive the League : and as the personal safety of many, who had distinguished them- selves by their violence, was concerned in obstructing his progress, they had recourse to their former expedient of assassination, in which they were en- couraged by their priests. Several attempts were made against the king's (I) Davilit, lib. xiii. P. Heuanlt, torn. ii. (i) Duvila, lib. xiii. P. Renault, torn. ii. Nothing can more strongly demonstrate the propriety of su a measure, than the reflections of Davila, a living and intelligent observer of the times. " The Xing conversion," says he, " was certainly the most powerful remedy that could be applied to the dangerous disease of the nation. But the truce by which it was preceded did also dispose men's minds for the work- ing of so wholesome a medicine ; for the people on both sides having begun to taste the security and tli benefits that result from concord, in a season when harvest and vintage made them more sensible of the happiness, they fell so in love with it, that it was afterward more easy to incline them to a denre of iK-ace, and a willing obedience under their lawful prince." Hist. lib. xiv LET. LXX.j MODERN EUROPE. 495 life. The zealous Hugonots, on the other hand, became more diffident of Henry's intentions towards their sect ; and his Protestant allies, particularly ihe queen of England, expressed much indignation at this interested change of his religion. Sensible, however, that the League and king of Spain were still their common enemies, Elizabeth at last admitted his apologies. She continued her supplies of men and money ; and time soon produced a won- derful alteration in the affairs of the French monarch, and evinced the wisdom of the step which he had taken, though not entirely conformable to the laws of honour, and consequently a reproach on his private character. The marquis de Vitri, governor of Meaux, was the first man of rank who showed the example of a return to duty. He had often solicited the duke of Mayenne, as the cause of the war was at an end, to make his peace with the king; but receiving no satisfaction from that nobleman, he resolved to follow the dictates of his own heart. He ordered the garrison to evacuate the town ; and having assembled the magistrates, delivered to them tho keys. " Gentlemen," said he, " I scorn to steal an advantage, or make a fortune at other men's expense. I am going to pay my allegiance to thr. kinor; and leave it in your power to act as you please." The magistrates, after a short deliberation, agreed to send a deputation to Henry, in order tr make their submissions, and entreat him to return their governor. Th< deputies were so confounded at their audience, that they were incapable o: speech, but threw themselves at the king's feet. Having viewed them foi some moments in that condition, Henry burst into tears ; and, lifting them up, said, " Come not as enemies to crave forgiveness, but as children to a father always willing to receive you with open arms."(l) The popularity acquired by this reception greatly promoted the royal cause. Henry was crowned with much solemnity at Chartres, and every thing seemed to promise a speedy pacification. La Chastre delivered up the provinces of Orleanois and Berri, of which he was governor, and D' Alain- court, the city of Porftoise ; the duke of Mayenne retired from Paris ; and the count de Brisac, who commanded the French garrison, (for there Avas also a Spanish one), privately admitted the king into his capital, of which he took possession almost without shedding blood. Villars, who had so gallantly defended Rouen for the League, surrendered that city on condi- tions ; and a multitude of other places either offered terms, or opened their gates without stipulating for any. The duke d'Elbeuf, of the house of Lor- rain, who had seized the government of Poitou, declared for the king. The young duke of Guise also made his peace with Henry. Baligny, who still held the principality of Cambray, submitted ; and marshal d'Aumont, with the assistance of an English fleet and army, made himself master of Mor- laix, Quimpercorentin, and Brest, towns guarded by the Spanish forces in Brittany, while the king in person besieged and took Laon. On this advan- tage, Amiens, and great part of Picardy, acknowledged his sway. (2) In the midst of these successes, Henry was on the point of perishing by the hand of a desperate assassin. On his return from Picardy to Paris, John Chastel, a young fanatic, educated among the Jesuits, struck him on the mouth with a knife, while he was saluting one of his courtiers, in a chamber of the Louvre, and beat out one of his teeth. The blow was intended for the king's throat ; but, fortunately, his stooping prevented it from striking that dangerous part. The assassin was seized, avowed his principles, and was executed. On his examination, he confessed that he had frequently heard his ghostly preceptors say, that king-killing was lawful; and that as Henry IV. had not yet been absolved by the pope, he thought he might kill him with a safe conscience Some writings to the same purpose were found in the possession of father Guisgard, who was condemned to suffer the pun- ishment appointed for treason ; and all the Jesuits were banished the king- dom, by a decree of the parliament of Paris. (3) (1) Mem. pour sfreir a VHist. de France torn. ii. (2) Davila. Mezeray. Dupleijc (3) Davila, lib. xiv. Renault, loin, ii 496 T II E H I S T R Y F [?ART I While these things were passing- in France, war was still carried on with vigour in the Low Countries. The confederates not only continued to main- tain the struggle for liberty, but even rose superior to the power of Spain. Prince Maurice surprised Breda ; and, by the assistance of the English forces, under sir Francis Vere, he took Gertruydenberg and Groningen, after two of the most obstinate and best conducted sieges recorded in history. Count Mansveldt, an able and experienced officer, who had succeeded the duke of Parma in the chief command, beheld the taking the first with an army supe- rior to the prince's, without being able to force his lines ; and Verdugo, the Spanish general, durst not attempt the relief of the second, though the gar- rison made a gallant defence. (1) The progress of the confederates, however, did not prevent the archduke Ernest, now governor of the Low Countries, from sending ten thousand men to lay waste the frontier of France ; and Henry, who had been long engaged in hostilities with Philip, was provoked by this fresh insult, as well as en- couraged by his own successes and those of the confederates, to declare war against Spain. He led an army in person into Burgundy ; took the castles of Dijon and Talan ; expelled the Spaniards from that province ; obliged the duke of Mayenne to sue for an accommodation, and received absolution from the pope. But while this great prince, rendered too confident by good fortune, was employed in a wild and fruitless expedition into Franche-Comte, in compli- ance with the ambition of his mistress, the fair Gabrielle d'Etrees, who wanted a principality for her son Ca;sar, a Spanish army, under the command of Don Pedro de Gusman, conde de Fuentes, reduced Dourlens, Catelet, and Cambray. In balance, however, of these losses, the duke of Guise sur- prised Marseilles, and Henry concluded Iris negotiation with the duke of Mayenne, who, charmed with the generous reception which he met with on his submission, continued ever after firmly attached to the king's person and government. When informed of the taking of Marseilles, Henry was so much elated, that he exclaimed in a kind of transport of joy, " then I am at last a king !"(2) His joy, however, was but of short duration. The archduke Albert, who had succeeded on the death of his brother to the government of the Low Countries, sent an army to besiege Calais : and that fortress, not being in a proper state of defence, the garrison was obliged to surrender, before the king could march with a sufficient force to its relief. This unfortunate event was soon followed by another. While Henry was? in the utmost distress for the loss of Calais, which fanned the dying ashes of the League, while harassed by the complaints of the Hugonots, and chagrined at the extravagant demands of the dukes of Savoy and Mercoeur, who were still in arms against him, and took occasion from his disasters to exalt their conditions, he received intelligence that Portocarero, the Spanish governor of Dourlens, had made himself master of Amiens, by surprise. (3) The king of France was now ready to sink under the weight of his mis- fortunes. His finances were so much exhausted in buying the allegiance of his rebellious subjects, or in reducing them to their duty, that he was utterly incapable of any new effort : he was not even able to pay the few troops in his service. He had already assembled his nobles, and made them acquainted with his necessities; but they, beggared also by the civil wars, seemed little disposed to assist him, though he addressed them in the most engaging language. " I have not called you together," said he, " as my predecessors *vere wont, to oblige you blindly to obey my will : I have assembled you to receive your counsels ; to listen to them, to follow them, and to put myself entirely under your direction."(4) " Give me an army," cried he, on another occasion, " and I will cheerfully (1) Bentivoglio. Grotius. Metern. (2) Dupleix, loin. v. (31 Cayet. torn, iii (4) Mem. de Sulli, torn i LET. LXX.] MODERN EUROPE. 497 venture my life for the state !" But the means of furnishing bread for that army, as he pathetically complained, were not in his power. Henry, however, was happily extricated out of all his difficulties by the fertile genius of his faithful servant, the marquis de Rosni, whom he appointed superintendent of the finances. That able minister, by loans upon the king's faith, by sums advanced upon the revenues, and other necessary ex- pedients enabled him to raise, in a short time, an army consisting of more than twenty thousand men. With this awny, the best appointed he had ever led into the field, together with four thousand English auxiliaries, sent over by queen Elizabeth in consequence of a new treaty, Henry marched imme- diately to Amiens, in order to attempt the recovery of that important place. " Let us go," said he, on undertaking this arduous enterprise, "and act the king of Navarre : we have acted the king of France long enough." The Spanish garrison, composed of choice troops, and commanded by experienced officers, made an obstinate defence, and allowed the archduke time to march to its relief ; but Albert, not being able to force the lines of the besiegers, though his army consisted of twenty -five thousand veterans, retired to Arras, and Amiens surrendered to the French monarch. (1) Henry returned in triumph to Paris, where he was received with every possible mark of loyalty and respect ; and after convincing all parties, that the happiness of his people was his supreme wish, and the object of all his enterprises, he marched against the duke of Mercceur, who still held part of Brittany. Surprised at this unexpected visit, and deserted by the nobility of the dutchy, who hastened to make their peace with the king, the duke gave himself up for lost. But a lucky expedient saved him. He offered his only daughter, with the dutchies of Estampes, Penthievre, and Merco3ur, in marriage to Henry's natural son, Caesar ; and the king, glad of such an opportunity of gratifying the ambition of his mistress, readily agreed to the proposal. (2) Henry now saw himself in full possession of his kingdom : the League was entirely dissolved ; and the Catholics in general seemed satisfied wi;;: his public profession of their religion. The Hugonots, his original friends, alone gave him any uneasiness. They had frequently, since the king's abju- ration, but more especially since his reconciliation with the see of Rome, expressed apprehensions on account of their religion. Henry sooii made them easy on that point. He assembled the heads of the party at Nantes ; and from motives of policy, as well as of gratitude and tenderness, passed the famous edict bearing date from that place, and which granted them every thing that they reasonably could desire. It not only secured to them the free exercise of their religion, but a share in the administration of justice, and the privilege of being admitted to all employments of trust, profit, and honour. (3) During these transactions in France, the confederates were not idle in the Low Countries. Prince Maurice and sir Francis Vere, who commanded the English forces, gained at Tournhout, in 1597, a complete victory over the Spaniards ; in consequence of which that place immediately surrendered, and an incredible number of others were reduced before the close of the campaign. Nor were the confederates less successful in other quarters. Besides the naval armaments which Elizabeth was continually sending to annoy the Spaniards in the West Indies, and to obstruct their trade at home, a strong force was sent to Cadiz, where Philip was making vast preparations for a new invasion of England. The combined English and Dutch fleet, under lord Effingham, attacked the Spanish ships and galleys in the bay ; and, after an obstinate engagement, obliged them all either to surrender, retire beneath their forts, or run ashore. The earl of Essex, who commanded the land forces, then disembarked his troops, and carried the city by assault. The plunder made there was considerable ; but the resolution which the Spanish (1) Dupleix. Davila. Mezeray. (2) Davila, lib. xv. Mem. de Sulli, torn. ii. (3) Thuauus. Mezeray. VariUas. VOL. I. 1 1 498 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. admiral took, of setting fire to a large fleet of merchant ships, richly laden, in the port, deprived the conquerors of a far more valuable booty. The loss, however, sustained by the Spaniards was not diminished by that expedient, and is computed at twenty millions of ducats. (1) Age and infirmities, together with so many disasters and disappointments, had now broken the lofty and obstinate spirit of Philip. He began to moderate his views, and offered peace to the confederates on pretty equitable terms ; but as he refused to acknowledge the independency of the United Provinces, they would not negotiate with him, and Elizabeth came to the same resolution, on their account. Henry's situation did not enable him to behave with equal firmness. France, long torn by civil dissensions, stood in need of peace. Philip knew it, and offered advantageous conditions to Henry, that he might be enabled, by diminishing the number of his enemies, to act with more vigour against the United Provinces. The French monarch, however, before he entered into treaty with the king of Spain, sent ambassadors to Elizabeth and the States, in order to facilitate a general agreement, and make known his pacific purpose. Both powers remonstrated against such a measure, unless the independency of the States was made its basis. Henry pleaded his necessity of negotiating ; and although they blamed the step which they saw he was determined to take, they were sensible of the justice of his arguments. A separate peace was accordingly concluded, between France and Spain, at Vervins ;(2) by which Henry recovered possession of all the places seized by Philip during the course of the civil wars, and procured to himself, what he had long ardently desired, leisure to settle the domestic affairs of his kingdom ; to cultivate the arts of peace (to which his genius was no less turned than to those of war), and to contribute to the happiness and prosperity of his people. But before we take a view of the flourishing state of France, under the equitable government of this great and good prince, and the wise adminis- tration of Sully, or of England during the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, I must carry forward the contest between Spain and the United Provinces. LETTER LXXI. Spain and the Low Countries, from the Peace of Veroins, to the Truce in 1609, when the Freedom of the United Provinces was acknowledged. SOON after the peace concluded between France and Spain, at Vervins, a new treaty was negotiated between England and the United Provinces, in order that the war might be supported with vigour against Philip. Th States, afraid of being deserted by Elizabeth, submitted to what terms sh^ was pleased to require of them. They agreed to diminish their debt, which amounted to eight hundred thousand pounds, by remitting considerable sums annually ; to pay the English troops in the Low Countries ; and to maintain, at their own expense, the garrisons of the cautionary towns, while Englan J hould continue the war against Spain.