Class . . '^xO Book. ^A ^ o Gf^Tight]^?_ CQPyRIG>IT DEPOSm A POLITICAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE A POLITICAL HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE PRESENT DAY \ BY FERDINAND SCHWILL, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY ' ' OF CHICAGO WITH SIXTEEN GENEALOGICAL TABLES AND TIVENTY-TIVO MAPS NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1907 LIBRARY of C0N8RESS Tv«) CootM Recefvod MAjf 17 190r CLASS (j/\ XXC, No. nV Copyright, 1907, by I- I CHARLES SCRI LINER'S S(3J?S TROW omecToiir PRINTINS «ND BOOKBrNOINQ COHPANT NEW YORK Preface vii going behind the simple references supphed in this volume. Readers of this class should aim primarily at a first-hand acquaintance with the sources, even though access to them is not always easy and will be found entirely impossible without an extensive knowledge of languages. Of course the sources of Modern European History cannot be classi- fied here. But the following bibliographical works, which enumerate and discuss the sources and authorities, may be set down for the benefit of the more ambitious student: For General European History. Lauglois. Manuel dc Bibliographie Historique. Librairie Hachette. Paris. 1901-4. 2 vols. For English History. Gardiner and Mullinger. Introduction to the Study 0} English History. Kegan Paul. London. For German History. Dahlmann-Waitz. Quellenkunde der Deutschen Geschichte. 6. Auflage Bearbeilet von E. Steindorf). Gbttingen. 1894. For French History. Monod. Bibliographie de VHistoirc dc France. Li- brairie Hachette. Paris. 1888 (goes only to 1789). For the History of the Nineteenth Century excellent, though not exhaustive, bibliographies will be found in Seignobos. A Political History oj Europe Since 1814. Translation edited by S. M. Macvane. Henry Holt. New York. Of the greatest importance for the whole period are the various collections of treaties, such as the following: DuMONT. Corps Universel Diplomatique . . . contenant un recueil des Traites d' Alliance . . . depuis le Rhgne de VEmpereur Charlemagne jusqu^a present. Amsterdam. 1726. 8 vols., with Supplements. Garden. Histoire Generale des Traites dc Paix . . . depuis la paix de Westphalie. viii Preface J ^ vols. Amyot. Paris. Martes^ (and olhers). Recucil de TraitC'S . . . depiiis 1761 JHsqiCd present. 69 vols., with Supplements and Indexes. Librairie de Dieterich. Gijttini^en. Tlie author desires to take this occasion to thank the many friends, and {)articukirly the members of his own de[)art- ment at the l^ni\ersity of Chicaj^o, lor valuable assistance rendered in the pre[)aralion of this book. CONTENTS PACK PREFACE '. v-viii INTRODUCTION 1-3 Preliminary Survf.y f'HAPTER I. EUROPKAN SOCIKTY DURINO THI". RExNAIS- SANCE 5-24 II. The European States at the Begin- ning OF the Modern Period . . 25-43 III. The Church 44-55 PART I The Rejonnation IV. The Reformation in Germany to the Peace of Augsburg (1555) . . 59-84 V. The Progress of the Reformation in Europe and the Counter-Refor- mation of the Catholic Church . 85-106 VI. Spain under Charles I. (1516-56), known as Emperor Charles V., and Philip II. (1556-98); her World Eminence and her Decay . . 1 07-11 8 VII. England under the Tudors; TRimrpii OF the Reformation und^r Eliza- beth (1558-1603) ..... 1 19-156 : Contents CHAPTER PAGE VIII. The Revolt of the Netherlands and Triumph of the Seven United Prov- inces ( I 566-1 648) 157-177 IX. The Reformation and the Ci\il Wars IN France 178-202 X. The Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia . . . 203-227 PART JT The Absolute Monarchy XI. The Stuarts and the Puritan Revo- lution 231-273 XII. The Ascendancy of France under Louis XIV. (1643-17 15) . . . 274-288 XIII. The Rise of Russia and the Decline OF Sweden 289-301 XIV. The Rise of Prussia .... 302-322 XV. England and France in the Eigh- teenth Century 323-340 PART III Rei'olution and Democracy XVI. The French Revolution (i 789-1815) 343-413 XVII. The Period of Reaction . . . 414-427 XVIII. The Bourbon Restoration and the Revolution of 1830 .... 428-437 Contents xi CHAPTER p^CE XIX. The Government of Louis PEDtLippE (1830-48) AND THE Revolution of ^^48 438-444 XX. The Revolution of 1848 in German\', Austria, and Italy .... 445-457 XXI. France under Napoleon III. and the ' Unification of Italy .... 458-467 XXII. The Unific.\tion of Germany . . 468-479 XXIII. Great Britain in the Nineteenth CExNTURY 480-490 XXIV. Russia in the Nineteenth Century; THE Ottoman Empire and the Balkan Question .... 491-501 XXV. Central Europe Since the Unifica- tion of Italy and Germany . . 502-515 XXVI. The Minor States of Europe . . 516-529 XXVII. On the Threshold of a New Cen- tury 530-548 APPENDIX A. .\ JiRiEF List of Books Spe- clvlly Recommended 55I-5S3 APPENDIX H. Chronological Table of the Popes from the Renaissance to the Present ^^^ 554 APPENDIX C. Genealooical Tables of the Sovereign Houses of Europe . . . 555-571 TABLE I. Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of C'l-^t'le 555 II. The House of Hapsburg . . . 556 Xll Contents III. Spain, The Spanish Bourbons, and their Neapolitan Branch IV. Portugal V. Austria, The House of Hapsburg VI. Prussia, The House of Hohenzollern VII. Franxe, The House of Valois . VIII. The House of Bourbon IX. The House of Bonaparte X. England, The Houses of Tudor, Stuart Hanover; the House of Saxe-Coburg XI. The Dutch Netherlands, The House of Orange-Nassau XII. Sweden, The House of Vasa and Vasa Holstein; the House of Bernadotte XIII. Denjlark, The House of Oldenburg; the House of Glticksburg XIV. Russia, The Houses of Romanoff and Ro manoff-Holstein-Gottorp . XV. Italy, The House of Savoy XVI. Florence, The House of Medici APPENDIX D. General Bibliography . INDEX 557 558-559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572-584 58s MAPS 1. TTTE VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY . . F(irin}^ pilge lO 2. ITALY IX THE RENAISSANCE . . " ." 30 3. THE UNIFICATION OF FRANCE . . " " 36 4. THE UNIFICATION OF SPAIN . . " " 36 5. GERMANY ON THE EVE OF THE REFORMATION Facing page 68 6. THE SWISS CONFEDERATION . . " " 86 7. THE NETHERLANDS AT THE TRUCE OF 1 609 Facing page 170 8. TERRITORIAL GAINS IN THE PEACE OF WEST- PHALIA Facing page 224 9. ENGLAND AM) WALES (1643) . . " " 250 10. ACQUISITIONS OF LOUIS XIV. AND LOUIS XV. Facing page 279 11. WESTERN EUROPE AFTER THE TREATIES OF UTRECHT AND RASTADT (1713-14) . . Facing page 287 12. SWEDEN AND RUSSIA ON THE BALTIC " " 294 13. THE TERRITORL\L GROWTH OF PRUSSIA " " 314 14. THE PARTITION OF POLAND . . " " 314 15. EUROPE AT THE HEIGHT OF NAPOLEON'S POWER (181 2) Facing page 404 16. EUROPE AFTER THE CONGRESS AT VIENNA (18x5) Facing page 416 17. THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY . . . Page 464 xiii xiv Maps 1 8. GROWTH OF PRUSSIA IN THE NINETEENTH CEN- TURY Facing page 472 19. THE BALKAN PENINSULA AFTER THE TREATY OF BERLIN Facing page 496 20. THE RACES OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY . " " 5 12 21. THE PARTITION OF AFRICA. . . " " 540 22. THE WORLD POWERS . - . - " " 546 INTRODUCTION SCOPE AND OBJECT OF THE PRESENT BOOK This book aims to present the history of Europe during Preliminary the Modern Period. To avoid misunderstanding, I desire at the outset to come to an agreement with the reader upon the term Modern, and to examine the meaning of the elastic word history. Everybody is agreed that Modern History refers to the re- Chronological cent stages in the development of the human race, but opin- book, ions diflfer widely as to the point where it properly begins. A moment's reflection will show that agreement is not essen- tial, for let it be once understood that history is a continuous and uninterrupted evolution, during which man passes slowly from barbarism to civilization, and it will be granted that hard-and-fast divisions are out of the question. The familiar terms Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern conveniently designate broad successive stages in the progress of man- kind, but it is absurd to pretend that each period has a pre- cise beginning and ending. Modern History, for instance, must begin with the modern man; but as he emerged very gradually from the mediaeval world, it is impossible to say at what exact point his story begins and that of his prede- cessor terminates. For this reason I am content to conform to the current usage, according to which Modern History begins with the Protestant Reformation. Nobody will dis- pute that by that time the modern man was in full possession of the scene. From the Reformation in the sixteenth cen- tury to the early years of the twentieth century is a period Introduction of four hundred years, whose story is to be told in this book. Far more important and subject to reasonable contention is the term history. In former times all scholars who made it their business to collect the facts of the past were called historians, and the books wherein they recorded them were called histories. Thus it came to pass that the most diver- sified materials were crowded within the covers of a single work, a history, say of France, telling us of the kings and of their court, of the government and administration, of the economic resources and industrial methods, of religion and morals, and of the progress of the arts. And many peoi)le, accepting the old tradition, believe that all these matters should still be included in a book putting forth the pre- tension to be a history. On the other hand, there is no denying that historical materials have swelled so enor- mously in the last fifty years that for a single man to acquaint himself with all the various phases of even a limited period of the past is difficult, and to compress them into a single vol- ume an impossibility. We hear much in these days of the principle of specialization, whic'- has been applied, and is destined in still larger measure to be applied, to every form of manual and intellectual labor. Under the specializing influence of our time the province of history has been sub- divided into many fields, such as economics, political science, sociology, and diplomacy; and the work which used to be done by the historian alone, now engages the energy of many special groups of investigators. In consequence, the need has been felt on the part of many to redefine history in accordance with the new conditions. But, unfortunately, no general agreement has yet been reached. Pending the set- tlement, I am prepared to adopt the view which commands the greatest number of adherents, and which affirms that history is concerned primarily with politics, and secondarily Introduction with everything else in the Hfe of a nation affecting politics. By politics I understand the development of government in the different countries, the work of these governments in making laws and administering home affairs, and the rela- tions of the governments among themselves in peace and war. It is therefore understood that the present volume will treat of the politics of the countries of Eurof^e, not, however, without duly taking note of those changes in economics, morals, religion, art, and literature which are the causes, and therefore furnish the explanation, of every new political upheaval. PRELIMINARY SURVEY CHAPTER I EUROPEAN SOCIETY DURING THE RENAISSANCE References: Adams, Civilization During the Middle Ages, Chapters XII., XV.; Sv.monds, A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy; Symonets, Renaissance in Italy, especially the volumes. Age of the Despots, Revival of Learning, Fine Arts; Burckh.^rdt, The Civilization of the Renaissance (excellent for the many aspects of Ital- ian culture); FiSKE, Discovery of America; Be.^zley, Prince Henry (of Portugal) ; The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I., The Renaissance, Chapters I., II., XV., XVI., XVII.; Cartwright, Beatrice D'Este.-also Isabella D'Este (for court life in Italy). Source Readings: Whitcomb, Literary Source Book of the Italian Renaissance (e.xtracts from Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, etc.); Robinson and Rolfe, Petrarch (selec- tions from his correspondence); Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. I., Chapter XXII.; \'ol. II., Chapter XXIII.; Benvenuto Cellini, Life Written by • Himself (full of Renaissance atmosphere); Machia- VELLi, The Prince (on Italian state-craft) ; Vasari, Lives of the Painters; Castiglione, The Book of the Cour- tier (e.xcellent for the manners of the great world) ; Old South Leaflets, Nos. 2q, ^;^ (Columbus). The Introduction has informed the reader what centuries The Renais I intend to cover and what material I purpose to include in this book. We are now prepared to take up the general .S European Society features of Europe at the opening of our period. I have al- ready said that the beginning of the sixteenth century is a convenient and traditional starting-point for the Modern Period, and I added that this opinion prevailed because by the year 1500 man, in spite of the mediicval characteristics which still clung to him, had essentially assumed a modern aspect. The one thousand years before 1500 are generally agreed to constitute the Medianal Period, but naturally during these one thousand years Europe, in accordance with the universal law of life, was in perpetual though very grad- ual transformation. Let no one dream that the long Med- iaeval Period presents to the student a single and unchang- ing face. Especially in its last stage new forces appear which greatly accelerate the evolution of society. In the course of the thirteenth century, and quite distinctly by the beginning of the fourteenth century, man began noticeably to extend his horizon and give proof of a rapidly increasing individual effectiveness. Instead of indolence we meet with stir and strife, instead of indifference we encounter curiosity and gladness. This section of the Middle Ages, approxi- mately covering the two hundred and fifty years from 1250 A.D. to 1500 A.D., is therefore very properly called the time of rebirth, or Renaissance. Let us pass in re- view tlie main forces and events which produced this as- tonishing change and supplanted the mediaeval with the modern man. /. The Revival oj Industry, Commerce, and Town Life. The early Middle Ages were mainly characterized by the decay of Roman civilization, attended by the first timid steps of the German barbarians and conquerors toward the found- ing of new states. Economically considered, these centuries constituted an agricultural period, during which the people lived for the most part directly on the soil. The two con- During the Renaissance siderable classes were the landlords, or baronage, who owned the land and the peasants who tilled it. What industry ex- isted was calculated to meet the bare needs of living, and was chiefly confined to the building of rude peasant huts and rough-fashioned though often vast and imposing castles; to the making of primitive yokes, carts, and clothing; to the forging of clumsy weapons; and to such other simple work as could be done by the peasants in their scattered settle- ments. Until society had acquired a wider outlook and men began to demand something more than just food enough to appease their hunger, and skins and homespuns enough to clothe their nakedness, there would be no need of cities, the first object of which is to furnish comforts by means of manu- facture, and to distribute them by means of commerce. Cities, immense cities, had existed when the Roman Empire was at its height, but they had all fallen into decay, and many had perished from the face of the earth. The early Middle Ages were substantially a cityless period. But grad- ually the raw and vigorous nations which arose upon the ruins of the Roman Emjiire advanced sufficiently out of their early barbarism to ask for something more than bare necessities. The demand they gradually created for con The growth veniences and luxuries was soon no longer capable of being °^ ^'''"'" met by the casual labor of unskilled peasants, but required the trained hand of professional craftsmen. Here lies the beginning of the mediaeval town or commune. In Italy, as the land which had bloomed most splendidly under the' Ro- man Empire and had received the least injury from the bar- barian invasions, the movement made itself felt first. De- cay was checked; a distinct revival followed. The impulse, communicated as early as the eleventh century, was in full swing by the twelfth. Almost at the same time appeared the symptoms of an awakening of city life in France, Ger- many, and the other countries of Europe. 8 European Society The cities mean wealth, intellectual stir, and politi- cal freedom. Italy leads in commerce and industry. The result of the new economic demands was to draw the peasants in increasing numbers into small community settle- ments, frequently around some castle or monastery, and of these some of the more favorably situated presently grew to be considerable towns. Their quiet lanes became crowded thoroughfares; they resounded with the whirr of loom or beat of hammer upon anvil; they widened at intervals into market squares, where busy trade chattered and bargained around well-stocked booths. These activities not only brought wealth, but made men more self-reliant, stirred them with new thoughts. We are all aware that intercourse, involving human attrition, travel, strange sights, is the best available education. This advantage the townsmen enjoyed, and were soon raised by it to a higher plane of civilization than the governing classes. They grew restive under the feudal yoke, demanded that they be given the control of their own affairs, and ended by rising in revolution against their privileged oppressors. It is of immense importance to the history of the world that the new people, that is, the burghers, were victorious. They wrested from the feudal powers charters of liberties, by which they constituted their towns republics — sporadic germs of freedom and progress in the dreary deserts of feudalism. Their democracy had generally a less liberal character than that of the present day, as only the well-to-do were given the right to vote and hold office; but it was none the less a very real growth, and in any case marks the appearance of that political principle of popular government which is one of the most constant interests of the modem age. In Italy sprang up not only the first but also the most vig- orous city republics. Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Milan, and Flor- ence acquired a wealth and civilization which made them shine out like points of light in their own day, and still invest them with an aureole to our admiring eyes. They developed During the Renaissatice the industrial arts, such as the weaving of silk and wool, and the forging of armor and weapons; and they exchanged these articles upon the marts of the Orient for carpets, sugar, fruits, and, above all, spices, used much more freely then than now ' ; or, in the ports of the North Sea, for fish, amber, and lumber. The whole Mediterranean Sea, together with the Atlantic Ocean as far north as the Baltic, was drawn into the field of enterprise of these Italian cities, and was furrowed in every direction by their galleys. That the cities of the north were not slow to see the advantages of this ac- tivity is made evident by the great league *)f (ierman towns, called the Hanse, which monopolized the trade of the north- ern coasts and grew powerful enough to depose and set up kings. Starting with the eleventh century began that great move- The Crusades ment known as the Crusades. The Crusades were, on the oHentto surface, an unsuccessful two hundred years' war of the Europe. Christian west against the Mohammedan east for the re- ' covery of the Holy Places of Palestine ; but, deeply considered, they were a commercial movement which introduced the European nations to the luxurious markets of Asia, and powerfully stimulated their curiosity and enterprise. The mental and material benefits which resulted from this inter- course were largely appropriated by the cities of Italy, partly because they were earliest on the ground, and partly be- cause they enjoyed a geographical advantage over all com- petitors. In fact, the Crusades brought to the hard-headed merchants of Venice and Genoa nothing less than the com- mercial monopoly of the east. Naturally, as the towns and nations lying farther to the The wealth of " the east stimu- lates dis- ' In mediaeval times people not only spiced their dishes more liberally covery. than we do, but also seasoned their wmes and medicines with spices. The spices most in demand were pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and pnger. Other Oriental products, such as camphor and indigo (for dye- mg cloths), were also highly prized. 10 European Society west developed, they began to be filled with the desire of breaking through the trade monopoly enjoyed by the Italian cities and of sharing in its immense benefits. The problem before them was to find a route to the Orient other than the Mediterranean Sea, controlled by Genoa and Venice. The coming of the Turks, who by the fifteenth century were be- ginning to render the ^Mediterranean traffic uncertain, made it still further urgent to find another passage to the spice lands. Portugal first began the search, conducting her en- terprises on the theory that it was possible to break through, or sail around, Africa. Thus began the discoveries, a di- rect consequence, as will be seen, of the Crusades, which, in their turn, are intimately linked with the whole movement of the revival of industry, commerce, and town life. //. The Discoveries. The long chain of voyages which ended by making known to man all the important seas and lands of our planet, must be reckoned among the most conspicuous events of the Renais- sance. They constitute the Age of Discovery, a period when this plain earth suddenly gave birth to miracles. The brilliant story begins with the Portuguese exploration of the African coast. The first impulse to this enterprise was given by a prince of the royal house, Henry, famous in chronicle as Prince Henry the Navigator, although he seems never to have sailed beyond the waters of his native land. His service con- sisted in rousing in others an enthusiasm for discovery and in tirelessly fitting out new expeditions. Prince Henry began this work about 1426, and devoted himself to it until his death in 1460. By that time the Azores and Cape Verde Islands had been discovered and the coast of Africa had been traced almost to the equator. Still the shore did not take the desired angle to the northeast which would show that the continent had been rounded. At last, in i486, Diaz was Duriucr the Renaissance 1 1 rewarded with success and sailed a few leagues around the Vasco da Cape of Good Hope; and twelve years later (1498) Vasco da indiafilgS-^*^^ Gama crowned a century of heroic effort by sailing across the Indian Ocean to Calicut in Hindostan, thus reaching the Orient by the long-sought independent route. Europe was now furnished with spices from Lisbon more cheaply than by the Italian cities, to whom Portuguese enterprise had de- livered a mortal blow. Their heyday was over, and their decline began. The discoveries of the Portuguese stimulated their neigh- The Spanish bors, the Spaniards, to make similar efforts. As early as the second century after Christ the Greek astronomer Ptolemy had put forth the hypofnesis that the earth was round, but as he had little secure information he made the mistake of calculating the earth's circumference at much too small a figure. The ideas of Ptolemy had been allowed to fall into partial oblivion in the Middle Ages, but in the fifteenth century, owing to the Portuguese succe.sses, the Ptolemaic geography was again taken u]i, and the theory argued and defended by scientific men that the Oriental spice and treasure lands, vaguely called India, could be reached by a western route. The most fervent exponent of this idea was Christopher Ccjlumbus (1446-1506), an Italian mariner from Coiumim? Genoa. He laid his plan lu-forc the various governments AnH-rka, most likely to be interested, and finally secured the support of '^''-■ Isabella, queen of Castile. He was supplied with three small caravels, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina, and on August 3, 1492, set sail from Palos, a port of western Spain. On October 12th he touched at San Salvador, in the Bahamas, and before he returned had discovered Cuba and Hayti. Owing to Ptolemy's understatement of the earth's circumference, Columbus believed that he had reached the east coast of Asia, the region of the fabled India, and the name Indians, which he consequently applied to the aborig- 12 European Society ines, has clung to them ever since. The great discoverer drew much immediate honor from his adventure; he was made admiral, was invested with the viceroyalty of the new lands, and was received into the hereditary nobility of Spain. But chagrin and suffering forced their company upon him, and on one occasion he was arrested and sent, a prisoner in irons, from the world he had discovered to the country which he had enriched. On his death, in 1506, near Valladolid, he was rapidly forgotten, and by a tragic mishap the world which he had, so to speak, called out of the void ^ was not named after him, but after a relatively unimportant traveller and geographer, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. Between 1492 and 1506 Columbus made four voyages across the At- lantic, but the later ones did not add very materially to the information supplied by the first, and the great pathfinder died, as he had lived, under the erroneous impression that he had reached Asia and the Indian spice lands. In consequence of these successes discovery became a passion, especially among the Portuguese and Spaniards. Though the seas were wide and perilous, every adventurer's soul felt a personal summons to strike out into the unknown regions, whence fame and riches beckoned. No period of history is more astir with action and enterprise, more illu- mined with the light of romance. Voyage followed upon voyage, each contributing its mite to the completion of the world's geography. In 1497 John Cabot, a Venetian citi- zen in the employ of Henry VII. of England, first reached the coast of North America, and in 1499 Pinzon, who had accompanied Columbus on his first voyage, skirted the shore of Brazil. The climax of this period of enterprise was reached when Magellan, a Portuguese in the Spanish service, at- ' It may be noticed in passing that the Northmen, coming from Iceland, had discovered America m the tenth century and called it Vinland. But as their discovery was not followed up, it had no results for civilization, and does not detract in the least from the well-earned fame of Columbus. During the Renaissance 13 tempted in 15 19 to find a passage to Asia around the southern Magellan sails point of America. Having successfully rounded Cape Horn, ^orld. * he was the first to furrow the Pacific, and in 1522, after a journey of three years, his ship, Victoria, reached its Euro- pean starting-point. Magellan himself did not live to see the end, for he was killed upon the Philippine Islands, but the honor, nevertheless, of the first circumnavigation of the globe belongs to him. As the discoveries had their beginning in man's com- mercial instincts, the opening of new markets, of new fields of enterprise, was the most immediate benefit which they conferred. But other results followed. Full of a new Colonization, energy, the European nations presently resolved to Chris- tianize these new regions and settle them with colonists, in other words, to convert them into a new and larger Europe. This movement was likely to prove entirely successful only in the savage and sparsely settled continents of North and -t South America. In the more advanced and thickly inhab- ited regions of Asia the natives would find resources in them- selves, enabling them to resist European assimilation. In consequence, we note a difference: Asia remained, as at first, merely a field of commercial exploitation; the Americas, how- ever, were actually overrun and Europeanized. In this movement, Portugal and Spain, as first upon the Spain and ground, had an advantage over other nations. For a to monopolize moment they even dreamed of excluding all third parties dlscov^nes and sharing the immense booty between themselves. In the year 1493 the Pope, on being appealed to as arbiter, gave his sanction to the division of the New \\ orld between the two peninsular powers. After much haggling they agreed upon the meridian which lay three hundred and sev- enty leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands as a boundary line. All new discoveries to the east of this meridian were to belong to Portugal, all to the west to Spain. But this ar- H European Society rangement could not be permanently maintained. Each power was likely to hold only what it could actually lay hands on, and both together would find it impossible to shut out determined rivals. Sooner or later England, France, and, very likely, other countries would join in the scramble for the new possessions, and such were their moral and ma- terial resources that they were sure to effect a lodgment. The fierce colonial rivalry among the European powers is one of the most important interests of the Modern Period, and will play no small part in this history. For the present, however, we shall merely associate the various European powers with the main regions which they selected for colonial enterprise. The Portuguese planted trading posts along the coast of Africa and the southern shore of Asia, and by means of them long dominated the trade of the Indian Ocean. They also settled Brazil, which lay to the east of the meridian agreed upon with Spain, with sufficient num- bers of their own people to make it Portuguese in speech and manners. The Spaniards located their chief colonial cen- tres at the following points: (i) The West Indies, whither Columbus himself had first directed the stream of immigra- tion; (2) Mexico, which was won for the Spaniards by the intrepid conqueror Cortez; (3) Peru, which was acquired by Pizarro; (4) The Philippine Islands, secured by Magellan. With the West Indies, Mexico, and Peru as bases of action, Spain surrounded and soon occupied the whole region of Central and South America except Brazil, while by means of the Philippine Islands she acquired an important foothold in Asiatic waters. The northern European countries entered late, and with only gradually increasing vigor, into the contest for the possession of the new continents. The little which Henry VII. of England did to secure a share for his nation in the great extension of the world is of importance only by reason During the Renaissance 15 of consequences which he did not foresee. In 1497 he sent out John Cabot, who actually touched the shore of North America. After Cabot, English enterprise rested for a while, and when it revived was directed toward the dis- covery of still another passage, a passage by the waters of the northwest, to the spice lands of Asia, in order by this means to elude both the Portuguese and Spaniards, who had pushed thither by following respectively southeasterly and southwesterly courses. This attempt was destined to fail- ure on account of the far projection of North America into the Arctic Sea, but it had the effect of at least keeping alive the English interest in the North American coast. Not until the seventeenth century, however, did England realize her opportunities, when she actively undertook the coloniza- tion of the Atlantic seaboard. The French were even more lax than the English in the The colonial matter of colonization, and it was not until the reign of France"^ Henry IV. (1589-1610) that they seriously undertook to carve out a conquest for themselves. They then hastened to undo, as far as possible, the consequences of their neglect by settlements in Canada, and later in Louisiana— that is, in the St. Lawrence and Mississippi basins. Germany, a divided country with a decrepit central gov- ernment, was in no position to assert herself and claim a share in the new lands. She, as well as nations similarly paralyzed, like Italy and Poland, came off with empty hands. ///. The Revival 0} Learning and the Bloom oj the Fine Arts. Hand in hand with the immense extension of the ma- The revival terial world, effected by the revival of town life and the ^^ ^^^'^ •^'^^''^s. voyages of discovery, went an enlargement of the intel- lectual and aesthetic life of man, brought about bv the re- 1 6 European Society vival of learning and the stimulation of the arts. This movement, like the commercial development we have just followed, had its origin in Italy, for Italy was in all respects in the van of civilization. The pioneer, at least as far as learning is concerned, was the Florentine Petrarch. Pe- trarch, who lived in the fourteenth century (1304-74), was not only a great Italian poet, author of the immortal sonnets addressed to Laura, but also a fervent admirer of the literatures of Rome and Greece, which in the course of the Middle Ages had been largely permitted to fall into oblivion. His chief aim in life was to give them currency once more, and before he died he had communicated his passion to many others. What writings had been saved from the wreck of Roman civilization were to be found chiefly in the monasteries, where the monks, who had occupied their leisure with copying them, had established the only libraries which the Middle Ages knew. Among the dusty shelves and garrets of ancient monastic foundations Petrarch and his followers began a search as feverish and every bit as fruitful for humanity as the explorations of the Portuguese along the African coast. And the search was crowned with success. The manuscript copies of Virgil, Ovid, Plautus, and Cicero were multiplied by scribes and read with fresher minds, and these authors again began to shed the light of their wide culture upon the world. The discovery and com- munication of the Hellenic genius, as exemplified by Homer, Sophocles, and Plato, followed in due course of time. Be- fore the end of the Renaissance practically all that we now know of Greek and Latin literature had been made accessible to man. And with the revival of ancient literature kept pace a passionate interest in ancient art. Roman buildings, Greek and Roman statuary, all in a more or less ruined state, were to be found scattered over the whole surface of Italy. Their enthusiastic study by trained artists completed the work During the Renaissance ij begun by the students of literature, and put at man's dis- posal the whole range of ancient civilization. Petrarch and the generation of scholars who received Hu,.anists their impulse from him have been designated by the col ^"'^^'^^^ool- lective term of humanists. The word signifies 'that thev ""' stood for the more literary range of studies called the humanities, and was intended to convev their antagonism to the schoolmen, who championed the old-fashioned cur- riculum pursued in the schools and universities in the Middle Ages. This curriculum had stamped upon it a theological character, and consisted largely of exerci.es in logic and dialectics, which might give the mind a certain firmness, but did not increase its store of knowledge or broaden its outlook. These very important objects "how- ever, the studies championed by the humanists, and in- volving an acquaintance with the free and splendid civil- ization of Rome and Athens, accomplished, and thus tremendously stimulated that curiositv about all things in heaven and earth which is one of the most characteristic qualities of the modern mind. be.'i.iif ^"7"'^^'^;^:^^' -'^h its object of enlarging and Humanism beautifying life, made its way with great rapiditv in the courts ''•\^''"^^ of princes, in merchant circles, and among the universities "^^1. Many universities had been founded in the Middle Ages all over Europe for the specific purpose of training lawvers physicians, and theologians. The university of Pari.s v (founded about 1207), the university of Bologna (founded about 1088), the universities of O.xford and Cambridge (thirteenth centur>-) are among the most famous. Into these and many others, founded at a later time, the new influence breathed fresh life, with the result that while thev continued to prepare for the learned professions, thev encouraged the students to shake off the prejudices of their namnv world and poured out upon them a more gracious spirit of living 1 8 European Society To the same end as the new learning contributed in per- haps even a higher degree the bloom of the Fine Arts. Sculpt- ure, painting, and, especially, architecture had been busily cultivated since the revival of town life, and reached in the thirteenth century a monumental climax in the Gothic cathedral. No society and no period has ever raised itself a more impressive memorial. Much of our too ready con- tempt for the Middle Ages will subside if we pause to reflect that the great Gothic cathedrals are pure medieval products, developed by mediaeval architects, practically without help from any age. Sculpture and painting, too, gave expres- sion to medieval ideals, but in a halting way and with very deficient equipment, until the revival of learning called at- tention to the models left by Rome and Greece. Then began a passionate study of antique forms and presently of living men and women, which gave these arts a firm footing in life itself. It was in Italy, in such centres as Pisa and Flor- ence, that the arts were first fructified by contact with the classic genius, and though the revival soon spread to other countries, Italy, which started the movement, retained its preeminence for many generations. Almost every city among that vivacious people developed a particular school or style of architecture, sculpture, and painting. A mar- vellous wealth and diversity of production, the joy of every modern student, characterizes the period, but cannot be fol- lowed here. Suffice it to glance at the single case of Flor- ence. She boasted Brunellesco, the architect; Donatello and Michael Angelo, the sculptors; and aside from Giotto (d. 1336), who still moved among mediaeval forms and con- ceptions, Masaccio, Fra FiHppo Lippi, Botticelli, and Leo- nardo da Vinci, the painters. And these are only the more conspicuous names of the great galaxy which shed its splen- dor upon the Arno city. During the Renaissance jq IV. The Return to Nature and the Progress of Science and Mechanical Inventions. The influences already enumerated-the increasing wealth The birth and independence of the burgher class, the wider outlook °^^^'^"^^ secured by the discoveries, the new ideas derived from Greece and Rome-revived the scientific spirit, which means in essence, the desire for exact information about the world in which we live. Mediaeval men had not looked about in nature wuh open or ver>- curious eyes, and had been con- tent to accept the bookish theories of the universe inculcated by theology. But with the quickening of intelligence men began to make personal observations and record natuni facts, and not only came upon much that was at variance with the teaching of the Church, but upon manv things that were entire^ new. The Portuguese and Spanish vovages besides charting hitherto unknown seas and coasts, accumu- lated a vast heap of information about peoples, languages Plan.^, and animals. Such studies as geographv, ethnol- ogy, botany, and astronomy were gradually re^•olutionized. 1 his prolonged and vigorous stimulation of thought finally culminated in the epoch-making discovery of the true rela- lon of our world to the other heavenly bodies. Although the theory of the Greek astronomer Ptolemv of the ro- tundity of the earth was never entirely forgotten, medieval men had generally held that the earth was flat and was the centre of the universe. Hardly had Columbus and his , followers proved that Ptolemy was right, when a Polish H ^IT": ^;:^:!^('^^^-^543), took another forward Copernicus step by establiihmg-nrat our earth turned on its axis and ^^"'^the solar together with the other planets revolved around the sun ^"'^'"• mJe wrh'^T''"'' '' T"' '"' '" ^^^"'"^ ''^^^"^'"^- I-nUon,. ance uith her laws greatly stimulated invention It re- •ju.res no explanation that man should at all times welcome 20 Europea7i Society the simplification of a recurring task by means of some me- chanical manipulation. Even savages are engaged in mak- ing inventions, and the Middle Ages were not so torpid as not to show this inherent tendency of our race, which was naturally stirred into a heightened activity with the advent of the Renaissance. Let us enumerate some of these in- ventions, noting briefly how they made life less of a burden and more of a pleasure, and man himself a more effective master of his environment. The compass — probably bor- rowed from the Chinese — came into general use among mariners, and took much of the terror from the trackless seas; a method of musical notation, which has secured the systematic development of the art of music, was devised, probably in Italy; in the Netherlands a body of artists, and notably Jan van Eyck, developed a durable method of paint- ing by dissolving the color pigments in oil; and paper made from the pulp of rice straw, linen, and the inner bark of trees replaced the much more expensive parchment prepared from the hides of animals. Particularly important was the in- vention of gunpowder and printing, for they proved revolu- tionary- agencies of the first magnitude. This deserves to be set forth more explicitly. If the Middle Ages were completely dominated by the feudal lords, it was largely becau.se the landholding gentry, clad in armor and mounted on horseback, constituted the military force. The peasants, fighting on foot, armed some- times only with scythes and clubs, were no match for them. With the invention of gunpowder — it came into gradual use during the fourteenth century — a weapon was put into the hands of the infantry which, coupled with improvements in drill and discipline, made them more than a match for the highborn cavaliers, while the use of artillery destroyed the impregnability of the moated castles from behind which their owners had defied society and its laws. And just as gunpow- Dtiring the Renaissa?ice 21 der impaired the military prestige of the nobility, so printing put an end to the intellectual monopoly of the upper orders and, above all, the clergy. The invention of this art is gen- erally ascribed to John Gutenberg of the city of Mainz, whose first book printed with movable types appeared about 1450. So long as learning and literature could be acquired only from hand-copied parchments, they were beyond the reach of all except the nobles and the rich corporations of the Church. Printing with movable types and on paper immensely cheap- ened the manufacture of books, and put them within the means of the middle classes. Merchants began to acquire libraries, reading became more general, knowledge more diffused. Thus gunpowder and printing tended to close the gap between lords and commoners, and contributed power- fully to the gradual democratization of society. V. The Development oj Individuality. In this enumeration of new interests and activities little has yet been said as to how they affected the point of view from which men looked at themselves and the world. We have agreed that the Renaissance created the modern man, but something remains to be said as to how he differs from his mediasval ancestor. The mediaeval European lived among rude, agricultural conditions, where thought was lit- tle stimulated and had consequently fallen into stereotyped forms. Society was stamped with the principle of caste. Every man was associated with a particular class, and un- hesitatingly accepted its conditions; he was a cleric, a noble- man, a peasant, a citizen, and within his city the member of a guild. His rights and obligations, his manners, and even his dress derived from the group to which he belonged. Now the Renaissance broke up the group by endowing man with an expanding individuality, which made him im- patient with the trammels imposed by his class. Business In the Middle .Ages man is subordinated to the group. In the Renaissance man is eman- cipated from the group. 22 European Society enterprise and travel made him self-reliant; the new learning, the new science supplied him with an immense number of new facts; he developed the faculty of criticism and applied it to the state, to art, to his fellow-man, even to the Church. Sustained, enlarged, exalted, he ventured forth from the shelter of the group, and proclaimed the right of every man to shape his fortune by his individual efforts. The eman- cipated man, emancipated from the group and class idea, emancipated from a narrow code of conduct, emancipated from abstruse, theological learning, is the most splendid flower of the Renaissance. Self-develop- Individuality, the vigorous consciousness of the joys, the universal man. sorrows, the power, the resources of self, became the passion of the day. In their extravagant reaction against the re- straints imposed by superstition, men came to hold that the individual was justified in breaking through every barrier which stood in the way of his development. Perhaps no age has produced so many remarkable men and women. But the excess of freedom frequently led to license, espe- cially in Italy, and in that country, by the side of the many great men, such as Petrarch and Columbus, lived some of the supreme villains of history, like Alexander VL and his son, Caesar Borgia. But even the crimes of a Borgia escape comparison with vulgar offences by reason of their imposing audacity. With perfect logic this belief in the unlimited rights and powers of the ego led to the concept of the universal man. He was the happy individual who by consistent self-devel- opment made himself lord of all science and skill — a god. We smile at such presumption now. But it is astonishing how near the Renaissance came toward achieving its ideal. Look at Leonardo da Vinci and Michael .\ngelo, who prac- tised painting, sculpture, architecture, and engineering. To make the measure full, Michael Angelo was a poet. Sub- sequent generations of men have moderated their ambition. During the Renaissance -J) but it is undeniable tbat the Renaissance ideal of universal culture has greatly influenced the whole modern age. Shakespeare and Goethe are later manifestations of it. VI . The Political Evolution. /( I have already called attention to the fact that the land, The mediaeval and with the land the political authority, was held in the mon'^chy. Middle Ages by the feudal barons. It is true that the states of Europe were organized as monarchies, but the monarchs were largely under the control of their barons, who met in diets or parliaments and discussed peace and war and the other business of the realm. The period tells of many kings who were violent and arbitrary, but of none who were abso- lute in the sense that they were the sole source of authority. In short, the mediaeval governments were oligarchies rather than absolutisms. Now the agents to which we have given our attentit)n — Growing the development of industry, the revival of learning, the in- ^nance'S" ventions — threatened and undermined this predominance of ^^»e cities, the nobles. The cities in particular profited by the new in- fluences, and, tired at last of being choked and hampered by their lords, won self-government. We have referred to their victory, which must not, however, be understood t(^ have terminated the strife. Outside the walls, in the country- side, the struggle between the two hostile classes was bound to continue as long as the barons commanded the trade routes, which were the ver}" arteries of town life. But in this pass the cities won an ally, who was none other than the king; for the king, too, hated the nobility, whose lust of power had kept him in dependence on them. The king could see, what was clear as day, that to strengthen the cities was to advance his own cause. He therefore not onl\- helped them obtrin their charters of liberty, but alsafavored their admission to representation in the national councils. As absolutism. 24 European Society early as 11 69 we find representatives of the cities sitting in the Cortes of Castile; in 1395 the burgesses or commohera were definitely admitted to the English Parliament; in the fourteenth century they were associated as a third estate with the National Assembly of France; and in the fifteenth century they became a house of the German Diet. Growth of Thus everywhere may be observed the mounting impor- tance of the cities. But every forward step they took meant a new loss for the nobility and by implication a new gain for the burghers' ally, the king. His power grew by leaps and bounds, until it became his ambition to free himself from every check. We shall see all sixteenth-century kings striv- ing toward this goal, and we shall be obliged to acknowledge that this movement toward absolutism was, on the whole, beneficial to civilization, since only in this way could the feudal nobility be crushed, and the sharply separated classes of nobles, clergy, burghers, artisans, and peasants be welded into a single people. The kings supposed they were building only for themselves, but the subsequent development showed that they were really working in the interests of the nation. CHAPTER II THE EUROPEAN STATES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN PERIOD The Empire. References: Lodge, Close of the Middle Ages, Chaptei XVII.; Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, Chapter XVII.; Hen'Derson, A Short History of Germany, Vol. I., Chapters VII., X.; The Cambridge Modern His- tory, Vol. I., Chapter IX. The Roman Empire, which at the birth of Christ em- Dccavofthe braced the whole civilized world, had :ost its hold unon "' '^■Rf'^an ' t-mpire. western Europe after the Teutonic migrations. However, on Christmas Day, 8cx> A.D., Charlemagne, king of the most powerful of the Teutonic tribes, the Franks, took the title Roman Emperor, and thus revived the traditions of the Em- pire in the west. Since the resuscitated Empire was dedi- cated to the advance of religion and closely leagued with the Church, it was presently designated as Holy. The struggle and decay of the Holy Roman Empire is one of the main themes of mediaeval history. It consistently lost ground, both as against the Church and the subject-nationalities which it embraced, and at the beginning of the Modern Pe- riod had been practically reduced to the national state of Germany. By the year 1500, therefore, the words Empire and Germany have, to all intents and purposes, become in- terchangeable terms. 35 26 The Europeayi States At the opening of the Modern Period Maximilian I. (1493-1519) of the House of Hapsburg was the head of the Holy Roman Empire. The family of Hapsburg had grown so powerful in the fifteenth century that the German crown had almost become its hereditary possession. Theo- retically, however, the crown was still elective. On the death of an emperor a successor could be legally chosen only by the seven electors, who were the seven greatest princes of the realm. Of these seven electors three were ecclesiastical dignitaries and four were lay princes. The seven were: the archbishops of ^Mainz, Cologne, and Trier (Treves), the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and the count palatine of the Rhine. The seven electors, the lesser princes (including the higher ec- clesiastical dignitaries, such as bishops and abbots), and the free cities, meeting as three separate houses, composed the imperial Diet. This Diet was the legislative body of the Empire, and its consent was necessary to every important act. Emperor and Diet together constituted the imperial government, if machinery as rusty as that of the Empire had come to be may be given that name. In fact, the national government of Germany was little more than a glorious memory. Germany had not, like France, England, and Spain, advanced in the later Middle Ages toward na- tional unity, but had steadily travelled in the opposite di- rection toward complete disintegration. The princes, mar- graves, counts, prince-bishops, and free cities, constituting the so-called "estates" of the media.>val feudal realm, were about three hundred in number. Some, like the seven electors, held territory large enough to command respect; others controlled at most a few square miles. Selfishly zealous to increase their local rights, they had acquired a constantly increasing independence of the central power, and had reduced the emperor to a puppet. It was plain that At the Beginning of the Modern Period 2j if matters continued as in the past, even the name of unity would presently vanish, and Germany would be broken up into three hundred independent states. The greatest interest attaching to Maximilian's reign is Th«? attempted connected with the circumstance that under him the last Maximilian. serious attempt was made to reinvigorate the imi)erial government. In the latter half of the fifteenth century something like a wave of national enthusiasm swept over Germany. Voices were raised throughout the land for reform, and encouraged by these manifestations Maximilian and his Diet approached the task of national reorganization. Beginning with 1495 '^ number of Diets met and discussed the measures to l)e taken. The result was a miserable disappointment, for what was done did not strengthen ma- terially the central authority, the emjjeror, but was limited to the internal security of the realm. The right of private Abolition of warfare, the most insulTerable sur\ival of feudal times, was warfare!'"^ * abolished, and a perpetual peace (ewiger Landfrieden) proclaimed. To enforce this peace there was instituted a special court of justice, the Imperial Chamber (Reichs- The Imperial kammergcricht), to which all conflicts between the estates (;f ^"^ ^^' the realm had to be referred. Later, in order to insure the execution of the verdicts of the Imperial Chamber and for the greater safety of the realm against external and internal foes, the Empire was divided into ten administrative dis- tricts. This is the largest measure of reform which the local governments in control of the Diet would, out of jealousy of the central government, concede. The emperor was left, as before, without an income, without an administration, and without an army. Lacking these he could not enforce the decrees of the Diet or of the Imperial Chamber, and was no better than a graven image, draped, for merely scenic purposes, in the mantle of royalty. If we hear of powerful emperors in the future (Charles \' ., for in.stance), TJie European States The Hapsburg marriages. The dominion of Charles V. we shall discover that they owed their power, not to the Empire, but always to the strength which they derived from their hereditary lands. In their hereditary lands they were, what they could never be in the Empire, effective masters. Maximilian, who fell under the spell of the new culture influences of the Renaissance, was a strange mixture of mod- ern and mediaeval elements. He was much buffeted about by fortune, largely because he was simple-hearted enough to take the Empire and its threadbare splendors seriously. He tried to make good the ancient imperial claims to parts of Italy, and met with defeat and derision; he tried to unite Europe against the Turks, who had overrun the east and were moving westward up the Danube, but he could not even influence his own Germans to a national war of de- fence. However, a number of lucky matrimonial alliances compensated Maximilian for his many political disappoint- ments. In the year 1477 he married Mary of Burgundy, the only child of Charles the Bold and heiress of the Nether- lands; and in 1496 his son Philip was united to Joan of Cas- tile, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and heir-apparent to the crown of Spain. As Philip died in 1506 and Joan shortly after became insane, their son Charles was pro- claimed, first, sovereign of the Netherlands, and later, on the death of Ferdinand (15 16), king of Spain. Finally, when the Emperor Maximilian died (15 19), Charles fell heir also to the Austrian lands, and soon after was elected to succeed his grandfather in the Empire. The new emperor adopted the title of Charles V.^ To recount his astonishing position: he was lord of the Netherlands, king of Spain and her de- pendencies in Europe and beyond the seas, archduke of Austria — all this in his own right — whereto had been added * As king of Spain he is Charles I . Tables I. and II. For his descent see Genealogical At the Beginning of the Modern Period 29 by election the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Un- luckily for Charles V. there had, just before Maximilian's death, broken out the great Church schism, called the Ref- ormation. Little as Charles suspected it at first, the Refor- mation was destined to become the most significant event of his reign. Italy. References: Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, especially the volume entitled Age of the Despots; Ewart, Cosimo de' Medici; Armstrong, Lorenzo de' Medici; Villari, Life and Times of Savonarola; Villari, Life and Times of Machiavelli; Horatio F. Brown, Venice; Cam- bridge Modern History, Vol. I., Chapter IV. (inva- sions of Italy), V. and VI. (Florence), VII. (Rome), VIII. (Venice). Italy at the end of the Middle Ages had fallen into worse The five confusion than Germany, for the country possessed not even '^^'^"S states, that semblance of national unity, still maintained in Germany. There were in the peninsula five leading states: the duchy of Milan, the republic of Venice, the republic of Florence, the -^\ states of the Church, and the kingdom of Naples. The numerous small states, like Savoy and Ferrara, were too inconsiderable to play much of a political role. During the fifteenth cen^ry the five leading states had Spain and been constantly engaged in wars among themselves. These come'interest- wars did no great harm until it occurred to the kings of Spain ^^ ^^ ^'^'y- and France to turn the local divisions of Italy to their per- sonal advantage. Spain, or rather Aragon, at the end of the fifteenth century already possessed the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and its royal house was closely related to the ruling family of Naples. Through these connections Spain acquired an active interest in Italian affairs. Unfortunately for Italy, France also became interested in Italian affairs when in 148 1 the last member of the House of Anjou died, 30 TJie European States leaving all his possessions and claims to his near relative, the king of France. Among the claims was one to the kingdom of Naples, handed down from an earlier representa- tive of the line. Charles VIII. of France resolved on his accession to power to make good this claim upon Naples by force, and in 1494 he made his famous invasion of Italy. It was the first foreign interference in the affairs of the peninsula since the beginning of the Renaissance, and be- came the prelude to Italy's decay and enslavement. Spain, unwilling to permit the extension of France, looked upon Charles's step as a challenge, and inaugurated a struggle for the possession of Italy which lasted for over fifty years and ended in her complete victor}'. At the beginning of our period this result was not yet apparent. But within a few years after the outbreak of the French-Spanish wars the states of Italy, overrun and j)lundered by superior forces, commenced to exhibit material alterations in their political status. Let us take a closer view of these Italian states. Naples. — If Naples, as it was the first, had remained the only, source of quarrel between France and Spain, peace might soon have been reestablished. For, after having been traversed again and again by French and Spanish troops, the kingdom of Naples was definitely ceded by France to Spain (1504). As the southern part of the Italian mainland had for some time been designated in current use as Sicily, Ferdinand of Aragon, already lord of the island of Sicily, henceforth adopted the style of king of The Two Sicilies. Unfortunately, a second bone of contention between the two great western monarchies was found in the duchy of Milan. Milan. — The duchy of Milan was legally a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, but was held at this time in practically independent possession by the family of a successful military adventurer of the name of Sforza. When Charles VIII. of At the Bt ginning of the Modern Period 31 France died in 1498 Louis XII., his successor, remembered that he was a descendant, in the female line, of a family, the Visconti, who had ruled in Milan before the Sforza family had become established. On the strength of this vague priority Louis resolved to supplant the Sforza upstart. Having invaded and conquered Milan in 1499, he held that city successfully until there was formed against him the Holy League, composed of the Pope, Venice, Spain, and England (15 1 2). The Holy League quickly succeeded in driving the French out of Italy and in reinstating the Sforza family in their duchy. Louis XII. died in 15 15 without having re- conquered Milan, but his successor, Francis I., immediately upon his accession marched his army off to Italy. Charles VIII. had taken Naples and lost it again, Louis XII. had seized Milan only to be dispossessed, and now Francis I., as brimming with ambition as his predecessors, made a third assault on the peninsula. A brilliant victory at Marignano (15 15), which delivered Milan into his hands, seemed to jus- tify his step. For a short time now there was peace between France and Spain; but naturally the Spaniards saw with envy the extension of French influence over the north of Italy, and when Charles, king of Spain, was elected emperor in 1 5 19 the necessary prete.xt for renewing the war with France was given into their hands. It has already been said that Milan was legally a fief of the Empire. In his capacity of emperor, Charles could find a ready justification for inter- fering in the affairs of his dependency. Immediately upon his election he resolved to challenge the right of the French to Milan, and so the French-Spanish wars in Italy were renewed. Venice. — In the fifteenth century Venice was the strongest of all the Italian states. She called herself a republic, but was more truly an oligarchy, the power lying in the hands of the nobles, who composed the Great Council, controlled Louis XII. conquers Milan, 1499. Francis I. again con- quers Milan, 1515- The splendid position of Venice. ,32 The European States the administration, and elected the chief dignitary, the doge or duke. The power of Venice was due to her immense trade and possessions in the eastern Mediterranean. The Crusades had opened her eyes to the resources of this region, and she had gradually taken possession of the Morea (Pelo- ponnesus), Car dia, Cyprus, and most of the islands of the iEgean and Ionian seas. In addition to these colonial terri- tories she held the whole northeastern portion of Italy. The Renaissance is the period of Venetian glorj-; at the beginning of the Modem Period that glor>' was already rapidly waning. The first check to the continued pros- perity of Venice was given by the Turks. Having begun their irresistible march through western Asia and eastern Europe, they wrenched from Venice, bit by bit, her Oriental trade and possessions. The second misfortune which befell the city of the lagoons was the discover)- by Vasco da Gama of the sea-passage to India around the Cape of Good Hope. This discover)', by drawing off the Oriental commerce to the states of the Atlantic seaboard, struck a fatal blow at Venetian prosperity. And to these reverses in the east were added disasters in the west. Partly owing to her wealth, partly owing to her selfish policy, Venice had aroused the jealousy and hatred of her many neighbors, who finally agreed to lower her pride. In 1508 the emperor, the Pope, France, and Spain, formed against her the formidable League of Cambray. Although she managed by timely concessions to save herself from the noose which had been flung about her neck, she never again recovered her former prestige. She declined gradually during the whole Modem Period, but even in her decay remained one of the main bulwarks of Europe against the encroachments of the Turks. Finally, Napoleon made an end of her existence as an in- dependent state in the year 1797. Florence. — The republic of Florence, far-famed in the At the Beginning of the Modern Period 33 period of the Renaissance for its great artists and writers, had in the fifteenth century fallen under the domination of a native family, the Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent, the greatest of the line, ruled from 1469 to 1492)- The Medici Florence sub- " 1 1 r jectedtothe did not greatly alter the republican forms, but by means ot a Medici. clever political " ring " controlled the public offices. Against this concealed tyranny the people continued to protest in their hearts. When, therefore, the invasion of Charles V^III. (1494) offered a chance to cast off the Medicean yoke, the people rose, banished their tyrants, and reestablished the re- public. Girolamo Savonarola, a pure-minded, resolute, and Savonarola, devoted Dominican friar, who had throuj^h his stirring invec- tives against the general corruption of manners acquired a great following, became the popular hero and leader. For four years he exercised great influence in the government and labored ceaselessly at the reform of the morals of his way- ward flock. During the period of Savonarola's supremacy Florence presented to her astonished contemporaries, who dwelt upon the free heights of the pagan Renaissance, the picture of a city dominated by a priestly faction. But in 1498 Savonarola's enemies compassed his overthrow and burned him at the stake. For a few more years the republic went on as best it could, until in i <;i2 the Medici reconquered The return of , . the JVlecuci. the city. In 1527 the Florentines made a second and last at- tempt to regain their liberties. Again they cast the Medici out, but again the banished princes returned, this time (1529) with the help of Charles V., who now honored the head of the Medicean House, Alexander, by conferring upon him and his heirs Florence and her territory, under the name of the duchy (later the grand duchy) of Tuscany. Thus by a pol- icy of sly and persistent encroachment the Medici became the hereditary rulers of their native city. The States of the Church.— T>\\x'mg the period of the Renaissance the Popes, influenced by pagan ideas like the 34 The European States rest of the world, inclined to sacrifice the principles of Christian faith and morality to the desire of being brilliant secular princes. Their dominant aspiration was to recover their lost control of the territory of the Church. This ter- ritor)', running across the middle of the peninsula, formed an extensive possession, but had unfortunately fallen in large part into the hands of petty tyrants. Pope Alexander VI. (1492-1503), of the Spanish family of Borgia, infamous for his murders and excesses, may largely take the credit to himself of having carried the papal policy to a successful issue. Through the unscrupulous agency of his son, Caesar Borgia, the petty tyrants of the papal states were got rid of, frequently by ])oison and assassination. The successor of Alexander VI., the mighty Julius II., completed Caesar's work, and made the Pope absolute master in his dominions. Julius II. (1503-13) and his successor, LeoX. (1513-21), are excellent examples of the Renaissance type of Pope. They showed no trace of mediaeval austerity, or even of re- ligious fervor; they looked upon their office as an unequalled opportunity for exercising authority and commanding the pleasures of the earth; and while they were ambitious, sen- sual, splendid, they responded also to the refined influences of the day. Both of them will always be remembered for their enthusiastic patronage of the arts, which made Rome, in their time and largely through their efforts, the artistic centre of Italy. It was during the Papacy of Leo X., who was a member of the famous Florentine family of the Medici, and whose in- terests were literar)', artistic, social, in short, everything but religious, that there was raised in Germany the cry for reform which led to the Protestant schism. Luther wrestling with himself in the solitude of his cell and Leo feasting among pi- pers and buffoons make one of the notable contrasts of history. Savoy. — In northwestern Italy, on the border of France, lay, amonjT the snows of the Alp:-, the duchy of Savoy. At At the Beginnmg of the Modern Period 35 the beginning of the Modern Period the duke of Savoy was not yet an influential potentate, but he sat at the passes of the Alps, which he could open and shut, like a doorkeeper, at his pleasure or — for a consideration. This advantage of position he made shrewd use of, with the result that during the next centuries he waxed bigger and bigger, until finally his power surpassed that of any other prince of Italy. In the nineteenth century his house attained its final success in being called to reign over united Italy. ^ France. References: Kitchin, History of France, Vol. II.; Cam- bridge Modern History, Vol. I., Chapter XII. In the second half of the fifteenth centur\-, under Charles Theunifica- VII. (1422-61) and Louis XI. (1461-83), France lost much '°"° ^^^^ . of her mediiBval and feudal character and assumed the form of an absolute monarchy. The great fiefs, through the ex- tinction of the local reigning families, had largely come back into the hands of the king, and instead of giving them again to dukes and counts as hereditary possessions, he kept them for himself, ruling them through governors with revocable powers. He had also secured a national revenue by means of a land-tax called tailh, of which he had free disposal; The laiJlc and he had created a standing army which was in his pay ing array, and rendered him independent of the ancient levy of the nobles. The reign of Louis XI. was rendered particularly noteworthy by the resumption of the great fiefs of Provence and Burgundy on the death of the last male heirs of these provinces. Under Louis's son, Charles VIII. (1483-98), fortune continued to smile upon the royal house, for by his marriage with the heiress of Brittany Charles secured the great fief in the northwest for his family, and practically completed the unification of France. 36 Tlie European States The Estates General and Parliaments as checks upon the king. French am- bition turns toward Italy. These successes raised the king to such an eminence that it became probable that all checks upon his will would presently fail. Two such checks, however, still existed, and upon them would depend whether the monarch, fast verging upon absolutism, could be made to travel a constitutional path. These two institutions were: (i) the Estates General or session of the three classes, clergy, nobility, and commons, whom the king consulted in periods of distress but was not bound to obey, and (2) the Parliaments, which came finally to be thirteen in number, and among which the Parlia- ment of Paris was by far the most important. These Par- liaments (parlements) were not legislative bodies, as the cur- rent English use of the word implies, but supreme courts of justice. In tracing the history of the royal power we must give close attention henceforth to the Estates General and the Parliaments. Flattered by the proud position won by himself and his ancestors, Charles VIII. permitted his thoughts to range to foreign conquest. He undertook to conquer Naples on the strength of certain inherited claims, and in 1494 invaded Italy. But his policy of foreign conquest incited the hos- tility of his jealous neighbor Spain, and led to the great French-Spanish wars for the possession of Italy, which lasted, with occasional interruptions, for fifty years. The review of Italy has acquainted us with the early stages of this conflict. Charles VIII. after a brief triumph was forced to give up Naples. Finally it was ceded to Ferdinand of Spain (1504). Louis XII. of France (1498-15 15) renewed the struggle in Italy by laying hold of the duchy of Milan, and though he was forced to give up Milan in 151 2 (the Holy League), his successor, Francis I., immediately reconquered it by the vic- tory of Marignano (15 15). Thus between 1494 and 15 15 France made three assaults upon the Apennine peninsula. Twice she had made a lodgment only to be evicted, and we At the Beginning of the Modern Period 37 shall presently see that her third conquest was no more du- rable than the other two. Spain. References: Hume, The Spanish People, Chapters VIII., IX.; Hume, Spain, 1479-1788. Introduction; Burke, Histor>' of Spain, Vol. II., Chapters XXXVII.-XLIL; Lea, a History of the Inquisition of Spain. The movement toward national unity and absolutism, Theunifica- 1 '. • ^- r.L !•»• tion of Spain, just observed m I ranee, is no less characteristic of the politi- cal development of Spain during the fifteenth centur)-. The Spanish peninsula had suffered a sad eclipse in the early Middle Ages by being overrun by the Mohammedan Moors, who crossed the straits from .\frica. Gradually the tide of conquest receded, and upon the liberated territon,' the Span- iards constructed a number of Christian states, which in the face of a common enemy inevitably tended to act in concert. A process of fusion began, which, though often interrupted, culminated in the fifteenth century in the marriage of Fer- dinand of Aragon (147Q-1516) with I>^abclla of Castile (1474-1504). The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile both owed their greatness to their effective championship of the national cause against the Moors, and their union brought the greater part of the peninsula into the hands of a single family. Ferdinand and Isabella immediately turned their united strength against the hereditarv foe, and in the year The conquest , , 1 r 1 TIC of the Moors, 1492 Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors, was cap- ,4^, tured. The Mohammedan power in Spain, which had lasted for eight centuries, had come to an end. The unification of Spain inaugurated a period of territorial The expansion J . , . , of Spain, expansion which can hardly be paralleled in history. In the same vcar in which the Moorish kingdom fell, Columbus discovered America and opened to Spain the vast dominion .America. 38 TJie European States Naples. of the New World. Next, Ferdinand, drawn into war with France on account of the conquest of Naples by Charles VIII., beat the French, and seized the kingdom of Naples for himself (1504). In 151 2 he further acquired that part Navarre. of the border kingdom of Navarre which lay upon the Spanish slope of the Pyrenees. Thus it happened that when Ferdinand was succeeded, upon his death, by his grandson Charles I. (1516-56), this young king found himself master Charles I. of the most extensive territories of the world. Although Charles was, merely by virtue of his position as king of Spain, the leading sovereign of Europe, he had additional interests and resources as ruler of the Netherlands and arch- duke of Austria, which raised him far above any rival. Finally, in 15 19, the electors of the Empire made him emperor under the name of Charles V. The growth The growth of the royal power had meanwhile kept pace with the territorial extension of Spain. With the aid of the cities, which were, as already explained, the natural allies of the monarch, Ferdinand and Isabella put down the robber-knights, the pest of every feudal country. They thus made the highways safe for the caravans of trade and gave peace to the land. Eike all mediaval sovereigns, the monarchs of Aragon and Castile were more or less subject to their barons, who, when they met in formal session, called themselves the Cortes. As early as the twelfth century the representatives of the cities were admitted to The Cortes. the Cortes, whereupon the proud nobles of Castile, largely, it would seem, from disgust at this enforced association with commoners, began to withdraw from the parliamen- tary body. It was a stupid action, practically shattering the political power of the -nobility. But the loss of the nobles was the gain of the sovereign, and when he now be- gan to ride rough-shod over the commoners, the Cortes entered upon a slow decline. In Castile they dropped off Af the Beginning of the Moderji Period 39 first, while in Aragon they showed some vigor as late as the reign of Philip II. (d. 1598). But the event which, more than the decline of the Cortes, contributed to the extension of the central power was the introduction of that institution, so intimately associated with our conception of Spain, the Inquisition. The fundamental Thelnquisi- idea of the Inquisition is a committee of inquiry to ferret out and punish religious heresy. Such inquisitorial bodies were frequently organized both by Church and state during the Middle Ages. Spain did not originate the idea, she only took it up and gave it a new and effective expression. The country had a large population of Mohammedans and Jews, and in a period when every nation was animated with a | blind passion for its particular religion, and when the modern idea of toleration was everywhere unknown, the alternative was to convert the man of another faith or put him to death. Add that in this case the man of the strange faith was also an alien in blood, and you have a double reason for treating him with rigor. The unity of the nation as well as the unity of the Church demanded his expulsion as a poison likely to infect the whole frame. The people of Spain chose to take this dark view of the heretical and unassimilated peoples in their midst, and the government of Ferdinand and Isabella adopted the opinion, and created, with the aid of the Church, the system of repression called the Inquisition. Tribunals, supporting a special police force and their own prisons, and operating with the secrecy and silence of the grave, were created at various places, and the whole organization was put in charge of a Grand Inquisitor. How solemnly this The work of institution interpreted its task is witnessed by the fact that inquisitor, during the reign of the first Grand Inquisitor, Thomas de Torquemada, who held the office for fifteen years (1483- 1498), about 9,000 persons were burned alive, 6,000 were burned in effigy, and 90,000 were condemned to ecclesiasti- 40 The Ezcropean States cal and civil penalties.* The death by fire, a public per- formance dignified under the name of auto-da-je, or act of faith, drew large crowds of interested, applauding, and even devout spectators. The vast majority of the Spanish peo- ple, it has just been said, approved of the Inquisition. But they paid a heavy penally for their lamentable intolerance by subjecting themselves to a terrible and invisible authority and ^y depriving their minds of that vigor and elasticity which result from the free and unhindered play of ideas. In con- sequence, they never developed those mental qualities which lead to an intelligent political opposition, and fell helplessly under the absolute yoke of the king. England. Referen'ces: G.ardiner, A Student's Histor\- of England, pp. 343-61 ; Green, A Short History of the English People, pp. 2S8-303 ; Terry, History of England, pp. 494-512. England passed tiirough momentous vicissitudes in the fifteenth century. Under the ambitious monarch Henn- V. she had become engaged in a policy of foreign conquest. But though Henr\- V. had conquered France, Henr}' VT. (1422-61) had lost all his continental possessions again except Calais. Worse than this, under this same well- intentioned but weak-spirited monarch she fell a prey to civil war. The House of York, related to the reigning House of Lancaster, ventured to put forth a claim to the throne, and the war that ensued, called the War of the Roses, lasted until 1485. In that year Richard III., the last direct male heir of the House of York, was defeated and killed at the battle of Bosworth. The victor, himself of the House of ' These fifiures are probably e.xaggerated. A careful Catholic his- torian (Gams) estimates the executions from 1481 to 1504 at 2,000. A/ tlie Beginning of the Modern Period 41 Tudor, but at the same time a descendant on the female side of the House of Lancaster, succeeded to the throne as Henry VH. (1485-150Q). Through the marriage of Henry Vn. to EHzabeth, a daughter of Edward IV. of the House of York, the new House of Tudor united the claims of both The House contending houses. The situation, as is usual after bitter in- ternal broils, remained precarious, and Henry had to face several civil disturl)anccs in his reign; but as he had the Parliament and the nation back of him, he managed to maintain order and bring the ruinous War of the Roses to an end. Under Henry, an extremely able and cautious man, there HenrvVII. grew up in England the "strong Tudor monarchy." Com- •• strong mon- pared with such warrior predecessors as Edward HI. and ^'^^y- Henry V., Henry VH. exhibits the figure of a crafty and suspicious politician. For such a one the situation offered a unique opportunity. Traditionally, the power in England lay in the hands of the king and the Parliament, composed of the two houses of the Lords and the Commons. But as at this time the House of Lords was more influential than the House of Commons, the power in England lay practically, as ever\'where in feudal times, with king and lords, lay and spiritual. Now the long civil war, which was really a war of two noble factions ranged under the banners of York and Lancaster, had made great havoc among the ranks of the no- bility. Moreover, it had confirmed among the trading mid- dle classes the desire for peace. The king found the nobility diminished in authority, and the common people disposed to concur in the repression of the ruling class. He determined to profit by this situation. It will be remembered that abso- lutism was in the air at the time, as is witnessed by the case of France and Spain. Without breaking any laws Henry managed to reduce to a minimum the importance of his partner in the government, the Parliament, by the simple 42 TJie Europcafi States device of calling it together as little as possible. Only twice during the last thirteen years of his reign did he take counsel with the representatives of the nation. Parliament was legally associated with him in governing England, but when it did not occupy the stage he was left without a rival. Perhaps no other matter claimed so much of Henry's attention as the danger arising to the commonwealth from the nobility. They were in the habit of defying the law through their strong castles, their numerous following, and their power to control or overawe the local courts. By the statutes against " livery and maintenance " he forbade them to keep armed and liveried retainers; then, to weaken them further, he assumed the right to summon them before a special court of justice called the Star Chamber Court, which sat at London, was composed of members of his council, and was dependent on himself. The protection of the local courts, w'hich they dominated by threats or influence, was thereby rendered useless. Peace, rapid and complete, was the result. Of course the credit of the king was greatly augmented. In fact, England would have fallen as com- pletely into the hands of her sovereign as France had done, if the law had not remained upon her statute-books that the king could raise no tax without the consent of his Parliament. This provision neither Henry VII. nor any of his successors dared to set aside. Thus, although not strictly observed, it remained the law of the land, and in the course of time, when the common people had acquired wealth and self- reliance, it was destined to become the weapon by which the "strong monarchy" was struck to the ground and Parlia- ment set in the monarch's place. It was chiefly to rid himself of Parliament and to strength- en the monarchy internally that Henry kept clear of foreign war. War would have required money, and money At the Beginning of the Moderti Period 43 would have required a session of Parliament, from which might have come an interference with the king's plans. Henry, who had the sound sense to be satisfied with doing one thing thoroughly, did not let himself be drawn from his home plans by the prospect of barren victories abroad. It was during the reign of Henry VH. that Columbus Henry secures discovered America. England was not yet a great sea- North" '° power, but Henry managed to secure at least a claim to the America. New World by sending out John Cabot, who, in 1497, ^'S" covered the continent of North America. CHAPTER III THE CHURCH The mediaeval Church is a state. References: Emerton, Mediieval Europe, Chapter XVI. (excellent) ; vax Dyke, Age of the Renascence (primar- ily a history of the Papacv) ; Robinson, History of West- ern Europe, Chapters XVI., XVII.; Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, 3 vols, (a scholarly account of medieval heresies, a])uscs, and the origin of the friars); Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences, 3 vols. ; Jessopp, The Coming of the Fri- ars; Creighton, History of the Papacy (councils, the temporal power, the first phase of the Reformation; from a Protestant point of view); P.^stor, History of the Popes (1305-15 13) (a scholarly work by a Catholic). Source Readings: Robinson, Readings in European His- tory, Vol. I., Chapters II., XVI., XVII. ; Thatcher and McNeal, a Source Book for Mediawal History, Sec- tions V. and VIII.; Vol. III., No. 6 (heresies, Albi- genses, etc.); Translations and Reprints, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV., No. 4 (examples of ex-communication and interdict). It would be like giving a play without the hero to enumer- ate the states of Europe at the beginning of the Modern Period without presenting the greatest state of all — the Church. For a citizen of the twentieth century, above all for an American citizen, it is very difficult to realize what the Church was before the movement called the Reformation. For most of us a church is simply an organization which provides for the spiritual welfare of its members. This purpose the mediaval Church tried to satisfy and in the 44 The Church 45 fullest degree, but it also did a great deal more, and by exercising authority over its subjects in a great many matters that are now considered to belong more properly to the civil government, acquired the character of a state. We must, therefore, accustom ourselves to think of the mediae- val Church not only as a spiritual association, but also as endowed with many of the essential functions of a state. Let us examine it under this double aspect, turning first to its organization. The Church embraced all western Europe, and all nations Extent and from Poland to Spain, from Ireland to Italy, owed allegiance offheChuTch. to it. Its head was the Pope, who resided at his capital, Rome, and exercised an immense power by reason of the fact that he controlled the election of the bishops, appointed to many ecclesiastical offices, and approved all legislation. The territor)' of the Church was divided into dioceses, at the head of which stood bishops, while the dioceses were subdivided into parishes, presided over by priests. Priest, bishop, Pope, gives the ascending scale of the essential gov- erning officials of the Church; but there arc others which we cannot afford to neglect. Several dioceses were for the sake of convenience thrown together into a province, and one of the bishops thereof granted a kind of headship, under the name of archbishop. Legates were important officials in the nature of ambassadors, who carried the Pope's com- mands abroad, and spoke in his name. Very noteworthy were the cardinals. They were the highest dignitaries under the Pope, were associated with him in governing the Church, and upon them, constituted as a college or board, devolved the important business of electing each new successor of St. Peter. This organization went back in the main to very early The monks. Christian times. In the course of the Middle Ages there had grown up another body of churchmen who exercised 46 The Church The friars. The rivalry between abbots and bishops. The clergy is the first estate. great influence — the monks. The monks were organized in societies called orders, dwelt in monasteries, and owned much land and many churches. The earliest and most famous order was the Benedictines, with the Cistercians, Carthusians, and others following in their footsteps. Later, in the thirteenth century, the two famous orders, the Francis- cans and the Dominicans, came into being, fashioned in the heat of a great religious revival and pledged to ideals some- what different from those of their earlier brethren. The older orders — all organized more or less on the Benedictine type — emphasized the life of studious contemplation of di- vine things in seclusion from the world and its temptations. The Franciscans and Dominicans, on the other hand, sought out the crowded centres to dispense among the poor and heavy-laden the offices of Christian charity. Dedicated to poverty, chastity, and obedience, and seeking their living, at least at first, from door to door, they were distinguished from the older monks under the name of begging brothers or friars (from Latin jrater, i.e., brother). The heads of monasteries were called abbots or priors. They and their flocks were usually subject to the juris- diction of the bishop in whose diocese they resided, but occasionally individual abbots and, in the case of the beg- ging friars, the orders themselves had obtained the right from the Pope to be responsible only to him. Naturally the Pope profited by this arrangement, for he acquired an army of immediate adherents. But the Pope's gain was the bishop's loss. In every diocese there was created a sharp competition, because the bishop and his following of priests looked with unconcealed displeasure upon the abbot or prior with his rival host of monks and friars, and many were the regions that were riven with this conflict. The officials of the Church from Pope to priest, and in- cluding the monastic orders, formed one of the component TJie Church 47 classes of the feudal state, and were called the clergy. The importance of the clergy appears from the fact that they everywhere composed the first estate. The rest of the in- habitants constituted the laity. The laity, however, in its turn, consisted of two classes, an upper, embracing the nobility, called the second estate, and a lower, composed of commoners — that is, merchants, peasants, artisans, and day- laborers — and named the third estate. In the government of Clergy and the Church the laity had no voice whatever, for that privilege ^ ^' was reserved exclusively to the clergy, in recognition of the fact that only through their mediation, and by reason of the authority and jurisdiction vested in them, could the great work of saving human souls be carried on. We have now seen how the Church was governed. We have also seen that there was a governing class of Christians of particular distinction called clerg}', set over a far more numerous class called laity. Even so, if the governing clergy had governed only in matters spiritual, there would be no reason for speaking of the Church as a state. But it en- The Church gaged in other, distinctly secular activities, in the enumera- system of lion of which its judicial prerogatives deserve the first place. J^^''*^^- The Church possessed its own body of law called canon law, made up of acts of councils and decisions of Popes, and pro- nounced justice in its own courts. To these courts, con- ducted by ecclesiastics in ecclesiastical buildings, the clergy were exclusively answerable, which means that they could not be cited before the civil courts, while the laity itself had to appeal to them in many matters, such as marriage and di- vorce, which the state has since taken under its own juris- diction. From this situation it followed that the individual ecclesiastic owed a primary allegiance to the Church, while the individual layman was expected to render obedience to two states, each claiming sovereignty over him in certain respects. 48 TJie Church The Church also levied taxes. Finding the income from its immense estates insufficient to maintain its organization, it collected in every community of Europe a tax called tithe, amounting, as the word indicates, to one-tenth of the annual produce of the soil. If we add that the Church had complete control of marriage and divorce, probated wills, and had charge of education — all matters considered nowadays to be- long to the competence of the state — we get some idea of the varied acti\'ity of the clergy in the Middle Ages. But let no one dream for a moment that these prerogatives were unlaw- ful usurpations. They were exercised by the Church by universal consent, and every unprejudiced student will ac- knowledge that they were exercised in the main to the ad- vantage of humanity. But they show very clearly that the Church of the Middle Ages discharged many of the func- tions which are reserved at present to the state. A curious subject for modern reflection is how this state contrived at all to accord with the various civil states with which it existed side by side, and which it in a sense com- prised. To begin with, the harmony was never perfect. The Church trenched upon so many prerogatives that were of the essence of sovereignty, that the state, also claiming sovereignty, grew jealous and alarmed. Two heads of equal authority are calculated to produce discord in this imperfect world, and yet, none the less, the Church and state, united for better and for worse, endured one another for many centuries. The explanation of the prolonged union lies in the fact that whenever there was a clash the weaker gave way, and the weaker in the Middle Ages was usually the state. This subordination of the civil to the spiritual, so astonishing to the modern mind, is explained by the favor with which the people of all classes regarded the Church. Quite apart from the awe which it inspired as the dispenser of eternal bliss, it had conferred so large a number of solid The Church 49 benefits in protecting the weak against the strong, in preach- ^ ing peace, and in spreading enlightenment that men looked up to it with love and trust, and defended it, when occasion arose, against all opponents, including the state. So much for the power and the splendor of the Church. The Church , , J c ,y- as the means And yet not to recognize at the heart and core 01 this mag- of saving souls. nificent structure, covering the whole earth, the simple mission of saving souls which it had received from Christ* would be to take the shell and let the kernel go. Whatever else the Church did, it certainly considered its main business to be the guidance of mankind in the spirit of Christ's teach- ings, and in this mystic calling lay its chief hold upon the mediceval mind. The Church received the new-born babe into its fold immediately after birth with the rite of baptism. If the growing boy sought instruction, he could get it only from the schools conducted by the clergy, for there were no others. Sin could be wiped out by repentance, but only the priest had the power to certify the Lord's forgiveness by means of confession and absolution. Marriage could be celebrated only with the sanction of the Church. Finally, when a man died, the priest granted or refused his body Christian burial. So from the cradle to the grave the Christian walked the path of life with his hand, like a child's, in the hand of his mother, the Church. The modern man relies, or aspires to rely, largely on his individual strength. We have remarked how this characteristic was fostered by the Renaissance. Since that time many men, perhaps pre- sumptuously, have not been afraid to face (he mysteries be- yond the veil alone and unsupported. The mediaeval man abominated any such pretension as hollow and blasphemous. The Church was founded upon a rock, the one sure and abid- ing thing in a world of change. She had arisen in obedience to a fiat that fell from the mouth of God; she had been dow- ered with grace to cleanse man from the consequences of sin 50 Tlic Church The seven sacraments. and reconcile him with the Father; finally, to him who yielded perfect obedience she opened, after a period of probation in purgatory, the gates of paradise. All this was accepted with such unconditional faith that the least doubt was looked upon as an enormity, and in case of persistence, invariably punished with death. It was this sacred character of the Church that made that appeal to which men have ever been most susceptible. With hearts filled with piety and reverence they looked to her as the one sure door to salvation. And here we must enter for a moment the difficult realm of theology. The Church, recognizing the advantage of system, had taken the mystic faiths and practices of the early Christians and given them a precise theological formulation under the name of the seven sacraments. Chiefly by means of them the Church performed its work of saving souls, and when in the period of the Reformation the whole manner of this work was challenged, it was the sacraments that formed the par- ticular object of Protestant attack. Without a knowledge of them the movement inaugurated by Luther must remain a riddle. 1 Ordination. The fundamental sacrament was that of ordination, per- formed only by the bishop, and conferring upon the candidate to priesthood the sacerdotal character with the authority and power to perform other sacraments. By the sacrament of baptism the new-born child was received into the mem- bership of the Church. The holy water on his brow was a symbolic act, signifying that his share in the guilt of Adam's fall was washed away. When the boy reached the age of about twelve years he received, after due instruction in the creed, confirmation from the bishop, who rubbed holy oil and balsam on his forehead. The significance of this act was to strengthen him to resist temptation. The sac- 4. Marriage. rament of marriage bound man and wife in a holy bond Baptism. 3. Confirma- tion. The CJnircJi 51 which must never be sundered. At the hour of death the priest stood by the bedside, and by anointing the dying man with holy oil strengthened the soul to pass through its or- deal. This was called the sacrament of extreme (or last) 5- Extreme -.■- f 11 • • • 1-1 I unction. unction. If a man fell victim to temptation and smned — and in the view of the Church man, owing to his wicked nature, was constantly sinning — he could receive pardon only by the sacrament of penance. This consisted of four parts: 6. Penance, contrition over the sin committed, satisfaction (or repara- tion) for the sinful act, confession to a priest, and absolution by the priest. Finally there was the sacrament of the Holy 7- Holy Eu- Eucharist. It is the kernel of the mass, the noble and Lord's Supper, ancient service of the Church. During mass the bread and wine offered at the altar are mystically changed into the body and blood of Christ and given to the faithful in com- munion. The mystic change is called transubstantiation. It will be observed that one sacrament, ordination, con- Consequences of the sacra- ferred upon the priest an especial quality and character. On mental system, this quality rested largely the claim of the clergy to be re- garded as a body entirely distinct from the laity, and alone fitted to carry on the government of the Church. Other important consequences of the sacramental system demand attention. Since the sacraments were administered ex- clusively by the clergy, and since there was no salvation for sinful man without them, it follows not only that the clergy acquired an absolute command over all souls, but also that any requirements imposed in connection with the sacra- ments had to be conscientiously fulfilled. This brings us to the important matter of works, so fiercely attacked in the The sacra- period of the Reformation. Not only did the sacraments, courage"the as described, impose a considerable number of ceremonious '^^^uL'" acts, but in the sacrament of penance lay the germ of a great many performances which require a further word. In ad- dition to contrition, confession, and absolution, penance 52 Tlic C J lurch Indulgences. Indulgences and the treasure of merits. to be complete called also for satisfaction. Now the theory of satisfaction is that, although the sin is forgiven by God by virtue of contrition, confession, and absolution, there remain certain temporal punishments which must be satis- fied either in this world through good works or in the next by prolonged punishment in purgatory, i It will be seen that penance with its demand for satisfaction encouraged the performance of good works, which might take the form of pilgrimages, acts of charity, or contributions to the ecclesiastical building fund, and which would be moral and exalting if not performed mechanically or through fear. And therewith we reach a later outgrowth and adjunct of the sacrament of penance — the Indulgences. The Church came to believe that the temporal punishment which accord- ing to the theologians is a sure consequence of sin, can be remitted by means of the application of the treasure of the Church. The treasure of the Church is the whole sum of the merits of Jesus Christ, in addition to all the good works of all the saints. The saints and martyrs suffered with patience many unjust tribulations, which, reckoned as mer- its, more than sufficed to expiate such sins as they themselves may have committed while on earth. All such good works in excess of what they needed to make satisfaction for their own sins, are called works of supererogation, comprise the treasure of the Church, and may at the discretion of the Church, that is, of its head the Pope, be applied to the bene- fit of others, who are lacking in such good works. One of the ways in which the Pope distributes the treasure of merits is by means of personal certificates, issued for a greater or a lesser fee, and called Indulgences. ' The functions, according to Catholic theology, of hell, purgatory, and paradise are clearly brought out by the following quotation from the manual of Father Dati: "There are many Christians who when they die are neither so perfectly pure and clean as to enter heaven, nor so burdened with unrepented deadly sin as to go to hell. Such as these the Church be- lieves to be, for a time, in a middle state, called purgatory." The Chtncli 53 Since the clergy were the most exalted and richest class Corruption in Europe — the first estate — they paid the usual price of ^ '' power by more than ordinary exposure to temptation. All through the Middle Ages serious charges of corruption were preferred against them. Occasionally Popes and prelates inaugurated a reform, but in spite of these praiseworthy efforts the abuses persisted or cropped up again. Human nature is weak and frail even under surplice and cowl. The chief abuse was perhaps simony — the buying and selling of Church offices. The Church officially recognized simony Simony, as a sin, but many clergymen and even Popes were none the less guilty of it. So long as abl)acics and bishoprics pro- duced huge revenues, it is easy to see how ambitious men should crave their possession even at the price of bribery. Another charge against the upper clergy was that they lived in pride and worldliness, quite out of keeping with followers of Christ and the apostles. Many rode to hunt and even to Worldliness. war, and lived in splendid palaces amid a round of festivals. The lower clergy were accused of squeezing excessive fees Fees, out of the parishioners for marriage, burial, and other nec- essary services, and there is reason' to belie\-e that many ecclesiastics of all ranks were guilty of gross carnal vices. Sensuality. To this latter charge the monks in particular seem to have laid themselves open. These shortcomings of the clergy were scourged by Permissible ardent and upright priests all through the Middle Ages, s^ieTr'it^cism. sometimes even by men occuy)ying the highest ecclesiastical positions. It did not derogate from the Church to make public recognition of the fact that some of its ministers were unworthy. Here then was a field of permissible criticism. But it was different when criticism began to gnaw at the organization and doctrine of the Church, stamped with a holy and unalterable character, and proclaimed and lauded as God's own handiwork. Against such critics the Church 54 TJie Church Excommuni- cation. Heresy in the Middle Ages. Waldensians and Alhi- gensians. was armed with formidable weapons. She branded them as heretics, and launched her excommunication against them, excluding them from her fellowship and the association of the living. There she left them, for an ancient principle forbade her to shed blood; but the state, at this juncture, stepped in to seize the heretic as a public enemy and put him to death, usually by fire. In spite of these rigorous measures heresy and heretics were not uncommon in the Middle Ages. Even in that period of authority some men were inclined to urge their individual convictions. Of the occasional isolated heretics, who were perpetually cropping up at odd corners of Europe, there is no need to speak. But there were concerted move- ments, affecting a wide area, which really jeopardized the existence of the Church. Of these collective heresies, two, the Waldensian and the Albigensian, gave the Church much concern about the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Waldensian movement originated with Peter Waldo of Lyons, who preached poverty, humility, and personal san- tification. He did not attack the Church directly, but pro- fessed to be able to do without it as a means of salvation. The Albigensians, who were particularly strong in a town of southern France called AIbi — hence their name — went much further, asserting that the religion of their time was false and the Church a usurper. The Church treated both sects as enemies, but naturally felt more implacably hostile toward the Albigensians. When the ordinary method of excom- munication proved ineffective. Pope Innocent III. in 1208 preached a crusade against them, which resulted in their be- ing crushed in a general and horrible massacre. To com- plete the work of the crusade, the Inquisition was invented. It was composed of special tribunals, that is, ecclesiastical law-courts, which investigated disbelief, and brought the of- fenders to punishment. This is the first appearance of this The Church 55 famous institution, which aftenvard acquired so unenviable a reputation in Spain. But the tale of mediaeval heresy does not end here. In the Wyclif. fourteenth century John Wyclif of England attacked the Pope, criticised Indulgences, pilgrimages, and other features of the Church, and soon boasted a considerable following. He himself was not seriously molested, and died peaceably in his bed in 1384; however, his followers, called Lollards, were presently persecuted and hunted to death. But criti- cism was in the air and had come to stay. Wyclif, dying, passed on the torch of protest to John Huss of Bohemia, and Huss. when Huss was sentenced to be burned at the stake by the General Council of the Church, sitting at Constance (1415), his death raised such a commotion among his countrymen and followers that, although crusade after crusade was preached against them, they were not crushed for many years. As Wyclif followed the Waldensians, and Huss Wyclif, so Huss found a successor in Martin Luther. The revolt inaugurated by him stamped its name and character on the first century of the Modern Period. Why Luther's move- ment succeeded where so many earlier ones had failed will appear in the following pages. PART I THE REFORMATION CHAPTER IV THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY TO THE PEACE OF AUGS- BURG (1555) References: Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Chapters II., III., IV., V.; Henderson, A Short His- tory of Germany, Vol. I., Chapters X.-XV.; Fisher, History of the Reformation, Chapters III., IV., V.; KosTLiN, Life of Luther; Beard, Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms; Emerton, Desiderius Erasmus (excellent); Armstrong, Charles V.; Creighton, Histor}' of the Papacy Vol. V., (a Protestant view of Luther and the revolt); Janssen, History of the German People Vol. III., (a Catholic view of Luther); The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I., Chapters XVI., XVII.; Vol. II., Chapters V.-VIII. Source Readings: Translations and Reprints, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, Vol. II., No. 6 (the ninety-five theses, the twelve articles of the peasants); Wack and Buchheim, Luther's Primary Works (contains the ninety-five theses and three important pamjihlets); Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapters XXIV., XXV., XXVI.; Luther, Table Talk. We are aware from our general survey that Germany at Uplift of the beginning of the Modern Period was a federal state, [^^thT^"^'^^ known officially as the Holy Roman Empire; that this Renaissance, federal state was almost ludicrously weak and disorganized; and that under Maximilian I. (1493-1519) some slight improvement had taken place in consequence of a general 59 6o The Reformation in Germany The Protestant revolution results from the general progress of the world. Italian and German humanism compared. cry for reform. The movement for reform \vas itself the result of the uplift of German life which had set in with the Renaissance. Having followed the awakened German people in their demand for an improved organization of government, let us now take note how the Renaissance affected their thought and life, and above all altered their ancient relation to the Church. In observing these phe- nomena we acquaint ourselves with the origin of the greatest movement of the sixteenth century, the Refor- mation. We have referred to the Albigenses, Wyclif, and Huss to show that the Church did not rule unchallenged even in the Middle Ages. The weakness of these movements of protest was that they sprung from special conditions and remained localized. The defiance flung down by Luther in the six- teenth century was much more intimately bound up with the whole life and progress of the time. In fact, the Reforma- tion would have been impossible without that vigorous for- ward movement called the Renaissance. Therefore, the Italian trader when he brought back to Europe the spices of Arabia, Columbus when he discovered America, and Gutenberg when he invented printing, may be said to have helped prepare it. But chiefly the movement of Luther had, from its nature, to be matured in the realm of the spirit. The media-val Church owed its power to the fact that it had its root in the universal mind of Europe; in the mind and by the mind alone could it be successfully attacked. Thus the origin of the revolt led by Luther, although it was fed from a score of sources, can be most clearly followed in the history of that intellectual revolution already touched upon under the name of the revival of learning. The revival of learning, originating in Italy, was essen- tially an attempt to replace the dry and profitless scholastic studies bv the fresh fountains of life which flowed in classical To the Peace of Augsburg {^1555) 61 literature. From Italy the movement spread over Europe, but naturally in every country it was modified in accordance with the national character. When it reached Germany it quickened, much as in Italy, the interest in the classics and instilled in men a new joyousness, but it was mainly serviceable in giving a fresh vigor to the old theological studies. The Italian, with his lively sensations and im- pulsive temperament, became so entirely identified with the secular side of the new learning that he was seized with a violent revulsion of feeling against all that signified the Middle Ages. He was tempted to cut loose from the Church entirely, as from an e.xploded su|)erstition, and many hu- manists frankly threw over their old faith as useless ballast and avowed themselves to be pagans. Not so the German students. They had been profoundly interested in theology in the Middle Ages and they sturdily remained true to their old love in the Renaissance; only, inspired by the light that had risen in Italy, they resolved that the whole l)ody of Church lore must be critically examined and harmonized. The Italian humanists had quickened the historical instinct by opening an avenue to classical antiquity. Would not the German humanists be performing an cciually important service to mankind if they found the way back to Palestine and the jirimitive bases of Christianity? Here then lay the special work which the German humanists undertook. They turned to the Fathers of the Church and to the Bible itself, in order to drink of tlie original fountains of their faith. With their new knowledge they then approached the Church of their own day, and were not slow to discover and publish to the world its many shortcomings. Theirs was a double work of scholarship and criticism, which went on side by side. These German humanists tried to wedge their way into The German the universities and naturally met with resistance from the old-time theologians, virulent enemies of anything that 62 TJie Reformation in Germany Reuchlin. The "Letters of Obscure Men." smacked of free investigation. However, by the beginning of the sixteenth century a considerable number of seats of learning, with Erfurt and Wittenberg at their head, had opened their doors to the new thought. One of the pioneers in university circles was John Reuchlin (1455-1522), through whose life we can perhaps best get at what was significant in German humanism. Reuchlin had been led by his interest in the Old Testament to the study of Hebrew, of which lan- guage he published a grammar and lexicon in 1506. It con- stituted a notable achievement of scholarship in his day, but to the theologian of the old school the occupation with He- brew, the tongue of a detested people who had rebelled against God, was nothing short of sin. Reuchlin was venom- ously attacked by the professors of the university of Co- logne, who were Dominican friars of a conservative and back- ward type. Universities, it must be remembered, were at that time still conducted as adjuncts of the Church, and were largely in the hands of the various orders of monks. The humanists gathered around their threatened leader, and a war of pamphlets followed, which is chiefly remarkable for having stirred up public opinion and for having carried the humanistic propaganda out of the restricted university circle into the ranks of general society. One incident of the literary polemic made an indelible impression. Reuchlin's friends published an impertinent satire, called the " Letters of Ob- scure Men" (1515-17), which purported to be a series of epistles written by former students and admirers to one of the Cologne professors. The fun lay in having the fossil- ized theologians reveal, by means of an intimate corre- spondence from which all restraints were removed, their own ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and secret viciousness, and all this in an even exaggerated version of the gro- tesque Latin current among the schoolmen. Much of the sport was of the nature of rude horse-play, but it did its To the Peace of Augsburg {ijSS) ^3 work, and fairly buried the old theology under a tempest of inextinguishable laughter, which swept the length and breadth of Germany. Ulrich von Hutten (d. 1523), who had a hand in the com- Huucn. position of the " Letters of Obscure Men," is another interest- ing figure of this period. While Reuchlin is exclusively the scholar, the professor, Hutten is more the literary man and journalist, who popularizes the results of scholarship. The critical material which humanism, whether in Italy or Ger- many, supplied, he forged into a weapon wherewith he smote the defenders of the old abuses in Church and state. He wrote in his native German, frankly seeking to reach the peo- ple, and with his biting pen made many converts. But the most important figure in the humanistic circles Erasmus, of Germany as well as of all Europe was Erasmus (1467- 1536). Though born at Rotterdam he lived in turn in every country of Europe, and always regarded himself as a cosmo- politan. No humanist e.xercised so wide an empire as he, for, though a scholar, he did not bury himself in solitude, but grappled with the burning questions of the day. He wrote in Latin, which was still so generally read and spoken that its use secured to the writer the educated classes of all Europe as an audience. Erasmus's most important work of scholarship was his Erasmus and edition, the first to appear m prmt, of the New lestament Testament, in the original Greek (1516). It was the opening shot in the long war of Biblical criticism, which has agitated the world ever since. He added a Latin translation, piously hoping to create an enthusiasm which would lead to the translation of the Scriptures into all the tongues, and raise them into what they never were in the Middle Ages, a household book. "I long," he wrote, "that the husband- man should sing them to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, 64 The Reformation m Germany Erasmus popularizes classical culture. His satirical writings. The early humanists criticise, but do not fall away from the Church. that the traveller should beguile with them the weariness of his journey." Thus in close connection with his work of erudition Eras- mus pursued the aim of popular improvement, in the belief that men must be better educated if the ills of society were ever to diminish, and the reign of sweetness and light be es- tablished. His many editions and anthologies of the Latin authors were all put out in this spirit, and even his occasional satirical writings were informed with this same noble sen- timent. His most famous production in this vein was his "Praise of Folly" (1509), wherein he lashes mercilessly the luxury of the prelates, the wars of ambitious princes, and, above all, the slothfulness and bigotr\' of the monks, whom he especially detested. But the book, though attacking abuses, is far from irreligious, for this great scholar typifies the spirit of northern humanism in that he always strove to walk in the ways of the Lord. Germany was in the midst of the intellectual agitation sown by Erasmus, Rcuchlin, and their followers when Martin Luther made his appearance. He was the heir of their theological studies, to which he brought an even more fearlessly critical spirit than theirs; but he had also an im- pulsiveness, lacking in them, which soon plunged him into mortal strife with the old theology and the old Chuirch. To the fighting platform which he presently adopted only the younger section of the humanists was willing to subscribe; many of the older men, with Erasmus at their head, depre- cated the violent turn of affairs and repudiated Luther's leadership. They had dreamed of reform by means of a gradual enlightenment of the human race, and now they were plunged into a state of war profoundly abhorrent to their refined and scholarly temperament. Their disappoint- ment rose to a high pitch, and Erasmus gradually withdrew from the public eye to sulk out the rest of his life in his study. To the Peace of Augsburg {iJSS) ^5 What he failed to see was that the explosive attack of Luther was the inevitable practical climax of the scholarship and criticism to which he and his friends had dedicated their lives. Martin Luther was bom November lo, 1483, in a village Martin at the foot of the Harz Mountains. His ancestry- for many " ^^' generations back had been hard-working i)casants, and peasant sturdiness and simplicity, with much of peasant obstinacy and superstition, remained characteristic of this son of the soil to the end of his days. By personal sacrifices his parents managed to send young Martin to the university of Erfurt for the purpose of making a lawyer of him, but in the year 1505, following what appears to have been an irresistible religious impulse, he abandoned his legal studies and joined the .Augustinian order of friars. He took his new duties with such grim seriousness that he soon won the applause of his superiors end was rapidly advanced in honor and responsibility. The elector of Saxony had lately founded a new university at Wittenberg. In 1508 Luther was added to its faculty and rose soon to be pR)fessor of theology. Shortly after (151 1), he was sent to Rome on business of his order, and at the capital of Christianity rwxived an indelible impression of the corruption of its governors. On his return he assumed also the duties of preacher in the toun church, and rapidly became a moral force in the community. .