(3) Scarce was this negotiation finished, when Philip II., its first object, breathed his last at Madrid ; leaving behind him the character of a gloomy, jealous, haughty, vindictive, and inexorable tyrant. With great talents for govern- ment, he failed to obtain the reputation of a great prince ; because, with a perfect knowledge of mankind, and the most extensive power of bene fitting them, he became the great destroyer of his species, and the chief instrument of human misery. His head fitted him for the throne of Spain, and his inde fatigable application for the sovereignty of both Indies ; but his heart, and (1) Birch's Mem. vol. ii. (2) Davila, lib. xv. Mczerny, Jllrigi Chronol. lorn, xvi (3) Camden. Thuanus. Grotiiis. LET. LXXI.] MODERNEUROPE. 499 his habit of thinking, only for the office of Grand Inquisitor. Hence he was long the terror, but never the admiration, of Europe. Nor was Philip's character more amiable or estimable in private than in public life. Besides other crimes of a domestic nature, he was accused by William, prince of Orange, in the face of all Europe, and seemingly with justice, of having sacrificed his own son, Don Carlos, to his jealous ambition ; and of having poisoned his third wife, Isabella of France, that he might marry Anne of Austria, his niece.(l) The particulars of the death of Don Carlos are sufficiently curious to merit attention. That young prince had sometimes taken the liberty to censure the measures of his father's government in regard to the Netherlands, and was even suspected of a design of putting himself at the head of the insurgents, in order to prevent the utter ruin of his future subjects, for whose sufferings he had often expressed his compassion. In consequence of this suspicion he was put under confinement ; and although several princes interceded for his release, his father was inexorable. The inquisition, through the influence of the king, who on all great occasions consulted the members of that ghostly tribunal, passed sentence against the unhappy Carlos ; and the inhuman and unnatural Philip, under cover of that sentence, ordered poison, which proved effectual in a few hours, to be admin- istered to his son and heir of empire.(2) No European prince ever possessed such vast resources as Philip II. Besides his Spanish and Italian dominions, the kingdom of Portugal and the Netherlands, he enjoyed the whole East India commerce, and reaped the richest harvest of the American mines. But his prodigious armaments, his intrigues in France and in England, and his long and expensive wars in the Low Countries, exhausted his treasures, and enriched those whom he sought to subdue ; while the Spaniards, dazzled with the sight of the precious metals, and elated with an idea of imaginary wealth, neglected agriculture and manu- factures, and were obliged, as at present, to depend on their more industrious neighbours, for the luxuries, as well as the necessaries, of life. Spain, once a rich and fertile kingdom, became only the mint of Europe. Its wedges and ingots were no sooner coined than called for ; and often mortgaged before their arrival, as the price of labour and ingenuity. The state was enfeebled, the country rendered sterile, and the people poor and miserable. The condition of the United Provinces was in all respects the reverse of Spain. They owed every thing to their industry. By that, a country natu- rally barren, was rendered fertile, even while the scene of war. Manu- factures were carried on with vigour, and commerce was extended to all the quarters of the globe. The republic was become powerful, and the people rich, in spite of every effort to enslave and oppress them. Conscious of this, the court of Madrid had changed its measures before the death of Philip. After much deliberation, that haughty monarch, despairing of being able to reduce the revolted provinces by force, and desirous of an accommodation, that he might end his days in peace, but disdaining to make, in his own name, the concessions necessary for that purpose, transferred to his daughter Isabella, contracted to the archduke Albert of Austria, the sovereignty of the Low Countries. Philip II. died before the celebration of the marriage, but his son Philip III., a virtuous, though a weak prince, punctually executed the contract; and Albert, after taking possession of his sovereignty according to the ne- cessary forms, wrote to the States of the United Provinces, acquainting them of that deed, and entreating them not to refuse submission to their natural princes, who would govern them with lenity, indulgence, and affection. The States returned no answer to the archduke's letter. They were now determined to complete that independency for which they had so long strug- gled. But although their purpose had been less firm, there was a clause in the contract which would have produced the same resolution. It provided, (1) See the Manifesto of the prince of Orange, in answer to Philip's Proscription. (2) Compare Thuanus lib. xliii., with Strada, lib. vii. lift 500 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. that, in case the infanta left no issue, all the provinces in the Low Countries should return to the crown of Spain ; and as there was little probability of hei having offspring-, the States saw their danger, and avoided it, by refusing 1 to listen to any terms of subinission.(l) The first material step taken by Albert and Isabella for reducing their revolted subjects to obedience, was the issuing of an edict, in conjunction with the Catholic king, precluding the United Provinces all intercourse with the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, or with the Spanish Netherlands. This was a severe blow to the commerce of the States. They had hitherto, singular as it may seem, been allowed an open trade with all the Spanish dominions in Europe, and had drawn much of their wealth from that source, as well as increased by it their naval power. An idea of general advantage only could have induced Philip II. to permit such a traffic ; and an experience of its balance being in favour of the republic, as will always be the case between industrious and indolent nations, made it now be prohibited under the name of an indulgence. But the interdict was issued too late effectually to answer its end. The Dutch, already strong by sea, sent out a fleet to cruise upon the Spaniards ; their land levies were prosecuted with great dili- gence ; and, in order to make up for the restraint upon their home trade, they turned their views towards India, where they attacked the Spaniards and Portuguese, and at length monopolized the most lucrative branch of that important commerce. Meanwhile, war was carried on with vigour in the Low Countries. Besides several bodies of Gennans and Swiss, the States took into their service two thousand French veterans, disbanded by Henry IV. on the conclusion of the peace of Vervins : and that prince generously supplied the republic with money, under pretence of paying his debts. The archduke's forces were, in like manner, much augmented by fresh levies from Spain, Italy, and Germany. Each party seemed formidable to the other, yet both were eager for the combat ; and several towns having been taken, many gallantly assaulted, and no less gallantly defended on both sides, the two armies came to a general engagement at Nieuport, near Ostend. (2) The field was obstinately disputed for three hours. The confederates began the battle with incredible intre- pidity ; and the Spanish veterans, who composed the enemy's van, received the shock with great firmness. The conflict was terrible. At length the Spaniards gave ground ; but, repeatedly turning to the charge, repeatedly were repulsed, and, in the issue, utterly broken and routed, with the loss of five thousand men, by the valour of the English auxiliaries under sir Francis Vere, who led the van of the confederates. (3) We must not, however, with some of our too warm countrymen, ascribe the victory solely to English prowess. A share of the honour, at least, ought to be allowed to the military skill of prince Maurice ; to a body of Swiss immediately under his command, that supported the English troops ; and to the valour of the many gallant volunteers, who had come from all parts of Europe to study the art of war un'der so able and experienced a general, and who strove to outdo each other in daring acts of heroism. , This victory was of the utmost importance to the United Provinces, as the defeat of their army, in the present crisis, must have been followed by the loss of their liberties, and their final ruin as independent states ; but its conse- quences otherwise were very inconsiderable. Prince Maurice either mispent his time after the battle, or his troops, as he affirmed, were so exhausted with fatigue, as not to be fit for any new enterprise, till Albert was again ready to take the field with a superior army. Overtures of peace were renewed, and rejected by the States. The confederates laid siege to Rhimburg, and the archduke to Ostend. Rhimburg was reduced, but Maurice did not think his strength sufficient to attempt the relief of Ostend. Meantime, the siege of that important place was vigorously conducted bj (I) Mclern. Grotiua. Bcntivoglio. (3\ Grotius, lib. Jr. Beidan, lib. xvii. Bentivoglio.par. iii. lib. vi. (3) Id. ibm. LET. LXXI.] MODERN EUROPE. 501 the archduke in person, at the head of a numerous and well appointed army. The brave resistance which he met with astonished, but did not discourage him. His heart was set on the reduction of Ostend. All the resources of war were exhausted ; rivers of blood were spilled, but neither side was dispirited ; because both received constant supplies, the one by sea, the other iiom the neighbouring country. New batteries were daily raised, and assaults made without number, and without effect. The garrison, commanded by sir Francis Vere, who had gallantly thrown himself into the town in the face of the enemy, repelled all the attempts of the Spaniards with invincible intre- pidity ; and at length obliged Albert to turn the siege into a kind of blockade, and commit the command to Rivas, one of his generals, while he himself went to Ghent, in order to concert new measures for accomplishing his iavourite enterprise. The States embraced this opportunity to change the garrison of Ostend, worn out and emaciated with continual fatigue and watching ; and as the communication by sea was preserved open, the scheme was executed without difficulty. A fresh garrison, supplied with every necessary, took charge of the town, under the command of colonel Dorp, a Dutchman^colonel Edmunds, a Scotchman, and Hertain, a Frenchman ; while sir Francis Vere, with the former garrison, joined the army under prince Maurice. The army before Ostend, composed of Flemings, Walloons, and Spaniards, was reinforced with eight thousand Italians, under the marquis of Spinola, an officer of great military talents, to whom Albert wisely committed the conduct of the siege, after the ineffectual efforts of Rivas. Spinola showed, that no fortification, however strong, is impregnable to an able engineer fur- nished with the necessary force. Ostend was reduced to a heap of ruins; and the besiegers were making preparations for the grand assault, when the governor offered to capitulate. Spinola granted the garrison honourable terms. (1) During this memorable siege, which lasted upwards of three years, and cost the king of Spain and the archduke the lives of fourscore thousand brave soldiers, prince Maurice made himself master of Rinbach, Grave, and Sluys, acquisitions which more than balanced the loss of Ostend ; and Albert, by employing all his strength against the place, was prevented, during three campaigns, from entering the United Provinces. The Dutch did not let slip the occasion, which that interval of security afforded .them, to push their trade and manufactures. Every nerve was strained in labour, and every talent in ingenuity. Commerce, both foreign and domestic, flourished; Ternate, one of the Moluccas, had been gained ; and the East India company, that grand pillar of the republic, was established.(S) But, as a counterpoise to these advantages, the States had lost the alliance of England, in consequence of the death of Elizabeth. James I., her suc- cessor, showed no inclination to engage in hostilities Avith Spain ; and con- cluded, soon after his accession, a treaty with that court. Through the intercession of Henry IV., however, he agreed to supply the States secretly with money : and what is very remarkable as well as honourable, it appears that James, in his treaty with Spain, had expressly reserved the power of sending assistance to the United Provinces.(3) The republic, at present, stood much in need of support. Philip ill., now sensible that the infanta cculd have no issue, and consequently that the Netherlands must return to the crown of Spain, came to the resolution of carrying on the war against the revolted provinces with the whole force of his dominions. Laro-e levies were made for that purpose ; large sums were remitted in the Low Countries; and Spinola was there declared commander- in-chief of the Spanish and Italian forces. . The States saw their danger, and endeavoured to provide against it. 1 hey empowered prince Maurice to augment his army ; they recruited their gar <1) Grotius, lib. xiii. BentivogHo, par. iii. lib. vii. (2) Le Clerc, lib. vil (3) Wi n wood, vol. ii 502 THE HISTORY OP [PART - risons, repaired their fortifications, and every where prepared for a vigorous resistance. Spinola expected it, but was not discouraged : and his success was rapid for two campaigns, in spite of all the efforts of Maurice. But although he had made himself master of many important places, he had yet made no impression on the body of the republic; and three hundred thousand doubloons a month, the common expense of the army, was a sum too large for the Spanish treasuiy long to disburse, and a drain which not even the mines of Mexico and Peru could supply. His troops mutinied for want of pay. He became sensible of the impracticability of his undertaking, and delivered it as his opinion, that it was more advisable to enjoy the ten pro- vinces in peace and security, than to risk the loss of the whole Netherlands in pursuit of the other seven, and ruin Spain by a hazardous attempt to conquer rebel subjects, who had too long tasted the sweets of liberty ever again to bear with ease the shackles of monarchy and absolute dominion.(l) The court of Madrid was already convinced of the necessity of an accom- modation ; the archduke was heartily tired of the war ; and the sentiments of the general had great influence both on the Spanish and Flemish councils. If the duke of Parma had failed to reduce the seven provinces, and Spinola gave up the attempt, who, it was asked, could hope to subdue them 1 as there was no answering such a question, it was agreed, though not without many scruples, to negotiate with the Belgian republic as an independent state. A suspension of arms accordingly took place ; conferences were opened ; and, after numberless obstructions and delays, interposed by the Orange faction, wllose interest it was to continue the war, a truce of twelve years was con- eluded at the Hague, through the mediation of France and England.