\ll things considered, Luther, on approaching middle age, w^s embarked upon a career unfolding a prospect of great influence and success. But much more important lo Luther than these worldly Lt>\hrr's preferments were the doubts and questions which beset him all the days of his youth. We have seen that the mediaeval Church maintained the conception of an offesided God to \ic appeased by sinful man by means of the sacraments and holy works, involving confession, prayers, pilgrimages, fasts, 66 TJie Reformation in Germany Justification by faith. Luther's doc- trine implies an attack on the clergy and the sacra- mental system. and flagellations. The theology of the Church insisted em- phatically on faith and contrition, but by the multiplication of ceremonies and outward acts of worship, the necessity of the soul seeking to put itself at peace with God, as a preliminary to all else, was frequently neglected. Luther observed that the average layman was imagining that he was a good Christian when he went mechanically through his round of ceremonies. He went through them conscien- tiously himself, but when they failed to appease his scruples he began to look about for another avenue of approach to God. Being a man of an essentially religious disposition, his doubts became a moral torture until he was visited by the illumination that God descended like a dove of peace upon all who put their simple faith in Him. Faith — that was all which God required to lift His creature to a state of grace. Luther largely drew his convictions on this point from the Epistles of his hero St. Paul, and presently published them with fervor as a rediscovered truth. Such they hardly were, for faith was a pillar of the mediaeval Church — let the reader to assure himself examine the sacrament of penance; but the abundance of works had succeeded in covering the pillar until it was almost hidden from view beneath a thick, para- sitic growth. By emj)hasizing faith Luther harked back to a more primitive type of Christianity, and in any case formu- lated the doctrine which is the common basis of all Protes- tant churches. Again let it be said that Luther's favorite doctrine of justification by faith was not in any essential disagreement with the teachings of the Church. The view, still largely prevailing among Protestants, that the Church was content to prescribe a round of hollow practices, is based on igno- rance. Nevertheless, since externals were overdone in Luther's day, he saw fit to extol faith as the sole door to sal- vation, and, in the heat of quarrel, derived from this primary To the Peace of Augsburg 1/555) 67 position a number of consequences which the Church an- grily rejected. Faith, illuminating personal faith, such as Luther urged, implied man's direct union with God without the mediation of a priesthood. But the whole Church rested on the conception of a priestly caste, to which the administra- tion of the sacraments, the accepted means of salvation, was intrusted. Therefore Luther's teaching of faith logically carried with it an attack upon the clergy, the sacraments, and the works which the sacraments enjoined. Priesthood, sacraments, works, are the names of the positions which the Roman Church defends with all its might in the Refor- mation Period, while faith is the name of the weapon with which Luther and his followers conduct the attack. Luther was still far from seeing all these consequences, he was still e.xclusively revolving the question of faith in his mind, when there occurred the event which flung him into the centre of the world's interest, and inaugurated the move- ment of separation from the Church known as the Reforma- tion. In 1517 a Dominican friar, Tctzel, aj)pcared on the confines of Sa.xony to sell Indulgences, and Luther came forward to protest against the practice. We have seen that Indulgences^ were letters of pardon Corruption in issued by the Pope, and that they were closely associated ^"h jndul- with the sacrament of penance. The reader will also re- g^nces. member that they did not remit the sin and its eternal con- sequences, but only certain temporal penalties which were imposed by the priest and had to be gone through with in this world, or else had to be suffered in purgatory. The fee for which they were obtained went to the Pope, but the Pope let it be understood that he would devote the revenue to some Christian end, such as a crusade or the building of churches. However that may be, during the Renaissance, at least, a large part was diverted to other channels, and was ' See Chapter III , p. 52. 68 The Reforuiation in Germany The ninety- five theses, 1517- Luther is carried into open revolt, 1520. generally surmised to contribute to the scandalous luxury of the Roman court. The protest which Luther lodged against the new papal Indulgence hawked by Tetzel and other licensed venders through Germany took the form of ninety-five points or theses, which he proposed to argue, in the academic fashion of the time, with all comers in a public debate. He wrote them out in Latin, and nailed them to the door of the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 151 7. They created an immediate sensation, were translated into German, and known in a few weeks throughout the land. Their immense popularity can only be accounted for on the ground that the abuse in connection with Indulgences was patent, that it offended the religious sentiment of the nation, and, above all, that the feeling was becoming more and more general that the Pope was abusing his prerogative, especially by squeezing undue sums out of the people for merely personal ends.^ When Luther published his protest against Indulgences he spoke as a good son of the Church, without the remotest idea of separating from it. His private reflections had not yet carried him so far. But the ninety-five theses loosed a torrent of discussion, by the irresistible course of which Luther was hurried from loyal criticism to open revolt. By 1520 he found himself hopelessly at variance with the Church and definitely embarked on an independent course. The ' During the half century preceding the appearance of Luther signs of a growing discontent with the Papacy were accumulating among all classes of the nation. An official document of the year 1 5 lo contains the following complaints: " That the better benefices and higher ofiices are reserved for the cardinals and chief officials of the papal court. Even when a bishopric is several times vacant within a few vears. the Pope demands the prompt and full payment of the annates. Churches are given to courtiers, some of whom are better fitted to be mule-drivers than pastors. Old Indulgences are revoked and new ones sold, merely to raise money. Tithes are collected under the pretext tliat a war is to be made against the Turks, etc." — Geb- hardt, Gravamina gegen den Romischen Hof. To the Peace of Augsburg {ijjj) 69 three years from 151 7 to 1520 mark the crisis of his move- ment of protest, when there was still a prospect that dis- cussion would lead to concession and turn the scales in favor of Christian unity. Alas, it was not to be, and all for reasons natural enough! Luther was a man of energy, amounting at times to violence; a lion when aroused. WTien the un- comprising partisans of the Church attaciced him personally, he feverishly searched the Scriptures and their earliest ex- pounders for new evidence, and soon came across much matter in the Church besides Indulgences which he regarded as open to question. The attitude of the Pope, Leo X , was typical of the cultured Italian gentleman of the Renais- sance; he mildly wondered v/hy the faithful of Germany were growing so excited over a purely theological issue. None the less he made some efiforts to have the conflict hushed up by negotiations. But his agents were haughty and unskillful, and when in 1520 Luther attacked the prerogatives of the clergy, the sacraments, and the Pope himself, in a series of three fiery pamphlets, ^ open war was declared. The Pope now resolved to crush his adversarv Luther ex- without mercy and issued a bull of e.xcommunication which ^o^J"""'<^ated, declared him a heretic. The document was equivalent to an order to the civil authorities to apprehend him and put him to death. But Luther was now past the point of fear. Amid a great concourse of ap))lauding Wittenbergers he consigned the bull to a Ijonfire, and to leave no doulit as to his meaning he threw in the books of the canon law, which codified all the e.xtraordinary privileges of the mediaval Church. The I)reach was complete. It remained onlv to be seen for which side the people would declare. Germany had just passed through the throes of an im- Election of — Charles \\ as 'They were: Concerning Christian Lit)erty; Address to the Christian emperor, 1519. Nobility of the German Nation; On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church. These three pamphlets contain the gist of early Protestantism. See Wace and Buchhcim, Luther's Primary Works. 70 The Reforviation in Germany Charles sum- mons Luther to his presence. perial election. In January, 1519, the Emperor Maxi- milian had been gathered to his fathers, and after a partic- ularly spirited contest, in which the leading sovereigns of Europe came forward as candidates, the choice of the seven electors fell upon the king of Spain, who assumed the office under the name of Emperor Charles V. Charles owed his election not to the fact that he was king of Spain, but to his being the head of the House of Hapsburg and the most powerful prince of Germany. In the year 1520 he left Spain to be crowned with the usual elaborate ceremony at Aachen. Then he called a Diet at the city of Worms on the Rhine, where he first met with the parliament of the German nation. There were many matters demanding attention, but all were overshadowed in importance by the conflict raised by Luther. The Wittenberg professor had just been condemned by the Pope. It behooved the emperor and his Diet to declare what course they would take with reference to the papal sentence. Charles was at this time a lad of twenty-one years. He had passed his life, so far, in the Netherlands and in Spain, where he had been brought up as a good Catholic, who might now and then criticise the abuses in the Church, but who in the main gave it an unhesitating allegiance. Therefore he, personally, was prepared to put down Luther. But there were other interests necessary to consider. So large a sec- tion of the German people and of the princes themselves had become adherents of Luther, that to condemn him un- heard might raise an insurrection. Accordingly, Charles agreed to have him summoned to Worms for a hearing, under a special pledge of safety. Luther's friends besought him not to walk into the lion's mouth, reminding him of the fate of Huss at Constance. "I would go, even if there were as many devils there as tiles on the house roofs," he answered fearlessly. On April 17, 1521, he appeared before the Diet. To the Peace of Augsburg {i^SS) 7i The scene is one of the impressive spectacles of history. Luther at " e Diet of orms, 1521. The simple friar, whose life had been largely lived in seclu- yv^ ^'^^ °^ sion, stood for the first time before his emperor, who sat upon a throne encircled by a brilliant gathering of ambassadors, princes, and bishops. As he let his eye travel over the faces of the throng, he encountered all gradations of expression, ranging from deep devotion to indifference and fierce hatred. He was urged to recant the heresies he had uttered. If he had yielded he might have won forgiveness, and the move- ment of revolt would in all likelihood have come to an end. But he insisted that he should be proved to be wrong by the words of Holy Writ. That was stating the crucial issue; to him the authority of the Bible on the points of belief which he had raised was higher than the authority of Pope and Church. "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen! " was the substance of his concluding speech. To cow this man was out of the question, especially as Worms was seething with his followers. Permitted to depart as had been promised him, he was seized on the highway by servants of the friendly elector Frederick of Saxony, and carried secretly to the castle of the Wartburg in the Thurin- gian forest. There let him lie concealed, was the thought of his protector, until the crisis be over, and he may once more show himself without danger. Meanwhile Charles came to a decision. He could have Luther is no sympathy with a movement which threatened the unity dTiiimecf. '^°"' of the Church. Further, his attention at that moment was fixed not on Germany but on Italy, where the ])osition of his house was at stake. We must always remember that Charles was a sovereign with interests in the most widely separated regions, in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and America. In Italy the king of France had lately seized Milan, and Charles was resolved to oust him from that vantage point, from which he dominated the whole 72 The Reformation in Germany The Edict of Worms, 1 321. The Edict of Worms is not carried out. Abandonment of many features of Catholicism. north of the peninsula. But in such an enterprise the papal alliance would prove very useful. With an eye to the help of the Pope against France, Charles resolved to strike at Luther. On May 26, 1 5 2 1 , he published the Edict of Worms, by which the heretic's life was declared forfeit and his writings were prohibited. Having thus settled, as he mis- takenly thought, the German difficulties with the stroke of a pen, Charles undertook the conquest of Ital3\ But the movement of the Reformation had already ac- quired too great a momentum to be stopped by an imperial order. If Charles could have remained in Germany to see personally to the execution of his decree against Luther, or if the real power in Germany had not lain with the princes, who, from the nature of the case, were divided in their sym- pathy, the history of the Reformation might have been dif- ferent. As matters stood, Charles was absent from the scene for the next nine years, and the princes, left to themselves, could come to no decisive agreement. Consequently the de- cree against Luther was not executed, and the revolution, en- couraged by the vacillation of the government, grew so strong that it soon reached the point where it could defy persecu- tion. Let us look more closely into what was happening at this time in the religious circles of Germany. Luther's opinions were advancing by leaps and bounds, and enthusiastic communities were beginning to put them into practice. They involved the abandonment of many of the most famil- iar features of mediaeval Christianity. Monks and nuns re- nounced their vows, resumed their places in society, and in many cases married; Luther himself set an example by wedding Catharine von Bora, a former nun. The monastic property reverted to the state, that is, enriched the princes and the cities. The Pope and the Roman hierarchy w^je set aside and their authority denied. Many ancient practices, To the Peace of Augsburg {ijjj) 73 such as Indulgences, pilgrimages, worship of Mary and the saints, were condemned as meaningless and misleading works and abandoned. At the same time the Church service was materially changed. German was substituted for Latin, and the Mass, with its element of sacrifice, was declared idolatrous, its place being taken by a much simpler service, consisting of song, prayer, and sermon. With such ferment of opinion possessing the whole country. Excesses of it is not unnatural that wild agitators occasionally caught [kfJsts?'"" the ear of the masses. In fact the Reformation was not many months old before its welfare was threatened more by its own extreme elements than by its Catholic opponents. Nobody saw this more clearly than Luther. He was re- solved that the movement should travel a sure road and at ♦ a moderate pace, and that whoever should venture to com- promise it by extravagances and illusions, or whoever should attempt to use it for ends other than those of the religious reform with which it had originated, must be abruptly ex- cluded from his party. These certainly not unwise consid- erations explain Luther's attitude toward the revolutions of the next eventful years. Luther was still living concealed in the Wartburg, where Luther follows he was turning his enforced leisure to the task of translating cou°rsc!"^''''^"'^ the Bible into German, when startling things occurred in the Sa.xon capital of Wittenberg. Radicals, who called them- selves prophets or Anabaptists, and who were joined by Carlstadt, one of Luther's own colleagues in the university, had begun to preach the destruction of the images which adorned the Catholic churches, and similar acts of violence. Luther, hearing of this nefarious propaganda, abruptly left the Wartburg and appeared among his flock (1522). His powerful word immediately brought his people back to order, and the "prophets" fled. But the revolutionary tendencies aroused bv Luther's call 74 The Reformatio?i in Germany Revolution of the Rhenish knights. The serfdom of the peasants. The great revolt, 1524-25- to spiritual freedom were already spreading like wildfire. The petty knights of the Rhine region, who were dissatisfied with their political condition because they were in danger of being swallowed up by their more powerful neighbors, the larger princes, resolved to make use of the disturbed state of affairs b\' rising in revolution. They were put down after a short war (1522-23), and henceforth lost all significance as an order. But a far greater disturbance followed in the rising of the peasants. Since the Church was being success- fully reformed, why should not society and the state, which were no less cankered than the Church, be reformed too? That the peasants should have asked themselves this question was only natural in view of their extremely miser- able lot. They were for the most part serfs, which means that they were attached to the soil and were better than slaves only in that they could not be bought and sold, and were protected by a few traditional rights. But under the influence of the Roman law, which was steadily gaining ground with the revival of classical antiquity, their few re- maining rights were vanishing, and their condition was grow- ing steadily worse. Since they were a sturdy folk at heart, among whom the memories of former liberties persisted, a sense of injustice tormented them, and had already in the fifteenth century led to occasional risings. Now, in the six- teenth century, came the call of Luther to religious freedom, sounding like a trumpet through the land. Even without Luther they were ready to strike down the land-owning no- bles and abbots who oppressed them. With Luther as a prospective ally they were no longer to be kept in leash. In the year 1524 they rose, first near the border of Switz- erland; but with surprising rapidity the movement ate its fiery course northward into the heart of Germany. All lawless elements, including the so-called prophets of Witten- berg, crowded to the standards of the peasants. Their bands To the Peace of Augsburg {ijJS) 75 patrolled the country-sides, invaded the hated castles and monasteries, burned them, and butchered their inmates. It is true there was a moderate section which put forward a sensible programme, called the twelve articles formu- lating the practicable demands of the insurgents. These were to have certain vexatious personal services due to the lord and his family, abolished, and the meadows, woods, and streams, which had once belonged to the villagers in common, but had since been seized by the lords, restored to their for- mer owners. Nevertheless, passion got the better of reason, and every night the fierce glare of the sky renewed the tale of ruined castles and abbeys. As usual, the central gov- ernment was incapable of taking action, but the local au- thorities, that is, the princes, got together an army and in 4 the spring of 1525 scattered the disorganized bands of the peasants to the winds. Hounded on by Luther in coarse pamphlets, the victors crowned their successes by a hideous massacre of the poor fugitives. That Luther, who was a peasant himself, and had frequently declared his sympathy with his lowly brethren, should have veered to the other side has subjected him to much criticism. It is not possible to Luther sides palliate the brutality of his language, but a word may be princes! said for the consistency of his conduct. He had declared over and over again, by word and by deed, that he stood for religious reform and would not permit his cause to be com- promised by political agitation. Let the cause of reform be confused in people's minds with social anarchy, and the conservative elements would be frightened away, and Rome be triumphant. For this reason he had challenged the Wit- tenberg prophets; for the same reason, though much more reluctantly, he turned his back upon the peasants. While Germanv was seething with revolution, Charles V. The wars of ' 1 • 1 1 • -o T f i France and was wholly engaged with the war agamst r ranee. In tact, Spain. the wars with France continued throughout his reign and 76 TJie Reformation in Germany The first war; battle of Pavia. The second war and sack of Rome, 1527- Charles crowned emperor. prevented him from ever giving his full attention to the German Reformation. There were altogether four wars, covering the following periods: ist war, 1521-26; 2d war, 1527-29; 3d war, 1536-38; 4th war, 1542-44- The first war ended with the signal triumph of Charles. Charles's general defeated the French army at Pavia in Italy (1525) and took the king of France himself, Francis I., cap- tive. " All is lost save honor," was the laconic message which the French sovereign, celebrated as the mirror of chivalry, sent his mother at Paris. Charles had his royal prisoner transported to Madrid and there he wrung from him a peace (1526), by which Francis ceded all claims to Italy and parts of France itself (Burgundy and the suzerainty of Artois) to Charles. But hardly had Francis regained his liberty when he hastened to renew the war. Charles had overstrained the bow. Francis could buy peace by the cession to his enemy of Milan, a foreign conquest, but as long as there was life in France her king could not grant nor could she accept a partition of her territory. The Pope and Henry VIII. of England, who had hitherto favored Charles in the struggle between France and Spain, now went over to Francis from fear that the emperor was striving for supremacy in Europe. The most noteworthy incident of the second war was the sack of Rome (1527). The great French nobleman, the duke of Bourbon, who had turned traitor and had been put by Charles at the head of a mixed troop of Spaniards and of German Protestants, was ordered to march against the Pope for the purpose of punishing him for his alliance with Francis. At the moment at which the walls of the papal capital were scaled Bourbon fell, and the rabble soldiery, left without a master, put Rome to a frightful pillage. Although the advantage in the second as in the first war remained with Charles, he offered Francis somewhat more To the Peace of Augsburg {ijjj) yy acceptable terms (temporary retention by Francis of Bur- gundy) in new negotiations, which ended in the so-called Ladies' Peace of Cambray (1529). After the peace Charles had himself crowned emperor at Bologna (1530), and fig- ures in history as the last emperor who was willing to take so much trouble for an empty title. Charles, temporarily rid of France, was now resolved to Charles retumu look once more into German affairs. In 1530, after an ab- The Diet of sence of ahnost ten years, he again turned his face north- ^"gsburg, ward. The Reformation was by this time an accomplished fact, but Charles, who during his absence had received his information from Catholic partisans and through hearsay, still inclined, as at Worms, to treat it as a trifle. He was destined to be rudely awakened. A Diet had been called to meet him at the city of Augsburg, and at the summons a brilliant assembly of both Lutheran and Catholic princes came together. Their sessions turned chiefly arounfl the question whether or no the Edict of Worms of 152 1 should be at last executed. Unquestionably the Edict was part of the law of the land, and unquestionably its execution meant the death of Luther and the end of the young church which had grown up around him. Naturally the Lutherans made a supreme effort to vindicate themselves. They requested Melanchthon, a gentle soul and profound scholar, and at the same time the bosom friend of Luther, to draw up for the emperor's perusal a statement of the Lutheran position. The document, on being published, became known under the name of the Confession of Augsburg, and constitutes The Confess substantially the creed of the Lutheran Church to this day. Augsburg. But the emperor was not to be persuaded. If he had thus far treated the Reformation in a hesitating manner, that was partly because he had made the mistake of underestimating it, and partly because he had not been averse to frightening the Pope a little, who, even when he was not his open enemy, 78 The Reforviatio)i in Gcrviany was never his sincere friend. But he had just made his peace with the Pope, and even before coming to Germany had indicated from what quarter the wind now blew by ordering / the Diet of Spires, in 1529, to take back certain former con- cessions to the innovators, and once more to insist on the full execution of the Edict of Worms. Against this step the Lutheran members of the Diet had lodged a formal protest, which had won them the epithet, destined to become world- famous, of Protestants. Thus Charles was committed to a policy before ever he came to Augsburg. The hearing granted to the Protestants partook largely of the nature of a prearranged comedy, upon which, when it had lasted long enough, he rang down the curtain, and announced his deci- sion. In the matter of the religious innovations, the con- cluding protocol declared that everybody must abandon them within six months, or suffer the consequences. The bold challenge drove the Protestants to concert measures for defence. They met at the little town of Smalkald and organized a league for mutual protection (1531). Civil war Both sides now stood opposed to each other, ready for thcT^urkish^ action; but just as civil war seemed to have become inevi- dangcr. table, the news reached Germany that the Turks were about to attack Vienna. The Turks had already carried the terror of their name into eastern Germany two years before. In face of a danger threatening all alike, the civil struggle had, of course, to be postponed. In an agreement which Charles signed with the Protestants at Nuremberg (1532), he under- took to adjourn his measures against his opponents until a General Council of the Church had met to decide the doc- trinal points in dispute, and he was thus enabled to march against the Turks at the head of a brilliant army represent- ing united Germany. Before this display of force the Turks fell back. On his return Charles found other things to do than fight the German Protestants. The Mohammedan To the Peace of Augsburg {1535) 79 pirates of the north coast of Africa, who were engaged in destroying the European commerce, urgently demanded his attention. For the next few years he gave his time to the destruction of their strongholds in Tunis and Tripoli, and thus the suppression of Protestantism in Germany was again postponed. To Charles all this must have been hard to bear. The French, the Turks, and the African pirates were among them keeping his hands full, and were always inter- cepting his arm at the very moment at which he was about to draw his sword against the Protestant revolution. On his return from Africa there broke out a third war New wars. 1 with Francis I. of France (1536-38), only to be succeeded by fJee" Fr^dsl the fourth and last (1542-44), which was concluded by the I; and the Peace of Crespy. In this peace Charles definitely gave up his claim to Burgundy, and in return was confirmed in his mastery of the much-prized Italian peninsula. But the most striking feature of these last two wars, a feature which among contemporary Europeans caused an unspeakable surprise, was the alliance which Francis concluded against Charles with Soli man the Magnificent, the Turkish Sultan. It fur- nished fresh evidence of the broadening of life effected by the Renaissance. As the traders and discoverers had burst the narrow barriers of the Mediterranean, so European diplomacy henceforth would not hesitate to draw Asiatics and infidels into its game. The Peace of Crespy set Charles free to try once more to Charles fails eradicate the German heresy. He had staked his life upon heresy by a destroying it, but had been thwarted in every attempt. As General early as 152 1, in the Edict of Worms, he had announced his ""'"" ' settled policy. But circumstances like the French wars, as well as a certain statesmanlike reluctance to proceed to force, had intervened to restrain him from carrying it out. Then, later, with the Peace of Nuremberg (1532), he had committed himself to the policy of reconciliation through a 80 The Reformation in Germany Death of Luther, 1546. The first war of religion in Germany. General Council of the Church. A General Council could fbe summoned only with the consent of the Pope, who had ' thus far sullenly refused to issue a call. At last, in 1545, Paul III. yielded to Charles's solicitations and summoned the fa- mous Council of Trent. But the favorable moment had passed. The Protestants, who had gone too far on the path of separation to retreat, would no longer submit to it, and Charles had to acknowledge that he was at the end of his tether. Turn as he would, there was only one way left to crush the Protestants, and that was by war. So Charles, whose aversion to heresy and schism was unaltered, drew his sword, and precipitated the first German civil war over the issue of religion. Just before the outbreak of hostilities, on February 18, 1546, Luther, whose word had raised the tempest, died. He was spared the final pain of seeing his countrymen in arms against each other, largely on his account. Certainly his character had many grievous flaws, but in looking back- ward over his life they disappear in the strong light shed by his honesty, simplicity, and unflinching courage. If he has become dear to the German people and to the Protestant world in general, it is not only because he originated a relig- ious movement which has become an incalculable factor in the history of modern times, but also because his large, hale figure, seated at the family board and surrounded by a circle of fresh young faces, breathes a broad sympathy and hu- manity. The first war of religion in Germany, called also, from the name of the league of Protestant princes, the war of Smal- kald, broke out in the year of Luther's death (1546). The Protestant forces, commanded by the foremost Protestant princes, John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse, acted without a plan. Charles, advancing with concentrated en- ergy, ended the war with one stroke at the battle of Miihl- To the Peace of Augsburg {ijJS) 8i berg (1547), where the leading Protestant prince, the elector of Saxony, was taken prisoner. The triumph of the em- peror was in no small measure due to the treachery of a Protestant relative of the elector, Maurice of Saxony, Maurice was a capable, unscrupulous man, who for the price of the electorate of his relative lent Charles his aid. The price once paid, he remembered that he, too, was a Protestant, and gradually cutting loose from the emperor prepared to undo the consequences of the victory of Miihlberg. Charles, after the victory of Miihlberg, which had ended The Interim, with the complete submission of the Protestants, undertook to reestablish the unity of the Church. There should be ijut one faith; so much he was firmly resolved on. But he clearly saw also that it would be the part of wisdom to proceed not too precipitately. He therefore did not force the Prot- estants back into the Churcli without delay, but declared himself content if they would accept a temporary measure called the Interim, which, although Catholic in spirit, granted them certain concessions until the Council of Trent had definitely pronounced upon the points in dispute. The Protestant world felt with consternation that in this half-way measure lay the beginning of the end. An increasing dis- General ris- content grew soon to a revolutionary enthusiasm, and when pro°estants. Maurice of Saxony came back to his coreligionists, Germany suddenly rose, and Charles found himself confronted by a united demonstration (1552), There can be no doubt that he was taken by surprise. Maurice, his chief opponent now, us a few years before he had been his chief ally, might even have taken him captive. " I have no cage for so fine a bird," he is reported to have said. So the emperor escaped. But his life-long war against the Lutheran heresy had come to an end. Broken by defeat, but too proud to acknowledge it, he empowered his brother Ferdinand to sign the truce of ) VPassau (1.S.S2) with the Protestants. At the Diet of Augs- 82 The Reformation in Germany The Peace of Augsburg, 1555- Th e Eccle- siastical Reser- vation. burg, in the year 1555, the arrangements of Passau were replaced by a definitive treaty, known as the Religious Peace of Augsburg. The main significance of the Peace of Augsburg lies in the fact that the mediicval idea of the unity of the Christian Church was therein officially abandoned, and Lutheranism granted legal recognition as a separate faith. But the interest of the document does not cease here. Since the central government had failed to carry through its religious policy, it was stipulated that religion should henceforth be treated as a local matter, that is, the local governments, being the princes and the cities, should be permitted to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism. This principle was e.xpressed in the Latin phrase, cu]us regie ejus religio, meaning that religion is an atlfair of the lord of the territory. Under this system the prince who chose Protestantism could eject all Catholics from his state, and vice versa. This is not what we would call religious toleration, since it gave the right of choice to princes and not to individuals; but in- dividual toleration seemed as yet a dangerous idea, to which the world, as in the case of every valuable acquisition made by the race, would have to grow accustomed by slow degrees. Such are the chief provisions of the Peace of Augsburg. But there was another article which, as it became the fruitful mother of confusion, deserves close attention. It was in- serted in favor of the old Church, and is called the Ecclesi- astical Reservation. There were in Germany many bishops who were not only heads of dioceses, but who also ruled con- siderable territories as temporal lords. Since they exercised both lay and spiritual functions, they are properly designated as j)rince-bishops. It was laid down in the Ecclesiastical ^ Reservation that to these prince-bishops the free choice / between Catholicism and Protestantism accorded to layj princes should not extend. They were indeed to be per-' To the Peace of Augsburg (iSSS) 83 mitted to elect Protestantism for themselves, but they were obliged in that case to resign their sees, and Catholic suc- cessors would have to be chosen in their places. In essence this article was a guarantee that the lands of the bishops should remain forever and ever in the hands of the old Church, and, though the Lutherans protested, the article was incorporated in the Peace of Augsburg and became the law of the land. As might have been foreseen, difficulties almost immediately arose. It was found that in practice the ar- ticle could not be kept, for many bishoprics, following the trend of the day, soon fell into Protestant hands, and out of the ensuing recriminations developed in time another and a much more serious civil war. The victory of the Protestants over the emperor was Henry II. of not purchased without a heavy loss for Germany. Maurice quers the three of Saxony had found it necessary, in order to make sure of bishoprics, victory, to ally himself with Henry II. of France, and in the i same year (1552) in which Maurice drove the emperor over ' the Alps Henry II. invaded Germany and occupied the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and V^crdun. Although Charles laid siege to Metz immediately upon the reestablishment of peace with the Protestants, the French were able to beat him off and retain possession of their conquests. This in- cident opens the long and troublesome story of the border conflicts between France and Germany which accompany the history of these two nations throughout the Modern Age. The emperor, whose life was worn out with his long Abdication of conflicts and labors, could not recover from the blow of DrvIsiorTorthe these last disasters. He abdicated hi^ crown (it:!;6) and Hapsburg ^ -^^ ■' dominions. retired to the monastery of San Yuste in Spain, where he died two years later. Hardly in the history of the world has so proud a life set so humbly. Upon his abdication the vast Hapsburg possessions, which he had held in his 84 The Reformation in Germany sole hand, were divided. His son Philip got Spain (with her colonies), the Italian territory (Naples and Milan), and the Netherlands. His brother Ferdinand got the Austrian lands and therewith the imperial crown. Henceforth until the extinction of the Spanish line (1700) we have in Europe a Spanish and an Austrian branch of the great House of Hapsburg. CHAPTER V THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN EUROPE AND THE COUNTER-REFORMATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH References: Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 201-3 (Zwingli), Chapter VI. (Calvin and the Counter-Reformation); Fisher, History of the Refor- mation, Chapter V. (Zwingli), Chapter VI. (Scandi- navian Reformation), Chapter VII. (Calvin), Chapter XL (Counter- Reformation) ; Jackson, Zwingli; Cam- bridge Modern History, Vol. II., Chapter X. (Switz- erland), Chapter XI. (Calvin), Chapter XVII. (Scandi- navia), Chapter XVIII. (Reform of the Roman Catholic Church); Parkman, Jesuits in America, Vol. I., Chap- ters II., X.; Hughes, Loyola; Walker, Calvin. Source Readings: The University of Pennsvlvania, Translations and Reprints, Vol. II., No. 6 (extracts from Decrees of the Council of Trent); Vol. III., No. 3 (Calvin's Catechism, Predestination, etc.); Jackson, Selected Works of Zwingli; Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXVII. (Zwingli, Calvin), Chapter XXVIII. (Trent, Jesuits). The Protestant movement spread rapidly from Ger- The spread of many over the Teutonic north, and even invaded southern Europe, making inroads upon France, Italy, and Spain. It met with opposition everywhere; sometimes it was sup- pressed, sometimes it forced the governments to come to terms with it; but wherever it raised its head its original form was modified more or less by the character of the people among whom it appeared, and by the local circum- stances. 85 86 The Progress of the Reformation in Europe Denmark, Norway, and Sweden accept Lutheranism. The success of the Reformation was most complete and rapid in the Scandinavian north. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the three Scandinavian powers, had been united under one king since the Union of Calmar (1397). At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Union fell apart, owing to the fact that Sweden put an end to a discontent of long standing by reclaiming her independence. Under the powerful leadership of a member of the nobility, Gustavus Vasa, who in 1523 was empowered by the people to assume the title of king, she achieved her desire. Gustavus Vasa became the founder of a long and important line of sovereigns. Denmark and Norway, however, remained united, under a Danish king, down to the time of Napoleon. The political confusion that was occasioned in Scandinavia by the struggle of Sweden for independence favored the religious innova- tions. Within twenty years after Luther's proclamation against Indulgences (1517), Catholicism had been formally done away with, and Lutheranism been accepted as the sole faith of all the Scandinavian countries. The north produced no great reformer of its own, and therefore accepted the creed of its nearest neighbor, Germany. Turning next to Switzerland, we take note that this country had, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, very nearly acquired its present extent. It was in the Middle Ages a part of the Holy Roman Empire, that is, of Germany. But certain valleys of the Alpine uplands began at an early date to go their own way, to be joined presently by neigh- boring valleys. The interesting story of these beginnings takes us to the picturesque lake of Lucerne, lying beneath the shadow of the three small Alpine cantons of'Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden. In 1291 these three districts formed an alliance for the purpose of assisting each other against the aggressions of the neighboring counts of Hapsburg. Again and asrain the counts led their brilliant host of knights Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church 87 against the hardy mountaineers, who fought on foot, armed with such imperfect weapons as came to hand. The feudal onslaught was in vain. The scales of fate steadily inclined in favor of the lowly sons of the soil, and their victory was presently crystallized by the ever-active poetic instinct of man into patriotic legends around the names of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried. As late as the time of Emperor Maximilian the counts of Hapsburg, who had waxed great and acquired the imperial dignity, retained the hope of bring- ing the obstinate peasants once more under their authority. In the year 1499 ^Maximilian levied war upon them, but when he, too, like his forefathers, was defeated, the attempt at subjugation was given up, and the Swiss cantons became virtually independent, not only of the House of Hapsburg, but also of the Empire. Meanwhile the original three cantons had been strength- Switzerland a ened by gradual accession from their neighbors. By the aUon. time the Hapsburgs made their last effort, in 1499, seven more cantons had been added to the original league, together with a number of outlying districts, bound to the Confedera- tion by more or less strict articles of adhesion. Nevertheless, the union left much to be desired. Every canton remained practically an independent little republic, and the central government, which consisted of a Diet composed of dele- gates from the cantons, had hardly any other power than the right to concert common measures of defence. From the time of its origin to well into the nineteenth century Switzerland furnished an excellent example of a loose con- federation of sovereign or almost sovereign states. This weak union was exposed to a severe test when the Zwingli, Reformation carried its conflicts and confusion into the reformer. Confederation. The champion of the movement in Switz- erland was Ulrich Zwingli. Throughout his life he main- tained with conviction and much show of reason that his 88 TJie Progress of the Reformation in Europe Zwingli, humanist and democrat. Differences in the ideals of Luther and Zwingli. ideas were his own, and had not been borrowed from Luther; still it may be doubted if he would ever have made much stir if it had not been for the larger movement set afoot by the Saxon reformer. Zwingli was only a few weeks younger than Luther, hav- ing been born in the village of Wildhaus, near St. Gall, in January, 1484. He came of an influential family, received a careful schooling, and in due time attended the university, where he was strongly impregnated with the current human- istic thought. In 1506 he was ordained a priest, and was called to his first charge at Glarus. As the outer circum- stances of his life were much happier than Luther's, so he seems to have grown up without any of those inner crises that make Luther's youth such a troubled season of storm and stress. In his capacity of free-born Swiss he became acquainted early with the workings of a democratic city republic and imbued with that virile patriotism which is the product of political responsibility. These are the in- fluences which determined Zwingli 's life and shaped his labors. They explain why he approached the criticism of the Church by the path of the Erasmian humanism, and also make clear why, when he had been pushed beyond the position of Erasmus to a complete separation from Rome, he advocated an ecclesiastical reorganization which hence- forth should subject religion to the democratic control of the civil authorities. Lufhcr, too, had ])laced his Church under the guidance of the civil powers, but since the civil powers in Germany were, speaking generally, the princes, the Lutheran Church accjuired a distinctly autocratic char- acter. Zwingli, the Swiss republican, not only felt impelled to carry the idea of democracy into the Church, but also re- tained a firm belief in the political wisdom of the masses, long after the experience of the peasants' war had cured Luther of his popular leanings. In consequence, the Swiss Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church 89 reformer had none of Luther's aversion to interweaving re- ligion and politics; on the contrary, he frankly courted polit- ical authority all his life, on the ground that only by this means could his religious programme be definitely estab- lished in society. Zwingli's real career did not begin until 1518; in that year Zwingli's he was called to a pastoral charge in Zurich, the most vigorous ^"'^'^^^ community in Switzerland. Starting like Luther with a protest against Indulgences, he was carried from point to point, until there was no room for him within the ancient Church. The measures which he advocated in powerful addresses from the pulpit were enthusiastically received by his hearers, until by the end of 1525 his Reformed Church was, in effect, established at Zurich. That it differed by reason of its democratic organization from the Lutheran Church has already been remarked; but it also differed in some essential points of doctrine. Of the seven sacraments of the mediaeval Church Luther had retained two: baptism Quarrel with and the Lord's supf)er. Concerning the Lord's supper he ^"'^^'■• believed in the actual presence of Jesus in the bread and wine, in accordance with the literal meaning of the Gospel words: this is my Blood, this is my Body. In the eyes of Luther the change of substance was a miracle beyond the power of e.xplanation, a belief esteemed rank superstition by Zwingli, who saw in the rite merely an act whereby the communicant recalled to his mind the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Luther's interpretation originated in his mystic attitude toward Christianity, whereas Zwingli's view represented the scientific current of thought which tries to bring faith into accord with reason. Such differ- ences made a union of the Lutheran and Zwinglian move- ments impossible. Nevertheless, some Protestants, like the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, convinced that disunion in the reformed camp would invite attack, urged the rival leaders 90 TJic Progress of the I\eforination in Europe to bury their strife. Zwingli ^as not averse, but the con- ference, which at the invitation of the Landgrave Phihp took place between him and Luther at Marburg in 1529, ended in failure, because Luther would not sacrifice an iota of his doctrine of the Lord's" supper. . Thus the Protestant move- ment of Switzerland continued upon its independent course. Opposition by But trouble was already beginning to threaten its success. cantons!^' With the usual passion of the reformer, Zwingli wished to carry his propaganda over all Switzerland. He met with some success, notably when the city of Bern came over to his side (1528), but the so-called Forest cantons, representing the original nucleus of the Confederation, refused to abandon their ancient faith. The Forest cantons enfolded the region of the upper Alps, and were inhabited chiefly by peasants and herdsmen. This simple and honest folk, besides being imbued with the conservatism natural to a remote farming society, nourished a fear that the realization of Zwingli's ideas would diminish their influence in the Confederation. They had become aware that in the background of Zwingli's religious propaganda lurked a plan to subject the cantons to the federal Diet by increasing the latter's powers. In this body the Forest cantons wielded, by reason of the rule which accorded to every canton equal representation, an influence out of proportion to their size and population. Zwingli's plan would have subjected them to a majority drawp from the progressive and populous districts. A prolonged dispute ended with an appeal to arms. The decision fell at the battle of Kappel, in October, 153 1, where the Forest cantons were successful, and Zwingli himself, who had marched out with The Peace of the Zurich host, was slain. In the Peace of Kappel, which appe , 1531- fQiio-^ved the battle, an arrangement was concluded which foreshadowed the solution of the religious difhculties of Germany, found at Augsburg in 1555. Religion w^s de- clared to be the affair not of the Swiss Diet, but of each Counter- Reformation of the Catholic Church 91 canton, which should determine for itself whether Protestant- ism or Catholicism should reign within its jurisdiction. No other solution was perhaps possible in a loose union like Switzerland, where the several partners held that they had never surrendered their sovereignty. In consequence, the religious map of Switzerland acquired that checkered appear- ance which mark<» it to this day. The cantons composing Switzerland at this time were in the main of German speech. At the western portal of the Confederation lay a city of French sj)eech, which, becoming Protestant about the same time, declared its independence, and entered into relations of amity with the Swiss. This city was Geneva, and the man who assured the triumph of Geneva, its revolution was the leading figure of the second generation of reform, John Calvin. Zwingli played, after all, only a local Swiss role, but Calvin exercised an influence as wide or even wider than that of Luther. Geneva at the beginning of the sixteenth century occupied Geneva be- a curious political position, which may be defined as a half- pendent of wav station between media-val and modern conditions. The "jishop and duke. city, like many other medix'val towns, had acquired a limited self-government, but its old feudal lord, the bishop of Geneva, still exercised authority over it, though sharing some of his minor rights with the most powerful secular ruler of the neighborhood, the duke of Savoy. This cal- culating noble had long been planning to add the city com- manding the sources of the Rhone River to his possessions, and had inaugurated his undertaking by getting the bishopric well under his control. If the Genevans had not been im- bued with the spirit of liberty, they would surely have fallen victims to the formidable plot of duke and bishop. But subjects of Savoy they would not be, and defended them- selves with such vigor that the conspirators were beaten off and had to abandon the citv. Rv the year t5';6 92 The Progress of the- Reformation in Europe Geneva becomes Protestant. John Calvin. Calvin ban- ished from France. Geneva was a free republic, recognizing no superior under heaven. Meanwhile the civil revolt had become complicated with the religious agitations of the day. The patriotic struggle against the bishop had drawn the ire of the Genevans upon the Church with which he was identified. As much to spite their hated master as from any deep moral enthusiasm, they had turned toward Protestantism. Thus the religious rev- olution kept pace with the political one, and in the same year in which the city became free, its citizens formally pledged themselves to live according to the new faith. It was only when this much had been done that there began the connection with Geneva of that man who gave the revolu- tion in that city its final form and made it famous. It was a stroke of chance which brought John Calvin to Geneva. He was a Frenchman by birth, having been born at Noyon, in the province of Picardy, on July lo, 1509. He attended the universities of Paris and Orleans, where after a brief plunge into theology he undertook seriously the study of law. The clearness and precision which are char- acteristics of the French mind were doubtless deepened by his legal training, while his intellect was both stimulated and humanized by early immersion in the regenerating stream of classical antiquity. But though a man of the si.xtecnth century might study law and love the classics, he could not, especially if he had the passion for righteousness which distinguished Calvin, avoid being drawn into the religious whirlpool. Calvin became allied with the handful of men in France who sup- ported the reforming opinions, was persecuted by the in- tolerant government of Francis I., and had to seek safety in flight. He settled at Basel, a city which Erasmus had made illustrious by a long residence, and which had lately adopted the Zwinglian faith; and here he published in 1536, Coiintcr-Reformation of the Catholic Church 93 being then twenty-seven years of age, his famous theological work, " The Institutes of the Christian Religion." The Institutes make the attempt to reconstruct the Christian Church in accordance with the words of the earliest followers of Jesus, and are, by implication as well as by direct state- ment, a criticism of the elaborate superstructure of the mediaeval Church. Since no work so thorough had yet come from the Protestant camp, the reputation of the young author spread rapidly over Europe. Shortly after this trea- tise had appeared he stopped, on returning from a secret visit to France, for a night's rest at Geneva. The Protestant faith had only just been introduced into Calvin is pre- Geneva, and its organization left much to be desired, stay in Geneva, Besides, the citizens, having adopted it largely on grounds of ^536- expediency, had not felt the uplifting force of a great moral experience. Now if Protestantism meant anything at all worth while, it was an invitation to a nobler life in the consciousness of God's active and incessant grace. Farel, the leading preacher of Geneva, was in despair over the spiritual deadness of his flock, when, hearing of the presence in the town of the famous young scholar, he called upon him to solicit his aid in the evangelization of the city. Calvin, enamored of the retired life of study, at first refused, but Farel plied him with such vigor that he resolved at last to set his pleasure after his duty, and exchange his quiet closet for the stern world of affairs. The work which Calvin now entered on lasted, with the Calvin rules exception of a short exile, until his death in 1564. By sheer church, force of will and ascendancy of genius he rapidly became the commanding figure within the territory of the city, and with the consent of its citizens ruled its destinies like a dictator. His plan was to realize in Geneva the Christian Church outlined in the Institutes, and to link it in such re- lations to the state as to make each contribute in the highest 94 ili^ Progress of the Reformation in Europe Geneva a Christian democracy. Calvin's Church is democratic. possible degree to the welfare of man. A separation of Church and state, as exists for instance in the United States of America, did not enter even for a moment into his calcula- tions. Such is the power resident in inherited ideas, that however far the Protestants withdrew from the old Church, they one and all held fast to the essentially mediaeval con- ception of the oneness of Church and state. The state as governing temporal man, the Church as ministering to his spirit, could not disjoin their labors, if there was ever to be realized the ideal of a coming reign of perfection. In con- sequence, Calvin created at Geneva what may be called a Church-state, and by so doing instituted one of the most remarkable experiments in history. Let us look at the two coordinated features of his system. And first as to his state. When Calvin arrived at Geneva, he found a democratic community, that is, a city governed by elected councils. As he found it, he was content, in the jjiain, to leave it. According to him any form of govern- ment would do among men, provided only that it was filled with the spirit of God. Therefore he merely impressed upon the rulers of the city that they were in a very true sense ministers of the Lord, intrusted with a work different, but quite as important, as that of the preachers of His word. During Calvin's life at least the officials elected satisfied, on the whole, this requirement, and in consequence the world enjoyed the exceptional spectacle of an ecclesiastical and civil government, each advancing claims of equality and in- dependence, and ruling, nevertheless, harmoniously side by side. In the matter of the Church, which he had mainly at heart, Calvin held that though there was one invisible Church of all true believers, practically, this might be split up into many separate Churches, according to the varying conditions of human society. Every such Church belonged to all its mem- Coimter-Rcformatioji oj the Catholic Church 95 bers, and should be governed by them in the democratic spirit. Luther had already denied that the control of the Church be- longed exclusively to the clergy; but though he had in the beginning of his career advocated the priesthood of every Christian man, he had yielded to the exigencies of the politi- cal situation in Germany, and suffered the princes to assume control. Calvin had no insuperable objection to this system, but, like Zwingli, he lived in a democratic community, and feeling, like him, a preference for democracy, he put the Church directly into the hands of the people. A democratic or popular character marks every Church established under his influence. But the feature of Calvin's Genevan estab- lishment which has excited the most comment is doubtless the consistory. The consistory was a mixed body of clergy and laity ap- The con- pointed to watch over the morals of the community. Six ^'^ °'^* ministers and twelve elders composed it. It was empow- ered to try any man, woman, or child for any departure from the accepted standards of purity, and hand the wrong- doer over to the civil authorities for punishment. The consistory has something of the appearance of a Protestant inquisition, but though it has brought the maledictions of modern apostles of liberty upon Calvin's head, it is necessary to do justice to his underlying conception. The Church and state, as has already been said, he held to exist solely for the good of man, for the achievement of Christian per- fection. But that good he held — and teachers and preachers of conduct in all ages have generally held with him — could not be attained if departure from the path of righteousness was allowed to go unpunished. Under the sway of the con- sistory the city assumed a stern and austere character. Life at Geneva in Calvin's day may have been inwardly fervent, but many little gayeties which lend charm and color to the fleeting hours were rudely banished. Non-attendance at 96 The Progress of the Reformation in Europe Calvin's theology. Predestination. church rendered one Hable to punishment; also dancing, card-playing, and the singing of profane songs. Let a man blaspheme, a child be disrespectful to its parents, and the arm of the consistory came down upon them like a mallet. A departure from the Calvinistic tenets constituted heresy, and was, of course, a particularly heinous offence. In 1547 Gruet was executed for the possession of infidel books, and in 1553 Servetus was burned for denying the doctrine of the Trinity. A system characterized like this by the element of discipline may run the risk of narrowing the human sympathies and drawing much of the sweetness out of life, but it makes men hard and lirm as iron. This same tendency toward vigor and rigidity rather than gentleness and pity was inherent in the theology with which Calvin endowed his Church. It is perhaps his least original contribution since his doctrines can generally be traced back to one or another of liis predecessors. Nevertheless, the Calvinistic theology looms large in theological annals, chiefly because of the prominence given in polemics to Calvin's doctrine of election by grace. This has stirred up so much dust that it deserves an explanation. The central feature of the great Frenchman's system was the absolute supremacy of God's will. Since God was all in all, it was preposterous to suppose that man could win salvation either by works, as the Roman Church taught, or by faith, as Luther argued. God alone could save, and His saving was a pure act of mercy. But since God is eternal and omniscient, He must know and has willed, even before birth, whether a soul shall be saved or lost. This doctrine, known popularly as pre- destination, has always aroused much angry opposition, since it implies the denial of man's power to contribute an iota to his own salvation, and would seem to justify him in desisting from any efTort at goodness. It was freely predicted that something akin to Oriental fatalism would settle like a Comiter-Reformation of the Catholic Church 97 cloud upon the followers of Calvin. But for whatever rea- son — perhaps merely to show how little philosophical logic counts in the conduct of life — the exact opposite has taken place. Never has a creed stirred its followers to a more strenuous activity than has Calvin's. We have seen that there had been raised in Europe, ever The Roman since the thirteenth century, loud cries for the reform of the takes a reform. Church, but that the Popes had remained deaf to the call. At length toward the middle of the si.\teenth century, frightened by the movement begun by Luther, the Church of Rome yielded to the new spirit and instituted a series of reformatory measures. This Counter-Reformation in the Roman Church must, Change in the in order to be rightly understood, be recognized as a real re- the Papacy ligious revival which, without affecting the doctrines or the ^^'^^'sy- system of government, brought about a great improvement in the life of the clergy. Wc have noticed that the Popes of the Renaissance, concerned chiefly with their aggrandizement and pleasures, sealed their cars to the criticism of humanists and reformers. Hut that attitude of indifference could not be kept up forever if the Papacy was to live. Many loyal churchmen, while looking with horror ujion any attack on the system of the Church, were yet willing to admit that there was much improvement possible in the realm of conduct. According to them there was one reform of which Rome had need, the reform of its clergy. It is not astonishing when we consider the Christian fervor of the Spanish nation, as manifc. ted by the long crusades against the Moors, that Spain should have furnished the first impulse to a movement of reform undertaken in this spirit. As early as the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and that means before Luther struck his famous blow against Indulgences, these sovereigns, aided by the devout Cardinal Ximenes, infused new life into the Spanish Church. Their idea was that the priests 98 The Progress of the Reformation in Europe should be a light to the people by reason of their purity, charity, and good learning. It was long before the Italian Church took notice of the Spanish movement. The Popes and cardinals of the period clung to the pleasant gardens of the Renaissance, and found it hard to abandon the life of worldliness and self-indulgence to which they had become accustomed. The middle of the century had been passed before the Papacy, in the person of Paul IV. (1555-59), definitely pledged itself to the new movement. With him begins a line of Popes who mark a reversion to the more austere ideals of the Middle Ages, maintain a rigorous moral code, and devote themselves with eager zeal to ecclesias- tical interests. The good example set in the high places could not but affect the rank and file. The ignorance, drunkenness, and licentiousness which the humanists had imputed to the clergy, and especially to the monks, were largely replaced in the course of the next generation by earnestness, love of study, and purity of life. Signs of The change of temper in the body of the clergy soon made revivaL j^^^^jf ^^^^ -^^ ^^ increased religious activity. From parish priest to bishop a new fervor animated the old rulers. One sign of it was the enrichment, in imitation of the Protestants, of the public services by the more frequent use of sermons and hortatory addresses. Still more important was the spon- taneous creation of great bands of Christian volunteers who associated themselves in orders, much like those which have attended every revival in the history of the Catholic Church. If the Theatines, founded in 1524, and the Capuchins, in 1525, cannot be compared with the Franciscans and Do- minicans, products of the great revival of the thirteenth cen- tury, these in their turn pale before the most effective in- strument which the spirit of religious propaganda has ever forged, the order of the Jesuits. Loyola. The order of the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, was founded Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church 99 by Ignatius Loyola. Loyola was a Spanish nobleman whose desire, as was usual with his class, was to be a soldier, until during a long convalescence from a wound received in the field, he chanced to read some lives of Christian saints and heroes. His high-strung and exalted nature was so fired by this reading that henceforth he knew no higher ambition than, in imitation of the mart\TS, to dedicate his life to the Church. His first efforts were wildly romantic and fruitless. He eventually saw that his education was not sufficient, and at thirty-three years of age began to study Latin, philos- ophy, and theology. While at school in Paris he made the acquaintance of some kindred spirits, and with them he founded his new society (1534) for the purpose, at first, of doing missionary work among the Mohammedans. Cir- cumstances prevented the sailing of the enthusiasts for the Orient, whereupon they resolved to go to Rome to offer their services to the Pope and to secure his sanction for their order. In 1540, after considerable hesitation. Pope Paul III. confirmed the order and the rules which Loyola had composed for it. It was not unnatural that Loyola, an old soldier, should The order of have modelled his order somewhat after the army. Disci- ^J^"' pline, an iron discipline, was its main characteristic. Only after a long period of probation was a novice admitted to full membership. The trend of the long training was to divest the candidate of his personal will and to persuade him to merge his individuality in the will of the order. This general will was personified by the general, the su- preme head, who ruled the members like a regiment of sol- diers. In an organization where all private desires and ambitions are eradicated, and only one voice of command makes itself heard, there is bound to be achieved a perfect unity and cohesion. The members serving under the general were of four classes: (i) coadjutors temporal or LOT C, lOO The Progress of the Reformation in Europe lay brothers, (2) scholastics who, as teachers in the school, were preparing themselves for higher service, (3) coadjutors spiritual or priests, who had taken the tlwee vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, and (4) the pro- fessed who, in addition to the three vows, had taken a fourth vow of special obedience to the Pope. Only the professed had a voice in the government of the society, and the fourth vow imposed upon them reveals that the order was conceived as the prop and weapon of the Papacy. Thus it will be seen that the order, although it maintained affiliations with the laity by admitting merchants, nobles, and statesmen, as it were, into its outer court-yard, was substantially a congregation of priests. As such its labors were determined for it. . They were preaching mission work and education. The society grew prodigiously in numbers and in wealth. When Loyola, its first general, died in 1556 it was already a factor to be reckoned with, and before the end of the cen- tury it possessed many thousand members and supported several hundred colleges and houses, scattered everywhere over Catholic Europe. Recognizing that youth is the im- pressionable age, the maintenance of schools became one of the chief activities of the society, and thanks to the energy and zeal of its members their system of instruction reached a high degree of excellence. In fact, the Jesuits remained for many generations the foremost educators of Europe. But important as were the young, the old were not neglected. The Jesuits became famous preachers, and as priests ac- quired much skill in the treatment of the conscience and in resolving the doubts which beset at times even the sturdi- est believer. By reason of this gift they were generally in demand as confessors, in which capacity they found their way into the councils of the mighty of the earth, and exercised considerable, though indefinable, political sway. Counter -Reformation of the Catholic CJiurch loi Sustained by their devotion to the Catholic cause they car- ried their propaganda across the seas among the Hindoos, Their prop- Japanese, and Chinese of Asia and among the Indians of ^^^" *" America, and were not afraid to penetrate into the Protest- ant north in the hope of winning the revolted peoples back to Mother Church. Nor were these efforts without fruit. If the Roman Church was enabled to raise its head again in Germany and England, it was chiefly due to the secret, tire- less, and death-defying labors of the Jesuits. In the course of the seventeenth century Germany was startled by the news of the return of many a Protestant prince to the Church of Rome, and when the Scottish Stuarts upon the British throne and the electoral family of Saxony, the cradle of the Refor- mation, sued to be readmitted to the papal fold, the out- look for Protestantism became dark and threatening. But the Jesuits were not the only assistants that Rome prepared for service in the period of its revival. Other im- portant aids were the Inquisition, the Council of Trent, and the Index. The Inquisition, set up in Rome in 1542, was an ecclesi- The papal astical court of inquiry, intrusted with the ferreting out of "^"'^' '°"' heresy and the punishment of those who propagated it. It was not a novel idea, for a similar court of Inquisition had proved its efficacy in the Middle Ages by destroying the Albigensian heretics of southern France; but it had been allowed to lapse in the fifteenth century except in Spain, where a use was found for it in dealing with the special con- ditions created in the peninsula by the presence of a large number of Jews and Moors. When the Papacy at last awakened to the danger to which it was exposed by the new heresies of Luther and Calvin, it naturally bethought itself of this ancient weapon. The bull of 1542, which created the Inquisition, was soon followed by others which gave the institution its definitive organization. A committee of I02 Tlic Progress of the Reformation in Euro/e The territory of the papal Inquisition limited to Italy. The Council of Trent. cardinals, sitting at Rome, investigated all cases of heresy denounced to it, declared their sentence of imprisonment, confiscation, or death, and were empowered to despatch other inquisitors to any point where they seemed to be needed. It was the papal ambition to give this committee a jurisdiction as wide as that of the Church itself, but herein Rome was disappointed. The Spanish Inquisition, so terribly efficient long before the Roman Inquisition was established, had become closely associated with the royal power, and resented any interference with its operation. In other countries there were similar difficulties; either the bishops, or the king, or some other established power blocked the way to the papal pretensions. Heresy these countries had punished in the past and would continue to punish, but they had done it with the aid of already existing courts, and plainly told the Pope that they would have none of his interference. Consequently, the Roman Inquisition never exercised any notable activity except in Italy. If we hear of systematic persecution elsewhere — and there was an abun- dance of it in every Catholic country — we should take note that it was accomplished by a local or national Inquisition, conducted by national officials, and never, as the Pope desired, intrusted to his hands as one of the functions of a centralized monarchy. If Jesuits and Inquisition chiefly supj^lied the Church with its militant vigor, the Council of Trent precisely defined the territory which Catholicism was resolved to hold and defend. We have seen, in connection with Indulgences and other points of doctrine raised by Luther, that there were many practices and beliefs in the mediaeval Church which had developed gradually by custom and had never been authoritatively defined. In consequence, the Saxon reformer ventured to assert that he had as good and as Catholic sanction for his doctrine of .faith as his opponents for their Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church 103 doctrine of works. Charles V. believed that if Catholics and Protestants could only be brought together in a General Council, they would succeed in reducing their differences to a common formula, and so perpetuate the cherished unity of Christendom. The emperor therefore ceaselessly urged upon the Pope the duty of calling a Council. The Pope, for his part, resisted the imperial demand, mindful that the Councils of the past had threatened his absolute control, and fearful lest a Council at this juncture should mean surrender to the Protestants. In 1542 he had at length given way, and called a Council at Trent, but adjourned it again before it had held a single session. Whenever the emperor had the whip-hand, he obliged or persuaded the Pope to issue another call, but the result of the second (1545-47) and third meetings (1551-52) was hardly more satisfactory than the first, and when the emperor died it was with the full knowl- edge that his conciliar remedy for the Protestant schism had been a failure. Even if the Popes had not set their wills against the plan, it would have been wrecked upon the op- position of the Protestants themselves, who had by the middle of the century got far past the point of possible agreement. After Charles's death, however, when the mcdi.'cval reaction had definitely triumphed in the Church and all talk of con- cession to the Protestants had been hushed, the Council of Trent met for the fourth and last time in the years 1562-63, and set the crown upon a notable historical labor. It now took the uncompromising stand that the Protestants were heretics, that no negotiations could be carried on with them, and that the government, worship, and doctrines of the mediaeval Church were exactly right as they were. Not reconciliation, as Charles had planned, but the solemn re- afl5rmation of the history and traditions of the Church was accepted as the purpose for which it had been called. In consequence, the Council took upon itself to formulate of Trent. 104 The Progress of the Reformation in Europe authoritatively, and in a manner admitting of no dispute, the doctrines of the CathoHc Church, and rendered the division of Christianity definite and final by laying a formal anathema on every Protestant opinion. The ofRcial compilation called " The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent," in which the results of the sessions are registered, constitutes the most complete statement of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church in existence. This precise staking off of Catholic ground was to be of the utmost advantage during the coming sharp struggle with the forces of Protestantism. Every Catholic could now instruct himself as to what he was obliged to believe and defend, and knew also what he was bound to abominate and shun. The Papacy A rcsult of Trent which must have surprised everybody, in bv'thf Ccuncil view of the unconcealed aversion with which the Popes had viewed the prosp)ect of a Council, was that the Papacy came out of the crisis actually strengthened. Between Councils and Popes existed an ancient rivalry over the question of the final authority in the Church. The Councils had always claimed it, but its exercise had during the last centuries been assumed by the Popes. In the Council of Trent there was a party of bishops who took their stand on the old platform of conciliar supremacy, but the papal party, assisted by the new champions of the Pope, the Jesuits, won a complete victor)'. The Pope came out of the Council so far in the lead that the Council has never since proved dangerous to his authority. In fact, only one Council has been called since that of Trent, the Council of the Vatican, which met in 1870, and its sole business was to vote its own abdication by solemnly afBrming the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope. But though papal infallibility was voted at a comparatively late time, it was, after all, nothing but the inevitable corollary of the absolutism which was tacitly acknowledged as early as the Council of Trent. Counter -Reformation of the Catholic Church 105 Before the Council adjourned it empowered the Pope to The Index, draw up a list of prohibited books, destined to grow famous under the name of the Index. The purpose of the Index was to stigmatize the heresiarchs and to designate clearly all heretical writings, in order to preserve good Catholics from their evil influence. The Index thus authorized was pub- lished in 1564, and from that time to our own day the Papacy has maintained the policy of proscribing books which are, or seem to be, su"bversive of its system. Many of the epoch- making works which northern scholarship produced, not only in theology but also in the broader fields of science and culture, were incorporated in the Index, with the result that professing Catholics have been deprived of an incalculable intellectual stimulus. The gradual shifting of the mental centre of gravity from Italy, where it had rested in the Renaissance, to the countries beyond the Alps was due in no small degree to the narrow policy which shut its eyes upon progress, and timidly declared for security in place of independence. We have now acquainted ourselves with the movement Catholicism known as the Catholic reaction, or, quite as justly, as the Catholic Reformation. While we have assured ourselves that there was a true reformation, affecting the life and man- ners of the clergy, and filling the Church with new sincerity and zeal, we also have learned that there was a resolute return to, and stiffening of, the mediaeval system of govern- ment and theology. The effect of the combined measures was to inspire the Church with a truly electrical energy. If in the course of the first half of the sixteenth century it had been driven from position after position until the very sparrows on the house-tops prophesied its early fall, beginning approximately with the creation of the Jesuits it rallied its scattered and defeated forces, strongly fortified its remaining territory, and not only stopped all further advance, but becomes aggressive. lo6 TJie Progress of the Reformation in Europe soon undertook to reconquer its lost provinces. Protestant- ism was now threatened in its turn, and the struggle which ensued is the central interest in European history for the rest of the centurv. CHAPTER VI SPAm UNDER CHARLES I. (1516-56), KNOWN AS EMPEROR CHARLES v., AND PHILIP U. (1556-98); HER WORLD E\aNENCE AND HER DECAY References: Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Chapters III.,IV.,V. (rivalry with France), VII. (Philip) ; Armstrong, The Emperor Charles V.; M. A. S. Hume, Philip II.; M. A^ S. Hume, Spain, 1479-1788; Lea, The Moriscoe's in Spain; Cambridge Modern His- tory, Vol. II., Chapters II., III.; and Vol. III., Chapters XV., XVI. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXVIII., Parts 3 and 4 (Charles and Philip). From the Spanish national point of view it was a great The reign of misfortune that Charles I. (1516-56) was elected to the 1516-56. ' Empire in 15 19, and became Emperor Charles V. Hence- forth, having duties to perform in Germany, he could no longer give his whole time to Spain. In fact, from the time of his imperial election he seems gradually to have lost sight of any strictly national point of view; he became, above all, desirous of playing a grand European role, and that naturally brought with it a division of his service and a per- petual compromise of the interests of all the nations which he represented. Now, the interests of Spain and Germany were not necessarily opposed. One great interest, the de- feat of the Turks, who were pushing along the Danube into Germany, and along the Mediterranean toward Spain, they even had in common; but what had Germany to do with the emperor's Italian wars or his colonial policy, and what 107 io8 Spain Under Charles I. benefit did Spain derive from his life-long struggle against Protestantism? IMoreover, although the government of Spain needed Charles's personal attention because he was the focus of political life, out of a reign of forty years he spent in Spain hardly fifteen. It is true, he was the greatest political figure of his day, and his fellow-actors upon the European stage shrank to pigmies when he made his entrance; it is true, he was of tireless activity and with all seriousness tried to live up to the demands which the old illusory ideal of the emperor, the arbiter of the world, made upon him; but it is also true that his grandeur was a personal grandeur, and not identified with the nation, as is the case with the world's great sovereigns, for instance, Elizabeth of England and Henr\' IV. of France. In a word, Charles used the Spanish resources for his own, and not exclusively for Span- ish ends. Strength of But other causes which lay back of the reign and person- bygrSr"^ ality of Charles contributed to the decay of Spain. We absolutism. have seen that the royal power grew greatly under Ferdinand and Isabella, and that such growth was on the whole to the advantage of the country, because it humbled the nobility and facilitated the suppression of the robber-knights. Under Charles this centralizing movement began to show some of its darker sides. In the early part of his reign, in 1 52 1, the cities revolted as a protest against the excessive taxation to which they were subjected. After a fierce struggle their revolt was put down, with the result that the govern- ment, henceforth suspicious of the towns, cancelled many of their liberties. In the same way the Cortes, the parliament of Castile, once the {proudest self-governing body of Europe, was slighted and abased on every occasion. It still main- tained its right of voting the taxes which the government demanded, but the act tended more and more to degenerate into a mere mechanical registration of the king's wishes, Her World Euiinence and Her Decay 109 while all share in the making of the laws was practically surrendered. Thus the initiative of the Spanish people in local and national affairs was systematically checked, and where a policy of this sort holds sway it is safe to assert that a people is running the risk of losing its vigor. Economic causes also contributed powerfullv to the earlv Foolish „, , , , , . " . , ' economic decay of Spam. We have seen that the kmg m order to policy. carry on his European wars was obliged to tax the Spanish people heavily. Now the mere drain of money was in itself serious enough, but the Spanish Government made it nearly unbearable by coupling with it a fiscal and industrial policy which could not have been worse had it been dictated by Spain's worst enemy. The ordinary tax (alcabala) was a duty of ten per cent on everything sold, which naturally had the effect of totally discouraging commerce, while industrial enterprises, like the manufacture of cloth, were weighted with so many burdens and regulations that they were smothered in the cradle. Add to these discouragements a certain southern slothfulness and a national fondness for the display of elegant leisure, and it becomes plain why Spain never developed her natural resources but grew visibly poorer from decade to decade. And from this analysis of the malady of Spain, let not the Intellectual Inquisition be omitted. We have seen how, though oper- caused by the ating against heretics, it possessed from the first a special inq^'S't'on- significance, because the heretics, being Jews and Moors, happened to be a racially foreign body. Its political charac- ter was confirmed by the fact that the crown and not the Pope controlled the institution, and that its numerous con- fiscations flowed into the royal treasury. The Inquisition mscribed upon its banner the policy, " one faith one people," and though it accomplished its end, it did so at a terrible cost. Several thousand Jews and Moors were burned at the stake; many thousands fled or were banished. Apart no Spain Under Charles I. from the wrong, the mental and material loss was irrepara- ble, since Jews and Moors represented the most active commercial and intellectual elements in the peninsula. When toward the middle of the century- Protestanism raised its head here and there, it was crushed with the same relentless energy. But if the Inquisition was estab- lished to repress heretics, it soon extended its watchfulness to the whole orthodox society of Spain. Every form of intel- lectual activity fell under suspicion, until no man dared think a free thought, and the whole country sank into stagnation. However, since a yoke is hardly a yoke when it is borne as proudly as if it were a chain of honor, it should be re- membered that the Spanish people on the whole viewed the Inquisition with profound approval. They subscribed to its general principle with enthusiasm, and in their fervid catho- licity cheered the execution of their enemies. When the fire was laid in the public square to the long fagot-piles of the vic- tims, the Spaniards crowded to the ceremony as to a bull-fight. Philip II. sue- The last thirteen years of his reign Charles spent in Ger- kingdomof many. The Protestant successes there broke his spirit, and Spain. j^g resigned his crowns in 1556, Spain to his son Philip, Ger- many to his brother Ferdinand. Philip II. (1556-98) on his accession found himself at the head of states (Spain and her colonies, Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands) hardly less extensive than those which Charles had governed, and as he did not become emperor he had, from the Spanish point of view, the great excellence over Charles that he was a national king. As such he enjoyed the favor of his people, retaining it even through the disasters which mark the close of his reign. The character It is curious that this same Philip, whom contemporary Spaniards sincerely esteemed, should stand before the rest of Europe as the darkest tyrant and most persistent enemy of light and progress whom the age produced. To this tra- Her World Eminence and Her Decay 1 1 1 ditional Protestant picture there certainly belongs a meas- ure of truth; but calm investigation informs us that this truth is associated with prejudice and distorted by exagger- ation. Philip II. was a severe, formal, and narrow-minded man, who was animated by the Catholic fervor traditional among his people and his family, and who had acquired from the sad experiences of his father Charles a perfect horror of religious diversity. Therefore his guiding thought, while there was life in him, was to maintain the Catholic faith by repression of heresy through the Inquisition, where he had the power; by war, where war had become inevitable. Every Protestant when he thinks of Philip II. thinks of the Inquisition. But the Inquisition, as we have seen, was not PhiHp's invention, nor did he, although he made a revolting use of it, handle it more cruelly than his predecessors. In- deed, a scrutiny of his life will convince us that the mephis- tophelian portrait of him which his enemies popularized does not fit the case. He was, in fact, a plodding, reticent man, who took his business of kingship very seriously, and who, but for the one spark struck from him by his radi- cal intolerance, would have been as foreign to any kind of enthusiasm as the head of a bank. He passed his days and his nights over state affairs. Every document had to go through his own hands. Historians who have examined his papers declare it incredible that so much matter should have been written by one man in one lifetime. In fact, work was his failing, for work with him degenerated into the rage for minutiae, and ended by enfeebling his grasp of essentials. Out of business hours this ogre of the Protestant mythology was a tender and devoted husband and father. Even his worthless son, Don Carlos, whose mysterious death in prison has been the cause of violent and frequent defamation of the royal name, he is now admitted to have treated with an ex- emplary forbearance. 112 Spain Under Cliarlcs I. Philip as the champion of Catholicism. Philip inaugu- rates his rei^n by a war with France. It is true that Philip became the champion of the Catholic reaction, which is to say that he identified himself with the greatest movement of his half of the century, and rushed into war with the Protestant world of the north. Doubtless, he gloried in this role on religious grounds; nevertheless, an impartial student must agree that his wars were as much forced upon him by Protestant aggression and the logical progress of events, as determined by his own Catholic impulses. As things stood after the Council of Trent, a great Protestant-Catholic world-war was inevitable. It came by way of the Spanish Netherlands. The Netherlands re- volted, and Philip set about putting down the insurrection. When he grew aware that the question of religion was in- volved, his measures of repression became barbarous; they were the traditional Spanish measures, the rack and the fagot; worst of all, from the political point of view, they proved inadequate in the end. The Netherlands could not be pacified by Philip, and gradually won the sympathies and secured the aid of the French Huguenots and the German and English Protestants. So the war widened. Finding himself opposed in the Netherlands by united Protestant- ism, the king tried to secure the Catholic sympathies by putting himself forward as the champion of the Pope and the Church. This great struggle between Philip and the Protestant powers, wherein lies the main significance of his reign, developed only gradually. When he ascended the throne, it looked as if the chief concern with him, as with his father Charles, would be to set a limit to the ambitions of France and keep her out of Italy. In the very year of Philip's acces- sion (1556), Henry II. of France, in alliance with the Pope, began a war which is a close counterpart of the many wars waged between Charles and Francis. Now as then the chief object of contention was Italy, and now, as on all former Her World Emvience and Her Decay 1 1 3 occasions, fortune decided for the Spaniard. France, after suffering two capital defeats in the Netherlands, one at St. Quentin (1557) and the other at Gravelines (1558), once more came to terms with her old enemy. By the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) she accepted the Spanish domina- tion in Italy. We may assume that France would have again returned to the attack as so often before, if civil dis- sensions had not broken out which fully engaged her atten- tion for a long time to come. Philip himself became presently taken up with the question of the revolted Netherlands. Thus the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis marks an epoch. It The Peace of rings down the curtain on the long political struggle with cambresis France, chiefly over Italy— a struggle which had begun ^poS.issg. more than a half century before with Charles VIII.'s in- vasion of 1494— and it is followed by the era of religious wars, which cover the rest of Philip's reign. It has alreadv been submitted that these religious wars The revolt of , . the Ncther- are not to be conceived as an act of wanton aggression on ^^^^ Philip's part, but rather as the inevitable consequence of the animosities and enmities aroused by Protestant thrust and Catholic parry. Their origin and centre is to be found in the Netherlands. The revolt of these provinces against Philip, their sovereign, will be treated in a subsequent chapter (Chapter VIII.) . We shall find that it began before Philip's reign was ten years old, that it involved a cruel and stubborn conflict, and that if it turned finally to the ad- vantage of the Protestant Dutch that result was due in large measure to the circumstance that the insurgents gained the sympathy and aid of the whole reformed world in their heroic struggle. For as Protestantism became aware of the vigor of the Catholic reaction, it felt threatened by the power of Spain, which had undertaken the championship of that reaction. Inevitably the Protestant peoples were drawn about brave Holland. Philip saw himself gradually 114 Spain Under Charles I. The Armada, Philip's wars with the Turks. Victory of Lepanto, 1571- engaged in a world-war; to the war with the Dutch rebels was added a war with the French Huguenots and a war with the England of Elizabeth. Furiously Philip turned at length upon his leading Protestant enemy, England. The height of the struggle between Spain and England was the sending of the great fleet, the Armada, against the heretic island-kingdom (1588). The Atlantic waters had never seen the like; but the expedition failed miserably by reason of the superior skill and audacity of the English sailors and the disasters caused by wind and water. Philip bore his defeat with dignified resignation. He spoke un- affectedly of the deep grief it caused him "not to be able to render God this great service." But the destruction of the Armada settled the fate of the religious war. It determined that the Dutch should not be reconquered; it established the Protestant world henceforth securely against the Catholic reaction; and it prepared a naval successor for degenerate Spain in youthful England. The Dutch and their Protestant allies were not Philip's only enemies. Worse offenders against Catholic Christianity than the Dutch, the Mohammedan Turks, engaged his attention during his whole reign. The Turks were then and continued for some generations to be the terror of the west Bit by bit they were conquering the possessions of Venice in the Orient; foot by foot they were pushing across Tran- sylvania and Hungary toward Germany; with the help of the Mohammedan pirate states of northern Africa, which had accepted the suzerainty of the Sultan, they were plunder- ing the coasts of Spain and Italy, and were threatening to sweep the Christians wholly off the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, in their great need, the Pope, Venice, and Spain formed an alliance (1571), and in the same year their united fleet won a brilliant victory over the Turks off Lepanto in Greece. Rarely has a greater number of ships been brought Her World Eminence and Her Decay 1 1 5 into action, the fleet of the crescent as well as that of the cross amounting to about two hundred galleys. The com- mander-in-chief of the Christians was the young and chival- rous Don John of Austria, a half-brother of Philip II. Dressed in white velvet and gold he was rowed down the lanes of his gaUeys, crying exhortations to his men: "Christ is your leader. This is the battle of the cross." His dash and courage, coupled with an unusual display of energy on Philip's part in raising supplies, contributed the main share to the triumph. Hardly more than thirty Turkish vessels escaped the ruin; 30,000 Turks were killed, 12,000 Christian rowers freed from slavery. The victory brought neither Spain nor Christendom any great territorial benefits, but the Mohammedan sea-power was checked, and though still threatening for more than a hundred years to come, fell from this time into a gradual decline. Lepanto is one of the proud moments of the history of Philip and of Spain. A triumph, productive at least of more immediate and Phil^ac- material results than Lepanto, was Philip's acquisition of Portugal. Portugal. Still it cannot be said that this success was due to anv special skill of his own, and the sequel would show that ft was hardly a success at all. Portugal was the only state of the peninsula of the Pyrenees which Spain had not yet absorbed. Frequent marriages between the royal houses had, however, prepared a union of the two states. In 1580 the last native king of Portugal died, and Philip, who had a fair claim by reason of descent (see Genealogical Table IV), thereupon took possession of the state and of her colonies. The Portuguese, proud of their nationality and their achieve- ments during the Age of Discoveries, accepted the yoke of the greater state unwillingly. The memories of Portuguese independence would not perish, and after Spain had entered definitelv upon her decline, and only forty years after Phil- ip's death, Portugal rose and won back her freedom under ii6 Spain Under Charles I. Further de- velopment of absolutism. Economic ruin. a new royal house, the House of Braganza (1640). Since then Portugal and Spain have never been united. We have ill understood the cold, reticent, and obstinate mind of Philip if we have not grasped that there was not an atom of originality about it. His handling of foreign affairs, where we have just followed his course, was inspired by his father's policy, although he laid a little more stress, in accord- ance with the spirit of his time, upon religious considerations. And in domestic affairs, too, he copied his father slavishly, with the result that the evils already noted under Charles were rapidly accentuated. The political activity of the peo- ple still further declined. The Cortes of Castile, although continuing to meet to vote taxes, became as docile as an ancient house-dog, while the Cortes and the other free institutions of Aragon, which had exhibited a much higher degree of vitality than the corresponding institutions of Castile, met with a staggering blow in 159 1. In that year the Aragonese ventured to defy the authority of the king and of the Inquisition, were overrun by a royal army, and utterly cowed. The institutions, it is true, Philip, in spite of his victory, did not much alter, but institutions, all history teaches, are nothing without their informing spirit. Thus absolutism won its last victory and held unquestioned control. The financial and economic misery which merely showed its head under Charles became under Philip permanent and frightful. Commerce languished, industry perished, and agriculture lay in ruins, especially in the south. In the period of the Moorish supremacy the south had by an extensive and scientific use of irrigation been converted into one of the garden spots of the world, but the intolerance of the Spaniards looked askance at this prosperity. When Granada was conquered in 1492 the Moors received a guarantee of full religious liberty. But the solemn promises Her World Eminence and Her Deeay 1 1 7 made were not kept, and frequent disturbances among the outraged Moors culminated in a great rising in 1568. When The Moors, this was put down in 1570, after frightful mutual massacres, Philip resolved to finish with Granada forever and at any cost. Wholesale banishment was called in to complete the work of the Inquisition, and every person tainted with Moorish blood was ordered from the province. Thus was the vexatious Moorish problem settled in Granada, but its settlement put an end to prosperity for many a year. Under the operation of these various conditions Spain became less and less able to pay the ruinous taxes demanded by its sovereign, who, however much he got, always needed more, arbitrarily reduced the rate of interest, and ended by re- pudiating his debts. In what book of history or of romance is there a more mov- The triple ing story than that of Spain in the sixteenth century ? Fortune Spain.^ ° showered her best upon her, raised for her the loftiest throne of Europe, and set the New World under her feet for a foot-stool. But it was all for naught. The Inquisition by enforcing uniformit sapped the nation of its intellectual vigor, and absolutism by destroying self-government para- lyzed the national energy. What vital germs these two insidious agents spared fell a victim to the adventurous and spendthrift policy of Charles and Philip, which induced them to interfere in the affairs of all the world. Inquisition, absolutism, and imperialism are the ills which engulfed Spain in her ruin. Philip III. (1598-1621), who succeeded Philip II., was Permanent an utterly incapable man, the tool and puppet of his favorites. Spain. In 1609 he was forced to bend his pride and conclude with the rebel Dutch a twelve years' truce. The truce implied recognition of Dutch independence, and was at the same time a public acknowledgment of Spain's decline. Under Philip IV. (1621-65) the country dropped definitely to the 1 1 8 Spain Under Charles I. second and third rank among European powers, in conse- quence of the disgraceful treaties of Westphalia (1648) and of the Pyrenees (1659), which closed the long wars with the Netherlands and with France. By 1659 the political, social, and material decline of Spain was patent to every observer. Outburst of It is something of a mystery why Spain, during her decline ture. under the later Philips, should have enjoyed a remarkable literary and artistic outburst. It is true that there was no broad or general intellectual activity; the Inquisition saw to it that no such movement should gain ground. But art and literature flourished for a time, possibly signifying the last flicker of that national energy which was exhibited in such an imposing manner in the Age of Discoveries. At any rate, Spain was endowed with a great national litera- ture, to which Cervantes (d. 161 6) contributed his inimitable " Don Quixote," a satire on chivalry, floated on the most tender and uproarious humor that ever tickled poet's brain, and which Lope de Vega (d. 1635) and Calderon (d. 1681) helped enrich with a national drama, inviting comparison with the EngHsh drama of the Shakespearian period. At the same time Velasquez (d. 1660) and Murillo (d. 1681) founded a national school of painting for which the world must remain forever grateful. CHAPTER VII ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS; TRIUMPH OF THE REFOR- MATION UNDER ELIZABETH (1558-1603) References: Green, Short History of the EngUsh People, Chapter VI. (beginning p. 303), Chapter VII.; Gar- diner, Student's History of England, pp. 361-481; Terry, History of England, pp. 512-618; Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers; Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, 12 vols.; Burton, History of Scotland, 8 vols, (see Vol. IV. for Mary Stuart) ; Traill, Social England (see Vol. III. for civilization under the Tudors). Source Readings: More, Utopia (Camelot series, 50 cents; ' CSBsell's. Library, 10 cents); Translations and \ - Reprints, University of Pennsylvania, Vol. I., No. i (letters of Henry VIII., Welsey, Erasmus, More, etc.); Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1559-1625; Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church Historv; Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXVII. (Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary), Chapter XXVIII. (Mary Stuart, Elizabeth). Henry VIII. (1509-47). During the period of tranquillity imposed upon England England and y ^ r !•• • riz-rrii • the revival of by the tirm admmistration of the nrst ludor sovereign, learning. Henry VII., the country first began to show in a marked de- gree the efTects of the revival of learning. The two univer- sities, Cambridge and Oxford, but especially Oxford, be- came the centres of the new classical and historical studies which had been brought to honor again upon the Continent, 119 I20 Ejigland Under the Tudor s and undertook their dissemination through the land. The fact that Erasmus of Rotterdam, the acknowledged prince of the humanists, spent much time in England between 1498 and 1506 added new zest to the labors of the English schol- ars, with two of whom, John Colet and Sir Thomas More, he became linked in enduring bonds of friendship. John Colet first rose into prominence as a lecturer at Ox- ford, where he attracted a large audience as an expositor of the New Testament. Like Luther, he was drawn to the Apostle Paul by his simple and holy personality, and like Luther, though many years before him, he upheld Paul's doctrine of justification by faith. Later, because of his power as a preacher, he was called to London to be dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, and while at this post he built himself a monument which has proved more lasting than brass. Convinced that the surest way to effect the improvement of society was to begin with the young, he founded with his own means St. Paul's school for boys, where Latin and Greek taught in a fresh way crowded out the old and barren studies of the schoolmen. St. Paul's school was a new departure in education, and became the model for many similar foun- dations throughout England. Sir Thomas More, after attending the university, entered public life, and rose under Henrj' VIII. to be Lord Chan- cellor, the highest civil honor in the kingdom. As a human- ist his most important deed was the publication of a book called Utopia (15 15). Utopia was an imaginary realm be- yond the sea (the word Utopia is derived from the Greek and means nowhere) which, being grounded on justice, reason, intelligence, and liberty, nourished a race of men and wom- en who lived in peace and happiness. To describe such a country was to point out to men the shortcomings of their own state and society, and spur them on to higher things. The breadth of the book is characteristic of the author, for Triumph of the Reformation Under Elisabeth 121 More's implied criticism does not stop with ecclesiastical abuses or theological absurdities, but covers the whole con- duct of life. In Utopia education was general; religious toleration was an accepted rule of state; there were wise sani- tary provisions in the cities to avoid pestilence; and such per- fect equality reigned that there were neither rich nor poor. The book was in essence a comprehensive socialistic pro- gramme, but in the eyes of contemporaries, at least, con- tained matter so unrealizable that the term Utopian came to signify an amiable and somewhat idle dreamer. Never- theless, many of the features of More's ideal republic have been adopted by our civilization in the course of the advanc- ing centuries.- We have already seen that it was such critical activity as The revival this which prepared the Reformation. England followed °he^fore'rIfnner in the main the same lines of development as Germany, ex- °^ revolution. cept that no Luther appeared at the critical moment to turn the accumulated discontent against Rome and head a move- ment of revolt. Revolt came in due time in England, too, but it was carried through by the king in person, as a last and desperate remedy in a most unsavory divorce suit. We shall examine this incident, but should guard even now against giving it a greater importance than it merits. Henry VIII. did indeed snap the ties binding England to Rome, but he did not make England Protestant. No man and no sovereign could etTect such a change in the realm of the mind. The Protestantism of England was a slow mental evolution, which did not become confirmed in the blood till a genera- tion later, in the time of Elizabeth; and it was, like its Ger- man counterpart, the outgrowth of the humanistic move- ment. Henry VIII. mounted the throne of England in 1509, on The accession the death of his father, Hcnr)' VII., famous as the healer of 1509!"^ ' the civil woes of England and founder of the " strong mon- 122 Englayid Under the Tudors Breach be- tween Henry and the humanists. Henrj''s for- eign policy. archy." He was not yet twenty years old, a youth of attract- ive presence, skilled in gentlemanly sports, such as riding and tennis, condescending with all people, free-handed and fond of pageantry, and altogether the idol of his nation, which received him with acclamations of joy. And not least exult- ant over his coming to power were the English humanists. For Henry had been brought into the circle of the new learn- ing by his tutors, and was reputed to be favorably inclined toward it. The joy of the humanists over the accession of Henry was not destined to last long. The king, indeed, distinguished the propagandists of the new learning by various honorary appointments; but he soon showed that he did not take their principles of reform of Church and state seriously, would adopt of their programme only what suited his caprice, and was clearly determined upon following the bent of his own mind. Under the smooth exterior of the king there appeared an iron personality, which, as the years rolled on, tossed aside more and more all restraints upon its despotic will. A few years sufficed to show that Henry was not so much concerned with realizing Utopia in England, as with raising his own and his countr}''s prestige by playing a role in European politics. His father had sat quietly at home, had perfected the administration, and amassed a considerable treasure. Henry XTII. saw immediately that with France and Spain holding each other in check and engaged in permanent enmity over Italy, there was a splendid oppor- tunity for an ambitious sovereign, who was free to throw his weight into the scales for either party. It is true that the French-Spanish controversy hardly touched the interests of England; still, an English ruler of the sixteenth century could not forget that less than a hundred years before a warlike predecessor had been crowned king of France, and that from the port of Calais on the French coast, the last stronghold Triumph of the Reformation Under ElizabetJi 123 on the Continent which floated the Enghsh flag, a descent could be made at any time upon Paris. That Henn- there- fore kept a sharp lookout across the channel requires neither apology nor explanation. If in the eternal warfare between France and Spain England threw in her lot with Spain, she might ask in reward the restitution of a part of France. This speculation determined Henry's general attitude. But though leaning by preference toward Spain, contingencies might arise which would make it advantageous for him to comport himself for a time as the ally of France. In that case he could demand some territorial reward, or, if that was too remote a chance, could stipulate for French gold in payment for his efforts. Such in outline was Henr}-'s foreign policy, modified. Relations of however, by one factor — Scotland. Henry VII. had in- scoUand.^ augurated a policy of reconciliation with Scotland, which he hoped would lead in the course of time to a complete union. In this expectation he had married his oldest daughter, Margaret, to the Scottish king, James IV. But matters did not progress as favorably as he had planned. The enmity between Scots and English was bred too deep in the bone to be easily eradicated, and the Scots, suspicious for centuries of their more powerful neighbor, had looked so steadily toward France for aid and protection that they could not abandon the habit. A war of England with France had generally in the past brought Scotland into the field with the object of making a diversion in favor of France along the northern border, and this traditional alliance, which caught England between two fires, was usually maintained during Henry's reign. Thus Henry was obliged to wage frequent war with Scotland, but only in moments of intense resent- ment did he forget what we may name the Tudor policy, with reference to the northern kingdom, of reconciliation and ultimate union. 124 England Under the Tudors Henry's wars. After these general remarks we can dispense with follow- ing in detail the intricate game which Henry played upon the diplomatic chess-board of Europe. He joined the Pope and Spain in the Holy League of 15 12, the object of which was to drive France from Italy. When Emperor Charles V. in 152 1 renewed the war against France, Henry again fought shoulder to shoulder with Spain, until the great victory of Pavia and the capture of the French king frightened him with the spectre of a universal Spanish domination and drove him for a time into the arms of France. Late in his reign, in 1543, he joined the emperor once more in an attack upon Francis I-, in which the chief English success was the capture of Boulogne. During these wars Scotland was very trouble- some and several times invaded England, though with small effect, since at Flodden (15 13) and at Solway (1542) her armies were crushingly defeated. To sum up we may say that Henry won small profit for England from his military enterprises, but that he acquired at least a proud personal position as a factor in international politics. WoLsey. The favorite adviser of Henry in the early period of his reign was Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey was a commoner by birth, but having joined the clergy rose rapidly by virtue of his talents from post to post, until the king's favor won for him the archbishopric of York and at the same time raised him to the position of Lord Chancellor, the highest post in the civil administration of the realm (15 15). His civil position he filled honorably on the whole, proving him- self an able administrator and exercising a check upon the king's martial inclinations, but his immersion in political affairs led him to neglect his spiritual functions and filled him with a sense of importance which induced him to order his life on a scale of munificence altogether out of keeping with the English conception of a churchman. Stimulated by the criticism of the humanists, Wolsey undertook to con- Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 125 sider some of the abuses of the Church, but he was not yet launched upon his enterprise when Luther's theses against Indulgences (15 17) made the Reformation the ques- tion of the hour. The development of England's attitude toward the greatest contemporary issue is the kernel of Henry's reign. Henry watched Luther's first attack upon the Papacy and Henry's atti- „,,., . .,... . Tf' , tu(ie toward Catholic doctrine with instinctive aversion. In fact, such Luther, was his resentment that he did not disdain to descend into the lists in person against Luther, and in 1521 published a vehement pamphlet, wherein he defended the sacraments and the authority of the Pope. In return the gratified Leo X. conferred upon Henry the title — still used by Eng- lish sovereigns — ^of Defender of the Faith. Of such nature was the understanding between Pope and king in Henry's early days. In another ten years the wind had veered and couriers were speeding from Rome not with messages of friendship, but with bulls of excommunication. This radical change was brought about by the peculiar circum- stances of Henry's marriage and his suit for divorce. Henry's marriage deserves close consideration. The reader Hcnn's will remember that Henry VII., in pursuance of his peace '"^"■"^se. policy, had sought to associate himself with Spain. The outcome of this political intimacy was a contract of espousal, by which Arthur, the prince of Wales, was married to Catharine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Shortly after the ceremony Arthur died, and as the desire for the alliance continued as before, the idea naturally occurred to the families concerned to marry Arthur's widow to his surviving brother, Henry. However, an obstacle to this project was offered by a law of the Church, which forbade a man to marry his deceased brother's wife. In this dilemma Pope Julius II. when appealed to had recourse to his dis- pensing powers, by virtue of which he could make a law non- 126 England U?ider the Ttidors The dispensa- tion. Henry desires to be divorced. Henry desires the Pope to annul the dispensation. operative in a particular case. He issued what is called a papal dispensation, and on the strength of this the marriage took place in 1509. Now it will be readily understood that if the Pope, as Luther was affirming every day with increasing violence, was an impostor, the exercise of the dispensing power was a usurpation, the law remained the law what- ever happened, and Henry's marriage was illegal. In ad- dition, therefore, to the natural inclination of a despotic mind to uphold the cause of authority everywhere and at all times, Henry had a very personal reason for wanting to see Luther put down and the sovereignty of the Pope raised above reproach and challenge. Thus it happened that Henry crossed pens with Luther and became the Defender of the Faith. But time brings about surprising changes. Only a few years after Henry had broken a lance in behalf of the Papacy, his attitude toward his marriage altered. He had hitherto shown much attachment to his queen, but now he thought he had weighty reasons for divorce from her. He had had several children by her, but only one child. Alary, had sur- vived infancy, and owing to Queen Catharine's age there was no hope of further offspring. Even if Mary had not been a very sickly child, the king might well feel that he was playing a dangerous game to stake the succession upon one fragile life. On dynastic grounds, therefore, Henry felt troubled and desired to marry again. But he had also an incentive of a more personal nature. The aging Catharine had long since lost her attractiveness for him, and he was now madly infatuated with her young and charming maid of honor, Anne Boleyn. In 1527 he first whispered to his confidant, Wolsey, the word divorce. Questions of marriage and divorce belonged, as we have seen, to the exclusive competence of the Church, and the Church absolutely refused to countenance divorce except in Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 127 certain exceptional circumstances. Henn-, however, thought he had a very strong and simple case. The dispensation on which his marriage rested he now declared in his altered frame of mind to be defective. The reigning Pope, who was Clement VII., would have only to acknowledge that defectiveness and cancel the dispensation, wherewith the marriage would be dissolved without further ado. This simple course Wolsey, who had meanwhile in addition to his other dignities become cardinal and papal legate, undertook to urge upon the Pope, but without avail. The Pope, partly perhaps from conscientious scruples, certainly because he did not dare offend the powerful emperor Charles V. — who as head of the Spanish house championed the cause of his aunt, the English queen — proceeded with extreme cau- tion. He would examine, he would not pronounce. In 1529 he agreed to send to England a legate, Campeggio, who together with Wolsey, already on the ground, was to hold a legatine court and ascertain the facts. The king put aside his dignity so far as to appear in court like a common suitor, but even this humiliating act profited him nothing, for the Pope, still proceeding on his original plan of delay, sud- denly transferred the case to Rome. Henry was furious at this crumbling of his hopes, and in his eagerness to make a scapegoat of someone, let fall the weight of his displeasure on the head of Wolsey. He stripped him of his civil honors Wolsey's dis- and exiled him to the country; still unappeased, he had just srace, 1530. ordered his arrest, as a measure preparatory to his execution, \vhen the great cardinal was stricken- ill and died (1530). At the last he cast a regretful backward look upon his life, using to his attendants words which Shakespeare has em- ployed almost literally in his play of Henr}'VIII.: "Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king. He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies." 128 England Under the Tudors Henry resolves to renounce the Pope. Destruction of the bonds l)ctween England and Rome. What to do now? Almost any other man would have given up, but Henry had the kind of will which grows ter- rible with opposition. If the Pope could not be got to act in what the king considered a just and necessary case, he would repudiate the Pope altogether and establish the English Church on a purely national basis. Further, he would no longer permit the Church to remain an independent power in the state, but would reduce it to subjection to the civil power, which was, of course, himself. The officers of a church cut off from Rome on the one hand, and depend- ent on the king upon the other, could be trusted to settle the divorce question as the king desired. Upon this plan Henry proceeded, but not without frequent pauses, to give the Pope time to reflect upon the dangers he was running. For his separation from the Papacy was a matter of policy, not of conviction, and he would have avoided it at any cost short of the sacrifice of the divorce. As the Pope remained deaf both to Henry's threats and pleas, the anti-papal en- actments succeeded each other w^ithout interruption, until every cable binding England to Rome had been slipped. Let us follow the leading steps in this procedure. The assembly of the English clergy is called Convocation. In 1 53 1 Convocation was summoned and a decree wrested from the clergy, declaring Henry Head of the Church; owing, however, to the qualms expressed by many of the members the qualifying phrase was added, "as far as the law of Christ allows." The next year the king destroyed the legislative independence of the clergy by requiring them to permit him to revise their statutes and to adopt no new laws without his consent. By this means he had put the English clergy, so to speak, into his pocket. Now it remained only to repeal the laws by which Rome possessed a foothold in England. These laws being acts of Parliament could be repealed only by Parliament, which body Henry accordingly Triu})ipk of the Reformation Under Elisabeth 129 summoned, and by mingled threats and persuasion bent to his v/ill. In 1532 Parliament abolished the payment to Rome of First Fruits, which were the first year's revenues of First Fruits, ecclesiastical benefices and constituted the chief income that the Pope drew from England. The next year followed the prohibition to appeal a case to any court outside the king- Appeals to dom. This gave to the English ecclesiastical courts the hibite<^'^°" right to pronounce, and pronounce finally, upon the king's suit. And now longer delay was neither necessar}' nor pos- sible. In February, 1533, Cranmer, a creature of Henr)''s Cranmer. and half a Protestant at heart, was made archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England; and four months later he pronounced the desired sentence of divorce in his own court and sanctioned the coronation of Anne Boleyn AnneBoleyn as queen. WTien the Pope heard of these doings he at last qu°^n. recovered his power of unambiguous speech and fulminated at Henry a bull of excommunication (July, 1533). But Henry was now secure and could meet the Pope's wTath as an equal. In 1534 he had Parliament pass a culminating act, the Act of Supremacy, by which the last traces of con- The Act of nection with Rome were removed, and the kine confirmed ^"f^'^'^y* in the title already voted by the clergy of Supreme Head of the English Church, to which there was now attached no qualification whatever. Thus while the English Church became national by being Henn- sup- cut off from Rome, it also lost its independence and became CoT^ opposi- subject to the state. Naturally there were many who re- gretted these changes. If they thoughtlessly crossed Henry's path they were not likely to escape with their lives. His marriage with Anne Boleyn, the Act of Supremacy, and all that hung thereby could only be criticised at the risk of death. When Sir Thomas More, the humanist, although he had been Henry's chancellor, and was the most famous English- man alive, refused to take the oath involxing acquiescence i^o Ensrland Under the Tudors Henry makes Protestant concessions. The suppres- sion of the monasteries. in these high-handed measures, he was convicted of treason and hurried to the block (1535). From the first it was an interesting question how far Henry would depart from the accepted Catholic system and ap>- proach the Protestant position. In his own heart and mind he was as much a Catholic before as after the separation. The sole distinction between Henry then and Henry now was that he had taken, as regards England, the Pope's place at the head of the Church. But to a certain extent he could not fail to be influenced by the Protestant Reformation, for the Pope and the Roman Catholic world had solemnly re- pudiated him, and he was just then under the influence of a counsellor, Thomas Cromwell by name, who entertained secret Lutheran sympathies. A number of minor changes were therefore carried through. Every church was ordered to provide itself with an English Bible for general use, In- dulgences were condemned, pilgrimages forbidden, and a few miraculous images destroyed. But the only incisive innovation was the suppression of the monasteries. We have seen on several occasions that monasticism was the feature of the Church which chiefly invited the ridicule and criticism of the humanists. On this account wherever the Reformation was victorious monasticism was the institu- tion which was first thrown overboard. Doubtless there was exaggeration in the tales of depravity circulated by such virulent enemies of the orders as Hutten and Erasmus; still, where there was so much smoke it is safe to assume there was some fire. Even under Wolsey, long before the policy of separation was entertained, a number of smaller institu- tions had been discontinued, and when Cromwell now suggested a plan of suppression on a much larger scale the king gave his consent, prompted in part, no doubt, by the immense material advantage which would accrue to the royal exchequer from the confiscation of the extensive Triumph of the Reformation Under Elisabeth 131 monastic lands. So Cromwell, as a preliminary step, sent agents through the land to investigate the monastic houses. Their reports were steeped in gross exaggeration, but they served the purpose of the minister, for Cromwell presented them to Parliament, and influenced that body, outraged by the thought of so much wickedness, to adopt the desired legislation. In 1536 a bill was passed ordering the sup- pression of the lesser houses— the exact provision was of all houses of less than ;^2oo revenue— but Henry and Crom- well managed to include the richer institutions as well by bringing pressure to bear upon the abbots. Before five years had rolled by, monasteries in England were a thing of the past, and the vast tracts which had fallen home to the king had been given to greedy courtiers, or sold to meet the royal necessities, or dedicated in a few honorable instances to the support of schools and churches. The maioritv of the English people, as far as it is possible The English to ascertain their attitude toward the ecclesiastical revolution the royal inaugurated by Henr>-, gave their hearty consent to the i^''^^- separation from Rome, for the Papacy had for some time past been -growing in unpopularity; but though they in- dorsed the Act of Supremacy, they were, like Henry, thor- oughly conservative and Catholic in spirit. Apart from a small band of reformers, influenced from the Continent, they had no desire for any change in the familiar features of the Church. Therefore, the suppression of the monasteries caused much discontent, and in the backward northern counties, where attachment to tradition was particularly strong, led to a dangerous revolt, known as the. Pilgrimage of Grace (1536). Henry, as might be expected, put down the insurrection with vigor, but did not fail to read the lesson which it conveyed. From policy now as well as from con- viction he refused to go farther along the path blazed by the Lutheran princes of Germany. For the rest of his life he 132 England Under the Tiidors was content to stand fast, force the acknowledgment of his supremacy upon his subjects, and keep the service and the doctrine of his Church free from the taint of Protestantism. From time to time, in order to remove all doubt, he informed his subjects what they were authorized to believe, and these various pronouncements contained very little to which a strict partisan of Rome might not have set his name. Thus the confession of faith known as the Six Articles, which he had Parliament pass in 1539, upheld such Catholic doctrines as the sacrament of the Mass, auricular confession, and the celibacy of the clergy, and made diversity of opinion pun- ishable with death. Under such a regime there was no peace in England either for supporters of the Pope or for adherents of Protestantism, and both these groups were vehemently persecuted. Cromwell himself, though his fall was coupled with other causes, could not be saved by a record of long and faithful service, when his secret support of the religious radicals came to the knowledge of the king. In 1540 he was charged with treason and beheaded. The only safety for Englishmen lay in the quiet acceptance of the system which their masterful sovereign had imposed, and which was substantially Catholic except for the separation from the venerable capital of Rome. A personal page in Henry's history demands at least pass- ing recognition. It presents the story of his marriages. His native brute force, which served him well in politics by enabling him to impose his will triumphantly on his environ- ment, stands out, in the tenderer associations of the family, in appalling, nakedness. We have already followed the trag- edy of Catharine of Aragon to the coronation of Anne Bo- leyn. Anne Boleyn gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and soon afterward was executed on the charge of unfaithful- ness (1536). The next wife, Jane Seymour, died in child- bed, leaving a son, Edward. The fourth wife, a German Triumph of the Reforinatio7t Uyider Elizabeth 133 princess, Anne of Cleves, did not suit Henry at all, and was married only to be immediately divorced (1540). As the fifth wife, Catharine Howard, proved untrue, she was be- headed (1542), and so room was made for a sixth, Catharine Parr, who managed, by dutiful submission, to outlive her royal consort. Henr\' died in 1 547 . Before his death he had been granted The sue- by Parliament the right to regulate the succession by will. '^^^'°"- Accordingly, he devised his crown to his son Edward, with the provision that it pass, on the failure of Edward's blood, to his daughters Mar}' and Elizabeth, in the order named. As Edward was but a boy nine years old, his father provided further, during his son's minority, a council of regency, at the head of which he put Edward's maternal uncle, the duke of Somerset. Edward VI. (1547-53)- Henry was hardly dead when the council of regency met, The Protector and without regard to Henry's wishes practically resigned l^^Tvl^^l its powers to Somerset, who was authorized to assume the 'antpol'cy- title of protector. This measure was of decided consequence because Somerset was a man of unusual religious tolerance and was well inclined toward the reforming party. As a majority in the council held similar opinions, Somerset had no difficulty in inaugurating an era of Protestant legislation, especially as he was heartily seconded in his policy by Cran- mer, the archbishop of Canterbury. We have herewith touched upon the real significance of the rule of the pro- tector. The English Church, which Henry had zealously protected from theological innovations, was now for the first time launched upon Protestant waters. If we admit that it was probably impossible to keep the Protestant English Church, after its initial breach with the Catholic ""^^"K^- world, exactly where Henry left it, we shall incline to defend 134 England Under the Tiidors The First Book of Com- mon Prayer, 1549- The agrarian revolution. Enclosures. Somerset against the charge of precipitate change which is frequently made against him. Convinced that a reform could not be staved off, he resolved to swing wide the door to Protestant influence. English was gradually substituted for Latin in the services, priests were allowed to marry, the use of holy water was discontinued, and all images were removed from the churches. Finally, to lend dignity to the conduct of the new services in English, there was published in 1549 the First Book of Common Prayer, which vindicates the essential conservatism of Somerset's revolution, for Arch- bishop Cranmer, who is mainly responsible for it, based it largely upon the ancient Catholic breviaries. But Somerset's fall was at hand. Not because of dis- content caused by these religious innovations, at least not in a marked degree, but owing primarily to prolonged economic misery, the peasantry of England rose in the summer of 1549 and threatened civil war. The troubles among the English peasants, who were freemen, bore little resemblance to the situation which provoked the German peasants, held in gall- ing serfdom, to wage the bloody war of 1525. The main complaint of the English peasants was directed against what were called enclosures. The great English landlords had discovered that their returns were larger from sheep-herding than agriculture, owing to the steady demand for wool in the markets of the Netherlands. They therefore, by letting their lands run to pasture and enclosing them, with perhaps the addition of the common lands of which the whole village had once had the use, threw hundreds of peasants out of work and occasioned great misery. This conversion of ag- ricultural land to pasture had been going on for decades, and many were the laws by which the government had tried to put a stop to it. But economic causes, operating like forces of nature, are stronger than legislation, and the peasants were not relieved. When in 1549 they rose, Somerset, who Triumph of the Reformation Under Elisabeth 135 had a heart that beat for the oppressed, did not hesitate to declare his sympathy with them. The rest of the council, members to a man of the landlord class, waited until the army of the government had scattered the insurgent hosts and then proceeded to rid themselves of the traitor in their midst. In October Somerset was arrested and deposed, and although he was allowed to live for a while, his oppo- nents did not feel perfectly secure until his head had been severed from his body. He was executed in 1552. The leader of the landlord party in the council which had caused the overthrow of the protector was Warwick, created afterward duke of Northumberland. He became Somer- set's successor as real governor of the kingdom, without, however, assuming the title of protector. He was a clever, unscrtipulous, ambitious man, who, although he had no par- ticular religious convictions, became loud in his profession of the Protestant faith when he discovered that a majority of his colleagues were in favor of it. He not only adopted Som- erset's programme, but multiplied and sharpened its meas- ures. Now first occurred violent scenes of iconoclasm in England, when the people, incited by the so-called " hot gos- pellers," entered the churches and indiscriminately broke altars, statuary, and stained-glass windows. Now, too, came persecution of orthodox Catholics, although the government never entirely lost the tolerant quality impressed upon it by Somerset. In 1552 there was issued the Second Book of Common Prayer, which was again largely the work of Cranmer, and differed from the earlier edition in the more Protestant turn given to many of its passages. The Forty- two Articles of Religion — a new confession of faith — fol- lowed, and therewith the reconstruction of Henry's national Church on Protestant lines was completed. An Act of Uniformity imposed the reformed Church upon the nation. The Protestant revolution of Edward's reign was, as The fall of Somerset, 1549- Northumber- land in con- trol. Radical Prot- estantism. Protestant service book and creed. The boy king. succession. 136 England Under the Tudors we have seen, the work of Somerset and Northumberland. Nevertheless, the king, who was, as is frequently the case with feeble children, a boy of remarkable precocity, followed the religious changes with intense sympathy. When he was twelve years old the German reformer Bucer wrote of him: "No study enjoys his favor as much as the Bible." His favorite diversion was a theological discussion, which he would follow with a countenance whence every touch of childish grace had been banished by an unnatural austerity. Edward Such a boy was only too likely to e.\liaust in a very few law'of^^ ^ years his low measure of vitality. Early in 1553 Northum- berland perceived that Edward was dying. By Henry's will the succession would now fall to Mar)', who, like her Spanish mother Catharine, was a devout Catholic. Northumber- land and the governing clique, with their Protestant record, had everything to fear from her, and in order to secure him- self and them he played upon the young king's Protestant conscience with such skill that he persuaded him to devise his crown away from his sisters Mary and Elizabeth upon his cousin. Lady Jane Grey, who could trace her lineage back to Henry VII.^ In Northumberland's eyes Lady Jane not only had the advantage of being a Protestant, who would presumably sympathize with his religious measures, but as he had lately married her to one of his own sons, Guilford Dudley, he might hope through these young and inexperi- enced people to perpetuate his power. It was a base and despicable intrigue without a vestige of legaUty. For Hen- * Genealogy of Lady Jane Grey. Henry VII. Henry VIII. Margaret. Mary w. duke of SufiFoIk. Frances m. Henrv Grev, duke of 'Suffolk. I Jane Grey. Triumph of the Reformation Under Elisabeth 137 ry's arrangement of the succession by will was in accord- ance with an express permission granted by Parliament, but Edward, having been accorded no such power, signed an utterly worthless document. Northumberland was still completing the arrangements for his plot when, on July 6, 1553, Edward breathed his last. ^(^ry (1553-58)- Edward had hardly expired when Northumberland pro- Public scnti- claimed Lady Jane Grey. But if he had any hope of for Mary, carrying his candidate, he was soon disillusioned. The mass of the people saw through his selfish intrigue and rallied around Alary, their lawful sovereign. They hailed Mary gladly, because not only their sense of justice, but also their religious prejudices designated her as their queen. For the majority of the people were still Catholic in senti- ment, and the radical Protestantism of Northumberland had aroused their animosity. From Mary they expected the return of the Mass and other familiar Catholic usages from which they were not yet weaned in their hearts. The Lady Jane Grey was, in consequence of this un- Downfall of hesitating devotion of the English people to their rightful landancT^^' sovereign, crowned only to be deposed again. Northum- Lady Jane berland, deserted by his followers, gave himself up and was beheaded. His fate was just, but unfortunately Jane Grey, who was merely the tool of an ambitious man, paid the same -penalty. It is true Queen Mary felt compassion for her and delayed the execution, but a rebellion of the following year exasperated her to such a degree that she gave her consent to her young cousin's death. The gentle and refined young girl, queen of England for nine agitated days, has always excited a pathetic interest. The great public stage on which she died was not her choice; a quiet country seat, where her bright nature might have shone 138 England Under the Tudors Mary plans a full Catholic restoration. The Act of Supremacy abolished. Cardinal Pole receives the nation into the Catholic fold, 1554- among a circle of friends and scholars, would have suited her better. Therefore, she called the day on which she gave back her crown to the commissioners who arrested her, the happiest day of her life. It seems likely that if Mary had adopted a moderate Catholic policy, taking her stand upon the platform of her father, Hcnr}', her reign would have met the wishes of her people. But Mary had nothing about her suggesting com- promise. Her Spanish blood called upon her to be faithful, above all things, to her faith. She therefore planned noth- ing less than a return of England to the Pope's fold — a full Catholic restoration. And that was a delusion. For how- ever the English people were attached to Catholic practices, the Act of Supremacy, proclaiming the English independence of Rome, had the full consent of the nation. The first acts of Mary's reign left no doubt about her policy. The Parliament, obedient to a word from the throne, rescinded the religious legislation of Edward and brought the Church back to the condition in which it was at Henry's death. The Mass was again celebrated in the Latin lan- guage, altars were set up, and the married clergy were ex- pelled from their livings. So much was acceptable to the nation. But doubtful and impolitic measures soon followed. Urged on and exhorted by Mary, the Parliament abolished all the legislation of Henr}''s reign pertaining to the Pope, and then voted the return of England to the papal obedience. To crown her policy of reconciliation. Cardinal Pole arrived in England as the legate of the Pope, and in November, 1554, in a pompous ceremony, extended absolution to the nation and received it back into the papal fold. But even so, Eng- land had not yet been carried back to the point where it was when Henry began his memorable conflict. There were still the alienated monastic lands. Mary in' Iier honest zeal would have restored them to their owners, but here the TriumpJi of the Reformation U?ider Elisabeth 139 Parliament, which was made up largely of landholders who had profited by the spoliation of the Church, showed itself intractable. If the uncompromising Catholic policy of Mary alienated Mary marries many sympathizers, she hurt herself still more in popular Spai'n,'i554. estimation when she rejected marriage with one of her own countrymen and accc|jtcd the proffered hand of her kinsman Philip, son and heir of Charles V. Such a union could not but inspire vague fears of a foreign domination, and although every provision was made in the marriage contract to insure the independence of England, the country was, nevertheless, unavoidably drawn into the Sj)anish system. In the summer of 1554 the marriage was celebrated, and although Philip proved himself afterward to be a cold and bigoted Catholic, it must be set down to his credit that he comported himself during his occasional visits to England with much discretion. Although the religious persecutions which gave the fin- Thcpcrseru- ishing stroke to Mary's dying popularity, and won for her m^j"" from Protestant writers the terrible title of "Bloodv Mar}-," date from about the time of her marriage, they cannot be fairly ascribed to her Spanish consort. If Mary persecuted, the incentive was chiefly furnished by her own fiery enthus- iasm. It was she who stimulated the Parliament to pass severe enactments against heresy, and it was she who urged the bishops to carry them out. Soon the prisons were filled with the Protestant leaders of Edward's time, and soon, too, the fires of persecution were lighted over the realm. It is the period of the Protestant martyrs. Some two hundred and eighty died by the fagot — a number inconsiderable com- pared with the slaughter in the Netherlands, but enough to rack the nerves of a 'race whose M'avering attitude led them to favor a more gentle procedure. The stanchness of the victims in 3eath contributed more toward establishing Protestantism than could have been done bv the doctrinal 140 Ejigland Under the Tudors Her un- popularity. She is drawn into war and loses Calais. fervor of an army of Calvinistic preachers. It was even as Bishop Latimer said to Bishop Ridley at the stake: "Master Ridley, play the man; we shall this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out." For the stout part they played, Latimer and Ridley head the Protestant martyrology. But the persecution struck a more prominent, if not a more noble victim than these, in the person of the deposed archbishop of Canterbury. This was the celebrated Cranmer, who had served under two kings. Cranmer, who was a peculiar mixture of strength and weakness, flinched when the trial came and denied his faith. But in the face of death his courage came back to him. He thrust his right hand into the flame, and steady- ing it there said, resolutely: "This is the hand that wrote the recantation; therefore, it first shall suffer punishment." If Edward's violent Protestantism made his reign detested, Mary's violent Catholicism produced the same result. The hatred of her subjects soon pursued her even into her palace. She was a quiet, tender woman, whose intolerance was more the crime of the age than her own, and the har- vest of aversion which was springing up about her was more than she could bear. Besides, her marriage was unfortu- nate. She loved Philip, but Philip cared little for her, and did not much trouble to hide his indifference to the sickly and ill-favored woman, twelve years older than himself. To crown her misfortunes, she allowed her Spanish husband to draw her into a war with France, in which Philip won all the honor, and Mary suffered all the disgrace by the loss of the last point which remained to England from her former possessions in France, Calais (1558). Doubtless the loss of Calais was for England a benefit in disguise; she was thereby cut off from the Continent and directed to her true sphere, the sea. But to the Englishmen of that day the capture seemed an insufferable dishonor. No one felt Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 141 it more keenly than Mary. "When I die," she is reported to have said shortly before her death (November, 1558), "Calais will be found written on my heart." Elizabeth (i 558-1603). Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter and Mary's younger The glorious half-sister, succeeded to the throne on Mary's death, and qlfe'en Eliza- inaugurated a reign which proved to be one of the most ^^*^- glorious in English annals. Under her, Protestantism was firmly established in England, the great CathoUc sea-power, Spain, was challenged and defeated, and English life flowered in the poetry of Shakespeare and his contemporaries more exuberantly and more exquisitely than ever before or since. To the national greatness to which England suddenly raised herself in the sixteenth century, Elizabeth has lent her name. She appeared to the English people, and still appears, mir- rored in a great time, and their generous loyalty, which gave her in her lifetime the title of Good Queen Bess, has also encouraged them in the view that she was the fountain and the summary of all the virtues which throve in her day. Modern historians have scattered this delusion. They have separated the woman from her time, and it is a very different Elizabeth who appears to the eye now that the curtain of the myths which concealed her from view has been withdrawn. Elizabeth had few of the graces of womanhood and many Elizabeth as of its weaknesses. Her vanity was so great that, although she ^ ^o"^^"- was a very plain-featured woman, she succeeded in conceiv- ing herself as a beauty of a particularly rare type. She could not live without flattery and flirtations, and accepting the compliments of the courtiers for true coin, allowed herself to be persuaded to dance and sing in her maladroit manner before a brilliant court of gentlemen and ladies, who could hardly hide their amusement behind their handkerchiefs. Her manners were rude, especially at the council board, 142 England Under the Ttidors Elizabeth as a statesman. Elizabeth's religion. The Privy Council. and her ministers were frequently annihilated by language which would have done honor to the camp and the fish- market. If Elizabeth lacked many of the special graces and virtues of her sex, she certainly possessed what are generally known as masculine talents, for she had an inflexible will and an exceptional intelligence. Above all, she loved her people and identified herself with them. All her statesmanship and, all our praise can be expressed in the single sentence that she was a national sovereign. But one of the qualities by which she rendered England a great service her contemporaries would have been quick to condemn if they had been more clearly informed about it: she was lukewarm in matters of faith. However such want of conviction may be regarded in the case of a private indi- vidual, in the England of that day, shaken by religious pas- sions, the sovereign's indifference was an undisguised bless- ing to the commonwealth. By reason of it Elizabeth was delivered from the destructive religious radicalism of both Edward and Mary, and being relatively disinterested was peculiarly fitted to play her royal part of mediator between antagonistic faiths. We should remember that the sixteenth century was the century not only of the Reformation, but also of the Renaissance. Elizabeth had been brought up to read Latin and Greek, and was not unacquainted with the languages and the literatures of the Continent. It is, there- fore, not so very strange that, like Shakespeare, Jonson, and the poets of her time generally, she gave more heed to the voices coming from Italy than to the messages of Luther and of Calvin. The chief organ of Elizabeth's government was the Privy Council, a sort of cabinet, the advice of which she regularly heard before she arrived at a decision. In this body was gathered the best political talent which the country boasted. Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 143 It is no small credit to Elizabeth to have exhibited such discernment in the choice of her ministers. Most prominent among them was William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who devoted a life of exemplary patriotism to the advancement of English Protestantism and the English sea-power. Though Elizabeth was willing to consult in her affairs the The position Privy Council, which was a body of her own choice, she ^ ^"^ lamen . was not inclined to grant much political influence to Parlia- ment, which was elected by the people. Parliament re- mained, therefore, what it had been under the other Tudors, an obedient recorder of the royal will. Thus the sovereign- ty of England was practically concentrated in Elizabeth's hands. The first question of Elizabeth's reign was the question Elizabeth of the Reformation. Edward had followed a policy of reiig"ous° radical Protestantism and had failed; Mary had followed a moderation, policy of radical Catholicism and had failed; after these two experiments it was plain that extremes would have to be abandoned. Elizabeth showed her sound judgment by deliberately taking up a moderate policy. When her first The Acts of Parliament assembled in 1559 she had it pass again an Act anduSform- of Supremacy, asserting the English independence of Rome "y- and declaring the sovereign the highest authority in the realm in religious as well as in civil matters; and also an Act of Uniformity, which imposed upon every minister the forms of worship laid down in a new Book of Common Prayer. The new book was nothing but the second Prayer-Book (1552) of Edward's reign, with some few revisions. The plan was to make the national Church thus reestablished as broad as possible, in order that the moderates of all parties might be embraced by it. Such was Elizabeth's moderation that it even bred fond hopes in the Pope's breast, but after waiting for ten years for her to return to the fold, he lost patience and issued a bull excommunicating and deposing her (1570). 144 EnHand Under the Tudors Her persecu- tion political rather than religious. Elizabeth is the real found- er of the Anglican Church. From that moment Elizabeth was definitely pledged to the Protestant cause and was forced into active hostility against Catholicism. Stringent measures were passed against the adherents of the Pope, but never in blind passion without recognition of varying degrees of culpability. Catholics who refused to attend service in the new Church were simply visited with money fines, while heavier fines, culminating in imprisonment, were inflicted for saying or attending Mass. Fanatic Catholics, whose enthusiasm led them to go further and to engage in political plots, were repressed by special treason bills, which authorized the seizure and execution of conspirators, but which were sufficiently elastic to strike down any inconvenient CathoHc zealot. Under these vari- ous laws a considerable number of Catholics were put to death, and all of them, by the system of fines, were gravely molested; but compared with the contemporary persecutions in Spain, France, and the Netherlands, Elizabeth's methods have an unmistakable imprint of moderation. A church on these broad foundations met the wishes of the majority of Englishmen. They gave it their adherence in increasing numbers, accepted its form and government, and gradually forgot the Latin Mass. Elizabeth could, therefore, proceeding in her deliberate manner, gradually complete its structure by new legislation. The most im- portant of the complementary acts is the publication of a confession of faith under the name of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (1563). These, too, like the Book of Common Prayer, were based upon the enactments of Ed- ward's time, and were steeped in the Protestant spirit. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine Articles are still in our own day the essential features of the Anglican or English National Church, which may, therefore, claim Elizabeth much more truly than Henry as its founder. Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 145 Throughout Elizabeth's reign the Roman Catholics de- The Puritans, creased in numbers. But as they diminished, there rose into prominence another body of religious opponents, Prot- estant radicals, who were dissatisfied with what they called Elizabeth's half-measures, and clamored for a thorough Protestant revolution. These radicals, it soon developed, were of two kinds, Puritans and Separatists. The Puritans were the more moderate opponents, who, whQe accepting the national Church and attending its services, hoped to eliminate from it certain features like the elaborate vest- ments of the clergy, which they despised as "Romish" trappings. Their demand for what they called a purer worship won them as a nickname, in the first instance, the party designation of Puritans. The Separatists, on the TheSepara- other hand (also called Brownists, after their founder Robert Brown), were radicals of the most thorough-going sort. The national Church with its bishops, its surplices, its cere- monies, was hardly better to them than the Roman Church, and they refused to attend it. As their propaganda spread, they were sharply persecuted, while the Puritans, who in the main yielded obedience and worshipped as demanded by the law, were left comparatively undisturbed. On turning to the political developments of Elizabeth's Caution the reign we are immediately struck by the fact that they are Elizabeth's intimately associated with her religious policy. We have po''cy- seen that her plan was to move cautiously, to give as little offence as possible. In consequence, she remained for a surprisingly long time on reasonably good terms with both the Pope and Philip of Spain. But as her Protestant policy took a more definite shape, a coolness sprang up which the bull of excommunication of 1570 converted into open hostility. Turn as Elizabeth would in her shifty manner, there was now no way by which she could avoid being identified with the Protestant cause. The Catholic reaction 146 England Under the Tudor s She is driven into war with Spain. The affairs of Scotland. Queen Mary sent to France when a child. on the Continent was growing stronger every day, more ag- gressively set on winning back its lost ground, and unless the Protestants closed their ranks in their turn, it was only too likely that their forces would be broken and routed. The great fact in the second half of the sixteenth century is the world-war between Catholicism and Protestantism, in which Philip of Spain stepped forward as the champion of Rome, and Elizabeth, almost against her will, became the paladin of the newer faith. Every event in Elizabeth's reign contributed to precipi- tate the struggle; notably the queen's relations with Scot- land and Scotland's sovereign, Mary Stuart. Scotland had been England's foe for centuries. We have seen that Henry VII., with a view to the better understanding and pos- sible union of the two countries, had married his daughter Margaret to James IV. But war was not thereby averted. James IV. and James V. both sympathized with France and both died while fighting England, the latter (1542) when his successor, Mary, was but a few days old. Mary Stuart's descent from Henry VII. and the prospective failure of Henry VIII. 's direct descendants opened for the child the prospect of the English succession. On the death of Mary Tudor (1558), there was, with the exception of Elizabeth, no other descendant of Henry VII. alive as prominent as she. To the Catholics, moreover, who saw in the daugh- ter of Anne Boleyn merely an illegitimate child, she had even a better claim than Elizabeth. Out of this relation of the two women to the English throne sprang their instinctive aversion for each other, and the long and bloody drama of their rivalr}', ending in Mary's death upon the scaffold. When Mary succeeded to the throne of Scotland, she was, as has been said, a child in arms. Her mother, another Mary, of the French family of Guise, assumed the regency, and in order to withdraw her child from possible English Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 147 influences sent her over to France, where she was soon be- trothed to the heir of the throne, the dauphin. ^ Thus in the face of the Tudor poHcy of reconcihation the interests of France and Scotland were newly knit to the detriment of England. Mary of Guise soon met with the same difficulties which The Protestant beset every government in her time. Toward the middle Scothmd? of the century the voices of the Reformation began to be heard in the land. Conversions grew apace, and presently the struggle between the old and the new faiths began with customary vehemence. But nowhere was it so brief and nowhere was the victory of the new teachings so decisive. Scotland was still a backward, feudal land, where the chief power rested with a lawless nobility. The clergy, too, had considerable wealth and power, but their religious indiffer- ence and luxurious living had weaned from them the affec- tions of the people. On this account the hold of the Catholic Church on Scotland had become so slight that the fiery Calvinistic preachers, among whom John Knox (1505-72) was the leading spirit, had only to proclaim the new faith to have it accepted by the people. When the nobility, lured by the bait of the rich Church lands, threw in their lot with the preachers, the success of the Reformation in Scotland was assured. The French gentlewoman who held the regency of Scot- The regent land viewed these developments with consternation. She French to*^put had lost her hold on the country and could think of no other *^°^." Protes- •^ tantism. way of getting it back than by the aid of French troops. At her request France sent soldiers, who had put themselves in possession of a number of important places, and were on the road to repressing the Protestant movement altogether, at ' The hv-ir to the French throne received the title of dauphin in the Middle Ages. The title is derived from the province of Dauphiny. A similar custom accorded to the oldest son of the English king the title of prince of Wales. 148 Eiigland Under the Tudors Establishment of the Kirk of Scotland, 1560. Calvinism dominates the government, doctrines, and service of the new Church. Mary returns to Scotland, 1561. the moment when Elizabeth had given a Protestant turn to English affairs by estabhshing her national Church. The wisdom of aiding the Scotch Protestants was so obvious that Elizabeth resolved to send men and ships to the north. These forces succeeded in bringing the French to terms, and by the treaty of Edinburgh (1560) the latter agreed to abandon Scotland. As the regent at this juncture fell ill and died, and as Queen Mary was still in France, the Protestant lords suddenly found themselves masters of the situation. In a Parliament composed of the friends of Knox they abolished the papal supremacy, forbade the Mass, and laid the foundations of a new Church of their own (1560). The Church that thus sprang into existence a year after Elizabeth's Anglican establishment took form was based, like its southern neighbor, on the Protestant principle of independence of Rome, but resembled it in ver)' few other respects. Knox, its organizing genius, had sat at the feet of Calvin at Geneva, and was resolved to model it, as nearly as possible, according to Calvin's theory of church organization. By Calvin's system each congregation governed itself dem- ocratically, that is, was ruled by the pastor in connection with elected laymen called presbyters or elders; while the Church, being the sum of all the congregations, was sub- jected to a general assembly. These features of government, together with improvements and modifications suggested by the peculiar condition of the country, were imposed upon the new institution. Its doctrine and worship were borrowed from the same Genevan source, and thus equipped there emerged a new Protestant Church, known as the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland. Up to this time the absent Queen Mary had not con- cerned herself much with the doings of rude and far-away Scotland. Her husband, Francis II., had lately (1559) become king of France, and ever since the death of Mary Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 149 Tudor (1558) she had, supported by a good part of the Catholic world, looked upon herself as queen, too, of Eng- land. But the year 1560 disturbed her outlook greatly. Her feeble husband, Francis II., died, and Elizabeth made herself tolerably secure at home. Scotland alone seemed to be left to Mary, and as Scotland needed its sovereign, she suddenly (1561) hurried thither. When Mary landed in Scotland she was only nineteen Her difficulties, years old and no better than a stranger. Add to this fact the circumstance that she was confronted by a lawless nobility, and, as a Catholic, was an object of suspicion to her Protestant subjects, and one has the elements of a problem that even a better and wiser person than Mary might not have solved. But though Mary proved inadequate, she was a woman The character of many admirable gifts. Grace of figure and grace of spirit ^" were added to a nimble wit and a keen intelligence. The chance that tossed her to France, furnished her with a rare opportunity for development, for the court of the Valois had become the home of all the exquisite influences of the Re- naissance, and the people she met there, the ver}- air she breathed, tingled with the joy of living. She soon became the ruling genius of a bright circle, and the hours revolved for her amid dancing, music, and poetr\'. Her contem- poraries never tired of praising her beauty; but better than formal beauty, she possessed a subtle charm which ap- pealed to the chivalry of men, and raises partisans for her even in our day. Thus endowed, she was called to be a great queen, on one condition: she must subordinate her passions to her duty as a sovereign. But here it was that she failed. Her cousin Elizabeth, who did not fail in this particular, proved herself thereby, if not the better woman, at least the greater queen. Comparing the two cousins, who inevitably force a comparison upon us, stand- 150 England Under the Tiidors larv otA. Lord Darnley. The murder of Rizzio and Darnley. ing as they do in history flashing challenge at each other, we are reminded of the familiar judgment: Elizabeth was first statesman and then woman, Mary was first woman and then statesman. Mary began well enough. She made no difficulties about the Presbyterian Kirk and only reserved to herself the right of Catholic worship. For four years Scotland enjoyed an unusual degree of peace. But in the year 1565 Mary married her cousin, Lord Darnley, and by that event she and all Scotland were plunged into troubles involving a succession of climaxes unique in history. Lord Darnley, who was hardly more than a bpy, turned out to be proud, silly, and dissolute. He was no sooner married than he became the tool of the party of nobles op- posed to Mary. They represented to him that if he did not enjoy full authority with the queen, it was due to one of Mary's foreign secretaries, an Italian, David Rizzio. Darn- ley, egged on by the nobles, resolved to have revenge. One night while Mary was sitting at supper, the conspirators burst into the room, fell upon Rizzio, and in spite of the queen's effort to save him dragged him from the chamber and slew him at the door (1566). Much of what followed is uncertain. Certain it is that Mary's love for her husband was hence- forth turned to hate. She planned revenge. For the present Darnley and his party held the reins in their hands and she was forced to resort to dissimulation. By cleverly feigning affection, she brought her husband to his knees before her, separated him from her enemies, and quickly reacquired control. Henceforth she took few pains to hide her loathing for the wretched prince. In February, 1567, the house where Darnley was staying just outside the walls of Edin- burgh was shattered by an explosion of gunpowder, and Darnley was found dead the next morning. We know beyond a doubt that the murderer was the earl of Bothwcll, A Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 151 a dare-devil cavalier, who was in love with the queen, but we should also like to know whether or not the queen was his accomplice. Extended investigation has not yet supplied a definite answer, but by what followed the murder Mary has compromised her good name beyond help. Not only did she permit Bothwell's trial for the murder of her consort to degenerate into a mere farce, but shortly after his acquittal she married him. The excuse was afterward put forward by Mary that in The revolt marrying Bolhwell she had not consulted her free will, but ^8*'^' ^^'. had yielded to violence. The apology has little inherent probability and was rejected with scorn by her subjects. They revolted against her, and although with rare courage she rallied again and again from defeat, by the year 1568 she found herself without further resources. Despairing of success, she sought refuge in England. She would have done better to have sought it in the sea. She became Elizabeth's prisoner, and won her release only, after nineteen years, by laying her head upon the block. Before we take up Elizabeth's conduct, let us take note Tames vi. that tragic as Mary's fate was, her country profited by her ^ ^^^y downfall. Her infant son was crowned king as James VI., regent. while her half-brother. Lord IVIurray, assumed the regency. Murray represented the Protestant party, and his rule meant religious peace for Scotland on the basis of the complete triumph of the Presbyterian Church. It is not difficult to account for the harsh policy which Explanation Elizabeth adopted toward her royal cousin. In fairness to severitvwitii^ her we must acknowledge that imperative considerations of jj^^^""*^ '° state hardly left any other course open. Looking out from London over Europe she beheld a perplexing situation. She saw Philip II. in arms against the Netherlands, resolved, if necessary, to drown Protestantism in blood; in France she took note of a civil war, in which the Catholic party, in order 152 E7io'land Under the Tiidors Prospect of war between England and Spain. Execution of Mary. to achieve its ends, did not balk at such revolting measures as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew; she was in frequent peril of her life through the plots of her own Catholic sub- jects, who aimed to be rid of her and raise Mary to the throne; and she saw, in general, a threatening concentration of the whole Catholic world for a supreme blow against the Protestant heresy. Under these conditions her conduct could not but be regulated primarily with reference to the Catholic reaction now plainly mounting to a climax. By the beginning of the eighties, Philip, through his great general, Parma, had the revolt of the Netherlands reasonably well in hand, while through his association with the French Catholics he so domi- nated France as to be sure that that kingdom would not strike him in the rear. He could, therefore, concentrate his atten- tion upon the dangerous and elusive Elizabeth. Luckily, at the approach of the great crisis, the temper of Englishmen was hardening to steel. In the consciousness of their power they even invited the threatening storm. Sir Francis Drake and a dozen other freebooters fell upon the Spaniards where they found them, plundered them on the Spanish main, and slaughtered them in their transatlantic settlements. While PhiHp and Elizabeth were still protesting friendship in official notes, their subjects had already engaged in combat on their own account. When at last, in 1585, the queen did not scruple to give open and armed aid to the revolted Netherlands, Philip declared that he was at the end of his patience. He prepared against England an unexampled armament. It was the rumor of Philip's invasion of England, coupled with the renewed activity of the English supporters of Mary, that cost the unfortunate queen of Scots her life. Probably it had little value for her and death was not unwelcome. She had grown old and gray behind prison walls; she knew her- Triumph of the Reforjnation Under Elizabeth 153 self beaten. Elizabeth's ministers succeeded in proving that Mary was a party to a conspiracy which a man by the name of Babington had directed against the life of the sovereign, and persuaded the queen, who hypocritically feigned reluctance, to sign her cousin's death-warrant. The anxiety of the ministers becomes explicable when we re- flect that if Catholic Mary ever succeeded to the English throne their lives were not worth a penny. In February, 1587, Mary was executed at Fotheringay. The next year the war between Spain and England came The Armada, to a head. Philip having at length got together over one '^ hundred ships, known under the name of the Armada, despatched them toward the English coasts. The plan was that the Armada should sail first to the Netherlands and by putting itself at the disposal of the duke of Parma, who commanded the Spanish troops there, should enable that great captain to effect a landing in England. The island realm was thoroughly alive to its danger. In the face of the foreign invader all religious differences were forgotten and replaced by a flaming national enthusiasm, uniting all parties. In fact, the Armada may be called the death-blow of English Catholicism; for from now on, to be a Catholic meant to be a friend of the tyrant Philip, and but few Englishmen cared to expose themselves to such an imputa- tion. A navy filled with the spirit which is ready to do and die was put at Elizabeth's disposal. With such leaders as Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Martin Frobisher, many of whom had spent a lifetime fighting the Spaniards on all known seas, the English were not likely to fail for want of bravery or skill. Nor were they likely to fail for want of the material means of protection. They mustered even more ships than the Spaniards, which, although not so large as the galleons of the enemy, by virtue of their speed, the size and number of their guns, and the perfect seamanship 154 England Under the Tiidors The tables are turned. Elizabeth's last years. of their sailors held the Spaniards at their mercy. The Armada had hardly appeared, toward the end of July, 1588, off the west coast of England before the more rapid English vessels darted in upon their rear and flank. The damage which was done the Spaniards during a running sea-fight in the Channel, lasting eight days, forced them to lie off Calais for repairs. Here a number of fire-ships sent among them drove them from their shelter into the waiting English fleet, and in the ensuing combat they were discomfited so com- pletely that their admiral gave up the enterprise. Finding the Channel blocked behind him, he tried to make for home by the coast of Scotland. But he encountered heavy storms, even more terrible enemies than the English, the Spanish ships were shattered miserably by waves and rocks, and only a remnant ever returned to Cadiz to tell the tale of the disaster. England was safe, and more than England, the cause of Protestantism in the Netherlands and the world over. The English admirals now transferred the scene of action to the Spanish coasts, and soon the disheartened Philip sued for a peace, which his triumphant foe would not allow. As for Elizabeth, the overthrow of the Spanish Armada was the climax of her brilliant reign. Henceforth her people identified her with the national triumph and worshipped her as the very spirit of England. But her private life slowly entered into eclipse. She was old, childless, and lonely. Her last sincere attachment, of which the earl of Essex was the object, brought her nothing but sorrow. Essex had been put at the head of an army destined to subdue Ireland, which was just then agitated by the famous rising of O'Neill, but as he mismanaged his campaign he had to be dismissed in disgrace. Full of resentment, he now engaged in a treasonable plot, but was di.scovered and executed (1601). It is hard to believe that a woman who all her life looked upon Triumph of the Reformation Under Elizabeth 1 5 5 love and courtship as a pleasant recreation, should have really cared for the amiable earl; certain it is, however, that she went into -a decline soon after his execution, and died, disgusted with the world (1603). England's wonderful and varied progress during this England reign remains to be considered. In fact, the reign was the sea^^'^ ^ starting-point of a new development. For the first time Englishmen grew aware that their true realm was the sea. Courageous sailors like Drake, Davis, and Frobisher voyaged to the remotest lands, and though they established as yet no colonies, the idea of a colonial empire in the future was implanted in the minds of men and a sound beginning was made by the creation of commercial relations with various parts of the world. Before the death of Elizabeth, England, which had theretofore allowed Spain a monopoly of the sea, had fairly entered upon the path of oceanic expansion. The spread of the Anglo-Saxon race, one of the most sig- nificant events of Modern History, may, therefore, be dated from "the spacious times of great Elizabeth." With the increase of commerce, there came an increase Social prog- of industry and wealth and a more elevated plane of living, "^^^^ which showed itself in a greater luxury of dress, in a court- lier society, and in the freer patronage of the theatre and the arts. Altogether England was new-made. The Italian Renaissance poured out its cornucopia of gifts upon her, and there ensued such a heightening of all the faculties of man as makes this period one of the imposing epochs of history. The Englishman of Elizabeth's time broke away from the narrow mediaeval traditions of thought and life, and became, like the Italian of the previous generation, entranced by the beauty of the world which spread out be- fore him, waiting only to be conquered. It is such a man, exuberantly happy in the possession of himself and his environment, who produces a great art. 156 England Under the Tiidors Literature The great art by which Englishmen expressed their sense an science. ^^ ^j^.^ fresh and dehghtful contemporary Hfe is the drama. Christopher Marlowe (d. 1593), Ben Jonson (d. 1637), and especially William Shakespeare (d. 161 6), are its great luminaries. But the cognate fields of the mind were not left uncultivated. Edmund Spenser (d. 1599) wrote the great epic poem of the English tongue, the Faerie Queen, and Francis Bacon (d. 1626), the philosopher, by abandon- ing the barren mediaeval methods of classification and by referring man directly to observation and the evidence of his senses, paved the way for a more profitable and scientific study of nature. CHAPTER VIII THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS AND TRKIMPH OF THE SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES (1566-1648) References: Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Chapter VIII.; Motley, Rise of the Dutch RepubHc, History of the United Netherlands, John of Barneveld; Harrison, WiUiam the Silent; Putnam, William the Silent; Cambridge Modern History, Vol. III., Chapters VI., VII., XIX. Source Readings: Old South Leaflets, No. 72 (The Dutch Declaration of Independence in 1581). The part of Europe which has been designated from TheNether- of old as the Netherlands, or Low Countries, is embraced theBurgun^ approximately by modern Holland and Belgium. In the dian princes. Middle Ages the Netherlands consisted of a number of feudal principalities or provinces, constituted as duchies, counties, or lordships (for instance, the duchy of Brabant, the county of Flanders, the county of Holland) , all of which were practically independent of all foreign powers and of each other, although there was not one to which France or Germany did not, by some unforgotten feudal right, have a claim. In the later Middle Ages a collateral branch of the House of France, starting with the duchy of Burgundy as a nucleus, had attempted to consolidate these provinces into a state which should be independent of both the western and the eastern neighbor, but just as the ambitious project seemed about to succeed, the family died out in the male branch with Charles the Bold (1477). 157 158 TJie Revolt of the Netherlands The Nether- In spite of this calamity the political experiment of tlie theHapsburgs. Burgundian princes was partially successful. Louis XI. of France, on the death of his relative Charles the Bold, did indeed reincorporate the duchy of Burgundy with France, on the ground that it had fallen to him, its feudal overlord, but the Netherlands proper were left in the hands of Charles the Bold's daughter, Mary, and from her passed, through her marriage with the Emperor Maximilian, to the House of Hapsburg. In due time they became the possession of Maximilian's grandson, Charles V. Charles, having been bom in the Netherlands in the city of Ghent, had a just appreciation of the value of this corner of his vast dominions, and, therefore, continued the efforts of his ancestors at con- solidating its diverse territories. The provinces, seventeen in number, enjoyed considerable liberty. Each one prac- tically ruled itself by means of a representative body, called the Provincial Estates, while the cities possessed charters of which they were intensely proud and which gave them the guarantee of an effective self-government. In a word, democracy was a power in the Netherlands. Although this condition of affairs excited the suspicion of Charles, he did not in the main interfere with it, but contented himself with Charles follows pursuing a policy of centralization which, while establishing centrailzation. ^ healthy Union, would put the provinces more under his hand. He created a number of executive and administrative councils at Brussels, designed to be the federal capital, and favored the national parliament, called the States-General, which consisted of delegates from the Provincial Estates and was endowed with the power of voting supplies to the sovereign. Thus, under Charles, the seventeen provinces made notable progress toward a better political union. Racecondi- However, sooner or later an obstacle to a complete and iLventeen' perfect uniou was likely to be raised by the fact that the provinces. Netherlanders were racially not homogeneous. In some of A7id Triumph of the Seven United Provinces 159 the provinces, chiefly those of the south and west, French blood and speech prevailed, while in the north and east dwelt a people of Teutonic stock, who in Flanders and Brabant used a speech called Flemish, and farther to the north, in Holland and Zealand, spoke a very similar dialect called Dutch. In the Middle Ages differences of speech and blood were no reason for not associating several peoples together in a common state, and Charles and his ancestors cannot be blamed for the attempt; but the mere fact of the growth in modern times of race feeling was sure to make their project difficult, if not impossible. A good part of the land of the Low Countries is below Physical fcat- the level of the sea, and has been won from that element "ncfcanais^ only in undaunted, century-long struggles by means of a system of dykes, which form the rampart of the land against the hungry water. An equally great danger lay in the periodical inundations of the great rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, which converge upon the sea at this point. To carry off their overflow, there was devised and gradually completed a system of canals which cover the country like a net and distribute the water from the rivers over a vast area. The plentiful water-ways of Holland and Belgium, although due in the first instance to necessity, have proved a pure blessing. They have given the country the greenest and the richest meadows of Europe, and besides furnish thoroughfares for traffic which are cheap, durable, and, winding under avenues of ancient trees, exceedingly picturesque. The original inhabitants of the Netherlands were farmers, The advance herdsmen, and fishermen. Commerce and industry, gain- ancHnteHu'^^ ing a foothold gradually, created cities which, as has been g^nce. already indicated, wrung liberal charters from their feudal lords, acquired a substantial burgher freedom, and aided by their situation, favorable to a world-wide intercourse, i6o TJic Revolt of the Netherlands presently eclipsed the other cities of the north. Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Haarlem, and many other cities shared under the Burgundian princes in the extension of trade and industry, and raised their countr)^, in point of material pros- perity and of intellectual culture, to the first rank in north- ern Europe. During the long reign of Charles V. the ac- tivity of the inhabitants was spurred to its highest capacity, and the country advanced steadily in every department of civilization. The religious The reign of Charles in the Netherlands, so successful in Charles. some respects, in one very important particular laid itself open to criticism. The religious agitation which troubled Germany was naturally disrespectful of landmarks, and at an early point in its history invaded the Low Countries. Charles, whose dependence upon the princes of the Diet forced him, as we have seen, to a dilatory policy in Ger- many, was not the man to hesitate where he had the power to act. In the Netherlands the Lutheran heresy was, there- fore, met on its appearance by a relentless hostility, which waxed more and more fierce as Charles's reign proceeded. The Inquisition, with its bloody record of triumphs in Spain, not unnaturally appealed to the Spanish monarch as the best way of meeting heresy everywhere. Accordingly it was established in the Netherlands, special inquisitors being appointed for each of the seventeen provinces. The usual abominations now followed: confiscations, imprisonments, burnings at the stake became common occurrences. The edicts of Charles against heresy finally went so far as to pronounce the penalty of death against persons discovered to have in their possession suspected writings, as well as against persons who held secret prayer-meetings, or who ventured merely to discuss the Holy Scriptures. The Protestants in the Netherlands were long hardly more than a handful, but Charles's rigor did not exterminate them. In ^■l/i(i TriuuipJi of the Scvoi United Provinces i6i fact, their numbers swelled constantly. The persecution only served to illustrate once more the famous observation that there is no seed like martyr's blood. To the original Lutherans were soon added Anabaptists and other revolu- tionary sects, who found the intelligent and liberal society of the Netherlands a fertile soil for the propagation of their tenets, and from the middle of the century the faith of Calvin, destined to give the Protestantism of Holland its peculiar mould, found admission, by way of France, into all the lead- ing cities. The Inquisition, therefore, gathered a rich harvest. Contemporary guesses placed the figure of its victims during Charles's reign at fifty thousand. This is doubtless an exaggeration, but it is sufficiently correct to establish that monarch's partial guilt in the great tragedy which followed. But as Charles was well loved in the Netherlands, and his reign was in other respects happy, there occurred during his life no imj)ortant outbreak against his system. In the year 1554, broken by his recent failure in Germany, The abdication Charles proceeded to carry out his long-nursed plan of re- ^555.*^^'" signing his various sovereignties into the hands of his son and heir, Philip. He began by investing him with the king- dom of Naples. In the year 1555 he followed with the Netherlands. He summoned the States-General to Brussels, and amid the pomp and circumstance which his great posi- tion entailed, the transfer was effected. It is a notable stroke of historical irony that on that splendid occasion the aging emperor appeared leaning for support on the arm of a young noble who, though thus designated as the favorite of the old ruler, was destined to prove the most relentless enemy of the new. The young man was William of Orange. The harsh, cold mind of Philip H. was c\en less adapt- Increasing ed than his father's to solve the religious troubles of (he underPWHp. Netherlands. Like his father, his one notion of healing 1 62 The Revolt of the Netherlands The Peace of Cateau-Cam- bresis, 1559- The growing discontent. heresy was to extirpate it, root and branch. The Inquisi- tion was spurred on to greater activity, until the fagot piles were heaped in every hamlet. Philip himself remained in the Netherlands to watch over the execution of. his orders, while terror began to steal, like a spectre, into every house- hold. The majority of the people, though still Catholic, were filled with a profound aversion to the senseless policy of the inquisitors, and a growing discontent, boding a storm, settled upon all classes. ^ But there was other work iirthe world for Philip besides persecuting the Flemish and Dutch Protestants. In order finally to have his hands free he wished to close, by a decisive stroke, his father's long wars with France. He therefore prepared for a vigorous campaign. It will be remembered that in 1554 he had married Queen Mary of England, thereby securing himself a valuable ally. Having twice defeated the French, at St. Quentin (1557) and at Grave- lines (1558), and having in consequence disposed them to a settlement, he refused to concern himself further about allied England, and concluded with France the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). England paid for the assistance she had rendered Spain by the loss of Calais; but Philip got what he wanted. The Peace of Cateau-Cambresis closed for the present the long rivalry of France and Spain, secured to Philip his possession of the Netherlands and Italy, and was the substantial admission of his supremacy in Europe. Now, at last, he resolved to go to Spain. Leaving his half- sister, Margaret of Parma, as regent in the Netherlands, he sailed away (1559), never to return. His departure hurried the threatening crisis. The gov- ernment had been intrusted to Margaret, as regent, and to a council, composed chiefly of Philip's creatures. It is plain that if the master had encountered opposition, the same measures applied by his representatives were bound And Triumph of the Seven United Provinces 163 to arouse furious resentment. Moreover, the government, far from taking any trouble to attach the people to itself, seemed rather to make a business of alienating ever}^ class. The nobles, whom Charles had wisely given employment in the administration and army, found themselves supplanted by Philip's favorites, many of them foreigners. Naturally, their grievances brought them more closely together, and the most powerful, such as Prince William of Orange and the Counts Egmont and Horn, became the leaders of the opposition. The burghers had even a longer list of com- plaints than the nobles. They were excited by the quarter- ing on their towns of Spanish troops against the express terms of their charters; they complained of the multiplica- tion of bishoprics, which they feared would put them under the heels of the Church; and, finally, they were insulted by the grievance, now a generation old and borne with less and less patience, of the Inquisition and its judicial murders. Discontent was plainly ripening to revolt. The occasion for the rising was furnished by the lesser The protest of nobles, who were secretly encouraged, though not openl\- 1^66. joined, by William of Orange. In 1565 they formed a league among themselves, the purpose of which was to secure the abolition of the Inquisition, operating, as they put it, "to the great dishonor of the name of God and to the total ruin of the Netherlands." In the same document in which they made this complaint they avowed their continued allegiance to the king. It was not the dynasty against which they protested, but the abuse which the dynasty upheld. On April 5, 1566, three hundred of their number proceeded to the palace of the regent at Brussels to lay a statement of their grievances in her hands. In spite of her rage at the impertinent demonstration, she commanded her tongue suf- ficiently to promise to present their case to the king. In a banquet held In' the nobles in the evening they were in 164 TJie Revolt of the Netherlands The iconoclas- tic furv of 1566. ' The coming of Alva. formed that one of the hated brood of courtiers had slight- ingly referred to them as beggars (giteiix). Amid a scene of frenzied excitement they adopted the term as their party name, and assumed as badges the beggar's wallet, staff, and wooden bowl. The courageous protest of the " beggars " against the Inquisition, followed by their open defiance of authority, thrilled the whole country. The government of the regent was set at naught under the impression that the auspi- cious moment was at hand for ridding the country of the monstrous incubus of the Inquisition. Its prisoners were forcibly released, and persecution interdicted, while the Protestants openly avowed their faith, and gathering in bands and multitudes listened with greedy ears to the revolutionary addresses of fanatic pastors. At length the excitement culminated in a furious revolt. The Catholic churches were invaded, their pictured windows, their saintly images were broken, their crosses and altars were shattered to fragments. The ruin of art wrought by these iconoclasts was incalculable. It was weeks before the fury spent itself, and months before the government, rallying the orderly elements about it, succeeded in repressing the insurgents. Philip had received his warning. Would he understand it? It is very possible that the abolition of the Inquisition, coupled with the proclamation of religious tolerance which public sentiment demanded, would have put an end to all trouble. But these ideas were foreign to the rulers of that day, and seemed nothing less than deadly sin to a fanatical Catholic like Philip. Instead of assisting the regent in restoring order and confidence, he planned a fearful ven- geance. One of his best generals was the duke of Alva. Soldier and bigot, he was the typical Spaniard of the day, animated with blind devotion to his king and to his faith. This man of iron was commissioned with the punishment And Triiimph of the Seven United Provinces 165 of the Netherlands, and in the summer of 1567 arrived at Brussels at the head of an excellent corps of 10,000 Span- iards. The Netherlands, it must be remembered, though they happened to have the same sovereign as Spain, were not a Spanish province. Alva's coming was, therefore, an invasion, and terror flew before him. Every thinking man foresaw a period of violence, and William of Orange, with a host of those who felt themselves compromised by the re- cent events, crossed the border into safety. Alva did not long leave the anxious people in doubt as to Council of the meaning of his coming. A council, infamous in history Rg°° q" as the Council of Blood, was set up for the discovery of all Terror, those who had taken part in the late image-breaking and were suspected of disloyalty and heresy. It was a re- doubled Inquisition, freed from the delays of law and the promptings of human pity. Hundreds and probably thous- ands died by sword and fire; tens of thousands from among the best of the land fled from the country. Among the more illustrious victims of the executioner were Egmont and Horn, whom neither their Catholic faith nor their services to the king could save. Paralyzed by the violence of the attack, the country meekly suffered the unheard-of ^^^^"""^ persecution. ,-^ In these difficulties the first help came from William of William of Orange. William belonged to an ancient German family, th"si^ent. which had its seat in Nassau in western Germany. At an early age he had inherited from a cousin the tiny principality of Orange on the Rhone, which he never thought it worth while even to visit. However, he took his title from this French possession. His connection with the Netherlands sprung from the fact that he was possessed of large estates there, chiefly in Holland and Brabant, and was employed by his early patron, the Emperor Charles V., in the service of the provinces. Beginning with a secret, intriguing oppo- 1 66 The Revolt of the Netherlands sition to the tyrannical policy of Philip, he identified himself more and more frankly with the cause of liberty, until on the coming of Alva he inaugurated a career which led to the liberation of his adopted country and has made him one of the heroes of humanity. He was but a mediocre general; his fame does not even rest upon his statesmanship, though in this respect he was the equal of the subtlest diplomats of his day. His chief title to distinction is his stout, courageous heart. Frequently almost single-handed, and at best with only the divided support of his little people, he braved the world power of Spain, and through defeat piled on defeat held out in his resolution. He became known as William the Silent, not without a touch of inconsistency, for he was famed for his eloquence and was the most courteous of gentlemen; but if the epithet conveys the impression of a fortitude unwearied and uncomplaining, no more appro- priate title could have been bestowed on him. William levies In the spring of 1568 William, having turned all his avail- Philip, 1568. able possessions into money, and having summoned the most daring exiles around him, began gathering an army for the purpose of invading the Netherlands. His project was equivalent to a declaration of war against Philip. As coming from himself such an act was at best a piece of sublime folly, but if he could rouse the Netherlanders to support him, it would acquire the altogether different aspect of the rebellion of an outraged people to secure their inalienable rights. To fill the provinces with his own spirit of resistance became William's supreme object, and gradually, although not without disappointments and delays, he succeeded. As a result a small people challenged the greatest power of Europe, and after a dramatic struggle of eighty years (1568- 1648) issued from the fight as victor. No war more honor- able than this has ever been waged in the history of the human race. And Triumph of the Seveti United Provinces 167 The first campaign proved the complete superiority of William and Spanish generalship and the Spanish soldiery. William's army, largely composed of ill-paid mercenaries, was defeated and scattered. Alva, in consequence, made light of the invasion. It had not been supported, as William had calcu- lated, by an internal rising. To all appearances the country, crushed under the Spanish heel, had fallen into a torpor. But if this was what Alva counted on, he was destined before long to a harsh awakening. The Nether- lands had indeed failed from fear to respond to William's first call, but unfortunate as the campaign of 1568 was, it had had its effect; it had excited the people for a moment with the hope of deliverance and so stiffened them for resist- ance. Alva's own folly did the rest. Every act of his strengthened them in their feeling that death was better than life under Spanish rule. This appeared when Alva at- tempted (1571) to fill his empty treasury by a system of out- rageous extortion, the chief feature of which was a tax called the Tenth Penny, consisting of the levy of ten per cent upon The Tenth every commercial transaction, even upon the purchase of '^""^' daily necessities. To this monstrous proposition the citi- zens responded simply by the closing of their shops and the total cessation of business. While Alva was still embarrassed by the commercial deadlock which he had himself created, there came the news of the first triumph of the exiles. If Spain held the } land in her iron grasp, she could not in the same unchal- lenged way hold the sea, peculiarly the element of the Dutch. Dutch freebooters, proudly calling themselves " beggars of I the sea " in imitation of the first brotherhood of the ene- mies of Spain, had long done great harm to Spanish trade, but now, rendered bold by long battle with wind and wave, they swept down upon the coast, and secured the first The Dutch ^ ' ' ' success at [I Stronghold in their fatherland at a point called Brill (April Brill, 1572, i68 The Revolt of the Netherlands Rising of Holland and Zealand. Barbarous character of the war. Recall of Alva. The siege of Ley den, 1574. I, 1572). A score of towns, especially in the northern provinces, felt suddenly encouraged to drive the Spaniards out, and Alva unexpectedly found his power limited to Brus- sels and the south. Thereupon the liberated province of Holland elected William the Silent Stadtholder or governor, and Holland and Zealand together, both situated on the sea, became from this time forth the heart of the Dutch resistance. Thrown into the fiercest mood by these sudden reverses, Alva prepared to win back the lost ground. Pity hence- forth was excluded from his thoughts. Mons, Mechlin, Haarlem, and many other towns which he recaptured were delivered to the unbridled excesses of the Spanish soldiery. Women and children were slaughtered in cold blood. The war entered upon a new stage, in which oppressors and op- pressed thirsted for each other's blood like wild beasts, and neither sought nor gave quarter. It was a fight to the last ditch and of unexampled fury. Alva's incapacity to deal with the situation was soon apparent to friend and foe. Before the walls of Alkmaar he met, in the year 1573, with a serious check. His six years of government (1567-73) by Council of Blood and Tenth Penny had ended in unqualified disaster. Tortured by gout and tired of staring at the ruin about him, he de- manded his recall. His successor as Spanish governor-general was Requesens (1573-76). Requesens was a sensible, moderate man, who might have done something if matters had not gone so far under Alva. But although he abolished the Council of Blood and the Tenth Penny, and proclaimed an amnesty, everybody continued to look upon him with distrust. So he had to proceed with the military conquest of the still un- subdued province of Holland. The most notable event of his administration was the siege of Leyden (1573-74). When tlie city seemed for failure of provisions to be lost, William And Triumph of the Seven United Provinces 169 of Orange, all of whose attempts to succor the city had been thwarted, resolved on an extreme measure; he ordered that ;he dykes be cut. As the water of the sea rushed over the 'lelds, the "beggars" crowded after in their ships, until their heroic efforts brought them to the walls of the city. Thus I.eyden was saved, and its name was celebrated with tears .md ihank-offerings wherever Protestants in Europe met to commune. Prince William and the sister cities of Holland, wishing to reward the brave inhabitants for their heroism, founded a university at Leyden, which rapidly rose to the :ont rank and still stands as a monument of enlightened itriotism. The death, of Requesens, which occurred in 1576, was The death of the indirect cause of a further extension of the revolt. As fnd"hrPacifi- vet it had been confined to the provinces of the north, cation of • ^ ' Ghent, 1576. which had generally adopted the Protestantism of Calvin, and to such occasional cities of the south as inclined toward the same faith. Revolt from Spain followed swiftly and inevitably upon the heels of Protestantism. The grievances of the southern provinces against Spain were certainly as great as those of the north, but as the southerners clung to the Catholic faith, they felt less passionately exasperated against the Spanish rule. For a brief moment, however, following the death of Requesens, north and south, Dutch and French, Protestant and Catholic — in a word, the United Netherlands — bound themselves together in one resistance. The occasion was furnished by the general horror inspired by the Spanish soldiery, which, left upon the death of Re- quesens without leaders and without pay, indulged in a wild orgy of theft, murder, and pillage. The "Spanish Fury," as the outbreak was called, did especial damage at Antwerp. This, the richest trading city of the Atlantic seaboard, was looted from garret to cellar and subjected to losses estimated at one hundred million dollars in our money. Indignation I/O The Revolt of the Nctherlaiids North and south go their own way. The duke of Parma, 1578- 92. The Union oi Arras, 1579. at these outrages swept the countn% and in an agreement of the year 1576, called the Pacification of Ghent, north and south declared that they would not rest until the Spanish troops were withdrawn from the land and the old liberties restored. It was the most auspicious moment of the revolution, but it was not destined to bear fruit. The religious distrust be- tween Protestants and Catholics, and in less degree the in- herent differences between peoples of French and German blood, fomented by Don John of Austria (1576-78) and the shrewd duke of Parma (1578-92), who succeeded Re- quesens as Spanish governors, soon annulled the Pacification of Ghent and drove a wedge between the north and south, the result of which we still trace to-day in the existence of a Protestant Holland and a Catholic Belgium. It was especially owing to Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, who was son of the former regent Margaret and nephew of Philip, that the southern provinces were saved for Spain. Alexander, in addition to being endowed with mili- tary genius of a high order, was master of all the ruses and subterfuges which passed for diplomacy in his day. The historian Motley accounts it as not his least triumph that he could outdo that pastmaster in the art of prevarication, Elizabeth. He undertook to win the southern provinces to his side by adroit flattery of their Catholic prejudices. In January, 1579, three of them, Artois, Hainault, and French Flanders, signed the Treaty of Arras, which was practically a surrender to Spain. With heavy heart William saw the prospect of a United Netherlands, heralded by the Pacifica- tion of Ghent, vanish, and almost reluctantly prepared for a closer union of the provinces, faithful to the pledge of re- sistance to the death. In 1579 the provinces of the north, finally seven in number, and Protestant without exception — Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel, Gronin- 3 Longitude 4' Eati ^ 1 THE NETHERLANDS AT THE TRUCE OF 1009 "^ NOTE TO THE STUDENT: Locate the seven provinces which united to form i Dutch republic. Notice that the Bishopric of governed in practical independence by the drives a wedge between Luxemburg and the the Spanish Netherlands. 3" 4^ And Triumph of the Sci'cn United Provinces 171 gen, and Friesland — formed, for the purpose of an improved defence, the Union of Utrecht. Therewith there was born The Union of into the world a new state, the Dutch Republic, for which ^^^ ''5/9-^ the articles drawn up at Utrecht served as a constitution. The new Republic did not entirely renounce the sovereign- The new ty of Philip until 1581. That was, however, after the bold act pubHc. ^* of Utrecht, a mere formality, and does not affect the state- ment that the Dutch nation was born in 1579. The Union of Utrecht, like many another constitution uniting a number of jealously independent states, had some signal defects. It did not create a sufficiently powerful executive, and did not give the central legislative body, called the States-Gen- eral, free control of taxation. For the present, however, the personal ascendancy of William, who was made Stadtholder or governor of the most important provinces, made up for the inefficient federal arrangements. Thus the struggle went on^ William, with a foothold in the The ban and north, against Parma, with a foothold in the south, while be- og^ >» ^" tween them lay the rich Flemish provinces of Flanders and Brabant, which, flattered and assaulted by both sides, wav- ered irresolutely, and might fall either way. However, the skill of Parma, backed by the resources of Spain, now began to tell. City after city in the neutral zone had already yielded to the Spaniard, when there happened a calamity which seemed like the verdict of fate against the cause of liberty. Philip and Parma had long reasoned that if death would only remove William from the scene the insurrection would collapse. Finally, since fate seemed reluctant, they resolved to come to its assistance, and in 1580 Philip pub- lished a ban against his rebellious subject, offering gold and a patent of nobility to whoever would remove him from the living. William justified himself against Philip's charges in a pamphlet called the "Apology," wherein he drew a sting- ing portrait of the patron of assassins. Nevertheless, the 172 The Revolt of the Netlierlands The murder of Will am, 1584. The Dutch Republic ap- peals for help to France and England." ban was William's death-warrant. Many abortive attempts had already been made upon his life, when Balthasar Ge- rard, a Frenchman from the Tranche Comte, and one of those unflinching fanatics in which the age abounded, pierced his breast with a bullet. The murder occurred on July 10, 1584, on the stairway of the prince's palace at Delft. The victim's last thoughts turned toward the struggle in which his country was engaged. "Lord have pity on my soul," he said, "and on this poor people." Gerard was executed amid atrocities against which every act of William's life was a protest, while Philip exulted in the deed and rewarded the heirs of the murderer according to his promise. William's death could not have come at a more inauspi- cious time, for Parma's fortunes just then were mounting to their zenith. In 1585 the great city of Antwerp fell into his hands after a long and memorable siege, and now only Hol- land and Zealand remained to be conquered. What were the weary Dutch to do? Their dead leader had held that their independence could only be conquered with the help of foreign powers, and had long directed passionate appeals for assistance to France and England. But these states, fearful of the power of Philip, had hesitated. Although Elizabeth occasionally sent secret encouragement in the form of money, she would not commit herself openly. France, too, vacillated, but, at one time, just before William's death, went the length of sending the duke of Anjou, brother of the king, to the aid of the insurgents. Anjou was offered the crown of the Netherlands on the understanding that he would rid the country of the Spaniards, but he proved a broken reed, intrigued, quarrelled with everybody, and left the country in disgrace in the very year of W'illiam's tragic end. There was now no chance of help except from Elizabeth} and the Dutch, at the end of their tether, made her a pressing tender of the young Republic. Although And Triiiuiph of the Seven United Provinces 173 the prospect was inviting, moved by her customary caution she declined the dangerous honor. Nevertheless, she could no longer with due regard to her own safety refuse to grant substantial help. Spain and England had already begun to clash upon the sea, and the sentiment of the English people had declared vehemently for the hard-pressed Protestants of the Netherlands. For years Sir Francis Drake and others had been engaged in piratical raids, which they called singeing the beard of the king of Spain. Philip was nursing a just grievance in silence, but if ever he recovered the Low Countries, it was certain to go hard with England. Ungenerous as Elizabeth was where others were concerned, Elizal)oth she had a sharp eye for her own interests, and therefore in Dutch uiider December, 1585, signed a treaty with the Dutch, whereby her protection, she promised to send 6,000 soldiers to their aid. When the Englishmen came, under the command of the earl of Leicester, the queen's favorite, they did perhaps more harm than good, for Leicester shamefully betrayed the people he had come to serve. His entrance upon the war none the less marks an epoch, for by this step England definitely took sides in the struggle, and Philip was made to see that the conquest of the island-kingdom was an un- avoidable preliminary to the reduction of his revolted prov- inces. Therefore he began to collect all his resources for Philip's attack an attack upon the English. In the year 1588 his Invincible against Eng- Armada spread sail for England, only to be ruined by ^"f^a"<^ Elizabeth's valiant fleet and scattered by the tempests. Almost at the same time the Protestant Henry of Navarre succeeded to the French throne (1589), and Philip, alarmed at this new peril, resolved to move heaven and earth to save the neighbor kingdom for Catholicism. Thus fate, or chance, or a too unbridled ambiticMi led him to direct his power on enterprises which carried him far afield and obliged him to relax his hold upon the Netherlands. The 174 The Revolt of the Netherlands Maurice of Nassau. The Twelve Years' Truce, 1609. Renewal of the war and Peace of Westphalia. Troubles of the young Republic. ensuing wars with England and France weakened him to such a degree that he never returned to his attack upon his rebel subjects with his early vigor. Moreover, his great general, Parma, died in the year 1592, while the Dutch, who had hitherto reaped nothing but misfortune upon the battle- field, put themselves under the command of a gifted leader, in the person of Maurice of Nassau, William's son and heir, who had a special genius for conducting sieges, and who won back place after place, while the hardy Dutch sailors swept home and foreign waters clear of Spanish fleets. It was the Spaniards now who were pressed in their turn. When, in 1598, Philip was nearing his end, his cause among the Dutch had become hopeless; still, too proud to acknowl- edge defeat, he stubbornly fought on, and his son Philip III. persisted in the same wasteful and impracticable course. Only when utterly exhausted did he humble his pride suffi- ciently to agree, in the year 1609, to a Twelve Years' Truce. It was not the end, but as good as the end. When the truce was over (1621), the Thirty Years' War was raging in Europe, and although Spain tried to make the confusion serve her purposes, and again attacked the Dutch, the firm resistance of the hardy little nation rendered the second ef- fort at subjugation even more vain than the first. When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) put an end to the long German war, Spain at last declared herself ready for the great re- nunciation, and acknowledged the unqualified independence of the Dutch Republic. But abundant as was the harvest of glory which the young Republic gathered in its eighty years' struggle with Spain, it was not saved the shocks and sorrows which are the com- mon lot of life. A source of very constant trouble lay in the loose confederation of the seven provinces. It has been stated that the Union of Utrecht did not create a strong central authority and left the provincial governments prac- And Triumph of the Seven United Provinces 175 tically in control. As a result the Republic seemed fre- Weakness of quently on the point of going to pieces, and was maintained J^^^^^'^edera- largely by the fact that Holland, being more important than the other six provinces put together, could impose her will on them. This is the federal difficulty under which the new Republic labored, but no less disturbing was what we may call the Orange problem. Maurice had contributed im- mensely to the ultimate success of the Dutch, and thus what his father had begun well he had ended brilliantly. The hearts of a grateful people turned to him; they made him Stadtholder or governor; they gave him the command on land and sea. There were those, however, who believed his position incompatible with republican tradition, and Maurice, who nursed a vast ambition, must be acknowledged to have lent some color to their suspicions. It was mur- mured in secret that he wished to make himself king. To any such ambition the rich burgher class, who by reason of a narrow franchise dominated in the government of city and province, were bitterly opposed, as likely to interfere with their monopoly of power, and under their able leader, John of Barneveldt, they began to organize in opposition to the House of Nassau. Thus the burgher and Orange parties. Republicans representing respectively oligarchical and monarchical prin- Orangists. ciples, stood face to face. They clashed for the first time with violence in i6ig, when Maurice by a very high-handed act seized Barneveldt and had him executed. Therewith the Orange party acquired an ascendancy which lasted till the middle of the century, when the burghers once more got the upper hand. In fact, the whole seventeenth century is marked by a continual fluctuation of control from Orangists to burghers and back again. Although Spain hoped much from these dissensions, they benefited her nothing, and hardly impaired, even momentarily, the marvellous Dutch development. \ 176 The Revolt of the XetJier lands The progress of civilization. The decay of the southern provinces. In fact, the commercial and intellectual advance of the Republic during the course of the war remains the most astonishing feature of the period. It was as if the heroic struggle gave the nation an irresistible energy, which it could turn with success into any channel. The little sea- board state, which human valor had made habitable almost against the decrees of nature, became in the seventeenth century not only one of the great political powers of Eu- rope, but actually the leader in commerce and in certain branches of industry; contributed, beyond any other nation, to contemporary science; and produced a school of painting the glories of which are hardly inferior to those of the Ital- ian schools of the Renaissance. Such names as Hugo Gro- tius (d. 1645), the founder of international law; Spinoza (d. 1677), the philosopher; Rembrandt (d. 1674) and Frans Hals (d. 1666), the painters, furnish sufficient support to the claim of the United Provinces to a leading position in the his- tory of civilization. At the bottom of the unrivalled material prosperity was the world-wide trade of the cities lining the coast. It was particularly extensive with the East Indies, and here were developed the most permanent and produc- tive of the Dutch colonies, although there were others planted in Asia, Africa, and America. The city of Amster- dam, in the province of Holland, was the heart of the vast Dutch trade, and, much like London to-day, performed the banking business and controlled the money market of the entire world. It was a tragical fate that awaited the southern prov- inces, which had remained Catholic and had more or less docilely submitted to the Spanish tyranny. They had to pay the inevitable penalty of resigning the rights with which their fathers had endowed them; henceforth their spirit was broken. Flanders and Brabant, which had once been celebrated as the paradise of Europe, fell into decay. The And Triumph of the Seven United Provinces 177 touch of intolerant Spain, here as everywhere, acted like a blight. It IS a relief to note that in one branch of culture at least, the inhabitants continued to distinguish themselves' The names of the great painters Rubens (d. 1640) and Van Dyck (d. 1641) witnessed that the old Flemish spirit occasionally stirred in the tomb where it had been laid bv Alva and Philip, and justified the hope that the future would perhaps see a resurrection. CHAPTER IX THE REFORMATION AND THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE References: Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, Chapter IX.; Wakeman, Europe, 1598-17 15, Chapter II. (Henry IV.), Chapter VI. (RicheHeu and the Thirty Years' War), Chapter VII. (RicheHeu and CentraHza- tion); Kitchin, History of France, Vol. II.; Baird, Rise of the Huguenots; Baird, The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre; Willert, Henry of Navarre; Besant, CoHgny; Lodge, RicheHeu; Perkins, Riche- Heu; Perkins, France under RicheHeu and Mazarin. Source Readings: Translations and Reprints, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, Vol. III., No. 3 (Death of CoHgny, Edict of Nantes, etc.); Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXVIII. (St. Bartholomew, Edict of Nantes). The wars of We have already examined the monarchy of France with Spainover ^ ^'•^^^^ ^^ acquainting ourselves with its internal position ^^^^y- and its international policy at the beginning of the Modern Period. We have seen that the king's power was very extensive, because he had a revenue which was independent of the meeting of his estates, and which he could use, if he pleased, to keep an army dependent on himself alone. En- couraged by their splendid position, the kings aspired to play a great role and attempted to conquer Italy. Charles VIII. inaugurated this adventurous policy with the famous invasion of 1494, did some local mischief, and retired much as he had come. He had, however, accomplished one thing heavy with consequences; he had aroused the jealousy of Spain. From this moment began the struggle between 178 Civil Wars in France 179 France and Spain for the possession of Italy, that filled Europe with wars and rumors of wars for the next half cen- tury. We have seen that Charles VIII. was baffled; his successor, Louis XII., began auspiciously, but his successes, too, passed away like vapor. Francis I., on his accession in 1 5 15, returned once more to the assault, occupied Milan after the victory of Marignano, and held it for some years. But his history is a repetition of the fate of his predecessors. Spain would not hear of sharing Italy with another power, and at the battle of Pavia (1525), where Francis himself was captured, raised her banner over Lombardy. Again and again Francis renewed the war, like a man held by a spell; but he was no match for the steady, ponderous policy of his adversary, Charles V. The Spanish conquest of Victory in- Italy was slow but irresistible, and when Francis died in Spain. 1547 it looked like an accomplished fact. Wearisome and apparently unprofitable as the long conflict with Charles V. was, it had one feature redounding to the French king's honor, for without the stubborn fight made by Francis, Europe might have fallen under the dominion of the power- ful emperor. However complete his victories in Italy and the Netherlands were, Charles discovered that the resistance to him stiffened the moment he entered French territory. France and its king were capable of sudden heroism when it was a question of maintaining the integrity of the nation, and by vigorously upholding France they indirectly saved all Europe from subjection. Of equal importance with the Italian wars is the question .Attitude of ,,TA. . ,, . II'. 1 • Francis toward of the Reformation and the course it took during the reign the Reforma- of Francis. Naturally, France could not avoid being af- ^'°'^- fected by so universal a movement, and, naturally, the at- titude toward it of a king so nearly absolute was of the highest consequence to its progress. Francis was a product of that worldlier Renaissance which arrived at its best ex- l8o TJie Reformation pression in Italy in a brilliant reign of art and letters. For the more austere side of the movement which found vent, especially in the north, in the desire for a nobler religious life, he had Httlc understanding. His early plunge into Italian life emphasized his natural bent. What he saw in the peninsula fascinated him, the social refinement, the luxury of dress and dwelling, the literature and art. He cultivated the friendship of the great painters — Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Andrea del Sarto — and rejoiced not a little when he succeeded in carrying some of them awa}' to his own France. Occupied with such interests, religious and dogmatic quarrels were not likely to touch him very closely, and he would incline on the whole to let them alone. This course the king pursued until he made the disconcerting discovery that the religious agitations had a political side and were involving him in difficulties with the Pope and the rigid Catholic element of his people. Then he struck at the reformers, not from religious enthusiasm, it will be observed, but from what he set down as reasons of state. The Reformation in France, as ever^-where else, started from small beginnings. Humanism had spread a vague longing for the reform of life in state and Church, and at the opening of the sixteenth century certain select spirits began definitely to formulate their protest against existing condi- tions. The leader in the humanistic circle was Jacques Lcfcvrc. As early as 15 12 he translated St. Paul's Epistles, deriving from them that doctrine of justification by faith which under the strong championship of Luther became the very cornerstone of Protestantism. When one of Le- fevre's pupils became bishop of Meaux, he summoned his old master and other kindred spirits about him, and with their helj) made the town of Meaux the centre of the new religious spirit and the diocese of Meaux its seed-bed. When And the Civil Wars in France i8i Luther's writings began to appear, the circle at Meaux was far from receiving them unconditionally, but was in general not displeased at the assault made upon the stolid self- satisfaction of Rome. Daily the partisans of reform grew, especially, it would seem, among the artisan class. But that the upper class was not left entirely unaffected is proved by Queen Mar- the case of Queen Margaret of Navarre, the sister of Francis Navarre. I., who, although she never formally separated from the old Church, became the friend and patron of the men who propagated the new ideas. Her attitude, vacillating between the old and the new, ^ut not definitely committed to either, is typical of many people in France during the next genera- tion. From the first the theological facult}' of the University of Orthodoxy Paris, which was known under the name Sorbonne, and the Sorboruie. which had enjoyed an immense reputation in the Middle Ages, undertook to combat the movement of reform in France. The learned doctors prided themselves on their orthodoxy and raised a great outcry o\er the spread of heretical ideas. Nevertheless, their opposition was not likely to count for much, unless they could make the king act in their interest. That prov-ed difficult, owing to the tolerance of Francis, until the disastrous battle of Pavia (1525) made him a prisoner and reduced the country to serious straits. The mother of Francis, Louise of Savoy, who acted as regent during his captivity, was ready to go down on her knees for help to almost anybody, and when she discovered that she could have the support of the Catholic clergy only at the cost of persecution, she consented. Francis on his return from Madrid quashed the heretical proceed- ings for a while, but as his need of ecclesiastical support continued, he saw himself obliged before long to return Francis be- to the policy of repression. It was in one of these periods secutor. of persecution, in 1533, that there was banished from l82 The Reformation France a young man who was destined to make the world resound with his name — John Calvin. In this way, urged on by the Pope, whose alliance he needed, or by the Church of France, whose money and influence were essen- tial to his plans, he drifted into a policy of persecution. Before he died his measures had acquired a severity that might have won the applause of Loyola and his newly formed order of Jesuits. The climax was reached in the famous Waldensian Massacre. The Waldenses were a simple and thrifty peasant people, who dwelt among the western Alps, . and who, because they were half-forgotten in their remote valleys, had remained in undisturbed possession of certain doctrines spread by one Peter Waldo back in the twelfth century and condemned as heretical. The Roman intoler- ance of the sixteenth century found them out, and the king, yielding at last to the long-continued pressure, signed the order for their extermination. In 1545 the snow-capped mountains of the Alps witnessed a terrible scene. Three thousand helpless souls were massacred, hundreds were dragged from their homes to wear out their lives in the galleys, and many other hundreds were driven into exile. Francis was succeeded by Henry II. (1547-59) who had little in common with his courtly, affable, and somewhat frivolous predecessor. If Francis persecuted from political necessity, Henry did so from deliberate preference. He had a sombre streak in his character, indicative of the shadow which the approaching Catholic reaction was casting before. On the day of his coronation he said to a high French prel- ate that he would make it a point of honor to exterminate from his kingdom all whom the Church denounced. This promise he took seriously, laboring without rest to uproot heresy from his realm. He even had the desire to establish the Inquisition with its vigorous machinery of courts, prisons, and police. But here he met with opposition from the Parlia- A7id the Civil Wars in France 183 ments. Heresy had hitherto belonged to their jurisdiction, and they did not care to have their power cHpped for the advantage of the clergy. Therefore the Inquisition, techni- cally speaking, never was admitted into France; but the Parliaments, urged on by the zealous king, did such cruel work in condemning Protestants to death and confiscating the property of suspected persons, that it is hard to see how the Inquisition could have done more. But cruelty was of no avail. Protestant opinions continued to circulate, spreading chiefly from Geneva, where the exiled Calvin had by this time established his Reformed Church, and before Henry died several dozen congregations had sprung into existence, which, like the early Christians, conducted forbidden wor- ship in garrets and cellars in the perpetual shadow of an- nihilation. If Henry was largely occupied with the persecution of Henry and the Protestants, who stubbornly refused to be exterminated, with Spain. he did not, therefore, neglect the foreign interests of France. As the heir of his predecessors he found himself involved in a sharp rivalry with Spain. The chief object of that rivalry had been Italy, and the matter, when brought to the issue of arms, had been decided again and again in favor of Spain. At the time of Henry's accession Italy was seemingly secure in the hands of the victor, but that did not keep Henry, with a resolution more bold than discreet, from challenging the fact. That he gained no more than his predecessors we have seen in Chapter VI, for he was obliged to sign with Spain the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559), which was in substance a complete renunciation of the claims of his house to a position in Italy. But the Spanish wars of Hen- ry's time were, nevertheless, not so entirely unp ofitable for France as the long struggle of his father had been. When Territorial in 1552 the German Protestants, inspired and led by Maurice fjenL. " of Saxony, rose against Charles V., Henry II., in return for 1 84 71ie Reformation his alliance with the princes, was permitted to occupy the three border bishoprics of the empire, Metz, Toul, and Verdun; and when in 1557 and 1558 Phihp II. defeated the French at St. Quentin and GraveHnes, the duke of Guise retahated by suddenly pouncing upon and seizing from the English, who were the allies of Philip, the port of Calais. The sum of Henry's wars is that by the Treaty of Cateau- Cambresis the French definitely abandoned Italy, but adopted in its place, as is shown by the acquisition of the three bishoprics and of Calais, a policy of expansion upon their eastern and northern frontier. This was a much more natural ambition for the sovereign of a country situated like France, and set a precedent which had an important effect on Henry's successors. With his death the kingdom fell for a while into an eclipse through civil dissensions, but when it recovered, it undertook to push out its border to the east and north. In consequence of this diversion of French ambition the rivalry with Spain tended to fall into abeyance, and in its place arose the rivalry with the country most directly threatened by the change of direction in the French advance — Germany. When Henry signed the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, it was with the clear consciousness that it was necessary for all foreign wars to cease until the matter which was every day becoming more pressing and more bafHing, namely, the spread of Protestant opinion, had been attended to. In league with Philip he designed to extirpate heresy, root and branch. The new alliance was signalized by the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to the Spanish king. At a tour- nament which was a feature of the prolonged celebration, Henry rode into the lists against the captain of his guard. A chance splinter from his antagonist's lance entered his eye, and he died before he could realize his dream of purging his realm of the Protestant infection. And the Civil Wars in France 185 Until this time the Protestants of France had suffered Protestantism their persecutions in patience. But now the time came f^rks^Ufe^ when they organized themselves more perfectly and offered resistance to their oppressors. This was no more than hap- pened everywhere, for the intolerance of the dominant relig- ion looked upon every rival faith as wrong and pernicious, and hence insisted on its suppression, if necessary, by the sword. The result of Protestant resistance was a long civil war, in which became involved other issues besides the in- itial one of religion. The reader will recall a similar confu- sion of issues in Germany and England. When in 1546 civil war broke out between the German Protestants and the emperor, Maurice of Saxony used the opportunity to advance his own fortunes in the world; and when in 1553 Edward VI. died, the duke of Northumberland, on the plea of religion, tried to put his own daughter-in-law, the Lady Jane Grey, upon the English throne. The inference to be drawn from these examples is that many mean, sor- did, and personal interests are likely to intrude themselves into every religious struggle in order to fight for their own ends under the mask of religion. We shall presently meet this deplorable mi.xture of religious and selfish motives in the civil wars of France. At the death of Henry, his son Francis, who was but Francis II. sixteen years old, and physically and mentally feeble, suc- ceeded to the throne. When the power in an absolute monarchy such as France practically was at this time is not exercised by the sovereign, it is inevitably seized by some ambitious man or faction. The conditions in the court which surrounded the boy king have therefore an un- usual interest. The wife of the feeble Francis was a queen in her own Queen Mary right, Mary of Scotland. Although a woman of parts, she was of her husband's age and too inexperienced to assume 1 86 The Reforinatio7i The Bourbons. Alliance of Bourbons and Protestants. Catherine de' Medici, the queen -mother. control in his name. Her presence on the throne, however, offered an opportunity for the ambition of her two uncles, brothers of her mother and heads of the great House of Guise. The older was Francis, duke of Guise; the younger was a churchman. Cardinal Lorraine. They seized the reins, and because they were ardent Catholics continued Henry 11. 's policy of Protestant persecution. There were those, however, who looked with jealousy upon the rule of the Guises and called it usurpation. They were the princes of the House of Bourbon, a younger branch of the royal family. The head of the house was sovereign of what was left of the kingdom of Navarre in the Pyrenees and was known as King Anthony. The younger was Louis, prince of Conde. They contended that, as princes of the blood royal, they had a better right to rule for the feeble king than the family of Guise, and naturally everybody at court who had a grudge against the Guises came to their support. Thus the Bourbon princes headed a party of "malcon- tents," who were ready to seize every opportunity to rid themselves of their rivals. In casting about they could not but observe that the Guises were also hated by the Protes- tants whom they persecuted. Out of this common enmity there soon grew an intimacy and an alliance. Anthony in a faithless, vacillating manner, Conde more firmly, accepted the Reformed faith, and many of the "malcontents" — high- placed courtiers and noblemen for the most part — following their example, it came to pass that French Protestantism became inextricably involved with political intrigue. It was at this period that the party name of Huguenots, a term of uncertain and disputed origin, was fixed upon the French Protestants.^ Between the rival court factions of Bourbon and Guise, ' The most probable hypothesis is that Huguenot is a corruption of the German word Eidgenossen, a name applied to the Swiss Confederation. And the Civil Wars in France 187 and belonging to neither, stood a person not highly regarded at first, but destined to become famous — Catherine de' Me- dici. She was a Florentine princess, widow of Henry II. and mother of the young king. Protestant contemporaries came to look upon her as an incarnate fiend, but one of her chief antagonists, who afterward became King Henry IV. of France, judged her more leniently and correctly. He once silenced an over-harsh critic by asking what was she to do, an anxious mother, torn hither and thither by the fiercest of party feuds, and with no adviser on whom she could rely. In this apology of the great king lies probably the key to Catherine's career. She was, above all, a mother, mother of royal children, for whom she desired to preserve the throne of France. Doubtless, too, after she had once tasted the sweets of power, she clung to them with selfish tenacity as men and women will. Armed only with her woman's wit she plunged into the conflict of parties, and like other rulers of her time intrigued, bribed, and prevaricated to keep her- self afloat. Thus she might even lay claim to our regard if her shifty policy had not involved her in one act which must forever smirch her name. We shall see that she was largely responsible for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Out of these factions around the throne grew the in- The troubles trigues which led to the long religious wars in France. It is needless to try to put the blame for them on one or the other side. Given a weakened royal executive, the im- placable religious temper which marks the society of the sixteenth century, and a horde of powerful, turbulent, and greedy nobles, and civil war is a necessary consequence. We can notice only the more promijient symptoms of the coming outbreak. The path of the Guises was beset with con- Conspiracy of ^piracies, instigated or connived at by the Bourbon princes. But they managed to keep the upper hand. On one occa- sion, at Amboise in 1560, they took a direful vengeance upon i88 TJie Reformation Death of Francis, De- cember, 1560. Catherine in control. Catherine re- solves on toleration. The Massacre of Vassy, 1562. their adversaries, the Huguenots and "malcontents," by hanging groups of them to the battlements of the king's castle at Amboise and drowning others in the Loire. But their downfall was at hand. In December, 1560, the boy king Francis died, and his widow Mary, finding her role in France exhausted, prepared to leave for Scotland. Thus the props upon which the power of the Guises depended broke under them. The successor of Francis was his brother Charles IX., a weakling and a minor, who was but ten years old. King Anthony of Navarre, as nearest of kin, might have put forward a claim to the regency, but peevishly yielded the honor to the queen-mother. Catherine, there- fore, for the first time held the reins of power. Desirous, above all, of maintaining her son's authority, and filled with the sense of the difficulty of her position between Guise and Bourbon, she hit upon a policy of balance and moderation, called representatives of both hostile factions into her council, and published an Edict of Toleration, the first issued in France, granting to the Huguenots a limited right of worship. Here was a decided change of policy, exhibiting Catherine in the light of a promoter of the cause of religious liberty. But her good intentions came to naught, were bound to come to naught among men who, like the Protestants and Catholics of the sixteenth century, were passionately set on realizing their own religious system without the abatement of one jot or tittle. While the Catholics were imbittered by the extent of Catherine's concessions, the Protestants grumbled at the remaining limitations, and among the more fanatical followers of the two parties, sometimes without provocation, there occurred sharp conflicts, frequently end- ing in terrible excesses. One of these conflicts, the Massacre of Vassy (1562), put an end to hesitation and led to war. The duke of Guise was passing through the country with a company of armed And the Civil Wars in France 189 retainers, when he happened, at Vassy, upon a group of Huguenots, assembled in a barn for worship. Sharp words led to an encounter, and before the duke rode away sixty persons lay dead upon the ground and more than two hun- dred had been wounded. Fierce indignation seized the Protestants throughout France, and when the duke of Guise was received by the Catholics of Paris like a hero returning from successful war, and Catherine declared herself unable to call him to account, Conde issued an appeal and took the field. Thus were inaugurated the religious wars of France, Character of which were not brought to a conclusion until 1598, by 'the '^*''^"- Edict of Nantes, and which in their consequences contin- ued to trouble the country well into the ne.xt century. For our purpose it is sufficient to look upon the period from 1562 to 1598 as one war, though it is true that there were frequent suspensions of arms, supporting themselves upon sham truces and dishonest treaties.^ The war, like all the religious wars of the century, was waged with inhuman barbarity, and conflagration, pillage, massacre, and assas- sination blot every stage of its progress. Protestants and Catholics alike became brutes, and vied with each other in their efforts to turn their country into a desert. When the Treaty of St. Germain (1570), granting the The Peace of Protestants the largest toleration which they had yet en- S'- Germain, joyed, temporarily closed the chapter of conflicts, many of the original leaders had passed away. King Anthony of Navarre had been killed in battle against his former friends, the Huguenots, whom he had basely deserted (1562); the duke of Guise had been assassinated (1563); and Conde ' Eight wars have been distinguished as follows: First war ic62-6v second war, 1567-68; third war, 1568-70 (ended by the Peace of St. Ger^ main); fourth war, 1572-73; tifth war, 1574-76; sixth war, 1=77; seventh war, 1579-80; eighth war (called the War of the Three Henries), 1585-80 which continued in another form until the Edict of Nantes (1598) ^ ^ ^' I90 The Refor7nation Admiral Coligny. Effort at peace after St. Ger- main, 1570, Marriage of Henry and Margaret. had been treacherously slain in a charge of horse (1569). The head of the Huguenot party was now Anthony's young son, King Henry of Navarre, but the intellectual leadership fell, for the present, upon Gaspard de Coligny. The new leader deserves a word in passing, for he was one of the few high-born " malcontents," who entered the Protestant ranks for other reasons than political rancor, and who, while fighting with conviction for the religion he pre- ferred, never forgot, in the wild broils of partisanship, that he was a Frenchman and owed a duty to his country. He belonged to the great family of Chatillon, was allied through his mother with the family of IVIontmorency, and without going to sea held, anomalously enough, the honorary post of Admiral of France. Take him for all in all, he was the most honorable and attractive character of his time. Meanwhile, a moderate party had been formed in France, which tried to make the Peace of St. Germain the beginning of a definite settlement. It was only too clear that the blood- shed, which was draining the country of its strength, ruined both parties and brought profit to none except the enemies of France. The more temperate of both sides, Coligny prominent among them, began to see the folly of the struggle, and King Charles himself, who was now of age and had replaced the Regent Catherine, inclined to this view. And yet such were the mutual suspicions and animosities^that the efi'ort to remove all cause of quarrel precipitated the most horrible of all the incidents of the war, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. After the Peace of St. Germain, Coligny had come up to Paris and had rapidly acquired great influence with the king. The young monarch seemed to be agreed to put an end for all time to internal dissension, enforce strictly the terms of the new peace with its provision of a limited right of worship for the Protestants, and turn the strength of the united I _ And the Civil Wars in France 191 country against the hereditary enemy, Spain. For this purpose he arranged, as a preHminary step, a marriage between his sister Margaret and young Henry of Navarre. Joyfully responding to the invitation of King Charles, the Huguenots poured in swarms into Paris to attend the wedding of their chief, which was celebrated on August 18, 1572. The wedding seemed to inaugurate an era of Protestant Attempted as- triumphs. Coligny's star, shedding the promise of tolera- cdfgny!""''