(2) This treaty secured to the United Provinces all the acquisitions they had made, freedom of commerce with the dominions of Philip and the archduke, on the same footing with other foreign nations, and the full enjoyment of those divil and religious liberties for which they had so gloriously struggled. (3) Scarce had the court of Spain finished one civil war, occasioned by perse sution, when it plunged into another. Philip III., at the instigation of the nquisition, and by the advice of his minister, the duke of Lerma, no less weak than himself, issued an edict, ordering- all the Morescoes, or descendants of -he Moors, to leave the kingdom within the space of thirty days, under the penalty of death. These remains of the ancient conquerors of Spain were chiefly employed in commerce and agriculture ; and the principal reason assigned for this barbarous decree was, that they were still Mahometans in their hearts, though they conformed outwardly to the rites of Christianity, and therefore might corrupt the true faith, as well as disturb the peace of the state Persecution prompted them to undertake what they had hitherto shown no disposition to attempt. They chose themselves a king, and endeavoured to oppose the execution of the royal mandate ; but being almost utterly unprovided with arms, they were soon obliged to submit, and all banished the kingdom.(4) By this violent and impolitic measure, Spain lost near a million of indus- trious inhabitants ;(5) and as that kingdom was already depopulated by long and bloody foreign wars, by repeated emigrations to the New World, and enervated by luxury, it now sunk into a state of languor, out of which it has never since fully recovered. The remembrance of its former strength, how- ever, still made it terrible ; and associations were formed for restraining the exorbitant power of Spain, after Spain had ceased to be powerful. (I) Bentivoglio. (2) Grotiua. Bentivoglio. Winwood. (3) Grotius, lib. xvii. Vj Fonscca. Traycion de Morescecs. (5) Geddes, Hist. Expuls. Moresc. LET. LXXII.} MODERN EUR OPE. 503 LETTER LXXII. The domestic History of England, from the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, to the Death of Elizabeth, with some Particulars of Scotland and Ireland. THE execution of the queen of Scots, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, freed Elizabeth from all apprehensions in regard to the safety of her crown. What part she took in the affairs of France and of the United Provinces, and what attempts she made by naval armaments to annoy the Catholic king, we have already seen. We must now, my dear Philip, take a view of her domestic policy, and her domestic troubles; and of her transactions with Scotland and Ireland, from this great era of her guilt and her glory to that of her death, which left vacant the throne of England to the house of Stuart. The leading characteristics of Elizabeth's administration were economy and vigour. By a strict attention to the first, she was able to maintain a magnificent court, and to support the persecuted Protestants in France and the Low Countries, without oppressing her people, or involving the crown in debt ; and by a spirited exertion of the second, she humbled the pride of Spain, and gave stability to her throne, in spite of all the machinations of her enemies. After informing her parliament of the necessity of continuing the war against Philip, and how little she dreaded the power of that monarch, even though he should make a greater effort than that of his Invincible Armada, she concluded thus : " But I am informed, that when he attempted this last invasion, some upon the sea-coast forsook their towns, fled up higher into the country, and left all naked and exposed to his entrance but I swear unto you, by God ! if I knew those persons, or may know of any that shall do so hereafter, I will make them feel what it is to be fearful in so urgent a cause. "(1) Elizabeth's frugality in the administration .of government seems less, how - ever, to have proceeded from lenity to her people than from a fear of bringing herself under the power of the commons by the necessity of soliciting larger supplies, and thereby endangering her royal prerogative, of which she was always remarkably jealous, and which she exercised with a high hand. Numberless instances of this occur during her reign. Besides erecting the Court of High Commission, which was vested with almost inquisitorial powers, and supporting the arbitrary decrees of the Star Chamber, she granted to her servants and courtiers patents for monopolies, which put invincible restraints upon all commerce, industry, and emulation in the arts, and enabled those who possessed them to raise commodities to what price they pleased. Salt, in particular, was raised from sixteen pence a bushel to fourteen or fifteen shillings, (2) and several other articles in proportion. Almost all the neces- saries of life were thus monopolized ; which made a certain member cry out ironically, when the list was read over in the house, " Is not bread among the number?"(3) These grievances were frequently complained of in parliament, but more especially by the Puritans; a religious sect, who maintained, as the name imports, that the church of England was not yet sufficiently purged from the errors of popery, and who carried the same bold spirit that dictated their theological opinions into their political speculations. But such complaints were made at the peril of the members, who were frequently committed to custody for undue liberty of speech ; and all motions to remove those enor- mous grievances were suppressed, as attempts to invade the royal preroga- tive. The queen herself, by messages to the house, frequently admonished the commons "not to meddle with what nowise belonged to them (matters of U) D'Ewes, Journal of Parliament. (2) Ibid. (3) Ibid. 504 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. state or religion), and what did not lie within the compass of their under- standing ;" and she warned them " since neither her commands nor the example of their wiser brethren (those devoted to the court) could reclaim their auda cious, arrogant, and presumptuous folly, that some other species of correction must be found for them."(l) These messages were patiently received by the majority of the house Nay, it was asserted, " that the royal prerogative was not to be canvassed, nor disputed, nor examined, and did not even admit of any limitation ; that absolute princes, such as the sovereigns of England, were a species of divinity ; that it was in vain to attempt tying the queen's hands by laws or statutes, since, by her dispensing power, she could loosen herself at plea- sure !"(2) But the Puritans, who alone possessed any just sentiments of freedom, and who. employed all their industry to be elected into parliament, still hazarded the utmost indignation of Elizabeth, in vindicating the natural rights of mankind. They continued to keep alive that precious spark of liberty which they had rekindled ; and which, burning fiercer from confine- ment, broke out into a blaze under the two succeeding reigns, and, agitated but not smothered by opposition, consumed the church and monarchy ; from whose ashes, like the fabled phoenix, singly to arrest the admiration of ages, sprung our present glorious and happy constitution. Among the subjects which Elizabeth prohibited the parliament from taking into consideration, was the succession to the crown. But as all danger from, a rival claim had expired with the queen of Scots, a motion was made by Peter Wentworth, a Puritan, for petitioning her majesty to fix the succession; which, though in itself sufficiently respectful, incensed the queen to such a degree, that she ordered Wentworth to be sent to the tower, and all the mem- bers who seconded him to the fleet. (3) Her malignity against Mary seems to have settled upon her son James ; for she not only continued to avoid acknowledging him as her successor, though a peaceable and unaspiring prince, but refused to assist him in suppressing a conspiracy of some Catholic noblemen, in conjunction with the king of Spain, their common enemy.(4) She endeavoured to keep him in perpetual dependence, by bribing his ministers, or fomenting discontents among.his subjects ; and she appears to have been at the bottom of a conspiracy, formed by the earl of Gowrie, for seizing the king's person ;(5) though not, as commonly supposed, with a design to take away his life. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's attention was much occupied with the affairs of Ireland, where the English sovereignty had hitherto been little more than nominal. The Irish princes and nobles, divided among themselves, readily paid the exterior marks of obedience to a power which they were not able to resist ; but as no durable force was ever kept on foot to retain them in submission, they still relapsed into their former state of barbarous indepen- dency Other reasons conspired to prevent a cordial union. The small army which was maintained in Ireland never being regularly paid, the officers were obliged to give their soldiers the privilege of free quarters upon the natives. Rapine and insolence inflamed the hatred which prevailed between the conquerors and the conquered; and that, together with the old opposition of manners, laws, and interests, was now heightened by religious animosity, the Irish being still Catholics, and in a great measure savages.(G) The romantic and impolitic project of the English princes for subduing France occasioned this inattention to the affairs of Ireland ; a conquest preg- nant with many solid advantages, and infinitely more suited to their condition. Elizabeth early saw the importance of that island, and took several measures for reducing it to a state of greater order and submission. Besides furnishing her deputies, or governors of Ireland, with a stronger force, she founded a university in Dublin, with a view of introducing arts and learning into that capital and kingdom, and of civilizing the barbarous manners of the people. (7) (1) D'Ewes, ubi sup. (2) Ibid. (3) Ibid. (4) Spotswood. '5> Robertson, Hist. Scot. vol. ii. (6) Spenser's Recount of Ireland. (7) Sir John Davis. Camdeii LET. LXXII.] MODERN EUROPE. 505 But unhappily, sir John Perrot, in 1585, being then lord-deputy, put arms into the hands of the inhabitants of Ulster, in order to enable them, without the assistance of the English government, to repress the incursions of the Scottish islanders; and Philip TI having, about the same time, engaged many oi the Irish gentry to serve in his armies in the Low Countries, Ireland, thus provided both with officers and soldiers, with discipline and arms, was thence- forth able to maintain a mpre regular war, and became more formidable to England. Hugh O'Neale, the head of a potent clan, had been raised by the queen to the dignity of earl of Tyrone ; but preferring the pride of barbarous license and dominion to the pleasures of opulence and tranquillity, he secretly fomented the discontents of his countrymen, and formed the project of rendering himself independent. Trusting, however, to the influence of his deceitful oaths and protestations, as he was not yet sufficiently prepared, he surrendered himself into the hands of sir William Russel, who had been appointed the queen's deputy in Ireland ; and being dismissed, in consequence of these, protestations of his pacific disposition, and retiring into his own country, he embraced the daring resolution of rising in open rebellion, and of relying no longer on the lenity and imprudence of his enemies. His success exceeded his most sanguine hopes. After amusing sir John Norris, sent over to reduce him to obedience, with treacherous promises and proposals of accommodation, by means of which the war was spun out for some years, he defeated the English army under sir Henry Bagnal, who had succeeded to the command on the death of the gallant Norris, and who was left dead on the field, together with fifteen hundred men.(l) This victory, which mightily animated the courage of the Irish, and raised the reputation of Tyrone, who now assumed the title of Deliverer of his Country, made Elizabeth sensible of the necessity of pushing the war by vigorous measures. And she appointed, at his own request, her reigning favourite the earl of Essex, ever ambitious of military fame, governor of Ireland, under the title of lord-lieutenant ; vested him with powers almost unlimited ; and, in order to ensure him success against the rebels, she levied an army of sixteen thousand foot and thirteen hundred horse. But Essex, unacquainted with the country, and misled by interested councils, disappointed the expectations of the queen and the nation ; and, fearing the total alienation of her affections, by the artifices of his-enemies, he embraced the rash reso- lution of returning home, expressly contrary to her orders, and arrived at court before any one was apprized of his intentions. (2) The sudden and unexpected appearance of her favourite, whose impatience carried him to her bedchamber, where he threw himself at her feet, and kissed her hand, at first disarmed the resentment of Elizabeth. She was incapable, in that moment of soft surprise, of treating him with severity; hence Essex was induced to say, on retiring, he thanked God, that though he had suffered much trouble and many storms abroad, he found a sweet calm at home. (3) Elizabeth, however, had no sooner leisure for recollection, than her dis pleasure returned. All Essex's faults again took possession of her mind, and she thought it necessary, by some severe discipline, to subdue that haughty and imperious spirit, which, presuming on her partiality and indulgence, h ventured to disregard her instructions, and disobey her commands, bhe ordered him to be confined; and, by a decree of the privy council, he was deprived of all his employments, except that of master of the horse, and sentenced to remain a prisoner during her majesty's pleasure. Humbled by this sentence, but still trusting to the queen s tenderness, Essex wrote to her, that he kissed her majesty's hand, and the rod with which she had corrected him ; but that he could never recover his wonted cheerful- ness, till she deined to admit him to that presence, which had ever been the chief source of his happiness and enjoyment. He had now resolved, n (1) Sir JohnDavis. Ca.nden. (2) Winwood, vol. i. (3) Sydney's Letters, vol. li. 22 506 THE HISTuttF OF [PART I. added, to make amends for his past errors ; to retire into a rural solitude, and say with Nebuchadnezzar, " Let my dwelling be with the beasts of the field, let me eat grass as an ox, and be wet with the dew of heaven, till it shall please the queen to restore me to my understanding."(l) Elizabeth, who had always declared to the world, and even to Essex him- self, that the purpose of her severity was to correct, not to ruin him, was much pleased with these sentiments ; and replied, that she heartily wished his actions might correspond with his expressions. Every one expected that he would soon be restored to his former degree of credit and favour ; nay, as is usual in reconciliations proceeding from tenderness, that he would acquire an additional ascendant over his fond mistress. But Essex's enemies, by whom she was continually surrounded, found means to persuade the queen, that his lofty spirit was not yet sufficiently subdued ; and, as a farther trial of his submission, she refused to renew a patent, which he possessed, for a monopoly of sweet wines. She even accompanied her refusal with an insult. " An ungovernable beast," added she, " must be stinted in its provender."(2) Essex, who had with difficulty restrained his proud heart so long, and whose patience was now exhausted, imagining, from this fresh instance of severity, that the queen was become inexorable, gave full rein to his violent disposition, and threw off all appearance of duty and respect. Already high in the public favour, he practised anew every art of popularity. He indulged himself in great liberties of speech; particularly in regard to the queen's person, which was still an object of her vanity, and on which she allowed herself to be complimented, though approaching to her seventieth year. And what was, if possible, still more mortifying to Elizabeth, he made secret appli- cations to the king of Scotland, her heir and presumptive successor, offering to extort an immediate declaration in his favour. (3) But James, although sufficiently desirous of securing the succession of England, and though he had negotiated with all the courts of Europe, in order to procure support to his hereditary title, did not approve of the violent means which Essex proposed to employ for that end. His natural timidity of temper made him averse against any bold expedient; and he was afraid, if the attempt should fail, that Elizabeth might be induced to take some extraordinary step to his prejudice. Essex, however, continued to make use of that prince's claim, as a colour for his rebellious projects. A select council of malecontents was formed ; and it was agreed to seize the palace, to oblige the queen to reniove all Essex's enemies, to call a parliament, and to settle the succession, together with a new plan of government. (4) Elizabeth had some intimation of these desperate resolutions. Essex was summoned to attend the council; but he received a private note, which warned him to provide for his safety. He concluded that all his conspiracy was discovered ; excused himself to the council, on account of a pretended indisposition ; and, as he judged it impracticable to seize the palace without more preparations, he sallied forth, at the head of about two hundred followers, and attempted to raise the city. But the citizens, though much attached to his person, showed no disposition to join them. In vain did he tell them, that his life was in danger, and that England was sold to the Spaniards. They flocked about him in amazement, but remained silent and inactive : and Essex, despairing of success, retreated with difficulty to his own house. There he seemed determined to defend himself to the last extremity, and rather to die, like a brave man, with his sword in his hand, than ignominiously by the hands of the executioner ; but, after some parley, his resolution failed him, and he surrendered at discretion. (5) Orders were immediately given for the trial of Essex, and the most consi- derable of the other conspirators. Their guilt was too notorious to admit of any doubt, and sentence was pronounced accordingly. The queen, who had behaved with the utmost composure during the insurrection, now appeared all (1) Camden. (2) Ibid (3i Birch's Mem. vol. ii. (4) Camden. (5) Ibid LET. LXXIL] MODERN E URO P E. 507 agitation and irresolution. The unhappy condition of Essex awakened her fondness afresh : resentment and affection shared her breast at turns ; the care of her own safety, and concern for her favourite. She signed the warrant for his execution, she countermanded it ; she again resolved on his death, she felt a new return of tenderness. She waited impatiently for the inter- cession of a friend, to whom she might yield that forgiveness, which of her- self she was ashamed to grant. No such friend appeared ; and Elizabeth, imagining this ungrateful neglect to proceed from Essex's haughtiness from a pride of spirit, which disdained to solicit her clemency, at last permitted the sentence to be put in execution.(l) He was privately beheaded in the tower, to prevent the danger of a popular insurrection. Such was the untimely fate of Robert d'Evreux, earl of Essex. Brave, generous, affable, incapable of disguising his own sentiments or of misrepre- senting those of others, he possessed the rare felicity of being at once the favourite of his sovereign, and the darling of the people. But this so for- tunate circumstance proved the cause of his destruction. Confident of the queen's partiality towards him, as well as of his own merit, he treated her with a haughtiness which neither her love nor her dignity could bear ; and, when his rashness, imprudence, and violence had exposed him to her resent- ment, he hoped, by means of his popularity, to make her submit to his impe- rious will. But the attachment of the people to his person was not strong enough to shake their allegiance to the throne. He saw his mistake, though too late ; and his death was accompanied with many circumstances of the most humiliating penitence. But his remorse unhappily took a wrong direc- tion. It made him ungenerously publish the name of every one to whom he had communicated his treasonable designs. (2) He debased his character, in attempting to make his peace with Heaven ; and, after all, it is much to be questioned, whatever he might imagine in those moments of affliction, whether, in bewailing his crimes, he did not secretly mourn his disappointed ambition, and in naming his accomplices hope to appease his sovereign. But however that might be, it is sincerely to be lamented that a person possessed of so many noble virtues should have involved not only himself, but many of his friends in ruin. The king of Scotland, who had a great regard for Essex, though he neg- lected his violent counsels, no sooner heard of his criminal and unsuccessful enterprise, than he sent two ambassadors to the court of England, in order to intercede for his life, as well as to congratulate the queen on her escape from the late insurrection and conspiracy. But these envoys arrived too late to execute the first part of their instructions, and therefore prudently con- cealed it. Elizabeth received them with all possible marks of respect ; and, during their residence in England, they found the dispositions of men as favourable as they could wish to the Scottish succession. They even entered into a private correspondence with secretary Cecil, son of the late lord trea- surer Burleigh, whose influence, after the fall of Essex, was uncontrolled. (3) That profound courtier thought it prudent to acquire, by this policy, the con- fidence of a prince, who might soon become his master : and James, having' gained the man whose opposition he had hitherto chiefly feared, waited in perfect security till time should bring about that event which would open his way to the English throne. (4) While these things were transacting in Britain, lord Mountjoy, who suc- ceeded Essex in Ireland, had restored the queen's authority in that kingdom. He defeated the rebels near Kinsale, though supported by six thousand Spaniards, whom he expelled the island ; and many of the chieftains, after skulking for some time in the woods and morasses, submitted to mercy, and received such conditions as the deputy was pleased to prescribe. Even Tyrone petitioned for terms; which being denied him, he was obliged to throw himself on the queen's clemency. (5) But Elizabeth was now incapable of receiving any pleasure from this (1) Birch. Bacon. Camden. (2) Winwood, vol. L (31 Osborne. (4) Spotswood. (5) Camden. 608 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. fortunate conclusion of the war, which had long occupied her councils, exhausted her treasury, and disturbed her domestic peace. Though in her seventieth year, she had hitherto enjoyed a good state of health ; but the infirmities of old age at length began to steal upon her, and with them that depression of spirits by which they are naturally accompanied. She had no offspring to inherit her extensive dominions ; no son, no daughter, to whom she could transmit her sceptre, and the glories of her illustrious reign ; no object of affection to alleviate her sorrows, or on whom she could repose her increasing cares. There lay the source of her most dangerous disease. A deep melancholy, which nothing could dissipate, and which rendered her dead to every human satisfaction, had settled on her mind. Essex, as I have already observed, had been consigned to the executioner solely on a suspicion that the obstinacy and haughtiness of his spirit, still disdaining submission, would not permit him to implore the queen's clemency. His criminal designs would have been forgiven, as the extravagances of a great soul ; but his want of confidence in the affection of an indulgent mis- tress, or his sullen contempt of her mercy, were unpardonable. His enemies knew it : they took advantage of it, to hasten his destruction ; and his friends were afraid to interpose, lest they should be represented as the abettors of his treason. But no sooner was the fatal blow struck, than, fear and envy being laid asleep, his merits were universally confessed. Even his sentiments of duty and loyalty were extolled. Elizabeth became sensible she had been deceived, and lamented her rashness, in sacrificing a man on whose life her happiness depended. His memory became daily more dear to her, and she seldom mentioned his name without tears. (1) Other circumstances con- spired to heighten her regret. Her courtiers having no longer the superior favour of Essex to dread, grew less respectful and assiduous in their attend- ance, and all men desirous of preferment seemed to look forward to her successor. The people caught the temper of the court, the queen went abroad without the usual acclamations. And as a farther cause of uneasi- ness, she had been prevailed on, contrary to her most solemn declarations and resolutions, to pardon Tyrone, whose rebellion had created her so much trouble, and whom she regarded as the remote cause of all her favourite's misfortunes. An unexpected discovery completed her sorrow, and rendered her melancholy mortal. While Essex was in high favour with Elizabeth, she had given him a ring as a pledge of her affection ; and accompanied it with a promise, that into whatever disgrace he might fall, or whatever prejudices she might be induced, by his enemies, to entertain against him, on producing that ring he might depend on her for forgiveness. This precious gift he had reserved for the final extremity. All his misfortunes had not been able to draw it from him ; but after his condemnation he resolved to try its efficacy, and committed it to the countess of Nottingham, in order to be delivered to the queen. The countess communicated the matter to her husband, one of Essex's most im- placable enemies, who persuaded her to act an atrocious part; neither to deliver the ring to the queen nor return it to the earl. Elizabeth, who had anxiously expected that last appeal to her tenderness, imputed an omission, occasioned by the countess's treachery, to the disdainful pride of her favourite ; and she was chiefly induced, by the resentment arising from that idea, to sign the warrant for his execution. (2) Conscience discovered what it could not prevent. The countess of Not- tingham falling ill, and finding her end fast approaching, was seized with remorse on account of her perfidy. She desired to see the queen, in order to reveal to her a secret, without disclosing which she could riot die in peace. When the queen entered her apartment, she presented the fatal ring; relateu the purpose for which she received it, and begged forgiveness. All Elizabeth's affection returned, and all her rage was roused. " God may forgive you," cried she, " but I never can !" shaking the dying countess in her bed, and rushing out of the room. (3) (}) Birch's Mem. vol. H. (2) Birch's Memoirs and Negotiations. (3) Ibid. LET. LXXIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 509 Few and miserable, after this discovery, were the days of Elizabeth. Her spirit left her, and existence itself seemed a burden. She rejected all conso- lation : she would scarcely taste food, and refused every kind of medicine, declaring that she wished to die, arid would live no longer. She could not even be prevailed on to go to bed ; but threw herself on the carpet, where she remained, pensive and silent, during ten days and nights, leaning on cushions, and holding her finger almost continually in her mouth, with her eyes open, and fixed upon the ground. Her sighs, her groans, were all ex- pressive of some inward grief, which she cared not to utter, and which preyed upon her life. At last, her death being visibly approaching, the privy council sent to know her will, in regard to her successor. She answered with a feeble voice, that as she had held a regal sceptre, she desired no other than a royal successor ; and on Cecil's desiring her to explain herself, she said, " who should that be but my nearest kinsman, the king of Scots ?" She expired soon after, without a struggle, her body being totally wasted by anguish and abstinence. (1) History does not afford a more striking lesson on the unsubstantial nature of human greatness, than in the close of this celebrated reign. Few sove- reigns ever swayed a sceptre with more dignity than Elizabeth : few have enjoyed more uniform prosperity, and none could be more beloved by their people ; yet this great princess, after all her glory and popularity, lived to fall into neglect, and sunk to the grave beneath the pressure of a private grief, accompanied by circumstances of distress, which the wretch on the torture might pity, and which the slave who expires at the oar does not feel. But the reign of Elizabeth yields other lessons. It shows to what a degree of wealth and consequence a nation may be raised in a few years, by a wise and vigorous administration : and what powerful efforts may be made by a brave and united people, in repelling or annoying an enemy, how superior soever in force. The character of Elizabeth herself has been too often drawn to admit of any new feature, and is best delineated in her conduct. To all the personal jealousy, the coquetry, and little vanities of a woman, she united the sound understanding and firm spirit of a man. A greater share of feminine soft- ness might have made her more agreeable as a wife or a mistress, though not a better queen ; but a less insidious policy would have reflected more lustre on her administration, and a less rigid frugality, on some occasions, would have given more success to her arms. But as she was, and as she acted, she must be allowed to have been one of the greatest sovereigns that ever filled a throne, and may perhaps be considered, as the most illustrious female that ever did honour to humanity. LETTER LXXIII. France, from the Peace of Feroins, in 1598, to the Death of Henry W., in 1610, with some Account of the Affairs of Germany, under Rodolph II No kingdom, exempt from the horrors of war, could be more wretched than France, at the peace of Vervins. The crown was loaded with debts and pensions ; the country barren and desolated; the people poor and miserable ; and the nobility, from a long habit of rebellion, rapine, and disorder, had lost Pref. p.x. 510 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. all sense of justice, allegiance, or legal submission. They had been accus- tomed to set at nought the authority of the prince, to invade the royal prero- gative, and to sport with the lives and property of the people. Happily, France was favoured with a king, equally able and willing to remedy all these evils. Henry IV., to a sincere regard for the welfare of his subjects, added a sound head and a bold heart. His superiority in arms, to which he had been habituated from his most early years, gave him great sway with all men of the military profession; and his magnanimity, gallantry, and gayety, recommended him to the nobility in general ; while his known vigour and promptitude, together with the love of his people, curbed the more factious spirits, or enabled him to crush them before their designs were ripe for exe- cution. But to form a regular plan of administration, and to pursue it with success, amid so many dangers and difficulties, required more than the wisdom of one head, and the firmness of one heart. Henry stood in need of an able and upright minister, on whom he might devolve the more ordinary cares of government, and with whom he might consult on the most important matters of State. Such an assistant he found in his servant, the marquis de Rosni, whom he created duke of Sully, in order to give more weight to his measures. Sully seemed formed to be the minister of Henry IV. Equally brave in the field, and penetrating in the cabinet, he possessed more coolness and perseverance than that great prince, whose volatility and quickness of thought did not permit him to attend long to any one object.(l) Attached to his master's person by friendship, and to his interest and the public good by principle, he employed himself with the most indefatigable industry to restore the dignity of the crown, without giving umbrage to the nobility, or tres- passing on the rights of the people. His first care was the finances ; and it is inconceivable in how little time he drew the most exact order out of that chaos, in which they had been involved by his predecessors. He made the king perfectly master of his own affairs ; digesting the whole system of the finances into tables, by the help of which, Henry could see, almost at a single glance, all the different branches of his revenue and expenditure. He levied taxes in the shortest and most frugal manner possible ; for he held, that every man so employed, was a citizen lost to the public, and yet main- tained by the public. He diminished all the expenses of government ; but, at the same time, paid every one punctually, and took care that the king should always have such reserve, as not to be obliged, on any emergency, either to lay new impositions on his people, or to make use of credit.