^ tion, was steadily rising; that of the Guises and (heir ultra- Catholic supporters, standing for religious dissension, was as steadily setting. Catherine de' Medici, originally hardly more attached to the Guises than to the Bourbons and Huguenots, because primarily solicitous only about herself and her children, had lately lost her influence with the king. She knew well whither it had gone, and fixed the hatred of a passionate nature upon Coligny. Burning to regain her power, she now put herself in communication with the Guises. On August 22d, as Coligny was leaving the palace of the king, a ball, meant for his breast, struck him in the arm. Charles, who hurried in alarm to the bedside of his councillor, was filled with indignation. "Yours the wound, mine the sorrow," he said, and swore to search out the assassin and his accomplices. The terror of discovery and punishment which now The Massacre racked Catherine and the Guises drove them to devise some °lf.'^®^'^''°'' means by which they might deflect the king's vengeance. On the spur of the moment, as it were, they ])lanned the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. This famous massacre is, therefore, not to be considered, as was once the custom, the carefully laid plot of the Catholic heads of Europe, but rather as the bloodthirsty improvisation of a desperate band. Catherine de' Medici and the Guises were its authors, and the fervidly Catholic population of Paris was the instrument omew. 192 The Reformation of their spite. How the king's consent was got when all was ready would be difficult to understand, if we did not know that he was weak and cowardly, and not entirely sound of mind. In a session of the council, Catherine pHed him with the bugbear of a Huguenot plot, until in an access of insane rage he cried out that they should all be butchered. In the early morning hours of St. Bartholomew's day (August 24th) the tocsin was sounded from all the churches of Paris. At the signal the Catholic citizens slipped noiselessly from their houses, entered the residences which had been previously designated by a chalk mark as the homes of the Huguenots, and slaughtered the inmates in their beds. Coligny was one of the first victims of the ensuing fury, Henry of Guise him- self presiding at the butchery of his Huguenot rival. That night the streets flowed with blood, and for many days after the provinces, incited by the example of the capital, indulged in similar outrages. The grim saying went the rounds that the high espousals of Navarre must be given a tinge of crimson. The bridegroom himself was in danger of assassi- nation, but managed to save his life by temporarily renounc- ing his faith. The victims of this fearful e.xhibition of fa- naticism amounted to 2,000 in Paris, and 6,000 to 8,000 in the rest of France. We can better understand the spirit of the time when we hear that the Catholic world, the Pope and Philip of Spain at its head, made no effort to conceal its delight at this easy method of getting rid of its religious adversaries. Henry III. War, with all its dreary incidents, straightway flamed up again. In 1574 Charles IX. died from natural causes, though the Huguenots were pleased to ascribe his death to remorse for his share in the great crime of St. Bartholomew. His brother, Henry III., succeeded him on the throne. A new element of interest was introduced into the struggle only when the death of Henry's youngest brother, the duke of And tJie Civil Wars in France 193 Alengon, and his own failure to have heirs, involved, with the religious dispute, the question of the succession. By the law of the realm the crown would have to pass The question upon Henry's death to the nearest male relative, who was gio^. ^ ^^^^^^' Henry of Navarre, head of the collateral branch of Bourbon. But Henry was a Huguenot, the enemy of the faith of the vast majority of his future subjects. When his succession became probable, Henry of Guise and his followers formed the Holy League, which pledged itself to maintain the inter- est of the Roman Church at all hazards and never permit a heretic to sit on the throne of France. While the Catholics League and were forming a partisan organization regardless of their "8^^'^° s. obligation to their country, the Huguenots showed a spirit no less narrow and sectarian. They planned to form them- selves into a federal republic, practically independent of the kingdom of France. It was plain that party was becoming more and more, country less and less, and that the outcome of the wasteful civil strife would be the ruin and disruption of France. In consequence of these developments the king found himself in evil straits. As head of the state he was pledged to the interests of the country and was inclined to pursue a policy of reconciliation and peace. But the League and the Huguenots would have no peace except on their own terms, and the king, trying to hold his course between Scylla and Charybdis, was deserted by all except the handful of men who refused to share in the madness of partisan fury. In the new turn of the civil struggle three parties, each championed by a leader of the name of Henry, disputed the control of France. The new war, called the War of the Three Henries (1585- War of the 89), steeped the country in such confusion that men soon ^^^ ^""^ ' indulged in every form of lawlessness without punishment. King Henry, an effeminate dandy with a fondness for lap- dogs and ear-rings, had gone to all lengths in order to main- 194 TJic Reformation Murder of Henry of Guise, 1588. Murder of Henry III.. 1589. Accession of Henry IV. tain his authority, and had practically resigned the real power into the hands of the head of the League; but at last, in December, 1588, he indignantly resolved to put an end to his humiliation. He invited Henry of Guise to his cabinet, and there had him treacherously despatched by his guard. Cowardice and rancor could go no further, and the League turned in horror from the murderer, Paris and Catholic France declaring for his deposition. In his despair the king fled to Henry of Navarre, and was advancing with his Huguenot subjects upon his capital, when a fanatical Dominican monk forced admission to his presence and killed him with a knife (August, 1589). With him the House of Valois came to an end. The question was now simply be- tween Henry of Navarre, the rightful claimant to the crown, and the League, which would have none of him. The new Henry, Henry IV., first king of the House of Bourbon, was a brave soldier, an intelligent ruler, and a courtly gentleman. He had his faults, springing from a gay, mercurial temperament, but intensely human as they were, they actually contributed to his popularity. He was con- fronted on his accession by the disconcerting fact that his followers were only a small part of France. The attachment of the Catholic majority he knew could only be won slowly, and force, he suspected from the first, would be of no avail. Therefore, he undertook patiently to assure the Catholics of the loyalty of his intentions and win their recognition. If the League could only have found a plausible rival for the throne, Henry might have been annihilated; but his claim was incontrovertible, and that was his strength. For the present no one thought of disarming. Henry won a number of engagements, notably the battle of Ivry (1590), but the League, still managed by the Guise faction in the person of Henry of Guise's younger brother, and supported by Philip of Spain, could not be scattered. And the Civil lVa?-s in France 195 For four years Henry waited for his subjects to come over The conver- to his side; then he took a decisive step and went over to ^'°" ° ^""^^ theirs. The misery of his countrymen, racked by the end- less civil struggle, wrenched his heart; also he was in con- stant alarm lest the League or Philip II., or both in agree- ment, should impose on France an elected sovereign in his stead. In July, 1593, he solemnly abjured his faith, and was readmitted into the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. The effect was almost magical. He was recog- nized throughout France, the League fell apart, the king of Spain was deserted by his French partisans, and the war ceased. In February, 1594, he could proceed with his cor- onation at Chartres, and when a month later he approached Paris the gates were thrown open and he was received like a hero and a saviour by those same Parisians who in the period of his apostacy from the Church had spewed him out of their mouths. Henry's conversion fiercely excited contemporary opinion. Justified or By uncompromising Huguenots, by many Protestants the world over, the act was denounced as nothing less than trea- son. But by modern historians, whose judgment is far less affected by allegiance to a particular dogma, the conversion is regarded more leniently. In so far as we are inclined to admit that attachment to one's country is as lofty, if not a loftier consideration than attachment to one's Church, we have praise rather than blame for the patriot king. But even our altered standards of conduct do not excuse Henry for taking his change of sides so lightly. He disposed of his conversion with a smile and an epigram. Paris is well {worth a Mass, he said to the circle of his courtiers. The sentiment confirms the earlier statement that we have in ijhim a gay, sensuous cavalier, constitutionally incapable of being very serious about the great matter of religion, which occupied all the profounder spirits of the age. But his con- not? 196 TJie Reformation The Edict of Nantes, 1598. The political privileges. stitutional unfitness for religious passion redounded, as in the case of Elizabeth of England, to the advantage of his country. He could practise a genuine tolerance, and could undertake, on the basis of it, to carry through a solution of the religious conflict. The document in which Henry tried 'to arrange for the peaceful living side by side of Huguenots and Catholics is known, from the town in which the king afiixed his signa- ture, as the Edict of Nantes. It bears the date of April 13, 1598, and falls naturally into the three sections of religious rights, civil rights, and political rights. Under the head of religious rights we note that Protestant worship was author- ized in two places in each bailiwick of France, as well as in the castles of noblemen. As a concession to the fanaticism of the day, the reformed service was expressly forbidden at Paris and at the royal court. In the matter of civil rights, a Huguenot was recognized as a full-fledged Frenchman, who was protected by the law wherever he went, and was eligible to any office. So far the settlement of Nantes was con- ceived in the modern spirit, and was far ahead of any solution found in any other country. But by the section dealing with political rights, the Protestants were granted an exceptional position, in entire disagreement v/ith present-day concep- tions, and destined to prove incompatible with the interests and even the existence of the state. They could hold assem- blies in which they legislated for themselves, and they were put in military possession of a certain number of fortified towns, of which La RocheUe was the chief. As long as Henry lived, there was peace between Protestants and Cath- olics, but the tolerant spirit of Henry was appreciated by but a handful of men, and the mass of Protestants and Catho- lics continued to regard each other with venomous hatred. Once again we may see how in that age of religious passion intolerance was not so much the work of the governments And tJie Civil Wars in France 197 as of the people themselves, a thing inborn as the love of kin or the fear of fire. Therefore, the strong hand of Henry had no sooner been withdrawn than the religious conflict threatened to revive. In the same year in which Henry disposed of the Protes- Peace with tant issue, he signed a treaty of peace with Philip II. Spain ^^"^' ^^^ had made common cause with the League, and was recog- nized by Henry as a dangerous enemy to his House and na- tion, but the time was not yet ripe for decisive action. The Peace of Vervins (1598) drew the boundary between France and Spain as determined in the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis of 1559- France being now at peace within and without, Henry set Peace labors about the task of healing the wounds of his stricken country. Sully."*^^ ^" The finances were put in charge of a friend of his Hugue- not days, the duke of Sully, whose vigilance and honesty soon wiped out a large part of the state debt and converted the annual deficit into an annual surplus. Henry himself did all in his power to encourage agriculture, then as now the chief source of French prosperity. He built good roads, he favored new industries, especially the manufac- ture of silk, and he made a modest beginning toward acquir- ing for France a foothold in America by furthering French enterprise in the basin of the St. Lawrence. When, after years of reconstructive labor, Henry saw Henry resolves himself at the head of a flourishing commonwealth, he House of Haps- again turned with vigor to foreign affairs. The House of ^"""S- Hapsburg, reigning through its two branches in Spain and Austria, seemed to him, now as ever, the great enemy of France. Throughout the period of peace he had cultivated the friendship of the smaller powers of Europe — the Italian states, the Swiss, Holland — until he exercised a kind of pro- tectorship over them. Thus backed, he thought he might summon the House of Hapsburg once more to the field. A 198 Tlic Reformation Murdered, i6i©. The regency of Maria de' Medici. Richelieu saves the state. local quarrel in Germany was just about to furnish him with the necessary pretext for beginning the war, when. on May 14, 16 10, he was laid low by the dagger of a fanatic named Ravaillac. At Henry's death his son Louis XIII. (1610-43) was but nine years old. Accordingly, a regency was proclaimed under Louis's mother, Maria de' Medici, whom Henry IV. had married upon the grant of a divorce from his first wife, Margaret of Valois. Maria, an Italian of the same House as the former regent, Catherine de' Medici, was a large and coarse woman ("//»? grosse hanquihre''^ was her husband's ungallant description of her), without personal or political merit. The sovereign power was, therefore, soon in a bad way. Italian favorites exercised control, and the turbulent nobility, which had been repressed by the firm hand of Henry IV., began again to aspire to political importance. Among: these nobles the Huguenot aristocracy, who had been per- mitted by the Edict of Nantes to keep up an army and several fortified places, assumed an especially threatening tone, and judging from the confusion which followed Maria's assump- tion of power, it seemed more than likely that France was drifting into another era of civil war. If France was saved from this calamity, it was due, and 1 solely due, to one man, Armand Jean du Plessis, known to fame as Cardinal Richelieu. When he entered the royal ' council, to become before long, by the natural ascendancy of ! his intellect, the leading minister (1624), the queen-regent; had already been succeeded by the king; but under the king, who had much more of his mother than of his father in him, and was dull and slothful, the affairs of the realm had not • been in the least improved. Richelieu, therefore, found himself confronted by a heavy task. But his unique position proved a help to him in fulfilling it. As a boy he had been destined for the Church, and at a ludicrously early I And the Civil Wars in France 199 age he had, by reason of his noble birth and the favor of the king, been made bishop of Lujon. Later he was hon- ored by the Pope with the cardinal's hat. His ecclesiastical dignities, added to his position in the state, raised his au- thority to a height where it could not be assailed while the king supported him. And this the king did to the fullest extent. That is the dullard Louis XIII. 's greatest merit in the eyes of history. While Richelieu lived, he retained, in spite of intrigues and conspiracies, the power in his hands and was the real king of France. Richelieu was one of those rare statesmen who can form Hispro- and carry through with an iron will a policy suited to the gramme. needs of the country. His programme, which seems to have been inspired by that of Henry IV., falls into three sections. In the first place, he inherited Henry's tolerance, a circum- stance the more remarkable as he was a leading dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church. ■ He would grant the Huguenots the civil and religious rights laid down in the Edict of Nantes, but their political rights, which made them almost independent of the state, he would ruthlessly destroy. ^,His second aim was to clip the wings of the nobility once for all, and his third, to overthrow for the glory of France the power of the House of Hapsburg. He first attacked the pressing problem of the Huguenots. The Huguenot Since Henry's death they had become restless and hung on ^™ the horizon like a thunder-cloud, ready to burst at any mo- ment. Richelieu proceeded cautiously, treated with them as long as negotiation was feasible, and suddenly, when the op- portunity came, invested their chief town. La Rochelle. A long siege followed, wherein the endurance of the beleaguered citizens proved no match for the skill of the tireless cardinal, who conducted the operations in person. The English fleet, sent by Charles I., tried to relieve the town, but in vain. In 1628 the Rochellese, having lost 16,000 inhabitants through 200 The Reformation The turbulent nobility. Centralization of administra- tion. hunger and pestilence, surrendered at discretion. The next year the remnant of the Protestant forces in the south was likewise disarmed and Richelieu was master of the situation. But now his admirable moderation came to light. The ordinary ruler of the time would have compelled the beaten minority to conform to the religion of the majority or else be burned or banished. Not so Richelieu, true forerunner of the brotherhood of all Christian men. He confirmed to the Huguenots the civil and religious rights granted by the Edict of Nantes, and for the rest incorporated them into the state on the basis of equality with all other Frenchmen by canceUing their special political privileges. The turbulent nobles intrenched in the provinces, where they exercised most of the functions of the local governments, gave the cardinal much food for thought. With his clear eye he saw that they were an anomaly in a state aspiring to be modern. They carried on a veritable private warfare by their duelling habits, and defied the authorities from behind their fortified castles. So Richelieu threw himself upon duels and castles, declaring by edict that the time for them was past, and executing a few of the most persistent duel- lists as an example to their class. He also directly un- dermined their authority by settling in the provinces agents called iniendanls, who took supreme charge of jus- tice, police, and finances. These intendants were common- ers, who executed orders received from Paris, and marked the creation of a new and highly centralized administration, in place of the ancient feudal one with the power in the hands of the local magnates. By virtue of this systematic abasement of the nobility to the profit of the royal executive, it is frequently maintained that Richelieu created the ab- solute monarchy. This is not strictly true, for we have seen that the French kings had been becoming more and more powerful ever since the fifteenth century; but it is Ajid the Civil Wars in France 20i beyond contradiction that Richelieu eminently improved the king's position by his successful war upon the nobles. Here we are tempted to ask what became, in the presence Richelieu, the of this exaltation of the royal prerogative, of those institu- andthePar- tions which still exercised some check on the king's will — 'laments. the States-General and the Parliaments? RicheUeu re- garded their pretensions with suspicion. The States-Gen- eral, composed of the three classes, clergy, nobles, and commoners, had been summoned by the regent in 1614, quarrelled, as usual, among themselves, and accomplished nothing. Richelieu did not summon them again. They fell into oblivion and were not thought of until the absolute monarchy, one laundred and seventy-five years later, ac- knowledged its bankruptcy, and was reminded of this means of appealing to the people for aid. The Parliaments — there were ten of them in Richelieu's day — fared some- what better. They continued to act as supreme courts of justice, but their interference with political affairs the high- handed cardinal would not suffer. With the Huguenots at peace and the selfish nobility held Richelieu and in check, Richelieu could take up with vigor his foreign plans, Years' War. looking to the humiliation of the House of Hapsburg. It was a most convenient circumstance that Germany was con- vulsed at this time with the Thirty Years' War. (See next chapter.) With the instinct of a statesman Richelieu felt that if he helped the German Protestants against the Cath- olics, represented by the emperor and Spain, he would sooner or later acquire some permanent advantages for France. His gradual interference, developing from occasional subsi- dies of money to the recruitment of large armies, finally se- cured to his king the balance of power in the German war, and made France practical dictator of Europe when the Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the struggle. Richelieu did not live to see this result (he died 1642), but the ad- 202 TJic Reformation v-antage which France secured on that occasion may be written down to his statesmanHke conduct of the government. Bloom of Many criticisms can be urged against Richelieu's rule; for instance, his handling of the finances was mere muddling, and his exaltation of the monarch at the expense of every other institution in the state led in the eighteenth century to dire disasters. But the sum of his achievement is none the less immense, when we reflect that he welded France into a solid union and made her supreme in Europe. The new splendor could not fail to stir the imagination, and favor the bloom of art and literature. The cardinal himself es- tablished the famous Academy of France as a kind of sov- ereign body in the field of letters (1635), 'and lived to see the birth of the French drama in the work of Corneille ("The Cid," 1636). This is an important circumstance, for France was destined in the days after Richelieu to exercise an even wider empire through her culture than through her arms. CHAPTER X THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR AND THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA References: Wakeman, Europe 1598-17 15, Chapters IV., v., VI.; Gardiner, The Thirty Years' War; Gin- DELY, The Thirty Years' War (a detailed and scholarly work); Fletcher, Gustavus Adolphus. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXIX. (The Jesuits in Germany, Sack of Magdeburg, Treaty of Westphalia, etc.). The Peace of Augsburg of the year 1555 was undoubtedly Religious and a victory for the German Protestants. But it was also, since hig'ofThe ^^^ it took the affairs of religion out of the hands of the emperor Peace of Augs- and put them in the hands of the local powers, a victory of the princes. Henceforth the decline of the emperor was more certain than ever, while at the same time it became plain that the future of the German people depended on the ability of the princes to shape their territories into modern states. But if the Peace of Augsburg represents a victory of Prot- Unsolved re- estantism over Catholicism, and of the princes over the em- lemT^^™ peror, it was far from being a final settlement of the troubles of Germany. The peace left important matters in suspense. To mention only two: (i) It recognized Lutheranism with- out extending any rights whatever to Calvinism; and (2) the article called the Ecclesiastical Reservation, as interpreted by the Catholics, prohibited any further seizures of Church property. None the less, the Lutherans, who put their own reading upon the Ecclesiastical Reservation, continued to take monastic property and to appropriate abbacies and 203 204 T]ie Thirty Years' War bishoprics wherever they had the power. Calvinism, too, in greater favor than Lutheranism among Protestants radi- cally inclined, continued to spread, although no law pro- tected it. Add to these difficulties the hot passion which every question of religion excited in the sixteenth century, and it is plain that the country was drifting into another civil war. That the struggle was adjourned for over half a century was due to a variety of causes. In the first place, the im- mediate successors of Emperor Charles V., Ferdinand I. (1556-64) and Maximilian II. (1564-76), were moderate men, who did their utmost to preserve peace. Their views were seconded by the leading Lutheran princes, inclined by the natural conservatism of successful men to rest content with what they had won. Besides, these princes entertained the hope that without war, by gradual infiltration into all classes of society and through all districts. Protestantism might make a clean sweep of Germany. And, really, for some years the prospects were excellent. Protestantism pos- sessed youth and confidence, and, in the Lutheran form at least, had a legal sanction. It continued to mount, like a tide, until it had covered the whole centre and north of Germany, and threatened the great bishoprics along the Rhine and the Hapsburg and Bavarian dominions in the south. To a dis- passionate observer it must have looked highly probable that the Roman Church, undermined in these, its last strongholds, would soon topple. But this culminating catastrophe never took place. For one thing, the dominant Lutherans were of too lax a temper to make the best of their opportunities, and in the second place, in the very nick of time the Catholic Counter-Reformation reached Germany, and instilled into the dying cause a new vigor. We have already taken note of how the Jesuits and the Council of Trent steadied the wavering Catholic ranks all And the Peace' of Westphalia 205 over the world. This effect did not make itself felt in Ger- many until the last quarter of the sixteenth century, when Rudolph II. (1576-1612) was upon the throne. Breaking away from the moderate policy of his immediate predeces- sors, he set his heart on bringing the Roman Church once more to the front, and did all in his power to favor his friends, the Jesuits. Operating from the court of Vienna as a centre, and also from that of Bavaria, whose ruling family was, if possible, even more narrowly Catholic than the Hapsburgs, the devoted followers of Ignatius Loyola grad- ually spread in every direction. Their churches multiplied, and their schools, conducted with energy and intelligence, were largely attended. Presently the Protestant advance was checked all along the line, and an energetic Catholic propaganda began to score triumphs in those doubtful re- gions, chiefly of the south, where Protestantism was as yet but a matter of isolated outposts. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the tension Increasing between the parties was nearing the danger point, and every new incident increased the probability of a rupture. The affair of Donauworth indicated from what quarter the wind was now blowing over Germany. Donauworth, on the upper Danube, was a free city, meaning, it will be re- membered, that it governed itself like a small republic. The Protestant townsmen, being in the majority, ventured to break up a Catholic procession, for which deed the Em- peror Rudolph put the city under the ban of the Empire, and commissioned the duke of Bavaria to occupy it with an armed force. This done, the Catholic worship was re- established and Protestantism put down (1607). It was a The Protes- high-handed act and so excited the more radical Protestants j6o8. ' that in 1608 they formed a Union to check similar aggressions. The duke of Bavaria met this measure by associating himself The Catholic with a number of bishops and abbots in a Catholic League ^'^sue, i 09. 2o6 The TJiirty Years War (1609). When men belwecn whom no love is lost go about armed, the chances of a clash are greatly increased. Never- theless, so general was the dread of civil war that, in spite of ever-increasing difBculties, the peace was preserved for an- other decade. The outbreak The occasion that finally precipitated the long-expected ,(,j8. '' conflict was furnished by Bohemia. Bohemia was a king- dom but recently added to the dominions of the House of Hapsburg. Its inhabitants were Oermans and Czechs, the Czechs, a Slavic peo{)le, being decidedly in the majority. In the fifteenth century Bohemia had risen into European prom- inence through its great citizen John Huss, who initiated a reform movement in the Church, and was condemned for it to a heretic's death at the stake. The wild rebellion of the followers of Huss was after many failures put down, but the discontented jjrovincc continued to be a likely field for revolutionary agitation. In consequence, when Luther lifted his voice in Sa.xony his words raised an echo across the border and made many converts. Nor was the movement much hindered by the authorities until Emperor Rudolph came to the throne. Devoted son of the Church that he was, he tried to suppress it, but, incapable and half insane, he only botched matters, and was in the end constrained to grant the Protestants a limited toleration in a charter of the year 1609. But both Rudolph and his successor Matthias (1612-19) carried out the terms of the charter grudgingly, and by many high-handed acts kept the suspicions of the Protestants alive. In the year 1618, angered beyond en- durance by the duplicity of their ruler, they rose in revolt. The emperor resided at Vienna, and was represented at Prague, the capital of his Bohemian kingdom, by a body of governors. These the insurgents attacked, invaded their castle, and summarily tossed two of them, with their secre- tary, out of the window into the fosse below. It was a fall And the Peace of Westphalia 207 of sheer one hundred feet, but, wonderful to say, had no evil consequences. The grateful victims, on scrambling out of the ditch, ascribed their rescue to the intervention of the Virgin Mary, but sceptical Protestants called attention to the soft heaps of refuse which had accumulated in the moat. As soon as the deed was done, the insurgents set up a gov- ernment of their own. Thus far the rebellion was a local Bohemian incident; but it proved to be the event which lighted the long-laid fuse and precipitated the great struggle known as the Thirty Years' War. Whoever makes a study of the Thirty Years' War will The periods be struck by the fact that it is really not so much a single Years' Warf war as an aggregation of wars. It therefore falls naturally into different periods, designated by the question or power which is uppermost at the time. Five such periods are clearly distinguishable: the Bohemian Period (1618-20), the Palatine Period (1621-23), the Danish Period (1625- 29), the Swedish Period (1630-35), and the French Pe- riod (1635-48). These divisions indicate how the struggle, beginning in Bohemia, spread like an infection, until it included all Europe. From Bohemia, where, we have seen, it had its origin, it ate its way into southern Ger- many into the region known as the Palatinate; this is the Palatine Period. Then slowly northern Germany and its nearest Protestant neighbor, Denmark, were drawn into its sphere; this is the Danish Period. And finally one and another foreign country was moved to take part, until the war, while continuing to be a German civil struggle, acquired something of the aspect of a world-clash between Protestant- ism and Catholicism, and something, too, of a duel between the two greatest reigning houses of Europe, Hapsburg and Bourbon. 208 The Thirty Years War The Bo- hemians ap- peal to the German Protestants. Ferdinand II. , 1619-37. The Bohemian Period (1618-20). The revolutionists at Prague had hardly set up their government, when they appealed to the German Protestants for help. The Lutherans of the north denied them even their sympathy, while the Calvinists, inhabiting chiefly the south and associated together in the Protestant Union, offered advice, but little help. The fact was that the Bohemians were in rebellion, and rebellion is a matter which conserva- tive men will always treat with caution. There were, how- ever, in the Union a number of flighty, sanguine characters, who were bent on striking, through the Bohemian matter, a blow at the Hapsburgs and Catholicism. Chief of these was the president of the Union, the Elector Frederick, ruling over the region called the Palatinate, of which Heidelberg was the capital. He began by giving the rebellion secret help, nursing the hope, meanwhile, that he would in the end be able to draw the Union with him. In this he was mistaken. The Union temporized, adopted a few useless measures, and before long dissolved itself. Its history is practically zero. Meanwhile, hostilities had begun between the emperor and his revolted subjects. They had not advanced far when the incapable Matthias died (March, 1619), and the Hapsburg dominions passed to a better man, Ferdinand II. He had been brought up by the Jesuits and filled by them with their devotion to the Church. He was small and feeble, with hooked nose, weak eyes, and thin hair — plainly not the captain of men who shakes the world with his ambitions. Nevertheless, where his convictions were involved this frail sovereign proved himself more immovable than men of a more heroic aspect. Having made sure of the attachment to himself of all the Hapsburg dominions save Bohemia, he set out for Frankfurt, where the assembly of German electors And the Peace of Westphalia 209 was convened, after the usual fashion, to name the successor of Matthias. Although three of the seven electors were Protestants, the electoral college so far accepted the time- honored ascendancy of the House of Hapsburg as to raise him to the imperial dignity. Having gained thus much, Ferdinand felt that he must strain every nerve to recover Bohemia. The case was rapidly becoming urgent, for almost at the same moment that he was acclaimed at Frankfurt, the Bohemian struggle had entered a new and more dangerous phase: the revolutionists had made an offer The Elector of the crown to the Elector Frederick. Frederick hesitated, comes king of torn between anxiety and hope, but in the end, spurred on Bohemia, 1619. by his ambition, set out for Prague, and on November 4, 1619, was crowned king. While making preparations for a vigorous campaign, Fer- Maximilian dinand approached the Catholic League for aid. This or- ganization, which was destined to play a very considerable role in the Thirty Years' War, was, in distinction from its rival, the Union, most efl&ciently managed by its president, Maximilian, duke of Bavaria. Maximilian proved himself, in the course of the war, to be the most capable sovereign of Germany. He had been brought up, like Ferdinand, by the Jesuits, and shared the new emperor's devotion to the Church. He tempered that devotion, however, with a states- manship such as the imperial dreamer and bigot had no inkling of. From the moment of his accession he prepared for the coming crisis by laying up money and drilling an army. In the hard struggles of this world it is generally such men as Maximilian who succeed, men who exercise foresight and energetically carry through well-laid plans. Maximilian was thoroughly aroused over what he consid- ered the Elector Frederick's usurpation, and did not require much coaxing to put his forces at Ferdinand's disposal. 2IO The TJiirty Years War The decisive Bohemian campaign of 1620. In the year 1620 there followed the campaign which de- cided the fate of Bohemia. Was the country to remain Prot- estant under its new king, Frederick, or to be won back by the Catholics and handed over to Ferdinand? If the Prot- estants had had a different champion, their outlook might have been more brilliant. Frederick was a man of little brains, and such spirit as he had was largely supplied by his wife. What made greatly against his chances was that politically he stood alone. The Union, in spite of his ap- peals, did next to nothing, while among the Lutherans one man, the powerful elector of Sa.xony, acted with Ferdinand. The forces of the League, under the command of General Tilly, penetrated into Bohemia until they came within sight of the towers of Prague. They found Frederick's army drawn up on the White Hill to the west of the town, and the ensuing battle was a crushing defeat for Frederick, who fled for his life. The Jesuits had mockingly foretold that he would prove but a winter king, a man of snow, vanish- ing at the first ray of the sun, and they were right. Fer- dinand, followed by an army of priests and Jesuits, took possession of Bohemia, confiscated the immense estates of the revolted nobles, and gradually forced the people back to Catholicism. Seizure of the Palatinate. The Palaline Period (1621-23). The Bohemian episode was closed, and lovers of peace hoped that the war would now end. They were disap- pointed, for neither would the defeated Frederick give up his claims, nor could the elated Catholics resist the temptation to make the most of their victory. An entirely new cause of war was created when the emperor, egged on by his Jesuit advisers, deprived Frederick of his electoral title, and com- missioned Maximilian, together with his allies, the Span- iards, to take military possession of the Palatinate. This And the Peace of Westphalia 2ii looked dangerously like violence, especially as a Catholic army encamped among Protestants was sure to kindle fierce resentment. Frederick, with a little help from various quar- ters, made what resistance he could, but had to yield to the more disciplined troops of his adversaries. By the end of the year 1622 not a foot of his inherited states was in his possession. The emperor, victorious beyond his dreams, thought he could now dispose of the Palatinate as a con- quered province. He transferred (1623) the electoral dig- nity from Frederick to Maximilian, duke and henceforth elector of Bavaria, and still further rewarded his ally by conferring upon him a part of the Palatine territory (the Upper Palatinate). Meanwhile, Protestant Europe had watched with alarm Alarm of the progress of the Catholic arms. The tie of religion was Europe^" still so close that various Protestant powers, England, Hol- land, Sweden, and Denmark, began to discuss possible meas- ures for the relief of their German brethren. The leader- ship in any such concerted action would naturally fall to 'England, not only because England under Elizabeth had stepped to the front of the Protestant world, but also be- cause the reigning EngHsh sovereign, James I., was the father-in-law of Frederick of the Palatinate, husband of the fair and ambitious Princess Elizabeth. James, to be sure, had counselled against the Bohemian adventure because he had an unreasoning aversion to rebellion, but when Fred- erick lost the Palatinate, too, he could not refuse to bestir himself in his cause. He began with the idea that an ami- cable adjustment was possible through the combined inter- vention in Germany of England and Spain, and planned in furtherance of this policy, a marriage alliance with the Spanish House. But the Spaniards negotiated only to gain time, waited till the Palatinate was safe in the emperor's hands, and then raised the price of their friendship. Hence- 212 TJie Thirty Years' War Failure of James of England's pro- jected Protes- tant alliance. forth James breathed war and planned a great alliance to wrest the Palatinate from the Catholics by force. Here, too, ill luck pursued him. The Dutch had in 1609 signed a truce with the Spaniards which had just (1621) expired. The renewed war with their old tyrants fully occupied their energies. Sweden, ruled by Gustavus Adolphus, listened, but proposed a plan that was not to James's liking. Be- sides, Gustavus had troubles with Russia and Poland, which seemed as much of a load as his shoulders could bear for the time being. There remained Denmark, and James signed a treaty with the king of that country, Christian IV., by which England promised to supply him with money in case he headed a Protestant attack". Mindful of the enmity between Hapsburg and Bourbon, James even approached France, and France, though a Catholic country, was willing to lend a hand; but unfortunately the Huguenot embers still smouldered, and Richelieu, who had just then acquired a dominant influence (1624), with characteristic caution re- solved to attend first to matters at home. Before long England itself was paralyzed by domestic troubles,' for James rashly involved himself in that quarrel with his peo- ple which led later to the great civil war, and which for the moment left him without funds, since his angry Parliament would put no money in his hands. The upshot of the vaunted European alliance was that the Danish king took up the war against the emperor single-handed, without so much as getting the promised money help from England. Christian con- fronted by Tilly and Wailenstein. The Danish War (1625-29). With the entrance of Christian IV. into the war, the scene of action was transferred from the south to the north. Tilly, who still commanded the army of the League, moved against him, but Christian at first had the advantage of position and numbers. Just as he thought he had the situation Atid the Peace of Westphalia 21 3 in hand, a second Catholic army appeared and threatened his flank. Raised in the name of the emperor, this force Wallenstein ^ . .1 f J • iU • creates an was really the first tmpenal army put forward m this war — imperial army. Tilly, it must always be remembered, was employed by the League — and was commanded by Wallenstein. Wallen- stein was a Bohemian nobleman, who had remained true to Ferdinand, and who had been rewarded with immense es- tates taken from the defeated rebels. In order to make his master independent of the League, he had counselled him to raise an army of his own, and when the emperor pleaded poverty, Wallenstein lured him on with a plan by which the army should be self-supporting. The imperial general would simply oblige the magistrates of the districts which the army happened to be occupying, to furnish him with the supplies and ready money of which he stood in need. Such a system of forced contributions was not exactly plunder, but it was the next thing to it, and without urgent necessity the meek Ferdinand would never have given his consent to anything so irregular. Wallenstein at first exercised some restraint upon his men, but as the country grew poorer, it became harder and harder to squeeze support out of it, until the general was obliged to take whatever he could find. Naturally, his rivals were not slow in imitating him, with the result that there now began that awful harrying of Germany, the cold facts of which remain incredible to our ears and con- firm the saying of a famous American general that war is hell. And this was only the beginning, for there were des- tined to be twenty and more years of this slow torture. A French historian has declared the fact that Germany did not become an out-and-out wilderness, one of the most extraor- dinary examples of endurance which humanity has furnished. A word concerning the armies of this age will not come The organlza , , . , , , .• 1 1 ^ tion of an amiss here. To begm with, they were not national but army. mercenary. A sovereign, wishing to raise a force, com- ^14 The TJiiriv Years' War missioned a number of officers, who hired men at a fixed price wherever they were to be found. In consequence, an army was hkely to look more hke an international congress than anything else — all races, costumes, and languages were represented. The pay of both officers and privates was high, and an army cost, at least in salaries, relatively much more than to-day. A well-balanced force would be com- posed of infantry and cavalry in about equal numbers, the artillery being as yet a factor of no great account. The infantry was in part armed with rude muskets, but owing to the fact that a general still counted on winning a battle by the push of solidly massed squares, the more usual weapon of the foot-soldier was a pike, some eighteen feet in length. In preparation for a battle the cavalry was drawn up on the wings, while the infantry, with the clumsy and ineffective artillery corps in front of it, held the centre. All this looks rude and primitive from the twentieth century point of view, but it remains a noticeable fact that the modern science of war took its first infantile steps in this period, chiefly under the stimulus of Gustavus Adolphus. He increased his ar- tillery pieces, turned them to better use, and developed in his troops a greater mobility both on the march and under fire. And now to return to the Danish War. Christian IV. was no match for the forces of Tilly and Wallenstein. A single campaign settled his fate. In 1626 Wallenstein de- feated his lieutenant Mansfeld at the Bridge of Dessau, and in the same year Tilly crushed Christian himself at Lutter. Not only was Christian obliged to retire from Germany, but he was pursued into his own dominions, and had finally to take refuge in the Danish islands. He had .every reason to be thankful when, in the year 1629, the emperor signed the Peace of Lubeck with him, whereby, in return for the promise not to meddle again in German affairs, he got back his Danish territories. And the Peace of WcsipJialia 21 Even before the Peace of Liibeck was signed, Wallenstein The revoiu- had overrun the whole Protestant north. Nothing seemed o'^WaV^nstehi. able to resist him. Capable, unscrupulous, and ambitious — the type of the military adventurer— his remarkable mind began to nurse designs so vast and intricate that they have never yet been entirely fathomed. In the main his plan appears to have been to establish the supremacy of the em- peror by overawing the princes, both Catholic and Prot- estant. As such a revolution in the German system could be effected only by means of the army, of which he was head, he foresaw that the really dominant role in reunited Germany would be secured to him. But the plan was bound to encounter powerful obstacles. In the first place Ferdinand soon showed that he had no taste for the part of conqueror which Wallenstein assigned to him, and, fur- ther, all the princes, regardless of religion, arraigned them- selves against the man who tried to diminish their im- portance. If we survey the German situation in the year 1629, the Zenith of Catholic success seemed to be complete. In the Bohemian triumph and and Palatine stages of the war the Union had been scattered t^tioJ,°j6^^^^'' and south Germany occupied, while in the Danish stage, the victorious Catholic soldiery had penetrated to the shores of the North and Baltic Seas. In the length and breadth of Germany there was no force to resist the emperor and League, who thought they might now safely level a decisive blow at the Protestant religion. In March, 1629, Ferdinand published the Edict of Restitution, by which the Protestants were dispossessed of all Church territories seized by them since the Peace of Augsburg, signed three-quarters of a cen- tury before. The measure was a revolution. At a stroke of the pen two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, and hun- dreds of monasteries passed, without regard to the wishes of the people, back into Catholic hands. The emperor had 2l6 TJlc Thirty Years War Imperial in- consistency. Wallenstein dismissed, 1630. hitherto cajoled the Lutherans in order to keep them quiet while he crushed the more radical Protestants, but by this step he removed the mask. It was not Calvinism which he hated, but Protestantism of every variety. The Edict of Restitution is the high-water mark of Catholic success. The policy laid down in the Edict of Restitution meant violence perpetrated upon every Protestant community in the land, and could be carried through only by an army. But almost simultaneously with its adoption the emperor was guilty of the fatal inconsistency of weakening his forces. In the year 1630 a Diet was held at Ratisbon (Regensburg). Here the long-pent-up opposition to Wallenstein found a voice. His misdemeanors were enumerated: his army ex- hausted the country, weighing on Catholic and Protestant alike, his imperial plans were revolutionary, and his personal ambition dangerous and boundless. A unanimous cry went up for his dismissal, which the timid emperor could not face. He deprived Wallenstein of his command at the very moment when the Edict of Restitution for the first time united Prot- estant opposition against him, and when a new power ap- peared on the scene to give a new turn to the war. Gustavus Adolphus lands in Ger- many, July, 1630. The Swedish Period (1630-35). In July, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, landed on the Baltic coast at the head of an army. We have seen that some years before, when James I. of England at- tempted to create a great Protestant combination, Gustavus had declined to take a hand in it. He was at the time en- gaged in securing his position on the Baltic against the Poles. Since then Wallenstein's astonishing triumph in the north had filled the mind of the Swedish king with not a little alarm. He held the ambition of securing for himself the first place on the Baltic, of making, in fact, the Baltic a kind of Swedish lake, and here was Wallenstein apparently reviving And the Peace of Westphalia 217 the defunct Empire, carrying its banners into the north, and talking of launching a fleet upon the sea. Concerned about his safety, he resolved to enter the war for the purpose of driving the imperial forces out of northern Germany. But there was more than this in the bold enterprise of Gustavus. As an ardent Protestant he had sympathized from the first with the Protestants of Germany, but not till the publica- tion of the Edict of Restitution did he feel that unless a blow were struck for it. Protestantism in Germany was doomed. Thus Swedish patriotism as well as love of religion spurred him to action. Did he act selfishly or unselfishly? An idle question the present writer thinks, since human actions can- not often be classified under such simple categories as good and bad, selfish and unselfish. Naturally, he acted as was demanded by his conception of the interests of Sweden. To have done otherwise would have been a disavowal of his re- sponsibilities as head of the nation. But it was perfectly compatible with a national policy to entertain also a love of the Protestant religion. At any rate, although he penetrated into Germany as a conqueror, he rescued German Protes- tantism from destruction, and has ever since been sung and idolized by the Protestants of Germany, who have not hesitated to associate his name with that of Luther. Gustavus is the greatest figure of the Thirty Years' War, Gustavus and and succeeded during his brief presence on the stage in bring- princes. ing into the barren struggle something of an epic movement. Let us follow his brilliant course. His first concern on land- ing in Germany was to secure the alliance of the Protestant princes, for their salvation, together with the safety of his Swedish kingdom, formed the double object of his coming. But here he encountered his first difficulties. The Protes- tant princes had, on account of the Edict of Restitution, lit- tle or no affection left for the emperor, but they hesitated about allying themselves with a foreigner and aiding him in 2l8 The Thirty Years War Alliance be- tween Sweden and France, 1631. Sack of Magdeburg May, 163 1. getting a foothold in their native land. While Gustavus was in turn coaxing and threatening them, help came to him from another quarter. We have remarked that France, from an- cient enmity against the Hapsburgs, had followed the Ger- man war with interest, but had been unable to interfere, ow- ing to troubles with the Huguenots. By 1629 these troubles were dispelled, and Richelieu was free to follow a more vig- orous foreign policy. His point of view was entirely un- trammelled by religious considerations, being determined exclusively by his conception of the interests of his country. Imbued with the idea that the thing needful was to hinder the formation of a strong power to the east of France, he welcomed with open arms every enemy of the emperor. Gustavus could from the first count on his good-will, which in January, 1631, took the substantial form of an alliance — • the Treaty of Barwalde — wherein France agreed to pay the king of Sweden a considerable annual subsidy toward the prosecution of the war. With characteristic caution Riche- lieu would go no further for the present. The first operations of Gustavus were directed to the re- duction of the strongholds of Pomerania for the purpose of acquiring a secure base for his campaign. WTiile he was thus engaged, Tilly, who since Wallenstein's dismissal was at the head of the combined forces of the League and emperor, stormed and utterly sacked the great Protestant city of Magdeburg. The horror of the terrible massacre was heightened by the fact that the inhabitants, in their despair, themselves set fire to their town in order to bury themselves in its ashes. When the smoke and fury had passed, the cathe- dral alone was seen solemnly towering over the ruins. This deed turned Protestant sentiment more strongly than ever to- ward Gustavus, and when, shortly after, Tilly wantonly in- vaded Saxony, the elector of Saxony, the greatest of the Prot- estant princes, put an end to his indecision. Together with And the' Peace of Westphalia 219 the elector of Brandenburg, and followed by many minor Saxony and princes, he entered into an alliance with Sweden, which so join Swedenf far secured the hold of Gustavus on the north that he was able to seek out Tilly for a decisive encounter. In Sep- tember, 1 63 1, a great battle took place at Breitenfeld, near Leipsic, in which Swedish generalship and discipline astonished the- world by utterly defeating the veteran army of Tilly. The victory of Breitenfeld laid all Germany at the feet of Gustavus Gustavus. Never was there a more dramatic change. The quarters on Catholics, who a year before had held the reins in their hands, ^^^ Rhine, were now in exactly the same helpless position in which the Protestants had found themselves. Gustavus, received everywhere as a deliverer by the Protestants, marched with- out opposition straight across Germany to the Rhine. In the episcopal town of Mainz he took up his winter quarters. What more natural than that in the presence of a triumph exceeding all expectations, his plans should now have soared higher? With Sweden safe and German Protestantism res- cued, his expedition had secured its original objects. But as he looked around and saw Germany helpless at his feet, visions arose of himself as the permanent champion and head of the Protestant section of the German people. The ambition was tempting, but before he could give it a precise form there was practical work to do. As long as Bavaria and the Hapsburg lands were unconquered, he could not hope to be unquestioned arbiter in Germany. In the spring of 1632 he again took the field, aiming Gustavus in straight at the country of his enemies. At the river Lech, spring, 1632. Tilly opposed him with the remnant of his forces, only to have them annihilated and be himself killed. Therewith Bavaria was at the great Swede's mercy, who now entered its capital, Munich, in triumph. His next objective, nat- urally, was Vienna and the emperor. If he could enter 220 TJie Thirty Years' War Wallenstein. The battle of Ltitzen, No- vember 1 6, 1632. Death of Gustavus. Degeneration of the war on the death of Gustavus. Vienna, opposition would be crushed and all Germany would become his prize. In this critical situation Ferdinand turned to the one man who seemed capable of averting the final doom — Wallenstein. That general, since his dismissal, had been sulking on his estates. When Ferdinand's ambassador besought him for aid, he affected indifference, but at length allowed himself to be persuaded to collect an army upon condition that he should be given unlimited control. As soon as the famous leader floated his standards to the wind, the mercenary soldiery gathered round them. In the summer of 1632 Wallenstein and Gustavus, the two greatest generals of their day, took the field against each other. After long, futile manoeuvring around Nurem- berg, the two armies met for a decisive encounter at Liitzen, not far from Leipsic (November, 1632). After the trumpet- ers had sounded the hymn of Luther, "A Mighty Fortress is our God," and the whole army had knelt in prayer, Gustavus ordered the attack. The combat was long and fierce, but the Swedes won the day; they won, but at a terrible cost. In one of the charges of horse, the impetuosity of Gustavus had carried him too far into the ranks of the enemy, and he was surrounded and slain. With the death of the king of Sweden all higher inter- est vanishes from the war. His great achievement had been this: he had saved the cause of Protestantism in Ger- many; that is, he had saved a cause which, however narrow and unattractive in some of its manifestations, was an im- portant link in the movement of human freedom. But he left Germany in hopeless confusion. The rage between Protestants and Catholics, now almost unappeasable, was complicated by the territorial greed of the princes, and as if such misery were not enough, foreign powers took advan- tage of the impotence of the nation to appropriate some of its fairest provinces. I And the Peace of Westphalia 221 On the death of Gustavus, Wallenstein was the great figure Wallenstein's among the leaders of the war, and Wallenstein, a man not death, Febm- without large views, resolved to strive for a general pacifica- ^""y* ^^^'*- tion on the basis of toleration for the Protestants. As he felt that he could never win the emperor and his Jesuit councillors to such a plan, he proceeded secretly, and thus laid himself open to the suspicion of treason. If his army- would have followed him through thick and thin, he might- have defied the emperor, but some loyal colonels, shocked at the idea of turning against the head of the state, formed a conspiracy against their general, and in February, 1634, murdered him in the town of Eger, before he had effected any change in the situation. Meanwhile, the Swedes were doing their best to retain the Swedish in- extraordinary position which Gustavus had won for them, directed by The political direction fell into the hands of the Chancellor Oxenstiem Oxenstiern, who ruled in the name of Gustavus's infant daughter Christina, while the military affairs were on the whole very creditably managed by various generals whom Gustavus had trained. But in 1634 the Swedes were sig- nally defeated by the Imperialists at Nordlingen and had to evacuate southern Germany. With fortune smiling once more on the emperor, he resolved to take a really sincere step toward peace. Calamity had taught him to moderate The emperor his demands, and he declared to the elector of Saxony his ^ith the willingness to sign with him a treaty of peace, to which all saxony°i6?.r Protestants should be invited to accede, on the basis of a virtual withdrawal of the obnoxious Edict of Restitution. The proposition was formally accepted at Prague in May, 1635, ^^*^ such was the longing for peace, that it was wel- comed, in spite of its shortcomings, by nearly all the princes of Germany. If Germany had been left to itself, peace might now have descended upon the harried land, but, unfortunately, the decision between peace and war had by TJic TJiirty Years War this time passed out of German hands and now lay with those foreigners whom the division of the Germans had drawn across the border. It was too late in the day to bid Sweden be gone, especially as France, after having con- tented itself thus far with granting Sweden money aid, now entered the struggle as a principal. The favorable hour, which Richelieu had patiently awaited, had struck at last. The battle of Nordlingen, followed by the Peace of Prague, had left the Swedes so weak and isolated that they made a frightened appeal to France. Richelieu strengthened the alliance with them and sent a French army into the field. Therewith the war had entered a new phase. Richelieu in alliance with Sweden and the Dutch against the two branches of Hapsburg. The French and Swedish plan of cam- paign. The French Period (1635-48). From now on the war was an attempt on the part of the allies, Protestant Sweden and Catholic France, to effect a permanent lodgment in Germany. The word religion was still bandied about, but it had no longer any meaning. Richelieu's opportunity to weaken the House of Hapsburg had come, for which reason, while he attacked it in Germany, he resolved also to face that branch of it established in Spain. The Spanish Hapsburgs were at that time involved with the Dutch Republic, the old struggle having been renewed in 1621. In the very year (1635) in which Richelieu entered the German war, he formed a close union with the Dutch and declared war against Spain. Thus the leading aspect of the Thirty Years' War in its last phase is that of an immense international struggle of the two Houses of Hapsburg and their friends against the House of Bourbon and such allies as it could muster. The German campaigns of the French Period consist of a patient forward thrust across the Rhine on the part of Fiance, and a steady movement southward from the Baltic Atid the Peace of Westphalia 223 on the part of Sweden. The object of the allies was to crush the emperor between them. It remains a matter of astonishment that that sovereign, exhausted as he was and ill-supported by the German people, who had fallen into a mortal languor, should have made so stubborn a resistance. In the early years he even won some notable successes. But year after year the French and Swedes fastened upon his flanks and with each season he found it more difficult to shake them off. The nation meanwhile, sucked dry by a soldiery which had grown insensible to every appeal of justice and pity, was dying by inches. The cities fell into decay. The long the country became a desert. In view of the certainty that cf^r^iaiiy. the product of labor would become the booty of marauders, nobody cared to work. So the people fell into idleness, were butchered, or died of hunger or of pestilence. The only profession which afforded security and a livelihood was that of the soldier, and soldier meant robber and murderer. Armies, therefore, became mere bands organized for pillage, and marched up and down the country, followed by immense hordes of starved camp-followers, women and children, who hoped, in this way, to get a sustenance which they could not find at home. Accumulated disaster finally brought the emperor to terms. French and The forces of France had been growing gradually stronger tones bring and stronger, and under the leadership of the fiery prince [o^tg^^^s^™'^ of Conde and the gifted strategist Turenne penetrated far into southern Germany. The honors of the last campaigns rested entirely with them. The emperor saw that it was useless to attempt to turn these strangers from the gates, and accepted the decree of fate. But it was not Ferdi- nand 11. who bared his head to receive the blow. He had been succeeded, on his death in 1637, by his son, Ferdinand III. (1637-57), ^^''"'o opened negotiations with France and Sweden, and after wearisome delays, brought 224 The TJiirty Years War The main sub- heads of the Peace of Westphalia. Cessions made to Sweden and France. Dispute about Church lands settled in favor of the Protestants. them to a successful termination in 1648, in the Treaty of Westphalia.^ The Peace of Westphalia is, from the variety of matter which it treats, one of the most important documents in history. First, it determined what territorial compensa- tion France and Sweden were to have in Germany for their victories over the emperor; second, it laid a new basis for the peace between Protestants and Catholics; and third, it authorized an important political readjustment of Ger- many. All these points will be considered separately. As to the first point, Sweden received the western half of Pomerania, and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden. By these possessions she was put in control of the mouths of the rivers Oder, Elbe, and Weser, and therewith of a good part of the ocean commerce of Germany. France was con- firmed in the possession of the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which she had acquired under Henry II. (1552), and received, in addition, Alsace, securing therewith a foot- hold on the upper Rhine. The free city of Strasburg, how- ever, was expressly excluded from this cession. Turning to the second head, the great question was how to settle the seizures of Church property which the Prot- estants had made since the Peace of Augsburg. The Catho- lics, it will be remembered, had always held that these seizures were illegal, and by the Edict of Restitution of 1629 the emperor had ordered their surrender to the Ro- man Church. In the peace negotiations the Protestants de- manded that their brethren in the faith be restored to all the possessions which they held in 1618, the year when the war broke out, but they compromised at last on the year 1624. Whatever was in Protestant hands on the first of January of ^ The Peace of Westphalia receives its name from the province of West- phalia on the Rhine, embracing the two cities of Mtinster and Osnabriick, in which the plenipotentiaries of the powers met. {"'•^ft*^ Arid the Peace of Westphalia 225 that year was to remain Protestant; what was in Catholic hands was to be reserved to the Catholics. This settled the question of the disputed lands in the main in the Protestant interest, but involved a concession to the emperor in so far as it sacrificed Bohemia to Catholicism. Concerning Cal- vinism no further difficulty was made, for the faith was put, in the eyes of the law, on the same footing as Lutheranism. Under the third head it is necessary to note a variety Political dis- of political and territorial changes within Germany. First, Germany, the princes were given a number of new sovereign rights, among others the right of forming alliances with each other and with foreign powers. Therewith the decentral- ization of Germany was completed, and the single states made as good as independent. If the emperor was weak before, he was now no more than the honorary president of a congress of sovereign powers. Of three of these con- stituent states of the Empire, the Palatinate, Bavaria, and Brandenburg, a word remains to be said. The Palatinate, The which the emperor had confiscated in the early stages of ^ the war, was restored in a mutilated condition to the son of the elector and winter king of Bohemia, Frederick. At the same time this son was recognized as the eighth elector, for the dignity which had been transferred to the duke of Bavaria was not restored. Bavaria, under its elector, Max- Bavaria, imilian, had played the most effective part of any Ger- man principality in the war, and its increase in power was in strict accordance with merit. From this on Bavaria aspired to the leadership in southern Germany, while the leadership of northern Germany was, as a result of the Peace of Westphalia, practically secured to the elector of Brandenburg. Brandenburg received additions of territory Brandenburg. — eastern Pomerania and four bishoprics — constituting a possession so considerable as to enable it to replace Saxony at the head of Protestant Germany and to give it a position 226 TJie Thirty Years War Switzerland and the Netherlands. Efifect of the war on Ger- many. second only to that of Austria. From this on the rebirth of Germany would depend on the ability of some one prince or line of princes to accomplish the task of unification wherein the emperor had failed. The fate ruling nations assigned this task to the House of Brandenburg, which achieved it by steps forming henceforth the leading interest of German history. As a last curious detail it may be added that Switzerland and the Dutch Netherlands (Seven United Provinces), which had once been members of the Empire, but had long ago won a practical independence, were formally declared sov- ereign and free from any obligations to that body. Germany, after her insufferable crisis, lay insensible and exhausted. Perhaps the contemporary stories of the ruin done by the war are exaggerated; in any case it is certain that the country took more than a hundred years to recover from its disasters. In some respects, doubtless, it has only lately recovered from them. The simple fact is, that the material edifice of civilization, together with most of the moral and intellectual savings of an ancient society, had been destroyed, and what was left was barbarism. The genera- tion which survived the war had grown up without schools, almost without pastors and churches, and to its mental and moral deadness it added, owing to the long rule of force, a disdain for all simple and honest occupations. Respecting the disaster wrought by the war, figures help us to realize the terrible situation. Augsburg, the great southern centre of trade, had had 80,000 inhabitants; the war reduced the city to a provincial town of 16,000. Thousands of villages were destroyed, whole districts were depopulated. In Bran- denburg one could travel days without meeting a peasant; in Saxony bands of wolves took possession of the empty villages. In general, the population of Germany fell from one-half to one-third of the numbers before the war. And the Peace of Westphalia 227 The Peace of Westphalia dealt with so many matters, not The Peace of only of German but also of international interest, that it cloTes'the'^ may be looked upon as the basis of European public law P^"°^ ^ ^^' till the French Revolution. We may also take it to mark a turning-point in the destinies of civilization. From the time of Luther the chief interest of Europe had been the question of religion. Europe was divided into two camps, Catholicism and Protestantism, which opposed each other with all their might. In the Peace of Westphalia the two parties recorded what they had gradually been learning — which was, that such a fight was futile, and that it was the part of wisdom to put up with each other. Almost imper- ceptibly men's minds had grown more tolerant, even if the laws were not always so, and this is, when all is said, the more satisfactory progress. The best proof of the improved state of the European mind toward the middle of the seventeenth century is offered by the practical application of this very peace instrument. The toleration there granted was merely The principle of the old kind — each prince could settle the religion of his principality without any obligation of tolerating dissidents — yet, persecution of individuals was henceforth the exception, and not the rule. It would be an exaggeration to say that the principle of toleration had now been conquered for humanity, or that the squabbles for religion's sake ceased in the world, but it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that toleration had won with the Peace of Westphalia a definite recognition among the cultured classes. During the next one hundred and fifty years the principle filtered gradually, through the literary labor of many noble thinkers, to the lowest strata of society, and became in the era of the French Revolution a possession of all mankind. PART II THE ABSOLUTE MONARCHY CHAPTER XI THE STUARTS AND THE PURITAN REVOLUTION References: Gardiner, Student's Histoty of England, pp. 481-649; Gardiner, The Puritan Revolution (Epochs); Green, Short Histor}^ of the English People, Chapters VIII., IX.; Terry, History of England, pp. 618-805; Gardiner, History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Civil War (1603-42), 10 vols, (this, with the two subsequent works, is the leading contri- bution to our knowledge of the period) ; Gardiner, His- tory of the Civil War (1642-49), 4 vols.; Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649-60), 4 vols.; Gardiner, Oliver Cromwell; Firth, Oliver Cromwell; Morley, Oliver Cromwell; Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches; Airy, English Res- toration and Louis XIV.; Traill, Social England, Vol, IV. (general information on English society) . Source Readings: Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (1625-60) (contains all the im- portant documents of the period); Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History; Adams and Stephens, Select Documents, Nos. 181-238; Colby, Selections from the Sources, Part VI.; Pepys, Diary, 4 vols. (ed. Braybrooke) ; Evelyn, Diary, 4 vols, (ed. Bray) (this, as well as Pepys's work, gives a vivid impression of the time); Robinson, Readings, Vol. II,, Chapter XXX. When Elizabeth died in March, 1603, she was succeeded The Scottish by the son of Mary Stuart, who had been king of Scotland kingof Eng^- almost from his birth under the name of James VI., and fig- ^^"'^• ures among English monarchs as the first of that name. 231 232 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Character of James. Hfs concep- tion of his office. This accession opened the prospect of an effective union be- tween England and Scotland, which a few far-sighted states- men had long advocated. However, the plan encountered opposition. So deep-rooted were the long-standing antag- onisms and jealousies of the two nations that they refused to consolidate their institutions and fortunes, though James himself gave his ardent adhesion to the plan. In conse- quence, Scotland kept its own Parliament and officials, and the accession of James did nothing more for the present than give England and Scotland a common sovereign. It was imfortunate that at a time when the sovereign exer- cised enormous power the crown should have descended to such a man as James. He had an ungainly figure, a shuf- fling gait, distasteful personal habits, and was obstinate, weak, and cowardly. A person less royal to look upon had not sat upon the English throne in many a century. He had crammed himself with a considerable stock of knowledge, which had not matured into wisdom, and which he prided himself on exhibiting upon every occasion in order to hear himself acclaimed by the flattering courtiers as the British Solomon. His display of pedantic information brought down upon him from Henry IV. of France the remark that he was the wisest fool of Christendom. All this would have merely exposed him to more or less amiable ridicule if he had not made himself really dangerous by holding the most exaggerated idea of his royal office. It was he who first carried into English politics the theory of the Divine Right of kings. The English Constitution, which had grown from the seed of Magna Charta, vested the gov- ernment of the realm in king and Parliament. Such was the system at the end of the War of the Roses. During the Tudor Period the Parliament had been eclipsed by the king but was by no means abolished. Its rights, which were partly in abeyance, might be reassumed, and probably would TJie SUiarts and the Puritan Revolution 233 be at the moment when the sovereign wantonly provoked the nation. And that was exactly what James did. Not content with the substance of absolutism, which he inherited from the Tudors, he desired also the name of it, and asserted his claims in terms so boundless that he seemed almost to be making a business of rousing opposition. On one occasion he edified his hearers with the following typical pronounce- ment: "It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do; ... so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that." The Tudors, as has been said, held a similar theory, but they came at the time of a great national crisis and acted in the main in close harmony with the people. If James undertook to act against the people and their real or supposed interests, he might find his position challenged, and drive the nation to take refuge in the older conception of monarchy which the Tudor absolutism had supplanted. This development James brought about, pre- cipitating thereby a struggle between himself and his people, based on two dififerent conceptions of the English kingship. The accession of James occurred amid circumstances The foreign which augured a happy reign. The defeat of the Spanish situational Armada had placed the independence of England beyond J^"l^s's ac- question, and subsequent events had so weakened Spain as to remove all danger from that quarter. In consequence, James wisely inaugurated his rule by a favorable treaty of peace. In domestic affairs the great question was. What would be the attitude of James toward the Anglican Church, established by Elizabeth on the basis of the Acts of Suprem- acy and Uniformity (1559) ? At her death her creation had acquired an air of permanence. The Catholics were a wan- ing power, and the Puritans, who inclined toward Calvinistic views, called for only a few concessions, based chiefly on their aversion to the surplice, kneeling in service, and similar the Puritans. 234 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution externals. It must be remembered that they were as yet very friendly to the national Church, accepted the religious headship of the sovereign and the Episcopal form of govern- ment, and merely believed in the simplification or purifica- tion, as they called it, of divine service. If James would know how to conciliate them, the religious troubles of Eng- land might be accounted as over. James and But James did not know how to conciliate them. Shortly after his accession in 1604 he called a conference at Hamp- ton Court for the purpose of discussing a document they had sent in, called the Millenary Petition, from the fact that a thousand clergymen were supposed to have adhered to it. Unfortunately, he lost his temper during the debate and flared up wildly against the Puritans. He declared that they were secret enemies of Episcopacy — which they were not — and affirmed with unnecessary emphasis that that system of Church government had his entire support. His personal venom becomes explicable when we remember that he had been brought up in Scotland, where he had made the acquaintance of the Presbyterian system, by which the Church was withdrawn from the control of the king and bishops and put in the hands of the ministers and the people. In England he was delighted by the discovery that the sovereign ruled the Church through the bishops, and was jealously on the lookout against the importation of Presby- terian ideas. The cause of the bishops he identified with his own cause, and formulated his belief in the epigrammatic assertion, " No bishop, no king." Now the Puritans were emphatically not Presbyterians, but because they advocated a few changes savoring of radicalism James chose to regard them as such. Acting on this assumption he dismissed the petitioners at Hampton Court gruffly, and shortly after ordered every clergyman who refused to meet exactly and literally the prescriptions of the Book of Common Prayer The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 235 to be removed from his living. In this way the king made it clear that his manner of conciliating the Puritan opposition was to drive it from the Church. Toward the Catholics, whom James regarded with a tol- The gun- erance much in advance of his time, he followed a temper- 1605. ^'^^^ ' ate but unsuccessful policy. He began by holding out a prospect of lightening the burden of persecution, but when he failed to carry out his promises, owing to the pressure brought to bear upon him by his Protestant subjects, a group of desperate Catholics, enraged beyond endurance by the withdrawal of the one ray of hope which had shone upon them in many a day, planned to destroy the whole Protestant government, king, Lords, and Commons, by one gigantic stroke. They heaped gunpowder in barrels in the cellars beneath the House of Lords, and set November 5, 1605 — the day of the opening in state of a new session — for the mon- strous crime. Suspicion, however, had been awakened through a letter of warning sent by a conspirator to a relative who was a member of the upper house; and luckily, on the very eve of the planned disaster, Guy Fawkes, the hardiest of the conspirators, was discovered keeping watch among the explosives. He and his helpmates were hunted down and executed with all the barbarity characteristic of the period, and the English people were once more confirmed in that intense hatred and distrust of the Catholic faith which long remained the first article of their religious and political creed. Such was the relation of James to the religious question — - James's second the ritualistic wing of the national Church was vigorously the Par^ sustained, the Puritan or reform wing was opposed and I'^^ient. insulted, and the Catholics, not without a decent reluctance, were persecuted and crushed. However, the situation would not have become desperate, if James had not created a second difficulty by antagonizing his Parliament. To un- derstand the development of that conflict, we have but to 236 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Rcvohition The question of the finances. Impeachment of Bacon, 1621. remember that to the practical absolutism of the Tudors, to which he had fallen heir, he wished to give the force of theory and of law. The quarrel began almost immediately. James needed money, partly for legitimate expenses, partly because he was extravagant. The required revenues had, of course, to be voted by Parliament, and if that body had been managed after the Tudor fashion, it would have granted supplies as readily as in the days of Henry or Elizabeth. But James's talk about a monarch being above the law had aroused sus- picion, and the Parliament delayed. The king, thereupon, in a huff, began to help himself by arbitrarily increasing the duty imposed on certain articles of import and export. This is called the question of the impositions. When a merchant named Bate refused to pay, he was arrested, tried, and sentenced by the judges. Thus James triumphed, but the victory only added a limited amount to his revenue, did not settle the financial difficulties, and exasperated the Parliament so greatly that it prepared to oppose every de- mand, reasonable or unreasonable, which the king might make. The result was that James dissolved one Parliament only to find its successor still more unwilling to bow to his dictation. Out of what was originally a simple matter of supplying revenue for the crown's outlay, had grown by James's mismanagement an issue, at the core of which was, as everybody began to see, the all-important question of who controlled the resources of the country, the king or the Parliament. From that to the question of which was the stronger of the two was but a step, and that step might mean war. Over this issue and others coupled with it James quar- relled with his Parliament throughout his reign, with the result of an increasing irritation on both sides. In the year 1621 the wrath of the Commons reached the point of a TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revoliitioii 237 savage attack on the whole administration, culminating in the impeachment of the highest judge in the realm, the Lord Chancellor. This was none other than the philosopher Francis Bacon, one of the greatest Englishmen of that or any age. By taking fees from suitors while their cases were still pending before him, he had become technically guilty of bribery. His excuse was that the acceptance of gifts was a long-established custom of his office, but with the candor we might expect from such a soul, he avowed that the practice was indefensible. "I beseech your Lordships," he added, " to be merciful to a broken reed." Bacon was fined and dis- missed from office, the sentence being declared by himself "just, and for reformation's sake fit," but his disgrace would never have befallen him if he had not stood near the king, and the Parliament had not been set on reaching the mon- arch through his servants. Bacon's trial took the form of an impeachment, in itself an The revival ominous sign that the Parliament was raising its own claims ment.^^'^'^ as the best answer to the king's attempt to exalt his position. Impeachment was a means by which, in earlier times, the Parliament had exercised control of the king's advisers, but which had become obsolete under the Tudors, when the humbled Parliament was obliged to abandon all influence upon the royal ministers. Its revival at this juncture meant that the Parliament was furbishing up the old weapons with which it had once held the monarchy in check. An im- peachment was a somewhat complicated process. The House of Commons appeared at the bar of the House of Lords to present to it the offender against the common- wealth, and the House of Lords, after listening to the charges, decided whether they were founded or unfounded and pronounced sentence accordingly. The bearing of the im- peachment of Bacon was not lost upon James, who vaguely divined that a serious struggle was at hand. 238 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution James's for- eign policy. Charles and Buckingham journey to Madrid. The unpopularity caused by his treatment of the Puritans and his quarrel with the Parliament was increased by the foreign policy of James. We have remarked that almost immediately on his accession he had concluded peace with Spain. Not satisfied with this, he resolved to further the cause of religious peace in Europe by maintaining a close friendship with his late enemy. But such a policy, credit- able to his Christian temper, would depend for its success on Spain's willingness to meet him half-way. The test came in the year 1618. In that year occurred the Bohemian incident, which led to the Thirty Years' War. James was interested in that famous struggle not only because Protes- tantism once more locked horns with Catholicism, but also more immediately because Frederick of the Palatinate, elect- ed king of the Protestant faction of Bohemia, had married his daughter Elizabeth. In spite of these circumstances, however, he permitted Frederick to be driven out of Bohemia, and only when Frederick was expelled from the Palatinate, too, was his father-in-law roused sufficiently to make a weak appeal to Spain for help. That power was delighted to find him so docile, made temporizing proposals, but was at heart too glad of the Catholic success in Germany to do anything to check it. Thus matters dragged on until the year 1623, when the young and handsome duke of Buckingham, who was the king's all-powerful favorite, proposed to take a last step to bind Spain to England in a close alliance and to secure the settlement of the Palatinate difficulty without war. He developed the plan of a secret journey with Charles, the prince of Wales, to Madrid in order to take the Spanish court, as it were, by storm, persuade it to affiance the Spanish Infanta to the English heir, and cajole it into signing the desired treaty of alliance. It was a plan' as hair-brained as it was impolitic, but James, teased and wheedled by the two TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 239 young men, at last gave his blessing to the enterprise. After many adventures Charles and Buckingham arrived at Ma- drid, but their reception was very different from what they had anticipated, and their hosts, although scrupulously po- lite, met them with evasion at every point. Utterly disgusted, they came back resolved to break with the useless policy of peace. James was plied till he consented to declare war against Spain, but died in March, 1625, before anything had been done. The reign of James opens a significant chapter in English American colonial history, for in 1607 the first permanent English ^° °"'^^ ' settlement was planted in Virginia, and in 1620 the first band of radical Puritans, who had severed their connection with the Anglican Church and had at first taken refuge from persecution in Holland, set out across the Atlantic. From the valiant labor of these and subsequent bands of English- men who presently followed the Virginia and New England pioneers into the wildernesses of America, developed in time a number of prosperous colonies, the germs of that society which in the next century became the United States of America. Furthermore, in 161 2 the East India Com- India, pany, which had been chartered under Elizabeth, secured its first foothold in India. Thus, as soon as the victories of Elizabeth's reign had cleared the way, the Anglo-Saxon race planted the seeds of its expansion in the east and west, and laid the foundations of the English commercial supremacy of our day. Reign of Charles I. (1625-49). Charles I., who succeeded James in the year 1625, was Charles I. outwardly very unlike his father. His face, familiar to us from Van Dyck's frequent reproductions, was handsome and his manner kingly. Unfortunately he was liberally endowed with the Stuart traits of perversity and obsti- 240 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Charles con- tinues to an- tagonize Puritans and Parliament. The rising tide of Prot- estant fervor. The party cleavage. nacy and shared his father's exaggerated views of the royal prerogative. The two main difficulties created by James bore im- mediate and dangerous fruit in the new reign. James had roused the slumbering Puritanism of his subjects, and had raised the question with his Parliament as to who controlled taxation. Charles, by persisting in James's course of hostil- ity to Puritans and Parliament, succeeded in an incredibly short time in developing the prejudices of his people into a violent opposition to himself, and in arousing the Commons, who had been servilely docile under Elizabeth and, even while protesting, had been deeply respectful under James, to the point where they plainly put the question: Who was sovereign in England, Parliament or king? Shortly after his accession Charles married Henrietta Maria, a sister of Louis XIII. of France. This marriage with a Catholic was extremely unpopular in England, and was rendered doubly so by the suspicion, only too well founded, that Charles had entered upon an agreement with Louis to ofifer the English Catholics his protection. When Parliament assembled, it showed immediately signs of restless- ness, and presently grew still more excited on becoming aware that a small party of churchmen, closely associated with the court, were advocating views that seemed to savor of Ro- manism. These men were extreme ritualists, and were not favorable to Calvinistic views, being especially inclined to question the great doctrine of predestination. The king, by natural preference, supported them; and they, to show their gratitude, gave their adhesion to his theory of the royal prerogative. To the Puritans, who were falling into the usual exaggerations of party passion, such an association looked much like the alliance of popery and tyranny. They maintained with some justice that the Church of England had in doctrine held so far to a moderate Calvinism, and TIlc Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 241 they followed this declaration with the charge that the rit- ualists were innovators and were preparing to carry the Church back to Rome. Naturally, the Puritans, who op- posed Charles on ecclesiastical grounds, joined forces with the men who resented his political claims; and thus the abso- lutist and High-Church parties had no sooner united than the two oppositions, Puritan and parliamentarian, fused their interests. Under this alignment of parties and issues Charles's tumultuous reign began; and under this align- ment the country, after fierce and prolonged controversy, embarked on civil war. In view of the strained relations between king and Parlia- Tunnage and ment, it is intelligible why the Parliament took a most un- usual course with regard to the chief revenue of the crown, called Tunnage and Poundage. Tunnage and Poundage was the name given to certain duties on imports and exports, which were usually voted at the beginning of each reign for the whole period of the sovereign's life. Partly from oc- cupation with other business, partly from desire to bring pressure to bear upon the king, the Parliament now failed to make the usual life grant, but Charles, who could not well carry on the government without Tunnage and Poundage, continued, through his officials, to collect it. While the clouds were gathering over England by reason Disastrous of these domestic infelicities, Charles foolishly invited ad- of the war ditional criticism over his management of foreign affairs, with Spam. The war with Spain furnished the occasion. He had in- herited it from his father, and was bent on prosecuting it with vigor. The Parliament was not unwilling to give him support — for the war with Spain was popular — but it nat- urally expected that the money which it granted would be spent in giving the Spaniards a sound beating. But Charles, with his customary lack of insight, intrusted the conduct of the war to the duke of Buckingham, once his father's fa- 242 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution vorite and now his own, and the duke of Buckingham, who was handsome and dashing, but unfit for weighty business, reaped nothing but disaster. Two expeditions, one de- spatched toward the Rhine country and the other against Cadiz, ended in utter failure. Thereupon the Commons re- fused to give the king more money until the duke was re- moved from the council; and as the king refused to allow himself to be dictated to in the matter of his ministers, there ensued a deadlock which Charles ended abruptly by dis- solving the Parliament. In the year 1627 matters grew worse. The king, not con- tent with one war, allowed himself to be dragged into a con- • flict with France in behalf of the French Huguenots, who were being besieged by Richelieu in La Rochelle. As the Huguenots were hard pressed, and there was no other way of getting money for a rescuing expedition, Charles adopted a perilous device: he asked first for voluntary gifts, and when the nation failed to respond, forced the wealthy to make * him a loan. When citizens could not or would not pay, he quartered troops upon them, and in order to frighten the bolder critics, arbitrarily arrested some of their number. Not only were these measures dangerous, but the sums thus ex- torted brought no blessing. A relief expedition which sailed for Rochelle under Buckingham failed as miserably as the attack upon Cadiz, with the discouraging total result that new disgrace was added to the ignominy already incurred in the war with Spain. The Parliament which met in 1628 was therefore amply - justified in its outbreak of WTath against the government. Before granting another penny, it insisted that the griev- ances of the nation be redressed. In a document called the Petition of Right it made a formal assertion of its claims. The Petition of Right declared forced loans illegal, insisted that every man put under arrest should have a trial, and con- The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 243 demned the use of martial law in times of peace, as well as the quartering of troops upon householders. As there was no other way of getting money, the king had to swallow the bitter morsel. The Petition of Right, celebrated as a re- newal of Magna Charta, was accepted by him and became the law of the land (1628). The Petition of Right, by limiting the exuberant powers of Murder of the king, cleared the atmosphere and opened the prospect ""^ "^ of peace. But, unfortunately, it did not settle all questions at issue between sovereign and legislature. Apart from the ^^^ fact that the Tunnage and Poundage question was not dis- ' posed of by the Petition, the mere fact that Charles contin- ued to shower favors upon the High Church element and to support the obnoxious Buckingham, was enough to keep public, opinion at a high pitch of excitement. Proof of the degree of hatred which the party strife had reached was offered soon enough. While a new expedition to Rochelle was fitting at Portsmouth, a fanatic patriot, John Felton by name, assassinated the hated duke (1628). The king grieved over the loss of his favorite, but his policy remained obstinately unchanged. The Parliament of 1629 had no sooner come together Thememo- than it reopened the combat. The members complained of 1629^ ^ vehemently that the king had continued to collect Tunnage and Poundage, though the duty had not been voted, and they were no less wroth at his continued support of the ritualistic churchmen. Their leading orators showed such fury of resentment that Charles, in mingled alarm and disgust, determined to break up their session, but before the order of adjournment could be carried out, three indignant resolutions were put to the house, and, while the speaker was detained in his chair, carried by acclamation. The resolutions declared that whoever introduced innovations into the Church, or paid Tunnage and Poundage, was an enemy of the English people. 244 I'f^^ Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Wentworth and Laud. Thus, over the two questions of the ceremonial character of the Church and the control of Tunnage and Poundage, war was virtually declared between king and Parliament. In view of the dangerous excitement of the parties, there was small prospect of an amicable adjustment. One or the other, king or Parliament, would impose his theory, and the victor would be master and crush the vanquished. For the next eleven years (1629-40) the king had the upper hand by taking advantage of the extensive prerogatives ac- cumulated by his predecessors. The central feature of his programme was that the presumptuous Parliament must not be given another opportunity to dictate to him. In this the laws played into his hands, for a king was not obliged to summon Parliament at stated intervals, and usually did not summon it unless he wanted a money grant. In fact, it should be clearly understood that Charles always prided himself upon acting within his rights as defined by the Con- stitution; not he, but the Parliament, was the disturber of the peace. But his plan of getting along without Parliament necessitated extreme economy and demanded the immediate termination of the expensive wars with France and Spain. Before the end of 1630 Charles had made his peace with these two powers. His outlook was now, on the w^hole, not unhopeful. Tunnage and Poundage, although condemned by the Commons, were regularly paid into the exchequer by a people who were not yet ready to renounce their king, and Tunnage and Poundage, with a number of other revenues regularly provided or scraped together by hook or by crook, were found to be sufficient for the current expenses of the administration. Charles's chief advisers during this eleven years' interlude of practically absolute government were Thomas Wentworth, for civil matters, and William Laud, for ecclesiastical affairs. As the king's person was still regarded with the old sacred TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 245 respect, all the unpopular measures carried in Church and state during this period were laid at the door of these two men, who, as the years came and went without a Parliament, became the target of an unreasoning hatred. Laud stood for the tendency in the English Church which The ecciesi- emphasized dignity and ceremony — the same tendency with ^ LaucE^ "^^ which the king had already identified himself. In fact, it was because of his own love of ceremony and uniformity that the king had bestowed his favor upon the inflexible and earnest churchman, had made him, first, bishop of London, and finally, in the year 1633, had appointed him archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England. Therewith Laud was in a position to put his own and the king's eccle- siastical convictions into practice. By means of parochial visitations and one-sided judgments pronounced in the ecclesiastical court, called the Court of High Commission, he soon imposed upon all the ministers of the Church a strict adherence to the forms of the Prayer Book, and did not even hesitate to go beyond them. Thus, at his instiga- tion, the communion table was placed in the east end of the church, and by being surrounded with an iron railing was given, in Puritan eyes, something of the appearance of a Catholic altar. As a result of Laud's policy the Puritan ministers either resigned or were dismissed, and the Puritan element was reduced to an enforced silence. Even many Englishmen, who welcomed the new regime, deplored the unwisdom which shocked the most sacred sentiments of their Puritan countrymen and drove them into hostility to the national Church. Wentworth was a man of far greater intellectual powers The political than either Laud or Charles. His theory of government was wentworth. that a king who governs well is better than a babbling, distraught Parliament. As a natural corollary, he held that the executive should be strong, efficient, large-minded, and 246 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Ship-money. The case of John Hampden. should steer its course without fear or favor. This sys- tem of enlightened despotism he called by the name of "thorough." As one of Charles's favorite advisers he urged upon the king a firm stand against the exaggerated demands of the Parliament and the Puritans, but it would be a mis- take to make him responsible for all the ill-advised meas- ures which followed the dissolution of 1629, for as early as 1633 he was sent as Lord-Deputy to Ireland, and was out of direct touch with English politics for some years. Certainly Wentworth cannot be charged with the great blunder committed in connection with ship-money. We have seen that Charles's system left him in constant need of funds. So slim were his revenues that he could not even maintain a navy large enough to protect the English ship- ping. The legal remedy for the inconvenience would have been to call a Parliament and ask for supplies, but Charles would not take that step. He hit upon a subterfuge. In former times monarchs had, when the country was in danger, ordered the counties bordering on the sea to furnish ships. Charles issued such an order in the year 1634, with a certain show of legality; but in the years 1635 and 1636, against all law and precedent, he ordered the inland counties to con- tribute money to the same end. Although a navy might be good in itself, plainly Charles's way of getting it was a piece of very sharp practice. Indig- nation swelled like an advancing tide, and when a country gentleman, John Hampden by name, preferred, rather than pay his assessment, to suffer arrest and trial, he made him- self the hero of the hour. When the case came up in court, the judges by a bare majority decided against Hampden, but so general was the disaffection following upon his trial, that it required only an occasion to show that the loyalty which had bound England for ages to her royal house had sutYered fatal impairment. The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 247 That occasion was furnished by Scotland. In the year Charles inter- 1637 Charles, with his usual neglect of popular feeling, Presbyterian ventured to introduce the Prayer Book and some other Church. features of the English Church into his kingdom of Scotland, a country which, as we know, was Presbyterian to the core. The answer of the Scots to this measure was an insurrection. They drew up a national oath or Covenant, by which they pledged themselves to resist to the utmost any attempt to change their religion. Their unanimity and enthusiasm gave them irresistible power. In view of it Charles at first hesitated, and to gain time proposed negotiations; but finally, when he found that he must either keep his hands off or fight, he chose the latter. There followed the campaign of 1639 against the Scottish War with Presbyterians or Covenanters, which is known as the First Bishops' War, because, among other innovations, Charles planned to put the Scottish National Church under the rule of bishops. The campaign was a miserable fiasco. Owing to lack of funds, the king led northward a mere rabble, and when he came upon the Scots found himself compelled to sign a truce. Between his Scottish and his English subjects, whom he had alike alienated, his position was now thoroughly humiliating. In order to avenge himself upon the Scots, he required effective money help from England, and effective money help from England involved calling a Parliameht. In one direction or the other he had, therefore, to make con- cessions. Charles fought a hard battle with his pride, but finally, feeling that the Scottish matter was more pressing, he summoned a Parliament (1640). Thus the long period of government without a Parliament The Second had come to an end. When, however, the Parliament, known \Var°i64o. as the Short Parliament, began, instead of voting money for the enslavement of the Scots, to remind the king of the nation's grievances, Charles flamed up as of old and dismissed it. 248 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Once more, in spite of his lack of funds, he conducted a cam- paign, known as the Second Bishops' War, against the Scots (1640) . But when the second experiment had failed as badly as the first, he had finally to acknowledge himself beaten. In November, 1640, he summoned another Parliament, which he felt he would not be able to send home at his will. It has received the name of the Long Parliament, and is the most famous legislative body in English annals. It sat for almost two decades, witnessing, and itself initiating, the transformation of England. The Long Parliament was no sooner installed than it practically took the whole government into its own hands. The king's innings were over and it was now the turn of the rival power. Burning for revenge, the Commons turned first upon Laud and Wentworth, and ordered them both under arrest. Wentworth, who had lately been created earl of Strafford, was impeached for treason, but when the case against him threatened to break down, because the evidences of treason were insufficient, the Commons simply legislated him out of the world by a bill of attainder.^ The frightened king to his lasting shame signed the act, and on May 12, 1 64 1, sent the dauntless defender of the throne to the scaffold. The aged Laud was spared for the present, but in 1645 '^^ also fell a victim to Puritan passion. •At the same time the Commons turned fiercely upon the grievances of the past. As the Scots would not leave Eng- land till their expenses had been made good to them, Charles, to get money, had to accept every bill. Natur- ally the Parliament pressed its advantage to the uttermost. The irregular courts, such as the Star Chamber and High Commission, which had furnished arms to the tyranny of king and Church, were abolished. The Star Chamber, it * ".^n impeachment followed, in some sort, legal rules; a bill of attain- der was an act of power for which no reasons need be given " (Gardiner} The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 249 will be remembered, had been employed by Henry VII. against lawless nobles, but Charles had used it chiefly to silence inconvenient critics. Out of the mass of enact- ments similarly aimed at the king, we select the following: ship-money was declared illegal; the king's position in the Tunnage and Poundage issue was condemned; Charles had to agree that there should be at least one session of Parliament every three years (the triennial act), and was obliged to promise not to dissolve the present Parliament except at its own pleasure. Thus in a few months the mighty prerogatives which the sovereign had acquired in Tudor times had shrunk to a shadow. Could a king of Charles's obstinate and perfidious mind submit to such a terrible abasement? For nearly a year the king endured these restrictions. Unanimltvcf But he was watching his chance, and the first division among ment.^'^ '^ the Commons was his signal to strike. The Commons had agreed admirably on all the political questions at issue be- tween themselves and the sovereign, but in the summer of 1 64 1, when the religious issue was broached, ominous signs of division began to appear. Laud's insistence on cere- monies had created a strong sentiment against the bishops by whom the ceremonies had been enforced. In the Long Parliament there was a large body of men who believed that it the Church was to become really Protestant, the system of Episcopal government would have to be abandoned. But a powerful minority cherished a sentiment of loyalty toward the Church of their youth and deprecated radical changes. Under the circumstances Puritans and Episcopalians in the Puritans and Commons frequently came to hard words, and naturally, i^^the°(?om^"^ as soon as this opening in the hitherto solid phalanx of the '"°"^- opposition was apparent, Charles deftly took advantage of it. He threw in his lot with the Episcopalians, and so once more rallied about him a party. 250 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Charles at- tempts to arrest the five leaders. The breach is complete. Early successes of the king. Oliver Cromwell- In the assurance of renewed strength, he planned in Jan- uary, 1642, to strike a blow at the predominance of Parlia- ment. Summoning his troops, he marched to Westminster, and entering the chamber of the Commons attempted to arrest the five leaders, Pym, Hampden, Hazelrigg, Holies, and Strode. But the birds had flown, the city rose about him, and fearful for his safety he withdrew into the country. The king's attempted violence was sure proof that he had no mind to bend his neck to the Parliament, and would rather resort to war than submit. Futile negotiations, kept up for a while, did not blind any one to the fact that the die was cast. In August, 1642, Charles, unfurling the royal banner at Nottingham, bade all loyal Englishmen rally to their king. The Parliament in its turn gathered an army and prepared to take the field. The parties about to engage seemed to be very equally matched. The king's party, known by the proud name of the Cavaliers, held most of the northern and western counties, while the adherents of the Parliament, derisively dubbed Roundheads because many of them cropped their hair close while their opponents wore theirs in fashionable curls, held the south and the east, with London for their centre. Neither side was well furnished with troops, but the fact that the slashing country gentlemen crowded into the king's service gave the royal side at first the advantage. In the early campaigns the armies of the Parliament suffered many reverses, and on one occasion London, the Parliamentary centre, almost fell into the king's hands. It was really not until the year 1644 that the Parliament began to develop an efficient army. Simultaneously there rose into prominence the man who was destined to overthrow the king and bring the war to a conclusion — Oliver Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell is one of those surprising characters who sum up in themselves a whole period of their nation's his- TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revohition 251 tory. He was a country gentleman of the east of England, whose life had become bound up in the Puritan cause. With moral firmness and religious enthusiasm he combined an extraordinary amount of practical good sense, which en- abled him to see things exactly as they were. When every- body else was in consternation over the victories of the king and undecided what to do next, he went straight to the core of the military problem with which the Parliarnent was vainly wrestling. He thus expressed himself to his cousin Hampden: "Your troops are, most of them, old, decayed serving-men and tapsters. . . . Their troops are gentlemen. Do you think that the spirit of such base fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen? You must get men of spirit or else you will be beaten still." His good sense had dis- covered the thing needful, and his love, of action urged him to do it, unmindful whether the distraught Parliament sup- ported him or not. He took the field and gradually col- lected about himself a special troop of men of his own mind — earnest Puritans who had their hearts in the cause; and his troop soon won for itself the grim title of Cromwell's Ironsides. In the campaign of 1644 Cromwell's Ironsides first prom- The Ironsides inently showed their metal. On July 2, 1644, at Marston M^r."^^'"" Moor, near York, was decided the fate of the northern counties, and here for the first time Cromwell's troopers charged through the hitherto invincible cavalry commanded by Prince Rupert, the king's nephew. When night de- scended upon Marston Moor, the king had lost his hold upon the north. At the battle of Newbury, which took place a few months later, it is probable that the king would have been crushed entirely if Cromwell had not been thwarted by his sluggish and incapable superiors. That winter Cromwell fiercely denounced in Parliament Army the hx method of carrying on the war which had hitherto '■'^^°"^- 252 The Stuarts and the Piwitan Revolution Naseby, June 14, 1645. Alliance of England and Scotland. prevailed; and so convincing were his criticisms that the Commons voted a number of sweeping reforms. By means of two ordinances, the Self-denying Ordinance and the New Model, the army was completely reorganized. By the Self- denying Ordinance members of Parliament gave up to trained soldiers the commands which they owed to favor and influence, and by the New Model the army was reorganized and put on a strictly professional basis. The spring of 1645 found Sir Thomas Fairfax at the head of the reformed forces, and the fiery Cromwell in command of the horse. The effect of the change made itself felt at once ; the cam- paign of 1645 proved decisive. At Naseby, in the heart of England, the king made his last formidable efifort. The gallant Rupert plunged, as so often before, through the squadrons of horse opposed to him, but his reckless pursuit took him miles away from the battle-field, and before he could return, Cromwell had broken the king's left and cen- tre and won the day. For almost a year the king still held out, vainly hoping for relief from this or that small circum- stance. In May, 1646, judging that all was over, he surren- dered to the Scots, who occupied the English north. How had the Scots been drawn upon the scene? Mind- ful of the king's hostility to their Presbyterian system, they had followed with sympathy the struggle of the English Puri- tans, and late in the year 1643, yielding to the soHcitations of the Parliament, had signed a treaty, called the Solemn League and Covenant, and taken the field. Their aid proved of great value in crushing the king, but was given ; only in return for a grave concession: the Parliament was obliged to promise to put the English Church under the Presbyterian system of government. The Puritans owed their existence, we have seen, to the growing hatred of cere- mony and Episcopacy; but now that ceremony and Episco-j pacy were overthrown and another system had to be foundj The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 253 a considerable number leaned toward Presbyterianism. A majority, it was found, could be had in Parliament for the religious concession demanded by the Scots, but a minority, calling themselves Independents, objected strenuously, hold- ing that the possibilities of tyranny in the Presbyterian sys- tem were every whit as great as in Episcopacy, and contend- ing vigorously for the toleration of any and all Protestant sects. But at the time the need of the Scottish aid was so great that the treaty was voted. Though in the Parliament the Independents were a mere Presbyterians handful, they enjoyed an influence out of proportion to their pendents' vote through the circumstance that they commanded the powerful backing of Cromwell and the army. Under the circumstances the Parliamentary majority was obliged to proceed with caution, especially while the war continued and the troops had to be kept in good humor. Thus the contention slumbered for a time; but as soon as the battle of Naseby had been won and the enemy scattered, the quarrel between Presbyterians and Independents assumed a more serious aspect. When the king surrendered to the Scots he was well The king's informed of these diflferences of opinion among the victors, *^^ ^^ ^''°'^' and hoped, in his small-minded way, to find his profit in them. Let the army, representing the Independents and their view of tolerance, only fall to quarrelling with the majority of Parliament, representing the Presbyterians and their system of religious uniformity, and his turn would come. While Parliament and army mutually consumed each other, he would step in and seize the spoils. Herein Charles calculated both well and ill. In the year TheParlia- 1647 the Scots surrendered him, on the payment of their make disking campaign expenses, to the Parliament. The Presbyterians accept a Pres- thereupon, having him in their power, tried to hurry through tl'ement. a settlement with the captive monarch. Utterly neglectful 254 T^^^^ Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution The civil war of 1648. Pride's purge. Trial and death of the king. of the desire of the army for religious toleration, they prom- ised Charles a restoration on easy terms if he would only give his royal assent to the Presbyterian establishment. The Scots meanwhile were carrying on a secret negotiation with the king, looking to the same end. The result of all these intrigues was another civil war, all for the benefit of the king. He might rub his hands in glee over the thought that he had set his enemies by the ears. In the result, however, Charles's petty calculations shot wide of the mark. Al- though the royalists rose, the Scots invaded England, and the Presbyterians aided the king as much as they dared, their combined forces were no match for the victors of Naseby. In a short campaign, conducted in the summer of 1648, Fairfax and Cromwell laid their enemies at their feet. The army was supreme in England. Before attacking any other problem the army was resolved to settle its long-standing account with "that man of blood," the perfidious Stuart, by bringing him to trial. As the Pres- byterian majority of the Commons objected to this course, it had to be swept out of the way. On December 6, 1648, a troop, under the command of Colonel Pride, expelled the Presbyterian members, to the number of about one hundred and forty, from the House. No more than fifty or sixty commoners retained their seats, who could hardly be ex- pected to resist the army. They continued to exercise the duties of Parliament, but the people fixed upon them the contemptuous term of the " Rump." The way was now cleared for the trial of the king; but as there was no provision in the law for such a step, it became necessary to resort to illegality. By an act of the servile " Rump " there was created a special High Court of Justice. The end, of course, was to be foreseen. The army, with Cromwell at its head, would not have proceeded to such ex- tremes of violence if it had not been profoundly convinced The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 255 that with this king, whose every act was a subterfuge, whose every word an equivocation, there could be no peace. The High Court of Justice found the king guilty of treason, and on January 30, 1649, he was executed on a scaffold erected in front of his own palace of Whitehall. He had never been shaken in the conviction that the right, during the whole course of the civil war, had been with him, and he died cour- ageously in that belief. To awestruck royalists his death invested him with the halo of a saint and martyr who had perished in a vain effort to uphold the Constitution and the Church. The king's death had been preceded by the dissolution The army of the House of Lords because of the refusal of that body to '" P°^^^- join in the prosecution of the king. The English Constitu- tion, therefore, was now a wreck; king and Lords had dis- appeared, the Commons were a fragment. The power lay solely with the army, and the burning question of the day was whether the military revolutionists would be able to build a new constitution grounded in sound principles and acceptable to England. For eleven years the leaders of the army attempted with The ideal of really noble zeal and sincerity to realize their ideal of gov- repubikrans. ernment. That ideal was born of the deep religious con- viction that every man must indeed be a follower of Christ, but that he should be allowed to worship after his own fash- ion. In consequence, Cromwell and his friends desired a government of upright Puritan men who tolerated every be- lief but Popery. Unfortunately, the vast majority of con- temporary Englishmen were either Episcopalian or Presby- terian, and royalist to the core. Therefore the Puritan experiment, however ncbly inspired, was doomed to end in failure. 