(2) By these prudent measures, he paid, in the space of five years, all the debts of the crown ; augmented the revenue four millions of livres, and had foui millions in the treasury, though he had considerably reduced the taxes. (3) Sully's attention, however, was not confined merely to the finances. He had the most sound notions of policy and legislation ; and he endeavoured to convert them into practice. " If I had a principle to establish," says he, " it would be this ; that good morals and good laws are reciprocally formed by each other." No observation can be more just, or of more importance to society ; for if the government neglect the manners, a relaxation of manners will lead to a neglect of laws ; and the evil will go on, always increasing, until the community arrive at the highest degree of corruption, when it must reform or go to ruin. " Hence," adds Sully, " in the affairs of men, the excess of evil is always the source of good."(4) In consequence of this mode of thinking, he co-operated warmly with the king's wishes, in restoring order and justice throughout all parts of his dominions, and in getting such laws enacted as were farther necessary for that purpose. But Sully's maxims, though in general excellent, were better suited in some respects to a poor and small republic, than to a great and wealthy (1) Mezeray. (2) Thuanus. 't) Mem. de Sully, torn. iv. (4) Id. ibid. LET. LXXIIL] MODERN EUROPE. 511 monarchy. Sensible that a fertile country, well cultivated, is the principal source of the happiness of a people, and the most solid foundation of national prosperity, he gave great encouragement to agriculture. But the austerity of his principles made him an enemy to all manufactures connected with luxury, although it is evident that a prosperous people will possess themselves of such manufactures ; and that, if they cannot fabricate them, they must be purchased from foreigners with the precious metals, or with the common produce of the soil, which might otherwise be employed in the maintenance of useful artisans. Henry himself, whose ideas were more liberal, though generally less accu- rate than those of his minister, had juster notions of this matter. He accord- ingly introduced the culture and the manufacture of silk, contrary to the opinion of Sully : and the success was answerable to his expectations. Before his death, he had the satisfaction to see that manufacture not only supply the home consumption, but bring more money into the kingdom than any of the former staple commodities. (1) Henry also established, at great expense, manufactures of linen and tapestry. The workmen for the first he drew from the United Provinces ; for the last, from the Spanish Netherlands. He gave high wages and good settlements to all.(2) Hence his success. He was sensible that industrious people would not leave their native country without the temptation of large profit ; and that after they had left it, and become rich, they would be inclined to return, in order to enjoy the company of their friends and fellow-citizens, unless fixed by such advantages as should overbalance that desire. In order to facilitate commerce, and promote the conveniency of his subjects, he built the Pont-Neuf, and cut the canal of Briare, which joins the Seine and Loire ; and he had projected the junction of the two seas, when a period was put to his life, and, with that, to all his other great designs. In the prosecution of these wise and salutary measures, which raised France from the desolation and misery in which she was involved to a more flourishing condition than she had ever enjoyed, Henry met with a variety of obstructions, proceeding from a variety of causes. A heart too susceptible of tender impressions was continually engaging him in new amours, destruc- tive at once of his domestic peace and of the public tranquillity ; and, what is truly extraordinary in a man of gallantry, the last attachment appeared always to be the strongest. His sensibility, instead of being blunted, seemed only to become keener by the change of objects. Scarce had death relieved him from the importunities of Gabriel d'Estrees, whom he had created dutchess of Beaufort, and who possessed such an absolute ascendant over him that he seemed resolved to marry her contrary to the advice of his wisest counsellors no sooner was he extricated from this embarrassment, than he gave a promise of marriage to Henrietta d'Entragues, though not yet divorced from Margaret of Valois, his first queen, whose licentious amours had dis- gusted him, though perhaps as excusable as his own. That artful wanton had drawn this promise from him, before she would crown his wishes. He showed the obligation to Sully, when ready to be delivered ; and that faithful servant, transported with zeal for his master's honour, tore it in pieces. " I believe you are turned a fool !" said Henry. " I know it," replied Sully ; ' and wish I were the only fool in France."(3) Sully now thought himself out of favour for ever ; and remained in that opinion, when the king surprised him, by adding to his former employments that of master of the ordnance. The sentence of divorce, which Henry had long been soliciting at Rome, was procured in 1599 ; and he married, in order to please his subjects, Mary of Medicis, niece to the great duke of Tuscany. But this step did not put an end to his gallantries, which continued to embroil him perpetually either with the queen or his mistress, created marchioness of Verneuil. And Sully, whose good offices were always required on such (1) Sir G. Carew's Relation of the Stale of France under Henry If '* P. Matthiea (31 Mem. de Sully, torn. ii. 612 THE HISTORY OF [PART! occasions, often found the utmost difficulty m accommodating these amorous quarrels, which greatly agitated the mind of Henry.(l) But Henry's most alarming troubles proceeded from the intrigues of the court of Spain. By these the duke of Savoy was encouraged to maintain war against him ; and, after that prince was humbled, the duke of Biron was drawn into a conspiracy, which cost him his head. Other conspiracies were formed through the same instigation : the queen herself was induced to hold a secret correspondence with Spain, and a Spanish faction began to appear in the king's councils. (2) These continued attempts to disturb the peace of his kingdom, and sap the foundation of his throne, made Henry resolve to carry into execution a design which he had long meditated, of humbling the house of Austria, and circumscribing its powers in Italy and Germany. While he was maturing that great project, a dispute concerning the succession to the dutchies of Cleves and Juliers afforded him a pretext for taking arms : and this circum- stance naturally leads us to cast an eye on the state of the empire. We have already brought down the affairs of Germany to the death of Maximilian II. His son Rodolph II., who inherited, as has been observed,(3) the pacific disposition of his father, succeeded him on the imperial throne in 1576 ; and, although more occupied about the heavens than the earth (being devoted both to astronomy and astrology, which he studied under the famous Tycho Brahe), the empire during his long reign enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity. The equity of his administration compensated for its weakness. The chief disturbances which he met with proceeded from his brother Mat- thias, whom we have seen governor of the United Provinces. The Turks, as usual, had invaded Hungary ; Matthias had been successful in opposing their progress ; and a peace had been concluded, in 1606, with sultan Achmet, successor of Mahomet III. The Hungarians thus relieved, become jealous of their religious rights, conferred their crown upon Matthias, their deliverer, who granted them full liberty of conscience, with every other privilege which they could desire. (4) Matthias afterward became master of Austria and Moravia, on the same conditions : and the emperor Rodolph, in order to avoid the horrors of civil war, confirmed to him those usurpations, together with the succession to the kingdom of Bohemia, where the Lutheran opinions had taken deep root. (5) In proportion as the reformed religion gained ground in Hungary and Bohemia, the Protestant princes of the empire became desirous of securing and extending their privileges ; and their demands being refused, they entered into a new confederacy called the Evangelical Union. This association was opposed by another, formed to protect the ancient faith, under the name of the Catholic League. The succession to the dutchies of Cleves and Juliers roused to arms the heads of the two parties, who may be said to have slum- bered since the peace of Passau. John William, duke of Cleves, Juliers, and Berg, having died without issue, several competitors arose for the succession, and the most powerful prepared to support their title by the sword. In order to prevent the evils which must have been occasioned by such violent contests, as well as to support his own authority, the emperor cited all the claimants to appear before him, within a certain term, to explain the nature of their several pretensions. Meanwhile, he sequestered the fiefs in dispute, and sent his cousin Leopold, in quality of governor, to take possession of them, and to rule them in his name, till the right of inheritance should be settled. Alarmed at this step, John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, and the duke of Neuberg, two of the competitors, united against the emperor, whom they suspected of interested views. They were supported by the elector Palatine, and the other princes of the Evange- lical Union, as the emperor was by the elector of Saxony, one of the (1) Mem. de Sully, torn. iv. lib. xxv. Ft was a satirical survey of this weak side of Henry's character which induced the sage Bayle to say, That he would have equa'lled the greatest heroes of antiquity, if he had been early deprived of his virility. (2) Dupleix. Mezeray. (3; Letter LXVOI f4) Ileisg, Hist, de I'Emp. Uv tti. chap. vii. (5) Id. ibid. Barre, Hist . d'Mlemagne, torn. ix. LET. LXXIIL] M O D E R N E U R P E. 513 claimants, and the princes of the Catholic League ; and in order to be a match for their enemies, who were in alliance with the pope and the king of Spain, they applied to the king of France.(l) Henry, as has been observed, yanted only a decent apology for breaking openly with the house of Austria. That apology was now furnished him. The Protestant envoys found him well disposed to assist them : and a do mestic event contributed to confirm his resolution. The king was enamoured of the princess of Conde".(2) Her husband, in a fit of jealousy, carried her to Brussels. The archduke Albert afforded them protection, notwithstanding a message from the French court, demanding their return. This new injury, which Henry keenly felt, added to so many others, inflamed his rage against the house of Austria to the highest pitch ; and he began instantly to put in motion all the wheels of that vast machine, which he had been constructing for many years, in order to erect a balance of power in Europe. Historians are as much divided in regard to the nature of Henry's Grand Design (for so it is commonly called) as they are agreed about its object. The plan of a Christian commonwealth, as exhibited in Sully's Memoirs, by dividing Europe into fifteen associated states, seems a theory too romantic- even for the visionary brain of a speculative politician. Yet it is not impos- sible but Henry might, at times, anttrse his imagination with such a splendid idea : the soundest minds have their reveries, but he never could seriously think of carrying it into execution. Perhaps he made use of it only as a gay covering to his real purpose of pulling down the house of Austria ; and of making himself by that means the arbiter of Christendom. But whatever may have been the scheme on which Henry valued himsell so much, and from which he expected such extraordinary consequences, his avowed resolution now was, to give law to the German branch of the Austrian family, by supporting the Evangelical Union. His preparations were vigo- rous, and his negotiations successful. The duke of Savoy, his old enemy, and the most politic prince in Europe, readily entered into his views. The Italian powers in general approved of his design, and the Swiss and the Venetians took part in the alliance. He himself assembled an army of forty thousand men, chiefly old troops ; and a more excellent train of artillery was prepared than had ever been brought into the field. Sully assured him there were forty millions of livres in the treasury; "and," added he, " if you do not increase your army beyond forty thousand, I will supply you with money sufficient for the support of the war, without laying any new tax upon your people."(3) The king of France proposed to command his army in person, and was impatient to put himself at its head ; but the queen, appointed regent during his absence, insisted on being solemnly crowned before his departure. Henry, if we may believe the duke of Sully, was more disquieted at the thoughts of this ceremony than by any thing that had ever happened to him in his life. He was not only displeased with the delay which it occasioned, but he is said to have been conscious of an inward dread ; arising, no doubt, from the many barbarous attempts which had been made upon his person, the rumours of new conspiracies, and the opportunity which a crowd afforded of putting them in execution. He agreed, however, to the coronation, notwithstanding these apprehensions, and even to be present at it. On that occasion he escaped : but next day, his coach being obstructed in a narrow street, Ravaillac, a blood-lhivsty bigot, who had long sought such an opportunity, mounted the (1) Heiss et Barre, ubi sup. (2) Henry's passion for that lady, of the family of Montmorency, commenced before her marriage; and he seems only to have connected her with the prince of Cond6 in order more securely to gratify his desires " When I first perceived," says Sully, " this growing inclination in Henry, I used my utmost endeavour* to prevent the progress of it, as I foresaw much greater inconveniences from it than from any of his former attachments. And although these endeavours proved ineffectual, I renewed them again, when the king proposed to me his design of marrying Mademoiselle Montmorency to the prince of Condi ; for I had no reason to expect Henry would exert, in such circumstances, that generous self-denial which some lovers have shown themselves capable of, when they have taken this method to impose upon themselves the necessity of renouncing the object of a tender affection." Mem. de Sully, liv. xsvi. (4) Mem. de Sully, liv. ixvli. VOL. I. K k 514 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. wheel of his carriage, and stabbed him to the heart with a knife, over the the duke d'Espernon's shoulder, and amid six more of his courtiers. The assassin, like some others of that age, thought he had done an acceptable service to God in committing murder ; especially as the king was going to assist the Protestants, and consequently was still a heretic in his heart. He accordingly did not offer to make his escape, and seemed much surprised at the detestation in which his crime was held.(l) He persisted to the last, that it was entirely his own act, and that he had no accomplice. Thus perished Henry IV., one of the ablest and best princes that ever sat upon the throne of France. A more melancholy reflection cannot enter the human mind than is suggested by his untimely fall ; that a wretch, unworthy of existence, and incapable of one meritorious action, should be able to obstruct the most illustrious enterprises, and to terminate a life necessary to the, wel- fare of millions ! Henry's chief weakness was his inordinate passion for women, which led him into many irregularities. But even that was rather a blemish in his private, than in his public character. Though no man was more a lover, he was always a king. He never suffered his mistresses to direct his councils, or to influence him in the choice of his servants. But his libertine example had unavoidably a pernicious effect upon the manners of the nation: it produced a licentious gallantry that infected all orders of men, and which his heroic qualities only could have counteracted, or prevented from de- generating into the most enervating sensuality.