256 Tlie Sttiarts and the Puritan Revolution The Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649-60). On the death of the king, the "Rump" voted that Eng- land was a Commonwealth without king or Lords, and ap- pointed, provisionally, a Council of State to act as the exec- utive branch of the government. There was work enough ahead for the young republic. In Ireland the Commonwealth held no more than a few isolated outposts, while in Scotland, an allied kingdom, Charles II., the oldest son of the dead sovereign, had been proclaimed king. In the clear recognition that the Com- monwealth could not live with Ireland and Scotland ranged against it, Cromwell was despatched to reduce the neighbor- ing kingdoms to submission. In an irresistible campaign of the year 1649, he disposed of the Irish, after cowing their spirit by two bloody massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. Then a rule of force was established such as Ireland had not seen before, and a great part of the land was confiscated for the benefit of the conquerors. This done, the victor turned to Scotland. At Dunbar (1650) Cromwell's soldiers, whose tempers were like the steel with which they smote, scattered the Scotch army; and when a second army, with Charles II. in its midst, struck across the border in the hope of stirring up an English rebellion, Cromwell, starting in pursuit, met it at Worcester, in the heart of England, and won the crown- ing victory of his life (165 1) . Charles II. escaped, after vari- ous romantic adventures, to the Continent; but the Scots were compelled to recognize the Commonwealth and be merged with England in a single state. With peace reestablished throughout the British dominion, the question of a permanent government became more press- ing. Everybody clamored for a settlement and the termi- nation of the long disorder. Only the " Rump " Parliament was in no hurry, and the fifty or sixty members who com- TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 257 posed it not only clung to office, but even planned to per- petuate their power. Naturally, the soldiers, who wished to see practical results, watched the delays of the legislators with growing impatience. In April, 1653, their great leader, Cromwell, despairing of good from so narrow and selfish a body of men, resolved to have done with them. He invaded the "Rump" with a detachment of troops and ordered the members home. "Come, come," he shouted in indigna- tion, " we have had enough of this. It is not fit you should sit here any longer." Thus the last fragment of the old Con- stitution vanished from the scene. A new Parliament, freely elected by the nation, would have Barebone's been one solution of the difficulties which now confronted i6r,_ CromweH. But such a Parliament would have immediately called back the Stuarts, and Cromwell was ready to try all other means before he declared that the great cause, which to his ferv^id mind was that of God Himself, had failed. In conjunction with a number of officers he therefore nom- inated an assembly of Puritan partisans who were to act as Parliament. In an opening speech he told them that they were called because they were godly men. But although they meant well, they were inexperienced and crotchety. The town wags, immensely amused at their provincial man- ners and ideas, called them Barebone's Parliament, from a certain worthy member whose evangelical name of Praise- God Barebone invited their ridicule. Luckily, after a few weeks a party among the nominees recognized their own un- fitness and brought about the closing of the session (Decem- ber, 1653). As some government had to fill up the gap, the army offi- The Pro- cers now drew up a Constitution in forty-one articles, called the Instrument of Government, which placed the chief power in the hands of Oliver Cromwell under the title of Lord Protector. By the new Constitution the Lord Protector, to- tectorate. 258 TJie Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution gether with a Council of State, was to exercise the executive power, while a Parliament of a single House, from which all partisans of the Stuarts were excluded, was to perform the legislative functions of government. The new attempt came nearer than any of the others to being an equitable solution of the political difficulties into which England had been plunged; but, unfortunately, even the partial success achieved was accompanied by the disfranchisement of the royalists, and was primarily due to the fact that the new Constitution placed in control an entirely efficient man. The domestic The five years (1653-58) of Oliver's rule as Protector were the Protector, beset with ever-re(j:urring difficulties. His very first Parlia- ment insisted on revising the Instrument of Government. As that was tantamount to calling the whole settlement in question, Oliver in high dudgeon dissolved the Parliament (January, 1655). For a while now he ruled without a leg- islature. There were frequent attempts upon his life, repub- lican conspiracies, royalist risings, the cares and annoy- ances inseparable from rule. The Protectorate, with its one-man power, was, if possible, even more offensive to the strong republican element in England than to the royal adherents of the Stuarts. Oliver confessed with sorrow that "it was easier to keep sheep than to govern men." But his brave spirit was undaunted and he met every difficulty as it arose. He called a second Parliament in the year 1656, and with this he got along more smoothly for a while. The traditional English conservatism governed this assembly, and it tried to fall back upon the lines of the old Constitu- tion. It created a second House to take the place of the abolished House of Lords and offered to make Oliver he- reditary king. But Oliver, who had no love of baubles, and already exercised a virtual kingship as Protector, declined the dangerous title. When this same Parliament came up to London for a second session and followed a course in- TJic Stuarts and the Puritan Revolutioti 259 compatible with the maintenance of the government, Oliver reproachfully dismissed it, like its predecessor (February, 1658). His bitter experience with his legislature must have convinced him, if he stood in need of proof, that the nation was not with him. Disguise it as he might, his rule rested upon the army and was a military despotism. In all this time the great principle of toleration, which The failure Oliver had mainly at heart, made no progress. Oliver's original idea had been to give all Protestant Christians the protection of the law. But the fierce religious temper of the time prevented people from seeing any right outside of their own faith. Oliver, like all men who are ahead of their time, was left without support. The animosities of his antagonists, as well as of his followers, forced him, therefore, before long to trench upon his principles. In 1655 ^^ began persecuting those who held to the Book of Common Prayer, and long before his end he had the bitter conviction that the government of the Puritan Com- monwealth rested on no single principle that had taken root in the nation. If Oliver was thus reaping failure at home, he heaped War with the triumph upon triumph abroad. From 1652 to 1654 there -^^ >^ 5 - had been a war with the Dutch, caused by English jealousy of the immense commerce of the rival republic. The immedi- ate cause of the rupture was a measure, called the Naviga- tion Act (1651), devised to increase English shipping. As it was declared by this act that foreign ships could bring to England only such goods as were produced in their own country, the Dutch, who were carriers for the whole world, were dealt a severe blow. In the war that followed, the EngUsh, after a few preliminary losses, got command of the Channel, and Cromwell was enabled to sign (1654) a fav- orable peace which greatly strengthened his credit in the eyes of the world. 26o The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Oliver makes war upon Spain. The death of Oliver. Anarchy. Soon after, in 1655, Oliver made war upon Spain, finally going so far as to enter into an alliance with France against the common foe. Jamaica, in the West Indies, was taken from Spain by an English fleet, and Dunkirk,^ in the Span- ish Netherlands, after a victory of the allies on the Dunes, opened its gates to Cromwell's troopers. Since the days of Elizabeth, the name of England had not enjoyed such respect as it did now. Oliver's arm reached even to the Alps, and at his command the duke of Savoy ceased perse- cuting his Protestant subjects. Thus to the end the Protector held the rudder firmly. But his health was broken by his great responsibilities, and on the third day of September, 1658, he passed away. It had been his " fortunate day " — that was his own word — the day of the great victories of Dunbar and Worcester, and was to his mind, heavy with the disappointments of his reign, perhaps no less fortunate because it brought the end of tribulation. His last prayer, in which breathes all his Christian fervor, all his honesty and charity, has been re- corded for us. "Lord," ran a part of it, "Thou hast made me, though very unworthy, a mean instrument to do Thy people some good. . . . Pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too." Cromwell's death was followed by a year of anarchy. As the Commonwealth was founded on the army and not on the consent of the people of England, its continuance depended on the army's finding a successor of the same metal as the great Protector. But that was impossible. Oliver was succeeded by his inoffensive and incapable son, Richard, who in May, 1659, resigned an office calling for powers which he did not possess. Then the " Rump " came back, once more pretending that it was the author- itative government of England. Sections of the soldiery ' Dunkirk was held only till 1662, when Charles II. sold it to France. The Shiarts and the Puritan Revolution 261 disputed the claim and rose in rebellion. Clearly the only escape from the intolerable imbroglio was to call back the son of the dead king. The people themselves were more than willing, but to insure success some resolute man at the head of an armed force would have to take the initiative. The man wanted was found in General George Monk, one of Cromwell's most capable lieutenants and his representa- tive in Scotland. Monk, at the head of his soldiers, came Monk calls to London, and calling back the surviving members of the stuarts. Long Parliament obliged them to dissolve after issuing writs for a new election. With the way thus cleared, Charles II. from his exile in Holland issued a general pardon, and when the new Parliament met was enthusiastically invited to mount the throne of his ancestors. The new Parlia- ment declared that "the government of this kingdom is, and ought to be, by king. Lords, and Commons." When Charles entered London on May 28, 1660, the houses emp- tied their eager population upon street and square, and the reimpatriated king was cheered like a conqueror. The Restoration. Charles II. (1660-85) ^^^ James II. (1685-88). Charles 11. was one of the most popular monarchs Eng- Character of land ever had, but his popularity was due not so much to his virtues as to his vices. To understand this remarkable circumstance, we must remember that the Restoration is a general movement of reaction. It marks not merely a return from the Puritan experiment of government, but also a re- vulsion from the austere and colorless scheme of life which the Puritans had imposed upon society. Like one who had thirsted a long while, the Englishman of the Restora- tion threw himself greedily upon splendor and distractions. Now Charles II. had lived long in France, and there his self- Charles II. 262 The Stuarts and the Puritaii Revolution His political opportunism. The reaction. The revolution not in vain. indulgent nature had drunk its fill of the gayety and licen- tiousness which characterized the sumptuous court of Louis XIV. Upon his restoration Charles became the apostle of French manners in England; profligacy became the fashion of the day, and the king added to his constitutional function of sovereign the far more congenial role of master of the revels. The country, out of sorts with the Puritan ideals, applauded, admired its sovereign's witty sallies and studied courtesy, and joined the dance and sounded the pipe around the "Merry Monarch" of an England once again resolved to be likewise merry. Charles had a good deal of natural sagacity, but little en- ergy and no moral fibre. In the end his resolutions usually succumbed to his indolence. His pleasures went before everything else, and when a conflict threatened with his ministers or Parliament, he was in the habit of giving way, with the joke that whatever happened he did not care to start again upon his travels. A monarch so intelligent and supple, so unencumbered with Stuart obstinacy, was likely to make himself both popular and secure. No sooner was the monarchy restored than the desire seized the victors to be revenged upon their Puritan ad- versaries. The king's general pardon issued from Hol- land was subject to parliamentary revision, and the Par- liament, far more vindictive than the sovereign, resolved to punish all who had been instrumental in bringing Charles I. to death. Thirteen revolutionists were exe- cuted, and a contemptible and revolting vengeance was wreaked upon the body of the great Cromwell. It was dragged from its tomb and suspended with iron chains from the gallows. Such scenes apart, the Restoration was far less violent than similar events in history, owing largely, it must be ad- mitted, to the humanity of the king. Yet to the defeated T)ie Stuarts and the Purita?i Revolution 263 and dejected Puritans, whose leading survivor was the great poet Milton, it looked as if the return of Charles had closed upon them the gates of Paradise, and made vain the civil struggle of the past twenty years. But that was not quite the case. As the Petition of Right and most of the early enactments of the Long Parliament had received the royal assent, they remained in vigor, thereby substantially reduc- ing the royal prerogative. Nevertheless, the king's powers were still so great that he might plot for the overthrow of the Constitution, and make it advisable for the people to cut down still further his authority. In that case a new conflict would arise. But the danger of it for the present was slight. Charles II. was an unenterprising reveller, and the people in their reckless access of loyalty might almost have applauded an attempted usurpation. The Cavalier Parliament, as Charles's second Parliament, The Cavalier convened in 1661 and allowed to hold power for eighteen 1661-!^*^'^'' years, was significantly called, completely expressed this re- actionary sentiment of the country — it was more royal than the king. One of its first acts was to vote that no one could lawfully take arms against the sovereign, that is, it affirmed what was called the doctrine of non-resistance. Such a legislature seemed to be separated by a chasm of ages from the Long Parliament. But the most pressing question for which the Parliament had to find a solution was the question of religion. During the last twenty years every conceivable form of Protestant dissent had sprung into existence and found supporters. Were these sects to be tolerated or was Intolerance of England to go back to a uniform national Church ? In the parliament. Cavalier Parliament — a body of royalists and reactionaries — there was only one opinion: the Church of England and nothing but the Church of England. It undertook, there- fore, to restore the historical religion and persecute every deviation with relentless severity. 264 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution In the year 1662 the Parliament passed a new Act of Uniformity. By its provisions the Prayer Book was made obhgatory, and two thousand clergymen who would not bend their necks to the yoke were ejected from their livings. Among the dismissed ministers were to be found Presby- terians, Independents (also called Congregationalists), and Baptists, most of them zealous and honorable men, who, as they did not accept the national Church, were henceforth classed together as Dissenters. In the religious history of England this formal and definite ejection of the Puritan element from the Church marks a notable mile-stone. It will be remembered that the Puritans in general had not wished to separate from the national Church, but desired rather to so modifv' its forms that it might include or "comprehend" them. From now on all hope of "comprehension" was given up. The Dissenters, of whatever color, accepted their exclusion from the Church of England as an irrevocable fact, and henceforth directed all their efforts toward acquiring toleration for their own distinct forms of worship. But the Cavalier Parliament was the last body in the world to give ear to a request for religious liberty. As in its opinion the proper way to treat Dissenters was to suppress them, it developed a highly perfected system of persecution. In the year 1664 it passed the Conventicle Act, by which the meetings of Dissenters for religious purposes were punished with fines culminating in transportation; and a year later (1665) there followed the Five Mile Act, by the terms of which no Dissenting minister was allowed to teach school or reside within five miles of any town or place where he had once held a cure. It is not probable that the Cavalier Parliament would have insisted on the national creed with such vehemence, if it had not been persuaded that toleration granted to the Dis- The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 265 senters would open a loop-hole for the Catholics. And just then the suspicion against Catholicism was stronger in the land than ever, because of the secret machinations of the court in its behalf. Had the facts that were only whispered > in the palace-passages been known at Westminster, there can be no doubt that the religious legislation would have been even more stringent than it was; for Charles, although afraid to publish the truth, had secretly embraced Cathol- icism. A monarch who identified himself so little in religious mat- The foreign ters with his people was not likely to serve them in the for- charks. eign field. In fact, his guidance of England was of a piece with his superficial and selfish view of life. He disliked the bluff republican Dutch and admired the sumptuous Louis XIV. of France, and governed his conduct accordingly. We have noticed the growing commercial rivalry between First Dutch the Dutch and the English. The Navigation Act, passed in Restoration, 165 1 by the " Rump," and the war that followed were evi- 1664-67. dences of it. When to a number of ancient jealousies, ex- cited in part by conflicting colonial claims, was added the animosity created by the formal reenactment of the Navi- gation Act, war could not long be averted. For three years (1664-67) the adversaries sought one another upon all the seas; but when peace was signed, the Dutch were obliged to cede their American colony. New Amsterdam, which was re- named New York in honor of James, duke of York and brother of the king. This was the time of the ascendancy of France in Euro- Charles leans pean politics. The leading fact of the general situation was ^"^^^ that Louis XIV. was planning to extend his territory at the expense of his neighbors. The logical policy of England, as the rival of France, would have been to support the vic- tim against the aggressor; but Charles looked at the question not from the general but from the personal point of view. 266 The Stuarts and the Puritafi Revolution Naturally, his riotous life kept him involved in constant money difficulties, as fortunes were flung away on entertain- ments, or were lavished on courtiers and mistresses. To get money, therefore, and more money became Charles's great object in life; and Louis XIV., who was not without a shrewd streak amid his lavishness, was perfectly willin;^ to oblige his brother of England, if he could by this means buy England's aid, or, at least, her neutrality in the conflicts he anticipated. Now the French king began his aggressions, in the year 1667, by invading the Spanish Netherlands; but after taking a few towns he was forced to desist, chiefly owing to the energetic protest of the Dutch, supported temporarily by England and Sweden. No wonder that the haughty Louis resolved to have revenge on this nation of traders and republicans. By the secret Treaty of Dover (1670) he won over Charles by a handsome sum to join him in his projected war against the Dutch; and Charles, in his turn, stipulated to avow himself a Catholic as soon as the occasion served, and to call on Louis for military aid in case his subjects, oa the news of his conversion, rose in revolt. Second Dutch When, in the year 1672, everything was at length ready, Restoration Louis and Charles fell suddenly like two highwaymen upon 1672-74. {}^g Dutch, engaging in what in England is known as the Second Dutch War of the Restoration. Just as the war was about to break out, Charles, not yet daring to go the whole length of announcing himself a Catholic, published a decree of toleration, the so-called Declaration of Indulgence, which, overriding the statutes of Parliament, suspended the ex- ecution of all penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters. Such a measure invites the sympathy of the modern world, but it is necessary to remember, in judging it, that its motives were impure, and that it nullified the laws of England by an arbitrary act. The outcry was general; and when Parlia- ment met it insisted on the king's withdrawing his Dec- TJie Stuarts ajid the Puritan Revohition 267 laration. Reluctantly Charles yielded (1673), but with this retreat the war had lost its interest for him; and as the Eng- lish people were learning to feel more and more strongly that their real enemy was the French and not the Dutch, he gave way to popular pressure and concluded peace (1674). Thus the treason hatched out in the Treaty of Dover came to noth- ing, except in so far as it involved the Dutch in another he- roic combat for their life and liberty. So stubborn was their defence under their Stadtholder, William III. of Orange, that Louis XIV., baffled and discouraged, finally followed Charles's example and withdrew from the struggle (Peace of Nimwegen, 1678). But Parliament was not satisfied with the victory it had The Test Act, won in the matter of the Declaration. The members were ^ '^^' now so thoroughly suspicious of the secret Catholic parti- sanship of the court that they added a crowning measure to their intolerant religious legislation, the Test Act, which provided that all persons holding office under the crown should publicly receive the sacrament according to Angli- can custom. In consequence of this act, which tested and weighed every man by his faith, only avowed adherents of the Church of England could henceforth hold office, and no less a person than the duke of York, the king's brother and heir, had to resign the post of Lord High Admiral because he was a Catholic. But the spectre of Catholicism continued to stalk through The " Popish the- land, leading at times to outbreaks which would be ludicrous, if they had not been so profoundly tragical. The most famous of them is.of the year 1678 and is known as the "Popish Plot." A certain Titus Oates, a discredited ad- venturer and confessed scoundrel, told a rambling story before a magistrate to the effect that he had discovered a conspiracy on the part of the Catholics to institute in Eng- land another St. Bartholomew, Although Oates's story was Plot. 268 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution The death of Charles. Whigs and Tories. palpably absurd, it won general credence, and as a result of the frantic agitation which seized the country a number of i prominent Catholics were executed, others confined in the Tower, and a corollary was added to the Test Act by which s Catholics were barred from the House of Lords, the only ! place where they had not hitherto been disturbed. \ Charles died in the year 1685, after a reign of twenty-five years. On his death-bed he privately received the sacrament j according to the Catholic rite, and then, keeping up his life- 1 long comedy to the last, died decorously according to the prescriptions of the national Church. j The reign of Charles is marked by an advance in the po- | litical life of the nation which merits close attention. The gushing loyalty which accompanied the first acts of the Cavalier Parliament did not last. The distrust engendered by the Catholic tendencies of the court had already impaired , it, when the prospect of the succession of the Catholic duke of York gave it a staggering blow. A party called the Whigs arose which aimed to exclude the duke of York from the throne on the ground of religion; another party, called the Tories,^ stood stanchly by the principle of legitimate suc- cession. Charles, with the support of the Tories, managed at the close of his reign to score a triumph over the Whigs, but the fact remained that for the first time in the history of English Parliamentary life there had been created parties with a definite programme and something like a permanent organization. From that day to this, a period of over two centuries, the Whigs and Tories, latterly under the names of Liberals and Conservatives, have disputed the government of England between them. It will be seen that the succession ' These names were originally taunts, flung by excited orators at tht heads of their opponents. Tory is derived from the Irish and signifies robber. Whig comes probably from Whiggam, a cry with which the Scotch peasants exhorted their horses. Applied as a party name, it was intended to convey the idea of a rebellious Covenanter. The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 269 issue in which the parties had their origin was intimately associated with the question of rehgion. The Tories drew their strength from the uncompromising supporters of the Church of England, while the Whigs, standing for a Protes- tant succession, found it profitable to lean upon the Dissen- ters and advocate religious toleration for all Protestants. If ever the Whigs came to power the Dissenters could count on something being done for them, while as long as the Tories ruled the state they were sure to be oppressed. James II. (1685-88). James II., who succeeded his brother Charles, was not James II. only an open and avowed Catholic, which, of course, raised an impassable barrier between him and his subjects, but he was also imbued with the same ideas of Divine Right as his father Charles I., and he held to them as stubbornly as ever that monarch had done. Worst of all, he had no touch of the political cleverness of Charles II. Under these circum- stances the new reign did not promise well. James was, indeed, received at first with some warmth, but a succession of rash and ill-judged measures reduced him rapidly to a state of icy isolation. As James was a Catholic among suspicious and embittered Catholic Protestants, he should, at the very least, have kept quiet, j^i^s."^^^" But he seems to have been possessed with the idea that he had been made king for the express purpose of furthering the Catholic cause. He did not even trouble himself to proceed cautiously. Overriding the Test Act, he presently put his coreligionists into important positions in the army and the civil service. Soon after, in 1687, he published, in imitation of his brother, a Declaration of Indulgence, sus- pending all penalties against Catholics and Dissenters. He justified his action in these matters by what he called the royal dispensing power, which was supposed to give him the 270 ■•. ^ -II ^• The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution Monmouth and "the Bloody Assizes." Birth of a son. right not to abolish laws, but to delay their execution. If he really had any such power, it was plain that he was superior to the law, and the civil war had been in vain. Regardless of the universal discontent he published, in 1688, a Second Declaration, and ordered it to be read from all the pulpits. Most of the clergy refused to conform to this tyrannical order, and seven bishops presented to the king a written protest. James's answer was an order that legal proceed- ings be taken against them. Immense excitement gathered around the trial, which occurred in June, 1688. Meanwhile other irregularities and violences of the king had added to his unpopularity. In the year of his accession, the Protestant duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II., had invaded England with a small force, but was defeated, captured, and executed. James might have been satisfied with this success. He preferred, however, a general persecution. He sent into the west, among the people who had supported Monmouth, the savage and infamous Judge Jeffreys, for the purpose of ferreting out Monmouth's adherents. The mockery of justice engaged in by Jeffreys is known as "the Bloody Assizes." The in- human monster was not satisfied until he had hanged three: hundred and twenty victims, mostly poor peasants, and trans- ported eight hundred and forty to the West Indies. The odium of these misdeeds fell, of course, upon the king. All this was for a time put up with by the people because the next heir to the throne, James's daughter Mary, who was the child of his first marriage and the wife of William of Orange, was a Protestant. The nation looked forward to her succession with the more pleasure as her husband, too, was, on his mother's side, a Stuart.^ When, however, James's second wife gave birth, in June, 1688, to a son, who by the English law would take precedence over Mary, consterna- j * See Genealogical Table on page 565. The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 271 tion seized the whole people. The son, it was foreseen, would be educated in the Catholic religion, and thus the Catholic dynasty would be perpetuated. As the birth of the son and the trial of the seven bishops occurred about the same time (June, 1688), England was filled with excitement from end to end. Seizing the opportunity, a number of lead- ing Englishmen, representing both the Whig and Tory par- ties, sent a secret letter inviting William of Orange and his wife Mary to come to England's rescue. In November, 1688, William landed in England, and William joyously and spontaneously the people of all classes rallied England, around him. When the army which James sent against him refused to fight, the wretched king at last awakened to the fact that he stood alone. Suddenly and utterly discour- aged, he sent his wife and child to France, and shortly after followed in person. Perhaps never in history had there been a more swift and bloodless revolution. When Parliament met, it was confronted by the difficult Thereorgani- task of harvesting the fruits of the popular success. It be- monajchy.^ gan by declaring James's reign at an end, and offering the throne conjointly to William and Mary. Thereby it sol- emnly committed itself to the view that the king was not Heaven's anointed, called to the throne by hereditary Divine Right, but was the choice of people and Parliament. Hence- forth a king of England had no other claim to the crown than a statute of the realm. An act of Parliament had made him, an act also might undo him. Then the victorious Parliament proceeded to complete the edifice of its power. Throughout the seventeenth century the conflict had raged between king and Parliament over their respective spheres of control. The Petition of Right (1628) was the first act which effectually clipped the wings of the monarchy. The Long Parliament was engaged in completing the work, when the civil war intervened and buried the issue beneath the din 2/2 The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution of arms. At length the flood of loyalty, once again set in motion by ten years of military rule, brought the Stuarts back to the throne, but did not restore them to the preroga- tive of their ancestors. The only means of tyranny left in their hands was the claim that as divinely appointed kings they were above the laws and could suspend their execution when they pleased. The cautious Charles had exercised this supposed right charily, but the infatuated James had built up his system of tyranny upon it. This last loop-hole of arbitrary rule the Parliament now proceeded to stop up by means of a Bill of Rights (1689), wherein the so-called dispensing power was declared abolished, and the king was in every respect subjected to the law. The Bill of Rights further enumerated and forbade anew all the illegal acts of James, and formally and solemnly excluded Roman Catho- lics from the throne. The measure ended the long consti- tutional struggle in England by giving the victory and the fruits thereof to the Parliament, with the result that from this time on to our own day the Parliament has controlled the government of England. If the revolution of 1688 closed the political conflict by seating the Parliament in the place of power, it also led to a measure which promised a solution of the long-standing re- ligious troubles. Chiefly with the support of the Whigs, Par- liament passed, almost simultaneously with the Bill of Rights, a Toleration Act, conceding to the Dissenters the right of public worship. The Test Act, which barred them from office, was not repealed, but they could at least serve their God as they pleased, and that, after the long persecution they had suffered, was a sufficient blessing for the present. Indeed, it was not until the first half of the nineteenth cen- turj' that the final disabilities resting upon non-Anglicans were removed. But if the current bigotry of high and low balked at more than partial alleviation for dissenting Prot-- TJic Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 273 estants, it was plain that after the late experience with a Catholic king, no concession at all would be made to the adherents of the Pope. Tests and penal laws continued therefore in full force, and made life a very heavy burden to Catholic Englishmen for a long time to come. But the Toleration Act, by satisfying at least the old Puritan element, greatly promoted religious peace. The literature of the seventeenth century presents in sharp Puritan and contrast the two theories of life which combated each other literature. under the party names of Cavalier and Roundhead. The moral severity and the noble aspiration of Puritanism found sublime expression in John Milton ("Paradise Lost," 1667), and a simple-minded eulogist in John Bunyan ("Pilgrim's Progress," 1675). But the literary reign of these men and their followers was short, for the Restoration quickly buried them under its frivolity and laughter. Inevitably literature followed the currents of the contemporary life, and Milton and Bunyan were succeeded by a school of licentious dram- atists and literary triflers. John Dryden (1631-1701), a man of high gifts which suffered by contact with a hollow age, is the great figure of the Restoration and rises head and shoulders above his Liliputian contemporaries. If the Restoration were to be judged merely by its contri- Revival of butions to literature, it would not merit high consideration. It was, as we have seen, a reaction from the boundless idealism of the previous period, and turned men to definite in- tellectual pursuits. The scientific spirit, having its roots in man's curiosity about himself and his environment, began to stir once more, and for its cultivation was founded, in 1660, the Royal Society. That England made rapid strides in philosophy and physics is witnessed by the great names of Locke and Newton. Their work, conducted on the prin- ciple of the coll^;ction jf facts through patient observation of nature, helped to lay the foundations of modern science. science. CHAPTER XII The work of Richelieu. The regency of Anne of Austria. THE ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV. (1643-1715) References: Wakeman, The Ascendancy of France, pp. 153-64, Chapters IX., X., XI., XIV., XV.; Kitchin, History of France, Vol. III., pp. 58-360; Hassall, Mazarin; Hassall, Louis XIV.; Adams, Growth of the French Nation, Chapter XIII.; Perkins, France under Richelieu and Mazarin. Source Readings: Duke of St. Simon, Memoirs of the, 4 vols, (a brilliant gallery of portraits of courtiers and ladies) ; Madame de S£\^GN6, Letters of ; Robinson, Readings, Chapter XXI. (Richelieu, Colbert, Louis's Court, etc.). The work of Richelieu, as we have seen, cleared the way for the supremacy of France in Europe. By destroying the political privileges of the Huguenots and by breaking the power of the nobility he had freed the royal authority from the last restraints which weighed upon it, and had rendered it absolute. At the same time the great minister had en- gaged France in the Thirty Years' War, and had reaped for her the benefits of the Peace of Westphalia (1648). But just at this point, as France was about to assume a dominant position, she was threatened once more, and as it proved for the last time under the old mona rchy, by ci\al war. Richelieu's king, Louis XIII. , ditd only a few months after him, in 1643, leaving behind a five-year-old son, in whose name the queen, Anne of Austria, assumed the regency. At 274 Under Lotiis XIV. 275 the same time the post of leading minister, which had been occupied by Richelieu, fell to the confidant of the regent, another churchman and an Italian by birth, Cardinal Mazarin. Trained under the eyes of Richelieu, the new minister tried to carry out faithfully his predecessor's pro- gramme, and was rewarded, like his predecessor, with the aversion of the great nobles, the chief of whom was the famous general, the prince of C'^nde. The Peace of West- phalia had not yet been signed, when a domestic trouble occurred which the nobles tried to make serve their ends. The Parliament of Paris resisted a new tax, but before this very promising issue was fairly under way the nobles, re- joicing in the embarrassment of the government, insinuated themselves into the struggle. Thus, what had been at the outset an intelligent constitutional movement, degenerated quickly into a rebellion of the feudal order to recover its lost authority. The moment the civil war, known under the The Fronde, name of the Fronde, took this shape, it deserved to fail, for though France might have profited by the victory of a con- stitutional party committed to the idea of popular control, the country could not consent to fall back into the feudal disorder, from which it had been rescued by Richelieu. The people, quick to discern their own interest in a quarrel be- tween king and nobles, supported the government, and after a struggle of five years (1648-53) Mazarin reestablished peace and order. The Fronde ^ is the agony of the feudal nobility. To be sure, the nobles retained their vast estates and special privileges and continued to enjoy a splendid so- cial position, but they degenerated more and more into a ' The Fronde affords an interesting comparison with the civil war which was being waged contemporaneously in England. The English constitu- tional movement was successful, whereas the French movement was not, (i) because the English Parliament represented the nation, which was not the case with the Parliament of Paris; (2) because the English aristoc- racy was law-abiding and patriotic ; and (3) because the English possessed political experience and had the moral force to hold fast to what they wanted. 276 Tlie Ascendancy of France The Peace of the Pyrenees, 1659. The personal rule of Louis XIV. nerveless body of docile courtiers, content to squander their means and energies upon the dances and dinners of Ver- sailles. The Peace of Westphalia was an arrangement between France and the Austrian branch of the House of Hapsburg. Because the Spanish branch, although signally worsted by France in conjunction with the Dutch, was unwilling to come to terms, war between France and Spain continued after 1648. When the Fronde broke out, the tables were turned, and the balance inclined for some years in favor of Spain; but as soon as the Fronde was beaten down, Mazarin was able to win back the lost ground and force Spain to terms. Owing to foreign war and internal revolution, Spain was, in fact, at her last gasp. W^hen she signed with France the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), she signed away with it the last remnant of the supremacy which she had once exercised in Europe. France, the victor, took the place of Spain in the councils of the Continent, and signalized her triumph by acquiring certain territories, lying on the north or French slope of the Pyrenees (Roussillon), and by getting a more favorable boundary toward the Spanish Netherlands (Artois). With the glory of the Peace of the Pyrenees still lingering in the skies of France, Mazarin's life turned to its setting (1661). He will always be remembered among the great ministers of his adopted country. The young sovereign, Louis XIV., now stepped forward to take the government in hand, but when he announced with quiet pride that he would henceforth be his own prime minister, many smiled and doubted. But he kept his word, and while he lived the varied business of the French Government was transacted practically by himself. He is said to have boasted once: Vetat c'est moi (I am the state). Whether the phrase is his or not, it expresses admirably the spirit of his reign, for he held himself to be the absolute head of the state, and regarded Under Louis XIV. 277 his ministers not as the responsible heads of departments, but as clerks. It is characteristic that the sun was his fa- vorite emblem, because he was pleased to imagine that as the earth drew its sustenance from the central luminary, so the life of France emanated from himself. Le roi-soleil (sun-king) was the title given him by idolizing courtiers. Absolutism, that is, monarchy strengthened by the ruin of the feudal powers, existed in Europe long before Louis XIV., but the French sovereign now hedged it round with a spe- cial divinity. He taught and put in practice the doctrine that a king was the plenipotentiary of God, and was like the rest of mankind only in his mortality. With this ex- alted idea in his mind Louis was convinced that his only fit background was not the French metropolis and capital, but a special residence or court. By means of his court, which he located at Versailles, where a whole royal city Louis and the sprang into being at his fiat, he was removed from contact vcts^cs. with the common herd, and could surround himself, like an Oriental divinity, with acolytes and worshippers. Every- body knows how Versailles aroused the admiration and envy of the world. That was not so much because of its, after all, trivial splendors, but because its central idol was, in the words of a contemporary, "the greatest actor of majesty that ever filled a throne." But strong and omnipresent as the ceremonial element was Perfection of . T-5 .• e t • rr ^ x ij- administration. m Louis s conception of his office, he was not, as already in- dicated, merely an ornamental sovereign. Although but a commonplace man, ignorant and superstitious, he had a high sense of order and completeness, which enabled him to carry Richelieu's reorganization of France a considerable step forward. The complex administration of government was carefully divided into departments, and the diplomatic service, the army and navy reached a high degree of effi- ciency. But the most original work was done in the field of 278 TJie Ascendancy of France The economic policy of Colbert. Louis becomes a conqueror. finance under the guidance of the tireless Colbert. Colbert (1619-83) had no sooner been put in control of the treas- ur}' department than he made an end of the customary care- lessness and peculation and turned the annual deficit into a surplus. But Colbert — and here lies his peculiar distinction — was more than a good financier; he was an economic thinker. With the science of political economy as yet unborn, it was a decided step forward when Colbert arrived at the conclu- sion that the question of revenues must be considered in connection with the whole problem of production, and that the primary object of a good minister of finance should be the increase of the total wealth of the nation. Colbert there- fore undertook to foster agriculture, manufactures, and com- merce. He applied to his country the system known in our own day as protection, encouraging exportation, and dis- couraging the importation of foreign products by means of a tariff. French manufactures were greatly stimulated, and such articles as silks, brocades, laces, and glass acquired a merited popularity in the markets of the world. Excellent roads and canals, the necessary avenues of commerce, were constructed in all directions, and a creditable colonial activ- ity was unfolded in the West Indies, Louisiana, and India. In a word, France seemed intent, in the early years of Louis XIV., on matching the political and military supremacy al- ready attained, with the more substantial supremacy which is the result of a long period of commercial and industrial activity. | Unfortunately, the splendid Louis was not attracted by f the picture of a reign of bourgeois prosperity. Though but a young man, he was already the cynosure of Europe. In all truth he could say that he was the first power of the world. ■ But in measure as he found that his neighbors were no match for him, he began to be tempted by the thought of making Under Louis XIV. 279 them his dependents. It was not a high ambition, this, still it won the day with him. In the year 1667, therefore, Louis entered upon a career of aggression and conquest, which, af- ter a few brilliant results, led to such a succession of disas- ters that the man whose progress had been attended by clouds of incense wafted by admiring courtiers, closed his career in ignominy. Four great wars substantially filled the rest of Louis's life. His wars. They were: (i) A War with Spain for the possession of the Spanish Netherlands (1667-68); (2) the War with the Dutch (1672-78); (3) the War of the Palatinate (1688-97); (4) the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14). When Louis, in the year 1667, surveyed the political situ- Louis antago- ation, and noting his own resources and the weakness of "'^^^ urope. his neighbors, resolved on a war of conquest, he must have debated carefully whither he had best move. He decided finally that it would be wisest to extend the French boun- daries toward the east. Spain, intrenched in the Spanish Netherlands, seemed moribund, and, besides, France needed to be strengthened, most of all, on this side. By choosing to expand eastward, however, he was bound to antagonize the three countries which were directly threatened by this move — Spain, the Dutch, and Germany. Sooner or later, too, he was likely to arouse the jealousy of the ancient rival of France, England. Did Louis, when he began war so lightly, reckon with the chance of a European coalition against him? Probably not. He saw only the contempo- rary divisions of Europe and his own brilliant opportunity, and like every other adventurer he let the future lake care of itself. In 1667 Louis suddenly invaded the Spanish Netherlands. TheWarof thf The fact that he tried to justify himself by putting forth some edands, very doubtful claims of his Spanish wife, daughter of Philip 1667-08. IV., to these territories, only added hvpocrisy to violence. 28o TJie Ascendancy of France His well-appointed army took place after place. Spain was too weak to offer resistance, and if the Dutch, frightened at the prospect of such a neighbor as Louis, had not bestirred themselves, Louis would have overrun all the Spanish Neth- erlands. The Triple Alliance of the Dutch, England, and Sweden, formed by the rapid ingenuity of the republican patriot, John de Witt, who was at this time the leading spirit of the Dutch Government, bade Louis halt. Louis, on oc- casion, could distinguish the possible from the impossible. In answer to the threat of the Triple Alliance, he declared himself satisfied with a frontier strip, and retired. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) formally secured him in his bold acquisition (1668). For the next few years Louis seemed to be dominated by a single thought — revenge upon the Dutch. The Dutch had been the soul of the Triple Alliance; the Dutch primarily hindered his expansion eastward. The plan he now formed was to sever the Dutch from all their friends and allies, and then fall upon them unawares. The diplomatic campaign preliminary to the declaration of war was crowned with complete success. Sweden and the emperor were secured by treaties of neutrality, and the despicable Charles II., by the Treaty of Dover (1670), was even pledged to join the forces of England with the French in the proposed war. In the spring of 1672 everything was ready. While the com- bined French and English fleets engaged the Dutch fleet un- der the celebrated Admiral Ruyter in the Channel, the French army, led by Conde and Turenne, invaded the territory of the Seven United Provinces by following the course of the Rhine. In a few weeks most of the provinces, owing to the decay into which the too secure de Witt had permitted the army and fortresses to fall, were in the hands of the French. And now a terrible indignation swept over the alarmed people. V Under Louis XIV. 281 They fell upon and murdered de Witt, and would be satis- fied with nothing less than the triumphant reinstatement of the House of Orange, which, at the close of the Spanish war, the republican party, largely at the prompting of de Witt, had banished from the public service. In an outburst of en- thusiasm William III. of Orange was made Stadtholder and supreme commander on sea and land. William, a young The character man but twenty-one years of age, was far from being a gen- ° ' '^"^' ius, but he was sprung from heroic stock, and the responsi- bility for a nation's safekeeping, put upon him in a stern crisis, brought out his best qualities. The English am- bassador invited him to look about him and submit, urging that it was easy to see that the Dutch were lost. "I know one means of never seeing it," he replied, "to die on the last dyke." It was this spirit that now steeled the temper of the little people and enabled them to emulate the deeds of their ancestors against Spain. Before Louis could take the heart of the Netherlands, the The Dutch city of Amsterdam, the Dutch had, at the order of William, general, cut the dykes and restored their country to the original dominion of the waters. Louis found himself checked; his opportunity was lost. But Europe was now thoroughly aroused, and before many months had passed, there had ral- lied to the cause of the Dutch the emperor, the states of the Empire, and Spain. In the year 1674 the position of Louis was still further weakened. In that year the state of Eng- lish public opinion forced Charles II. to abandon Louis and make his peace with the Dutch. Louis was thereupon left to face a great continental coalition, with no ally but remote Sweden. The odds in a struggle with all Europe were pat- ently against Louis, and although the superiority of French organization and French generalship enabled him to win every pitched battle with his foes, he was glad enough to end the war when peace was offered. By the Treaty of Nim- 282 TJie Ascendancy of France wegen (1678) he had to acknowledge his failure in his main purpose, for the Dutch did not lose a foot of territory, but he was permitted, in recognition of his military successes, to incorporate the Franche Comt^, a detached eastern posses- sion of the king of Spain, with France. The second war, too, although it had roused a European alliance against Louis, had brought him its prize of a new province. Louis was now at the zenith of his glory. The adulation of his court became more and more slavish, until the flattered monarch imagined that he could do everything with impunity. His imperious temper is well exhibited by an event of the year 1681. In a period of complete peace he fell upon the city of Strasburg, the last stronghold of the Empire in Alsace, and incorporated it with France. The bigotry which had been inculcated in the king from his youth, grew confirmed as he entered middle life, and now involved him in a monstrous action. Originally frivolous and pleasure-loving, he had, as the doors of young manhood closed upon him, fallen under the influence of a devout Catholic lady, Madame de Maintenon, the gover- ness of some of his children. To Madame de Maintenon the eradication of heresy was a noble work, and Louis, tak- ing the cue from her, began gradually to persecute the Prot- estants. At first, innocently enough, rewards were offered to voluntary converts. Then the government proceeded to take more drastic measures; wherever Huguenots refused, on summons, to become Catholics, rough dragoons were quar- tered on them until the wild soldiery had produced pliancy. These barbarities became known as dragonnades . Finally, in 1685, two years after Louis had by formal marriage with Madame de Maintenon, who thus became his second wife, thoroughly committed himself to her ideas, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, by virtue of which the Huguenots had en- joyed a partial freedom of worship for almost one hundred Under Louis XIV. 283 years. Therewith the Protestant faith was proscribed within the boundaries of France. The blow which this insane measure struck the prosperity of the country was more injurious than a disastrous war. Thousands of Huguenots — the lowest estimate speaks of fifty thousand families — fled across the border and carried their industry, their capital, ^ and their civilization to the rivals and enemies of France — chiefly to Holland, America, and Prussia. The occupation of Strasburg and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were events belonging to an interval of peace. But Louis was already planning a new war. When his preparations became known, the emperor, the Dutch, and Spain concluded, at the instigation of William of Orange, England joins a new alliance. Happily, before the war had well begun, a against Louis, lucky chance won England for the allies. In 1688 James n., who, like his brother, Charles II., was inclined to live on friendly terms with Louis, was overthrown by the "Glorious Revolution," and William of Orange became king of Eng- land. As the temper of the English people had at the same time become thoroughly anti-French, William had no diffi- culty in persuading them to join Europe against the French monarch. Thus in the new war — called the War of the Pa- latinate, from the double fact that Louis claimed the Palat- inate and that the war began with a terrible harrying by fire and sword of that poor Rhenish land — Louis was absolutely without a friend. This third war (1688-97) ^^) ^^^ the general student, The War of thoroughly unmemorable. Battles were fought on land and 1688-97." ' on sea, in the Channel, in the Netherlands, and along the Rhine, and, generally speaking, the French proved their old ' The industry and the capital of the Huguenots are not mere phrases. The Huguenots, who belonged largely to the middle classes, were the hardest workers of the time, largely through the direct influence of Calvin. Calvin interpreted the commandment, "Six days shalt thou labor," literally, and abandoned the dozens of holidays which obliged Catholic workmen to be idle a good part of the year. 284 TJie Ascendancy of France superiority; but they were not strong enough to reap any ben- efit from their successes against the rest of Europe, and in 1697 all the combatants from mere exhaustion were glad to sign, on the basis of mutual restitutions, the Peace of Rys- wick. The War of the Palatinate was the first war by whicli Louis had gained nothing. That and the circumstance that England had now definitely joined the ranks of his enemies, should have served him as a warning that the tide had turned. And perhaps he would not have been so unmind- ful of the hostility of Europe if there had not opened for him at this time a peculiarly tempting prospect. The king of Spain, Charles II., had no direct heir, and at his death, which might occur at any time, the vast Spanish dominion — Spain and her colonies, Naples and Milan, the Spanish Netherlands — would fall no one knew to whom. The Aus- trian branch of Hapsburg put forth a claim, but Louis fan- cied that his children had a better title still in right of his first wife, who was the oldest sister of the Spanish king. The matter was so involved legally that it is impossible to say to this day where the better right lay. Louis was now old enough to have grown cautious, and wisely proposed to his chief adversary, William III., to come to some arrangement with him over the Spanish inheritance by which war might be averted. Accordingly, the two lead- ing powers of Europe pledged themselves to a plan of par- tition as the most plausible settlement of the impending difficulties. But when, on the death of Charles II., Novem- ber, 1700, it was found that the Spanish king had made a will in favor of Philip, the duke of Anjou, one of Louis's younger grandsons, Louis, intoxicated by the prospect, for- got his obligations and threw the Partition Treaty to the winds. He sent young Philip to Madrid to assume the rule of the undivided dominion of Spain. The House of Under Louis XIV. 285 Bourbon now ruled the whole European west. "There are no longer any Pyrenees," were Louis's exultant words. It was some time before Europe recovered from the shock of its surprise over this bold step and nerved itself to a re- si;-tance. The hoodwinked and angered William was inde- i able in arousing the Dutch and English, and at last, in 17L -ucceeded in creating the so-called Grand Alliance, The Grand comp' ' \ of the emperor, England, the Dutch, and the lead- ^^^^' ing Gei. princes. Before the war had fairly begun, how- ever. Will the stubborn, life-long enemy of Louis, had died (March, i). In the war which was just then break- ing out and i^ 'led the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-14), it is n. -^rely fanciful to discover his spirit pervading the camp. ' marching with the hosts of the allies. In the new war the position of Louis was more favorable The com- than it had been in the preceding struggle. He commanded pared!^ ^'^^' the resources not only of France but also of Spain; his sol- diers carried themselves with the assurance of troops who had never been beaten; and his armies had the advan- tage of being under his single direction. The allies, on the other hand, were necessarily divided in council and interest. What advantages they had lay in these two circumstances, which in the end proved decisive: they possessed greater re- sources of money and men, and they developed superior commanders. The brilliant French generals, Cond^ and Turenne, were now dead, and their successors, with the ex- ception of Vauban, the inventor of the modern system of fortification, and the intrepid Villars, were all, like Louis himself, without a spark of fire and originality. In the high- est commands, where France was weak, England and Aus- tria on the other hand proved themselves particularly strong. They developed in the duke of Marlborough and in Eugene, prince of Savoy, two eminent commanders. 286 The Ascendancy of France The War of the Spanish Suc- cession is a world struggle. The victories of Eugene and Marlborough. A Tory minis- try succeeds the Whigs. Not even the Thirty Years' War assumed such propor- tions as the struggle in which Europe now engaged. It was literally universal, and raged, at one and the same time, at all the exposed points of the French-Spanish possessions, that is, in the Spanish Netherlands, along the upper Rhine, in Italy, in Spain itself (where the Hapsburg claimant, the Archduke Charles, strove to drive out the Bourbon king, Philip v.), on the sea, and in the colonies of North America. The details of this gigantic struggle have no place here. We must content ourselves with noting the striking military ac- tions and the final settlement. The first great battle of the war occurred in 1704 at Blen- heim, on the upper Danube. The battle of Blenheim was the result of a bold strategical move of Marlborough, straight across western Germany, in order to save Vienna from a well-planned attack of the French. Joining with Eugene and bringing the French to bay, Marlborough captured or cut to pieces the forces of the enemy. At Blenheim the long chain of French victories was broken, and two new names were added to the roster of great generals. In 1706 Marl- borough won a splendid victory at Ramillies, in the Nether- lands, and in the same year Eugene defeated the French at Turin and drove them out of Italy. These signal suc- cesses were followed in the years 1708 and 1709 by two great victories along the French frontier at Oudenarde and Malplaquet. Oudenarde and Malplaquet left France pros- trate, and seemed to open up the road to Paris. The road to Paris, however, owing to a number of un- expected occurrences, which utterly changed the face of European politics, was never taken. In 17 10 the hold of the Whig ministry in England, which had supported Marl- borough and advocated the war, was shaken, and shortly after a Tory ministry, in favor of peace at any price, suc- ceeded. WTiile Marlborough's actions in the field were Under Louis XIV. 287 thus paralyzed, there fell from another quarter a second and a finishing blow. In 1 71 1 the Emperor Joseph died, and was succeeded by The death of his brother, Charles VI. As Charles was also the candidate \^^^^ of the Grand Alliance for the Spanish throne, the death of Joseph held out the prospect of the reunion of the vast Hapsburg dominion in one hand, as in the time of Charles V. Such a development did not lie in the interests of Eng- land and the Dutch, and these two nations now began to withdraw from the Grand Alliance and urge a settlement with the French. Louis, who was utterly exhausted and broken by defeat, met them more than half way. In 17 13 the Peace of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession. By the Peace of Utrecht the Spanish dominions were The Peace of divided. Everybody managed to get some share in the > ^/la- booty. First, Philip V., Louis's grandson, was recognized as king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that France and Spain would remain forever separated. In a limited sense, therefore, Louis's policy had triumphed, for a Bour- bon sat upon the Spanish throne. Next, the emperor was provided for; he received the bulk of the Italian posses- sions (Milan, Naples, and Sardinia), together with the Span- ish Netherlands (henceforth Austrian Netherlands). The Dutch were appeased with a number of border fortresses in the Austrian Netherlands, as a military barrier against ' France; and England took some of the French possessions \ in the New World, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia (Acadia), I and Hudson's Bay, together with the island of Minorca and the rock of Gibraltar, which gave her the command of the Mediterranean Sea. The ambitious and dissatisfied em- peror refused, at first, to accept this peace, but he was forced to give way and confirm its leading arrangements by the Peace of Rastadt (17 14). Shortly after the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt, Louis Louis's death. TJie Ascendancy of France The domi- nance of French civili- zation. The bloom of French litera- ture. XIV. died (September, 1715). The material prosperity of his early years had vanished, and in their place his failing eyes fell upon a famished peasantry and a government breaking down under its burden of debt. The disastrous end was the answer of fate to his foolish ambition. " I have made too many wars," the dying king admitted; "do not imi- tate me in that respect," he said, turning to his little heir. But to his contemporaries he remained to the day of his passing the grand monarque; and that title is a good summary of him as he appears in history, for it conveys the impression of a splendor which is not without the suspicion of hollowness. The brilliancy which Louis's long reign lent France cast a spell upon the rest of the world. Louis's court became the model court of Europe, and the so-called good society, the world over, adopted, for more than a century, the French tongue, French manners, French fashions, and French art. That such mere imitation could bring other nations no solid cultural advantages goes without saying, but it is necessary to recognize that French civilization un- der Louis must have possessed an irresistible charm to have excited such universal admiration. Under Louis French literature unfolded a wealth of blossoms. It is the period of French classicism, a period, that is, of self-restraint and voluntary subjection to rules. Literature, always a perfect mirror of society, naturally assumed the majestic tone which ruled at Versailles, and prided itself on outward glitter and formal finish. But beneath this more or less artificial note sound, in the case at least of the leaders, the sincerity and conviction which are the constant characteristics of true art. France, modern France, France of the coming centuries, may point proudly to her tragic poets, Corneille (d. 1684) and Racine (d. 1699), and may always turn for refreshment and entertain- ment to the comedies of her inimitable Moliere (d. 1673). CHAPTER XIII THE RISE OF RUSSIA AND THE DECLINE OF SWEDEN References: Wakeman, Ascendancy of France, pp. 165- 72, 180-83, 289-308; Hassall, The Balance of Power, Chapters V., XI., XIII.; Rambaud, History of Russia, Vol. II., Chapters I.-IV.; Morfill, Russia; Walis- ZEWSKi, Peter the Great; Nisbet Bain, Charles XII. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Chapter XXXII., Sections i, 2, 3. The Russians, the leading branch of the Slav family. The Russians: took possession, in the period of the great migrations, of the chri^dan. wide plains of eastern Europe where they still reside. In the tenth century they became converted to Christianity by Greek missionaries, with the result that they have ever since been passionately attached to the Greek Orthodox Church, which held in the east the same commanding po- sition occupied by the Roman Church in the west. They had not advanced far upon the road of civilization when a great calamity overtook them, for in the thirteenth century they were conquered by Asiatic Mongols or Tartars, whose yoke they did not entirely cast off until the beginning of the Modern Period. Under Ivan III. (1462-1505) and Ivan IV. (1547-84) the power of the monarch was greatly in- creased until he became almost absolute, and assumed, in witness of his position, the proud title of Caesar or Czar. On the death of Ivan IV., called the Terrible, Russia was plunged into a sea of domestic troubles, out of which she was rescued in 1613 by the election to the sovereignty of 2S9 290 The Rise of Russia Poles and Swedes, the natural enemies of Russia. Czar Peter. The situation of Russia. a native nobleman, Michael Romanoff. Michael was the first Czar of the dynasty which still rules Russia to-day. The first business of the House of Romanoff was to drive back the western neighbors, the Poles, who had taken ad- vantage of the late civil troubles to appropriate Russian territory. The Czars had engaged in this task with some success when they found themselves confronted with another and far more formidable power, Sweden. Sweden being at that time the great Baltic state, a struggle was inevitable as soon as Russia resolved to get a foothold on what Sweden regarded as her sea. And that brings us to Peter. Czar Peter is the glory of the House of Romanoff. To- gether with an older brother, Ivan, he succeeded to the throne in the year 1682. However, as the brothers were still too young to rule, a regency was established under an older sister, Sophia. Peter, a masterful lad, accepted the situation until 1689, when, being seventeen years old, he took the gov- ernment into his own hands and sent Sophia to a nunnery. As Czar Ivan was a weak and brainless creature, his ex- istence for the few more years that he lived was no check upon Peter's autocratic control. In order to understand Peter's activity it is necessary to grasp the chief factors of the Russian situation at the time of his accession. In the second half of the seventeenth century the Russians were in life and manners an Asiatic people, connected with European culture solely by the two bonds of their Aryan blood and their Christian faith. Polit- ically their association with Europe was very slight. Their state was of vast extent, comprising the plain of the Volga and including a large part of northern Asia or Siberia, but was so cooped in on the west and south by a ring of great powers — Persia, Turkey, Poland, and Sweden-^that it was practically an inland monarchy without a gate upon any sea which might throw open to it the highways of the world. Finally, And the Decline of Sweden 291 let us understand the Russian constitution. The Czar was on the way toward absolutism, but there still existed some checks upon his power — (i) the patriarch, the head of the Church, who exercised great influence in religious matters, and (2) the Streltsi, the Czar's body-guard, who, because they leaned upon the nobility and were a privileged force, felt inclined to regard themselves as superior to their master. This situation Peter soon seized with a statesmanlike Peter's policy. grasp, and moulded, through the efforts of a long rule, to his own purposes. He set himself, in the main, three aims, and met in all a degree of success which is fairly astonishing: he resolved to make the culture connection between Russia and Europe strong and intimate by opening the door to European civilization; he labored to open a way to the west by gaining a foothold on the Black and Baltic Seas; and lastly, he planned to rid himself of the restraint put upon his authority by the patriarch and the Streltsi. Peter is a difficult person for a modern man to understand. Peter's char- On one occasion he appears as a murderer, on another as a ^^ ^^' monster of sensuality, and on still another as one of nature's noblemen. We have the key to his character when we re- member that he was a barbarian of genius — never anything more. Civilized standards applied to him are unjust and futile. Barbarity was an element of his blood, and all his strenuous, Hfe-long aspirations for the nobler possessions of the mind never diminished his natural savagery. Therefore, his life is full of the strangest contrasts. With barbarian eagerness he appropriated everything that he encountered, good and evil alike, and surrendered himself, for the time being, to its sway with all his might. Certainly his dis- tinguishing characteristic is an indomitable energy; his life burned at a white heat. Peter's first chance to distinguish himself came in the Peter's first year 1695. The Emperor Leopold was at that time waging Azov"^^ ' 292 TJie Rise of Russia Peter's jour- ney of in- struction. Peter dis- bands the Streltsi and ( ganizes a standing army. war against the Turks, who were beginning to show the first symptoms of collapse. Seeing his opportunity, Peter resolved to make use of their embarrassment to acquire a southern outlet for Russia, and in 1696 conquered the Port of Azov, on the Black Sea. The future now opened more confidently to him, and before taking another step he determined to visit the west and study the wonders of its civihzation with his own eyes. Peter spent the year 1697-98 in travel through Germany, Holland, and England. The journey, undertaken with a large suite of fellow-students like himself, was meant purely as a voyage of instruction. Throughout its course Peter was indefatigable in his efforts to get at the bottom of things, at the methods of western government, at the sources of western wealth, at the systems of western trade and manufacture. "My part is to learn," is the motto encircling the seal which he had struck for this voyage. In Holland he hired himself out for a time as a common ship- carpenter, ships having been a passion with him from his boyhood. In addition he attended surgical lectures, visited paper-mills, flour-mills, printing-presses, in short was un- tiring in his efforts to assimilate not a part but the whole of western civilization. In England King William received him with especial cordiality and assisted him in every way in the prosecution of his studies. The rough Peter was the joke of the day among the courtiers and dandies, but honest folk were spurred to interest by this enthusiastic worker, who balked at no drudgery to fit himself for the task of up- lifting his backward people. The opportunity for putting the results of his trip to the test of practice came sooner than Peter expected. At Vienna he heard that the Streltsi had revolted. He set out post-haste for home, established order, and then took a fear- ful vengeance. Over a thousand of the luckless guards were A}id the Decline of Sweden 293 executed with terrible tortures. Rumor reports that Peter in his savage fury himself played the headsman. Sovereign and executioner — such accumulation of offices in one hand clearly exhibits the chasm that then yawned between Europe and Russia. But no one will deny that there was method in Peter's madness. The Streltsi, who were affiliated with the nobility, had been a constant centre of disaffection, and now was the time, as Peter clearly saw, to get rid of them. Such as were not executed were dismissed, and the troop was replaced by a regular army, organized on the European •pattern and dependent on the Czar. Peter's reforms now crowded thick and fast. Every bar- Peter's re- rier was levelled to facilitate the invasion of western influ- ences. He invited colonists, mechanics, and shipwrights to settle in Russia. He introduced western dress. He dis- couraged the wearing of beards, although they enjoyed the sanction of the Church, and, armed with a pair of scissors, occasionally with his own imperial hand practised the bar- ber's art upon his subjects. But by such measures he clashed with the most cherished superstitions of his people, and the clergy, the natural centre of conservatism, became increasingly suspicious of his policy. As their discontent was a danger to the throne and a hindrance to reforms, the Czar resolved to make them more dependent on himself. When the patriarch died in 1700, Peter committed his func- tions to a synod which he himself appointed and controlled, and thus the Czar became the head of the Church as he already was the head of the state. After his return from the west, Peter was more desirous The inevitable than ever of gaining a hold on the Baltic, Azov, on the Sweden. Black Sea, was worth little to him as long as the Turks held the Dardanelles. The west, it was clear, could be best gained by the northern route. But the enterprise was far from easy. The Baltic coast was largely held by Sweden, 294 The Rise of Russia Charles XII. and Sweden, the leading power of the north, was prepared to resist w^th energy any attempt to displace her. The rise of Sweden to the position of the leading Baltic power dates from the heroic time of Gustavnis Adolphus (1611-32). Gustavus extended his rule over the northern and eastern shores of the Baltic, and through his successful interference in the Thirty Years' War, his daughter Chris- tina, who succeeded him, acquired, as her share in the Ger- man boot}', western Pomerania and the land at the mouth of the Weser and the Elbe (Treaty of Westphalia, 1648). For a short time now Sweden took rank with the great powers of Europe. Unfortunately for her, her greatness was the result not of her wealth and civilization, but of her mihtan,^ prowess; and, as experience proves, a military greatness rests on precarious foundations. A weak, unmilitarj' ruler, or a militar}- adventurer who overstrains the bow, may un- dermine it. Generally speaking the successors of Gusta- vus were capable sovereigns, but they injured and antag- onized so many interests that it was only a question of time when their neighbors would combine against them. Den- mark to the west, Brandenburg-Prussia to the south, Poland and Russia to the east, had all paid for Sweden's great- ness with severe losses, and nursed a corresponding grudge against her. The long-awaited opportunity for revenge seemed at length to have arrived, when in the year 1697, Charles XII., a boy of fifteen, came to the throne. His youth and inexperience appeared to mark him as an easy \'ictim, and Denmark, Poland, and Russia formed a league against him to recover their lost territories (1700). The allies had, however, made their reckoning without the host. Charles XII. turned out, in spite of his youth, to be the most warlike member of a warlike race — a perfect fighting demon. But aside from his unflinching courage he lacked almost ever\' virtue of a ruler. Of a proud and ob- Sweden 1524 Acquisitions of Eric XlV.(1560-flS) Acmiisitioiis of GiL-iUuls Ailolplius- (I6U-32)aud Christina (16S2-54) Ac.iiii'iiious ofCharies X. (1654-60) 10' Lonsitu-te 15^ WtRDERAT I NOTE TO THE STtDENT: 1 ) Follow the expansion of Sweden from her independence (lo24). Erie XIV. acquired Esthonia (l.ilU). Gustavus Adolphus and his daughter Christina acquired Carelia. Ingermaulaud, Livonia. Western Poinerania. the bishoprics Bremen and Verden. Gotland (island) and Jemtland. Charles X. acquired the sonthem tip of the peninsula (IfiiSl. 2> Then trace the losses belonging to the time nf Charles XII. Tlie year of acquisition is given in bold type while the year of loss follows in brackets. The treaty of Xystad ^1721) makes Russia a Baltic power. East from i^*' Green^ch £5 And the Decline of Sweden 295 stinate nature he was never governed by a consideration of the welfare of his people, but always shaped his policy by his own romantic notions of honor. He was Don Quixote promoted to a throne, and though he could fight with ad- mirable fury against windmills, he could not govern and he could not build. In the year 1700 his full character was not yet revealed, and people stopped open-mouthed with wonder, as he went up in splendor, like a rocket, in the north. Before the coalition was ready to strike, young Charles His marvel- gathered his forces and fell upon the enemy. As the armies on^oo"*^*'^" of Denmark, Poland, and Russia were necessarily widely separated, he calculated that if he could meet them in turn, the likelihood of victory would be much increased. He laid his plans accordingly. In the spring of 1700 he suddenly crossed the straits from Sweden and besieged Copenhagen. The king of Denmark, unprepared for so bold a step, had to give way and sign with Charles the Peace of Tra- vendal (August, 1700), in which he promised to remain neutral during the remainder of the war. The ink of his signature was hardly Ary before Charles was off again like a flash. This time he sailed to the Gulf of Finland, where Peter with 5o,ocx> men was besieging Narva. Charles at the head of only 8,000, advanced straightway to the attack, and his well-disciplined Swedes soon swept the confused masses of the ill-trained Russians off the field. On Peter's falling back into the interior, Charles was free to turn upon his last and most hated enemy, August the Strong, king of Poland, and before another year passed August, too, had been defeated. Thus far the war had been managed admirably. Charles He spoils all might have made his conditions and gone home. But pas- policy. ° '^ sionately obstinate, he was set on humiliating August, whom he regarded as the instigator of the alliance, and whom he determined to drive out of Poland altogether. The at- 296 The Rise of Russia Charles and August. Progress of Peter on the Baltic. tempt necessitated getting Poland into his hands, and proved so difficult that it led to the undoing of his first successes and, finally, to the ruin of his life. Poland was at this time in a condition hardly better than anarchy. The nobles had all the power and were sovereign on their own lands. The only remaining witnesses of a previous unity were a Diet, which never transacted any business, and an elected king, who was allowed no power and had nothing to do. In the year 1697 the Poles had even elected to the kingship a foreigner, August the Strong, elector of Saxony. Now when in the year 1701 King August was defeated by Charles, the majority of the Poles were glad rather than sorry, for August had engaged in the war with- out the consent of the Diet; but when Charles began making conquests in Poland, and insisted on forcing a monarch of his own choosing on the Poles, a national party naturally gathered around August, who, although a foreigner, was nevertheless the rightful king. For many years following the brilliant campaign of 1700 Charles hunted August over the marshy and wooded plains of the Slav kingdom, but though always victorious, he could never quite succeed in utterly crushing his enemy. Even the capture of Warsaw and the elevation of his dependent, Stanislaus Lesczinski, to the Polish throne, did not change the situation. Finally, in 1706, Charles desperately plunged after August into Saxony, and forced him formally to abdi- cate the Polish crown. , The vindictiveness of her sovereign was destined to cost Sweden dear. While Charles was squandering his strength upon a foolish enterprise, his neighbor, Peter, was making excellent use of his time. The lesson of Narva had not been lost upon him. He built up a disciplined army and gradu- ally occupied a considerable part of the Baltic coast. To show his confidence in the future, he founded in 1703, on And the Decline of Swedeii 297 the banks of the Neva, a new capital and named it St. Pe- tersburg. Only in 1707, when he had wrung his peace from August, did the king of Sweden undertake to put a check on these Russian aggressions. To let Peter feel the whole weight of his sword, he marched against Moscow, but long before he reached that distant capital his ranks were thinned by the rigors of the Russian winter and decimated by disease. When Peter came up with Charles at Pultava (1709), the The verdict of Swedes fought with their accustomed bravery, but their sufferings had worn them out. And now Narva was avenged. The Swedish army was literally destroyed, and Charles, accompanied by a few hundred horsemen, barely succeeded in making his escape to Turkey. The verdict of Pultava was destined to be final. Sweden stepped down from her proud position, and a new power, Russia, henceforth ruled in the north. As for Charles, the Sultan received the famous warrior Charles in Turkcv hospitably and offered him Bender for a residence. There Charles remained five years — long enough to make Bender the name of one of the maddest chapters of his adventurous career. He immediately set his chief aim upon dragging Turkey into a war with Peter, but not till 17 11 did the Sultan yield to the importunate pleader. A lucky campaign was about to deliver Peter into Charles's hands, when the Grand Vizier, who led the Turkish forces, accepted a bribe, and opening a lane let Peter's forces slip out of the trap into which they had blindly plunged. His unfortunate ex- perience merely cost Peter Azov on the Black Sea. The disappointed Charles raved like a madman on seeing his foe escape, and when the Sultan, tired of the impertinence of the eternal meddler, requested him a little later to leave his territory, Charles obstinately refused to budge. It took a regular siege to bring him to understand that his entertain- ment in Turkey was over, and even then he fought like a 298 The Rise of Russia Sweden sur- renders much of her Baltic territory. Peter and the Russian op- position. maniac upon the roof of his burning house until he fell senseless amid the debris. At length, after an absence of five years, he turned his face homeward (17 14). Charles returned too late to stem the ebb of Swedish power, for the surrounding states had taken advantage of the king's long absence to help themselves to whatever territories they coveted. He met his foes with his accustomed valor, but his country was exhausted and his people alienated. In 17 18, during his siege of Frederikshald in Norway, he was shot while riding out to reconnoitre the position of the enemy. His sister, Ulrica Eleanor, who succeeded him, was compelled by the aristocratic party to agree to a serious limitation of the royal prerogative. Then the tired Swedes hastened to sign a peace with their enemies. The German states of Hanover and Prussia acquired payments out of the Swedish provinces in Germany, Hanover getting Bremen and Verden, Prussia part of Pomerania; August the Strong was recognized as king of Poland; but Peter, who had contributed most to the defeat of Charles, got, too, by the Treaty of Nystadt (17 21), the lion's share of the booty. He had handed over to him Carelia, Ingria, Esthonia, and Livonia — in fact, all the Swedish possessions of the eastern Baltic except Finland. Peter was now nearing the end of his reign. His rule had brought Russia a new splendor, but he was not spared pain and chagrin. For one thing his efforts in behalf of Russian civilization were resisted by the Russians themselves, and a secret party of hide-bound conservatives looked fervently forward to the time of the accession of Peter's son and heir, Alexis. Alexis, for his part, shunned no trouble to exhibit his sympathy with the cause of reaction. With a heavy heart Peter had to face the possibility of a successor who would undo his cherished life-work. For years he took pains to win Alexis over to his views, but when his efforts And the Decline of Szveden 299 proved without avail, he resolved, for the sake of the state, to deprive his son of the crown. The resolution we may praise, the method was terrible. It exhibited once more all of Peter's latent savagery. The Czarowitz died under the knout (17 18), and the accounts which have come down to us make it probable that Peter had more than a passive share in his torture and execution. When Peter died (1725), it seemed for a time as if Russia Catherine II. would return to her former Asiatic condition. The govern- ment fell into the hands of a succession of dissolute, in- competent Czarinas, who let their favorites plunder the treasury and made Russia a byword in Europe, until the accession in 1762 of Catherine II. Catherine, by birth a petty princess of Germany, came to Russia as the wife of the heir-apparent, Peter. She was not only intelligent and energetic, but also wholly unscrupulous, and shortly after Peter, who was crotchety and half insane, had ascended the throne (1762), she led a revolution against him, in the course of which he was dethroned and murdered. Although she thus acquired the supreme power by means of a crime, once in possession of it she wielded it with consummate skill. Being of western birth, she naturally favored western civiliza- tion. Peter the Great himself had not been more anxious to give Russia a European varnish. More important still, she took up Peter's idea of expansion toward the west. Since the overthrow of Sweden, the chief resistance to the Catherine advance of Russia toward the Black and Baltic Seas had tentionon centred in Poland and Turkey. Their geographical po- ij.^^"^^;'"'^ sition made them Russia's rivals and enemies, and Cath- erine saw her life-work in their abasement or subjection. Before she died she had succeeded in destroying Poland and in bringing Turkey to her feet. The paralysis of Poland had been brought home to everv' ^^^Pi^^^f^"^^ °^ observer in Europe, when Charles XII. of Sweden succeeded of Poland. 300 The Rise of Russia in holding the country for a number of years with a mere handful of troops (1702-07). The weakness of the state was due to the selfish nobles and the miserable government which they had imposed on the country. To realize its ludicrous unfitness, one need only recall the famous pro- vision called liberutn veto, which conferred on every member of the Diet the right to forbid by his single veto the adop- tion of a legislative measure. By libcrum veto one man could absolutely stop the machinery of government. Under these circumstances Poland was agitated by local quarrels in which ambitious neighbors presently took a hand. As it is a universal law that the weak are preyed upon by the strong, Poland has herself to thank in the first place for the ruin that overtook her in the eighteenth century. But that fact, of course, does not exempt from guilt the powers that threw themselves upon her like beasts of prey and rent her asunder. The three neighbors of Poland; Russia, Austria, and Prussia, had long held her in their power before they re- solved to put an end to her existence by means of a partition. After extended negotiations the measure was finally arranged in the year 1772. The partition of that year — called the First Partition — did not destroy Poland; it simply peeled off slices for the lucky highwaymen. The land beyond the Dwina went to Russia, Galicia to Austria, and the province of West Prussia to Prussia. But partition once admitted in principle, the march of events could not be stopped, and a few years later the fate of Poland was sealed by a Second and a Third Partition (1793 and 1795). Poland ceased to exist as a state when her last army, gallantly led by Kos- ciusko, went down before the Russians, but as a people she exists to this day, and fervidly nurses in her heart the hope of resurrection. The movement The signal success achieved by Catherine in Poland ex- toward Con- .... ,n- • irr.i stantinople. Cited her to mcreased efforts agamst the 1 urks. In two And the Decline of Sweden 301 wars (first war, 1768-74; second w-ar, 1787-92) she suc- ceeded in utterly defeating the great Mohammedan power, and in extending her territory along the Black Sea to the Dniester. It was a solid acquisition, but it did not satisfy the ambitious Czarina. She dreamed of getting Constanti- nople and left that dream as a heritage to her successors, who have cherished it in their hearts and have striven per- sistently since her death to set up their standards on the Bosporus. Catherine left Russia at her death (1796) the greatest Peter and power of the north, perhaps even of Europe. Her life, founders of like that of Peter, is stained w-ith gross immorality, but Russian great- these two have the honor of having lifted Russia almost without aid, and often in spite of herself, to her present eminent position. CHAPTER XIV THE RISE OF PRUSSIA References: Wakeman, Ascendancy of France, pp. 172- 83, 289-96, 308-10; Hassall, Balance of Power, Chap- ters VI., VII., VIII., IX., XI. (pp. 298-320); Longman, Frederick the Great; Henderson, History of Germany, Vol. II., Chapters I.-V.; Tuttle, History of Prussia (first volume uncritical; last three volumes, dealing with Frederick the Great, very creditable); Carlyle, Fred- erick the Great (a monumental work, very partial to its hero); Bright, Maria Theresa; Bright, Joseph II. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Chapter XXXII., Sections 4-8; Wilhelmine, Margravine of Baireuth, Memoirs (this princess, sister of Frederick the Great, is a most entertaining gossip). Early history of the mark of Brandenburg. The modern kingdom of Prussia has developed from very inconsiderable beginnings which take us back many hundred years. Its cradle is the so-called mark or march of Brandenburg, founded in the tenth century, in those remote feudal times when Germany was practically confined be- tween the Rhine and the Elbe, and was constantly threatened on its eastern border by the incursions of the Slavs. The mark was intended to be a military outpost against these people, who, besides being of a different race, filled the lately Christianized Germans with added horror because they were still heathen. The margrave, as the head of the mark was called, was soon not content to stand upon the defen- sive, but carried the war into the territory of the enemy, crowded back the Slavs foot by foot, and took possession 302 The Rise of Prussia 303 of their lands as far as the Oder. The mark thus came to embrace a considerable territory, lying for the most part between the Elbe on the west and the Oder on the east, and its ruler, the margrave, waxed so great that in the four- teenth century he was recognized as one of the leading princes of Germany, receiving the title of elector. Mean- while, the first race of margraves, to whom Brandenburg owed its extension, died out, rival claimants appeared, and for some time such confusion reigned that the mark threat- ened to relapse into barbarism. Out of this anarchy it was saved by the fortunate accession of the House of Hohen- zollern, which has guided the destiny of Brandenburg to this day. The HohenzoUerns proved themselves in general a family Origin of the of strong common-sense and steady endurance, with the Hoherizollem. result that they have raised themselves from rung to rung of the ladder of dignities, until in our day the head of the House has become German emperor. Before the year 141 5, when Frederick of Hohenzollern was put in possession of the mark of Brandenburg by Emperor Sigismund, the family had not filled a large role in history. It originated in the south of Germany, not far from the borders of Switz- erland, and gradually acquired considerable possessions around Nuremberg, but its real history begins only with its transfer to the north. Frederick took up his task in Brandenburg with energy The early and intelligence, secured his borders, overawed his knights, margrTves^"^" and established peace upon the highways. When he died in 1440 the mark lay quietly in the hollow of his hand. One hundred years later Joachim II., the contemporary of Luther, ranged himself on the side of the Reformation without, how- ever, arriving at anything like such a role in the religious history of the period as his neighbor, the elector of Saxony. It was, in fact, not until the seventeenth century that the 304 The Rise of Prussia Two impor- tant acquisi- tions. History of Prussia. East Prussia and West Prussia. margrave of Brandenburg began to outstrip all the other princes of the Empire, for under the Elector John Sigis- mund (1608-19) the family fell heir to two lucky legacies, which secured for it considerable territories in the extreme east and in the extreme west of Germany. In 1609, by the death of the last duke of Cleves and Juliers, John Sigis- mund acquired some lands on the lower Rhine, and in 16 18 he succeeded to the duchy of Prussia on the Baltic. What is meant by Prussia, and exactly what land was it that the margrave of Brandenburg acquired under that name in 1618? To answer this question we are obliged to pause for a moment and look backward. The name Prussia was ap- plied in the Middle Ages to the land which lay along the east- ern shore of the Baltic, and was the home of a heathen and Slav tribe called Prussians. In the thirteenth century the Teutonic Knights, one of those military orders which abounded in the age of chivalry, undertook to serve the cause of Christ by conquering the land and converting the inhabitants to Christianity. The enterprise was successful. Either the Prussians accepted the cross or were butchered and replaced by German colonists; and the Grand Master of the Knights, as their chief was called, became a great potentate and ruled over a large territory. But his glory did not last long. The land of the order bordered upon Poland, frequent wars took place with that great kingdom, and at last the Knights were defeated and had to accept an igno- minious peace (Treaty of Thorn, 1466). The king of Poland divided their territory into two parts, East Prussia and West Prussia; while keeping West Prussia absolutely for himself, he gave back East Prussia to the Knights as a fief of the Polish crown. Thus W'est Prussia disappeared for the pres- ent in the kingdom of Poland, but East Prussia continued to have a separate and interesting history. In the sixteenth century, at the time of Luther, the Grand Master Albert, a The Rise of Prussia 305 scion of the House of Hohenzollern, became a Protestant, broke up the order, and converted East Prussia into a duchy with himself as hereditary duke. His family continued to rule till 1618, when it became extinct, and the duchy fell, as we have seen, to the HohenzoUerns of Brandenburg. It was an important acquisition, but it came to the margrave on the old terms; that is, he held it as a fief of the Polish crown. It was at this time that the Thirty Years' War broke out Mean role of in Germany. The combined Hohenzollern possessions in durkig^he""^^ Cleves along the lower Rhine, in Brandenburg, and in East X^""*^ Years' Prussia, should have made the elector of that period, George William (1619-40), an important factor in the struggle; but as he was an exception to the Hohenzollern rule, and had neither honor, courage, nor intelligence, he vacillated be- • tween Protestants and Catholics, and lived to see his lands invaded, harried, and ruined by both. It was left to his son, Frederick William (1640-88), known as the Great Elector, to redeem his country and carry the name of Brandenburg for the first time into European politics. When Frederick William succeeded to the throne (1640), Frederick the Thirty Years' War had reduced his lands to the last de- Great Elector. gree of misery. He straightway adopted a vigorous policy, expelled all foreign soldiery from his states, and in general displayed such energy that, when the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was signed, he received a number of valuable addi- tions of territory — namely, the four secularized bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, Camin, and Magdeburg, and the eastern half of Pomerania on the Baltic. Brandenburg had a valid claim to all of Pomerania, but the claim could not be realized, as a great power, Sweden, took the western and better half for herself. Frederick William found himself on his accession at the Absolute head of three separate groups of territories, Brandenburg ''"^'^''^'sn y- 3o6 The Rise of Prussia at the centre, with Cleves and Prussia to the west and east. Each of these territories constituted a distinct state with its own Diet, which not only voted but also collected the taxes; in other words, each province was ruled by the elector in strict cooperation with a representative body. Living in an age of absolutism, Frederick William soon resolved to make himself master, undermined and practically dissolved the Diets, and put himself in complete control of the revenues of his territories. Then he proceeded to form an army en- tirely dependent on himself, raised it by tireless efforts to 25,000 men, and became before his death a respected fac- tor in the councils of Europe. Absolutism and the standing army are his chief contributions to the organization of the state. Civilizing But the Great Elector was no common tyrant who broke Great Elector, down Opposition to his will in order to dispose at pleasure of the resources of his subjects. He considered himself the father of his country, called to reign in order to advance it along all lines of human endeavor. He encouraged indus- try and agriculture, built roads and canals to facilitate com- merce, drained marshes, and called colonists from near and far in order to bring again under the plough the lands which the Thirty Years' War had turned into a wilderness. His most notable achievement in this respect is associated with the name of the Huguenots. When, by reason of Louis XIV. 's folly and bigotry, the Edict of Nantes was revoked (1685) and the Huguenots began to seek homes elsewhere, the Great Elector sent them a pressing invitation to come to him. Some twenty thousand joyfully responded, and were settled mainly around Berlin. With characteristic industry they turned the sand wastes around the north- ern capital into kitchen gardens, and by their intelligence communicated a powerful mental stimulus to all northern Germany. The Rise of Prussia 307 With increased resources and an efficient army at his dis- His hostility to posal, Frederick WiUiam was not Hkely to let any opportunity sHp to increase his territory. As matters stood after the Peace of Westphalia, his chief rival was Sweden, ensconced in western Pomerania, only a few hours' march from Berlin. This alone would have sufficed to make Sweden an object of hatred and suspicion, even if there had not been the ad- ditional reason that Frederick William considered western Pomerania to be by right his own. Luckily for him Sweden had other enemies, more formidable than himself — Denmark, Russia, Poland, in fact the whole ring of the Baltic powers. The paramount position which Sweden had won was dis- tasteful to them and they were ever ready to seize any op- portunity for lowering her pride. In 1655 war broke out be- tween Sweden and Poland, during which Frederick William, whose territories lay between the hostile states, was alternate- ly coaxed and bullied by both. But he steered his course between the combatants with such unscrupulous dexterity that he came out of the war with profit and prestige, having forced the king of Poland to surrender the suzerainty of East Prussia. Henceforth the elector held that territory in full sovereignty. A few years later he introduced his new army to the War with world and scored an astonishing triumph. The occasion ^^ ^"' ^ ^^ was furnished by Louis XIV., who in 1672 fell upon Hol- land, resolved to crush that stout little republic. Frederick William together with the emperor rose in its defence, an interference that so enraged Louis that he persuaded the Swedes, who were bound to him by treaty, to invade Branden- burg. This unexpected move obliged the elector, who was operating on the Rhine, to hurry home. Approaching by forced marches and with great stealth, he fell in June, 1675, upon the enemy at Fehrbellin and beat him signally. Fehrbellm brilliantly opens the military annals of Branden- 3o8 TJic Rise of Prussia burg, and what followed showed that the victory was not merely a lucky stroke, for the elector pursued the Swedes into Pomerania and conquered the province. But to his deep chagrin he got no good from his victory, for when Louis XIV. closed by the Treaty of Nimwegen (1678) the Dutch war, he stood faithfully by his ally, Sweden, and compelled the Great Elector to disgorge his Swedish con- quests. After this disappointment he tried to advance his interests in the province of Silesia, where the House of HohenzoUern had ancient claims to certain districts, to wit, to the four duchies of Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau, and Jagerndorf. The province of Silesia belonged to the House of Hapsburg, and the emperor, who was the head of this House, refused to admit the validity of the HohenzoUern claims. As Hapsburg was more than HohenzoUern, and the emperor counted for more than the elector, the claimant got no satisfaction until the time came when the emperor, weary of the unfruitful dis- pute, declared his willingness to compromise. In 1686 he induced Frederick William to surrender, in return for the district of Schwiebus in Silesia, all his presumptive rights in that province. But the emperor, who was Leopold I., played a double game. While he was openly negotiating this arrangement with the elector, he was secretly persuading the elector's son, who was not on good terms with his father, to promise to give back Schwiebus on his accession. Two years later Frederick William died (1688), and his son Frederick, who succeeded him, had to live up to the bargain, but could and did maintain with much show of reason that the return of the purchase money revived his unsettled claims. This Silesian incident is of importance because it turned up again some fifty years later, when the punishment for the trickery of the Emjjeror Leopold was visited a hundred- fold u|)on an innocent successor. The Rise of Prussia 309 The Elector Frederick (1688-1 7 13) was a very different The elector of man from his solid, practical father. Weak and deformed becomes king from birth and incapable of mental application, he showed ^" Prussia. throughout his life that he cared much more for the pleas- ures of the court than for the duties of his office. Never- theless, his reign is made memorable by the fact that he won for the elector of Brandenburg the new title of king in Prussia. As Frederick was a vassal of the Empire, the title could be assumed only with the consent of the emperor, who granted it after long delay and with much reluctance, as payment for a loan of troops in the impending War of the Spanish Succession. On January 18, 1701, the cere- mony of coronation took place at Konigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, and henceforth the Elector Frederick III. of Brandenburg was known by his higher title of King Fred- erick I. in Prussia.^ The title king in Prussia was adopted in preference to that of king of Brandenburg, because as king of Brandenburg he would still be a vassal, whereas drawing his royal title from Prussia, which was not part of the Em- pire and was subject to no one, his crown would have an added lustre. The name Prussia was henceforth used as a common designation for all the Hohenzollern states, and gradually drove from common usage the older designa- tion, Brandenburg. Frederick's successor. King Frederick William I. (17 13- King Frederick 40), is a curious reversion to an older type. He was the ^^^^'^^^Jy ^^_ Great Elector over again, with all his practical good sense ganizerandad- ° ' ^ , . . ^ ministrator. and love of administrative detail, but without his genius for diplomatic business or his political ambition. He gave his life to the organization of the state along the lines laid down * The first form of the title was as here, king in Prussia, in order to fore- stall any criticism from Poland, which, having incorporated West Prussia, might have protested against the title king 0/ Prussia, as implying the sov- ereignty over all Prussia. Nevertheless, the simpler form, king of Prus- sia, came before long into general use. 3101 The Rise of Prussia by his famous ancestor, carrying to an efficiency unrivalled in his day the army and the administration. By close thrift he managed to raise his standing army to some 80,000 men, which put little Prussia in military matters in a class with the great states of Europe. And what troops they were! An iron discipline moulded them into the most precise military engine then to be found in Europe, and a corps of officers which did not buy its commissions, as everywhere else at that time, but was appointed strictly on merit, applied to it a trained and devoted service. In his civil administration also he built upon the foundation of the Great Elector. The grandfather had established the unity of the state by break- ing down the local authorities, but it was left to the grand- son to create a body of professional civil servants who ad- ministered the state directly under the king. The highly centralized administration of the Prussia of to-day, which with all its obvious defects, such as excessive "red tape," is still a model in its way, may be set down to the credit of King Frederick William I. For these two creations of an army and a civil service Frederick William holds a high place as a domestic king. In foreign affairs he did not do so well, being unsuited for the delicate transactions of diplomacy by his rough, blus- tering temper. However, the good fortune which had en- abled almost every one of his ancestors to accumulate some new territory, continued to attend him, since he added a part of Swedish Pomerania to the Prussian crown. The oppor- tunity was furnished by the downfall of Charles XII. at Pultava (1709). While he was stubbornly and stupidly Hn- gering in Turkey, his Baltic neighbors appropriated his ter- ritories, and Frederick William, in order not to be left out in the cold, sent an army of occupation into Pomerania. Of course on his return the Swedish lion stood at bay against his aggressors; but when he died in 17 18 the government The Rise of Prussia 3 1 1 hastened to come to terms with the victors and ceded to Prussia the mouth of the Oder with the port of Stettin. The new territory was small, but its position made it inval- uable to the commercial development of the Prussian state. This sturdy king, who has left such solid memorials Hiseccen- tricitics behind him, made himself, through some of the strangest eccentricities which have ever characterized a human being, the laughing-stock of Europe. His conception of his office was a curious compound of Biblical patriarch and modern drill-sergeant. He had his eye upon everybody and every- thing. If he suspected a man of being wealthy, he would compel him to build a fine residence to improve the looks of the capital. He had a particular abhorrence of idleness; the very apple-women, while waiting in their booths for cus- tomers, were ordered to do some useful knitting, and the police were empowered to pick up any random lounger they found and put him to social service in the army. But per- haps his wildest eccentricity was his craze for tall soldiers. At Potsdam, his residence some miles from Berlin, he estab- lished a giant guard, for which he gathered recruits from all parts of the world. He petted and coddled his giants like a sentimental father, and was so completely carried away by his hobby that he, who was thrifty to the point of avarice, of- fered enormous prices in all markets for tall men, and did not scruple to capture them by force when they refused to enlist. This unpolished northern bear naturally kept his elegant His conflict neighbors in convulsions of laughter by his performances, pnnce. On one occasion, however, his eccentricity threatened to end not in laughter but in tears. The king's son and heir, Frederick, known afterward as the Great, was a self-willed, careless fellow, who was drawn much more to books and music than to soldiering, and grew up in all respects the very opposite of his bluff, practical father. Parent and son 312 The Rise of Prussia conceived a strong antipathy for each other; and when the father attempted by corporal punishment to coerce his son, the proud prince resolved to run away. In the year 1730 he tried, with the aid of some friends, to carry out his de- sign, but was caught in the act. Frederick William almost lost his mind from rage. He threw his son into prison, and spoke wildly for a time of executing him as a common de- serter from the army. When the prince was at last released he was put through such a training in the civil and military administrations, from the lowest grades upward, as perhaps no other royal personage has ever received. The stern dis- cipline was felt as a heavy burden by Frederick, prince and dilettante; but Frederick, the responsible king, was enabled thereby to know every branch of his vast administration like a thumbed book. In the year 1740 Frederick II., who had now reached the age of twenty-eight, succeeded to the throne. As he had spent the last years of his father's life in rural retirement, gathering about himself a circle of intimates with whom he devoted his leisure to the pursuit of art and literature, every- thing else was expected of him rather than military designs and political ambition. But an unexpected opportunity carried him straight into the ranks of the leaders. A few months after Frederick's accession, in October, 1740, the Emperor Charles VI., the last male of the line of Hapsburg, died. Long before his death he had sought to forestall all trouble by regulating the succession in an ordi- nance, called the Pragmatic Sanction, in which he named his oldest daughter, Maria Theresa, the sole heir of his un- divided dominions; and during his last years he knocked at the doors of all the European cabinets to get them to in- dorse and guarantee his act. Such guarantees having been received from all the leading states, sometimes at a great sacrifice, he died with composed conscience, and the Arch- ^TtW- The Rise of Prussia 313 duchess Maria Theresa prepared immediately to assume the rule of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and the other Haps- burg lands. It was at this point that P>ederick stepped in. He was young, ambitious, capable, with a full treasury and a fine army, and before him in the momentary confusion at Vienna lay an unexampled opportunity to settle the old con- flict over the Silesian lands. Having reflected upon the sit- uation for some days, he took the bull by the horns and in December, 1740, marched his army into the disputed prov- ince. His act was the signal for a general rising. The German states, Bavaria and Saxony, and the great foreign powers, France and Spain, followed his example and on some trumped-up claim to the heritage of Charles \T. pre- pared to invade the' Austrian dominions. To poor Maria Theresa's indignant remonstrances they turned a deaf ear. Thus hardly was the last male Hapsburg cold in his grave, when it was apparent that the Pragmatic Sanction was not worth the paper it was written on. It might have gone hard with Maria Theresa if she had The War of not found splendid resources of heart and mind in herself, Succession and if she had not gained the undivided support of the many ^g'"s- nationalities under her sway. Her enemies were descend- ing upon her in two main directions, the French and their German allies from the west, by way of the Danube, and Frederick of Prussia from the north. Unprepared as she was, her raw levies gave way, at first, at every point. On April 10, 1 741, at Mollwitz, Frederick won a great victory over the Austrians, clinching by means of it his hold upon Silesia. In the same year the French, Saxons, and Bava- rians invaded Bohemia. So complete, for the time being, was the dominion of the anti-Austrian alliance that when in January, 1742, the imperial election took place, the com- bined enemies of Austria were able to raise their candidate, the Elector Charles of Bavaria, to the imperial throne. The 314 The Rise of Prussia Maria Theresa makes over Silesia to Frederick, 1742. Maria Theresa's success and Frederick's second attack upon her. elector assumed his new dignity with the title of Emperor Charles VII. (1742-45), and for the first time in three hun- dred years the crown of the Empire rested upon another than a Hapsburg head. But at this point Maria Theresa's fortunes rose again. Her own magnetic enthusiasm did wonders in restoring and organizing her scattered forces. Not only was the army of the coalition driven out of Bohemia, but Bavaria, the land of the enemy, was invaded and occupied. The Prussians, who had likewise entered Bohemia in order to help their allies, were hard pressed, but saved themselves by a victory at Czaslau (May, 1742). Thereupon Maria Theresa, who saw that she could not meet so many enemies at one and the same time, declared her willingness to come to terms with her most formidable foe. In 1742 she signed with Frederick the Peace of Breslau, by which she gave up practically the whole province of Silesia. What is known in Prussia as the First Silesian War had come to an end. Maria Theresa now prosecuted the war against her other enemies with increased vigor. England and Holland, old friends of Austria, joined her, and with each new campaign the scales inclined more visibly in her favor. When the pup- pet emperor, Charles VII., had lost every foot of land he owned, and the Austrian armies stood triumphantly upon the Rhine, Maria Theresa could feel with elation that she was rapidly becoming the mistress of Germany, Aware that in that case he could not hold his new conquest a year, Frederick was moved to strike a second blow. In 1744 he began the Second Silesian War, in which his calculations were completely successful. He first relieved the French and the Bavarians by drawing the Austrians upon himself, and then he defeated the enemy signally at the battle of Hohenfriedberg (1745). On Christmas day, 1745, Maria THE PARTITION f//?' OF POLAND ^ 1''2 179:1 lias ' 1 H u7n GARY if /V ^m W^ To Austria NOTE TO THE STUDENT: Russia ami Prussia shared in all three partitions; Austria in two. After many changes in the era of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna (1815) adopted a rearrangement which has lasted until our time. By its terms Austria and Prussia kept little more than their acquisitions of 1772, giving up the rest to Russia. Thus Russia is by far the leading beneficiary from the overthrow of Poland. ft The Rise of Prussia 3 1 5 Theresa bought her second peace of Frederick by a renewed cession of Silesia (Peace of Dresden). \ For a few more years the general war continued. After Close of the Frederick's retirement it was waged to some extent in Italy, Austrian Sue- but chiefly in the Austrian Netherlands, where Maurice de <^^ssion. Saxe, a German prince in the employ of Louis XV., saved the military reputation of France by winning a number of brilliant victories over Maria Theresa and her English and Dutch allies. Finally, in 1748, everybody being tired of fighting, the contestants signed the Peace of Aix-la-Cha- pelle (Aachen), by which Maria Theresa was universally recognized as the sovereign of the Hapsburg dominions. Already, as early as 1745, her husband, Francis of Lorraine, had been elected emperor in place of Charles VII., who had just died in a misery deservedly visited upon him by his de- sire to play a role beyond his powers. Thus the affairs of Germany were gradually brought back into the accustomed rut. The War of the Austrian Succession had come to an end, and against everybody's prediction the empress's splendid qualities had maintained her dominions intact, with the ex- ception of certain slight cessions in Italy and the one sub- stantial sacrifice of Silesia. When Frederick retired from the Second Silesian War, Prussia a the position of Prussia had been revolutionized. The king ^^^ power, had received from his father a promising state, but it was of no great size and it enjoyed no authority in Europe. Fred- erick, by adding Silesia to it, gave it for the first time a suf- ficient extent and population to enforce a certain respect; but that acquisition alone would not have raised Prussia to the level of Austria, France, England, or Russia. It was the genius displayed by the young king at the head of Prus- sia which fell so heavily into the balance that Prussia was henceforth counted among the great powers of Europe. Frederick, having thus won his military laurels, settled 3i6 TJie Rise of Prussia Frederick's internal labors. The personal- ity of Fred- erick. down to the much harder work of governing his country with wisdom by increasing its resources and by raising its standards of civilization. The ten years of peace which fol- lowed the Second Silesian War are crowded with vigorous domestic labors. He continued the thrifty policy of his an- cestors of reclaiming waste lands and settling homeseekers upon them, his greatest achievement of this kind being the drainage of the swamps along the Oder, where he was ena- bled to found several villages with a total of twelve hundred families. He promoted the internal traffic by new canals, and fostered home industries, especially the manufacture of woollen and linen goods. Finally, he carried through a re- form of the procedure of the courts by which everybody from high to low was assured a swift and impartial justice. All of Frederick's heavy political duties never destroyed in him the artistic instinct, which had come to him as a gift of nature. He engaged in literature with as much fervor as if it were his life-work, and took constant delight in composing music and in playing the flute. What pleased him most, however, was a circle of congenial friends. He was especially well inclined to Frenchmen, because that na- tion represented, to his mind, the highest culture of the Eu- rope of his day. A larger or smaller circle of polished neigh- bors from beyond the Rhine was about him all his life to philosophize, to comment, and to laugh, and for a number of years (1750-53) he even entertained at his court the leader of contemporary thought and the quintessence of Gallic wit, Voltaire. But after a period of sentimental attachment the king and the philosopher quarrelled, and Voltaire vanished from Berlin in a cloud of scandal. In any case, the momen- tary conjunction of the two most characteristic figures of the eighteenth century — the one its greatest master in the field of action, the other the herald of a renovated Europe — has an historical interest. The Rise of Prussia 317 All this while Frederick was aware that Maria Theresa Maria Theresa was not his friend. A high-spirited woman like the em- backfsuSa. press was not likely to forget the violence of which she had been the victim. She hoped to get back Silesia, and for years carefully laid her plans. As early as 1746 she en- tered upon a close alliance with Russia, which the two con- tracting parties understood to be aimed at Frederick. Next, her minister Kaunitz, a most skilful player of the diplomatic game, planned the bold step of an alliance with France. In the eighteenth century an alliance between Hapsburg and Bourbon, the century-old enemies, was generally held to be out of the question. The rule in Austria had been to meet the aggression of France by an alliance with England, and any other arrangement seemed to be contrary to the law of nature itself. But since the Silesian wars Austria had come to regard not France but Prussia as her leading enemy, and Maria Theresa and Kaunitz were very anxious to have France understand that thenceforth they had no further quarrel with her. Their plans were greatly aided by the following circum- stance: England and France were making ready, about the middle of the century, to contest the empire of the sea.^ Both were looking for continental aUies; and as Prussia, after hold- ing back a long time, was induced at last to sign a convention with England, France, in order not to be isolated, accepted the proffered hand of Prussia's rival, Austria. In the spring The diplomatic of 1756 this diplomatic revolution was an accomplished fact. j^^^. The two great political questions of the day, the rivalry be- tween England and France, involving the supremacy of the seas, and between Prussia and Austria, touching the control of Germany, were about to be fought out in the great Seven Years' War (1756-63), and the two northern and Protestant powers, England and Prussia, were to consolidate their claims and interests against the claims and interests of the ' For France and England see the next chapter (Chapter XV.). 318 The Rise of Prussia War between England and France. Position of Prussia. The marvel- lous campaign of 1757- Catholic powers, France and Austria. Ttxe remaining great power of Europe, Russia, instead of reinaining neutral in a dispute which did not concern her, sided with the cabinets of Versailles and Vienna. The war between France and England was formally de- clared in May, 1756, and the struggle between these two powers immediately began in America, India, and on all the seas. For a moment the hope was entertained of keeping the conflict out of the Continent of Europe, but only for a moment. Then the long-threatening storm burst; and as England, for the present at least, was engaged with all her forces elsewhere, the concentrated fury of the tempest de- scended upon her ally, Prussia. Coolly reviewing the situa- tion of 1756, one may fairly say that the Austrian diplo- macy was justified in the belief that the hated rival of Austria was as good as annihilated. The union with France and Russia was the basis of the confidence of Maria The- resa, but there were also negotiated, or about to be nego- tiated, a series of treaties with such secondary powers as Saxony, Sweden, and the Empire. The plan of the Austrian cabinet was that the Austrians should march upon Frederick from the south, the French from the west, the Russians from the east, the Swedes from the north, and so shut in and choke to death the new power of which they were all jealous. Frederick's one chance in this tremendous crisis was to move quickly. Before the allies had perfected their plans against him, he therefore, by a lightning stroke, occupied Saxony, and invaded Bohemia (autumn, 1756). The next year his enemies marched upon him from all points of the compass. Again he planned to meet them separately before they had united. He hurried into Bohemia, and was on the point of taking the capital, Prague, when the defeat of a part of his army at Kolin (June i8th) forced him to retreat The Rise of Prussia 319 to Saxony. Slowly the Austrians followed and poured into the coveted Sdesia. The Russians had already arrived in East Prussia , the Swedes were in Pomerania, and the French, together with the German troops furnished by the many small states of the Empire, were marching upon Berlin. Even the friends and family of Frederick were ready to de- clare that all was lost, while his enemies exulted openly. He alone kept up heart, and by his courage, swiftness, and intelligence freed himself from all immediate danger by a succession of surprising victories. At Rossbach, in Thu- ringia, he fell (November 5, 1757), with 22,000 men, upon the combined French and Germans of twice that number, and scattered them to the winds. Then he turned like a flash from the west to the east. During his absence in Thuringia the Austrians had completed the conquest of Silesia, and were already proclaiming to the world that they had come again into their own. Just a month after Rossbach, at Leuthen, near Breslau, he signally defeated, with 34,000 men, more than twice as many Austrians, and drove them pell-mell over the passes of the Giant Mountains back into their own dominions. Fear and incapacity had already arrested the Swedes and Russians. Before winter came both had sHpped away, and at Christmas, 1757, Fred- erick could call himself lord of an undiminished kingdom. In no succeeding campaign was Frederick threatened by Altered posi- such overwhelming forces as in 1757. By the next year Frederick England l\ad fitted out an army, largely of German mer- from 1758 on. cenaries, which, under Ferdinand of Brunswick, operated against the French upon the Rhine, and so protected Fred- erick from that side. As the Swedish offence, through the total incapacity of the government, displayed no energy, Frederick was permitted to make light of his Scandinavian enemy, and give all his attention to Austria and Russia. No doubt, even so, the odds against Prussia were enormous. 320 The Rise of Prussia Growing fee- bleness of Prussia. Peace with Russia, 1762. Prussia was a poor, barren country of 5,000,000 inhabitants, and in men and resources Austria and Russia together out- stripped her many times; but at the head of Prussia stood a mihtary genius with a spirit that neither bent nor broke, and that fact sufficed for a while to estabhsh an equihbrium. It was Frederick's poUcy during the next years to meet the Austrians and Russians separately, in order to keep them from rolling down upon him with combined forces. In 1758 he succeeded in beating the Russians at Zorndorf and driv- ing them back, but in 1759 they beat him in a battle of un- exampled carnage at Kunersdorf. For a moment now it looked as if he were lost, but he somehow raised another force about him, and the end of the campaign found him not much worse off than the beginning. However, he was evidently getting feeble; the terrible strain continued through years was beginning to tell; and when on the death of George II., the new English monarch, George III. refused (1761) to pay the annual subsidy, by which alone Frederick was enabled to fill the thinned ranks of the army each year and equip the men, the proud king himself could hardly keep up his hopes. At this crisis Frederick was saved by a turn of the wheel of fortune. Frederick's implacable enemy, the Czarina Elizabeth, died January 5, 1762, and as Russia had no di- rect interest in the war, but had engaged in it only because the Czarina had a personal dislike for Frederick, there was no reason why her successor, Peter III., who was an ardent admirer of the Prussian king, should not come to terms with him. Peter in his enthusiasm even insisted on allying himself with his country's late enemy; but little came of this plan, as he was overthrown and murdered in July, 1762, and Catherine II., who succeeded him, would not engage further in the war. However, she made Frederick eternally grate- ful by at least ratifying the peace which Peter had concluded. The Rise of Prussia 321 This same year England and France came to an understand- ing (Preliminaries oi' Fontainebleau, 1762) and hostilities between them were at once suspended at all points. So there remained under arms of the great powers only Austria and Prussia; and as Austria could not hope to do unaided what she had failed to do with half of Europe at her side, Third cession Maria Theresa, although with heavy heart, resolved to come 1763.*^^'^' to terms. In the Peace of Hubertsburg (February, 1763) the cession of Silesia to Frederick was made final. Counting from the Peace of Hubertsburg Frederick had Labors of still twenty-three years before him, which he devoted with P^^*^^" unslacking energy to the works of peace. And all his skill and husbandry were required to bring his exhausted coun- try back to vigor. We now hear again, as during the first period of peace (1745-56), of extensive reforms, of the for- 11 mation of provincial banks, the draining of bogs, the cutting of canals, and the encouragement of industries, in a word, of all those peaceful activities which a wise ruler has always set above the ephemeral glories of war. Only two political events of the last period of Frederick's Frederick ac- 't life claim our attention. In 1772 the ancient anarchy and p^^sla. ^^ weakness of Poland precipitated the event which intelligent observers had long foreseen. Her three neighbors, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, agreed to appropriate each one some convenient province of the stricken country. Frederick re- ceived as his share the province of West Prussia, which had been won by Poland from the Teutonic Order many hundred years ago, and by means of it established the territorial con- tinuity of his eastern and central provinces. In 1778 another war threatened to break out with Austria. Joseph II., who, on the death of his father, Francis I., in 1765, had suc- ceeded him as emperor, and who, even in the lifetime of his mother, had been admitted to a share in the government of the Hapsburg dominions, was a young man of high-flying 322 TJic Rise of Prussia Frederick vetoes Joseph's attempt to absorb Bavaria. Rivalry be- tween Prussia and Austria. plans and ambitions. On the extinction, in 1777, of -the reigning branch of the House of Wittelsbach, he schemed to acquire Bavaria. As that would have given back to Aus- tria her ancient predominance in Germany, Frederick II. was resolved to resist the project at all costs, and took the field. But the quarrel was patched up before a battle had been fought by the intervention of Maria Theresa, who had no taste for again trying conclusions with Prussia. The gist of the settlement was that Joseph sacrificed his ambi- tion, and in 1779 the so-called War of the Bavarian Suc- cession came to an end without bloodshed. In 1786 Fred- erick died at his favorite country-seat, called Sans Souci, which he had built for himself near Potsdam. His memor- able reign had lasted forty-six years. It has already been pointed out that Frederick won for Prussia a position among the great powers of Europe. A consequence of that success, which is implied in every page of his history, is that he became the rival of Austria for the supremacy in Germany. From now on the open and secret struggle of these two states, the one trying to maintain its traditional ascendancy, the other resolved not to lose what it had won, is the main theme of German history. The fact that one lay in the north and was Protestant, while the other held the south and was Catholic, gave a sectional and re- ligious edge to their rivalry, which continued to disturb and paralyze Germany until a new war in 1866, within the mem- ory of the generation which is only just vanishing, swept the old issue out of existence by giving the victory and its fruits to Prussia. Thereupon Prussia planned and, in 1871, carried to successful issue a new unification of Germany, in which the student will not fail to perceive that Frederick the Great had a hand. r CHAPTER XV ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY References: Gardiner, Student's History of England,Parts VIII., IX., pp. 649-819; Green, Short History of the EngUsh People, Chapter IX. (beginning Section 7), Chapter X. (Sections 1-3) ; Terry, History of England, pp. 805-941; Traill, William III.; Perkins, France under Louis XV.; Parkman, Half Century of Conflict; Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe; Malleson, Dupleix (Rulers of India) ; also Clive (Rulers of India) ; Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon History; Lecky, Eng- land in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols, (a detailed review) . Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXXIII. (The EngHsh in India and America) ; Adams and Stephens, Documents, No. 237 (First Mutiny Act), Nos. 240-58 (including Act of Settlement, Act of Union with Scotland, Act of Union with Ireland) ; Colby, Se- lections from the Sources, Part VII. The "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 put an end to the Thesignifi- long civil wars of England. By supplanting James with "Gl^orious*^ William and Mar\', it secured the Protestant religion; by the Revolution." Bill of Rights, it brought the king in all respects under the law and added the coping stone to the constitutional mon- archy; and by the Toleration Act, it gave the right of worship to Dissenters, and paved the way for religious peace. Prot- estantism, constitutionalism, and religious peace, these three, are the main pillars of modern England, which may thus be said to have come into being with the advent of William. 323 324 En£[land and France For the first few years of his reign William had to secure his throne by fighting. James II. had sought refuge with Louis XIV., and the decision of the French king to espouse the cause of James naturally threw England on the side of the alHes, consisting of the emperor, the Dutch, and Spain, with whom Louis had just engaged in the war known as the War of the Palatinate (1688-97). The event marks a turn- ing-point in the fortunes of the French king. His policy of continental aggression had been attended so far with success, especially as he had met with help rather than hindrance from England. Henceforth England was found shoulder to shoulder with the continental nations against the disturber of the public peace. This action her national interests had long ago demanded, but it was one of the penalties she paid for putting up with Stuart rule, that she was governed not for her own but for dynastic ends. It is the great merit of William that he identified himself with the nation and gave an impulse to English affairs, which, steadily gathering strength during the next century, ended not only with check- ing the ambition of France on the Continent, but also in wresting from her her best colonies and the undisputed su- premacy of the seas. To the same reign, therefore, which Avitnessed the triumph of constitutionalism, we must also set down the launching of England upon her maritime and imperial policy. The War of the Palatinate has been dealt with in our nar- rative of Louis XIV., except that phase which belongs ex- clusively to England. The story of this takes us to Ireland. In March, 1689, James II. crossed from France, and im- mediately the Irish, who were enthusiastic Catholics, gath- ered around him. To them James II. was the legitimate king, while to the English and Scottish settlers of Ireland, who sympathized with Protestant William, he was no better than a usurper. Again the terrible race hatred of Celt and In the Eighteenth Centtiry 325 Saxon flamed up in war. The Protestants were driven from their homes, and for a time it looked as if the island would fall back to its original owners. However, on July i, i6go, William signally defeated James at the battle of the Boyne, whereupon the Stuart, who was a despicable soldier, hur- ried back to France, shamefully abandoning to the mercies of the English the people who had risen in his support. The measures by which the victorious William now supplemented the legislation of his predecessors broke the back of Irish resistance for a hundred years. It will be well before we speak of these measures to review The relations the relations of England and Ireland during the whole sev- andlferand. enteenth century. When James I. mounted the throne in 1603, Ireland had been a dependency of the English crown for nearly five hundred years, but the English rule had rarely been more than nominal, for the government generally con- trolled no more than a few districts of the eastern coast, known as the English pale. The heart of the island was held by the native tribes, who, governed by their chiefs in accordance with their own laws and customs, remained practically independent. If, instead of perpetual local war- fare, there had been a spirit of unity among the Irish, their conquerors might have been crowded out entirely, for not till the time of Henry VIII. did the government adopt a vigor- ous policy toward the smaller island, and not till the very close of Elizabeth's reign was English authority effectively established. Almost her last triumph was the putting down by her army of the great rebellion in Ulster, led by Hugh O'Neill. When James I. succeeded Elizabeth, he took a step fraught with tremendous consequences. He resolved to confiscate the northeastern districts, constituting the province of Ulster, and colonize them with English and Thecoloniza- Scottish settlers, as the best means for securing the ulster. peaceful development of the island. In 1610 the Irish 326 Enscland and France The policy of confiscation under Crom- well and William. of Ulster were crowded out, with no more said than that they must find subsistence elsewhere. Since that act an implacable hatred has ruled the relations of oppressors and oppressed. In the year 1641, when the troubles between king and Parliament temporarily annihilated the power of England, the Irish fell upon the colonists of Ulster, and murdered them or drove them from their homes. The English revenge for this outrage had, of course, to be delayed until the execu- tion of the king and the victory of the Parliament had re- established the authority of the nation. At length, in 1649, Cromwell undertook to reconquer Ireland. He was suc- cessful, but not without much cruelty and bloodshed. To the long-standing race hatred, it must be remembered, had been added, since the sixteenth century, the incentive of re- ligious passion to trouble the relations between the two peoples. In the conviction that conciliation would be in- terpreted as weakness, Cromwell resumed the former policy of plunder and confiscation, with the result that two- thirds of the island now passed into English hands. The dispossessed Irish were bidden to go find bread or elsfe a grave in the bogs and forests of the west. When William III. in 1690 overthrew the next insurrection at the battle of the Boyne, the policy of confiscation scored another and a final triumph, and therewith the Irish became a people with- out land, without rights, and without a future. To com- plete their miser}' the Parliament at London presently struck at their commerce and industry by forbidding the importation into England of cattle and dairy products, for which the Irish soil and climate were particularly suitable, and of woollens, which had acquired a merited renown. Thus by a merci- less application of the rights of conquest the Irish were made aliens in their own land, and were reduced to becoming tenants, day-laborers, and beggars. hi the EighteentJi Century 327 It has already been said that WilHam's great merit as William labors sovereign of England was that he enabled her to adopt a France. policy in harmony with her national interests. He gave his chief attention to creating a system of balance to the kingdom of France, allying himself for this purpose with the powers threatened by France, most particularly with the emperor and the Dutch. Of this combination he became the guiding spirit, and as its head waged with Louis the War of the Palatinate (1689-97), with the result that the French king drew off at the Peace of Ryswick without a gain. William spent the next years in negotiating with Louis an equitable division of the expected Spanish heritage; but when, in the year 1700, the king of Spain, Charles II., died, leaving a will in favor of the House of Bourbon, Louis XIV. disavowed the negotiations by sending his grandson, Philip, to Madrid to assume the rule of the undivided Spanish dominions. Out of this presumptuous act grew the War of the Spanish Succession, for which William had hardly prepared, by a renewal of his continental alliances, when he died (1702).- Since his wife, Mary, had died some years before (1694), without issue, the crown now passed to Mary's sister Anne, but as it was foreseen, even in William's lifetime, that Anne, too, would leave no offspring, a special statute was The Act of passed, called the Act of Setdement (1701), for the purpose f^")^"^^"^' of regulating the succession. The act established that the crown could descend only to a Protestant, and accordingly named the Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I. through his daughter Elizabeth, as the next heir after Anne.^ We have seen that the accession of William and Mary, TheParlia- secured and consecrated by the Bill of Rights, definitely [SgrowaJ'thT' subjected the sovereign to the law and established the victory expense of the of the Parliament in the long struggle with the king. Not ' See Genealogical Table of the Kings of England. 328 England and France unnaturally the Parliament now proceeded to take advantage of its hard-won ascendancy by completing the constitutional edifice after its own plan. Without interruption but with- out haste, act followed act in the following decades. Their general tendency was to enlarge the sphere of the Parliament at the expense of the royal power, until the entire government became gradually vested in the representatives of the people and the monarch was reduced to a position largely orna- mental. Let us take note what contributions toward this result were made in the reign of William. Annual grants The first subject to be considered is the important matter Parliaments. ^^ supplies. The Parliaments of the past had been in the habit of voting certain revenues for the king's lifetime, there- by securing to the sovereign a relative independence and putting it in his power not to call the legislature at all. William's Parliaments now fell into the habit of annual grants, which greatly enhanced Parliamentary influence, since the king, merely to keep the government going, was obliged to summon the Parliament every year. This system necessarily led to the drawing up on the part of the govern- ment of an annual budget of expenditures, every item of which fell under the lynx-eyed scrutiny of the Parliament. Annual budget and annual Parliament are correlated terms, which have secured the minute control of the purse, and therewith of the government itself, to the representatives of the nation. Hardly less important was the Mutiny Act, which along with the revenue arrangements just mentioned helped assure the annual return of Parliament. By this statute military courts for the punishment of mutiny and other acts of insubordination were authorized for one year only. It was a clever device for creating an army, which, although permanent, could never become a tool of despot- ism, because it was always under the hand of the Parlia- ment. Finally let us note that a step, constituting a In the EighteentJi Ce^itiiry 329 magnificent tribute to the modern spirit, was the refusal Liberty of the (1695) to renew the act subjecting all printed matter to P''^^^'^ ^^' official censorship. Henceforth England enjoyed a free and unfettered press, which is the necessary accompaniment of a free government. The event of the reign of Anne (1702-14) overshadowing TheWarof all others was the War of the Spanish Succession. It has succession. been treated elsewhere, with due regard to the fact that Eng- land won in this conflict a leading position among the pow- ers of Europe. But Marlborough's march of victory from Blenheim to Malplaquet did not excite universal approval in England. The Tories, who were recruited largely from the gentr)', and who nourished in religious matters exclusive Anglican sympathies together with a sentimental attachment to the Stuart connection, had never looked upon the war with favor. As the taxes grew heavier and the national debt became more burdensome, an increasing part of the popula- tion rallied to the opposition. It was chiefly with the aid of the Whigs, who were in control of the Parliament and minis- try, and of the duchess of Marlborough, who governed the easy-going, good-natured queen, that the duke was enabled to carry on his campaigns in the Netherlands and Germany. However, the duchess, who was a high-strung and arrogant lady, and not always capable of maintaining that polite dis- cretion which is the secret of success at courts, gradually fell out of favor, and in 171 1 the queen, suddenly disgusted with the whole Whig connection, dismissed the Whigs from office. There followed a ministry of Tories, with a policy of peace at any price, and the result was that Marlborough was dis- graced, and that England signed with France, in 17 13, the Peace of Utrecht. Although the peace involved a breach of faith toward the allies, and although the negotiators did not get all they might have had, some of the results of English success upon land and sea even Tory precipitation could 330 England and France Union of England ard Scotland, 170; Accession of the House of Hanover. George I. leans upon the Whigs. not sacrifice. England acquired from France Newfound- land, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay territory; from Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca; but, best of all, she could now count herself without a rival upon the sea. While the war was at its height an event occurred of the greatest possible importance, the effective union of England and Scotland. Ever since the accession of James I. in 1603, the two kingdoms had had a common sovereign; but, for the rest, they had remained jealously independent of each other. In 1707 the ghost of ancient rivalry and war was laid for good and all by an agreement which merged the two Parliaments in one. Scotland henceforth sent her representatives to the House of Lords and House of Commons at Westminster, and the two nations accepted the same lot in good and evil fortune. The adoption of the common name of (ireat Brit- ain consecrated the partnership. In the year 17 14 Anne died, and the crown fell to the House of Hanover, whose family name is Guelph. Since the Elec- tress Sophia, who had been designated by the Act of Settle- ment as the eventual heir, had preceded Anne in death, her son, George I., now ascended the throne. Some great stroke on the part of the Pretender, the son of James II., was ex- pected, but when it fell (17 15), it turned out to be harm- less. The man who claimed to be James III. was a dull sybarite, and had hardly landed when his courage failed him and he turned back to France. George I. (1714-27), who owed his elevation to the Whigs, naturally chose his first advisers from that party. As the Tories were more or less compromised by their support of the Stuart claim, George clung to the Whigs for the rest of his life, and thus laid the foundations of that long era of Whig control which puts its stamp upon English history for the next fifty years. This prolonged power of a single party helped Parliament In the Eighteenth Century 331 in taking another and a final step toward acquiring com- Development plete control of the state; with George I. is associated the government, definite establishment of cabinet government. We have al- ready seen that as far back as Charles II. the Parliament was divided into two parties, each taking its stand upon a definite programme. As things stood then, even if the majority of the Commons happened to be Tory, the king was free to choose his ministry from the Whigs. Sooner or later it was bound to appear that such a division, permitting the ministry to pull one way and the Parliament another, was harmful, and that to attain the best results the ministry would have to be in accord with the majority of the Commons. The change meant a new loss of influence by the king, but under George I. it was duly effected. George was a sluggish person, not deeply interested in England, and not even capable of understand- ing the language of his new subjects. He made no effort to defend his prerogative against the usurping Parliament. Henceforth the ministry was still named by the king; but as no set of men who had not first assured themselves that they were supported by a majority in the Commons would undertake the administration, the party in majority practi- cally dictated the king's cabinet. With the annual vote of sup- plies, and with cabinet and party rule established as cus- tomary features of the English Government, the constitution may be said to have reached the character which distin- guishes it to-day. George's reign was a reign of peace. Peace was the Whig Walpole's rule programme because it furnished just the opportunity wanted sense, to develop the prosperity of the great middle class, upon which the Whigs depended against the combination of Tory landlord and Tory clergyman. The leading man among the Whigs was Sir Robert Walpole. One ma , sum up his plat- form by saying that he wished to settle ji,ngland under the Hanoverian dynasty and give free play to the commercial 332 England and France and industrial energy of his countrymen. The period which he directed is, therefore, well entitled the era of common- sense. To carry out his programme, Walpole needed a steady majority in the Commons, which, following the dictates of his worldly philosophy, he got, if necessary, by corrupting mem- bers. "All those men have their price," he said, referring smilingly to a group of orators, who made a business of dis- playing a pretended patriotism. In spite of its gross mate- rialism and want of moral uplift, Walpole's government was in accord with the wishes and interest of the nation and enjoyed an unusually long lease of power. It was only when the Whig leader set himself against the people that he lost his hold. George I. had meanwhile been succeeded by George II. (1727-60). The new king was, like his father, without a spark of higher intelligence, but was characterized, like him, by a certain downrightness and solidity. Under the direction of Walpole he continued the peace policy of George I. until a succession of events plunged England, and soon all Europe, again into war. For some time the relations between England and Spain had been growing strained because English merchants were beginning to invade the Spanish seas. The selfish commercial monop- oly which Spain had established had been partially relaxed by an agreement called the assiento, granting to England certain trading privileges with the Spanish colonies. When the English overstepped these concessions and the Span- iards answered with penal measures, disputes arose which, growing ever more bitter, at last forced Walpole, against his will, to declare war. The next year the continental powers became involved among themselves, owing to the death of Emperor Charles VI. (1740) and the dispute about the Austrian succession. England, through her kings, who, we must never forget, were also electors of Hanover, had greater interest than ever in the Continent at this time. As Spain In the Eighteenth Century 333 and France attacked Austria hoping to partition her, Eng- land, already at war with Spain and in sympathy with England's war Austria, presently saw herself obliged to declare war upon ^nTralwar.^ Austria's enemy, France. The two distinct wars, that of England with Spain about commercial privileges and that of Austria with France and Spain, who were trying to dis- member her, were, therefore, merged in one. There followed the general conflict known as the War of the Austrian Suc- cession (1740-48). As Walpole was unsuited for an enter- prise of this nature, and as, moreover, he stood personally for peace, his majority melted away, and in 1742 he resigned. He had directed the destinies of England for twenty-one years (1721-42). The War of the Austrian Succession, as far as England The War of took a hand in it, was principally waged in the Austrian succession Netherlands, which England agreed to help defend against p°"|-^u^ • France, and upon the seas and in the colonies. On the seas of view, the English maintained their old mastery, but in tJie Nether- lands they and the Austrians lost ground, owing chiefly to the superior ability displayed by the French commander, Marshal Saxe. In 1745 the marshal won the great battle of Fontenoy and overran all the Austrian Netherlands; but when peace was signed in 1748, at Aix-la-Chapelle, the powers one and all restored their conquests, an exception being made only in favor of Frederick of Prussia, who was allowed to retain Silesia. The Anglo-Spanish war, origi- nating in a vital commercial issue, had become complicated with other questions, and when peace came the English negotiators drew up a treaty which scrupulously avoided the original question in dispute. A memorable incident of this war was the attempt of The invasion Charles Edward Stuart, son of the Pretender, and known as Pretende""^ the Young Pretender, to win back his kingdom. The defeat ''"^5- of the British at the battle of Fontenoy was his opportunity. 334 England and France and in July, 1745, he landed, with only seven men, in the Highlands of Scotland. The Highlanders were at this time still divided into clans, at the head of which stood hereditary chiefs. As Celts, they were by no means friendly to the Teutonic Lowlanders of Scotland and to the English. More- over, they were practically self-governed, and were sub- jected to the Hanoverian king at London in hardly anything more than name. That Prince Charlie, as the Young Pre- tender was fondly called, had thrown himself upon their mercy, stirred their imagination and kindled their generous hearts to wild enthusiasm. Flocking around him in crowds, they advanced from point to point until by an irresistible rush they captured Edinburgh. For a moment the govern- ment at London lost its head, but when the troops had been hurried home from the Netherlands, it was soon found that the wild courage of feudal clans was of no avail against the discipUne of a trained army. On Culloden Moor (April, 1746) the Highlanders were defeated with fearful slaughter by the king's second son, the duke of Cumberland. Prince Charlie, after many romantic adventures, made his escape, but broken apparently by his one capital misfortune, he lived ever afterward in indolence abroad, and gave no further trouble (d. 1788). His failure marks the last Stuart attempt to recover the throne. The Rcgencj While England, under Walpole, was preparing to assume the commercial leadership of the world, France was doing little or nothing to recover from the disasters of the War of the Spanish Succession. When the aged Louis XIV. died, in the year 17 15, he was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV. (1715-74). As Louis XV. was but five years old at the time, the government during his minority was exercised in his name by the nephew of Louis XIV., Philip, duke of Orleans. The regent Orleans, although a man of parts and a celebrated wit, was so passionately given to the pursuit in France. In the Eighteerith Century 335 of pleasure that he only plunged France deeper into economic and financial misery. Perhaps the one good point about his rule was that he did at least recognize the advantage of peace. But it was not enough to make him popular, and when he died, in 1723, he was regretted by none but the companions of his wild nights. Shortly after the regent's death Louis XV. was declared of Cardinal age, and Cardinal Fleury, the confidant of the young king, assumed control of affairs (1726-43). Fleury fully accepted Orleans's policy of peace and managed besides to reduce the finances to some kind of order. Nevertheless, his ad- ministration is marked by two wars, forced on him by cir- cumstances which he was too weak to command. In the year 1733 France became involved with Austria because of the different sides taken by these two powers in the election of a Polish king. The so-called War of the Polish Succession France ac- (1733-35) is unmemorable except for the acquisition by ?aine.^ France of the duchy of Lorraine. Lorraine was still techni- cally a member of the Empire, though the hold of France had been steadily tightening upon it during the last hundred years. Now it was merged with the western kingdom, thereby com- pleting the long list of conquests which France had been making from Germany since the time of Henry II. (1552). In the year 1740 the death of the Emperor Charles VI. The War of and the accession in Austria of the young girl Maria Theresa succession so completelv turned the head of the court partv at Versailles ^""^ ^^f^ . . ' • ^ ■ French point with the brilliant chance that the situation offered of war of view, and conquest, that Cardinal Fleury had again to yield and against his better judgment to declare war. The War of the Austrian Succession involved all Europe for eight years, as we have seen, but when it was closed by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), France recognized Maria Theresa as heir of the Hapsburg dominions, and withdrew from Germany without a srain. 336 England and France The rivalry of France and England. England and Austria dis- solve part- nership. As we approach the middle of the eighteenth century ii becomes plain that the struggle which Louis XIV. in- augurated, with the object of making France supreme in Europe, had ended in failure. The remedy which William III. of England had proposed in order to meet this aspi- ration — the alliance, namely, of England, the Dutch, and Austria — had produced the desired effect, and the Continent could at last afford to forget its terror of the French name, for the French armies had been defeated and French ag- gression hurled back. But in spite of disasters on the Con- tinent, and perhaps because of them, French colonial ex- pansion went on through the reign of Louis XV., and in North America and India was entering into ever sharper rivalry with England. Plainly the aim of the French was to compensate themselves for the failure of their European rlans by the acquisition of an empire beyond the seas. The i Ian was natural enough, but, unfortunately, came in conflict with a similar purpose of the English. Accordingly, with the progress of the century the gaze of Frenchmen and Englishmen turned across the seas, and slowly the centre of interest, which in the long struggle of France for supremacy in Europe had been the Continent, shifted to the colonies. Such change of interest necessarily involved a subtle change of international relationships in Europe. In meas- ure as France withdrew from her aggression against her continental neighbors, she conciliated her ancient enemies, Austria and the Dutch; and in measure as she emphasized her colonial ambition, she aroused the increased hostility of England. Thus, by the gradual operation of circum- stances, England and France had, toward the middle of the eighteenth century, been brought face to face to fight out the great question of supremacy in the colonial world; and in this colonial question Austria, the old ally of England against France, had no immediate interest. Was Austria In the Eighteenth Century 337 or any other continental power likely, under the circum- stances, to take part in the war? The war between France and England which followed, Prussia sides called the Seven Years' War (1756-63), is properly the most Austria wUh * important struggle of the ceniury, for it determined whether ^^'^ce. America and India were to be French or English. But though the other European powers had no direct interest in the colonial question, they nevertheless participated in the Seven Years' War. That was owing to the circumstance that the German powers, Austria and Prussia, had a quarrel of their own to settle, and that by choosing sides in the French-English conflict, Prussia allying herself with England and Austria with France, they brought about a fusion of two distinct issues in a general war. France made great sacrifices in the Seven Years' War to The Seven maintain her position. She sent an army over the Rhine to 17^5^6^63."' cooperate with the Austrians against the Prussians and the English, and she prepared to defend herself in America, in India, and on the sea. Unfortunately, she was governed by an ignorant and vicious king, who was too feeble to persist in any policy, and who was no better than the puppet of a company of worthless courtiers and favorites. The real di- rection of French affairs during the war lay in the hands of the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who never had an inkling of the real significance of the struggle. While government was thus travestied in France,, the Pitt, captain power in England fell into the hands of the capable and ° "gan . fiery William Pitt, known in history as the Great Com- moner. His ministry lasted four memorable years (1757- 61), during which time he organized the resources of the country as no one had ever organized them before. Fleets and armies were sent forth under the stimulus of the proud conviction that now or never England must establish her colonial supremacy. Under these circumstances victory f I760-I820. 338 England and France necessarily fell to the English. The French army in Ger- many was badly beaten by Frederick the Great at Rossbach (1757), and later held in effective check by an Anglo-Han- overian force under Ferdinand of Brunswick. But the most signal advantages of the English were won, as Pitt intended, not in Europe but on the sea and in the colonies. First, the French were driven from the basin of the Ohio (1758).^ In the next year Wolfe's heroic capture of Quebec secured the course of the St. Lawrence, and therewith completed the conquest of Canada. Furthermore, in India the celebrated Lord Clive (victory of Plassey, 1757) crowded out the French and established the English influence, while the great mar- itime victories (1759) of Lagos and Quiberon annihilated the French fleet and gave England absolute control of the sea. George III., In the year 1760, while the war was at its height, George II. died, and was succeeded by his grandson, George HI. (1760-1820). George III. had one leading idea, which was to regain for himself the place in the government recently usurped by the Parliament. So completely was he taken up with this plan that the war had only a secondary in- terest for him. He therefore took advantage of a division in the cabinet to dismiss Pitt, who was identified with the war, from ofl&ce (1761), and hotly supported Lord Bute, who succeeded to Pitt's position, in his efforts for peace. Al- though the English negotiators, in their haste to have done, sacrificed some important English interests, the victories of Peace of Paris, Pitt spoke for themselves. By the Peace of Paris (February 10, 1763) England acquired from France Canada and the territory east of the Mississippi River, and received the rec- ognition of her exclusive domination in India. * The French had claimed the whole Mississippi basin, and in order to shut out the English they had built a fort on the upper Ohio. In 1755 General Braddock was sent out to destroy the French fort, but refusing to be guided by the advice of the Virginian oflScer, George Washington, was badly beaten. When the French fort was finally taken, it was rebaptized Pittsburg, in honor of England's great minister. 1763- II /;/ the Eighteenth Century 339 If the Seven Years' War is England's greatest triumph, The American she was visited soon afterward with her severest calamity. ^'^^^^ '^' In the year 1765 the British Parliament levied a tax upon the American colonies called the Stamp Act. When it be- came known that the tax aroused discontent, it was wisely withdrawn; but at the same time the principle was asserted and proclaimed that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. As the Americans would not agree that they could be taxed by a body in which they were not rep- resented, friction grew apace and soon led to mob violence. The British ministry, which was under the influence of an ambitious and obstinate king, resorted to military force, and the answer of the Americans to this measure was the resolution to revolt (Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776). In 1778 the colonists, through their agent, Benja- min Franklin, made an alliance with France, and from this time on the English were hard pressed by land and sea. Finally, the surrender of Yorktown (1781) to the American hero of the war, George Washington, disposed the mother- country to peace. In the Peace of Versailles (1783) Eng- The Peace of land made France a few unimportant colonial concessions, y^^^ailles, but the really memorable feature of the peace was the rec- ognition of the independence of the revolted English colonies under the name of the United States of America. This American success revived political agitation in Ire- Ireland gets land. We have seen how after the battle of the Boyne on'ly'to have it (1690) the Irish were literally trampled in the dust. The withdrawn, loss of their land and the proscription of their faith were not their only miseries, for they were continually exposed to the insults of a minority of Protestant settlers, who ruled the island by means of a misnamed Irish Parliament. But even this Protestant assembly, from which the Catholic majority was rigorously excluded, enjoyed no independence, since it could pass no act of which the British Privy Council at 340 England and France London did not approve. A movement was now set on foot to free the local legislature from the hateful English super- vision; and the British ministry, frightened by the Ameri- can situation, so far yielded as to pass an act in favor of Irish Legislative Independence (1782). Unfortunately, the island was not pacified by this concession, for the religious animosities existing between the Catholic natives and the Protestant colonists blazed out in civil war. Riot, blood- shed, and massacre prevailed until the younger Pitt, son of the Great Commoner and Prime Minister of England, passed (1800) an Act of Union, which not only abolished the legis- lative independence lately granted, but suppressed the Irish Parliament altogether by incorporating it with the British Parliament at London. Since 1800 Ireland has been ruled in all respects from the English capital. The Act of Union did not greatly occupy the public mind. For when it was passed, the French Revolution, though it had occupied the stage for more than a decade, was still holding the attention of England and all the world riveted upon it. PART III REVOLUTION AND DEMOCRACY ^ CHAPTER XVI THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1815) References: H. Morse Stephens, Revolutionary Europe, 1 789-181 5; Rose, The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1789-1815; H. Morse STEPHENS,The French Rev- olution, 3 vols.; Lowell, Eve of the French Revolution (good review of prerevolutionary France) ; De Tocque- viLLE, France before the Revolution (brilliant) ; Taine, The Ancient Regime; also, The French Revolution; also. The Modern Regime (critical works, full of matter, but prejudiced against the Revolution) ; Von Sybel, The French Revolution (powerful treatment, with emphasis on Europe in its relation to the Revolution) ; Cambridge Modern History, Vols. VHI. and IX. (embodying re- cent scientific results); H. von Holst, The French Rev- olution; Carlyle, The French Revolution (not so much history as a great epic poem; use Fletcher's edition with notes) ; Shailer Mathews, The French Revolution (a rapid review) ; Fyffe, History of Modern Europe (pop- ular edition). Chapters I.-XIL; Seeley, Life and Times of Stein; Say, Turgot; Morley, Voltaire, also Rousseau, also Diderot; Belloc, Danton, also Robespierre; Wil- LERT, Mirabeau; Henderson, History of Germany, Vol. II., Chapters VI.-VIL; Johnston, Napoleon, a Short Biography; Fournier, Napoleon the First; Sloane, Napoleon Bonaparte; Seeley, Short History of Napoleon; Rose, Life of Napoleon I., 2 vols.; Rose- BERY, Napoleon: The Last Phase; Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution (1793-1812). Source Readings : Translations and Reprints, University of Pennsylvania, Vol. I., No. 5 (Rights of Man, Jacobin Club, etc.); Vol. II., No. 2 (documents mairly relating 343 344 The French Revolution The condition of France at the end of the eighteenth century. Decay due to system of government. to Napoleon); Vol. IV., No. 5 (throws light on ancient reginie); Vol. V., No. 2 (protest of the cour des aides, revealing abuses); Vol. VI., No. i (French philoso- phers of the eighteenth century) ; Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXXIV. (prerevolutionary France); • Chapters XXXV., XXXVI. (the Revolution); Chapters XXXVII., XXXVIII. (Napoleon); Anderson, Consti- tutions and Documents Illustrative of the History of France, Nos. i-ioo (indispensable for the close stu- dent); Young, Travels in France, 1787-89 (an Eng- lish gentleman's observations); Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution; BouR- RIENNE, Memoirs of Napoleon (interesting, not always reliable), 4 vols.; Madame de Remusat, Memoirs (rich material, charming treatment), 3 vols.; Napoleon, Letters to Josephine, 1 796-181 2. If the seventeenth century, which recalls the names of Richelieu, Colbert, and Louis XIV., was the period of the expansion of France, the eighteenth century, associated with such names as the regent Orleans, Louis XV., and Madame de Pompadour, proved the period of French decay. We have just seen that the Seven Years' War all but completed the ruin of the kingdom; the defeats of the armies of France in Germany destroyed her military prestige, and her mari- time disasters overthrew her naval power and deprived her of her colonies. But the loss of her great position was not the worst consequence of the Seven Years' War. The coun- try found itself on the conclusion of the Peace of Paris (1763) in such a condition of exhaustion that even patriots were doubtful if it would ever recover health and strength. The case, at first sight, seemed anomalous. Here was a country which in point of natural resources had the advan- tage over every other country of Europe; its population, which was estimated at 25,000,000, was greater than that of any rival state; and the mass of the nation had no cause to fear comparison with any other people as regards industry, The French Revolution 345 thrift, and intelligence. If this people, endowed with such natural gifts and inhabiting so fertile a territory, was brought in the second half of the eighteenth century to the verge of ruin, that circumstance cannot be ascribed to any inherent^ defect in the nation. It was due solely to the system of gov- ernment which bound the nation together, and to the social iniquities which that government perpetuated. The reader has seen how the French king had gradually The king is absorbed all the functions of government, until, as Louis XIV. himself had boasted, the king had become the state. The local administration, once the prerogative of the nobility, had, with the overthrow of the nobility by Richelieu, been transferred to royal appointees, called intendants; the feudal assembly, or States-General, was no longer summoned; and whenever the supreme law-courts of the realm, known as Parliaments {parlenients) , tried, by refusing to register a decree, to exercise the small measure of power which they possessed, the king cowed them by a royal session, called lit de justice. In an address delivered on the occasion of such a lit de justice (1766), Louis XV. could, without fear of contradiction, make the following assertion concerning the royal prerogative: "In my person resides the sovereign authority. I hold the legislative -power and share it with no one. The entire pubhc life is sustained by me." Part and parcel of this limitless claim was the power of arbitrary arrest under a lettre de cachet. This was an order signed by the king by virtue of which any subject might be clapped into prison and kept there without a trial at the king's pleasure. It is plain that such extensive duties as are contained in Louis XV. the pronouncement quoted above could be effectively ex- hL^duties. ercised by only a superior person. Louis XIV. never failed at least in assiduity. But his successor, Louis XV., who was weak, frivolous, and incapable of sustained work, 34^ The French Revolution shirked the exercise of the powers which he none the less claimed as his due. Instead of laboring in his cabinet, he allowed his time to be monopolized by hunts and spectacles, and his vitality to be consumed by boundless dissipations. The result was that the business of governing fell to a greedy horde of courtiers and adventuresses, who were principally concerned with fattening their fortunes, and who sacrificed, with no more regret than is expressed by a shrug of the shoulders and a laugh, every interest of the state. French society. If under Louis XV. the centralized monarchy lost its The clerffv and nobility. respect abroad and its energy at home, the whole social fabric which that monarchy crowned exhibited no less certain signs of disease and decay. French society, like that of all Europe, had its starting-point in the feudal principle of class. In feudal times there had been recognized two great govern- ing classes, the clergy and the nobility, which, in return for certain fundamental services rendered by them to society, such as instruction, spiritual comfort, administration of justice, and defence of the soil, had been granted an au- thoritative and patriarchal position over the people. The absolute monarchy of France had, to a greater extent than the monarchy of any other country, relieved the nobles of their duties by taking upon itself the administration of justice and the maintenance of the army. But though the nobility was thus deprived of its former duties, it was left in possession of many of its ancient rights. To illustrate: it was not subjected to direct taxation in feudal times on the ground that it paid taxes in the form of military service; but now, though this service was no longer required, the ex- emption from taxation continued. Consequently, a right originally grounded in justice had become an iniquity. The other feudal order, the clergy, enjoyed a similar exemption ^ from taxation, but still performed, however imperfectly, its former services. TJie French Revolution 347 We are now in a position to understand why the France Clergy and of the eighteenth century was divided into privileged and stitut'edie°°' unprivileged classes, or into subjects who paid and subjects oJJj^rl^^'^ who did not pay. Such a division was abominable, but made only the beginning of the woeful tale of confirmed and hereditary injustice. Not only had the feudal orders become mere privileged orders, who did not contribute to the support of the government in a measure even approximately pro- portionate to their resources, but all the honors and emolu- ments were reserved to them. The officers of the army, which the money of the commoners supported, were chosen exclusively from the nobility, and all the high and remuner- ative posts in Church and state were open only to that class. In a word, a public career in France was an afifair of birth. The membership of the two orders enjoying these ex- The resources tensive privileges was not very large. The noble families wed.^"^^ numbered 25,000 to 30,000, with an aggregate membership of perhaps 140,000; and the clergy, including the various religious orders and the parish priests, had an approximately equal enrolment. These two castes between them owned about half the land of France, so that it could be fairly claimed by the indignant people that the principle of taxa- tion which obtained in their country was — to relieve those who did not need relief, and to burden those who were already overburdened. But if nobility and clergy were, comparatively speaking. Their style very well off, their means were not sufficient to satisfy the demands which their style of life made upon their purses. The great nobles all maintained palaces at Paris or Ver- sailles, where they ruined themselves by lavish entertain- ments, gambling, and the various excitements of an idle society. The great Church dignitaries, bishops and abbots, who were, for the most part, younger sons of noble families, emulated, and if anything outshone, the secular nobility by of life. 34^ The Fretich Revolution The upper and the lower clergy. Progress of the commoners. the splendor of their mode of life. The result was that the court swarmed with a bankrupt aristocracy whose one hope of salvation was to plunder the public treasury under the polite form of an office or a pension granted by the king. These pensions, running up into the millions, and lavished upon creatures whose only merit was, as a contemporary writer put it, "to have taken the trouble to be born," were a sore affliction of the budget, and the least excusable factor contributing to the annual deficit. There is no need to say that prelates who recruited their ranks from the nobility, and like the nobility spent their days in hunting, gambling, and paying visits, were not suited to discharge their spiritual functions. But it would be a mistake to suppose that the careless life of the higher clergy was the rule among the rank and file. In the provinces there were to be found priests, on starvation salaries, who devoted themselves to their parish duties with mediaeval fervor and sincerity. These hardly felt that there was any bond be- tween them and their noble superiors, while a thousand ties united them to the people from whom they were sprung. A notable consequence of this fact was that when the Revolu- tion broke out the lower clergy sided with the down-trodden and outraged commoners against the privileged hierarchy. The commoners, or members of the Third Estate {tiers etat)^ who were shut out from the places of authority reserved to the first two estates of the realm, could win distinction in only two careers, business and literature. Many succeeded in accumulating wealth both in Paris and in the provinces, until their resources, constantly increased through thrift and hard work, far exceeded those of the nobility, who, after the airy fashion of their kind, concerned themselves only with elegantly spending what they had or could borrow. And now the bourgeoisie began to outstrip the nobility in other respects. For increase of wealth brought increase of leisure, The French Revolution 349 and put at the disposal of the middle classes the means of culture. So it came about that in the course of the eigh- teenth century the Third Estate had fairly become the in- tellectual hearth of France. For proof one need look only at the influential authors and journalists of the period, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Quesnay, Beaumarchais — they are almost without exception of the middle class. But if the well-to-do middle class, the bourgeoisie, was Misery of the prospering, the same can hardly be said of the vast ma- ^^"^ mgmen. jority of French subjects, embracing the two classes of the urban wage-earners and the peasants. The class of wage- earners was to a large extent of recent origin, having been called into existence by the development of manufactures. Uneducated and unorganized, they were completely under the heel of the capitalist middle class, which controlled the com- mercial and industrial situation by means of its guilds, and shut all but old bourgeois families out of them with as much zeal as the nobles displayed in keeping their ranks free from the defilement of citizen upstarts. With reference to the wage-earners, the middle class was, in its turn, a privileged order, and we can easily understand that the oppression with which the bourgeoisie saddled the laborers was filling that body with increasing discontent. But the class of which the condition was most abject was, Misery of the undoubtedly, the peasants, whose obligations and burdens P*^*° • exceeded all justice and reason. The lord of the manor ex- acted rent from them, the Church levied tithes, and the king collected taxes almost at will, so that often they did not have enough left over from their toil to satisfy the barest neces- sities. Considerable sections of the soil of France had, therefore, in the course of the last few decades been deserted by the peasants, and in some of the most fertile regions fam- ine had become an annual guest. An English gentleman, Arthur Young, who made a journey through France just 350 The French Revolution Feudal obli- gations. The demand for reform. The intel- lectual revolt. before the outbreak of the Revolution, saw many smiling districts, but was frequently horrified by the bent, starved, and diseased figures which he encountered on the highways. The misery of the peasants, although real, has been fre- quently exaggerated by comparison with modern conditions. If we examine their status in the light of eighteenth-century standards, we are obliged to admit that they were better off than their brethren of the other continental countries. Above all, the French peasants were no longer serfs, although the memory of their former serfdom survived in certain vexatious feudal obligations, such as the corvee, a compul- sory service of a certain number of days each year upon the roads, and the right of the chase which reserved the game to the nobility. The very fact that they were free, and relatively prosperous and enlightened, explains why their protest against irrational and irritating dues was growing constantly more vigorous. A government without power, dignity, and character; a so- ciety broken up into mutually hostile classes — these are the main features of the picture we have just examined. French public life in the eighteenth century had become so intol- erable that its dissolution was the only possible escape out of the perennial misery. This the thinking element began to see more and more clearly; and a school of writers, known as the philosophers, made themselves its mouthpiece, and clamored loudly and ever more loudly for a radical reform of the existing order. The eighteenth century is everywhere in Europe a century of criticism. Men had begun to overhaul the whole body of tradition in state. Church, and society, and to examine their institutional inheritances from the point of view of com- mon-sense. If things had been allowed to stand hitherto because they were indorsed by the past, they were to be per- mitted henceforth onI\' because thev were serviceable and The French Revolution 351 necessary to the present. Reason, in other words, was to be the rule of life. This gospel the philosophers spread from end to end of Europe. They opened fire upon every- thing that ran counter to reason and science — upon the in- tolerance of the Church, upon the privileges of the nobility, upon the abuse of the royal power, upon the viciousness of criminal justice, upon the oppression of the peasantry, and a hundred other things. Although the revolt against the inheritances of a feudal The leaders, past was universal in the eighteenth century, the leaders in the movement were Frenchmen. Montesquieu, Diderot, D'Alembert, are some of the brilliant writers of the period; but outshining them in fame and achievement are Voltaire and Rousseau. Although their names are commonly coupled, it is impossible to imagine two men less alike. Vol- taire ^ was a man of swift intelligence, caustic wit, and, above all, a penetrating understanding of human society, while Rousseau was a dreamer, who shut his eyes upon an artificial and repulsive civilization in order to fashion with his mind a society founded upon justice, goodness, liberty, and equality. Each set in motion a current of revolt which gradually undermined the existing Church, government, and society, and left them standing as a hollow shell, to fall, at the outbreak of the Revolution, like the walls of Jericho at the first blast of the trumpet. A society which has become thoroughly discredited in The chronic the minds of those who compose it, is likely to go to pieces at any moment and through any chance occasion. The agency which directly led up to the French Revolution, and sounded the signal, as it were, for the dissolution of the ' Voltaire (1694-1778) wrote tragedies, epics, tales, and other pieces of pure literature, but is now chiefly remembered by his historical labors, such as The Age of Louis XIV., The Age of Louis XV., and the Essay on Manners. Rousseau (1712-78) wrote one novel, La Nouvelle Heloise, but his most famous productions are a treatise on government, called The Social Contract, and a wonderful autobiograpliy, The Confessions. deficit. 352 The French Revolution Louis XVr. succeeds his grandfather in 1774. Louis XVI. attempts reform. ancien regime, was the state of the finances. The debts of Louis XIV. had been increased by the wars and extrav- agances of Louis XV., so that by the middle of the eighteenth century France was confronted by a chronic deficit. As long as Louis XV. reigned (1715-74), the deficit was covered by fresh loans, a device which, though dangerous, did not arouse any apprehension in that monarch's feeble mind. "Things will hold together till my death," he was in the habit of saying complacently, and his friend Madame de Pompadour added, with an air of indifference, "After us, the deluge! " When Louis XVI. (1774-92) succeeded his grandfather, the question of financial reform would not brook any further delay. The new king was, at his accession, only twenty years old. He was honestly desirous of helping his people, but he had, unfortunately, neither the energy nor the in- telligence necessary for developing a programme and carry- ing it through in spite of opposition. His queen, Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, was a gossamer creature, lovely and vivacious, but young, inex- perienced, and utterly thoughtless. The fifteen years from Louis's accession to the outbreak of the Revolution (1774-89) constitute a period of unin- termitted struggle with the financial distress. The question was how to make the revenues meet the expenditures. New taxes proved no solution, for excessive taxation had already reduced the country to starvation, and where there was nothing to begin with, no tax-gatherer's art could squeeze out a return. Plainly, the only feasible solution was reform. The lavish expenditure of the court would have to be cut down; the waste and peculation in the administration would have to cease; and the taxes would have to be redistributed, so as to put the burdens upon the shoulders that could bear them. For the consideration of these matters Louis at first The FreiicJi Revolution 353 called into his cabinet a number of eminent men. Among Turgotand his ministers of finance were the economist Turgot (1774-76) ^^ ^'^' and the banker Necker (first ministry, 1778-81; second ministry, 1788-90). Both men, especially Turgot, who was a statesman of the first order, labored earnestly at reform, but both failed to overcome the opposition of the courtiers, who would consent neither to retrench their expenses nor to give up their privileges. In consequence, there was nothing to do but continue the Absolutism old ruinous policy of covering the deficit by means of loans, and by persistence in this insane policy to undermine the national credit and march helplessly toward bankruptcy. When even loans were no longer to be had, the king, driven into a comer, appealed, as a last resort, to the nation. The step was in itself a revolution, for it contained the admission that the absolute monarchy had failed. In May, 1789, there assembled at Versailles, in order to take counsel with the king about the national distress, the States-General of the realm. The States-General was the old feudal assembly of France, The States- composed of the three orders, the clerg}^, the nobles, and the Cieneral. commoners. As the States-General had been relegated to the garret by the absolute monarchy and had not met for one hundred and seventy-five years, it was not strange that nobody was acquainted with its mode of procedure. So much was certain, however, that the assembly had formerly voted by orders, and that the vote of the privileged orders, being two against one, had always been decisive. The first question which arose in the assembly was whether The States- the feudal orders should be allowed this traditional supremacy verts [tsei^T"" in the revived States-General. Among the members of the into the Na- " tional Assem- Third Estate, as the commoners were called in France, there bly. was, of course, only one answer. These men held that the new States- General was representative not of the old feudal 354 The French Revolution realm, but of the united nation, and that every member, therefore, must have an equal vote. In other words, the commoners maintained that the vote should not be taken by orders but individually. As they had been permitted to send twice as many delegates (six hundred) as either clergy or nobility (three hundred each) , it was plain that their propo- sition would give them the preponderance. The clergy and nobility, therefore, offered a stubborn resistance; but after a month of contention the Third Estate cut the knot by boldly declaring itself, with or without the feudal orders, the National Assembly (June 17th). Horrified by this act of violence the king and the court tried to cow the commoners by a sharp summons to submit to the old pro- cedure, but when they refused to be frightened, the king himself gave way, and ordered the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate (June 27th). Thus, at the very begin- ning of the Revolution, the power passed out of the hands of the king and feudal orders into the hands of the people. T}ie National Assembly (1789-91). The National Assembly, which thus began its work with the avowed purpose of regenerating France, was composed of the most intelligent men the country could boast. More- over, the members were animated by a pure enthusiasm to serve the nation. In fact, it was impossible to live in that momentous year of 1789 without feeling that an unexampled opportunity had arrived for helping France and all mankind forward on the road of civilization. In this magnanimous spirit the Assembly directed its labors from the first day. Unfortunately, a fatal defect seriously detracted from this generous disposition. The Assembly, composed of theorists totally inexperienced in the practical affairs of government, was prone to treat all questions as occasions for the dis- The FrcHcJi Revolution 355 play of an emotional eloquence, and to formulate decrees beautiful in the abstract, but hopelessly out of relation to the concrete facts. When the Assembly convened there existed as yet no po- The leaders, litical parties. But gradually parties began to form about the men who, by virtue of their talents, took the lead. Only a few of these can be pointed out here. The Marquis de Lafayette had won a great name for himself by the mag- nanimous offer of his sword, when a young man, to the cause of freedom in America. Though a nobleman by birth, he sympathized with the people and rallied all generous hearts around himself. No man during the first stage of the Revolution had a greater following within and without the Assembly. The best representative of the current dog- matic and philosophical spirit was the Abbe Sieves. He carried to absurd lengths the idea that government was a clever mechanism, capable of being constructed in accord- ance with preconceived ideas. When one constitution failed, he was always ready, like a political conjurer, to shake another out of his sleeve. Then there was the lawyer Robes- pierre. His circle, though not large at first, made up for its smallness by the stanchness of its devotion to the dapper little man who made it his business to parade on all occa- sions a patriotism of an incorruptible Roman grandeur. But the member who rose head and shoulders above the rest of the Assembly was Count Mirabeau. Mirabeau was a born statesman, perhaps the only man in the whole Assem- bly who instinctively knew that a government could not be fashioned at will by a committee of philosophers, but to be worth anything must be the natural outcome of the moral, economic, and historical forces of the nation. He wished, therefore, while preserving the monarchy, to nationalize it by injecting into its dry arteries the fresh blood of the peo- ple. Abolition of privileges and a constitution with a strong 356 The French Revolution Calamitous influence of the masses. Failure of the authority of the king and the Assembly. monarchical element were the two leading articles of his pro- gramme. Unfortunately, he never succeeded in acquiring a guiding influence. In the first place, he was a noble, and therefore subject to suspicion; and, further, his early life had been a succession of scandals, which now rose u]i and bore witness against him, undermining confidence in his honor. The National Assembly had no hesitation in designating as its primary business the making of a free constitution.^ It was of the highest importance that this work should be done in perfect security, free from the interference of popu- lar passion and violence. But, owing to the excitement and fervor which permeated all classes, the Assembly soon fell under the domination of the street. The growth of the in- fluence of the lower elements, who, while desiring reform, created anarchy, is the most appalling feature of the great events of 1789. If we understand this fact, we have the key to the rapid degeneration of what was, at its outset, jierhaps the most promising movement in the history of mankind. For this degeneration the king and the Assembly were both responsible, as well by reason of what they did as of what they did not do. It goes without saying that the sud- den failure of absolutism in June, 1789, demoralized the government and threw France into unutterable confusion. Parisian mobs frequently fell upon and murdered the royal officials, while the excited peasants everywhere burned and plundered the castles of the nobles. In view of these irreg- ularities, king and National Assembly should have united to maintain order; but unite they would not, because the king, who was under the domination of the court, distrusted the popular Assembly, and because the Assembly feared the ' For this reason the National Assembly is known also as the Constituent .Assembly. The French Revolution 357 designs of the court and the king. Mutual suspicion ruined harmony and played into the hands of the agitators. And, in fact, early in July it was discovered that the court The fall of the was plotting to dissolve the Assembly and overawe the Pa- 14^1789. risians by means of troops. At this news a tremendous ex- citement seized the people. Armed crowds gathered in the streets, and clamorous to teach the court a lesson, threw themselv^es upon the Bastille, the ancient state prison and royal fortress in the heart of Paris. After a bloody encoun- ter with the troops, they took the gloomy stronghold, and in their fury razed it to the ground (July 14th). The fall of the Bastille was celebrated throughout France Expected reign as the end of tyranny and the dawn of a new era of broth- equality, and erly love. And in truth there was much suggestive of a new fraternity. order of things in the destruction of a monument which had been the witness of the brutalities of mediaeval justice, and of the wanton oppression of the absolute king. Now in- deed we know that July 14th did not inaugurate a reign of lib- erty, equality, and fraternity; but it is not difficult to under- stand why the French people, cherishing the memory of their generous illusion, should have made July 14th their national holiday. The king at Versailles did not misread the lesson which The the episode of the Bastille pointed. All thought of violence ^ was temporarily dropped, and the irreconcilables of the court party, with the king's brother, the count of Artois, at their head, left France in disgust. Thus began the so-called emi- gration, which, continuing for the next few years, soon col- lected on the borders of France, chiefly along the Rhine, hundreds and thousands of the old privileged classes, who preferred exile to the threatened ascendancy of popular government. The storming of the Bastille promised at first to clarify The National ^, . . » • 1 1 • 11-1 i .1 n Guard and the Situation. .Again the king made his l)ow to the Revo- Lafayette 358 The French Revolntio?i lution: he paid a formal visit to Paris as a pledge of recon- ciliation, and was received with acclamations of joy. The well-to-do citizens for their part seemed to be resolved to have done with violence and follow the way of sensible re- form. They organized a militia called the National Guard, in order to secure Paris from the excesses to which the city had lately been exposed, and made the popular Lafayette commander. However, the condition of the capital remained most precarious. The multitude of the idle was growing in numbers every day, and their misery, which the general stoppage of business steadily sharpened, was pushing them to the brink of savagery. It was a question whether Lafay- ette, with his citizen-guard, would be willing or able to chain the people when a new access of passion lashed them into fury. The test came soon enough. In October the rumor of another plot on the "part of the remnant of the court party ran through Paris. Excited men and women told one an- other that at a banquet of officers, held at Versailles, the new tricolor cockade of red, blue, and white, the passionately adored emblem of the Revolution, had been trampled under foot, and the health of the king and queen drunk amid scenes of wild enthusiasm. What really happened was an act of homage, perhaps unnecessarily provocative, on the part of the army toward its sovereign; but suspicion of the king and court had sunk so deeply into the hearts of the Paris- ians that every disparagement of the monarch, however un- founded, was sure to find an audience. Demagogues an- nounced that the king was the cause of the famine in the city, and that he and the court intercepted the grain-carts outside of Paris in order to reduce the patriots to starvation. On the morning of October 5th, 10,000 women, fierce and haggard from long suflfering, set out for Versailles to fetch the king to Paris. As they straggled over the muddy roads The FrcncJi Revolution 359 all the male and female riff-raff of the suburbs joined them. In the face of this tremendous danger Lafayette, the com- mander of the militia and guardian of the civil order, did nothing. If, as has been supposed, he remained inactive in order to get the king into his power, he has fairly merited the charge of political trickery. Certain it is that it was only when the National Guard refused to wait longer that he consented to conduct it to Versailles, and preserve peace. When he arrived there in the night, some hours after the women, he found everything in the greatest confusion; but by his timely intercession he saved the lives of the royal fam- ily, and was enabled to pose as the preserver of the mon- archy. But if the rioters spared the king and queen, they declared firmly, at the same time, that they would be satisfied with nothing short of the removal of the royal residence to Paris. What could the king do but give his consent? On the 6th the terrible maenads, indulging in triumphant song and dance along the road, escorted to the palace of the Xuileries "the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's little boy," from whose presence in their midst they promised themselves an end of misery. The National Assembly, of course, followed, the king, and was quartered in the riding- school near the palfipe. :'. The events of October ^h and 6th ruined the monarchy. The people and Lafayette cajinot ei^Cape the charge of having contrib- supreme, uted in some rafta'stire to' the result. The king at the Tuile- ries, indeed, was now practically Lafayette's prisoner; but Lafayette himself, even though it took him some months to find it out, was henceforth the prisoner of the people. The great October days had allowed "the patriots," as the agita- tors euphemistically called themselves, to realize their power; and having once eaten of the poisonous fruit of violence, they would require more than Lafayette's energy to bring them back to a respect for the law. Henceforth, organized 360 The French Revolution under clever and unscrupulous leaders, "the patriots" play the decisive role in the Revolution, gradually but resistlessly forcing the king, Lafayette, the National Assembly, and all the constituted authorities of France to bow down before them. The clubs. What greatly contributed to the power of the multitude was the excitement and vague enthusiasm which possessed all classes alike. We must always remember, in order to under- stand the tremendous pace at which the Revolution devel- oped, that the year 1789 marks an almost unparalleled agita- tion of public opinion. A leading symptom of this condition were the innumerable pamphlets ,a^ newspapers which ac- companied the events of the day vv'sih explanatory comment, and not infrequently assumed t^e.^foErfi-pf fanatical exhor- tation. But the most prominent andi^aique witi4ess of the disturbed state of opinion was offered '•b}'"t!!l€ clubs. Clubs for consultation and debate becalne the^^^'feat demand of the hour; they arose spontaneously iiy'all quarters; in fact, every coffee-house acquired, through^ the passri6n of its frequenters. Cordeliers and the character of a poUtical as^ciation. * Of all th'ese-unions the Jacobins and the Cordeliors'-sqo^ won^the most influen- tial position. The Cordeliers reomited' th^ numbers from among the Parisian " patriots "^^^rftitcfejijid Marat were among their leaders, and the tof^^ ihejpl^b was^'fr'J^hi the first, wildly revolutionary. The58|icobib^ destined to be- come a name of dread throughjp qg^ J^urop^ began much more gently. They offered a meeting-point for the consti- tutional and educated elements, and rapidly spread in num- berless branches, or so-called daughter societies, over the length and breadth of France. However, this club, too, suc- cumbed before long to the extreme revolutionary tendencies. Lafayette, Sie}es, and Mirabeau, whose power was at first dominant, were gradually displaced by Robespierre, and Robespierre, once in authority, skilfully used the club as Jacobins. The French Revolution 361 a means of binding together the radical opinion of the country. Throughout the years 1789 and 1790 the National As- The abolition , , , . . , ... of privileges, sembly was engaged in meeting current issues, and in mak- August 4th. ing a constitution. The great question of the privileges, which had proved unsolvable in the early years of Louis XVI., caused no difficulties after the National Assembly had once been constituted. On August 4, 1789, the nobility and clergy, in an access of magnanimity, renounced voluntarily their feudal rights, and demanded that they be admitted into the body of French citizens on a basis of equality. August 4th saw the last of the corvee, rights of the chase, guilds, and other forms of mediaeval injustice, and is one of the great days of the Revolution. But one burning question inherited from the ancien regime Financial remained — the question of the finances. Since the general Assembly. ^ cessation of business which attended the Revolution con- tributed to the depletion of the treasur}', the National As- sembly, in order to avoid imminent bankruptcy, resolved, in November, 1789, to confiscate the property of the clergy, valued at many millions, and presently issued against this new security paper money called assignats. The assignats at the beginning were a perfectly sound financial measure, but owing to the continued needs of the treasur}- they were multiplied to such a degree that confidence in them was un- dermined and their value shrunk to almost nothing. Al- ready the time was not far off when it would take a basket of assignats to buy a pair of boots. Under these condi- tions the finances fell into frightful disorder, and by per- manently deranging the business of the country contributed in no small measure to the increasing anarchy of the Rev- olution. In the intervals of the discharge of current business, the The new con- Assembly deliberated concerning the future constitution of ^ ' " "^"' 362 The French Revolution France. By slow degrees that creation marched during the succeeding months to completion. Of course it is not pos- sible to examine it here with any detail. If we remember that it was the work of men who had suffered from an ab- solute executive and were under the spell of the dogmatic philosophy of the eighteenth century, we shall understand its principal feature. This was that the executive was made purposely weak, and the power intrusted to the people and the legislature. This legislature, it was provided, should consist of one House, elected for two years by all the active citizens^ of the kingdom. Mirabeau, the great statesman of the Revolution, fought hard to secure to the king that measure of power which an executive requires in order to be efficient; but he was unappreciated by his colleagues and distrusted by Louis, and in almost all important matters met Death of defeat. Broken down by disappointment and reckless ex- AprU, 1791. cesses he died (April, 1791), prophesying in his last days, with marvellous accuracy, all the ulterior stages of the Rev- olution. Theunsatis- The death of Mirabeau was generally lamented, but no ofthe'king. one had more reason for regret than the king, who had found in the statesman his most valuable supporter. Ever since October 6th, Louis had been the virtual prisoner of the populace, and had lost all influence in the shaping of events. The constitution, which in the spring of 1791 was nearing completion and would soon be forced upon him, he regarded as impracticable. While Mirabeau lived he re- tained some hope of a change among the legislators in his favor; but when the great orator's death robbed him of this prospect, his thoughts turned to flight as the only means of escaping from a position which he regarded as untenable, ' Citizens were divided by this constitution into two classes, active and passive. Only the active class, composed of those who paid a certain small contribution in the form of a direct tax, could vote. The French Revolution 363 and which exposed his queen, his children, and all who were dear to him to the insults of the Parisian multitude. The flight of the king and royal family was arranged with The flight to the greatest secrecy for the night of June 20th. But too 179^""^^' confident of his disguise as a valet, Louis exposed himself needlessly at a post-station, only to be recognized by the son of the postmaster, who galloped through the night to give the alarm. At the village of Varennes the bells sounded the tocsin, and the excited people, summoned from their beds, would not permit the royal carriage to proceed. With safety almost in view the flight came to an end. The fugi- tives were brought back to Paris, where once more they had the key turned on them in their palatial prison. The flight of the king divided opinion in Paris sharply. The monarch- It gave the monarchists, who had a clear majority in the reLstatesthe Assembly, their first inkling that they had gone too far. A '^'"6- monarch was necessary to their constitutional fabric, and now they beheld their chosen representative attempting to elude the honor by running away from it. They began in consequence to exhibit suddenly for the captive and dis- armed Louis a consideration which they had never accorded him in his happier days. Many popular leaders, on the other hand, such as Danton and Robespierre, regarded the flight as an abdication and a welcome pretext for proclaim- ing the republic. A struggle followed (July, 1791), the most ominous which Paris had yet witnessed; but the mon- archists were still a majority, and by ordering out the Na- tional Guard against the rioters, won a victor)'. The As- sembly, on hearing from the king the doubtful statement that he had never meant to leave the soil of France, nor employ force against his subjects, solemnly welcomed him back to office; and Louis, in return, to mark his reconcilia- tion with his subjects, accepted and swore to obser\'e the constitution. The Assembly was pleased to imagine that 3^4 TJie French Revolution End of the Assembly. it had, by its magnanimous reinstatement of the king, set- tled all the difficulties of the situation. By September 30, 1 791, it had added the last touches to its work, and, dissolv- ing itself, retired from the scene. Its strenuous labors of two years, from which the enthusiasts had expected the ren- ovation of old Europe, culminated in the gift to the nation of the completed constitution. The question now was: Would the constitution at length inaugurate the prophesied era of peace and plenty ? Herewith ended what we may call the first phase of the Revolution. The privileges had been abolished and the absolute monarchy had, at the almost unanimous demand of the people, been transformed into a constitutional one; but still men and opinions continued to clash in a bloody and ominous manner. In this state of unrest a particular reason for apprehension lay in the circumstance that the government had not been given power enough to defend itself, let alone guide and control the nation. Character of the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly {October i, 1791, to September 21, 1792). The First Legislative Assembly, elected on the basis of the new constitution, met the day after the National Assembly adjourned. By a self-denying ordinance, characteristic of the mistaken magnanimity which pervaded the National Assembly, that body had voted the exclusion of its members from the succeeding legislature. The seven hundred and forty-five new rulers of France were, therefore, all men with- out experience. That alone constituted a grave danger, which was still further increased by the fact that most of the members were young enthusiasts, who owed their political elevation to the oratorical vigor displayed by them in the local Jacobin clubs. The French Revolution 365 The dangerous disposition of the Assembly became ap- is hostile to parent as soon as the members fell into party groups. Only *"^^'"S- a minority, called the Feuillants, undertook to support the constitution. On the other hand, a very influential group, called the Gironde,^ favored the establishment of a republic. Thus constituted, the Assembly from the first day directed its energies upon destroying the monarchy. The stages by which it accomplished its purpose we need not here con- sider; but the supreme blow against the king was delivered when he was forced to declare war against Austria; and ex- cept for this declaration, which marks a new mile-stone in the Revolution, we can in a sketch like this forget the Leg- islative Assembly entirely. The declaration of war against Austria resulted from the France de- rising indignation in France over the emigres, who had upon Austria, gathered in armed bands along the Rhine, and over the in- Apnl, 1792. creasing demonstrations of monarchical Europe against the Revolution. Frenchmen generally supposed that Emperor Leopold IL, brother of Queen Marie Antoinette, was plan- ning a war to punish them for their opinions. This we now know was not the case; but Leopold certainly took some steps that the French were justified in interpreting as inter- ference with their affairs. Lashed into fury by the Girondist orators, who wanted war on the ground that it would prove the means of carrying the republican faith to the ends of the earth, the Assembly assumed a more and more lofty tone with the emperor, and finally, on April 20, 1792, declared war against him. Unfortunately, Leopold, who was a moderate and capable Prussia in man, had died a month before the declaration was made, Austria. and it was his dull and narrow-minded son, Francis II. (1792-183 5), who was called to do battle with the Revolu- ' So called from the fact that the leaders of the party hailed from the department of the Gironde (Bordeaux). 366 The French Revolution Invasion and terror. The proclama- tion of Brunswick. tion. But the far-sighted Leopold had not died without making some provision for an eventual war with France. In February, 1792, alarmed by the hostile attitude of the French people, he had persuaded the king of Prussia to league himself with him in a close alliance. The declara- tion of April 20th, therefore, though directed only at Aus- tria, brought Prussia also into the field. Thus began the wars which were destined to carry the revolutionary ideas around the world, to sweep away landmarks and traditions, and to lock France and Europe in death-grapple for over twenty years. It is probable that the republican Girondists, who more than any man or party were responsible for the war and proudly looked upon it as theirs, expected an easy victory. They saw in a vision the thrones of the tyrants crumbling at the irresistible onset of the new democracy, and them- selves hailed everywhere as the liberators of the human race. But the first engagement brought a sharp disappointment. The undisciplined French forces, at the mere approach of the Austrians, scampered away without risking a battle, and when the summer came it was known that the Austrians and Prussians together were preparing an invasion of France. At this unexpected turn wrath and terror filled the repub- licans in Paris. They began to whisper the word treason, and soon their orators dared to denounce the king pub- licly as the author of the national calamities. In August the allies crossed the border and proceeded on their march to the capital. Excitement rose ever to new heights, and when the duke of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief of the allies, threatened, in an outrageous proclamation, to wreak an unexampled vengeance on the capital if but a hair of the king's head were injured, the seething passion burst in a wave of uncontrollable fury. In the early morn- ing of August loth the mob, organized by the republican The French Revolution 367 leaders, marched against the Tuileries to overthrow the man whom the orators had represented as in league with foreign despots against the common mother, France. When, during the night, the bells from the steeples rang August 10, out the preconcerted summons over the city, the king and ^^^^' his family knew that the supreme struggle had come. Dis- persed about in small groups, the palace inmates passed the night discussing the chances of the coming day. Of all the soldiers a regiment of Swiss mercenaries could alone be counted on. That fact tells more vividly than words the pass to which the ancient monarchy of France had come. But even so, if Louis XVI. had now resolved to conquer or die at the head of this faithful guard, he might have rallied the moderates around the throne. But from this king no such action was to be expected. He could be patient, tolerant of ideas beyond his grasp, and even generous to his enemies, but he could not form a heroic resolution. At eight o'clock in the morning, seeing that the mob was making ready to storm the palace, he abandoned it to seek shelter with the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss Guard, deserted by their leader, made a brave stand. Only on the king's express order did they give up the Tuileries and attempt to effect a retreat. But the odds were against them; and the enraged populace, falling upon them, butchered most of them in the streets. Meanwhile, the Assembly was engaged in putting its offi- End of the cial seal to the verdict of the mob. In the presence of Louis S*thea)n-^'^ and the royal family the members voted the suspension of stitution. the king and ordered the election of a National Conven- tion to constitute a new government. The present Assembly agreed to hold over till September 21st, the day when the new body was ordered to meet. Thus perished, after an existence of ten months, the constitution which had in- flamed so many generous hearts. 368 The French Revolution The govern- ment seized by the demo- crats. Democratic enthusiasm saves France. The invasion is checked at Valmy, Sep- tember 20, 1792. The suspension of the king left the government in the hands of the Legislative Assembly and a ministerial com- mittee. But as the capital was in the hands of the mob and nobody paid any attention to the authorities, the real power fell into the hands of the leaders who on August loth had the courage to strike down the king. Danton, provisional minister of justice, was the most capable member of the group. To make success doubly sure they had, in the early morning hours of August loth, seized the municipal government of Paris and now lay intrenched in the city hall or hotel de ville. Robespierre and Marat, acting from this local center, and Danton, from his post of national influ- ence, were the real sovereigns of France during the interlude from August loth, the day of the overthrow of the monarchy, to September 21st, the day of the meeting of the National Convention. It was plain that the first need of France in this crisis was to beat back the invasion. The victors of the tenth of August, therefore, made themselves the champions of the national defence. Their orators steeled the hearts of the citizens by infusing into them an indomitable courage. "What do we require in order to conquer?" cried Danton, the man of the hour: "to dare, and dare, and dare again." The fatherland was declared in danger; all occupations ceased but those which provided for the necessities of life and the manufacture of weapons; finally, the whole male population was ordered under arms. Whatever we may think of this travesty of government by violence and fren- zied enthusiasm, it certainly accomplished its first end, for it put an army into the field composed of men who were ready to die, and so saved France. Let us turn for a moment to the invasion of the two Ger- man powers, the immediate cause of these Parisian disturb- ances. By September 20th Brunswick, at the head of an The French Revolution 369 army composed chiefly of Prussians, had got to Valmy. There he was so furiously cannonaded by the eastern army under the command of Dumouriez that, deeply discouraged, he ordered a retreat which became almost a rout. In a few weeks not a Prussian or Austrian was left upon French soil. This patriotic success of the radical democrats was un- TheSeptem- fortunately marred by a succession of frightful crimes. To ^"^ massacres, understand them we must once again picture to ourselves the state of France. The country was in anarchy, the power in the hands of a few men, resolute to save their country. They were a thoroughly unscrupulous band, the Dantons, the Marats, and their colleagues, and since they could not afford to be disturbed in their work of equipping armies by local risings among the supporters of the king, they resolved to cow the monarchists, still perhaps a majority, by a sys- tem of terror. They haled to the prisons all whom they sus- pected of being devoted to the king, and in the early days of September they emptied the crowded cells by a deliberate massacre of the inmates. An armed band of assassins made the round of the prisons, and in the course of three days despatched nearly two thousand helpless victims. Not a hand was raised to stop the hideous proceedings. Paris, to all appearances, looked on stupefied. The National Convention {September 21, 1792, to October ■26, 1795). The short interlude of government by an irresponsible The National faction came to an end when the National Convention met meets and (September 21st) and assumed control. This body imme- abolishes ^ , monarchy. diately declared the monarchy abolished. The defeat of the allies at Valmy about this time freed France from all immediate danger from without, and enabled the Conven- tion to concern itself with domestic affairs. 370 The French Revolution In the precarious condition in which France then found herself, everything depended upon the composition of the new governing body. It was made up of nearly eight hun- dred members, all republicans; but republicans of various degrees of thoroughness. The Gironde, known to us from the previous Assembly, had considerable strength, but its control of the Convention was contested by the Mountain,^ a much more radical party, made up chiefly of men like Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, who had overthrown the monarchy and governed France during the last few weeks. The Gironde was composed of speculative philosophers, who saw no reason for further illegality and violence now that the king was deposed and that hope of mankind, the re- public, assured. The men of the Mountain were of a more fierce and practical turn, and concentrated their attention in the present crisis upon the one pressing business of de- fending France. Between these two groups, and perma- nently attached to neither, was the great bulk of the depu- ties, called the Plain. Whichever, Gironde or Mountain, could sway the Plain, would possess a majority and rule France. That the chasm between the Gironde and Mountain was absolutely unbridgeable was shown when the Convention took up the important business of the trial of the king. Ever since August loth Louis and his family had been closely confined in prison. In December the deposed monarch was summoned before the Convention. The Girondists, ami- able dreamers for the most part, would have spared his life, but the Mountainists, backed by the threats of the mob, carried the Plain with them. By a very small majority the citizen Louis Capet, once Louis XVI., was condemned to death, and on January 21, 1793, was beheaded by the newly * So called from the fact that the members took their seats upon the highest tiers of benches. The French Revolution 371 invented machine, called the guillotine. On that eventful day no hand was raised to save the monarch, who, however he may have failed in intelligence and energy, had given abundant proof of his devotion to the interests of his people as he understood them. The execution of the king raised a storm of indignation The first Euro- over Europe, and a great coalition, which every state of im- ^ahist'France. portance joined, sprang to life for the purpose of punishing the regicides of the Convention. The deputies, nothing loath, accepted and even anticipated the challenge. Thus the war with Austria and Prussia promised to assume immense pro- portions in the coming year. The members of the great coalition planned to attack France from every side, and humble her pride in one rapid campaign. The English were to sweep down upon her coasts, the Spaniards to cross the Pyrenees and attack France from the south, the Pied- montese to pour over the Alps, and the Austrians and Prus- sians to operate in the eastern provinces, in Belgium, and along the Rhine. Under these circumstances the question of the defence of the French soil became again, as it had been in the summer of 1792, the supreme question of the hour. It was plain that in order to meet her enemies, who were advancing from every point of the compass, France would have to be united and display an almost superhuman energy. The new crisis quickly developed the animosities between Overthrow of Gironde and Mountain into implacable hatred. There can be no doubt that both sides were equally patriotic; but the immediate issue was not patriotism so much as the most practical means for meeting the threatening invasions. The philosophers of the Gironde insisted on presenting moral scruples about the September massacres and other irregulari- ties, but because the case would not wait upon such niceties, the fanatics of the Mountain resolved to strike their rivals \n The Froich Revolution down. Mobs were regularly organized by Marat to invade the Convention and howl at its bar for the heads of the Girondist leaders. Finally, on June 2, 1793, thirty-one of them, among whom were the brilliant orators Vergniaud, Isnard, Brissot, and Gensonne, were excluded from the As- sembly and put under arrest. The fall of the Girondists meant the removal of the last check upon the ferocity of the Mountain. The power now lay in its hands to use as it would, and the most immediate end of power, the Mountain had always maintained, was the salvation of France from her enemies. To accomplish that great purpose the Mountain now deliberately returned to the successful system of the summer of 1792 — the system of terror. This phase of the Revolution, which is famous as the Reign of Terror — it could appropriately be called the Long Reign of Terror, in order to distinguish it from the Short Reign of Terror of August and September, 1792, which it closely resembles — begins on June 2d, with the ex- pulsion from the Convention of the moderate element, rep- resented by the Gironde. The Reign 0} Terror (June 2, 1793, lo July 27, 1794). The Short Reign of Terror of the summer of 1792 was marked by two conspicuous features: first, an energetic de^ fence of French soil, and, secondly, a bloody repression of the monarchical opposition. The Long Reign of Terror reproduces these elements developed into a system. What is more likely to secure an energetic defence than a strong executive? The Mountain, therefore, created a committee, finally, of twelve members, called the Committee of Public Safety, which it endowed with almost unlimited powers. The Committee of Public Safety was established before the Girondists fell, but the fact that it did not acquire its sov- I The French Revolution 373 ereign influence until the summer of 1793 proves how in- timately it was associated with the Mountain scheme of government. Of the famous Committee of Public Safety the most con- Robespierre spicuous figure was Robespierre, for which reason the whole ^" ^™° ' period of the Terror is sometimes identified with his name. But Robespierre, if most in view, was by no means the most active of the members of the committee. He was indeed the hero of the populace and the Jacobins, and swayed the Assembly by his oratory, but the men who provided for the defence of France were Carnot, Prieur, and Lindet. Dur- ing the prolonged internal convulsions they kept as far as possible aloof from poHtics, and quietly and unostentatiously attended to business. They organized the general levy, equipped the armies, appointed the generals, and mapped out the campaigns. If France was able to confront the forces of the coalition by armies which soon exceeded the enemy in numbers and are sometimes set, though with evi- dent exaggeration, at 1,000,000 men, this great achievement, on which hung the salvation of the country, may be written down primarily to Carnot and his two helpers. The executive having been thus efficiently provided for, Themachin- it remained to systematize the repression of the anti-revolu- Terror. ^ tionary elements. The machinery of the Terror, as this systematization may be called, presented, on its completion, the following features: First, there was the Law of the Sus- pects. By this unique measure the authorities were au- thorized to imprison anyone soever who was denounced to them as "suspect," a term that could be stretched to mean almost anything. It was afterward said by a wit that all France went about in those days conjugating, I am suspect, thou art suspect, he is suspect, etc. In consequence, the prisons were crowded from garret to cellar with thousands of victims. To empty them was the function of the second 374 The French Revolution element of the terrorist machiner\', called the Revolutionar)' Tribunal. This was a special court of justice, created for the purpose of trying the suspects with security and de- spatch. At first the Revolutionary Tribunal adhered to certain legal forms, but gradually it sacrificed every consider- ation to the demand for speed. The time came when pris- oners were haled before the dread judges in companies, and condemned to death with no more ceremony than the read- ing of their names. There then remained for the luckless victims the third and last step in the process of the Terror: they were carted to an open square, called the Square of the Revolution, and amid staring and hooting mobs, who congregated to the spectacle every day as to a feast, their heads fell under the stroke of the guillotine. Marat and Before the Terror had well begun, one of its prime insti- Corday. gators, Marat, was overtaken by a merited fate. Marat was the mouth-piece of the utterly ragged and lawless ele- ment of Paris. He had lately developed a thirst for blood that can only be accounted for on the ground of disease. Yet this degenerate proudly styled himself "the friend of the people." The blow which finally put an end to his wild dec- lamations was delivered from an unexpected quarter. Many of the Girondists, who owed their overthrow primarily to Ma- rat, had succeeded in making their escape to the provinces. At Caen, in Normandy, the fugitives aroused the sympa- thies of a beautiful and noble-minded girl, Charlotte Cor- day. Passionately afflicted by the divisions of her country, which she laid at Marat's door, she resolved by a bold stroke to free France from the oppressor. On July 13, 1793, she succeeded in forcing an entrance into his house, and stabbed him in his bath. She knew that the act meant her own death, but her exaltation did not desert her for a moment, and she passed to the guillotine a few days after the deed with the sustained calm of a martyr. The French Revolutioti 375 The dramatic incidents associated with so many illustri- ous victims of the Terror can receive only scant justice here. In October Marie Antoinette was summoned before the Revolutionary Tribunal. She met with noble dignity the flimsy and untenable charges trumped up against her, and on receiving her death-verdict mounted the scaffold with the courage befitting a daughter of the Caesars.^ A few days after the death of Marie Antoinette, the imprisoned Giron- dists, to the number of twenty-one, travelled the same road. They were followed by the duke of Orleans and Madame Roland, each hostile to the other, but charged alike with complicity in the Girondist plots. The duke of Orleans, head of the secondary branch of the House of Bourbon, richly merited his sentence. He had crowned a life of de- bauchery and intrigue by siding against Louis XVI., and identifying himself with the Jacobin party, going even to the point of dropping his titles and adopting the family name of Equality (Egalite). When in 1792 he was elected to the Convention, he unblushingly committed his final act of in- famy by voting for the death of the king. His very antipo- des was Madame Roland.^ Her honest but bookish enthu- siasm for a regenerated public life naturally drew her to the Girondist party. For a time her house had been their meet- ing-place, and she herself, with the emotional extravagance characteristic of the period, had been worshipped as the muse, the Egeria, of the republican philosophers. In spite of her political immaturity, her mind had the imprint of ' Marie Antoinette left two children, a princess of fifteen years and the dauphin, Louis, aged eight. The princess was released in 1 795, but before that mercy could be extended to the boy, he had died under the inhuman treatment of his jailers. The systematic torturing to death of the poor dauphin is one of the darkest blots upon the Revolution. The dauphin is reckoned by legitimists as Louis XVIL - Madame Roland owed her influence in part to her husband, who was a prominent member of the Gironde and a minister during the last months of the reign of Louis XVL and again in the fall of 1792. Roland made his escape when the Gironde was proscribed, but committed suicide on hearing of the death of his wife. Death of Marie Antoi- nette, October, 1793- Mr. Equality Madame Roland. 