(2) It was productive, however, of consequences abundantly fatal. Four thousand French gen- tlemen are said to have been killed in single combats, chiefly arising from amorous quarrels, during the first eighteen years of Henry's reign. (3) " Having been long habituated to the sight of blood, and prodigal of his own," says Sully, "he could never be prevailed on strictly to enforce the law against duelling. "(4) LETTER LXXIV. A general View of the Continent of Europe, from the Assassination oj Henry IV. to the Treaty of Prague, in 1635. THE greater part of the European continent, during the period that followed the death of Henry IV. was a scene of anarchy, rebellion, and bloodshed. Germany continued for many years involved in those disputes which he was preparing to settle. Religious controversies, which generally mingle them- selves with civil affairs, distracted the United Provinces, and robbed them of the sweets of that liberty which they had so gallantly earned by their valour and perseverance. And France, under the minority of Lewis XIII. and the weak regency of his mother, Mary of Medicis, returned to that state of dis- order and wretchedness, out of which it had been raised by the mild and equitable, but vigorous, government of Henry the Great. The transactions of this turbulent period, to the peace of Westphalia, when the harmony of the empire was established, and tranquillity, in some measure, restored to Europe, I propose to comprehend in two extensive sketches ; and in order to prevent confusion, as well as to preserve the general effect, I shall be sparing in particulars. The consideration of the affairs of England, from the accession of the house of Stuart to the subversion of the monarchy, with the grand struggle between the king and parliament, and the narration of the complicated transactions on the continent during the reign of Lewis XIV., whose ambition gave birth to a series of wars, intrigues, and negotiations, unequalled in the history of mankind, I shall defer till some future occasion, when you may be supposed to have digested the materials already before (1) Mem. de Sully, liv xxvii. Perefixe. Matthieu. L'Etoile. (2) Mem. de Sully, liv. xxv. Galanteries des Rois de France. (31 Mem. pour servir ck VHist. de France. (4) Mem. liv. xxii. LET. LXXIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 515 you ^observing, in the mean time, that soon after the peace of Westphalia, which maybe considered as the foundation of all subsequent treaties, society almost every where assumed its' present form. I must begin with a view of the troubles of Germany. The two great confederacies, distinguished by the names of the Catholic League and Evangelical Union, which had threatened the empire with a furi- dus civil Avar, appeared to be dissolved with the death of Henry IV. But the elector of Brandenburg and the duke of Neuburg still maintained their claim to the succession of Cleves and Juliers ; and being assisted by Maurice prince of Orange, and some French troops, under the mareschaldela Chatre, they expelled Leopold, the sequestrator, and took possession by force of arms. They afterward, however, disagreed between themselves : but were again reconciled from a sense of mutual interest. In this petty quarrel Spain and the United Provinces interested themselves, and the two greatest generals in Europe were once more opposed to each other ; Spinola on the part of the duke of Neuburg, who had renounced Lutheranism in order to procure the protection of the Catholic king ; and Maurice on the side of the elector of Brandenburg, who introduced Calvinism into his dominions, more strongly to attach the Dutch to his cause.(l) Meantime, Rodolph TZ. died, and was succeeded by his brother Matthias. The Protestants, to whom the archduke had been very indulgent, in order to accomplish his ambitious views, no sooner saw him seated on the imperial throne, than they plied him with memorials, requiring an extension of their privileges, while the Catholics petitioned for new restrictions ; and to com- plete his confusion, the Turks entered Transylvania. But the extent of the Ottoman dominions, which had so long given alarm to Christendom, on this, as well as on former occasions, proved its safety. The young and ambitious Achmet, who hoped to signalize the beginning of his reign by the conquest of Hungary, was obliged to recall his forces from that quarter, to protect the eastern frontier of his empire ; and Matthias obtained, without striking a blow, a peace as advantageous as he could have expected after the most successful war. He stipulated for the restitution of Agria, Pest, Buda, and every other place held by the Turks in Hungary.(2) Matthias was now resolved to pull off the mask, which he had so long worn on purpose to deceive the Protestants, and to convince them that he was their master. Meanwhile, finding himself advancing in years, and declining in health, he procured, in order to strengthen his authority, his cousin Ferdi- nand de Gratz, duke of Stiria, whom he intended as his successor in the empire, to be elected king of Bohemia, and acknowledged in Hungary; neither himself nor his brothers having any children : and he engaged the Spanish branch of the house of Austria to renounce all pretensions which it could possibly have to those crowns.(S) This family compact alarmed the Evangelical Union, and occasioned a re- volt of the Hungarians and Bohemians. The malecontents in Hungary were soon appeased; but the Bohemian Protestants, whose privileges had been invaded, obstinately continued in arms, and were joined by those of Silesia, Moravia, and Upper Austria. The confederates were headed by count de la Tour, a man of abilities, and supported by an army of German Protestants, under the famous count Mansfeldt, natural son of the Flemish general of that name, who was for a time governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Thus was kindled a furious civil war, which desolated Germany during thirty years, interested all the powers of Europe, and was not finally extinguished until the peace of Westphalia. Amid these disorders died the emperor Matthias, without being able to foresee the event of the struggle, or who should be his successor. The im- perial dignity, however, went according to his destination. Ferdinand de Gratz was raised to the vacant throne, notwithstanding the opposition of the (1) Mercur. Gallo. Belg. torn. x. liv. iii. (2) Heiss, liv. iii. chap. viii. (3) Annal de I'Emp. lorn. ii. Kk 516 THE HISTORY OF [PART!, elector Palatine, and the states of Bohemia ; and with a less tyrannical dis- position he would have been worthy that high station. The election of Ferdinand II., instead of intimidating the Bohemians, roused them to more vigorous measures. They formally deposed him, and chose Frederic V., elector Palatine, for their king. Frederic, seduced by his flat- terers, unwisely accepted of the crown, notwithstanding the remonstrances of James I. of England, his father-in-law, who used all his influence in persuad- ing him to reject it, and protested that he would give him no assistance in such a rash undertaking. This measure confirmed the quarrel between Ferdinand and the Bohemians. frederic was seconded by all the Protestant princes, except the elector of axony, who still adhered to the emperor, in hopes of obtaining the investi- f,ypp of Cleves and Juliers. Bethlem Gabor, vaivode of Transylvania, also jdlecjared in favour of the Palatine ; entered Hungary, made himself mastei iqf inrany places, and was proclaimed king by the Protestants of that country. (1) " ^gderic was farther supported by two thousand four hundred English s, which James permittedjto embark in a cause of which he disap- mOfVjed j,,and by a body of eight thousand men, under prince Henry of Nassau, from the United Provinces. But Ferdinand, assisted by the Catholic princes 9;fc^e, /empire, by the king of Spain, and the archduke Albert, was more than ,a ittj^tcJji fo,r his enemies. Spinola led twenty-five thousand veterans from the j(Q\y. .Cpi^ijtnes, and plundered the Palatinate, in defiance of the English and ^ -yy^e Frederic himself, unable to protect his new kingdom of Bohe- ai .totally routed, near Prague, by the imperial general Buquoy, and his iwip'J^nsman, the duke of Bavaria.(2) ala,tjne t apd his adherents were now put to the ban of the empire; els being reduced, an army was despatched under Buquoy t Bethlem Gabor, who consented to resign his title to that crown, ouqtaii^iag /conditions otherwise advantageous. In the mean time, tab ; cpnqu^4t0ti'iW -palatinate was finished by the imperialists under count Tilly, Fredesjc, ty T f^.,qflgraded from his electoral dignity, which was conferred mi the |(I^ke;pf Bamarfa^ and his dominions were bestowed by Ferdinand, " in the fulness of iiis power," upon those who had helped to subdue them. (3) ; |lla Franca, governor of Milan, and the marquis , ^ambassador at Venice, conspired to subject the y.eiietiaas, and with them. fchf,,rest of the Italian states, under the dominion ',p.t 'ttiejr mas^n ,For llais? [purpose they had formed a horrid plot, which would infuih14yiijay$|pttt.thjen>",ip possession of Venice. That city was to nave Ibeen set on fire in different parts, by a band of ruffians already lodged v. itlim its waHs^hilp.ja, .rbqflyjpj;, jtroops, sent from Milan, should attack it ..qi^ph? ^dfi}|a$)d-pme,anue{i srepsels from Naples on the other. But this ;U.imiou6Vde_sjgn:was discovered by, the vigilance of the senate in 1618, when it was aln^o^ f rjp|f(j^fl$ecu$ipfl.j ../The greater part of the conspirators were ^rj,yiaj^^y,drp]ivi]ed^,an^J^domar, wlio had violated the law of nations, being ^creily.Gijil^ucte^ptjtsef the pity, rvvias, glad to make his escape. (4) Anther project wp,? Jf^rerfted,, jji ii^0, ^r extending the Spanish dominions in '.Italy,! by tijc 'duke ofijfpw^; \iflvcriiiad, succeeded the marquis de Villa Fianra in ilie gy,ernmeaU of Milaiji. H(? r .encouraged the popish inhabitants of the VuUeline to.j6v4t fr^m the Grisons: and the king of Spain, as pro- "tector oif the Catholic faith, supported them in their rebellion. The situa- tion of the, ya^]^H&, rendered] it ^fii^m't importance, as it facilitated the (:(n-respoii(ieiice betwwu tlie^two bf&ftffy&^rtiie house of Austria, shut the s out, of Ita^v^pV4H e -l e W t * a #S-M'^ w ft* ^ n d was a bridle on all the ^JWblfrteft^ti nc?>i In the rmd^r of these ambitious schemes (to which of himself he was little , i x . (2) Hqis, v v.xijin*av ' :ii H,w>, torn. i.x. (4) Abbe St. iReal. Batt:Nani, Hist, delta Republics. / .".alt* S WV, ubi sup. LET. LXXIV.] MODERN EUROPE. 517 inclined) died Phil/p III. Philip IV., his son and successor, was a prince of a more enterprising disposition; and the abilities of Olivares, the new minister, were infinitely superior to those of the duke of Lerma, who had directed the measures of government during the greater part of the former reign. The ambition of Olivares was yet more lofty than his capacity. He made his master assume the surname of Great, as soon as he ascended the throne, and thought himself bound to justify the appellation. He hoped to raise the house of Austria to that absolute dominion in Europe, for which it had been so long struggling. In prosecution of this bold plan, he resolved to maintain the closest alliance with the emperor ; to make him despotic in Germany ; to keep possession of the Valteline ; to humble the Italian powers, and reduce the United Provinces to subjection, the truce being now expired.(l) Nor was this project so chimerical as it may at first sight appear. The emperor had already crushed the force of the Protestant league ; France was distracted by civil wars, and England was amused by a marriage treaty, between the prince of Wales and the infanta, which, more than every other consideration, actually prevented James from taking any material step in favour of the Palatine, till he was stripped of his dominions. But France, not- withstanding her intestine commotions, was not lost to all sense of danger from abroad; and the match with the infanta being broken off, by a quarrel between Buckingham, the English minister, and Olivares, the Spanish minis- ter, an alliance was entered into between France and England, in conjunction with the United Provinces, for restraining the ambition of the house of Aus- tria; and recovering the Palatinate. (2) The affairs of Holland now demand our attention. After a truce in 1609, the United Provinces, as I have already noticed, became a prey to religious dissensions. Gomar and Arminius, two professors at Leyden, differed on some abstract points in theology, and their opinions divided the republic. Gomar maintained, in all their austerity, the doctrines of Calvin in regard to grace and predestination; Arminius endeavoured to soften them. The Gomarists, who composed the body of the people, ever carried towards enthusiasm, were headed by prince Maurice ; the Arminians by the pensionary Barneveldt, a firm patriot, who had been chiefly instru- mental in negotiating the late truce, in opposition to the house of Orange. The Arminian principles were defended by Grotius, Vossius, and the learned in general. But prince Maurice and the Gomarists at last prevailed. The Arminian preachers were banished, and Barneveldt was brought to the block in 1619, for "vexing the church of God!" as his sentence imported, at the age of seventy, and after he had served the republic forty years in the cabi- net, with as much success as Maurice had in the field. He was a man of eminent abilities and incorruptible integrity, and had espoused the cause of the Arminians chiefly from a persuasion that Maurice meant to make use of his popularity with the Gomarists, and of their hatred of the other sect, in order to enslave that people whom he had so gloriously protected from the tyranny of Spain.(3) This opinion appears to have been well founded : for Maurice, during those religions commotions, frequently violated the rights of the republic ; and so vigorous an opposition only could have prevented him from overturning its liberties. The ardour of ambition at once withered his well-earned laurels and disappointed itself. The death of Barneveldt opened the eyes of the people. They saw their danger, and the iniquity of the sentence, notwith- standing their religious prejudices. Maurice Avas detested as a tyrant, at the very time that he hoped to be received as a sovereign. The deliverer of his country, when he went abroad, was saluted with groans and murmurs ; and, Grotius. Le Clerc. (4) Id. ibid 518 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. city of Batavia was founded, and the plan of an empire laid in the East Indies, infinitely superior in wealth, power, and grandeur to the United Provinces. They had already cast their eyes on Brasil, which they con- quered soon after the expiration of the truce, and they carried on a lucrative trade with the European settlements in the West Indies. The prospect of hostilities with their ancient masters composed their domestic animosities. They laid aside their jealousy of Maurice, as he seemed to do his ambitious- views. Every one was more zealous than another to oppose and to annoy the common enemy; and Spinola was obliged, by his old antagonist, to relinquish the siege of Bergen-op-zoom, in 1622, after having lost ten thou- sand of his best troops in the enterprise.