37^ TJie French Revolution Revolt at Lyons, Toulon, and in the V'endee. nobility and sustained her in her hour of trial. On mount- ing the steps of the guillotine, she paused to contemplate a statue of Liberty which had been erected near by. Her last words were addressed to the impassive goddess. " Liberty," she said, "what crimes are committed in thy name." But it would be a mistake to suppose that the Terror was limited to Paris, or was directed merely against prominent individuals. By means of revolutionary committees and other agencies it was carried into the provinces on the ground that all France would have to be inspired with the same sentiments if the foreign invaders were to be checked. The departments, inhabited for the most part by law-abid- ing citizens, had from the first shown signs of restlessness under the violences of the Terror; and when the Gironde, a provincial party, fell victim to the Mountain, identified with Paris, the situation straightway became strained and led to the raising here and there of the standard of revolt. The great city of Lyons refused to recognize further the authority of the Convention, and the important naval station, Toulon, went a step farther and surrendered to the English. Here was matter for thought, but it was as nothing compared with the great rising in the west. The peasants of the region called La Vendee gathered in armed bands under the lead- ership of the priests and nobles, and inflamed by the dese- cration of the churches and the execution of the king, refused to bow their necks to the men of the Revolution. This difficult situation the Convention, or rather the Mountain and the Committee of Public Safety, met with unflinching resolution. It sent an army against Lyons, and in October, 1793, after a brave resistance, the city was taken. Then the Convention resolved to inflict an unheard-of pun- ishment; it ordered the destruction of a part of the city and the erection on the ruins of a pillar with the inscription, "Lyons waged war with liberty; Lyons is no more." In The French Revolution 377 December, 1793, the French army regained Toulon, chiefly through the skill of a young artillery officer, Napoleon Bona- parte; and, in the same month, another army scattered the insurgents of the Vendee. But discontent continuing to smoulder in the west, the Convention was roused to send one Carrier, armed with full powers, to stamp out the embers. Carrier at The vengeance wreaked by this madman upon the hostile ^" ^' priests and peasants make the infamies of the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris look like nursery pastimes. Dissatisfied with the slow process of the guillotine. Carrier invented new methods of wholesale execution. The most ingenious, the noyade (drowning), consisted in loading an old vessel with one hundred, two hundred, and even eight hundred victims — men, women, and children — floating it down the Loire, and then scuttling it in the middle of the river. Thus the Terror penetrated to every corner of the land, and held all France in subjection. But its rule was, by its very nature, exceptional. Sooner Disruption of or later there was bound to occur a division among its sup- gvltabie"^' porters, and when division came the revolutionists were sure to rage against each other, as they had once raged in com- mon against the aristocrats. The supreme statesman of the period, Mirabeau, had foreseen that development. In a moment of prophetic insight he had declared that the Rev- olution, like Saturn, would end by devouring its own off- spring. The first signs of the disintegration of the party of the End of the Terror began to appear in the autumn of 1793. The most March '%94. radical wing, which owed its strength to its hold on the gov- ernment of the city of Paris, and which foUowed the lead of one Hubert, had turned its particular animosity against the Catholic faith. To replace this ancient cult, despised as aristocratic, the H^bertists invented, in the spirit of reckless atheism, the so-called religion of Reason, and presently 378 The French Revolution The fall of Danton, April, 1794- Supremacy of Robespierre. forced its acceptance upon the city of Paris by means of a decree which closed all places of Catholic worship. Although this extravagant measure was soon withdrawn and religious toleration reasserted in principle, Robespierre took the ear- liest opportunity to denounce Hubert and his ilk before the Jacobins. Finally, in March, 1794, he resolved to have done with the religious farce, and abruptly ordered the lead- ing atheists to the guillotine. The overthrow of Hebert was followed by that of Danton, a man of a better and nobler stamp, who, falling, carried his friends and satellites down with him. A titanic nature, with a claim to real statesmanship, he had exercised a decisive influence in more than one great crisis; France had prima- rily him to thank for her rescue from the Prussians in the summer of 1792, and, again, the establishment of the Com- mittee of Public Safety was largely his work. But now he was growing weary. The uninterrupted flow of blood dis- gusted him, and he raised his voice in behalf of mercy. Mercy, to Robespierre and his young follower, the arch- fanatic Saint Just, was nothing less than treason, and in sud- den alarm at Danton's "moderation" they hurried him and his friends to the guillotine (April 5, 1794)- Thus Robes- pierre was rid of his last rival. No wonder that it was now whispered abroad that he was planning to make himself dictator. And between Robespierre and a dictatorship there stood, in the spring of 1794, only one thing — his own political incapacity. That he had the Jacobins, the municipality of Paris, the Convention, and the Committee of Public Safety in his hands was proved by their servile obedience to his slightest nod. On May 7th he had the satisfaction of wrest- ing from the Convention a decree after his own heart, for that body made solemn affirmation to the effect that the French people recognized a Supreme Being and the immo*-- The French Revolution 379 tality of the soul. It sufficiently characterizes the solemn Proclaims the pedantry of Robespierre that he never in his life took any- supreme * * thing so seriously as this ludicrous declaration, nor had an B^mg. inkling of the absurdity of the festival of June 8, 1794, at which he presided as high-priest and proclaimed the gospel of the Supreme Being to the heathen. Two days after the ceremony he showed in what spirit he interpreted his relig- ious leadership. In order to facilitate the condemnations, the Revolutionary Tribunal (law of June loth) was multi- plied, and its procedure stripped of the last vestiges of legal form. Then only did the executions in Paris begin in a really wholesale manner. During the six weeks before the adoption of the new religion, the numbers of those guillo- tined in Paris amounted to 577; during the first six weeks after its adoption, the victims reached the frightful figure of 1,356. No government office, no service rendered on the battle-field secured immunity from arrest and death. At last, the Terror invaded the Convention itself. Paralyzed by fear that body submitted, for a time, to the desperate situation. But when the uncertainty connected with living perpetually under a threat of death had become intolerable, the opponents of Robespierre banded together in order to crush him. It is only fair to say that he took no direct part in the slaughter of these last weeks. He had a certain fastidiousness distinguishing him favorably from many of his associates in the governing clique, .such as Billaud, Collot, and Fouche, who covered themselves with every infamy. With his immen.se following among the people he could doubtless have anticipated his enemies, but instead of action he wrapped himself in a mysterious silence. On Fallof Robes- the 9th of Thermidor (July 27th)^ he and his adherents ^-hermidor. ' The Convention, guided by its hatred of the royalist past, had intro- duced a new system of time reckoning. Since the birth of the republic Was regarded as more important than the birth of Christ, September 21, 1792, the day when monarchy was fc^mally abolished, was voted the be- 380 TJic FrencJi Revolution were condemned by the Convention and executed the next day. The Ride 0} the Thermidorians {July 27, 1794, to October 26, 1795)- The reaction The fall of Robespierre put an end to the Terror, not vention. because Robespierre was the Terror, but because the sys- tem had, after a year of wild extravagance, become so thoroughly discredited, even among its own supporters, that the Convention saw itself obliged to discontinue the methods of tyranny. The Thermidorians, many of whom had been the vilest instruments of the Terror and had dipped their hands into every kind of crime, bowed, therefore, to the force of circumstances. They studiously heaped all the blame for the past year on the dead Robespierre, and hypocritically assumed the character of life-long lovers of rule and order. Slowly the frightened bourgeoisie recovered its courage and rallied to the support of the Thermidorian party, and finally a succession of concerted blows swept the fragments of the Terror from the face of France. The municipality of Paris, the citadel of the rioters, was dissolved; the Revolutionary Tribunal dispersed; the functions of the Committee of Pub- lic Safety restricted; and, to make victory sure, the Jacobin Club, the old hearth of disorder, was closed. During the next year — the last of its long lease of power — the Conven- tion ruled France in full accord with the moderate opinion of the majority of the citizens. ginning of a new era. The whole Christian calendar was at the same time declared to be tainted with aristocracy, and a new calendar devised. Its chief feature was the invention of new names for the months, such as: Nivose, Snow month; Pluviose, Rain month; Ventose, Wind month, for the wmter months; Germinal, Budding month; Floreal, Flower month; Prairial, Meadow month, for the spring months, etc. It is worthy of notice that the Convention, a body of men unhampered by tradition, discussed many laudable reforms and carried some of them into effect. One change has invited imitation. It supplanted the old and complicated system of weights and measures by the metrical system. TJie French Revolution 381 But if the Terror fell, its overthrow was due not only to The Terror the horror it inspired, but also to the fact that it had accom- defencL" ^ plished its end. Its cause, as well as its excuse, was the France, danger of France, and whatever else be said, it had really succeeded in defending the country against the forces of a tremendous coalition. On this defence the reader must now bestow a rapid glance. In the campaign of 1793 the French had just about held their own, but in 1794 Carnot's splendid power of organization, and his gift for picking out young talents, enabled the revolutionary army to carry the war into the territory of the enemy. Thus the tables were The first revo- turned and old Europe, instead of invading young France, successes. found itself invaded. In the course of 1794 Jourdan's army conquered Belgium, and shortly after Pichegru seized Hol- land. Belgium, which ever since the Treaty of Utrecht had been a dominion of Austria, was annexed to France, but Holland was left independent, though reconstituted as a re- public and subjected to French influence. At the same time the recrudescence of the old animosities between Prussia and Austria, this time over the question of Poland, para- lyzed the military action of the German allies, and enabled the French to occupy the whole left bank of the Rhine. Incurable jealousies, coupled with the demoralizing effect of the revolutionary victories, undermined the coalition; and as the Thermidorians had no special reasons for continuing the war, they entered into negotiations with Prussia and Peacewith Spain, and in the spring of 1795 concluded peace with them Spain, 1795. at Basel. By these treaties the position of France was made more secure, for England and Austria alone of the great powers were now left in the field against her. Meanwhile, the Convention had taken up the long-neg- TheConven- lected task for which it had been summoned, and in the a'constitutfon. course of the year 1795 completed a new constitution for republican France. This constitution was ready to be 382 The French Re^olut^otl Bonaparte defends the Convention. The Constitu- tion of the Year III. promulgated when^ in October, the Convention had to meet one more assault upon its authority. Animated by various motives, many factions, among them also the royalists, com- bined and swept down upon the Convention to cow it by violence, as they had cowed it so often. But the Con- vention had been for some time filled with a more valiant spirit. It resolved to defend itself, and intrusted one of its members, Barras, with the task; but Barras, who was no soldier, conferred the command of the troops upon a young officer and acquaintance of his, Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte had already creditably distinguished himself at Toulon, and wanted nothing better than this opportunity. When the rioters marched against the Convention on Octo- ber 5th he received them with such a volley of grape-shot that they fled precipitately, leaving hundreds of their comrades dead upon the pavement. It was a new way of treating Parisian lawlessness, and it had its effect. Henceforth, in the face of such drastic measures the people lost taste for the dictation which for six years they had exercised by means of spontaneous insurrections. Bonaparte and his volley of grape-shot meant the return of authority, and proclaimed with brazen tongue that the chapter of revolutionary vio- lences had come to an end. The Convention could now perform its remaining busi- ness without hindrance. On October 26, 1795, its stormy, cowardly, and yet, in some respects, highly creditable career, came to an end, and the new constitution went immedi- ately into effect. It is called the Constitution of the Year III., from the year of the republican calendar in which it was completed. Its main provisions mark a return from the loose, liberal notions of the constitution of 1791 to a more compact executive. Nevertheless, the tyranny of the ancien regime was still too near for the objections against a too- powerful executive to have vanished utterly. Therelore, a The Freftch Revolution 383 compromise was found in a multiple executive of five mem- bers, called the Directory. The legislative functions were intrusted to two houses — a further departure from the con- stitution of 1 791, the single legislative house of which had proved a failure — called respectively, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of the Ancients. The Directory (1795-99). The Directory wished to signalize its accession to power The Directory by terminating the war with a brilliant victory over the re- centrate*dat- maining enemies of France, England and Austria. But an tack upon attack upon England was, because of the insufl&ciency of French naval power, out of the question. Austria was more vulnerable, and Austria the Directory now resolved to strike with the combined armies of France. In accordance with this purpose, "the organizer of victory," Carnot, who was one of the Directors, worked out a plan by which the Aus- trians were to be attacked simultaneously in Germany and Italy. Two splendid armies under Jourdan and Moreau were assigned to the German task, which was regarded as by far the more important, while the Italian campaign, un- dertaken as a mere diversion, was intrusted to a shabbily equipped army of 30,000 men, which, through the influence of the Director Barras and in reward for services rendered, was put under the command of the defender of the Conven- tion, General Bonaparte. But by the mere force of his genius, Bonaparte upset completely the calculations of the Directory, and gave his end of the campaign such impor- tance that he, and not Jourdan or Moreau, decided the war. Bonaparte's task was to beat, with his army, an army of Bonaparte in Piedmontese and Austrians twice as large. Because of the ' superiority of the combined forces of the enemy, he natu- rally resolved to meet the Piedmontese and Austrians sep- 384 The French Revolution The Peace of Campo For- mio, 1797. Bonaparte creates two dependent republics in Italy. arately. Everything in this plan depended on rapidity, and it was now to appear that no beast of prey could excel the stealthy approach and swift leap of this young general. Be- fore the snows had melted from the mountains, he arrived unexpectedly before the gates of Turin, and wrested a peace from the king of Sardinia-Piedmont, by the terms of which this old enemy of France had to surrender Savoy and Nice (May, 1796). Then Bonaparte turned against the Aus- trians. Before May was over he had driven them out of Lombardy. The Pope and the small princes, in alarm, hast- ened to buy peace of France by the cession of territories and of works of art, while the Austrians tried again and again to recover their lost position. But at Areola (November, 1796) and Rivoli (January, 1797), Bonaparte, by his aston- ishing alertness, beat signally the forces sent against him. Then he invaded Austria to dictate terms under the walls of Vienna. This sudden move of Bonaparte's determined the Em- peror Francis II. to sue for peace. Although his brother, the Archduke Charles, had, at the head of the Austrian forces in Germany, beaten Jourdan and Moreau in the campaign of 1796, the emperor was not prepared to stand a siege in his capital. His offers were met half-way by Bonaparte, and out of the negotiations which ensued there grew the Peace of Campo Formio (October, 1797). By this peace Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to France, recognized a sphere of French influence in Italy, and accepted for her- self the principle of the Rhine boundary, the details to be arranged later with the Empire. In return for these con- cessions she received the republic of Venice, which Napoleon had just seized. Bonaparte's victories had made French influence dominant in Italy and led to an important political rearrangement. Out of his conquests in northern Italy he estabhshed two new states, the Cisalpine republic, identical, TJic French Revolution 38; in the main, with the former Austrian province of Lom- bardy, and the Ligurian repubhc, evolved from the former city-state of Genoa. Both these governments were mod- elled upon the republic of France, and though, like Hol- land, nominally independent, became the timid clients of the Directory. When Bonaparte returned to France he was hailed as the Bonaparte national hero, who out of the bramble war had plucked the t^e hour. jewel peace. And what a peace he brought, a peace which French statesmen had dreamed of but never achieved, and which at last carried France on the east to her natural boun- dary, the Rhine! A man who had in a single campaign so distinguished himself and his country naturally stood, from now on, at the centre of affairs. That Napoleon Bonaparte should obtain a position of pre- Youth of eminence in France before he had reached the age of thirty, Bonaparte. would never have been prophesied by the friends of his youth. He was born at Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, in 1769, of a poor but noble family. The inhabitants of Corsica, Italians by race, had long been ruled by Genoa, when, in the year 1768, France obtained the cession of the island. At the time of Napoleon's birth, therefore, the French were occupied in establishing their rule over a people who heroically but uselessly resisted them. In the midst of the patriotic excitement caused by his country's overthrow, the young Corsican grew up. The first notable turn in his fortunes occurred when, at the age of ten, he was sent to France to be reared in a military school. In due course of time he became a lieutenant of artillery, and it was while he was holding this commission, among a people whom he still detested as the oppressors of his country, that the French Revolution broke out, and opened a free field for all who were possessed of ambition and talent. The irresistible current of events caught up and bore the young Napoleon ;86 Tlie Frcfich Revolution Foreign suc- cess, domestic failure. France at- tacks England in Egypt. along until he forgot his narrow Corsican patriotism, and merged his person and his fortunes with the destinies of France. We noted his first great feat at Toulon. The four short years which lay between Toulon and Campo Formio had carried him by rapid stages to the uppermost round of the ladder of success. After two years of existence the Directory had good rea- son to congratulate itself. Belgium, Holland, Italy, and the Rhine boundary, sounded a catalogue of brilliant achieve- ments, and assured France an unrivalled position upon the Continent. Unfortunately, the domestic situation continued to give trouble, and the country still bled from the wounds inflicted by the fierce feuds of the past years. The Church question was no nearer solution, the royalists were gaining strength, and the finances were in hopeless confusion. The value of the paper money (assignats), on account of reckless multiplication, could not be kept up, and when it had shrunk to almost nothing, the Directory wiped the whole issue out of existence by the stroke of a pen. That act meant bank- ruptcy and the paralysis of business. Doubtless the wisest measure would have been to make peace and give France a chance to breathe. But the Directory had a different idea and chose to withdraw attention from domestic woes by throwing itself upon the last remaining foreign enemy, England. For the year 1798 the government planned a great action in order to bring England to terms. As the lack of a fleet put a direct attack upon the island-kingdom out of the question, it was resolved to strike at England indirectly by threatening its colonies. With due secrecy an expedition was prepared at Toulon, and Bonaparte given the command. Nelson, the English admiral, was, of course, on the outlook, but Bonaparte succeeded in evading his vigilance, and in starting unmolested for Egypt (May, 1798). Egypt was a province of Turkey and the key to the east. By estab- The French Revolution 387 lishing himself on the Nile, Bonaparte calculated that he could sever the connection of England with India and the Orient. Nelson gave chase as soon as he got wind of the movements of the French, and although he arrived too late to hinder them from landing near Alexandria, he just as effectually ruined their expedition when on August ist he attacked and destroyed their fleet at Abukir Bay. Bonaparte might now go on conquering Egypt and all Africa — he was shut off from Europe and as good as imprisoned with his whole army. Thus the Egyptian campaign was lost before it had fairly Bonaparte begun. Bonaparte could blind his soldiers to the fact but he hardly blinded himself. Of course he did what he could to retrieve the disaster to his fleet. By his victory over the Egyptian soldiery, the Mamelukes, in the battle of the Pyra- mids (1798), he made himself master of the basin of the Nile, and in the next year marched to Syria. The seaport of Acre, which he besieged in order to establish communication with France, repulsed his attack, while the plague decimated his brave troops. Sick at heart Bonaparte returned to Egj'pt, and despairing of a change in his fortunes, suddenly resolved to desert his army. Contriving to run the English blockade, he landed on October 9, 1799, with a few friends, on the southern coast of France. Though the army he had de- serted was irretrievably lost,^ that fact was forgotten amid the rejoicings over the return of the national hero. The enthusiastic welcome of France, which turned Bona- The Second , . _ . . -11 • 1 Coalition, parte s journey to Pans mto a triumphal procession, was due 175,8, 1799. partially to the new dangers to which the country had been exposed during his absence. Bonaparte was hardly known to have been shut up in Egypt, when Europe, hopeful of shaking off the French ascendancy, formed a new coalition against the hated republic. Austria and Russia, supported * The army surrendered to the English in 1801. 388 The French Revolution The French public is weary of revolution. Bonaparte overthrows the Directory, November, 1799. by English money, renewed the war, and the year 1799 was marked by a succession of victories which swept the French out of Italy and Germany. At the time when Bonaparte made his appearance in Europe, an invasion of France had narrowly been averted by the heroism of General Massena. No wonder that the hopes of the nation gathered around the dashing military leader. What other French general had exhibited such genius as Bonaparte, had won such glory for himself and France? Moreover, after the cease- less agitations of ten years people were tired to death of revolution, the party spirit, and the continued uncertainty of all social relations. The Directory had made matters worse by going into national bankruptcy. Discontent was so general that optimistic royalists predicted the early return of the legitimate king. In short, France was in hopeless confusion, and everybody turned spontaneously to Bona- parte as toward a saviour. The general was hardly apprised of this state of public opinion, when he resolved to act. With the aid of some conspirators in power and urged by public opinion, he over- threw the government. The only resistance was made by the Chamber of Five Hundred, which he overawed by mili- tary force. , The ease with which the coup d'etat of Novem- ber 9, 1799 (i8th Brumaire), was executed proves that the Constitution of the Year III. was dead in spirit before Bona- parte destroyed it in fact. A new con- stitution. The Consulate (i 799-1 804). Bonaparte was now free to set up a new constitution, in which an important place should be assured to himself. Rightly he divined that what France needed and desired was a strong executive, for ten years of anarchic liberty had prepared the people for the restoration of order. The result TJie FrencJi Revolution 389 ■ of Bonaparte's deliberations with his friends was the Con- sular Constitution, called the Constitution of the Year VIII., by which the government was practically concentrated in the hands of one official, called the First Consul. Of course, to hoodwink democratic enthusiasts the appearances of popular government were preserved. The legislative functions were reserved to two bodies, the Tribunate and the Legislative Body, but as the former discussed bills without voting upon them, and the latter merely voted upon them without dis- cussing them, their power was so divided that they necessa- rily lost all influence. Without another coup d'etat, by means of a simple change of title, the Consul Bonaparte could, when he saw fit, evolve himself into the Emperor Napoleon, who would govern France as its absolute master. But for the present there was more urgent business on Bonaparte hand. As France was at war with the Second Coalition, ^00!^" ^^' there was work to be done in the field. The opportune withdrawal of Russia before the beginning of the campaign, again limited the enemies of France to England and Aus- tria. The situation was therefore analogous to that of 1796, and the First Consul resolved to meet it by an analo- gous plan. Neglecting England as inaccessible, and con- centrating his attention upon Austria, he sent Moreau against her into Germany, while he himself went again to meet her in Italy. By a strenuous and picturesque march in the early spring over the great St. Bernard Pass, a feat which rivalled the performance of the great Hannibal, he was enabled to strike unexpectedly across the Austrian line of retreat and force the enemy to make a stand. In the battle of Marengo, which followed (June 14, 1800), he crushed the Austrians, and recovered all Italy at a stroke. Again Francis II. had to admit the invincibility of French arms. In the Peace of Luneville (1801) he reconfirmed all Peace of Lunevillc, the cessions made at Campo Formio, and as the Empire 1801. 390 TJie Fre?ich Rcvoliitioii Peace with England, 1802. France at peace with the world. Bonaparte undertakes the reconstruction of France. became a party to the treaty, there was now no possible defect in the cession of the left bank of the Rhine. It is this feature of the Rhine boundary which gives the Peace of Luneville its importance. As the treaty, furthermore, redelivered Italy into Bonaparte's hands, he now re- established the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics in their old dependence upon France. Again, as in 1798, the only European state which held out against France was England. How reduce the great sea- power to peace? Bonaparte's naval resources were as in- adequate now as ever, and as for striking at the colonies, the recollection of Egypt quickly disposed of the idea. Sated for the time with success and glory, he opened negotiations with the cabinet at London, and in March, 1802, concluded with England, substantially on the basis of mutual restitu- tions, the Peace of Amiens. After ten years of fighting, France was now at peace with the world. The moment was auspicious, but it remained to be seen whether she could take up the labors of peace, and while healing her many wounds, remove the apprehension with which defeated Europe regarded her. Certainly the First Consul showed no want of vigor in attacking the domestic situation, though the picture which unrolled itself before his eyes was frightful. After the wholesale destruction and careless experimentation of the last decade, France needed, above all, a season of construc- tive statesmanship. Not that the Revolution had not scat- tered seeds in plenty, but the harvest had not been awaited with patience. The work before the First Consul during the interval of peace which followed the treaties of Luneville and Amiens was, therefore, nothing less than the recon- struction of the whole social order. He shouldered his responsibilities with his usual ardor. In a public proclama- tion he announced that the disturbances were now over The French Revolution 391 and that he considered it his special task to "close" the Revolution and to "consolidate" its results. One of his first cares was to bring back material prosperity. Return of The national bankruptcy of the Directory now proved a help, P'^'^^P^"'^- for by wiping out the worthless paper money, it enabled the new ruler to make a fresh start. With the currency re- stored, confidence again began to prevail in business circles, and industry and commerce quickly recovered from their long depression. Surely the country had reason to boast of its "man of destiny." Sustained by an unexampled popu- larity, the First Consul now undertook to create a number of fundamental institutions, which, in spite of all the revo- lutions of the nineteenth century, exist, in the main, to this day, and are his best title to fame. Let us give these insti- tutions a brief consideration. The internal administration of France had, during the A new cen- Revolution, fallen into complete anarchy. The constitu- ministration. tion of 1 79 1 had divided France into eighty-three depart- ments, and had supplanted the old centralized administra- tion of royal appointees by a system of local self-government. Practically every office was made elective, requiring a polit- ical activity of which the voters, unaccustomed to the exercise of such duties, became weary. They refused to attend the polls and permitted the power to drift into the hands of a few professional politicians. Even under the Terror the system had been given up, and now with Bonaparte's advent a deliberate return was made to the traditional policy of centralized control. Over every department was put a prefect, appointed by the First Consul and reporting back to him. By this means the whole country was kept in the hands of the chief executive. With his wonderful sense of precision, Bonaparte so perfected his system that no mon- arch by Divine Right has ever in an equal degree made his will felt through the length and breadth of his dominion. 392 TJie French Revolution Democracy, the will-o'-the-wisp pursued through blood and fire for ten agitated years, was sacrificed, but the weary people were content for the present with the order and security assured by the new administration. Religion lay in a similarly hopeless tangle, owing to the persistent attacks of the Revolution upon the Catholic Church. A beginning had been made in 1789 by the con- fiscation of its property, followed in 1790 by the famous Constitution of the Clergy, by which the priests and bishops were reduced to the level of paid civil servants of the state. Against this measure the Church revolted, creating a relig- ious chaos which led to the persecution and wholesale slaughter of orthodox priests and was diversified by such extravagant episodes as the worship of Reason and Robes- pierre's cult of the Supreme Being. But in spite of banish- ment and guillotine, Catholicism at the dawning of the new century was still alive. Bonaparte himself possessed no positive religious views, but he had a splendid sense of reality and divined the superior vigor of the persecuted faith. He had also a clear appreciation of the support which the reconstituted Church could furnish his reorganized state, and presently entered into negotiations with Rome. The result was a treaty of peace, called the Concordat (1801): the Church resigned its claim to its confiscated estates, and the state undertook the maintenance, on a liberal basis, of priests and bishops; these latter were to be nominated by the state and confirmed by the Pope. Thus, if the Church was reestablished, it was henceforth reduced to a close de- pendence on the state. With administration and religion cared for, Bonaparte gave his attention to the department of justice. The legal confusion reigning in France before the Revolution is in- describable, for everything had been left to chance, and rad- ically different svstems of law were often in force in the vari- The FrencJi Revohition 393 ous sections of the country, or even in the same province. The Revolution had made an attempt to straighten out the confusion, but had not got far when Bonaparte came to power. With his usual energy he soon had a commission of experts at work upon the creation of a uniform system, and in 1804 he was enabled to publish the result of their labors in the Civil Code, called afterward the Code Napo- leon. No labor of similar scope had been undertaken since the days of Justinian. The Roman law was made the basis of the Napoleonic code, with such modifications as the prog- ress of the centuries and the principles of the French Rev- olution made inevitable. Bonaparte also planned a general system of state educa- Bonaparte tion, consisting of the primary, secondary, and college stages, of the ways, but he did not get far with his project, and the regulation of school affairs, above all, the creation of a system of popular education, had to wait for more auspicious times. From what has been said, however, some idea can be gained of his constructive and methodizing genius. It is a noteworthy circumstance that his labors of peace have survived ^ all sub- sequent revolutions, while the conquests of his sword have been "swept in fragments to oblivion." Bonaparte as First Consul stood at the parting of the ways. He might con- tinue the labors of peace so gloriously inaugurated, or he might return to the policy of aggressive war lately closed with the treaties of Luneville and Amiens. We must remember that he was primarily a soldier, animated with restless energy and spurred on by boundless ambition, and that civil labors could not long engage an imagination which embraced the ends of the earth. Slowly and instinctively this man, the type of the born military conqueror, turned his eyes from France to let them rest upon Europe and the neighboring ' The Concordat was lately (1905) terminated by action of the state with results which cannot yet be estimated. 394 The Frefich Revolution Napoleon, emperor of the French. Napoleon's action in Holland and Italy. Renewal of the war with England. continents, and girded himself for a role like that of Caesar and Alexander. Therewith the Revolution entered upon its last or Napoleonic stage, in which France is only the tool for the realization of the ambition of the most extraordinary genius of modern times. He took the initial step upon this path when he modified the consular constitution in his own interest. In 1802 he had himself appointed consul for life, and in May, 1804, dropped the transparent pretence of re- publicanism by the assumption of the title emperor of the French. The final step in this transformation scene oc- curred in December of the same year, when in the presence of the Pope, and with all the formality and pomp of the ancient regime, he crowned himself and his wife Josephine before the high altar of the Cathedral Church of Paris. The Empire (1804-15). Napoleon's first imperial measure was the appropriation of the subject-republics by which France was surrounded. At his nod the Batavian republic bloomed forth as the king- dom of Holland, and thankfully accepted Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, as king. In like manner the Cisalpine republic became the kingdom of Italy and offered the crown to its powerful protector. In May, 1805, Napoleon crossed the Alps, and had himself crowned king at Milan. The Ligurian republic now had no further raison d'etre, and like Piedmont, some years before, was quietly incorporated with France. Even before these signal acts of aggression the confidence' with which the European governments had first greeted Na- poleon had vanished. Slowly they began to divine in him the insatiable conqueror, who was only awaiting an oppor- tunity to swallow them all. As early as 1803 continued dis- putes over the Peace of Amiens had led to a renewal of the The French Revolution 395 war with England. Napoleon now prepared a great naval armament at Boulogne, and for a year, at least, England was agitated by the prospect of a descent upon her coasts; but the lack of an adequate fleet made Napoleon's project chimerical from the first, and in the summer of 1805 he un- reservedly gave it up. He gave it up because England had succeeded in playing The Third upon the fears of Austria and Russia until they formed a England, Aus- new coalition to curb the growing power of the emperor, tna, Russia. No sooner had Napoleon got wind of the state of affairs than he abandoned his quixotic English plans, and threw himself upon the practical task of defeating his continental enemies. His military genius presently celebrated a new triumph, for at Ulm he took the whole Austrian advance guard captive, and on December 2, 1805, he followed up Austerlitz. this advantage by administering a crushing defeat to the 1805. ' combined Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz in Moravia. With his capital, Vienna, lost, and his states occupied, the Austrian emperor was reduced to bow down before the in- vincible Corsican and sign the Peace of Pressburg (Decem- ber 26, 1805), in which he gave up Venice to be incorporated with the kingdom of Italy, and the Tyrol to be incorporated with Bavaria. These provisions introduce us to a very characteristic Napoleon's feature of Napoleon's policy of conquest. He did not plan, policy?" at least for the present, to incorporate the conquered prov- inces of Europe with France, but rather, from France as a centre, to rule over a host of subject-kings. Especially in regard to Germany, his policy was to create a check for the great powers, Austria and Prussia, by fattening the smaller states at their expense. Therefore, Wurtemberg as well as Bavaria had received new territory and been raised to the rank of a kingdom. He now went a step farther and pro- posed to gather all the smaller German states into a new 396 TJie- French Revolution union under his presidenc}'. As they had neither the power nor the moral stamina to resist, the world was presently in- formed of the organization of a new German confederacy, composed of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, and in its final form of all the states of Germany except Austria and Prussia. Of this union, called the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon became sovereign under the name of Protector. A glance at the map will show how this triumph drove a wedge into central Europe. Naturally, the creation of a rival German organization coupled with the defection of its component elements from the Holy Roman Empire gave that venerable institution its death-blow. It had been an unconscionable time a-dying, and now Napoleon, the product of a revolution which made sport of tradition, bade it begone. Emperor Francis spoke a last service over its remains when he resigned his now empty title, and adopted in its place the designation em- peror of Austria (1806). Certainly no German, however much he might regret the manner of its taking off, had any cause to shed a tear at the passing away of this de- crepit government. The stroke which freed Germany from the incubus of centuries cleared the way for a happier future. But that future was as yet hidden behind the clouds of the gathering storm which threatened to destroy every vestige of German independence. For with Austria humbled and the small states reduced to subservience in the Confedera- tion of the Rhine, Napoleon now turned his attention to Prussia. Ever since 1795 (Treaty of Basel) Prussia had maintained a friendly neutrality, and all the persuasion and threats of the rest of Europe had not induced her to renew the war against her western neighbor. Even after Napoleon became emperor, the government of Berlin pursued an ami- cable course, weakly hoping for all kinds of advantages The French Revolution 397 from a close association with France. But as soon as Napoleon had disposed of Austria, he showed his true hand and inaugurated toward Prussia a policy of provocations, which the obsequious government of the peevish king, Frederick William III. (i 797-1 840), refused for a long time to resent. By the autumn of 1806, however, Napoleon's acts had grown so flagrant that Prussia, to save the poor rem- nant of her self-respect, had to declare war. Again Napoleon had an opportunity to show that the old Napoleon as military art of Europe could not maintain itself against his ^^ ^^'^ " methods. As we examine these now, they surprise us by their mathematical simplicity. To get ready earlier than the enemy, to march more rapidly than he, and, finally, to strike him at the weakest spot with concentrated energy — these were the principles of Napoleon's military science, com- bined with personal qualities of hot daring and cool fore- sight which have perhaps never been equalled. The campaign of 1806 brought Napoleon's genius into The Prussian view more clearly than any that had preceded it. But if ofT8o6.^" the emperor won, his soldiers shared the honors with him. For the Prussian troops, drilled like machines but moved by no enthusiasm, were as little the equals of the great national French armies, animated by the ideas of country and glory, as the Prussian commander, the ancient duke of Brunswick, who had been trained in the antiquated school of Frederick the Great, was a match for the fiery young emperor. On October 14, 1806, old and new Europe clashed once more, and at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, fought on that day, the military monarchy of the great Frederick was over- whelmed. With a bare handful of troops Frederick Will- iam fled toward his province of East Prussia, in order to put himself under the protection of Russia, and before the month of October had passed, Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph. 398 The French Revolution The campaign against Russia, 1807. The Treaty of Tilsit. The humilia- tion of Prussia. Alliance of Napoleon and Alexander. All central Europe now lay in Napoleon's hand. Another man would have preferred to rest before continuing his march of triumph, but Napoleon felt unsatisfied as long as there was any one who dared brave his legions. In order to overthrow the presumptuous ally of Prussia, the Czar Alex- ander, Napoleon now set out from Berlin, and in June, 1807, won a great victory over the Russians at Friedland. Then he magnanimously offered peace to Ale.xander, and to the surprise of the world the enemy of yesterday became the bosom friend of to-day. The Czar Alexander was a young man with a vivid im- agination, and when he now met the great Corsican, under romantic circumstances, on a raft moored in the river Nie- men, he fell completely under the spell of his personality. The consequence of the repeated deliberations of the two emperors, of which the disgraced king of Prussia was for the most part a silent witness, was the Peace of Tilsit (July, 1 807V By this peace Russia was treated with kindness, but Prussia was thoroughly humiliated, and condemned to the sacrifice of half her territory. The Prussian provinces between the Elbe and Rhine were made the nucleus of a new kingdom of Westphalia for Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome, and the Prussian spoils of the later Polish Partitions were constituted as the grand-duchy cf Warsaw, and given to the elector of Saxony. Prussia became a secondary state, with nothing more to boast of than that she still lived. The treaty of peace was accompanied by an arrangement between Napoleon and Alexander by the terms of which they became close alHes. This dramatic turn was the result of the fascination which the western conqueror exercised upon the pliable and romantic Czar, who now formally promised to join Napoleon in his war against England, in case that power would not straightway make peace. In return the French sovereign held out the prospect of aiding Russia in The French Revolution 399 her projects upon Turkey, and diverted his new friend with an imaginative picture of a Europe divided, as in Roman times, between an emperor of the west and another of the east. The Peace of Tilsit carried Napoleon to the zenith of his Napoleon at career, for with Russia as his ally, the rest of the Continent hispower." was subject to his will and obliged to wear his yoke. Let us for a moment with the map in hand review his position. He held France and the kingdom of Italy, ruling them di- rectly and absolutely, and this firm nucleus he had sur- rounded with a host of dependencies, where subject-sover- eigns enjoyed vacant and nominal honors. In Germany he had created the Confederation of the Rhine; he controlled the Swiss Republic under the title of Mediator; and he had put his brothers and relatives as instruments of his will in various territories, Louis becoming king of Holland, Joseph king of Naples, his favorite, Jerome, king of Westphalia, and his brother-in-law, the brilliant cavalry leader Murat, grand-duke of Berg. These last two states, Westphalia and Berg, were artificial creations out of the German spoils, and were incorporated with the Confederation cf the Rhine. By a succession of unparalleled strokes, delivered between 1805 and 1807, he had humbled Austria, Prussia, and Rus- sia, had silenced all opposition on the Continent, and could now return to the starting-point of his imperial wars, the struggle with England. This struggle is one of the most fascinating and momen- The war with tous chapters in Napoleon's career. Adjourned at the Peace "^ ^" ' of Amiens (1802), it had broken out again the next year, and led to the armament of Boulogne and the plan to invade the island. The project was hair-brained while England with a superior fleet controlled the Channel, and its chances were entirely blasted when in October, 1805, Nelson, the British naval hero, destroyed the allied French and Spanish fleets 400 TJie French Revolution The Continen- tal System. The Continen- tal System prepares Na- poleon's over- throw. off Trafalgar. Since then fighting on the seas had practi- cally ceased; Napoleon might march with his invincible hosts from capital to capital, but his control stopped with the shore. Undismayed, he resolved now to strike at Eng- land indirectly by ruining her commerce and sapping her wealth. This commercial war has received the name of the Continental System, and the opening gun was fired in the Decrees issued from Berlin in November, 1806, by which Napoleon ordered the seizure of all British goods in his own or allied territory, and excluded from the ports of France and her allies all ships hailing from Great Britain. The necessary supplies of colonial produce, such as sugar and coffee. Napoleon hoped to have furnished by neutral vessels; but the British Government shattered this illusion by an- swering his challenge with the so-called Orders in Council, forbidding neutral ships, under penalty of seizure, to trade between ports from which Britain was excluded. This blow called for another. Napoleon now determined on nothing less than to seal the Continent hermetically to English trade by obliging every state, great and small, to accept the Con- tinental System. Prussia and Austria had already yielded, and one of the articles of the alliance of Tilsit provided not only that Russia should follow in their footsteps, but also that Alexander should join Napoleon in forcing the exclu- sion of British goods upon the few small states which had thus far resisted, namely, Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal. The adoption of the Continental System became the turn- ing-point of Napoleon's career and the beginning of his downfall, for not only did it involve him in new conquests, but by spreading misery far and wide, through the ruin of commerce and industry, created a discontent which lost him his popularity, and finally rose in ever-renewed waves of hatred to a sea of universal revolt. It is well to remember in this connection that Napoleon's astonishing successes The French Revolution 401 were won over old-fa shionedj^ absolute monarchies, only re- motely in touch with their own peoples. In Italy and Ger- many the masses to a considerable extent syTnpathLzed with Napoleon, for he represented the doctrines of the French Revolution, and his armies brought in their train the over- throw of such feudal iniquities as serfdom and the reign of ^^rivUege. But this precious support the emperor sacri- ficed when he paralyzed the economic life of Europe and carried exasperation into every city and village. Greeted at fir^ as a liberator, he was gradually cursed as a scourge, and^reaped the harvest of his policy in a series of national j^v^s which swept himself, his throne, and his family off the face of Europe. It is of course questionable whether Napoleon's cosmopoHtan empire, composed of many proud and spirited nationalities, could have been fashioned even by his genius into a durable form; in any case it is certain that by the Continental System he took measua-es to secure his own failure. Acting upon the arrangements of Tilsit, Napoleon first Invasion of turned upon little Portugal with the command that she seize ^to- all British goods and close her ports to British commerce. On her refusal he occupied her territory vdth an army, and drove her royal family across the seas to Brazil. Here was brutality and violence, but it dvvindled to inno- The weak cence compared with what happened immediately after in ^^m during "Spain, for there the emperor struck a friend and ally. The *!"^ Revolu- history of Spain during the French Revolution is a miserable j tale, largely because of the despicable character of the king, Charles IV., and the corruption of the court. Having made war upon the Revolution in its first stage, the king had as early as 1795 signed a peace, which had shortly after ripened into an alliance. For the sake of his good friend Napoleon, Charles IV. had joined his fleet to that of France, and also for the sake of that friend he had sacri- A02 TJie FrencJi Revolution The intrigue of Bayonne, The insur- rection of Spain. ficed it at Trafalgar. As a return for these good offices, Napoleon now deliberately planned to seize his kingdom. Taking advantage of a quarrel between Charles and his son Ferdinand — two clowns as disgusting as any that have ever masqueraded in a royal mantle — he invited the pair to Bay- onne, just across the border, in order to lay their quarrel be- fore him. There the trap closed on them and the two sim- pletons were forced to resign their royal rights to the wily arbiter (May, 1808). Spain was thereupon given to Joseph Bonaparte, who before assuming his new dignity was obliged to surrender the kingdom of Naples, held for the last two years, to Caroline Bonaparte's husband, Murat, henceforth King Murat. The shameless violence and duplicity by which Napoleon seized the crown of Spain sent a thrill of horror through the Spanish people. By disposing of them as if they were a nation at auction he had wounded their pride, and instead of a peaceful occupation he found himself confronted with ^an insurrection. It was a new phenomenon upon the em- peror's path, and he failed to read the meaning of it. Con- vinced, soldier like, that there was no obstacle which would not yield to force, he rapidly diagnosed the Spanish situation as requiring a little treatment by cold steel. If the Spaniards had met the regular army which he now launched against them in the field, it is plain that their incfTective forces would have gone down before the French eagles like the rest of Europe. But wisely they assembled only in small guerrilla bands, swept from ambuscades upon detachments and rear- guards, and were gone again before they could be punished. The summer of 1808 brought Napoleon his first serious mil- itary disasters, and to make things worse England imme- diately took a lively interest in Spanish affairs. Having waited in vain for Napoleon to seek her on the sea, she found and seized this opportunity to seek him on the land. In Tlie French Revolution 403 the summer of 1808 an English army disembarked in Por- tugal for the purpose of supporting the revolt of the penin- sula. When Napoleon, angered by the check received by his political system, appeared in person on the scene (au- tumn, 1808), he had no difficulty in sweeping the Spaniards into the hills and the English to their ships, but he was hardly gone when the scattered guerrillas ventured forth from their retreats and the English forced a new landing. Napoleon had now to learn that a people resolved to live Napoleon free cannot be conquered. The Spanish war swallowed theSpardards immense sums and immense forces, but the emperor, as down, stubborn in his way as the Spaniards, would give ear to no suggestion of concession. Slowly, however, circumstances told against him. The revolts showed no signs of abating, and when, in 1809, a capable general, Sir Arthur Wellesley, better known by his later title of duke of Wellington, took command of the English forces, and foot by foot forced his way toward Madrid, Napoleon's Spanish enterprise became hopeless. Of course that was not immediately apparent; but what did become all too soon apparent was that the enslaved states of central Europe were taking the cue from the Spaniards, and were preparing for a similar struggle with their oppressor. In the year 1809 Austria, encouraged by the Spanish sue- Austria tries cesses, was inspired to arouse the Germans to a national a German revolt. But the effort was premature, for as Prussia was "nsurrection. still occupied by French troops, and the whole territory of the Confederation of the Rhine was pledged to Napoleon's interests, only detached bodies in the Tyrol, in Jerome's kingdom of Westphalia and elsewhere, responded to Aus- tria's call. At Wagram (July, 1809) Napoleon laid Austria a fourth time at his feet. In the Peace of Vienna, which followed, she was forced to cede Salzburg to Bavaria, give uj) most of her Polish provinces to the duchy of Warsaw and 404 TJie French Revolution Humiliation of Austria, 1809. Napoleon changes his political sys- tem, Russia being replaced by Austria. Review of Napoleon's position in i8ii. to the Czar of Russia, and her southern districts, which Napoleon reorganized as the Illyrian provinces, to France. It was but a trunk shorn of its boughs which the conqueror left, and it is not improbable that he would have felled the trunk, too, if he had not been forced at this time to provide for a complete change of his political system. The fact was the Czar Alexander was tiring of the alliance of Tilsit, which handed over the whole Continent to Napoleon, while Russia received no commensurate ad- vantage, besides being subjected to an intolerable burden by reason of the Continental System. Napoleon noticed the diminishing heartiness of the Czar, and resolved to secure himself against defection by seeking the friendship of Austria. That state was, after the war of 1809, in no position to refuse the proffered hand, and when Napoleon further demanded the emperor's daughter, Marie Louise, in marriage, that request, too, had to be granted. That he was already married to Josephine Beauharnais was a slight annoyance, disposed of by divorce on the ground that the union was childless. In April, 1810, the military upstart, for that is what Napoleon was from the point of view of the drawing-room and the court, celebrated his union with a daughter of the ancient imperial line of Hapsburg, and when, in the succeeding year, there was born to him a son and heir, to whom he gave in his cradle the sounding title of king of Rome, he could fancy that the Napoleonic empire was finally settled upon secure foundations. And surely never did Napoleon's power exhibit a greater outward splendor, never did his behests meet with more implicit obedience, than in the year 181 1. The spoiled son of fortune had now acquired the imperious habit of falling into a rage at the slightest sign of opposition. He imposed the Continental System with increasing rigor, and punished the Pope and his own brother Louis with the loss of their k Lomgitude East 6 ° from EUROPE nt the Heiefat of NAPOLiEON'S POWER, 181; t«n(/„„c iOtLX 8V UILSS. A' 6> s» i ^ oJlru.4c)a y \col Boulogue lla>erI„o° [J °Aix laVl nebleau^ ^-1 S.Seb, '""Mao •>) r,Ori;,e - Toulouse V'llniT Strasburg ■ French Territory in Purple Depeudencies in Green Allied Territories in Buff British Territory in Pink Other Countries in Yellow ""'^^^ tebLanea N The M.-y. Co.jBvffalo, N. T. Longi TJie French Revolution 405 territories when they seemed to him to slacken their vigi- lance toward British goods. One cloud which would not dis- perse was the Spanish rising, but that war, with a little power of illusion, could be comfortably minimized to an outbreak of bandits and guerrillas. As Napoleon looked about en- slaved Europe, he might reasonably imagine that now was the most auspicious time to put an end to the last indepen- dent state of the Continent, the eastern colossus, Russia. He had made a friend of that nation for the purpose of securing an unhampered activity in the west, but having long since obtained from the alliance of Tilsit all that he could hope, it had become a burden to him as well as to Alexander. The breach between Napoleon and Alexander became Invasion of definite in the course of the year 181 1. Both powers began preparing for war, and in the spring of 181 2 Napoleon set in movement toward Russia the greatest armament that Europe had ever seen. A half million men, representing all the nationalities of Napoleon's cosmopolitan empire, seemed more than adequate to the task of bringing the Czar under the law of the emperor. And the expedition was at first attended by a series of splendid successes. In September Napoleon even occupied Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia, and there calmly waited to receive Alex- ander's submission. But he had underrated the spirit of resistance which ani- mated the empire of the Czar. Here, as in Spain, a de- termination to die rather than yield possessed every inhabi- tant, and Napoleon received the assurance of the national aversion in the deserted villages through which he marched. At Moscow l^e met with a crushing calamity in the destruc- tion of that city by fire. Whether the fire was laid by the retreating natives or caused by bands of marauding French has never been accurately settled. Napoleon lingered among the ruins of Moscow for some The retreat. Napoleon at Moscow. 4o6 The French Revolutiofi weeks in the vain hope that the Czar, unnerved by the in- vasion of his country, would make peace. But for once Alexander was firm, and the delay overwhelmed the French with disaster. For since the retreat, unavoidable in a country eaten bare of supplies, was not begun till October 19th, the poor troops were overtaken by winter and buried under its icy blasts. To the misery of cold were added hunger and the constant raids of the swift-moving Cossacks until the formidable Grand Army of the spring had melted into a few scattered bands of struggling fugitives. Napo- leon directed the rout through the first stages, but early in December he set out for Paris, realizing that he had sacrificed his veterans in an impossible enterprise. In his absence Marshal Ney, "the bravest of the brave," fighting like a common soldier, did what valor could to save the honor of France and the wreck of her military power. Late in December a few thousand starved, broken, and half-crazed men, whose brothers strewed the frozen plains of Russia, found refuge across the Niemen. The revolt of The loss of his splendid army was, in any case, a serious ermany. calamity for Napoleon. But it would become an irremedi- able catastrophe if it encouraged Germany, long throbbing with suppressed rage, to rise in revolt and create new com- plications at a juncture when he required all his strength to repair the supreme disaster of his life. Unluckily for Na- poleon, the German patriots felt this fact instinctively, and thrilled with the consciousness that never again would such an opportunity be offered them. They wanted a general and national rising; but they saw that its success would be best assured if its guidance were undertaken by Prussia. And Prussia, which Napoleon had trampled into the dust at Jena and shut into a tomb at Tilsit, did not deceive their expectations, and raised the standard of revolt. Prussia since her overwhelming disasters had gone through The FrencJi Revolution 407 a renovation which is one of the remarkable revivals of his- The renais- tory. Her king and leading men had come to see that her i?^J,^ia. overthrow was the inevitable consequence of her backward- ness, and resolved that new foundations would have to be laid in a series of sweeping reforms. Luckily, the state found the men to undertake the work. Stein, as chief minister, and Scharnhorst, as head of the war department, carried through a number of measures, such as the abolition of serf- dom, the creation of local self-government, and the reor- ganization of the army on a national and patriotic basis, which gave Prussia many of the advantages of the French Revolution. And with the new institutions was born a new spirit, unknown hitherto in this feudal and military state, which bound high and low together in a common passionate love of country. When this revived nation heard of Napo- leon's ruin on the Russian snow-fields, all classes were seized with the conviction that the great hour of revenge had come; no debate, no delay on the part of the timid king was suffered, and resistlessly swept along by the rising tide of enthusiasm, he was forced to sign an alliance with Russia and declare war (March, 1813). The disastrous campaign of 181 2 would have exhausted The campaign any other man than Napoleon. But he faced the new sit- part uation as undaunted as ever. By herculean efforts he suc- ceeded in mustering and training a new army, and in the spring of 181 3 appeared suddenly in the heart of Germany, ready to punish the new coalition. Life and death depended on his defeating Russia and Prussia before the Confedera- tion of the Rhine, already simmering with revolt, and Aus- tria, only waiting for a chance to recover her own, had de- clared against him. At Liitzen (May 2d) and at Bautzen (May 20th) he maintained his ancient reputation. But clearly the day of the Jenas and Friedlands was over, for not only did he capture no cannon or men, but the allies fell 4o8 TJie French Revolution The armistice back in good Order on Silesia, while Napoleon had to confess June 4 . ^^^ j^.^ victories had been paid for by such heavy losses that to win, at this rate, was equivalent to ruin. On June 4th he agreed to an armistice in order to reorganize his troops. The attitude Both parties now became aware that the issue of the cam- 01 Austria. paign depended upon Austria, for so delicately adjusted were the scales between the contestants, that the side upon which she would throw her influence would have to win. In these circumstances Mettemich, Austria's unscrupulous and jug- gling minister, undertook, at first, the role of mediator; but when Napoleon indignantly rejected the conditions for a general peace which Mettemich proposed, Austria threw in The campaign her lot with the European coalition. In August, 1813, at part. the expiration of the truce, there followed a concerted for- ward movement on the part of the allies. Prussians, Rus- sians, and Austrians crowded in upon Napoleon, who sat ensconced in the heart of Germany, in Saxony. Having the smaller force, his outposts were gradually driven in, himself outmanceuvTcd, and his concentrated host crushed utterly in a savage three days' battle at Leipsic (October i6th-i8th). With such remnants as he could hold together he hurried across the Rhine. Germany was lost beyond recovery. The question now was: Would he be able to re- tain France? The winter If the great conqueror could have befriended himself with 1814^^'^" °' the idea of ruling over France alone, he might have ended the war by the acceptance of the Rhine boundary, which the allies now offered. But he refused to acknowledge that he was beaten, and by rejecting the proffered peace obliged his enemies to continue the war. In the winter they invaded France, resolved to annihilate him before he had recovered his strength. His defensive campaign, conducted in the cold of winter with slender forces, is regarded by military men as among his most brilHant achievements; but he was TJie French Revolution 4C9 now hopelessly outnumbered, and when, on March 31st, the allies forced the gates of Paris, even Napoleon's confidence received a shock. As he looked about him he saw the whole east of France in the hands of his enemies, while the south was as rapidly falling into the power of Wellington, who in the two splendid campaigns of 181 2 and 1813 had pushed the French out of Spain and was now pursuing them across the Pyrenees. On April 6, 1814, at his castle of Fontaine- bleau. Napoleon acknowledged that all was over, and of- fered his abdication. The allies conceded him the island of Elba (ofT the coast of Tuscany) as a residence, and then gave their attention to the problem of the future of France. Not from any enthusiasm for the House of Bourbon, but merely because there was no other way out of the difficulties, they finally gave their sanction to the accession to the throne of Louis XVIII., brother of the last king. As regards the extent of the restored kingdom, it was agreed in the Peace of Paris that France was to receive the boundaries of 1792. This important preliminary matter arranged, a general congress of the powers assembled at Vienna to discuss the reconstruction of Europe. The modern age has not seen a more brilliant gathering of notabilities. All the sovereigns and statesmen who had stood in the centre of public attention during the last momentous years were, with few exceptions, present, and a single drawing-room sometimes held Czar Alexander, the great Wellington, the German patriot Stein, the courtly but treacherous Talleyrand, and that master of all diplomatic wiles, the Austrian chancellor Metternich. Btrt-before the Congress of Vienna had ended its labors, the anti-Napoleonic coalition, which the congress represented, was once more called upon to take the field. For in March, 1 81 5, the news reached the allied sovereigns that Napoleon had made his escape from Elba, and had once more landed in France. Napoleon abdicates, April 6, 1814. The allies re- store the Bourbons. The Congress of Vienna. 4IO The French Revolution The resolution formed by Napoleon, after only a few months of exile, to try conclusions once more with united Europe, was the resolution of despair. It was folly on the part of the allies to expect that a man like him, with a burn- ing need of activity, would ever content himself with the lit- tle island-realm of Elba, especially as France, his willing prize, lay just across the water. It was equal folly on the part of Napoleon to fancy that he could thwart the will of united Europe; but being the man he was, there was a moral certainty that, sooner or later, he would make the attempt. On March ist he landed unexpectedly near Cannes, accom- panied by a guard of eight hundred of his old veterans, who had been permitted to attend him in exile; and no sooner had he displayed his banners than his former soldiers streamed to the standards to which they were attached with heart and soul by innumerable glorious memories. Mar- shal Ney, who was sent out by the restored Bourlion king to take Napoleon captive, broke into tears at sight of his old leader, and folded him in his arms. There was no resisting the magnetic power of the name Napoleon. The familiar "Vive I'empereur/" rang through France till the lukewarm partisans of the Bourbon dynasty fell away from it with fev- erish alacrity. Discouraged by the diminishing ranks of his supporters, Louis presently fled across the border, while the hero of the soldiers and peasants entered Paris amid wild acclamations. The Hundred Days, as Napoleon's restoration is called, form a mere after-play to the great drama which lies between the Russian campaign and the abdication of Fontainebleau, and which ended with the collapse of his empire of conquest. To revive that corpse against the will of united Europe was hopelessly out of the question. Hardly had the sovereigns at Vienna heard of Napoleon's return, when they launched their excommunication against him, and converged their The French Revohitioji 41 1 columns from all sides upon his capital. The issue was de- Opening of the cided in Belgium. There Wellington had gathered a com- p^fn*!^ *^^°^" posite Anglo-Dutch-German army, and thither marched to his assistance Marshal Blucher with his Prussians. These enemies, gathered against his northern frontier. Napoleon resolved to meet first. With his usual swiftness he fell upon Blucher on June i6th at Ligny, before this general could unite with Wellington, and beat him roundly. Leaving Marshal Grouchy with 30,000 men to pursue the Prussians, he next turned, on June i8th, against Wellington. Wellington, who had taken a strong defensive position Waterloo, near Waterloo, resolutely awaited the French attack. All -^""^ ' ' ^ '^" the afternoon Napoleon hurled his infantry and cavalry against the "iron duke's" positions without dislodging his tough opponent, and when toward evening the Prussians unexpectedly made their appearance on his right he was caught between two fires, and totally ruined. Precipitately he fled to Paris and there abdicated a second time. De- serted by all in his misfortunes, he now planned to escape to America, but finding the coast guarded by English cruisers, was obliged to take passage on the ship Bellerophon Napoleon to be carried first to England, and thence, in accordance to St. Helena, with the verdict of his victorious enemies, to the rocky, mid- Atlantic island of St. Helena. There, six years later (182 1), he died, a lonely and embittered exile. At Paris, meanwhile, the allies once more restored Louis Second resto- XVIII. to his ancestral throne, and by the Second Treaty xvill. of Paris, not quite so generous as that of the preceding year, handed over to him a France shorn of all its revolutionary acquisitions. The great drama called the French Revolution was over. Looking Beginning with a protest against the corruption and in- iquity of government and society, it had celebrated its first success when it overthrew the court and the privileged 412 The French Revolution Distinction between Na- poleon and the Revolution. The enduring principles of the Revolution. orders. Unhappily, the leaders forgot that patient and solid reconstruction should always go hand in hand with wreck- age, and had permitted the movement to degenerate into anarchy. The uncertain domestic situation unfortunately became complicated with a war against monarchical Europe, which led to the creation of vast and victorious hosts, and ended by giving birth to a popular military hero. Thus the democratic forces created by the Revolution served to build a throne for Napoleon Bonaparte. Another might have been content with founding a new dynasty in France, but Napoleon lifted his eyes to something greater, and dreamed of the Empire of Charlemagne. That project was at the bottom of all his later wars, \yars of pure conquest, which he conducted with unique success — except against England, secure in her moated island — until his yoke caused his victims to lay aside every other question in order to crush him with their united strength. Clearly, in the light of this exposition, it is necessary to distinguish between the work of the Revolution and the ambition of Napoleon. The storm, which swept away the emperor, not only obliterated every vestige of his imperial creation, but threatened also to scatter all the mental and moral conquests of the preceding period. In the end these were spared, and happily spared, for if the world had a right to repel Napoleonic tyranny, it would have made a grievous mistake to reject with the tyrant all the blessings which the French Revolution had poured out in its first inspiring years. Naturally, owing to the animosities created by the long struggle, everything hailing from France was for the present under the ban. But much of the good that had been done could not again be undone. Certain principles and ideas which had been given a wide currency were too precious to be given up. They have become the founda- tions of nineteenth-century society. Among them let us The French Revolution 413 select the following for brief consideration, (i) Social equality. — Feudalism, with its system of privileges for some and burdens for others, was replaced by the principle that all men are equal before the law and have the same duties and opportunities. (2) Religious toleration. — Instead of persecution, on the ground of religion, the state shall hence- forth give protection to all peaceful religious associations. (3) Sovereignty of the people. — The state is not the personal property of the monarch, but belongs to the nation, which has the right to direct its own destiny. (4) Nationality. — The people of the same blood and speech are justified in coming together and forming a national state. Such were the principles wrought out for humanity by that vast conflagration, the French Revolution. Although they were rejected by ofl&cial Europe in the period of reac- tion which followed the fall of Napoleon, they found shelter in the minds of a few fearless men, and, communicated gradually to others, became the leading forces in the de- velopment of the nineteenth century. CHAPTER XVII THE PERIOD OF REACTION References: Fyffe, Modern Europe (popular edition), Chapters XIII.-XV.; Phillips, Modern Europe (1815- 1900), Chapters I., II., pp. 14-22; III.-VIL; Seigno- Bos, PoHtical History of Europe Since 1814, Chapter X., pp. 286-305; Chapter XL, pp. 326-33; Chapter XXI., pp. 648-57; Chapter XXV.; Andrews, Modern Europe, Vol. I., Chapters III., V.; Phillips, The War of Greek Independence (1821-33); Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independence (1814-49), ^'^ol- !•) Books 1-2; Bolton King, History of Italian Unity (1814-71), Vol. I., Part I. Source Readings: Translations and Reprints, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, Vol, I., No. 3 (text of Holy Alliance, German Bund, etc.); Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXXIX. (Talleyrand, Metternich, etc.); Old South Leaflets, No. 56 (the Monroe Doctrine) . The Congress The Congress of Vienna, which met to arrange the af- fairs of Europe after the unparalleled storms of the past gen- eration, embodied the agreements reached among the pow- ers in a so-called Final Act. Taken in connection with the Peace of Paris, this document traces the political geography of reconstructed Europe. It also conveys an idea of the principles of the victors. These principles have been vehe- mently condemned, but were, after all, the natural out- growth of the conservative triumph. It was felt that the general unrest produced by Napoleon's having erased 414 ^ TJie Period of Reaction 415 boundaries, toppled over old dynasties, and called new Its principles: ones into being, should be replaced by certainty and per- tefritoriafcom- manence, and the surest method to achieve this end pensation, and ' _ _ hostility to seemed to be to reestablish as far as possible all the states, France, great and small, in existence before the late disturbances. These states were said to be " legitimate," as against the illegitimate creations of Napoleon. The desirability of sifting the sheep from the goats, on the score of this distinc- tion of " legitimacy," was first championed by the supple Frenchman Talleyrand, and gradually imposed itself as a piece of divine wisdom upon the congress. But while "legitimacy" made for the restoration of the old dynasties, the great powers did not forget to compensate themselves territorially for their past losses and labors. Their hunger for land modified the plan of a restoration pure and simple, and that plan was further affected by the desire to check all possible future aggressions on the part of the disturbing element, France. Legitimacy, territorial compensation, and hostility to France are the main forces out of the inter- action of which grew the new map of Europe. The greatest interest at the congress gathered around Changes in central Europe, as the region which had been subjected to Cerm^'ny. the most sweeping changes by the Revolution. In Italy the old governments were restored with the exception of the re- public of Genoa, which was given to Sardinia to strengthen it against France, and the republic of Venice, which was given to Austria to compensate it for Belgium. This ac- commodation caused little trouble compared with the nego- tiations over Germany. As no one wanted to have the Holy Roman Empire back again, it was agreed, in spite of the clamor of the German patriots, who favored a strong united state, that the German princes should be considered sover- eign and bound together in a loose federation. Serious The trouble trouble came when Prussia asked, as her compensation, the ^^^'^ axony. 4i6 TJie Period of Reaction The rearrange- ments of Vienna dis- appoint national hopes. whole of Saxony. The right of Prussia to indemnity was admitted in principle, because she had lost her Polish prov- inces, and Saxony was considered in some quarters as rea- sonable payment, on the ground that her king, having clung to Napoleon to the last, had forfeited whatever claim he might have had under the theory of legitimacy. In fact, Prussia and Russia had come to a private agreement, by which Russia, in return for the Prussian Polish spoils, agreed to support Prussia in her effort to gain Saxony. But Aus- tria, England, and France firmly declared themselves against this arrangement, and the conflict was not adjusted by a compromise until both sides had begun to make prepara- tions for war. By the final agreement, Prussia got half of Saxony, the remainder being returned to the "legitimate" sovereign. For the part she gave up she received in ex- change a solid block of territory on the lower Rhine, while Alexander acquired the grand-duchy of Warsaw — with the exception of the province of Posen, given to Prussia — and converted his acquisition into the kingdom of Poland, with himself as king. Between France and Germany lay Belgium and Holland, both incorporated with France during the period of trench ascendancy. In order to establish a strong bulwark against France the congress consolidated these states and placed them under the rule of the "legitimate" House of Orange. The new creation received the name of the kingdom of the Netherlands. England, the oldest and the most successful of the enemies of Napoleon, was paid in colonial territory, receiving South Africa (the Cape), Ceylon, Malta, and Heligoland. The most serious danger to the permanence of these ar- rangements arose from the fact that they disappointed the national hopes of the Italian, the Polish, the German, and the Belgian peoples. Let us examine the agreements from Lancitude Eaat 5= /n Boundary of German Confederation, thus Prussia in 1815, thus Oilier German Territory, tliu EUROPE after tlie Congress at Tienna, 1815. TJie Period of Reaction 417 this point of view. In Italy the Bourbon Ferdinand was recognized as king of Naples and Sicily, joined under the name of the Two Sicilies; the Pope was restored to the States of the Church; the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine to Tuscany; the king of Sardinia to Piedmont, increased by Genoa; and Austria was put in possession of Lombardy and Venetia. The lesser states, like Modena and Parma, we may leave out of consideration. As no attempt was made to bind these states together, and as the old jealousies hin- dered united counsels, Austria, a foreign power, by taking advantage of the inner divisions, acquired an easy para- mountcy. The Poles, although treated not ungenerously by Alexander, being given a constitution of which we shall presently hear, were nevertheless deceived in their national expectations by the failure of the congress to restore their state in its ancient limits. The Catholic Belgians abhorred their Protestant masters, the Dutch, while in Germany, though no foreign sovereign was imposed, the conclusions of the congress deeply offended the patriotic party. The German situation, being complicated, requires further eluci- dation. There can be no doubt that the passing of the Holy The German Roman Empire was an unmitigated blessing, but Napoleon ^*'"^ '°'^' did more than merely inter this august mummy. With his unrivalled genius for order, he abolished a great number of the small sovereignties, above all, those feudal survivals, the free knights, the free cities, and the prince-bishops, and with their territory fattened the lay princes. As a result of this cleansing process there were now, instead of some three hundred, only thirty-eight sovereign states. These may be divided, for the sake of convenience, into three groups: first, the two great powers, Austria and Prussia; second, the middle states, to wit, the kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Hanover, with the grand-duchy 4i8 The Period of Reaction The reaction. The Holy Alliance. of Baden; and third, Weimar, Hesse, and all the rest, con- stituting the small states. Now the national party, headed by the Prussian statesman, Stein, demanded a close federal union, but Metternich, who feared that a united Germany would not serve the interests of Austria, carried the day and persuaded the German delegates to be content with a loose association under the name Bund (Union). The Bund was to transact business through a Diet of state delegates as- sembled at Frankfort-on-the-Main, but as the heads of the states yielded none of their sovereignty to the common Par- liament, it will be seen — and such was Metternich's plan — that the Bund, as a means of effective union, was a farce. Germany remained a mere geographical expression, and the disappointment of the patriots was keen. But there was another sentiment besides that of nation- ality offended at Vienna. We have glanced at the enthu- siasm over legitimacy, a significant sign of the widely preva- lent animosity felt against the Revolution and its democratic principles. The fact is that Europe was swept in 1815 by a wave of religious and political reaction that carried the Viennese diplomats off their feet. The evidence is furnished by a document drawn up by Czar Alexander, in which he pledged himself to govern his state in accordance with Biblical principles, and which he induced all his brother- potentates either to sign or give their assent to. This treaty has become famous under the name of the Holy Alliance,^ not by reason of anything which the document itself con- tains, for it is a heap of well-meant platitudes, but because the name Holy Alliance became popular as a designation for the leagued reactionaries of Europe. In this sense all Europe constituted the Holy Alliance for a time; but as liberal principles gradually reasserted themselves in the ' See the text in Translations and Reprints (University of Pennsyl- vania), Vol. I. " It is verbiage," said Metternich on perusing it. The Period of Reaction 419 west, England and France refused to cooperate in the sup- pression of democratic activity, and Russia, Austria, and Prussia were left to sustain the conservative doctrines as best they could. But if the Holy Alliance itself is only a collection of sounding phrases, the strong conservative sen- timent of Europe managed to create at least one practical means of expression. It was agreed that the powers who Periodical had reorganized Europe should meet in congress, from time to time, for the purpose of considering the European situation and for "the maintenance of all transactions hitherto established." This was tantamount to a declara- tion of war against all favorers of change and progress, and Metternich, the clever promoter of the congressional policy, presently resolved to use the parliament of Europe for the purpose of crushing revolutionary activity in any country as soon as it arose. This is the Austrian chan- Intervention, cellor's famous policy of intervention, and congresses and intervention, not Alexander's mystico-bombastic Holy Alli- ance, are the real tools by which the reaction held Europe in a vice. Such was Metternich's authority, that he im- posed his machinery of repression for some time with the consent of the powers, but England, as we shall see, presently grew suspicious, and the policy of shutting Europe in the mausoleum of conservatism had to be given up. But Reaction summing up what has been said, it will be seen that the con- \^^ ^^^ servative framers of reconstructed Europe ranged against nationalism, themselves the forces of liberalism as well as those of na- tio}mlism, and that from this circumstance the whole his- tory of the nineteenth century takes its imprint. Our sub- sequent chapters are the tale of the heroic struggles by which liberalism and nationalism acquire an honorable recognition. The first serious test of Metternich's Chinese policy of a Revolution in Europe cast in an unalterable mould came when the Medi- ^^'"' ^ terranean countries were shaken by a series of revolutions. 420 The Period of Reaction Revolution in Naples. Revolution in Portugal. The beginning was made by Spain. The fall of Napoleon had brought back the deposed Bourbon monarch, Ferdi- nand VII., who showed his moral fibre by beginning his reign with a perjury. Although he had sworn to maintain the constitution, called the Constitution of 1812, and drawn up during the sovereign's absence by the heroic defenders of the Spanish soil, he not only set it aside as soon as he had his hand once more on the helm, but encouraged a cruel and wholesale persecution of the patriots, on the ground that they bore the taint of liberalism. Spain fell back into the Middle Ages, and the court, with its corrup- tion, and the clergy, with its Inquisition, governed the country in accordance with their selfish interests. But disaffection kept pace with the hateful tyranny, and when in January, 1820, a few soldiers declared themselves in rebellion, the whole country almost in an instant caught fire. In Madrid there was a riot, which was not appeased until the cringing sovereign had made his bow to the masses by restoring the Constitution of 181 2. This Spanish success created imitators. In Naples the fall of Napoleon had brought back another Bourbon, also named Ferdinand, who bore a remarkable moral resem- blance to his relative of Madrid. On receipt of the happy news from Spain, the army raised the banner of revolt, and with the aid of the people forced the king to accept for his realm of Naples the now popular Spanish constitution. Nor did this complete the tale of revolution. The contagion spread to Portugal. In the absence of the royal family, which was still in Brazil, whither it had fled on Napoleon's invasion in 1807, a provisional government was hurried into office which tried to conjure the storm by a profusion of liberal promises. Against these popular movements in the Latin south the indignant Metternich resolved to set in action his ma- / ) The Period of Reaction 421 chinery of congresses and intervention. But if he hoped The for unanimity among the powers for the maintenance of of Troprwu what he called "order," he soon saw his mistake. A andLaibach. meeting at Troppau (1820), called for the discussion of Neapolitan affairs, which from their nearness were the most pressing, revealed that England and France had no desire to share in a crusade against democracy. But the Austrian's counsel still prevailed with Russia and Prussia, and intervention was agreed on in principle, though it was not to begin until Ferdinand himself had been heard in the case. The congress was therefore adjourned to Laibach, near the Italian border, and the mendacious Bourbon had no sooner appeared (182 1) and denounced his late liberal acts as wrung from him by force, than Austria accepted the commission of her friends and marched an army into Naples. Unfortunately, the Neapolitan liberals had not been able Intervention to call a strong government into being. They lacked ex- Naples, 1821. perience, and worst of all, by falling out with the island of Sicily, which asked for home rule, were obliged to send a part of their army across the straits to maintain their au- thority. The mere approach of the Austrian forces served to scatter the Neapolitan soldiery and break all opposition to the restoration of Ferdinand as absolute king. When the patriots in the ItaHan north, and especially in Pied- mont, tried to raise an insurrection in the Austrian rear, in aid of the liberal movement in the south, Austria marched an army into Piedmont also. Thus Metternich, by the exercise of a police power, for which he found au- thority in his own principles and in the mandate of the eastern potentates, practically made himself master of Italy. This first success only stimulated the appetite of the three eastern courts, and when the court of Paris, which had been 422 Tlie Period of Reaction Intervention of France in Spain, 1823. Question of the Spanish colonies. Their freedom secured by Canning and President Monroe. wavering, now came over to their side, they could take an- other important step. At a congress held at Verona (1822) they commissioned France to interfere in Spain. A French army under the duke of Angouleme, the king's nephew, crossed the Pyrenees, and entered Madrid practically with- out opposition. The downfall of Spanish liberalism was as swift and ignominious as that of Naples, and for substantially the same reasons. The leaders were violent and inexper- ienced, and failed to attach the impoverished and ignorant masses to their programme. Priest- and beggar-ridden Na- ples and Spain were not good soil for the Tree of Liberty. The result of French intervention was a second restoration, marked, like that of Naples, by a cruel persecution of the liberals. The Spanish sovereign, as revolting a combina- tion of imbecility, ignorance, and duplicity as ever disgraced a throne, now hoped that the European monarchs would extend their services to America. The Spanish colonies, embracing the vast regions of Central and South America, were in revolt, and Ferdinand argued that to put down re- bellion across the seas was as holy work as repressing it in Spain. The rebeUion of the Spanish colonies had run a curious course, for it had begun not with a movement against the mother country, but with the patriotic refusal to accept the usurper, Joseph Bonaparte. During Napoleon's struggle in Spain the colonies had governed themselves, and acquir- ing a taste for independence had, on Ferdinand's restora- tion, declared their unwillingness to return to the old alle- giance without some provision for home rule. This the stubborn Ferdinand had rejected, with the result that the colonies, one after another, had renounced the Spanish con- nection. On Ferdinand's appeal to the powers, the question of supporting him was taken up, when the English minis- ter, Canning, heartily seconded by the United States, put a TJie Period of Reaction quietus on the matter. Canning adopted the bold measure of pubhcly acknowledging the colonies as sovereign states, and President Monroe went a step farther by threatening to regard any interference in American affairs as an act un- friendly to his government. The declaration of the Amer- ican president, made in 1823, furnishes the basis of what has since been called the Monroe Doctrine. The upshot was that the Spanish colonies made good their independ- ence, and that the leagued champions of reaction, to the joy of the liberal parties the world over, met their first ser- ious check. Shortly after, they became aware that there were regions, even in Europe, which they could not control. For with Naples and Spain won back to absolutism, logic demanded that Portugal be served the same way. But Por- Failure of the tugal being on the coast was accessible to England; and inPoitu'^a"'^'^ when Canning prepared to protect it from interference by sending an army thither, the allies saw fit to abandon their enterprise. Reviewing the great events in the Mediterranean countries, The react-on we observe that the reaction headed by Metternich won (rround.° some significant triumphs, but had to relax its principles in at least two instances, owing chiefly to the veto of England. Such strength as the conservative programme mustered re- sulted from union, and the defection of England under the direction of Canning showed that union, on the absurd basis of political immobility, could not be long maintained. It is frequently said that Canning broke up the Holy Alliance. A more correct statement would be that England under Can- ning deserted the Holy Alliance, and that, weakened by defection, it was shortly after broken up by another event to which we now turn — the Greek revolution. At the very moment when the eastern powers were formu- The revolt of lating their policy against popular movements at the con- ^^^ ^ ' -^ - gress of Laibach, the news reached them that the nefarious 424 Tlie Period of Reaction spirit of revolt had raised its head in the Turkish Empiie also, and that the Greeks, subjected for centuries to the Sul- tan, demanded independence. If the diplomats of the school of Metternich had been accessible to generous impulses, they would have applauded a movement which aimed to cast off the tyrannical yoke of the Mohammedan conqueror; but, blinded by prejudice, they unhesitatingly laid their curse upon the new rising. The case of the Greeks was as follows: With the growing decay of the Turkish Empire the government of the Sultan, conducted by venal and cruel pa- shas, had grown steadily more despicable, while the Greeks, largely through the stimulating influence of the French Revolution, had experienced a renascence. Their language and literature bloomed anew, they studied with enthusiasm their great past, and they accumulated wealth by almost monopolizing tlie commerce of the eastern Mediterranean. Angered by the failure of Europe to do anything for them after the fall of Napoleon, they formed a secret society, and Relation of in 1821 rose by concerted action. The mass of the nation and sTavy!^^ ^' ^i^ed in the restricted territory of ancient Hellas, but off- shoots spread in complex ramifications throughout the Slav populations of the Balkan region. Further, the Slavs, having been Christianized in the days of Greek ascendancy, belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church, and their clergy, especially the prelates, were of Hellenic blood and speech. The leaders of 182 1 therefore planned to make the revolt a general Christian movement under Greek guidance, and were not a little disconcerted to discover that the Slavs would not follow them. In fact, the religious predominance of the Greeks was so unpopular among the Roumanians and Bul- garians, that they loved their Christian teachers little better than their Mohammedan masters. The rivalry appearing at this point between Greeks and Slavs, and later among the various tribes of Slavs, has greatly retarded the liberation of The Period of Reaction 425 the Balkans. In the year 1821 it threatened ruin, until the Greeks, discovering that they could depend on none but themselves, bravely shouldered the whole responsibil- ity. In a sudden rush they succeeded in clearing almost all of the Morea (Peloponnesus) and central Greece of the enemy. The Sultan, boundlessly enraged at this success, made The Sultan formidable efforts to recover the lost territory. His armies fheGreS'^"^ penetrated (1822) into the revolted districts, but failed to break the undaunted resistance of the little people. Balked of their prey, the Turks committed abominable atrocities, to be followed presently on the part of the Greeks by acts of similar fury. The tale of mutual butchery surpasses belief, and becomes intelligible only when wc remember that the animosity, usual between slave and master, was here blown into an unquenchable llame by religious fanaticism. In the The Sultan year 1824^ the Sultan, feeling the exhaustion of his resources, the pSof invited the cooperation of his powerful vassal, Mehemed Egypt for hcli Ali, pasha of Egypt, and the arrival on the scene of this capable and unscrupulous ruler soon gave another com- plexion to affairs. Using the island of Crete as a base, he penetrated into the Morea from the south, and by 1826 had made such great strides that to the casual view the Greek cause seemed doomed. But at this point Europe, hitherto shamefully indifferent, interposed, and Greece was saved. As long as Metternich's influence prevailed, it was clear England, Rus that Europe would quietly look on while the Sultan waded agreelo fn-'"'''' in the blood of his Christian subjects. The peoples of ^^^\f%'^^^' . . •' r r half of Greece, Europe, it is true, in contrast to the governments, made no 1827. secret of their sympathy with the cause of freedom. Bands of volunteers, among whom was the most famous poet of the time, Lord Byron, ^ gathered under the Greek banners, ' He died of fever, a martyr to the cause, in 1S24 at Missolonghi. 426 The Period of Reaction but such occasional help hardly delayed the triumph of the Egyptian pasha. Finally, in 1826, Canning succeeded in interesting the new Czar, Nicholas I., who had just suc- ceeded his brother Alexander, in the Greek cause, and together they agreed to interpose. In the next year they succeeded in bringing France to their side, and the three \ g 2. 'jpowers agreed ( Treaty . of London) to end hostilities at once. This resolution, taken by a majority of the powers, and formed in behalf of freedom against an established and legitimate sovereign, may be accepted as the finishing They destroy blow to the so-called Holy Alliance. The fleets of the the ' "' "" ' <- ^ Mohammedan three powers sailed to the Morea to inform the Egyptian Navarino commander that warfare must cease, and when the outraged Mussulman .refused to comply, his fleet was attacked at Navarino (October 20, 1.827) and utterly wreck ed. War between The roar of the guns at Navarino announced the birth Russia^ 1828- of a free state to the world, but the Sultan was not yet ^9- willing to yield the point. Mistakenly thinking that he could save the day, he issued a defiance to his nearest enemy, the Czar, who answered with a declaration of war. Thus the Greek struggle terminated in a Turco-Russian war, in which the Russians soon proved their superiority, crossed successively the Danube and the Balkans, and moved upon Constantinople. In this crisis the Sultan's re- •%1'^sistance collapsed, and in the Treaty of Adrianople (1829}^ he yielded every point at issue. Not only did he grant the powers the right to settle the affairs of Greece, but he also conceded home rule to the Roumanian provinces (Walla- chia and Moldavia). Furthermore, Russia acquired a right of perpetual interference in the affairs of Turkey, which practically put the Sultan at her mercy. Otto of Ba- After prolonged discussions over the future of Greece, totheGreek the powers agreed that the country was to constitute a free throne. monarchy and settled the crown upon Otto, a Bavarian The Period of Reaction 427 prince. But before this result was reached, Europe itself had broken with the reaction by a general revolutionary upheaval, having its origin in the old centre of disturbance, France. CHAPTER XVIII THE BOURBON RESTORATION AND THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapter XVI.; Phillips, Modern Europe, Chapter II., pp. 22-36; Chapters VIII.-IX.; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter V., pp. 103-35; Chapter VIII., pp. 229-38; Chapter XII., pp. 374-88; Andrews, Modern Europe, Chapters IV., VI. Source Readings: Anderson, Constitutions and Docu- ments, Nos. 101-5; Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XXXIX. (French charter of 1814, reasons for Belgian independence). The restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, and again in 1815, was the work of the allies, for the old royal family was as good as forgotten in France and aroused no en- thusiasm among the people. Its position, therefore, was precarious, and its success would depend on the wisdom with which it used its opportunity. Louis XVIII., the most moderate member of his family, made a not un- promising beginning when he published a constitution (la charte constitutionelle) , which recognized the institutions of Napoleon— his administration, his judicial system, his church, his army, and even his nobility — and conceded to the people a share in legislation by two houses, a Chamber of^ Jeers and a Chamber of Deputies. Here was the solemn assurance that the restoration of the old dynasty did not mean the return of the old regime, and that France was to remain in possession of the social and administrative ad- vantages secured by the Revolution. 428 The Revolution of i8jo 429 The main problem before the king was to create con- Theultra- ficlence and allay suspicion. But this was difficult in view "^"^ of the fact that he was surrounded at court by the emigres, who had flocked back with the fall of Napoleon and foolishly imagined that they had come once more into their own. At their head was the count_of_ATtois, the king's fanatic brother, who in twenty-five years of exile had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. These courtly gentlemen thought chiefly of revenge and repression. Selfishly ani- mated with the desire to recover their confiscated estates and to restore the Church to power, they compassed, after a few ephemeral triumphs, their own ruin and that of the royal family. Their party policy — they were known as ultra- royalists — was not, at least for the present, to overthrow the constitution, but to insist on a sharp control of the press and to insure themselves a majority in the chamber by restricting the right to vote to a very small body of wealthy citizens. Louis XVIII. , with laudable common-sense, at first re- Louis, at first sisted the clamor of the ultras, but was too weak to main- to the ultras.^ tain his position in the face of their continued pressure. The assassination in 1820 of his nephew, the duke of Berri, shook him profoundly. Although the murder was the deed of a fanatic, the liberals were held responsible for it, and had to yield power to the ultras under their leader, Villele. Now at last the party of the hated emigres had conquered the king; controlling also the ministry and chambers, it carried what laws it pleased, muzzled the press, limited the right to vote, sent an army into Spain to put down revolu- tion, and governed France in a way to delight the heart of Metternich. While this party was floating on the tide of power Louis XVIII. died (1824). He was succeeded by the count of Artois, under the title Charles X., whose ac- cession completed the triumph of the forces of reaction. 430 TJie Bourbon Restoration Events now rapidly travelled toward the inevitable crisis. The repressive policy of Villele raised him enemies even among the royalist deputies, and the elections of 1827 brought him a crushing defeat. He took his dismissal, but the infatuated king clung stubbornly to the policy of the past, only to find that the Chamber of Deputies would no longer support him and that the country began to show ominous signs of unrest. With the courage of ignorance he resolved to break resistance by an illegal act, a so-called coup d'etat. On July 26, 1830, he issued, in the spirit of the old absolutism, four ordinances by which he practically suppressed the newspapers and still further limited the right to vote. The ordinances sounded a challenge which was immedi- ately taken up. Bands of students and workmen paraded the streets cheering the constitution; but presently the ominous cry was raised and echoed from street to street, "Down with the Bourbons! " The king himself was at St. Cloud and the few thousand troops in Paris were not ade- quate to keep the insurgents in hand. Occasional conflicts soon led to a pitched battle, in which the soldiers, outnum- bered and fighting without enthusiasm, yielded ground until their commander ordered them to evacuate the capi- tal. On the night of July 29th, the people, brimful, after three days of fighting, of the old republican spirit, rested from their bloody and triumphant work. In spite of Charles's misrule, there was a large monarchi- cal party of liberal tendency still in France, and this party now stepped forward to save the country from anarchy. In opposition to the street-fighters, who were workmen of republican sympathies, they were members of the middle class or bourgeoisie. In a gathering of leaders it was decided that what France wanted was a really constitutional mon- archy, and that the person to secure it was Louis Philippe, And the Revolution of i8jo 431 duke of Orleans. The duke was head of the younger branch of the House of Bourbon and had a revolutionary record, for he had served for a time (1792-93) in the republican army. This, and the fact that his father was the unsavory Egalite of Jacobin fame, had opened an unbridgeable chasm between him and the elder branch of his House. At the invitation of the moderates he appeared in Paris and by an adroit con- ciliation of the republicans, who had accepted the aged Lafayette as leader, took the reins into his hands, prac- tically without opposition. The first business of the im- provised government would in all likelihood be a struggle with Charles X. But the king pleasantly disappointed ex- pectations. In a fit of despondency he resigned in favor of his little grandson and fled to England ; but the Chamber of Deputies chose to take no further note of his acts, and, Louis Philippe, on August 7th, proceeded to proclaim Louis Philippe king French, of the French. The succession of the younger or Orleans branch of the Results of the Bourbons to the throne, which at first blush seems to measure the whole achievement of the so-called July revolution, does not express the whole change which came over France. In the first place, the constitution was modified in a liberal sense, above all, by reducing the property qualification and thereby doubling the number of electors; and, second, the coronation of Louis Philippe was nothing less than a com- plete change of system. Charles X. represented legitimacy and the old regime; he was identified with the emigres and the Church, and ruled by grace of God. Louis Philippe, a revolutionary and illegitimate sovereign, was abominated and avoided by the old royalists, and in order to secure his throne had to lean upon the monarchical middle class. For » this reason the July monarchy is often called the reign of the bourgeoisie, and Louis Philippe himself the citizen- king (roi-bourgeois). Caricatures habitually represented 432 TJie Bourbon Restoration Effect of the revolution on Europe. The Belgians discontented with the Dutch. The Belgians revolt, August, 1830. him as a thickset, comfortable grocer, armed with a huge umbrella. Meanwhile, the report of the revolution in Paris had travelled abroad, producing joy among the peoples of Eu- rope and equal consternation among the governments. Since the work of the reaction was so easily undone in France, there was good reason to hope that the national and liberal sentiment, outraged by the Congress of Vienna and persecuted by the mean-spirited police-control of Metternich and Alexander, might assert itself with suc- cess. France, ever since the eighteenth century the ac- knowledged leader of opinion in Europe, had given the signal, to which her imitators and admirers everywhere joyfully responded. The first people to be infected with the new spirit were the Belgians. The reader will remember that by the Congress of Vienna the old Austrian provinces had been annexed to Holland in order to create a strong power on the French border. But the union was unfortunate, for the Belgians were not treated as equals but subjected to the Dutch, while the fact that one state was Protestant and the other Catholic kept up a constant irritation, very cleverly fostered by the Belgian clergy. Besides, there was the question of race; while a large section of the Belgians were Flemings and closely allied to the Dutch, about one-half were Walloons, that is, Celts who used the French language. Lastly, Flemings and Walloons alike were imbued with French civilization and looked rather toward Paris for inspiration than toward The Hague. In August, 1830, a revolt, begun in Brussels, spread so rapidly that the Dutch army had to abandon the whole country with the exception of a few fortresses. King William, who had treated the Belgian national movement with much contempt, now offered concessions, but it was And the Revolution of i8jo 433 too late. Nothing short of complete independence would satisfy the revolutionists, and since the Dutch king resisted this demand, war was almost a certainty. Here was an opportunity for a typical Mettemichian Europe inter- intervention in behalf of the "legitimate" monarch, but in oTt^Jfief '^'^ proof that democracy reigned supreme for the moment, the g>ans. exact opposite occurred. A conference of the powers held in London decided to yield to the will of the Belgian people and sever their lot from the Dutch. King William was cowed into acquiescence, and, not without many difficulties and delays, the Belgians declared themselves a constitutional monarchy and elected Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as their king. The boundary of the new realm caused a prolonged dispute with the offended king of the Netherlands, but this matter, too, was gradually disposed of, and Belgium, a new state under a new dynasty, was added to the fraternity of na- tions. In central Europe, in Italy and Germany, the revolution Therevolu- was not received with such enthusiasm as might be expected, inTt^y! "^° when we consider that these countries had been made the innocent victims of the treaties of 1815. In Italy there was no outbreak outside the papal states, where the government, exclusively in the hands of the clergy, was as unprogressive as that of Turkey itself. Of course the Pope called in the Austrians, who quickly extinguished the revolutionary fire. The fact was that Italy, in consequence of the defeat of its democratic hopes in 182 1 and its experience of Austrian omnipotence, was unwilling for the present to risk a national conflict. The total result of the year 1830 for the peninsula was an increased sense of enslavement to Austria and an increased hatred of the master. In Germany political activity had been reduced to very Germany dur- meagre proportions between 1815 and 1830. The Bund, as nTnce^of^"^'" its projectors planned, was treated as a nonentity by the Metternich. 434 TJie Bourbon Restoration Prussia creates the ZoUverein. The revolution of 1S30 in Germany. sovereign states and soon became a laughing-stock.^ The only occasion on which it showed signs of life was when, at the instance of Metternich, it adopted police measures for bridling the universities and the press, and hunting the sporadic democrats to their holes (Carlsbad decrees, i8ig). In the middle states of South Germany — Bavaria, Wurtem- berg, Baden — constitutions were granted by the rulers, and here all that Germany could show of political activity dur- ing this period took refuge. The two great states, Austria and Prussia, and almost all of the small North German states, were, politically speaking, as dead as extinct volca- noes. In all this region absolutism flourished unchecked. In Austria the reaction had no single redeeming feature; Metternich's hand seemed to have paralyzed the national energies. In Prussia the case was somewhat different. The king had indeed not fulfilled his promise to his people, given at the height of the struggle with Napoleon, to create a representative government, but he offered some compen- sation by a rigidly honest administration and a progressive economic policy. His leading achievement was the Customs- Union, called ZoUverein. Begun in 181 8 and completed after patient efforts continued through a generation, it gath- ered around Prussia, under a uniform tariff system, all the German states except Austria, and by this economic unity paved the way to political consolidation. This was the situation when the news of the revolution in Paris reached Germany. A really significant movement would have to be initiated in the great states, Austria and Prussia, but as these remained quiet, the outbreaks in Ger- many never acquired more than a local character. In a number of the absolute states of North Germany — Hesse- Cassel, Brunswick, Saxony, Hanover — there were risings ' This IS the time when the street-boys sang Heine's rhyme: ' ' Bund, Du Hund, bist nicht gesund." And the Revolution of i8jo 435 which were quickly disposed of by the grant of representa- tive government. Phlegmatic Germany, unused to the exercise of political rights, had not acquired the revolution- ary habit, and the sole result of the year 1830 was the estab- lishment of constitutionalism in the small states. In Austria and Prussia the absolute system as yet survived, though it was clear as daylight that the peoples of these states, too, would before long be seized by the liberal current of the time. It deserves special notice that the German movement of The German 1830 was not only scattered and local, but exclusively liberal ^jo'^Hbe'ral! in tendency, and that no cry was raised for a more effective "°^ national, national organization. The Bund, with its Diet of princely delegates sitting at Frankfort, remained as feeble and des- pised as ever. Evidently it took the national movement a long time to gather force, for it was plain that German sen- timent, once aroused, would first and without delay shatter this travesty of a national senate. The conclusion to be de- rived from the events of the year 1830 is that the liberal movement in Germany was more developed than the national one, but that both alike were hardly out of their swaddling clothes. But if the year 1830 saw hardly more than storm-signals Alexander in Germany, there was a fierce tempest to the east of her, in kingdom o; Poland. We have seen that at the Congress of Vienna the Poland. Czar Alexander, to whom had been assigned the grand- duchy of Warsaw, converted it into the kingdom of Poland with himself as king. At the same time he gave it a consti- tution, by which it acquired independence from Russia, a Diet to manage its own affairs, together with a Polish admin- istration and a Polish army. That this was an act of un- usual magnanimity cannot be denied, but it did not satisfy the Polish nation. The Poles chafed under the few remain- ing restrictions and could not forqet the time when the 436 The Bourbon Restoration The Poles rise in revolt, November, 1830. Reasons for the Polish failure. parts were reversed, and they, and not Russia, ruled eastern Europe. The discontent was kept under control while Alexander lived, but Nicholas I. had no sooner succeeded his brother (1825) than the signs of conflict multiplied. The excitement caused by the July revolution applied the torch to the ac- cumulated discontent, and in November, 1830, the capital, Warsaw, rose in insurrection. The country took the cue from the metropolis, the few Russian troops retired with all possible speed, and not without surprise at the ease of the achievement, the Poles discovered that they were free under a government of their own. Plainly, the success of the movement depended on united, intelligent action. But that was hard to obtain, owing to the impatience and caprice which lay in the national char- acter, and to the lamentable social divisions. For one thing the landed proprietors, being great nobles, found it difficult to agree with the democratic element in the city of Warsaw, and second, the bulk of the nation were agricultural labor- ers, in a condition little above that of brutes. Serfs for cen- turies, they had indeed been declared free by Napoleon (1807); but as nothing was done to convert them into peas- ant-proprietors, they li\-ed from hand to mouth and were worse ofif than before. Nevertheless, recruits flocked to the standards, and with next to no training and a very deficient equipment the Poles sustained a most honorable combat, when in the spring of 183 1 Czar Nicholas launched his Russian legions against them. But mere valor was of no avail; at Ostrolenka (May, 1831) the Russians over- whelmed the Poles with their numbers, and a few months later (September) entered Warsaw in triumph. Thus the seal of fate was set upon the f.nis Polonia pronounced in the previous century. When the Russian autocrat again took hold, it was with the A7id the Revolution of i8jo 437 grim resolve to remove all chances of another Polish revo- Poland crashed lution. He firmly believed that he had been trifled with autoc^r^^JT'^" because he and his predecessor had proved themselves too kind. He would not err in that way any more. He began by abrogating Alexander's constitution and merging Poland with Russia as a Russian province. Then he carried through a succession of measures which aimed to break the rebel- lious spirit of the Poles: a Russian army of occupation was saddled on the country; Russian was made the official lan- guage; the press was put under supervision; and most of the educational institutions were closed. Poland fell into a sad eclipse. Bound and gagged she lay at the feet of Russia, but as long as there was life her people were determined to cling to their national memories. And they have clung to them to this day. Reviewing the effects of the revolution of 1830 throughout Results of the Europe, we may assert that though its fruits, outside of jg^o. France and Belgium, were small, a new era had struggled into being. The liberal platform, inspired by the faith that nationality should be respected and that political control belongs not to the monarchs but to the peoples, had directed universal attention to itself and could never again be treated as a trifle. The best the old reactionaries like Metternich could do from now on was to delay the coming of the dawn; they could not bring back the chains and darkness of the period of congresses and intervention. Siavi-' CHAPTER XIX THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-48) AND THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapter XVI., pp. 641-44; Chapter XVIII., pp. 699-706; Phillips, Mod- ern Europe, Chapter XI., pp. 256-72; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter V., pp. 134-52; Chapter VI., pp. 155-65; Andrews, Modern Europe, Chapters VII.-VIII. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XL. (Overthrow of Louis PhiHppe) ; Anderson, Con- stitutions and Documents, Nos. 106-10. Louis Phi Hope We have seen that Louis PhiHppe, called to the throne byTheniiddle bv the revolution of July, was by the nature of the case obliged to found his power upon the monarchical section of the people, the middle class. It was unfortunate that the revolution had not been made by this class, but by republican workingmen, who ever afterward felt that they had been cheated of their labor, and immediately drifted into an embittered opposition. Thus Louis Philippe became, whether he would or no, the head, not of the nation, but of one of its social divisions, and this is the really significant feature of his reign. The name citizen-king describes not only his position, but also his character. He abandoned the traditional royal pomp, exhibited an easy good-fellowship, lived simply with his numerous family, and at ever}- crisis fell back on his native thrift and obstinacy, characteristic qualities which he shared with his middle-class supporters. 438 class. The Revolution of 18^8 439 The monarchy of the bourgeoisie never had a day of Legitimists, absolute security. Its two most persistent enemies were ^cialist^s^'^^' the legitimists and the republicans. The legitimists, de- voted to the elder Bourbon branch, were constantly stirring up opposition, but apart from one outbreak in that home of troubles, the Vendee, were content with a latent hostility. In the Vendue, the duchess of Berri, mother of the young Bourbon claimant, Henry V., courageously led a movement (1832) which appealed to the imagination, but also, from its failure to arouse the masses, served to show that the legitimist cause was moribund. Far more serious was the republican opposition. The leaders, young enthusiasts, appealed to the working-class, and the working-class, as it happened, were just then a growing section of the nation. For the industrial revolution, the product of science and machinery, had set in, and everywhere factory-quarters arose with a new population, housed amid soot and squalor. At first the republicans strove to organize the workingmen for a purely political revolution, but many of the leaders presently made up their minds that a social revolution, having as its object the improvement of the con- ditions of the wage-earners, was more to the point. Ac- cordingly, they drifted into socialism. In France and under Louis Philippe this movement, which has since travelled round the world, took its start. With Louis Philippe in power the old republicans and their offshoot, the socialists, saw no reason to divide their forces, but kept up a united and violent opposition. In the first part of his reign they appealed several times to arms (1832 and 1834), but having been suppressed with bloody consequences, they settled down to a quiet propaganda until their hour should strike. Though from the social point of view the growth of the TheParlia- , , . ^1 • ii mentary issue. wage-earners and the secret ferment among them is the most interesting feature of Louis Philippe's reign, the con- 440 The Government of Louis PJiilippe Guizot and Thiers. '.Thiers agitates jfor a more liberal suf- frage. scious political life of that generation was hardly affected by it. We have noticed that the government never enjoyed the favor of the legitimists and the republicans, but after their early attempts these parties recognized their weak- ness and desisted from violence. Without doubt their con- tinued existence implied danger, but, discouraged by fail- ure, they abandoned the stage and left it to the middle class. This class, therefore, ruled, and if its members had been united might have held the reins for a long time. But perpetual union in a great body of thinking men is an im- possibility, and the deputies in the Chamber soon split over the question of Parliamentary government. One section, led by Guizotj the historiaji , believed that the king should choose his ministers as he pleased; another, led by Tijjejg, J^^o an historian and famous as the panegyrist of the Empire, maintained that he must take them from the majority and carry through their {X)licy. In the one view the king was a free agent, in the other merely the mouthpiece of the Parliament and ministry, as in England. In this conflict, waged entirely among his supporters of the bourgeoisie, Louis Philippe seemed to occupy a neutral position, but secretly inclined to Guizot, and by adroit management secured to that leader, and incidentally to himself, a majority in the Chamber and the unquestioned control of the government. In 18^0 Guizot came in^o Ro^er, and in spite of Thiers and every other form of opposition, held it till the monarchy fell. This maintenance of power looked like a capital achieve- ment, but unfortunately, as the result proved, paved the way for revolution. For Guizot and the king, who were hand and glove, not only maintained their Parliamentary majority by freely bribing the electorate and the deputies, but took the ultra-conservati^'e stand of refusing to listen to suggestions of change and progress. Now TJijierSj though Ajid tJie Revohition of iS^S 441 ia_jiwiiarchistj made up his mind that the beginning of all (improvement was the enlargement of the body of electors (by lowering the tax-paying qualification, and the agitation I which he inaugurated over this question was like the little stone in Nebuchadnezzar's dream which shattered the clay feet of the image of brass and brought it to earth. The method chosen for the electoral agitation was a series The revolution of banquets, at which reform was demanded by the speakers, jg^s. All through the year 1847 these banquets were in progress, and one, which was to be made a great occasion, with a procession and delegations of students, was set at Paris for February 22, 1848. The government, taking alarm, for- bade the meeting, but crowds gathered nevertheless and began to demonstrate on their own account. The next day the riot grew so serious, coupled with so general a demand for reform, that the king yielded and dismissed Guizot. This was as much as Thiers intended, but popular passions had been aroused, and by February 24th had swelled to such a pitch that they burst all bounds. The morning of that day began with an assault upon the Tuileries by the repub- lican masses, whose savage determination frightened the timid king into resigning in favor of his little grandson. While the sovereign himself sought safety in flight, the duchess of Orleans led her son, the count of Paris, to the Chamber of Deputies and had him proclaimed king. But j The republic it was already too late. The republican multitude invaded the hall, ignored the deputies, and set up a provisional government. Owing to the fact that the socialistic repub- licans had helped in the street-fighting, some of their leaders were associated with the government, and the two united factions began their rule by announcing to the world that France was henceforth a republic. But at this point harmony ceased, for the two republican Republicans parties stood for entirely different ideals. The old repub- socialists. 442 The Govern^nent of Louis Philippe 'licans wanted merely a political revolution after the manner of 1793, but the new school of socialists was content with nothing less than complete industrial reorganization. The clash began immediately, the advantage resting at first with the socialists. By means of demonstrations on the part of the workingmen they forced the provisional ministry to pro- claim that the state "undertakes to provide labor for all citizens," and to establish, as a means of fulfilling this promise, so-called "national workshops." That ended the socialistic triumph, for when in April the general elec- tions for an Assembly, called upon to give France a con- stitution, took place, the country, placed between republi- cans and socialists, showed its horror of the unfamiliar tenets of the new school by returning an immense repub- lican majority. At the opening of the Assembly the mixed provisional government resigned and the republicans took hold in earnest. The socialists no sooner noted the change than they took alarm, and by two insurrections (May and The socialists June) attempted to retrieve their fortunes. Their last overthrown. ^.^.^^^ ^j^.^j^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^j^^^^ 23d-26th), led to the severest battle which Paris, familiar for ages with street- fighting, had ever witnessed. Certainly only men moved by courage and conviction could stand up, as these social re- formers did, against cannon and musketry fire, but they were overborne, their leaders killed or exiled, and the party shattered for many a day. The national The great rising of June was not only a general protest wor -s ops. against the republican majority, but was undertaken for the specific purpose of saving the "national workshops," which the republicans were preparing to close, and which, after their victory, they suppressed summarily. This socialist ex- periment has invited a good deal of attention on the ground that it tested the theory that industrial enterprises can be profitably nationalized; that is, put under the control of the A7id the Revolution of 184.8 443 state. But the French experiment was a test only in name; for the government, having no sympathy with the socialist programme, instead of establishing workshops, merely set the unemployed to digging at the fortifications of Paris. That this accomplished nothing, as the republicans averred, but the embarrassment of the treasury, is true; but it is also true, as the socialists asserted, that the failure of the experiment in this absurd form did not dispose of their theory. The inference from the savage struggle of the spring of Thercpubii- 1848 was that France, although a republic, was not ready tionof 1848. to indulge in hazardous experiments. With their enemies overthrown, the republican majority of the Assembly pro- ceeded to fulfil its mission of giving France a constitution. Insisting on the democratic principle that "all public powers emanate from the people," it vested the legislative power in a single Assembly of 750 members elected by universal suf- frage, and the executive power in a citizen, elected as presi- dent for four years. As to the manner of the president's election, it was agreed, after much discussion, that he, too, was to be chosen directly by the people. The election fol- lowed on December 10, 1848, and to the surprise of all un- acquainted with the heart of the French people the choice fell, not up on G enera l Cavaignac, the l eadqf of the reoul)!