(l) In France, during this period, both civil and religious disputes were car- ried much higher than in Holland. Lewis XIII. being only nine years of age, in 1610, when his father Henry IV. was murdered, Mary of Medicis, the queen-mother, Avas chosen regent. New councils were immediately adopted, and the sage maxims of Sully despised. He, therefore, resigned his employ- ments and retired from court. The regent was entirely guided by her Italian favourites, Concini and his wife Galligai. By them, in concert with the pope and the duke of Florence, was negotiated, in 1612, a union between France and Spain, by means of a double marriage ; of Lewis XIII. with Anne of Austria, the eldest infanta ; and of Elizabeth, the king's sister, with the prince of Asturias, afterward Philip IV. The dissolution of the alliances formed under the late reign, and the ruin of the Protestants, were also among the projects of Mary's Italian ministers. (2) The nobility, dissatisfied with the measures of the court, and with the favour shown to foreigners, entered into cabals; they revolted in 1613; and the treasures collected by Henry IV. in order to humble the house of Austria, were employed by a weak administration to appease those factious leaders. The prince of Conde, who had headed the former faction, revolted anew in 1615. He and his adherents were again gratified, at the expense of the public; and fresh intrigues being suspected, he was sent to the Bastile.(S) The imprisonment of the prince of Conde alarmed many of the nobles, who retired from court, and prepared for their defence ; or, in other words, for hostilities. Meantime, Concini, who still maintained his influence, re- ceived a blow from a quarter whence he little expected it. Albert Luines, who had originally recommended himself to the young king's favour by rearing and training birds for his amusement, found means to make him jealous of his authority. He dwelt on the ambition of the queen-mother, and the mal-administration of her foreign favourites, to whom the most important affairs of state were committed, and whose insolence, he affirmed, had occasioned all the dissatisfactions among the great. (4) Lewis, struck with the picture set before him, and desirous of seizing the reins of government, immediately ordered Concini to be arrested ; and Vitri, captain of the guards, to whom that service was intrusted, executed it, in 1617, entirely to the wishes of Luines. Concini was shot, under pretence of resistance. The sentence of treason was passed on his memory; and Galligai, his widow, being accused of sorcery and magic, was conofemned by the parliament to suffer death, for treason divine and human. When asked what spell she had made use of to fascinate the queen-mother, she mag- nanimously replied, " that ascendant which a superior mind has over a feeble spirit !" The regent's guards were instantly removed, and the king's placed in their stead. She was confined for a time to her apartment, and afterward exiled to Blois.(5) That indignation which Concini and his wife had excited was suddenly transferred to Luines, enriched by their immense spoils, and who engrossed in a still higher degree the royal favour. His avarice and ambition knew no bounds. From a page and gentleman of the bed-chamber, he became, in (1) Neuville, Hist, de Hollande. (2) Dupleix. Mezcray. (3) Id. ibid. (4) Mem. des Affaires de France, depute 1610, jusuu'en 1620. Mczeray, Hist, du Mire et de Fils (5> Id ibid LET. LXXIV.] M D E RN E UROPE. 51$ rapid succession, a mareschal, duke, and peer of France ; constable, and keeper of the seals. Meanwhile, a conspiracy was formed for the release of the queen-mother, and carried into execution by the duke d'Espernon, whose power had first exalted her to the regency. The court, for a time, talked loudly of violent measures : but it was judged proper, in 1619, to con- clude a treaty advantageous to the malecontents, and avoid proceeding to extremities. This lenity encouraged the queen-mother to enter into fresh cabals ; and a new treaty was agreed to by the court, no less indulgent than the former. (1) These cabals in opposition to the court were chiefly conducted by Richelieu, bishop of Luon. He had risen to notice through the influence of Galligai : he had been disgraced with Mary of Medicis, the queen-mother, and with her he returned into favour, as well as consequence. At her solicitation he obtained a cardinal's hat, a seat in the council, and soon after a share in the administration. (2) But hypocrisy was necessary to conceal, for a season, from envy and jealousy, those transcendent abilities which were one day to astonish Europe. In the mean time, a new civil war was kindled, more violent than any of the former. Lewis XIII. having united, by a solemn edict, the principality of Beam, the hereditary estate of the family, to the crown of France, in 1620, attempted to re-establish the Catholic religion in that province, where there were no Catholics,(3) and to restore to the clergy the church lands, contrary to the stipulations of Henry IV. The Hugonots, alarmed at the impending danger, assembled at Rochelle, in contempt of the king's prohi- bition: and concluding that their final destruction was resolved upon, they determined to throw off the royal authority, and establish a republic, after the example of the Protestants in the Low Countries, for the protection of their civil and religious liberties. Rochelle was to be the capital of the new commonwealth, which would have formed a separate state within the king- dom of France. (4) The constable Luines, equally ignorant and presumptuous, imagining he could subdue this formidable party, had immediately recourse to arms. Nor was intrigue neglected. After seducing, by bribes and promises, several of the Protestant leaders, among whom was the duke of Bouillon, and reducing some inconsiderable places, the king and Luines laid siege to Montauban in 1621. The royal army consisted of twenty-five thousand men, animated by the presence of their sovereign ; but the place was so gallantly defended by the marquis de la Force, that Lewis and his favourite, in spite of their most vigorous efforts, were obliged to abandon the enterprise. Luines died soon after this shameful expedition ; and the brave and ambitious Lesdiguiers, who had already deserted the Hugonots, on solemnly renouncing Calvinism, was honoured with the constable's sword.(5) The loss which the Protestant cause sustained by the apostacy of Lesdi- guiers, and the defection of the duke of Bouillon, was made up by the zeal and abilities of the duke of Rohan and his brother Soubise ; men not inferior (especially the duke) either in civil or military talents, to any of the age m which they lived. Soubise, however, was defeated by the king in person, who continued to carry on the war with vigour. But the duke still kept the field; and Lewis having laid siege to Montpelier, which defended itself as gallantly as Montauban, peace was concluded with the Hugonots, in 1622, to prevent a second disgrace. They obtained a confirmation of the edict of Nantes ; and the duke of Rohan, who negotiated the treaty, was gratified to the utmost of his wish. (6) The French councils now began to assume more vigour. Cardinal Riche- lieu no sooner got a share in the administration, which, in a short time he entirely governed, than, turning his eyes on the state of Europe, he formed three mighty projects ; to subdue the turbulent spirit of the French nobilitVi MV Mezeray, ubi sup. Vie du Due d'Espernon. (2) Auberi, Hist, du Card. Rich. (3) Dupleix, Hist. Louis XIII. (4) Id. ibid. (5) Hist, du Countable de Lesdig (6) Mem. du Due de Rohan. 520 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. to reduce the rebellious Hugonots, and to curb the encroaching power of the house of Austria. But in order to carry these great designs into execution, it was necessary to preserve peace with England. This Riche- lieu perceived ; and accordingly negotiated, in spite of the courts of Rome and Madrid, a treaty of marriage between Charles prince of Wales and Henrietta of France, sister of Lewis XIII. He also negotiated between the two crowns, in conjunction with the United Provinces, that alliance which I have already noticed, and which brought on hostilities with Spain. In consequence of these negotiations, a body of six thousand men was levied in England, and sent over to Holland, commanded by four young noblemen, who were ambitious of distinguishing themselves in so popular a cause, and of acquiring military experience under so renowned a captain as Maurice. Count Mansfeldt was engaged in the English service ; and an army of twelve thousand foot, and two thousand horse, under his command, was embarked at Dover, in order to join the League, formed in Low Saxony, for the restoration of the Palatine, and of which Christian IV. king of Den- mark was declared chief. About the same time a French army, in concert with the Venetians and the duke of Savoy, recovered the Valteline, which had been sequestered to the pope, and restored it to the Orisons. (1) Meanwhile, the house of Austria was neither inactive nor unfortunate in ^ther quarters. Spinola reduced Breda, one of the strongest towns in the Netherlands, in spite of all the efforts of prince Maurice, who died of chagrin before the place surrendered. The English had failed in an attempt upon Cadiz : the embarkation under count Mansfeldt had proved abortive ; and the king of Denmark was defeated by the imperialists near Northen.(2) The miscarriages of the English cooled their ardour for foreign enterprises ; and cardinal Richelieu found, for a time, business enough to occupy his genius at home. He had not only to quiet the Hugonots, who had again rebelled, and to whom he found it necessary to grant advantageous conditions, but he had a powerful faction at court to oppose. Not one prince of the blood was heartily his friend. Gaston duke of Orleans, the king's brother, was his declared enemy ; the queen-mother herself was become jealous of him ; and Lewis XIII. was more attached to him from fear than affection. But the bold and ambitious spirit of Richelieu triumphed over every obstacle ; it disco vered and dissipated all the conspiracies formed against him, and at length made him absolute master of the king and kingdom. During these cabals in the French cabinet, the Hugonots showed once more a disposition to render themselves independent : and in that spirit they were encouraged by the court of England, which voluntarily took up arms in their cause. The reason assigned by some historians for this step is very singular. As Lewis XIII. was wholly governed by cardinal Richelieu, and Philip IV. by Olivares, Charles I. was in like manner governed by the duke of Buck- ingham, the handsomest and most pompous man of his time, but not the deepest politician. He was naturally amorous, bold, and presumptuous ; and when employed to bring over the princess Henrietta, he is said to have carried his addresses even to the queen of France. The retuni which he met with from Anne of Austria, whose complexion was as amorous as his own, encou- raged him to project a new embassy to the court of Versailles ; but cardinal Richelieu, reported to have been his rival in love as well as in politics, made Lewis send him a message that he must not think of such a journey. Buck- ingham, in a romantic passion, swore he would " see the queen in spite of all the power of France :"(3) and hence is supposed to have originated the war in which he involved his master. Rash and impetuous, however, as Buckingham was, he appears to have had better reasons for that measure. Cardinal Richelieu was still meditating the destruction of the Hugonots : they had been deprived of many of their 1) Auberl. Dupleix, ubi sup. (2) Heisa. Le Clerc. Bushwortb (3) Clarendon, Hist. vol. i. Mem. de Mad. Motteville, torn. i. LET. LXXIV.] MODERN E UR PE. 521 cautionary towns ; and forts were erecting, in order to bridle Rochelle, their most considerable bulwark. If the Protestant party should be utterly subdued, France would soon become formidable to England. This consideration was of itself sufficient to induce Buckingham to undertake the defence of the Hugonots. But, independent of such political forecast, and of his amorous quarrel with Richelieu, the English minister had powerful motives for such a measure. That profound statesman had engaged the duke to send some ships to act against the Rochelle fleet, under promise that, after the humiliation of the Hugonots, France should take an active part in the war between England and Spain. This ill-judged compliance roused the resentment of the English commons against Buckingham, and had been made one of the grounds of an impeachment. He then changed his plan; procured a peace for the Hugo- nots, and became security to them for its performance ; but finding the car- dinal would neither concur with him in carrying on the war against Spain, nor observe the treaty with the Hugonots, he had no other course left for recovering his credit with the parliament and people (especially after the miscarriage of the expedition against Cadiz) but to take arms against the court of France, in vindication of the rights of the French Protestants. (1) Buckingham's views, in undertaking this war, are less censurable than his conduct in carrying them into execution. He appeared before Rochelle with a fleet of a hundred sail, and an army of seven thousand men ; but so ill- concerted were his measures, that the inhabitants of that city shut their gates against him, and refused to admit allies of whose coming they were not pre- viously informed. (2) They were but a part of the Protestant body, they observed, and must consult their brethren before they could take such a step. This blunder was followed by another. Instead of attacking Oleron, a fertile island, and defenceless, Buckingham made a descent on the isle of Rh6, which was well garrisoned and fortified. All his military operations showed equal incapacity and inexperience. He left behind him the small fort of Prie, which covered the landing place ; he allowed Thorias, the governor, to amuse him with a deceitful negotiation, till St. Martin, the principal fort, was pro- vided for a siege ; he attacked it before he had made any breach, and rashly threw away the lives of his soldiers ; and he so negligently guarded the sea, that a French army stole over in small divisions, and obliged him to retreat to his ships. He was himself the last man that embarked ; and having lost two-thirds of his land forces, he returned to England, totally discredited both as an admiral and a general, bringing home with him no reputation but that of personal courage. (3) This ill-concerted and equally ill-conducted enterprise proved fatal to Rochelle and to the power of the French Protestants. Cardinal Richelieu, under pretence of guarding the coast against the English, sent a body of troops into the neighbourhood, and ordered quarters to be marked out for twenty-five thousand men. The siege of Rochelle was regularly formed and conducted with vigour by the king, and even by the cardinal in person. Neither the duke of Rohan nor his brother Soubise were in the place ; yet the citizens, animated by civil and religious zeal, and abundantly provided with military stores, determined to defend themselves to the last extremity. Under the command of Guiton, their mayor, a man of experience and forti- tude, they made an obstinate resistance, and baffled all attempts to reduce the city by force. But the bold genius of Richelieu, which led him to plan the greatest undertakings, also suggested means, equally great and extra- ordinary, for their execution. Finding it impossible to take Rochelle while the communication remained open by sea, he attempted to shut the harbour by stakes and by a boom. Both these methods, however, proving ineffectual, he recollected what Alexander had performed in the siege of Tyre, and pro- jected and finished a mole of a mile's length, across a gulf into which the sea rolled with an impetuosity that seemed to bid defiance to all the (1) Clarendon, Dupleix. (2) Rushworth, vol. i. (3) C'arendon. Eusbvorth 522 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. works of man. The place being now blockaded on all sides, and every attempt for its relief failing, the inhabitants were obliged to surrender, after suffering all the miseries of war and famine, during a siege of almost twelve months. They were deprived of their extensive privileges, and their forti- fications were destroyed; but they were allowed to retain possession of their goods, and permitted the free exercise of their religion. (l) Cardinal Richelieu did not stop in the middle of his career. He marched immediately towards the other provinces, where the Protestants possessed many cautionary towns, and were still formidable by their numbers. The duke of Rohan defended himself with vigour in Languedoc ; but seeing nn, and would have been utterly destroyed, had not the duke in person led on the whole French infantry to the assistance of the marquis. Nor could their utmost efforts turn the tide of battle, until the count de Merci was slain at the head of his conquering troops. Even after the death of that great captain, all the intrepidity of the duke d'Enguien, who displayed the mjost heroic valour, could not prevent the destruction of great part of the French infantry. And to increase the misfortunes of the future Conde, the left wing of the Bava- rians fell with such fury upon the French cavalry, that they were totally routed, and mareschal de Gramont made prisoner; while John de Wert, attacking the corps-de-reserve, defeated Chabot, and penetrated as far as the baggage. During these disasters, Turenne assailed the right wing of the enemy ; and having reached the top of the eminence in good order, a terrible conflict ensued, in which the first line of the Bavarians was broken; but general Gleen advancing with the second, the French were ready to give way in their turn, when the duke d'Enguien came seasonably to the support of his left wing. He obliged the Bavarians to retire, and leave behind them their can- non, which were pointed against the part of their right wing drawn up near the village. Turenne now charged the enemy in flank, and drove them be- yond the village, after having taken general Gleen prisoner. Meantime, John de Wert, partly informed of what had passed upon the hill, hastened thither with his victorious left wing ; but he came too late to retrieve the honour of the day, every thing being already in confusion. All that he could do, there- fore, was to lead off the remains of the Bavarian army to Donawert, whither (1) Puffend. lib. xvi. Barre, torn. ix. Mm 2 j>48 THE HISTORY OF [PART!. they escaped under the cover of night, though pursued as far as the banks of the Danube.(l) This victory, if such it may be called, was dearly purchased by the French, four thousand of their best troops being left dead upon the spot. Nordlingen and some neighbouring places, indeed, opened their gates to the conquerors ; but they were soon recovered by the Bavarians, who received a strong rein- forcement under the archduke Leopold. Turenne, however, after the depart- ure of the duke d'Enguien, who went to Paris to receive the applause due to his valour, had the honour of closing- the campaign with re-establishing the elector of Triers in his dominions. That prince, after a captivity of ten years, had obtained his liberty, in consequence of a second treaty with Ferdi- nand, by which he submitted to the articles of the peace of Prague, and other rigorous conditions. But as he signed this treaty with no other view than to deliver himself from a tedious and grievous imprisonment, he threw himself upon the protection of France, as soon as he was enlarged, and cardinal Ma- zarine ordered Turenne to effect his restoration. The mareschal accordingly invested Triers : the garrison was obliged to capitulate, and the elector entered his capital amid the acclamations of his subjects. (2) During these transactions, the elector of Saxony, finding himself unable to stop the progress of the Swedes under Koningsmark, who had reduced a number of towns in Thuringia and Misnia, had recourse to a negotiation, and concluded a truce with that general for six months, as a prelude to a peace with Sweden. This treaty was the more disagreeable to the house of Austria, as it enabled Koningsmark, after laying Bohemia, under contribution, to form a junction with Torstenson, who had carried his depredations to the very gates of Vienna, in spite of all the efforts of the archduke. The emperor, however, in some degree counterbalanced the defection of the elector of Saxony, by a peace with Rigotski. He acknowledged that prince sovereign of Transylvania, and restored to him certain possessions in Hungary, which had belonged to his predecessor, Bethlem Gabor.(3) Torstenson, after his junction with Koningsmark, proposed to undertake the siege of Prague ; but the archduke Leopold, being joined by the count de Bouchain, took such effectual measures for securing that city, as rendered the attempt impracticable. Chagrined at this disappointment, and greatly afflicted with the gout, Torstenson retired to his own country. He was suc- ceeded in the chief command by general Wrangel, who supported the repu- tation of the Swedish arms, and in conjunction with Turenne ravaged Fran- oonia, Silesia, and Moravia, laying the country every where under contribution. In order to secure his dominions against these ravages, the elector of Bavaria withdrew his troops from the service of the emperor, and concluded a separate peace with France. His example was followed by the archbishop of Cologne ; and the archbishop of Mentz, and the landgrave of Hesse Darm- stadt, were reduced to the necessity of taking the same step by the victorious Turenne. He laid waste their dominions, and struck all Germany with the terror of his arms. Nor were the Swedes inactive. Having garrisoned the towns they possessed in Westphalia and Upper Suabia, they made themselves masters of Schweinfurt, which had cut off the communication between these two provinces ; and again entering Bohemia, reduced Egra in presence of the imperial army. (4) The confederates were less successful in other quarters. Nothing of con- sequence had been effected either in Italy or the Low Countries, during the two last campaigns, and in Spain the reputation of two celebrated French generals had been tarnished. In 1646, the count d'Harcourt, viceroy of Cata. Ionia, besieged Lerida. The garrison was not strong, nor was the place in a state of defence. But Don Antonio de Brito, the governor, had the address to make the French believe that his condition was yet more desperate than he found it ; so that they did not press the siege so vigorously as they otherwise (1) Barre,tom. ix. Heise, liv. iii.chap.x. Auberi, Hist, du Card. Maiarine. Hist. du. Prince de Condi (2) Id. ibid. (3) Jlnnal. de VEmp. torn. ii. (4} Barre, torn. i*. Heiss, liv. iii. chap. x. Hist, du Vie de Tvremu LET. LXXV.] MO BERN E U ROPE. 549 might, from a persuasion that he would surrender at discretion. Meanwhile, 1 the marquis de Legonez, the Spanish general, who knew exactly the state of the garrison, caused a great convoy to be provided. When it was near ready, he advanced towards Lerida, seemingly with an intention to relieve the place; but, after lying some days within sight of the French army, he decamped, as if he had abandoned his design. Having forwarded the convoy, he marched directly back to the town ; and appeared unexpectedly, in order of battle, on one side of the French lines ; while, on the other, the convoy with a strong reinforcement safely entered the place, during the hurry of the besiegers to receive the enemy. Harcourt, therefore, found himself under the necessity of raising the siege ; a disappointment which chagrined him so much, that he resigned the command, and returned to France, where he was very coldly received by Mazarine.(l) The prince of Conde, formerly duke d'Enguien, was now appointed viceroy of Catalonia; the Catalans, as already observed, having put themselves under the protection of France. Elated with past success, he resolved to distinguish the' beginning of his administration by the reduction of Lerida, in which his predecessor had failed. Fortunately, he found the lines of the count d'Harcourt so little damaged, that they were easily repaired, and the trenches were opened with a flourish of violins. The conduct of Don An- tonio de Brito, who was well supplied with every necessary, and had a garri- son of three thousand men, was the very reverse of what it had been the year before. He harassed the enemy with continual sallies, and disputed with obstinacy every inch of ground. The French ascribed this change of conduct to his being sensible that they had made the attack in the weakest place, and concluded that he would be obliged to surrender as soon as they had made themselves masters of the outworks ; but, in the midst of these sanguine expectations, peculiar to the French nation, the engineers found their progress obstructed by a rock. It was impossible to proceed it was too late to begin again ; the troops were diminished by fatigue the heats were coming on. The Spanish army, under the marquis d'Aitona, advanced to the relief of the place, and the prince of Conde was obliged to raise the siege. (2) T^ie rest of the campaign was spent in fruitless marches and countermarches. The conclusion of the year 1647 was not more fortunate for the confede- rates in Germany. The elector of Bavaria was prevailed upon to renounce the alliance he had concluded with France, and reunite him to the emperor ; and, in consequence of the union of the Bavarian and imperial forces, Wrangel ivas obliged to abandon Bohemia. After being harassed by the Austrian general Melander, in a long and difficult march, he took up his whiter-quarters in the dutchy of Brunswic. Early in the spring, however, the Swedish general led out his army, with an intention to surprise the enemy in their cantonments ; but they were apprized of his design, and had assembled their troops. In order to atone for this failure, Wrangel advanced, in conjunction with Turenne, against the Austrians and Bavarians, at Zusmarhausen, or Zummerhausen, near the Danube. There a furious battle was fought ; and the imperial forces were defeated, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of Montecuculi and Wittemberg. These able generals were only able to save the remains of the army, by a masterly retreat to Augsburg. (3) Piccolomini arriving soon after from the Netherlands, assumed the chief command of the imperial forces, in the room of Melander, who was slain. His presence seemed to infuse new spirit into the troops ; but he could not prevent the confederates from passing the Lech, and penetrating into Bavaria, where they laid the whole country under contribution, and obliged the elector to quit his capital, and take refuge in Saltzburg. Nor was the victory at Zummerhausen the only advantage the confederates (1) Quincy, Hit'. Milit. de J Minis XIV. Mem. de Madame de Motteville. (2) Martiniere, Hist. Gen. fEtpagTte. Quincy, Hist. JHUit. de Lotus Xlf. (3) Barre, torn. ix. Hist, du Vie de Turnne. Heiss, U v. iii. chap. x. 550 THE HISTORY OF [PART I. had gained since the opening of the campaign. The Hessians had defeated the baron Lamboy near Grevemburg, in the dutcliy of Juliers ; and Konings- mark had surprised the new city of Prague. In the mean time, Charles Gustavus, count Palatine of Deux-Ponts, arriving from Sweden with a rein- forcement of eight thousand men, undertook the siege of old Prague ; and carried on his approaches with such vigour, that the place must have been taken, had not the emperor, dreading the loss of that capital, and of the whole kingdom of Bohemia, resolved in earnest to conclude the so long demanded peace. (1) Hitherto the negotiations at Munster and Osnaburg had varied according to the vicissitudes of the war ; but the French and Swedes being now decidedly victorious, and having no other enemy in Germany but the emperor, all the rest being either subdued or in alliance with them, it only remained for Fer- dinand to receive law from those powers. Other circumstances conspired to forward the treaty. Sweden, notwithstanding the great success of its arms during eighteen years of hostilities, wished for peace ; and the young queen Christina, so distinguished by her love for learning, was desirous of repose, that she might have leisure to pursue her favourite studies. The United Pro- vinces, become jealous of France, had concluded, in 1647, a separate treaty with Spain ; in which their independency was not only acknowledged, but the republic was declared a free and sovereign state, by the only power that had disputed it, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, with an obstinacy to which history affords no parallel, for the term of fourscore years. France, therefore, was left to sustain alone the whole weight of the war against the Spanish branch of the house of Austria ; and cardinal Mazarine, her prime minister, being at the same time threatened with an intestine war, became more moderate in his demands at the congress, as well as more sincerely dis- posed to promote the tranquillity of Germany.(2) In consequence of these favourable occurrences and corresponding views, the memorable PEACE OF WESTPHALIA was signed at Munster on the twenty- fourth day of October, in the year 1648. As it is a fundamental law of the empire, and the basis of all subsequent treaties, I must make you acquainted, my dear Philip, with the substance of the principal articles of it. In order to satisfy the different powers, the following important stipulations were found necessary ; namely, that France shall possess the sovereignty of the three archbishopricks, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, the city of Pignerol, Brisac, and its independencies, the territory of Suntgaw, the landgraviates of Upper and Lower Alsace, and the right to keep a garrison in Philipsburg ; that to Sweden shall be granted, besides five millions of crowns, the arch- bishoprick of Bremen and the bishoprick of Verdun secularized, Upper Pome- rania, Stetin, the isle of Rugen, and the city of Wismar, in the dutchy of Mecklenburg, all to be held as fiefs of the empire, with three votes at the diet; that the elector of Brandenburg shall be reimbursed for the loss of Upper Pomerania, by the cession of the bishoprick of Magdeburg secularized, ind by having the bishopricks of Halberstadt, Minden, and Camin, declared secular principalities, with four votes at the diet ; that the duke of Mecklen- burg, as an equivalent for Wismar, shall have the bishopricks of Scherwin and Ratsburg, erected, in like manner, into secular principalities ; that the electoral dignity, with the Upper Palatinate, shall remain with Maximilian duke of Bavaria, and his descendants, as long as they shall produce male issue; but that the Lower Palatinate shall be restored to Charles Lewis, son of the deposed elector, in whose favour shall be established an eighth elec- torate, to continue till the extinction of the house of Bavaria. (3) All the other princes and states of the empire were re-established in the lands, rights, and prerogatives, which they enjoyed before the troubles of Bohemia, in 1619. The republic of Switzerland was declared to be a sovereign state, exempt from the jurisdiction of the empire; and the long disputed suc- (1) Barre, torn. ix. Hist, du Vie de Turenne. Heiss, liv. iii. chap. x. (2) Auberi, Hist, du Card. Mazarine. Puflendorf. Barre. Le Clcre, (3) Du moot. Corps Diplomat, torn. vi. Pfeflel, Abrtgi Chronol. LET, LXXV.] MODERN EUROPE. 55] cession of Cleves and Juliers, with the restitution of Lorram, was referred tr arbitration. (1) The stipulations in regard to religion were no less accurate and compre- heiusive. The pacification of Passau was confirmed, in its full extent ; and it was farther agreed, that the Calvinists shall enjoy the same privileges a* the Lutherans ; that the imperial chamber should consist of twenty-four Protestant members, and twenty-six Catholics ; that the emperor shall re- ceive six Protestants into his aulic council ; and that an equal number of Catholic and Protestant deputies shall be chosen for the diet, except when it is convoked on a cause that concerns one of the two religions ; in which case all the deputies shall be Protestants, if it respects the Protestants: mil Catholics, if it relates to the followers of the Catholic faith.(2) These are the great outlines of the peace of Westphalia, so essential to the tranquillity of Europe in general, and to that of Germany in particular War, however, between France and Spain, was continued with various sue cess, until the treaty of the Pyrenees, negotiated in 1659, when Lewis XIV was married to the infanta Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV., as I shall afterward have occasion more particularly to relate. In the mean time, wt must make a pause. (1) Du Mont. Corps Diplomat, torn vi. Pfeffel, Jlbrigt Chronol (2) Du Mont, ubi sup KND OF THE FIRST VOLUME. r cctc coo cic c- C V t V cc -[ < .< CO <( C'C <' < f ^-ca - iCCC- (< < ace, tc < . < . m-CC C( < c cc v cc cr t -A < f < CCC ((v Cf< f cc ac C C i tC^ : C CC