^- cans and the hero of the battles of June, but upon Layis Njipo[gon. That this prince should ever be called to the head of the Career of the nation by universal suffrage would never have been dreamed by any one who had followed his career. He was the sor^ of N apoleon 's brotjher Louis, king o( Holland, and after the death of Napoleon's only son at Vienna (1832) was regarded as chjef of the House of Bo napart e. As such he felt it his duty to conspire for his dynasty, and made two attempts in ludicrous imitation of Napoleon's return from Elba, which 444 ^■^^^ Government of Louis Philippe were greeted by Europe with an outburst of Homeric laugh- ter. In i8^ he suddenly appeared in Strasburg, but in spite of his uncle's hat, sword, and boots, donned for the occasion, was marched off to prison. Undaunted, he nig^de ano^jljer attejgpt to rouse France ijj iS^g by appearing at Boulogne; but the boat conveying him and a few helpmates capsized, and wet and dripping he was fished out of the Channel by the ubiquitous police. For this second escapade he was condemned to imprisonment, but in i^^ made his esgjjype to EngliUi'^- Ori the proclamation of the republic he became a can^lidate for the AssgQjbly and was repe^edly ret.ii£ned by the electors. Plainly, he was outliving the ridicule he had aroused, and by his clever trading upon the magic name Napoleon was rallying about him all those classes, especially the peasants, who clung to the traditions of the empire. The electjijp to the presidency of the republic was an hq^ipr q^- dcessed 1;^ the dgg^d wajfltjor ratljer thr|p to Ijjs pijjiy repj^- senlalive, but it furnished an ominous sign that the love of republican institutions was not very deeply rooted in the French conscience. Sincere republicans gazed at each other with consternation, and were assailed by the suspicion that the days of the new republic were numbered. How well- founded this fear was we shall presently see. CHAPTER XX THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND ITALY References: Fyffe, Modern Europe; Phillips, Modern Europe, Chapters XII.-XIIL; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter XI., pp. 335-48; Chapter XII., pp. 389-99; Chapter XIII., pp. 401-23; Andrews, Modern Europe, Chapters IX.-X.; Thayer, Dawn of Italian Independence, Vol. II., Books 4-5; Bolton King, History of Italian Unity (1814-71), Vol. I., Part II., Chapters IX.-XIIL; Henderson, Short History of Germany, Vol. II., Chapter VIII. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XL., Section 2. As we have seen, the revolution of 1830 produced no great changes in central Europe because the liberal and national sentiment had not yet become organized and power- ful. Hence, the succeeding period had been one of con- tinued reaction, relieved, however, by signs that the masses were becoming conscious of their servitude and ready to shake off the shackles of absolutism. Again the events at Paris served as a signal fire. A wave of jubilation passed over all the peoples from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and they arose and declared for a free government and a national state. France once again vindicated her claim to be regarded as leader of Europe, but it is a fact that, even without her example, Italy, Austria, and Germany would not have supported the rule of repression much longer. Metternich's own capital, the very hearthstone of the spirit of reaction, was one of the first to feel the breath of the new freedom. On March 13, 1848, Vienna rose and 445 The revolu- tionary spirit manifests it- self in central Europe. Revolutioti at Vienna, March, 1848. 446 TJic Revolution of 184.8 Revolution at Berlin. The revolu- tion is national as well as liberal. drove the aging prince, who more than any man was re- sponsible for the narrow conservatism of the first half of the century, from the chancellery of the Austrian empire and from the capital. With him the whole system he had so elab- orately built up collapsed at once, absolutism was renounced, and the feeble Emperor Ferdinand, frightened by the tumult in the streets, speedily promised a constitution and a Par- liament. A new era seemed to dawn upon the realm of the Hapsburgs. The news of the fall of Metternich caused exultation throughout Germany, on which his hand had rested with no less heaviness than on Italy. Riots broke out in many of the small capitals of the Bund, and on March i8th Berlin followed the example of Vienna and rose to protest against the auto- cratic system. In view of Prussia's indifference to the rev- olution of 1830 this result was surprising. But the last dec- ade had been preparing changes. The old king of the Wars of Liberation had been succeeded in 1840 by his son, Fred- erick William IV., and the generation which stood about the latte^-'s throne was no longer satisfied with mere admin- istrative efficiency, but demanded a share in legislation. Frederick William, in spite of his belief in Divine Right, had, as early as 1847, yielded so far as to call to Berlin a meeting f)f provincial delegates (the United Diet), sufficient proof that the movement of 1848 was more than a sudden popular caprice. As a result of the March days, which did not pass without the spilling of blood, the king withdrew his troops from the capital and promised to call a Parliament. Thus all Germany was in the very first days of the new revolution converted to constitutionalism. But there was an equally potent desire among the people for an effective German union. Resolved to strike the iron while it was hot, the liberal leaders of various German states met, calmly shelved the Bund, and issued a call for a German Parliament, In Germany, Austria, and Italy 447 to be elected by universal suffrage and endowed with full authority to create a supreme federal government. The German Parliament, morally and intellectually a very A national distinguished body of men, met in May, 1848, at Frankfort- Frankfort. on-the-Main., It had a sincere desire to establish German unity; it had the learning necessary to solve all knotty con- stitutional problems; b\it it suffered from one fatal defect: it had no army, no body of administrative officials ; in a word, - no power. In the first weeks of revolutionary excitement that defect might be supplied by an irresistible public opin- ion; but if opinion weakened and the state governments, panic-stricken for the present by the revolutionary move- ment, recovered breath and courage— what then? The Bund had been established expressly to guarantee the sov- ereignty of the thirty-eight states, which would certainly not yield their dearest possession with composure. Austria and Prussia, in particular, proud of their traditions as great powers, could hardly be expected to bow weakly to the Democratic and revolutionary body sitting at Frankfort. Sooner or later one or the other or both would follow an independent policy, and the clash, testing the question of supremacy, would be at hand. The clash came over the Schleswig-Holstein complica- j The Schleswig- tion. This is one of the most confused questions of history, J difficulty. the veritable nightmare of European diplomacy for a whole generation. The two duchies of Schleswig and Holstein occupy the southern half of the peninsula of Jutland, and are inhabited, except for the northern rim of Schleswig, which is Danish, by a German population. The king of Denmark was also duke of Schleswig and Holstein, but the two duchies were otherwise independent, having each its own laws and its own administration ; and this independence, chiefly because of the difference in race, the duchies were very anxious to preserve. The test came through the ques- 448 The Revolution of 184.8 tion of succession. The royal House at Copenhagen, about to die out in the male line, was in a quandary. The Danish law permitted the crown to pass to the female line, while the Schleswig-Holstein law, at least in the view of the German population, recognized only male succession. With separa- tion staring him in the face, the Danish king declared in 1846 that he would under all circumstances maintain the unity of his monarchy. Great excitement prevailed at this announcement, and taking advantage in 1848 of the general disturbance of Europe, the Schleswig-Holsteiners, eager to be independent, rose in revolt. At this point the Parliament of Frankfort stepped in. Al- though determined to help the German brethren of the duchies, it was hampered by the fact that it had no armed force. Accordingly, it was obliged to put the destiny of its proteges in the hands of Prussia. The Prussians, entering Schleswig-Holstein, presently drove back the Danes, but the latter retaliated by seizing the Prussian merchant vessels in the Baltic. This fact, coupled with the interference of Rus- sia and England, determined Frederick William to sign a truce with Denmark (August 26th), by which he practically delivered the duchies into the hands of the Danes. This action, Ijranded as treason by the orators of the Parliament, roused great indignation. After a hot debate the Prussian armistice was reluctantly indorsed, because the Assembly had no army to enforce its opposition; but this yielding to Prussia furnished to the world the proof of the pow- erlessness of the Parliament over the states which it pro- fessed to control. After the armistice had been accepted, the members returned to the constitutional labors for which they had been summoned, where we shall leave them for the present while we look into the affairs of Austria and Italy. The Austrian empire was as crazy a patchwork as has ever been pieced together by fortune and state-craft. Ger- In Gerinany, Austria, and Italy 449 mans in the west, Hungarians in the east, Italians in the south, and Slavs almost ever}'where were expected to live together as brethren in a common household. A certain de- gree of harmony was maintained while the emperor at Vienna was undisputed lord and master; but as soon as the March revolution destroyed his autocrac)^ the component races flew apart with violent centrifugal action. In a few weeks the Italians at Milan and Venice drove out the Austrian troops, the Hungarians raised the banner of revolt, the Slavs of Bohemia, called Czechs, planned to follow their example, and to the casual view the proud empire seemed a thing of the pasL Let us follow these insurrections in their leading centres. In Italy the fall of Metternlch was no sooner reported than The Italian the people of Lombardy and Venice, long restive under his upon Austria. lash, rose, fell upon the troops, and declared for indepen- dence. The Austrian army, yielding for the moment, re- tired in good order under its general, Radetzkv . to a chain | of impregnable fortifications prepared for just such an occasion, and knovvii as th ^Quadrilateral._ A provisional government at Milan appealed to all Italy for help, and es- pecially to Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, the most pow- erful and most patriotic of the local princes. For the moment the national movement was irresistible, and all the more important rulers, the grand-duke of Tuscany, the king of Naples, and even the Pojx;, sent contingents to fight side by side with the Sardinians for the liberation of the northern provinces. It was Italy's first great national war; its purpose the expulsion of the foreigner. In this heroic enterprise, originating in the spontaneous Austria defeats action of the people, there was one fatal defect. Among the italy. motley Italian forces the Sardinian army was the only effi- cient body, and its numbers were too small to resist the Austrian legions. When the clash came at Custozza, on I 450 The Revolution of iS^8 ^lOj^ Jul^25th, the veteran Radetzky inflicted a decisive defeat on the king of Sardinia, reconquered Lombardy, and obliged Charles Albert to sue for a truce. When at the expiration of the truce the war was renewed, the Austrians won another great victory at Novara (March, 1849), and the struggle was over. Sick at heart the defeated Charles Albert abdicated, and his successor, Victor Emmanuel, made haste to sign a treaty with Austria by which he retired from the war and received back his undiminished realm. That left the Aus- trians face to face with their two revolted provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. IMilan, the capital of Lombardy, being already in their hands, siege was now laid to Venice and the city obliged, after a splendid defence, to capitulate. The revolution Though the struggle in the north against Austria is the apes. climax of the Italian revolution, the rest of the peninsula shared in the aspirations and delusions of that year of tur- moil. While the revolutionary movement was at its height, , the Pope, the grand-duke of Tuscany, the king of Naples, and the lesser princes had made every conceivable conces- sion to the liberals; but as soon as the tide receded, they hurried to return to the absolute regime. The king of Na- ples was the first to forget his promises. A despot without a scruple, or, rather, a vaudeville sovereign in real life, he overthrew the constitutional system, first in Naples proper, and afterward in Sicily. A reaction worse than that im- posed by the Austrians on Lombardy, because its author was more despicable, fastened upon the fair provinces of the south. Far more memorable was the march of the revolu- tion in the central section, in the States of the Church, gov- erned at this time by Pius IX. In fact, the movement here throws a profound searchlight into Italian history. The revolution Pius IX., elected to the papacy in 1846, was a kind and affable man, with a reputation for liberalism which he owed .chiefly to an occasional good-natured word for it. He at Rome. In Germany, Austria, and Italy 451 sympathized also, to a certain extent, with the Italian national movement, and when Lombardy revolted against Austria, began by approving the action. But as soon as he became aware of the consequences, he called a halt. To send troops against Austria meant a declaration of war against that power and the adoption of a policy hardly consistent with his position as Pope. He found himself in a dilemma, the inevitable consequence of his twofold character, for as Pope and successor of the Prince of Peace he had spiritual obligations toward the whole Catholic world; and as lord of an Italian territory he had definite temporal interests, the commanding one just now being to join with the nation against the foreign conqueror. When he saw himself obliged to choose between his obliga- tions to Catholicism and those to his state, he naturally pre- ferred the greater to the lesser, and to the immense indig- nation of his people withdrew from the Austrian war. The -• incident proved that a Pope, occupying an international po- sition, could never follow e.xclusive national ends, and the ^ lesson sunk deep into Italian hearts. The immediate con- sequence was a revolution. A strong republican faction The Roman pronounced against Pius as a traitor to Italy; and when, ^^^^ alarmed at the situation, he sought refuge (November 24, 1848) with his friend, the king of Naples, the liberals took affairs into their own hands and erected the papal dominion into a republic. The leading spirit of the new government was Mazzini, a pioneer of Italian unity and a tireless con- spirator against the selfish reigning houses of his unhappy country. The Roman republic never had more than a fighting Napoleon over- chance to live. Catholic peoples the world over were hor- Roman re- rified at the dispossession of the Holy Father, and made Public, ready to interfere. Louis Napoleon, just elected president of the French republic, was especially delighted at the op- 452 The Revolution of 18^8 Italy looks to the House of Savoy. The army saves Austria. portunity oflfered to curry favor with the Catholic clergy and peasantry of France; heedless of the fact that he was pitting republic against republic, he sent an army to Rome to sweep Mazzini and his followers out of the city. General Garibaldi, who had been created commander-in-chief, made a gallant fight, but had to give way to numbers, and in July. 1849, the French entered the conquered city. When the disillusioned Pope returned to his capital, he was cured of every predilection for reform, and reestablished the hateful clerical administration with all its time-worn abuses. Thus closed the revolutionary war for Italy with a harvest of disappointments. Affairs relapsed to their former state; the brave eflfort had been apparently in vain. But one fact had been brought home to Italians, which was that they had in the king of Sardinia the one faithful ruler of the land, and in his army the one hope of redemption. Charles Albert had stood by the cause till his overthrow, and Victor Em- manuel, in spite of bribes and threats from Austria, refused to become a reactionary and to withdraw the constitution granted to Piedmont in 1848. Such conduct aroused a love and admiration which drew the eyes of all Italy toward the House of Savoy. While Austria was successfully reducing the Italians, she had her hands full with revolutions in every other part of her dominions. We have noted that the rising of the Germans at Vienna was the signal for similar risings among the Ital- ians, Hungarians, and Czechs, not to mention a number of smaller nationalities. With confusion reigning at the capi- tal and the emperor no better than an imbecile, it is certain that the state would have been lost, had it not been for the army. Its powerful discipline held it together, in spite of the general chaos; in Italy it had just proved its metal. Its leaders were of course eager to apply Radetzky's remedy of the sword to all the other rebels, and soon showed how difii- In Germany, Austria, a7id Italy 453 cult it is for a mere mob to stand up against professional soldiers. In June, 1848, Windischgraetz, commanding in Bohemia, disposed without much difficulty of the rebellious Czechs, and encouraged by his success marched shortly after upon the Germans at Vienna. There the inhabitants made a courageous stand, and it was not till October that the army stormed the gates and forced its way into the city. With Czechs and Germans once more under the rule of the bay- onet, and the Italians delivered to the bloody mercies of Radetzky, there remained only the Hungarian revolt to crush for Austria to be her accustomed self again. But the Hungarian revolt turned out to be the toughest Therevolu- task that the imperial army undertook, probably because gary!" the Hungarians were the most tenacious of the subjects of the emperor, and in any case the best organized. The king- dom of Hungary was one of the many possessions of the Hapsburg crown. It had an ancient constitution, which the rulers of the past had frequently violated, but latterly a patriotic party had insisted more and more stoutly on its being put in force. The year 1848 brought a complete tri- umph. The frightened government at Vienna servilely yielded everything that the Hungarians asked, until the successes against the Italians, Czechs, and Germans en- couraged it to stiffen its back. From verbal disputes the Austrian Government presently proceeded to war, and in December, 1848, the hitherto victorious Windischgraetz in- vaded Hungary. The defence which followed constitutes a splendid tribute to the spirit of the little nation. The Hungarians, under their energetic general, Gorgei, succeeded in driving the Austrians back upon Vienna, and elated by their success declared the House of Hapsburg deposed. The Kossuth, step was taken under the influence of Louis Kossuth, a re- publican, who had made himself practically dictator. The measure was of doubtful wisdom, for it drove the Viennese 454 TJie Revolution of 18^8 Return to the policy of re- pression. Reaction in Germany. Prussia gets a constitution, court to desperation, and induced it to appeal to Czar Nicholas for aid. This Czar, the last true supporter of the principle of intervention as laid down in the era of congresses, responded with alacrity, and presently a Russian army took the Hungarians in the flank. The rebels, caught between two fires, made a good fight; but by August, 1849, all was over, the leaders of the late revolution killed or scattered, and Austrian rule once more supreme. Thus Austria had come out of her terrible crisis apparently unscathed. The victorious court, alarmed by the liberal and racial movements of the past year, now concluded that the only way to save the state was to put all the nationalities on a basis of equality, and subject all alike to a common army and a common administration. As the Emperor Ferdinand had made too many personal pledges, he was induced to abdicate and was succeeded by his young nephew, Francis Joseph. On turning back now to Germany, we are immediately struck by the fact that the progress of reaction in Austria greatly encouraged the conservative elements among the German states. The king of Prussia, who had yielded to circumstances but w'as still an unconverted absolutist, re- solved to treat Berlin as Windischgraetz had served Vienna. Troops suddenly took possession of the capital, and the Prus- sian Diet, which was making a constitution for the state, was prorogued to another city and there dissolved (Novem- ber 7th). Frederick William might have returned to the old absolutism, but deterred by certain scruples, which redound to his honor, resolved to give his subjects a constitution of his own making. This instrument did not meet all of the lib- eral demands, but it guaranteed to the people a share in the legislation, and was evidence that in Prussia, almost alone in central Europe, the revolution of 1848 had not been en- tirely in vain. In Germany, Austria, and Italy 455 The next body to feel the reaction was the German Par- TheGerman iiament at Frankfort. We left it at the time of its discom- completes its fiture in the Schleswig-Holstein matter, when the proof of its ^349!'*"''''"' weakness had been furnished by its inability to control the policy of Prussia. Since then it had proceeded, in spite of gathering clouds, with its work of uniting all Germany by a constitution. The greatest barrier in its path was Aus- tria. As this state, a mixture of all nationalities, would cut a strange figure in a German national state, it was finally resolved to exclude it from the proposed union. A related difficulty, the headship of Germany, therewith practically solved itself. Not without violent discussion, it was decided that the chief executive should be a hereditary emperor, and that the post should be offered to the king of Prussia. In April, 1849, a deputation from the Parliament travelled to Berlin to offer the crown of united Germany to Frederick William. Their answer was a refusal. Frederick William was too The king of . . -T) • L 1 Prussia rejects deeply penetrated with the ideas of Divme Right to nave the proffered any sympathy for a popular and democratic honor, he was convinced that the constitution was unworkable, and — he was afraid of Austria. Austria was just recovering her en- ergy and notified Berlin, in no uncertain language, that the acceptance of the imperial office by a Hohenzollern would never be suffered by the House of Hapsburg. Frederick William was a well-meaning man of mystical, confused ideas, and, like all waverers, ended by yielding to pressure. The committee of the Parliament went back to Frankfort, re- ported its failure, and that body, not without a small flurry of revolt, recognized that its work was ended and retired from the scene. Frederick William, who, in spite of his refusal of the The king of .... Prussia tries to crown, felt that he was pledged to do somethmg tor his persuade the nation, now tried to persuade the German governments to foun'jte"^^"*^ 456 TJie Revolution of 184.8 The Bund set up again. Schleswig- Holstein crushed. German results. negotiate among themselves about the bases of a new union. His thought was that since the people had failed, the princes should try in their turn. But Austria, which had learned by this time that any form of German union would be in- jurious to her, threw her whole influence against this scheme as well. Finally, she proposed to reconstitute the old Bund, the great attraction of which was that it left the sov- ereignty of the princes intact and reduced the power of Prus- sia to nothing. The Bund had fallen like a house of cards in 1848, but Austria set it up once more and invited every- body to enter and complete the happy family. The princes, selfishly mindful only of their independence, deserted Fred- erick William and gathered around the Austrian standard. The king of Prussia presently found himself alone; and when Austria, aware that she was dealing with a timid man, haughtily ordered him to give up every idea of a closer union and be satisfied with the Bund, he yielded without a struggle (Treaty of Olmiitz, November, 1850). The old Bund — that was the ridiculous issue of the two years' labor of the nation. Germany seemed not to be worthy of a better form of union. In this general collapse of German hopes and illusions the Schleswig-Holsteiners, who had rebelled against the king of Denmark, could not escape disaster. Abandoned by Prussia in August, 1848, they had several times returned to the fray, but were crushed definitely in 1850. A conference of powers met at London to consider their case and decided the succession question against them. It was agreed (Pro- tocol of 1852) to designate Prince Christian of Gliicksburg as heir of the Danish monarchy and of the duchies as well. In spite of their protests the duchies were now subjected to Denmark and their case adjourned till they had summoned strength to rise once more against their masters. With the German Parliament banished to the shades, the duchies of Schleswis: and Holstein redelivered to the In Germany, Austria, and Italy 457 Danes, the Bund reconstituted at Frankfort, and Austria restored under an absolute sovereign, the Metternichian system with all its attendant miseries had been given a new lease of life. Patriots and liberals were filled with despair. But as no evil is without some grain of good, the confusion of the revolution had shown two things: it had shown that the greatest enemy to German unity was the Austrian court, and that salvation, if it ever came, would have to come from Prussia. Prussia's prestige, it is true, was, after her many failures, lamentably low. But something remained: it was not forgotten that the national hopes had once enthusias- tically turned to her; and by her adoption of a constitution she had divorced herself definitely from mediaeval forms and planted her feet in the present. CHAPTER XXI Louis Napo- leon favors the monarchical elements. FILVNCE UNDER NAPOLEON III AND THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapter XX., pp. 809-23; Chapters XXI .-XXII.; Phillips, Modern Europe, Chapters XIV.-XV.; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter VI., pp. 166-76; Chapter XL, pp. 346- 61; Andrews, Modern Europe, Vol. II., Chapters I.-IIL; Bolton King, History of Italian Unity, Vol. II.; Stillman, The Union of Italy; Cesaresco, Cavour; Mazade, Cavour. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XL. (Louis Napoleon's coiip d'etat, Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel, etc.); Anderson, Constitutions and Docu- ments; Garibaldi, Autobiography, 3 vols.; Mazzini, Life and Writings, 6 vols. The indication furnished by the choice of Louis Napoleon as president, that France did not really want a republic, was converted into positive proof by the elections of May, 1849, to the Legislative Assembly. The country returned an im- mense monarchical majority, and the only reason the repub- lic was not immediately overthrown lay in the circumstance that the monarchists were divided into three groups: legit- imists, favoring the elder Bourbon line; Orleanists, devoted to the family of Louis Philippe, and a rising Bonapartist faction, supporting the president. Louis Napoleon, while doing his best to strengthen his personal supporters, encour- aged a combination of all the monarchists to crush the re- publicans. The Assembly soon showed its hand in a suc- 458 Tlie Unification of Italy 459 cession of conservative measures of which the crowning one was the limitation ( 1850 ) of universal suffrage, perhaps the greatest^ achievement of the late revolution. An even less defensible measure — already referred to in the previous chapter — had been adopted in the spring of 1849 and may be laid principally at the door of the president himself. In order to curry favor with the monarchists and Catholics — the combined conservative element — Louis Napoleon sent an expedition against Mazzini's Roman republic, thereby outraging the liberal sentiment of Europe even more than the Austrians did by their reconquest of Lombardy. Not for a year or two did the monarchical majority of the He appeals to Chamber begin to understand that Louis Napoleon's am- memory, bition w^as entirely personal, and therefore hostile to their own plans. He was most skilful in sounding the chords of the national memory, and before long was frequently re- ceived by the public with the old rallying cry of " Vive Na- poleon!" and even "Vive Pempereur!" The last veil fell from his plans when, in 1851, he presented himself before the legislature with the request to alter the constitution for his own advantage. The constitution fixed the presidential term at four years, without the right to reelection. As by the operation of this article Louis Napoleon would have become a private citizen in 1852, he urged repeal upon the Chamber. When the Chamber refused, he resolved, in order to save himself, to overthrow the government and consti- tution. The coup d'etat wa.s stt ioT December 2, 185 1. As soon The coup as the army was won over, the success of the conspirators December 2 was certain. While the troops occupied Paris, closed the ^^S^- hall of the deputies, and put the president's leading opponents under lock and key, the president himself announced by placard the return to the system of his famous uncle as em- bodied in the Constitution of the Year VIII. The country, 460 France Under Napoleon III The advent- urous policy of Napoleon III. Trouble be- tween Turkey and Russia. called upon to express its opinion upon these proceedings, in- dorsed the coup d'etat by a large majority. Louis Napoleon thereupon completed his government on the basis of a granted constitution, which, while preserving some liberal forms, as, for instance, a legislative body, practically concen- trated the whole power in the hands of the chief executive. There was nothing left to make the triumph complete but to cull its last fruits, and exactly a year after the coup d'etat the president assumed the title Emperor Napoleon III. The new emperor never forgot that he was a usurper and could maintain his throne only with the favor of the French people. As they were sure to exhibit increasing discontent with a domestic regime excluding them from all political activity, he resolved to distract their attention by a brilliant foreign policy. This was taking a page from the note-book of Napoleon I., who frequently remarked that all the French people wanted to satisfy them was military glory. Whither the doctrine led that great man we are aware. Napoleon III., too, at first had his triumphs, but without ever climbing as high as his exemplar, managed in the end to fall much lower. The first chance for playing a role presented itself in the east. The weakness shown by the Ottoman empire in the Greek War of Liberation became greater in the succeeding decades, and led the Czar to imagine that the death-agony was at hand. He referred to the Sultan habitually as " the sick man," and persuaded himself that England and Russia between them ought to make ready to divide the heritage. But England preferred the Sultan to the Czar at Constanti- nople and resolved to act the part of champion of the Turk- ish empire. There were other complications, which led finally to the Czar's demanding (April, 1853) to be recognized as protector of all Greek Christians resident in Turkey. As this would have made Nicholas co-sovereign with the Sultan And the Unification of Italy 461 in the Turkish dominions, the English ambassador urged his protege to refuse. The answer of the Russians was to occupy the Roumanian principalities in order to enforce their claims, and war followed between them and the Turks. But Turkey was not left alone this time as in 1828-29. 1 England and England was in honor bound to help her; and though no jp^rtTurkey. vital French interest was at stake, Napoleon, glad to find an occasion to put himself forward, offered England his alliance. Together the two western powers signed a treaty with Tur- key (M arch, 185 4) and declared war upon Russja . What had threatened at first to be merely another Turco-Russian conflict, thus became a European war, the first on any con- siderable scale since the Napoleonic struggle. In the first part of the campaign of 1854 the Russians The Crimean retired from Roumania into their own territory and stood on ^^' ' ^4 5 • the defensive. The allies therefore were obliged to agree upon some point for attack, and after much waste of time hit upon the fortress of Sebastopol in the Crimea. The war practically reduced itself to the siege of this great stronghold, which the Russians defended skilfully and manfully for a whole year. Its fall in September, 1^55, discouraged the Russians greatly; and as Czgj Nicholas, whose pretensions had caused the war, died during the siege, to be succeeded by his humane and moderate son, Alexander II., negotia- tions could be begun, which led to the signing of the Pe§£.e The Peace of of Paris (March, 18^). As Turkey had been the ally of ^^"^'^^56. France and England, the general effect of the peace was a victory of the Sultan over his ancient foe, the Czar. The decadent and contemptible Ottoman Empire had all its pos- sessions guaranteed by the powers, who engaged not to inter- fere in its affairs. This plainly meant the delivering over of the Balkan Christians to the tender mercies of the Sultan. But nobody seemed to care as long as the provision robbed Russia of her influence at Constantinople. The fear of 462 France Under Napoleon III Napoleon's prestige. Napoleon reopens the Italian ques- tion. / Cavour allies I himself with Napoleon. Russia was shown in a furtl^r article, by which she was forbidden to keep warships in the Black Sea. The Crimean War, concluded at Paris under the eyes of Napoleon, greatly enhanced his influence; though, as al- ready remarked, it would be hard to say what advantage France reaped therefrom. Napoleon III.'s policy was per- sonal, not national. That is the conclusion which his whole reign confirms, and particularly the steps he now took in the Italian question. Napoleon, in spite of his name, was not so much a warrior as a clever and juggling politician endowed with ambition and a few general ideas. Among them was that of national- ity — every nation must come into its own — and it is one of the pleasanter sides of Napoleon that he was really willing to risk something to bring his idea to realization. The spec- tacle of a nation in chains had excited his sympathy for Italy even when a lad, and now led him to plan, the libera- tion of the peninsula from Austrian rule — a generous impulse without doubt, but one explained by his personal predi- lections, not grounded in the necessities of the French statse of which he was the temporary guardian. Italy since the failure of the rising of 1848 was dominated by Austria. The hopes and prayers of the patriots turned to Sardinia-Piedmont, and this state, under Victor Empian- \xe\ II. and liis great minister, Ca^ciUJt, was systematically preparing itself for a new struggle. But Cavour was con- vinced that without the help of a great power Sardinia could not wage a victorious war against Austria. The campaign of : 1848-49 had pointed this lesson. Cautiously Cavour sought the friendship of Napoleon; joined, merely to put him under ^ligation, in the Crimean War ; waved the national idea be- fore his eyes; and finally concluded with him a formal al- liance (Treaty of Plombieres, 1^58). The alliance was di- rected against Austria, which was to be driven out of Italy. And the Unification of Italy 463 The war began in the spring of 1859, and was over in a The war of few weeks. By two victories, at Magen ta and at S olferin o. ^-"^^^'^ the allies — France and Sardinia — drove the Austrians out of Lombardy back upon the Quadrilateral. Italy was ablaze with bonfires and hailed Napoleon, wherever he appeared, with tumultuous enthusiasm. But much remained to be done; the Quadrilateral, one of the strongest defensive po- sitions of Europe, must be taken before Italy would be free. At that juncture occurred a dramatic change. Just as every- body was expecting news of another great battle, the tele- graph flashed the information that Napoleon and Francis Joseph had had a personal interview and arranged a peace (July), ^ustria agreed to give up Lombardy, but was per- mitted to retain Venetia, thus retaining a powerful foothold in the peninsula) Victor Emmanuel II. and Cavour, though deeply disappointed, bowed to the inevitable, comforted by the reflection that Italian unity had in one short spring made gigantic strides. The considerations which moved Napoleon to his sudden Napoleon's turn-about were manifold. He was not a masterful char- m^*ing peace, acter and easily fell victim to his fears. The military prob- lems of breaking through the Quadrilateral alarmed him, Germany, by arming on the Rhine frontier, was threaten- ing his flank, and, above all, the movement in Italy fiUed him with dismay. He handed over Lombardy to Victor Emmanuel and hurried home, resolved to wash his hands of the troublesome Italian matter. He had entered the war prepared to do something for the cause of the Italian na- tionality, but he had not foreseen the immense turmoil which the war caused in the peninsula. ' To this turmoil we must now give attention, for it /Annexations introduces us to the first stage in the history of Italian V northern iury. unification. Elated by the defeat of the Austrian foe, Tus- cany, Modena, Parma, and the Romagna, practically the 464 France Under Napoleon III whole of central Italy, drove out their rulers and declared for annexation to Sardinia. Victor Emmanuel, pleased though he was, dared not accept these territories without the consent of Napoleon. Feverish negotiations followed, which ended in an agreement that permitted the annexations in return for the cession to France of Savoy and Nice. Bis- ;SAVOY\ V '.i,„,„, THE UMFICATION OF ITALY ftnarck referred to the transaction ironically as Napoleon's Ipoiirboire (waiter's tip) for services rendered. The pay- ment was resented at the Sardinian court, but against it stood the immense advantage of Lombardy and the cen- Itral states. Sardinia had in the course of a single year .'absorbed northern Italy except Venice. This is the first step in the unification of the peninsula. Afid the Unification of Italy 465 The second was the capture the next year (i860) of the iGaribaldi south, accomplished by the adventurous expedition of that jsraly a"d famous soldier of fortune, Garibaldi. This spirited leader l^^pl^s. secretly gathered one thousand volunteers about him and set sail for Sicily. They had only to show themselves with the national colors for the Sicilians to toss their hats into the air and abandon the hated Bourbon king. Sicily conquered, Garibaldi sailed across the straits to the mainland, and again the proof was furnished that the Bourbon dynasty had never taken root among the people. The bold invader was ac- claimed as a saviour wherever he appeared, and in Septem- ber entered the city of Naples in triumph. The fugitive king, Francis II., made his last stand at the fortress of GaetaJ to pass at its surrender into life-long exile. His extensive kingdom (Naples and Sicily) declared by popular vote for annexation to Sardinia. The Garibaldians at the same time resolved to round off the previous Italian annexations in the center, and were on the point of seizing the Marches and Umbria, belonging to the States of the Church, when Cavour interposed and occupied them with the Sardinian army. It was only with difficulty that Garibaldi was dis- suaded from attempting to seize Rome itself. The second stage of Italian unification had yielded so considerable a harvest that only Venetia and Rome were stiU outside the national state. As Venetia was held by Austria, and Rome guarded by French troops who had never discontinued their occupation begun in 1849, the attempt to seize either of these provinces meant war with a great power, and for such audacity Victor Emmanuel was not prepared. The prog- ress of the unitarian movement was therefore adjourned to a more auspicious time. In view of this situation the king and his great councillor, .Victor Em- Cavour, resolved to inaugurate a period of rest and recupera- ( dairnedkingof tion. Technically there existed only a kingdom of Sardinia Vlt^'y- ^^^i. 466 France Under Napoleon III with annexations several times the size of the little state, which had championed the national cause. In February, 1 861, deputies from all the absorbed sections met at Turin and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel king of Italy. It was a proud and uplifting moment in the history of a brave people. But there was still much work ahead; an administration, finance, army and navy had all to be created, not to mention the necessity of finding a modus vivendi with the Pope, who, outraged by his spoliation, had excommunicated the king, CavQU g».his rebellious subjects — in fact, everybody connected with the revolution. The new constructive work had hardly been begun when the great Cavour died (June, 1861), and the cloak of the statesman fell upon the shoulders of well-meaning but uninspired politicians. Victor Emmanuel, conscious that his task was incom- plete, continued to look longingly toward Venetia and Rome, but was resolved to bide his time. Two great European cris'es furnished him the opport unity t o realize his hopes. In the year 1866 there broke out the long-threatening war in Italy acquires Germany between Au stria and Prussia., Prussia naturally appealed to Italy for help, and the two powers, upon both of whom Austria rested like an incubus, made an alliance. Austria was obliged to face two enemies at once; and al- though victorious over Italy, defeating her army at C\isto7.z^ (June 24th) and her navy at Ljssain the Adriatic (July 20th) was so conclusively crushed by Prussia at S ado^^ a that she had to sign a peace. In the hope of winning French favor, the emperor of Austria had, on receipt of the news of Sadowa, handed over Venetia as a present to Napoleon III., but the French emperor at the conclusion of peace transferred the province to Victor Emmanuel. Venetia was presently in- corporated with Italy, and in November the old republic of St. Mark gave the king a stirring and patriotic welcome. Rome now alone remained outside the reconstituted na- Venetia, 1866. And the Unification of Italy 467 tion. If the question had been submitted to the vote of the Romans whether they wished to be governed by the Pope or by the king, there can be no doubt for whom they would have declared. But French troops held the city for the Pope, and Napoleon made it plain that much as he had done for Italian unity, his complaisance stopped at the walls ofi the Eternal City. To snatch Rome from the Pope would! have precipitated a French war. Again the cautious Victor Emmanuel resolved to be patient and let time work for him. In the year i$7o broke out the famous war between France and Prussia; and although the king of Italy took no hand in it, his country profited from the conflict. Napoleon, hard pressed, withdrew his troops from Rome and shortly after was completely overwhelmed at Sedan. There was now no one to hinder the march upon Rome. In Septem- Italy acquires ber, 187 0J the Italian army appeared before the gates and forced its way into the city amid the plaudits of the citizens. Pius IX., abandoned by the Catholic powers, fulminated anathemas upon his despoilers, but was permitted to retain the Vatican palace and live there unmolested. The Vat- ican, flanking St. Peter's Church, has since been the Pope's ofSeial residence, but the ancient City of the Seven Hills was declared the capital of the Italian state. CHAPTER XXII THE UNIFICATION OF GERMANY References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapters XXIII.- XXIV.; Phillips, Modern Europe, Chapters XVI.- XVIII. ; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter XV.; Andrews, Modern Europe, Vol. II., Chapters V.-VI; Henderson, Short History of Germany, Vol. II., Chap- ters IX.-X.; Von Sybel, Founding of the German Empire by William I. (solid, based on the public rec- ords); Lowe, Prince Bismarck; Head lam, Bismarck; Munroe Smith,' Bismarck and German Unity. Source Readings: Robinson, Readings, Vol. II., Chapter XL., Sections 4-5 (Koniggratz, the Spanish episode, etc.); BuscH, Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History; Whitman, Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck; Bismarck, Reflections and Reminiscences. Prussia under The many heartrending failures of the year 1848 in Ger- many had at least made clear that Prussia was the pivot of German politics. The ensuing reaction spread a darkness over the land, but even in this situation it was felt to be a distinct advantage that Prussia had acquired a constitu- tional government. The unmanly conduct of the ministry during the crisis injured the reputation of the state and re- duced its influence to nothj^^ as long as the discredited Frederick William IV. occupieo the throne. But, owing to symptoms of insanity, he retired from power in 1858 in favor of his brother William, who definitely became king on the demise of the sovereign in i 8 | 6i_i L/'-tm "^"^^ in consequence the Dissenters were put on an equality with Anglicans and made eligible to all posts in the gift of the state. So abiding, however, was the prejudice against the Roman Catholics that certain regu- lations excluding them from both Houses of Parliament were kept in force. Under the lash of this injustice a passionate Irishman, Daniel O'Connell, started a campaign which took such an ominous form among his countrymen that the gov- ernment became alarmed, and passed (1829) the Emancipa- tion Bill, at last flinging wide the doors of Parliament to the Catholic subjects of the crown and restoring them to their full civil rights. Hardly had these measures of religious toleration been carried when an agitation was started in favor of the reform of Parliament itself. The House of Commons, indeed, in- vited severe criticism. It was of feudal origin, and showed its derivation in that it represented not the nation, but certain privileged bodies. These were of two kinds, the 9»QWtJe§ aji^ the bQrpvgJi^,. The counties elected 186 mem- bers on an ungenerous franchise system, but were hardly open to criticism compared with the b^i^oygl^s, which were a perfect ^yjl^. q( Q^irfuptipiv The boroughs elected 467 members by methods so various as to defy description. Suf- fice it that borough members were ordinarily elected by the Great Britain in the Nijteteentk Century 483 town corporations; that is, by privileged bodies, composed in some cases of no more than a handful of individuals. In one class of boroughs a rich man, usually a nobleman, had ac- quired the right of naming the two members of the borough. They represented in Parliament nothing but himself. Such a borough was derisively called apockg^^bpf oug^ and the whole system, as is plain without additional details, was rotten to the core. However, as a further feature, filling the cup of injus- tice to the brim, we may note an antiquated system of distri- bution of seats. The change in the conditions of population produced by the development of manufactures in the north of England was disregarded, and not only did Lg^ci^ Bif^^ing- hS-nj, and other important new towns re^^ii| ur\;",ep[2s^j}t£(ij but the whole kingdom of ScotIaj\(4 had no more than ^5^ members ^gain^st^the ^ of the backward county of Garnwall. The Whig party, which championed the reform of Parlia- The Reform ment, soon won such favor that it was able to put an end to ^ ^ ^ 32- the long Tory rule. In i3^fl.the duke of Wglliiigiaa, who had become the head of the Tories and prime minister soon after the death of Canning, was obliged to resign because he declared himself satisfied with Parliamentary representation as it was, and in the general elections of 1831, the Whig^ for the first time in half a century carried a majority of seats. Their lea<^^r. Egji. Grey, now brought forward a Reform Bill which, after meeting with violent opposition in the House of Lords, was at last (1832) accepted by both houses. The new law achieved two results: (ij By suppression of the rot- ten boroughs 143 seats were set free for distribution among the towns and counties which were not sufficiently repre- sented; and (2} by a more uniform and more liberal electoral franchise 1 2qp^oao qjiditional subjects were conceded the * In the counties, copyholders and leaseholders of lands worth ;^io a year were admitted to vote; also tenants-at-will of lands worth £50. In the boroughs, householders (whether as owners or tenants) of houses worth ;£io a year were given the same privilege. 484 Great Britain in the Nineteenth Century lEmergence of jthe working- Jman as a Ipolitical factor. right to vote. Although this was not pure democracy, with its corollary of universal suffrage, the House of Commons was henceforth far more representative of the nation, and better prepared in consequence to consider measures demanded by the public welfare. The Reform Act of 1832 marks the beginning of the legis- lation by which aristocratic England was gradually democ- ratized. The Whigs, reorganized as the Liberal party, undertook, with proper safeguards against precipitancy, to favor this process; while the Tories, known henceforth as Conservatives, continued, in the main, to oppose change, but wisely accepted every reform as soon as it had become law. Both parties continued to represent largely the ancient aristocracy of the soil and the newer aristocracy of wealth. But the Liberals showed the effect of modern thought by at- tempting to secure contact with the masses. And that brings us to a matter of the greatest possible importance. Through the discoveries of science and the development of machinery, English industry had been tremendously stimulated. The presence of coal and iron in the northern and western counties had occasioned the almost magical growth of new towns com- posed largely of laborers, who, for the present, had few rights and were mercilessly exploited by the great manufacturers. With the steady growth of their numbers they would inev- itably develop a sense of power, sure to take the form of a regular programme of political and economic rights. The wild agitation known as the C hartist movemer[f j the first in- vasion into politics of the new industrial class, apprised the governing group that the workingmen must henceforth be reckoned with. The Chartist movepient (i.^7.ri-^j so called from the popular petition proclaimed as the People's Charter, aimed chiefly at universal suffrage; and although it failed at the first onset to attain its object, it taught the masses to organize and rally around the new ideal of democratic justice. Great Br it am in the Nijieteenth Century 485 The steady pressure of an increasingly enlightened press Repeal of the and public accounts for the succeeding reforms. Let us first '^^'^ ^^^' look at the measures adopted in connection with trade. England had thus far discouraged importation by a protective system, the chief feature of which was a high duty upon corn or grain. The people who profited by this policy were the great landholders, while the measure weighed heavily upon the workingmen, who had to pay an inordinately high price for bread. Two intelligent employers of labor, R irharrl Cobdep and J ohn Brig jit. undertook a cqjupaigp to instruct public opinion, and in iS^^had the satisfaction of convincing the ministry and Parliament of the wisdom of rq^fialtPg the Cor^ L7J)j. when, con- vinced that his cause was hopeless, he ma4e Y>^^ iipj* a radical, Qr^VX- Thus, after the struggle of a decade, the republicans had acquired and have since retained the three organs of political power. The republican regime has succeeded in thoroughly de- mocratizing France. The government has established an army on the basis of universal miljta.ry service, as in Ger- many; it has begun to decentralize the power by making the municipal aiit.hprities elective; and it has created i\. system of public education on the broad foundation of a gratuitous and compulsory primary instruction. Of course, with so many explosive forces stored up as in France, the path of the republic has not been strewn with roses. The army, officered by men of the upper classes, has sometimes shown signs of disobedience, and on several occasions, notably under instigation from General Boulanger (1887-89), has threatened to take matters into its own hands. Still greater danger than from the army has threatened from the clergy. The general democratic drift was by no means to the lik- ing of the Roman Catholic clergy, traditionally linked to the cause of monarchy. Under the prudent guidance of Pope Leo XIII. the French clergy " rallied " for a time around the republic, but a renewed and definite breach took place when the government developed its educational policy. Educa- tion had hitherto been a prerogative of the Church, which by means of its schools had moulded the youth of the nation. Therefore, when the attempt was made to organize a pub- lic-school system of lay teachers under the direct control of the state, the clergy showed signs of growing resentment. In the end a clash ensued between Church and state, which has finally led to a complete falling out of the former part- ners. In 1901 the government began to close the schools Since the Unification of Italy and Germany 507 maintained by the religious orders, and proceeding step by step, ended (1905) by cancelling the agreement of 1801 (the Concordat) with Rome. Church and state in France are now entirely separated, as in the United States, and the state will presently cease paying the salaries of priests and bishops. Further, by the Separation Act the state has ap- propriated the churches and cathedrals, but declares itself ready to deliver them over to religious congregations, formed according to the terms of the law. In August, 1906, the Pope refused in a letter to the French bishops to sanc- tion these congregations, thus openly declaring that a state of war exists between Rome and the government. There the matter rests: The state has affirmed its sovereign and democratic character, but in appropriating public education and in disestablishing the Church it has offended the Pope to the point where he seems inclined to resist to the utmost. j Meanwhile, the foreign policy of the republic has been The alliance largely governed by antagonism to Germany. During the early years of the Third Republic, France remained isolated, and by the creation of the Triple Alliance in 1883 seemed to be put into a distinctly inferior position. But relief was at hand. Russia, angered by the settlement of Berlin (1878), was drifting away from her traditional friendship with Ger- many, and presently made friendly overtures to France. Early in the nineties the growing intimacy took the form of an alliance, which has tended to restore French confi- dence and prestige. But even before the Russian friendship was assured, France Colonial had taken up with success a policy of colonial expansion. ^'^P^"^'^"- She has acquired Madagascar, Annam in Farther India, Ton- kin in southern China — not, of course, without expense and bloodshed — and she has unfurled her flag over a consider- able section of Africa. Africa, being nearer home, is the chief object of her attention, and the African policy of the repub- 5o8 Central Europe The greatness and weakness of France. lie has taken the form of amassing as large an empire as possible around Algiers, the splendid province acquired in 1830. We have seen how the seizure of Tunis (188 1) raised a question between France and Italy; but far from being content with Tunis, the government has pushed its claims over the Sahara and the northwest until only the Mohamme- dan empire of Morocco remains independent. This for- ward movement in Africa, persisted in throughout the cen- tury, was watched with alarm not only by Italy, but also by England, which, after its occupation of Egypt in 1882, looked upon the Nile valley as its particular domain. Constant diplomatic friction seems at last to have been allayed by an agreement of April, 1904, which, generally speaking, as- signs the whole northwest, including Morocco, to France as her sphere of influence, and in return concedes the Nile region to Great Britain. Since the German war France has established the republic upon solid foundations; she has created a democratic army and a democratic school-system, free from clerical influence; and she has enlarged her colonial dominion; nevertheless, she does not play as important a role as before 1870. The reason is not to be found in any falling off of her moral integrity or industrial efficiency, but solely in the fact that her population has become practically stationary. Bismarck in control. Germany. The proclamation of William, king of Prussia, as em- peror, coupled with the completion of the German Empire, gave Bismarck, the creator of German unity, a position of unassailable authority. To his post of prime minister of Prussia he added that of chancellor or head, under the em- peror, of the federal government. For the next twenty years he towered like a giant over German political life. The fed- Since the Unijication of Italy and Germany 509 eral constitution, a compromise of Prussian autocracy and German liberalism, left the sovereign in control of the army, the administration, and the ministry; the Reichstag voted the budget and made the laws. While the chancellor was there- fore secure against overthrow by an adverse Parliamentary vote, he was reduced to finding a majority for a desired measure by bargaining with the various parties. He began by an alliance with the liberals, whose programme, in the main, he adopted. With their aid he was engaged in en- dowing the new federation with such necessary modern institutions as a system of coinage (its unit the mark = 24 cents), the French metric system of weights and measures, and a uniform system of judicature, when he fell into a quarrel, known as the Ctdturkampj (war for civilization), with the Roman Catholic Church. We have seen that Italy and France — and it is true of The quarrel almost every other European country — quarrelled with the chuixhand Catholic Church during the second half of the nineteenth ^^^'*^' ^^7i-7<> century. The main issue has usually been ihe control of education. In Germany figured some additional features, especially the claim of the Church to be exempt from all interference on the part of the state. The Catholics, who form a minority in Germany, stood solidly together in and outside the Reichstag, and although the state passed several severe laws curtailing the authority of the clergy, Bismarck was at last obliged to sound a retreat. The Catholic polit- ical party, called the Centre, not only succeeded in getting most of the legislation against the Church repealed, but also in acquiring a leading position in German public life. On the great question of education a compromise was reached by which the state retained charge of the schools, but made religion an obligatory subject, handing over the Catholic in- struction to the Catholic clergy and the Protestant instruc- tion to the Protestant ministers. 510 Central Europe llndustry and Economically, the most significant fact in modern Germany Imocracy. i^ the progress of commerce and industry. German manu- factures, stimulated by the exploitation of the iron and coal deposits along the Rhine and in Silesia, have entered into competition with those of England and the United States, and German commerce now encircles the globe. A social consequence has been the marvellous growth of the cities, whose swarming masses have naturally banded together for the purpose of improving their position by political action. Organized by clever leaders — Lasalle, Liebknecht, Bebel — as the social-democratic party, the workingmen have stead- ily pressed toward the double ideal of a pure democracy and the control by the community of the means of production. The growth of the social-democracy has been uninterrupted, until in the Reichstag elections of 1903 it cast twice as many votes as any other party. This rise of a revolutionary fac- tion, prepared to overthrow not only the monarchy but also the capitalistic middle class, greatly alarmed the govern- ment, and in the early eighties led Bismarck to turn his attention to the labor question. With characteristic inge- nuity he adopted a programme of state socialism, devised to win the attachment of the workingmen. He had laws ]:)assed by which the state undertook to insure the laboring classes against accident, sickness, and old age; but al- though this insurance system has been in successful opera- tion for two decades, it has not shaken the loyalty of its beneficiaries toward the party of revolution. Upon the social-democracy hinges the future of Germany. The monarchy, supported by the aristocracy, the clergy, and the middle classes, and the workingmen, with their programme of a republic with equal benefits for all, must find some common ground if Germany is to be saved from disruption. In foreign affairs Germany has played an important part since her defeat of France. Bismarck, past-master in the Since the Unification of Italy and Gerniafiy 5 1 1 art of diplomacy, did not fail to see that he must secure his country first of all against its late enemy. He succeeded in forming the leag\ie olrtKetmeeemperors of Russia, Austria, and Germany, which lasted until the Balkan war of 1877, Such a league of course made Germany unassailable, but it cajneJCLan end when, after the Congress of Berlin (1878), Russia showed an inclination to ascribe the hostile enact- ments of that gathering to Germany and Austria. There- upon Bismarck formed a close alliance with the cabinet of The policy of Vienna (1879). The admission of Italy into this compact triple created the famous Triple Alliance (1883), which has been Alliance. several times renewed, and which has thus far honestly con- tributed to the maintenance of the European peace. The Triple Alliance of the central powers and the Dual Alliance of their eastern and western neighbors make Europe on the surface look like a camp ready to bristle with arms at a moment's notice, but, deeply considered, these arrangements, by establishing a nearly even balance of power, greatly re- duce the chances of war. Great Britain, hovering upon the outskirt of these great peace leagues, at first favored the Triple Alliance, but, increasingly alarmed over the rapid growth of Germany, has since the beginning of the twen- tieth century shown a strong inclination to rally to the side of France. Old Emperor William died in 1888 at the ripe age of nine- William ii. ty-one. He was succeeded by his son Frederick, already stricken with a mortal disease, and after a few weeks by his grandson, William II. William II._, an active, talented, and religious sovereign with strong autocratic leanings, was re- solved not only to rule but also to govern. He soon dis- missed Bismarck,4j^9Q)> because he was not inclined to be overtopped by a mere subject, and then by a policy of speeches at banquets and similar occasions entered actively into all the questions of the day. He has started many re- 5 1 2 Central Europe forms, some good, others indiflferent; he has shown an un- flagging interest in commerce, manufactures, science, and the fine arts; he is the real creator of the German navy; but by putting himself persistently forward he has made himself also the main object of attack within and without his do- minion. Although he has dug deeper the chasm between the monarchy and the socialists, he has held the affection of the middle classes, and seems to occupy a very strong and unassailable position. A ustria-Himgary. Federalism On the heels of the failure of the revolution of 1848 the centralization, government of the young emperor, Francis Joseph, returned to the Metternichian system, which locked Austria in the prison of absolutism for the next ten years. But the un- fortunate Italian campaign of 1859 brought an awakening. The emperor himself saw the necessity of change and pub- lished a solemn promise to admit the people to a share in public affairs. In what form was this to be done? Two courses seemed to be open : (Y) To declare the various prov- inces of the Hapsburg dominion self-governing, each with its own Parliament but subject to the common sovereign — this the federal system; and (2) to weld the provinces as closely together as possible and make them subject to a na- tional Parliament and administration at Vienna — this the system of centralization. The former plan was favored by the Slav tribes — Czechs, Poles, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs — who felt that it contained a guarantee of their national exist- ence; the latter by the Germans, who wished to retain their historical predominance. The Hungarians would accept neither of the two systems, and after a period of hesitation and conflict (1860-67) decided the issue according to their special demands. Since the Unification of Italy and Germany 5 1 3 The Hungarians declared that as an independent nation The dual em- they were interested neither in Slav federalism nor in German Hungary centralization, but wanted singly and solely a recognition of '^''^^^ed, 1867. their ancient constitution, suppressed after their defeat in 1849. So firmly did they comport themselves that Francis Joseph at last gave way. Having in 1867 declared the Hun- garian constitution again in vigor, he was crowned at Buda- pest as king of Hungary. At the same time the kingdom of Hungary entered into an agreement with the rest of the Haps- burg monarchy to regard a certain number of affairs, such as diplomacy, the army and navy, the national debt, the coinage, the customs tariff, as common to both contracting parties. Thus was called into being the dual system indi- cated in the official designation of Austria-Hungary, and con- stituting an unclassifiable novelty among political creations. It is plainly more than a pcr-onal union, and yd, on the other hand, less than a closi- federation, as the agreement on most matters (coinage, customs) has to be renewed from decade to decade, and the agreement on no matter, not even on the army and navy, is perpetual. Judging this scheme of dual- ism by its record, a student can give it at best but a qualified approval. The two halves of the monarchy have quarrelled constantly, some of the agreements have been permitted to lapse, and the refusal of the emperor to grant certain new demands of the Hungarians, touching the abolition of the German language in the Hungarian half of the common army, led in the year 1905 to a condition in Hungary which can only be described as latent revolution. It is not credi- ble that the dual system of 1867 can be maintained much longer without great changes. The idea behind the arrangement of 1867 was the su- Hungarian success in premacy of the Hungarians and the Germans, in the east Hungary, and west respectively, at the expense of the Slavs. In Hun- gary, taken together with its dependent provinces of Croatia 514 Central Europe \ Austria-Hun- gary interested \ chiefly in the iBalkans. and Transylvania, the Hungarians did not constitute one- half of the population, but such was their patriotic vigor and political intelligence that they have, though frequently with questionable means, secured their ascendancy. Austria, which was defined as including all the Hapsburg dominions not assigned to Hungary — that is, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lower Austria, Tyrol, etc. — has led a very stormy life since the dual settlement. The Germans, though traditionally in control, constituted only a strong minority, and partly from lack of homogeneity, partly from lack of support on the part of the emperor and his government, have been obliged to relax their hold. The trouble has lain in the in- ability of Francis Joseph to make up his mind definitely about the old issue of federalism versus centralization. Af- ter supporting for a time the centralized system, which nat- urally favored the Germans, as it confirmed their rule over non-German provinces, Francis Joseph turned in 1879 ^^ the federalists, who in varying combination have been at the helm ever since, and who, although they have not yet dis- solved the Austrian state, have steadily pursued their fed- eralist objects, thereby putting the Germans on the defen- sive. The struggle of the various nationalities ^ in Austria and Hungary, but especially in Austria, is i ntense and un- interrupted, and would have long ago led to a complete dis- solution of the Hapsburg dominion, if it were not for the pressure of two circumstances. All the nationalities unite in loyalty to the Hapsburg dynasty; and however much they quarrel, thev' ba]k at separation for fear that something worse may befall them. The tale of the Austro-Hungarian foreign policy is soon told. Since Austria's exclusion from Germany (1866) her ' The census of 1890 gives the following figures for the leading nation- alities: Germans, 10,000,000; Hungarians, 7,500,000; Czechs, 7,400,000; Ruthenians, 3,500,000; Poles, 3,700,060; ISerbs and Croatians, 3,300,000; Roumanians, 2,800,000; Italians, 700,000. Since the Uiiijicaiion of Italy and Gcrinanj 515 chief interest has lain in the Balkans, where she naturally came into rivalry with Russia. At the Congress of Berlin ( i8y8 ) she received, like almost everybody else, a piece of the Sultan's cloak in the shape of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria-Hungary was asked to admin- ister these territories provisionally under the sovereignty of the Sultan, but nobody doubts that the occupation is perma- nent. As the rivalry with Russia had by reason of this step grown acute, Francis Joseph concluded (1879) the treaty with Germany which in 1883, by the accession of Italy, grew / into the Triple Alliance, still operative at this day (igo6). The future of Austria-Hungary is one of the grave prob- The future of lems of Europe. The falling apart of the monarchy would iiungan'. raise a tremendous dust-cloud and cause an almost certain scramble for the scattered remains among the neighbors. That anything wjll occur to strengthen the wabbling struct- ure is not likely. On the other hand, the loyalty to the reigning House, and especially to the person of the old em- peror, Francis Joseph (1848 — still reigning 1906), as well as the conservatism inherent in the blood of men, may keep the warring nationalities from the last step and indefinitely se- cure to the monarchy its present precarious existence. CHAPTER XXVI THE MINOR STATES OF EUROPE The minor states of Europe have of course shared in the great movements of the nineteenth century and show a development along the same lines as the great powers. Their history manifests, in the realm of politics, the progress of democracy; in economics, the increase of wealth and population through the ai)plication of science to industry and commerce; and in the relation of classes, an improved organization of the workingmen coupled with a leaning toward socialist views. These movements are modified in each country by its sjjecial situation. A. Spain. References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapters XIV., XVII.; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter X., pp. 286-319; Phillips, Modern Europe, j)p. 127-30, 462; M. A. S. Hume, Modern Spain (i 788-1898). The return of The ]x)litical history of Spain in the nineteenth century the Bourbons, j^ ^ dreary story of misgovernment and revolution. We have seen that when Ferdinand VII., the Bourbon monarch, came back after the fall of Napoleon, he straightway repudiated the liberal party, which had been fostered on the ideas of the French Revolution and had during the War of Independence drawn up a constitution (1812). Then he re- established the absolute regime of his ancestors even to the point of calling the hated Inquisition from the tomb. 516 Tlie Minor States of Europe 517 His contemptible conduct caused the revolution of 1820, which after a short liberal triumph led to the French inter- vention of 1823 and to the restoration of the tyranny of Ferdinand. We have also seen how the support of the Holy Alliance, so effective on the Continent of Europe, proved of no avail toward the conquest of the Spanish- American colonies, and how these, in spite of Ferdinand's protest, entered upon a career of independence. But misgovernment at home and the loss of South America Civil war. does not complete the tale of the misery wrought by the wretched king. Even in his death he became a curse to his country by creating a succession issue. He left his crown, when he died in 1833, to his infant daughter Isabella, under the regency of her mother Christina, thereby setting aside his brother Carlos, who considered himself the legal heir. The result was a civil war of Christinists against Carlists, which lasted until Carlos, after seven years of fighting, was driven from the country (1840). By that time civil war had become a national habit and now broke out among the victors. The dreary struggle is apparently withf)ut rhyme or reason, but, closely scanned, will reveal at its core the momentous question: shall Spain retain her feudal and absolute shackles or shall she cast them off and enter upon the path of modern constitutionalism ? Christina, the regent, and Queen Isabella after her, published and annulled con- stitutions, made and broke promises, compounded with this and that group of politicians, until the feeble and dishonest game was at an end and Queen Isabella had to flee abroad before a popular rising (1868). A period followed of vain experimentation; in reality the country passed into the hands of successive dictators. During the ascendancy of \ the Generals Serrano and Prim the crown was offered (1870) \ to Leopold of Hohenzollern, producing that Spanish incident ' which brought about the Franco-C.crman War. In 1873, 5i8 The Minor States of Europe Restoration of the Bourbons under Alfonso Xll. (1875). The constitu- tion. Economic and social condi- tions. The Spanish colonies. under the high-minded and capable Castelar, even the repubUcan form of government received a trial. At length the country made up its mind that for better or worse its destiny was coupled with that of the inherited Bourbon dynasty and called back Isabella's son, the young Alfonso (1875). In 1876 a constitution was published which vested the legislative power together with ministerial control in a cartes of two houses — a senate, partly elected and partly appointed by the king, and a congress, elected by the people. Since 1890 manhood suffrage has been introduced. Old wounds open from time to time, but apparently Spain has entered upon an era of definite constitutional progress. When Alfonso XII. died in 1885, the grief was general and the nation rallied enthusiastically around his posthumous son, Alfonso XIII., for whom his mother assumed the regency till he was declared of age in 1902. The economic and social conditions continue to present a serious problem. The country possesses great natural resources (good soil and climate in the south, mineral wealth in the north), but the population, superstitious, backward in civilization, and prone to idleness, does not make the most of them. The poverty is great, beggary a national calamity. But a slow improvement is noticeable, which will be ac- celerated when the yniblic schools are made effective and illiteracy, which is general, has been stamped out. Until lately a great drain upon the national finances was the remnant of the once vast colonial empire, Cuba and the Philii)pines. Perennial misgovernment had made these dependencies prone to revolt, and neither military recon- quest nor belated attempts at reform secured the attachment of the alienated natives. In 1894 Cuba rose again, and when a Spanish force of 200,000 men had almost reduced the island to a desert, the United States interfered, provok- ing the Spanish-American War of 1898. The lusty republic The Minor States of Europe 519 was quickly successful, and in the Peace of Paris Spain declared Cuba independent and ceded Porto Rico and the Philippines to the victor. The assertion may be ventured that the war freed Spain from an embarrassment, for a weak power, just recovering from a mortal lethargy, cannot hope to communicate the spark of life to distant colonies. Spain can now retrench her expenditures and stop the growth of her national debt with its crushing interest charges. She can concentrate her attention upon her do- mestic problems, and may be expected to make rapid prog- ress in popular education, scientific culture, and industrial methods. B. Portugal. References: Fyffe, Modern Europe, Chapters XIV., XVII.; Seignobos, Europe Since 18 14, Chapter X., pp. 319-26; Pphllips, Modern Europe, pp. 90-91, 130-33; Stephens, H. Morse, Portugal. Portugal, the sister nation to the west of Spain, has in King John the nineteenth century passed through the familiar crisis Brazuf caused by the conflict of reactionary and progressive prin- ciples. When Napoleon invaded Portugal iii^ 1807, King John and the royal family of Braganza embarked for their great dependency, Brazil, where the sovereign chose to re- main even after Napoleon's rule had been overthrown. In 1820 the Portuguese, disaffected by this unexpected prefer- ence, rose in revolt and demanded a constitution. In order to save his crown, John VI. came back and with a meas- ure of common sense unusual in a legitimate king submitted to a limitation of his absolutism. On John's leaving Brazil, however, the Brazilians, of- Portugal and ;.,,.,. ., J r Brazil part fended m their turn, declared themselves mdependent ot company. Portugal and offered the crown to John's son, Pedro. Pe- dro wisely accepted, ado])ting the title Emjieror Pedro I., 520 The Minor States of Europe Civil war. The constitu- tion. The colonies of Portugal. Difficulties and problems. but on his father's death, in 1826, had to renounce the older crown of Portugal in favor of his infant daughter Maria. Thus Portugal and Brazil went each its own way. The succession in Portugal of Maria was presently disputed by Pedro's uncle Miguel, with the result that Portugal, like Spain, was plunged into civil war. At length the supporters oj Maria, who stood for constitutionalism, were victorious over Miguel and his reactionary henchmen, and Portugal about the middle of tlie century was pacified and dehnitely enrolled among the limited monarchies of Europe. The constitution provides for a cartes of two houses — the peers, who are in part appointed by the king, in part elected, and a lower chamber, elected by the people. The franchise has been gradually extended (the most recent bill is of 1901) until it is practically exercised by all adult males. Brazil, which with the accession of Emperor Pedro I. be- came an independent state, need not be examined here, ex- cept to point out the fortune of the House of Braganza. Pedro I. was followed by his son, Pedro II., a prince of a modern lyj)e, who, when 1il- discovered, after a beneficent reign, that the people preferred a republic, resigned his throne without a struggle (1890). Even after the loss of Brazil, Portugal retained considerable territory in Africa (see map, facing p. 540), l)ut national poverty coupled with bad management makes the possession a burden on the treasury. The Azores and Madeira, nearer home, are a more lucrative investment, but are not properly colonies, as they are peopled with Portuguese and are fully incorporated with the kingdom. Economically and intellectually Portugal reproduces the problems and sorrows of Spain. The country has resources, but the poor and indolent population cannot exploit them. Illiteracy is rampant; fully one-half the people cannot read and write. The finances, going from bad to worse, led in The Minor States of Europe 521 1893 to a partial suspension of interest payment on the national debt. That meant bankruptcy. Doubtless it would be a blessing if Portugal could be persuaded to pocket her pride, disband her army, and sell her African colonies to the highest bidder. Perhaps, too, it would be the part of wisdom if the two sister nations, Spain and Portugal, could be persuaded to form a federation, but the patriotism of the Portuguese puts any such plan out of the question for a long time to come. However, when all is said, civilization has moved forward and not Imckward in this state, in whose skies still lingers faintly the glory of the age when Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope and Vasco da Gama returned with the spices of India. C. Switzerland. References: Seignobos, Europe Since 18 14, Chapter IX., pp. 257-86; Phillips, Modern Europe, pp. 10, 262- 65; McCracken, Rise of the Swiss Republic, Book V. (nineteenth century). We have seen (p. 86) how the Swiss Confederation Difficulties of began in the revolt of the three Forest cantons, Schwyz, federation. Uri, and Unterwalden, against the counts of Hapsburg; how other cantons joined the league until the number reached thirteen; and how the sovereignty of the republic, after having been virtually exercised for two and a half centuries, was acknowledged by the Holy Roman Em[)ire in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Though independence was gained, the new state was afflicted with many troubles: T. The union established no effective federal control and practically left the individual cantons sovereign. 2. While some cantons were governed democratically, others were swayed entirely l)y a narrow oligarchy. 3. Certain regions were classified as subject or allied territories and 522 The Minor States of Eiirope did not enjoy equality with the thirteen cantons. 4. The Reformation had carried into the country a fierce re- hgious strife, which the settlement of Kappel (153 1) al- leviated but did not end. Nevertheless, imperfect as the Swiss union was, it endured till the French Revolution, when it went to pieces under the assault of the new ideas aided by a French army of in- vasion. In 1803 Napoleon interposed as mediator among the warring cantons and imposed a constitution along lib- eral lines with real federal control, but this, like all the rest of his creations, was swept away b}' the iron besom of the allies and left the question of Switzerland to be decided by the Congress of Vienna. The statesmen of the Congress with their unreasoning conservatism fa\ored the loose union of prerevolutionary days. This w'as therefore reestablished, not without certain modifications but with an avowed re- turn to the traditional state sovereignty. In other respects the Congress was not ungenerous. Switzerland was put under the guarantee of the powers, and new cantons were added, bringing the number, as at present, up to twenty- two. The Federal Pact of 18 15 had hardly been adopted when the old troubles flared up again, federalists arraying them- selves against advocates of state rights, Protestants against Catholics. The crisis came toward the middle of the cen- tury. To defend themselves against the encroachments of the radicals and reformers, seven Catholic cantons formed a conservative league called Sonderhund. This act, tanta- mount to secession, was challenged by the Federal Diet, and in a short w'ar the Sonderbund was defeated and scat- tered (1847). Thereupon the radical victors crowned their work by giving Switzerland a new constitution, which was both federal and democratic, and which with slight altera- tions is in operation to-day. TJie Minor States of Europe 523 By the constitution of 1848 the supremacy of the federal Thcionstitu- over the cantonal powers was raised beyond a doubt, but the governments of the cantons were not deprived of their local rights. Switzerland in its dovetailing of federal and state powers offers a strong resemblance to the political system of the United States. The national legislation was vested in a Federal Assembly of two houses: the Council of States, much like the United States Senate, consists of two delegates fri)m each canton, while the National Council, comparable to the House of Representatives, is elected by the people on the basis of universal manhood suffrage. The national executive is not a single person, but a committee of seven, called the Federal Council and elected by the Federal Assembly. Although one of the seven presides un- der the title of President of the Council, his authority is hardly greater than that of his colleagues. A very inter- esting feature developed by the Swiss democracy is the di- rect share in law-making secured to the people by means of two devices, the referendum and the popular initiative. Bv the referendum, laws passed by the legislature are referred Referendum , txT ^- I *\ and popular for a final verdict to a popular vote. We may notice, by the initiative. way, that this is a growing practice in the state and city governments of the United States. The popular initiative concedes the right to a certain number of voters to frame a bill which must be submitted to the people for adoption or rejection. These measures, in successful operation for some time in both the state and national governments, make Switzerland the most advanced democracy of our age. Political discussion and responsibility have had the effect Prospenty of so stirring the energies of the people that Switzerland harmony, enjoys a remarkable prosperity. An excellent public-school system has stamped out illiteracy. Switzerland, too, al- though it enfolds several nationalities, is not vexed by any race problem. Of the twenty-two cantons, thirteen are 524 The Minor States of Europe German, four are French, three are mixed German and French, and one is Italian. In the canton of Graubiinden German disputes possession with Romansch, a dying tongue derived from Latin. The preponderant element is Ger- man (over two-thirds of the whole population), but Ger- man, French, and Italian are all official languages. The United Netherlands from 1815 to 1830. The constitu- tion. D. Holland. References: Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter VIII., pp. 229-44; PniLUPS, Modern Europe, pp. 8, 187, 192. The Congress of Vienna, moved by the desire to create a strong barrier against France, tried the e.xperiment of uniting the ancient Netherlands under a Dutch king of the House of Orange. We have seen (Chapter XVIII) that the project failed, not only because of differences in race, language, and religion, but also quite as much because the southern provinces were treated unfairly in .such matters as office-holding and parliamentary representation. Against such discrimination the southern provinces protested in their revolt of ^1830 and organized themselves as a separate state under the name of Belgium. The Dutch king, WilHam I., offered what resistance he could, but had at last to give way. We should note that William's diminished kingdom, col- loquially called Holland, bears officially the name of the Netherlands. The constitution granted by the sovereign ill 18 14 was replaced in 1848 by a more liberal one still in vigor. The king has at his side a law-making body, called the States-General, composed of two houses. The upper house represents the provinces and is chosen by the pro- vincial legislatures, while the lower house is elected by the people, practically (since 1896) on the basis of manhood Tlie Minor States of Europe 525 suflfrage. The kingdom is a federal state and the compo- nent provinces retain a large measure of self-government. The solid qualities of the Dutch have brought peace and The outlook, prosperity to the state. The large colonial possessions in Asiatic waters, a remnant of the more considerable territories acquired in the heroic days of the republic, present many ditftculties, but are still managed at a profit. Is the state ever likely to be incorporated with Germany, with which it is closely allied in speech and blood? The patriotism and traditions of the Dutch are emphatically enlisted against such a fusion, and the mere suggestion arouses resentment. The question, occasionally discussed by people of a specu- lative turn, is not likely to become a burning one for a long time. The present sovereign is Queen Wilhclmina, who succeeded in 1890 at the age of ten, and is the last scion of the famous Orange stock. E. Belgium. References: Seignobos, Europe Since 18 14, Chapter VIII., pp. 244-57; Phillips, Modern Europe, pp. 188-99, 454, 467- Following their successful revolt of 1830 the Belgian peo- The constitu- ])le organized themselves under a liberal monarchical con- stitution and called to the throne Leopold of the German House of Saxe-Coburg. His family still reigns in Belgium, Leopold I. (183 1-65) after a prosperous rule being succeeded by his son, Leopold II. (1865 — still reigning, 1906). The constitution of J83 1, with a few amendments, is still in effect. It created a Parliament of two houses, an upper house, largely chosen by local b(xlies, and a lower house, elected by the people. Originally the electors were a small body by reason of a high property qualification, but since 1893 manhood suffrage prevails with the curious feature of tion. 526 The Minor States of Europe plural \otes for men possessed of a more than average measure of wealth and education. This recent grant of a liberal franchise was due to the remarkable industrial prosperity of Belgium in the nine- teenth century. The little state has taken a place among the great manufacturing countries of the world, and has developed a dense population of over 6,000.000 people, largely laborers crowded together in grimy cities. This proletariat by threatening demonstrations forced the gov- ernment to extend the suffrage as just noted. The first enlarged election (1894) astonished the agitators, inasmuch as the country returned a large clerical majority. The clerical party, intensely Catholic, immediately carried its favorite measure and put the schools under the control of the Church. Meanwhile the socialists have been growing rapidly, making it plain that the battle for the possession of power will be waged henceforth between the two extreme parties. In the new alignment of issues the old-fashioned liberals, in Belgium as everywhere else, havQ been crushed between the upper and the nether millstone. In the scramble for Africa Leopold secured the recog- nition by the European nations of his sovereignty of the Congo Free State (1884). The sovereignty is personal, but Leopold was obliged to admini>ler his vast realm by Belgian subjects and to develop it with Belgian capital, and has promised in return for this support to leave it to the state on his demise. The Congo Free State is therefore already essentially a Belgian colony. A cruel exploitation of the natives on the part of the companies formed to trade in ivory and rubber has lately come to light, and furnishes an extreme example of the evils attending the rule of savages by so-called superior races, but the indignation of the civ- ilized world directed at the Belgian companies also shows where the corrective of these abuses lies. The Minor States of Europe 527 F. Denmark. References: Seignobos, Europe Since 18 14, Chapter XVIII., pp. 554-56, 566-78; Phillips, Modern Europe, pp. 314-15. 326, 394, 409-12, 418-19. The political power of the feudal orders lasted very long Denmark in Denmark, and not till 1660, in the reign of Frederick III., duchies of was it replaced by the absolute monarchy. This system Schieswig and continued well into the nineteenth century, but in 1848 the liberal agitation was successful and induced the king to grant a modern constitution. At the same time the interest of the nation became absorbed in the question of the duchies of Schieswig and Holstein, which, inhabited for the most part by Germans and bound to Denmark only by a per- sonal union, were aiming at independence. We have fol- lowed the struggle (pp. 447-48, 456, 470-71) to the inter- ference in 1864 of Austria and Prussia, who compelled the surrender of the two provinces to themselves. Later, in 1866, Bismarck obliged Austria to forego her claim. Since the defeat of 1864 Denmark has devoted herself to Domestic domestic affairs. A promising beginning was made in 1866 by a new constitution, which created a parliament of two houses. The upper house is largely appointed by the king, while the lower house is elected by manhood suffrage. In- creasing prosperity tends to strengthen the democracy, but the king remains an important factor in the government. Christian IX., who succeeded to the throne in 1863, reigned until his death in 1906. Owing to the briUiant marriages of two of his daughters to the heirs respectively of the thrones of Great Britain and Russia, he was known humor- ously as the father-in-law of Europe. From 1877 to 1891 he maintained a contest with the lower house over the ques- tion as to who controlled the ministry, himself or the repre- sentatives, and to all appearances he came out victorious. 528 TJic Minor States of Europe The arctic island Iceland is a Danish dependency, but, already possessed of extensive rights of self-government, inclines to insist more and more on complete home rule. G. Sweden and Norway. Refkrexc?:s: Seignobos, Europe Since 1814, Chapter XVIII., 554-66; R. N. Bain, Scandinavia, Chapter XVII. The union of Sweden and Norway. Quarrels and separation. In return for aid granted to the allies in 18 13 against Napoleon, Marshal Bcrnadotte, crown prince of Sweden, stipulated that Norway be added to his territories. Nor- way had been for four hundred years a dependency of Den- mark, and the Norwegian people hoped that in the general reconstruction of Europe the Danish regime would be re- placed by independence. The prospect of a new subjec- tion, this time to Sweden, alarmed them, and, rising (1814) in rebellion, they refused to be satisfied until the king of Sweden promised to rule Norway, not as a Swedish prov- ince, but as an independent kingdom with its own separate constitution. Thus was created the kingdom of Sweden and Norway, a union of two equal states having little in common beyond the same sovereign. Even so the Norwegians were not content. They strug- gled incessantly to insure themselves the fullest possible control of their own affairs, and from 1872 the relations of the two Scandinavian neighbors became critical. First the Norwegian parliament, called Storthing, demanded that it, and not the king, should control the ministry, and no sooner was this battle won, when it demanded a separate Norwegian consular service. As this would have created two separate departments of foreign affairs, the king re- sisted, and a long struggle ensued, which the Storthing at The Mitior States of Europe 529 last ended in 1905 by declaring the king of Sweden deposed and Norway independent. For a moment war between Sweden and Norway seemed imminent, but Oscar II. gave another proof of the sagacity which has won him golden opinions, by bowing to the inevitable. In the fall of 1905 the Storthing with the approval of the people offered the crown to the Danish prince Charles, who, in accepting the election, declared that he would reign under the name, famous in Norwegian story, of Haakon. Norway and Sweden are now in all respects independent of each other, and with every cause of conflict removed may start afresh upon an era of unclouded relations. A circumstance which doubtless contributed to the fric- Aristocratic tion between the ill-sorted pair was that Sweden is an democratic aristocratic, Norway a democratic country. This appears ^^^^^V- from an examination of their constitutions. Not until the middle of the century did Sweden give up its mediaeval diet, composed of four estates, for a modern parliament of two houses (1866). The upper house is chosen by local councils and only wealthy men are eligible, while the lower house is elected l\v the i)eoplc. The franchise for the lower house is based on an income qualification high enough to exclude one- third of the adult males from voting. These arrange- ments are due to the traditional influence exercised in Sweden by the clergy and nobility. In Norway, although the clergy is powerful, the nobility counts for nothing, for the Storthing abolished the use of nobiliary titles half a century ago. Since 1884 every man has a vote, with the result that the Storthing is as democratic as the society which it represents. CHAPTER XXVII ON THE THRESHOLD OF A NEW CENTURY References: E. P. Cheyney, An Introduction to the In- dustrial and Social History of England; K. Marx, Capital (the first great attack upon modern society from the socialist point of view); R. T. Ely, Socialism: An Examination of its Nature, its Strength, and its Weakness; A. R. Wallace, The Wonderful Century (an interesting record of inventions); P. Leroy- Beaulieu, The Awakening of the East: Siberia, Japan, China; R. K. Douglas, Europe and the Far East; T. F. Millard, The New Far East: An Ex- amination into the New Position of Japan; Seignobos, Europe Since 1814. Conclusion. The political revolution of the nineteenth century ac- companied by a social revolution. Looking backward over the nineteenth century we rec- ognize at once that the political drift of Europe has been toward a closer national organization, accompanied by an extension of the powers of the people. The unification of Italy and Germany, as well as the victory of the federal jjarty in Switzerland, the founding of the Christian states of the Balkans, and the separation of Norway from Sweden are all victories of the spirit of nationalism, while the sub- stitution of the constitutional for the absolute regime on the Continent, and the extension of the suffrage everywhere to larger and larger circles, indicate the triumphant progress of democracy. To the thoughtful reader it must long ago have grown apparent that the general political revolution is the effect of another revolution in the very depths of society itself. Of this we must now briefly speak, glancing 530 On the Threshold of a New Century 531 therewith at the fundamental reasons for the constitutional and national movements of the nineteenth century. The new and irresistible power generated by modern Science, the society is science. The reader will remember that we have ing agent, spoken of an earlier phase of science in connection w-ith the civilization of the Renaissance. Originating in man's in- stinctive desire for knowledge about himself and the world, science smouldered even under the ashes of the Middle Ages, and burst into bright flame as soon as the new nations had begun to emerge from feudal barbarism. The voyages of discovery, the revival of learning, and the Copernican theory are among the achievements of the scientific spirit, which we recorded in their proper place, and which we agreed ushered in the Modern Period. Since the sixteenth century scientific investigation had not only never ceased, but had progressively invaded new fields and been more perfectly organized. In addition to more accurate observation stu- dents gradually brought to bear upon the problems of nature (i) experimentation^ by which they were enabled to study results obtained by artificial combinations, and (2) special apparatus, like the telescope and microscope, de- signed to give aid in collecting information. Science made uninterrupted progress throughout the The progress early modern centuries. Space forbids us to do more than glance at these advances by way of illustration. The Italian Galileo (i 564-1642) constructed a telescope, by means of which he discovered the spots on the sun and by following their change of position was enabled to prove that the sun revolved on its axis. Sir Isaac Newton (1642- 1727) discovered that gravitation was a universal force and that bodies are attracted to one another inversely as the square of the distance. A mere enumeration of the dis- coveries in chemistry and medicine would cover many pages. 532 On the Threshold of a .Ycu' Century Steam and machinery. Transporta- tion by steam. Transforma- tion of society. Thus under constant accumulation of knowledge we come to the end of the eighteenth century, when the first important steps were taken in what we may call the utiliza- tion of science, that is, its application to industry and com- merce. In this movement England took the lead. The power of steam had long formed a subject of speculation, but not till 1777 did James Watt yoke it in the service of man by inventing the steam-engine. A boiler with an en- gine attached could now supply power equal to that of many men. This is the starting-point of the industrial revolution of our age. The steam-engine stimulated the in- vention and construction of iron machinery; hand-made ar- ticles were more and more replaced by machine-made arti- cles; the artisans working under the old system in scattered homes were gathered together in factories, where the ma- chinery was installed; and the cities in consequence of the herding of men grew with unexampled rapidity. Steam as a propelling power was presently applied to transporta- tion, and before the nineteenth century was many decades old the railway, first tried in England by Stephenson, and the steamboat, invented by Fulton, an American, secured a method of travel swifter, cheaper, and more reliable than the domestic animal. The effect of these inventions on the primary problem of man, the problem of subsistence, forces itself on the atten- tion. With the aid of steam-driven machinery the raw products of the earth were amassed and worked over into articles of use more abundantly than ever before, and with the aid of steam-driven conveyances goods were carried rapidly and safely over land and sea to the most distant markets. Wealth was multiplied to an almost incredible extent and trickled in rivulets or flowed in broad streams through all the nations. An immediate general effect was a quick growth of population, for there was now a larger On the Threshold of a New Century 533 quantity of food and clothing to be distributed and at a smaller price, while a further consequence was the raising of the standard of living among all classes. Not only has Europe in the nineteenth century doubled its population, but the average artisan can command comforts, which make his life in certain material respects more enjoyable than that of the aristocracy of a hundred years ago. The social and economic energy, liberated by the ap- Present plication of science to industry and commerce, has proved future, cumulative, gathering power with each decade. Inventions and labor-saving devices have run into the thousands and hundreds of thousands. What this means for the daily life of man is illustrated by pointing out some of the improve- ments in the single field of human intercourse: the telegraph, binding together the people of the same continent, has been followed by the submarine cable, which circles the world, while the telephone gives every man direct speech with his immediate neighborhood. The latest addition to this group of inventions, the wireless telegraph, has not yet been per- fected, but opens a prospect which bewilders the imagina- tion. Another limitless outlook is unfolded by the develop- ment of electricity as a motive power by the side of or in the place of steam. It is not impertinent or rash to prophesy that the scientific movement, involving new discoveries of the laws and energies of nature and a fuller utilization of these laws, is no more than well under way, and that the future, from an economic point of view, will be far more wonderful than the past. A little reflection will make plain how the diffusion of Awakening scientific habits of thought and the unexampled increase of dividual, manufactured articles, coupled with a widening network of railroads, telegraphs, and telephones, must have stimulated the political development of the nineteenth century. Super- stition, which has always thriven upon ignorance of nature, 534 0)i the Threshold of a Neiv Century has been obliged to relax its hold. The inert masses have been awakened from their sleep, and have generally pos- sessed themselves of the first tools of culture, of reading and writing. The large towns, where life is necessarily most intense, have familiarized the workingmen with mod- ern liberal thought, while the distribution of wealth in the form of plots of land, cottages, and personalty, has given the artisan a direct interest in the policy of the state. In view of his intellectual and material advancement, it was inevitable that he should clamor to be represented in the government, and that his intelligence and material prosper- ity should be recognized by the concession of the right of suffrage. We have followed the movement by which, gen- erally speaking, the common man has obtained full citizen rights. But the democratic basis of the state was no sooner as- sured than a movement began which is now the leading problem of every modern community. A workingman at present may indeed exercise the full rights of citizenship, his material and moral condition during the past generation is represented by a steady upward curve, but a new source of discontent has arisen through his growing conviction that our present industrial system favors the capitalist class by securing to it at his expense a reward out of all proportion to its services. He desires a new adjustment between capital and labor, affirming that the amazing concentration of capital in a few hands is the proof of an unfair division of profits, and that this concentration suspends over his head the threat of economic and, eventually, of political slavery. An advanced section of the workingmen has gone so far as to declare its set hostility to the existing system, which en- courages the individual to amass all the wealth he can and guarantees to him the untroubled enjoyment of it by putting at his service all the powers of the state. These protesters On the Threshold of a New Century 535 call themselves socialists, and not content with merely de- structive criticism, have, with an eye to the future, opposed to the current system their socialistic scheme, the essence of which is that the means of production should be owned not by a few individuals, but by the whole community, thus assuring a fair share in the benefits of nature to all her children. This economic theory received its most lucid and powerful presentation by a German revolutionary fugitive, Karl Marx. His work on capital {Das Kapital, 1867) has become the gospel preached by a thousand apostles in every country of the globe, with the result that there has everywhere grown up a social-democratic party, pledged to overthrow the present individual system of production in order to make room for public ownership and operation. The party has made consistent gains at the elections and in the public opinion of even England and the United States, and in some continental countries, like Germany, France, and Belgium, may conceivably acquire a majority within a generation. At the elections to the German Reichstag in 1903, the socialists polled thirty-two per cent, of the total vote. This hurried sketch of the social and industrial movement Commercial- of our times may suffice to make clear to the reader that humanity. our world has grown smaller, its distant lands have been drawn more closely together, and its many races brought into a more significant brotherhood. The variegated arti- cles of a great manufacturing country are carried to the remote markets of Central Asia and Darkest Africa, which send back in exchange their carpets, spices, and ivory. True, this expanding commerce has come to mean among the ruling nations competition, and too often a remorseless competition for markets, colonies, and conquests. An ob- server, directing his attention to this feature alone of mod- ern life, might be tempted to declare that peace on earth, the 53^ 0?i the Thrcs]iold of a Nc%v Centiiry The effect of commercialism on politics. Review of European diplomacy. avowed ideal of Christian mankind, is farther than ever from being reah'zed. And yet the rush and scramble are only a single aspect of contemporary civilization. That at the same time the sense of brotherhood, the humanitarian spirit, is growing, can admit of no doubt. To support our contention we have only to refer to the mounting protest against war, which has lately taken the form of a great inter- national league of peace, or to the socialist movement, which rests on the principle of universal brotherhood, although perhaps thus far the emphasis has been laid too exclusively on the brotherhood of workingmen. This is not the place to attempt an analysis of the fulness, richness, and many- sidedness of modern life, but the vigorous competition and warm humanitarianism lying cheek by jowl, apparently ex- clusive yet including one another, .state one of its special problems, and contribute not a little to the understanding of the recent developments in European politics. To this political development we must now again turn our attention. We shall see that while the fierce and con- quering commercialism of our day has carried the great powers of Europe to the farthest lands and seas, and created a state of friction among them which makes war a possi- bility from one moment to another, oil is steadily poured on the troubled Maters by that growing number, convinced that there are no longer any quarrels between nation and nation which cannot be better settled by adjudication than by the barbarous arbitrament of war. We have glanced (Chapters XXIII. and XXV.) at some of the special problems which have attended the most recent development of the leading continental states and of Eng- land. It is now proper that -we review the diplomatic history of Europe, considered as a whole, since the Franco-German War of 1870. Their defeat, coupled with the loss of Alsace- Lorraine, created a bitterness in the hearts of Frenchmen On the ThrcsJiold of a New CeJitury 537 which for the two following decades induced them to strain every nerve to prepare for a war of revenge. The Alsace- Lorraine question till about 1890 was in the foreground of European interest and kept alive the apprehension that war would break out with each new spring. To meet this danger threatening on the west, Bismarck, the masterful statesman, who held in his hands the destinies of Germany, devised the plan of drawing to his side all the possible allies of France; without a powerful ally, he argued, France would not undertake a war. The peace of 187 1 was hardly League of signed, when Bismarck began to cultivate the friendship of emperors. Austria and Russia. The result was the league of the three emperors, which, by establishing friendly relations among Germany, Russia, and Austria, secured the peace of Europe until the explosion in the Balkans in 1876. We have seen how Russia was induced to declare war, by which, though successful, she failed to obtain all she desired, owing to the intervention of the powers in the Congress of Berlin (1878). The Russians ascribed their diplomatic defeat to the deser- tion of Germany, and the Pan-Slavic party, very powerful at court and in the press, assumed so hostile a tone that Bismarck in alarm formed a close defensive alliance with Austria (1879). This is the beginning of a system of treaties which has lasted to this day (1906). The Austro-German alliance, intended as a warning addressed to Russia and France, presently met with a welcome accession. In 1881 Italy, mortally offended In* the French seizure of Tunis, made overtures to Berlin for admission to the new league, which was presently (1883) converted into a Triple Alliance of the The Triple central powers. This agreement, although professedly '^"'^"^"^■ peaceful, carried alarm to the banks of the Seine and the Neva, and induced the French and Russian diplomats to draw more closely together. Czar Alexander III. had some difficulty in overcoming his anti-republican sentiments, 53^ On the ThrcsJiold of a New Century but necessity knows no law, and by 1890 he had entered into friendly relations with the French republic, which later on ripened into an alliance. England, not immediately in- terested in a purely continental rivalry, refused to be drawn into either of these systems and maintained a "splendid isolation." The Triple and Dual Alliances, by establishing a balance of power, have maintained the peace of Europe, and in so far deserve the gratitude of the world. But this peace is an "armed peace," each nation at a great expense support- ing a huge standing army ready to take the field at a mo- ment's notice. Russia has a force continually under arms of over 700,000, Germany and France of over 500,000 each, and these forces, by calling in the trained reserves, can be swelled without delay to 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 men. The awful consequences of the clash of such numl)crs have in- clined to make statesmen unwilling to assume the respon- sibility of war and have proved an impressive argument in favor of peace. Still the vast expense of these military establishments raises the question whether they can in the long run be kept up. Poorer countries, like Italy and Russia, have been obliged to put on the tax screws to the limit of endurance. Disarmament is a watch-cry whieh is gaining more and more adherents in every country. The "armed peace" has accustomed the powers to arbitrate their differences in order to avoid war, and conceivably they may come to see that arbitration is just as feasible and honorable among unarmed nations as among governments mutually suspicious and armed to the teeth. World com- While the affairs of the Continent thus passed into a con- merce and . . r i • . world politics, dilion of relatively stable equihbruim, a change, hardly perceptible at first, began in the relations of the powers to the rest of the world. The active agent was the industrial revolution already mentioned. The merchant class, long On the Threshold of a Neiv Century 539 before the statesmen, began to see the advantage of winning foreign markets for their wares, and opened up in increasing number lines of communication with the rest of the world. The monopoly of oceanic commerce had, during the greater part of the nineteenth century, been left so entirely to Eng- land, that the sudden competition of her neighbors almost bore the appearance of an encroachment. Not only had her commercial primacy remained undisputed, but the long occu- pation of the Continent with its own affairs had enabled England to round otT also her splendid colonial empire, won in the eighteenth century. To her territory in North America and India she had added vast empires in Australia and South Africa. Therefore, when the nations of the Continent began to look around, the earth was already preempted, except for certain less desirable and even inaccessible sec- tions of Africa and Asia. Nevertheless, the governments by the despatch of expeditions and in other ways reached out a hand for these territories, and England, in alarm at this un- expected rivalry, accelerated the slow movement of absorp- tion in which she had been engaged for over a hundred years. The first object of the ensuing scramble was Africa. Late in the seventies Egypt invited the attention of Eu- rope, because its government had fallen into hopeless bank- ruj)tcy. Egypt was a part of the Turkish Empire. In the early nineteenth century a capable pasha, Mehemet All (1811-48), had carried on two successful wars with the Sultan, thereby securing the hereditary transmission of his power and the practical recognition of his independence. His grandson Ismail (1863-79) went farther. He extended his rule over the upper Nile; he helped build the Suez Canal; and he induced the Sultan to grant him the higher title of khedive. But Ismail was a spendthrift. He made the mistake of selling his shares in the Suez Canal Company to the British Government, which thus acquired control 540 0)1 the Threshold of a Neiv Century of the great Egyptian waterway, and, in spite of this help, he presently defaulted the interest on the national debt (1879). As the Egyptian bonds were held largely in England and France, these powers interposed to protect their subjects, and forced their way into the management of the treasury. In 1882 a section of the natives, led by a certain Arabi, rose in revolt against the interference of foreigners in the affairs of their country, and England and France had to make up their minds either to abandon Egypt or to con- quer it entirely. France decided for abandonment, but England, whose stake in Egypt was high, on account of the passage by the Suez Canal to India, boldly occupied the country with a military force. Since 1882 Egypt has to all intents been a British colony, although the khedive con- tinues to reign at Cairo and the administration is largely in native hands. Even before Egypt was drawn under the British aegis, missionaries and scientists had called attention to Africa, and two great explorers, Livingstone and Stanley, had disclosed many of the secrets of the tropical jungle. King Leopold of Belgium, the protector of the expedition under Stanley which for the first time traced the course of the great Congo River, was just preparing to organize the Congo region into a colonial dependency (1883), when Portugal raised a boundary dispute and Germany occupied (1884) Togoland and Kamerun. To adjust rival claims a conference was held at Berlin (1884-85), which besides rec- ognizing the Congo Free State under the lordship of King Leopold, established the important precedent of peaceful arbitration for all African disputes. The scramble for Africa once begun continued, until at the opening of the twentieth century the great continent embraces only three states independent and unclaimed by some European power, Liberia, Morocco, and Abyssinia. Upon the most impor- I I British I I French I \Spnv I I f7er O c« W H O C/3 M PQ < U o o < M O MO >2 o o + UH tr 0) ^ 3 1= U-) •s e.2 + 3 s • C A c B »: c B • o, Si " - 12 IS «£ "» P. 00 O' "T £ "o— . _« ~ be S 3 — 1 c a o a £0. M r^ 1^ go a ■ ■S 5 1J -r-i 3. L ^J Appendix C 557 :s H "U 3 s h U g_) V ?f -?? <<=^ "oa >-~o CC/2 U I- UJ w ~ rt — CJ < c ^ o ^ O CO y. X M.S <' .Sui H .i •-<:;=<, C rt 2H 25 9n 5i. oc -^ *j "O S, W ^g-sg +^•0.5 --r-c's J:SSl2 Car med hed ther Don clai on t bro e 3. Q O rt \0 Q T-SJ! is 3 -■ * T - ^•0 f^ >^ H J=T3 rt B J3 4> r fc b( c J= t JA » ;^ 4) bo c U 3 •^ U, rt -2 c 3 N >— be ^ rt » ^ "TJ Fc a U a E rt \-> b£ K CC« rt C.-S C^ p E sou ^^ 2 .•aE ^ ■^c-S XII store egnu ears 5^ El. c oo: C bc u c B tr 3 S — gg,m ■«! < J5| III 558 Appendix C fit's 4* = J^-2 < o o 0L, ^C S SI, I C/3 I 1^ > o » o .2 O 4) f o 30 " J3 a. aS a-9- i a- 12 a. a. ^^ ■— ' ^ E M b! 2 U A ■■ ■" E- — a -ft s a ^ ^ A4 d j3 — "w 04 0< J ^ v£i > S £ S. « E 00 ^ u t>. u ^ !>. ^ o to c 1/1 3 1. rt 'W E + a •T3 s "o •§ Eg- - »! L^ »— t o A >— > £ •1 ^ _ 41 .9 w -C rt u S- r* .9 ^ a ^^ W5 "o >> a — ^ EG 0312 II ll i c3o r Appendix C 559 ill a « (2.S •s-g 2i cj -E -J2 + 2S .5 "Sea CO S. L: I 4.- 0K M .■5)2 13:2 4 "a uSJ3 a . 0.-3 „ -2 2 »> oil la a . ■£ 0_B c ul3 O-S ^• eg I H 560 'o'C Appendix C •3 2 05 ^ C. fC 2; e^, 5c« 2'>« g •£ rt S w ^ a :s R a h E W f H t^ ^ >.o s ii 3 rt C3 H "0 T! u ^ 3 ■-1 ■^ S S > 06 .S >'a >, a Si tr 3 fe 3 ^F& "0 :^y ^^ 3 « ^■^ ■gR'^ T3J3 S *"- C « M-O o H c rs E s. t/3 w W cj 3 H ntf c 3 «ea >— . H -" c ^ Kr- . t3 O w E + •- "d "O *■ ° a s T3 S * 2 -s "M ^ ,0 L-cfaH •§ 3 — O Jo i ij n> ^-^ r« ■S XI 1 :S ^ ^o r^ ■0 0^ E .- 3 c , 5t3 ^ i:..yS. ►23 2 ■5 5 JO >0 u o en « -3 fi I S Appendix C 561 •5 d .9 .0 •r- q ■3"> ►"4 ri 3 rt ■SP^ a« 1^ fa ^ ■r be Oj3 ^ 3 ^ o \0 o ■S& I I -g = I i s I ^ « p I - a r ■« 3 U ^ « u as — s 3.2 \62 Ippendix C Q < ;jj > Oa o t3 1 1"^ O M ^ K + o > + h »! V .S2 :3 -^' d ^ V. < 2 ^ 2E 5-5 ^5S at; -« ■ as Appendix C 563 £-^ := V O pa o « .£ "o cn -''■^ ■= n 5? 0^ "i '- 3 •< ss ■© a c ^i — i; M c »*■ z B ^ J ^ J ns 3 j= o s.e- r= o -o 1! 8m ^ eg _g.9 |i :§+ gs ^ 60£ s ^•§ > •«5 - U3 !1 s 11 ^^-v °-B .-^— V r^ 0^ ^p. ^ fC "30 ov 0- 1 i^ X - C"?; ■3- M 3 1- S e ■3 3 ^ 3 564 Appendix C ■■a ^_- rt g :s ^ 3 IJi '0 a SS E „ •ffi'o&-'S 11 E E 3 (i^>o „-3 ^ uT ^"Ssm U, -'i* u" 00 1 •S .9 -r^ ^. ' — w + "o !fi E 0-a 13 t. "3 d 1—. a. ^1:? i" < < 00 + g £ c 1- ±11 d-" ..0 1 d 'E g. J3 PQ W ►J a U d (2 sag apoleon, knowi Napoleon (1852-70, + m. Eugenie 00 8 "* K c _*3 -;?:— al c s — ^ •^ .3 trt ►5N w 00' 3 ^ ^a H + __j •l< 1 H « 5 00 rt j^ s (J < a +«-3 a '0 S^ '< ja d cot— j^ "°-g hH U 3 ►J • WW .S(S ^ §T 00 + a^ 14 0. ^ ■* is 11 iJoO z d ^ Appendix C ■M ^■3 tS $3 s Ui? rt 3 C3 3K <>- ftHg WS EW W-T^ — .2 — >^ Q. O •g!^ a ^ O /-^ > —•9 •o&i c8 ■a H ^S« u<^ ,9"" ? 3 ^H e« 1) M Sh ^ H > >t h a 2| "3 vS - W o u a ^^ - ca tl US Soo- ■2i -S'2 eO + S •<- O Co K O ° SZmO « c5^ !^ ^ > rt, ^ fc* *" O S ^ 566 Appendix C OB ^ .— a ». V 7-. J2 •a o •a c „ 11^ •UJ3 Sio. U H e s < w w H '^ U o H Q •7^ H E is ::: x .a; I J s •c u. + ?. •^ U. E n - .5 M - — 00 i s 1 1 i i I I X Appendix C 567 PS M O P O H t w •^ I-) in ^*-v ^ ^ w S! 4 5 ■< > w < z , > ■■ ^ in Q 9 > 4> rt — "C ^ "to a S A ^ u U < > \H '^J Cfl 1 ^ s M P »< s s ^ X ^^ -0 i,h. ^ 5 £:• ii ^ n u ^^1 1 ■^ 1 B^o HI 01 <« s- e § (D 9 A u ^ r -s o £5 E't5 >2 ^ llii'l «;9UO h Si ^ 1 ^ i I I I C E w « ca S 5 ^ S.S o 2; ^•2 4) m 2 C-.S be a ^— eg -to u ^ O g9l 568 Appendix C O pi; n CO o o w w « m 2; w o >A O o w Q X -< k Appendix C 569 o O O o Pi o o Is 9!. K ° ;3 o5 JiS 1^ 1 eS H H^.?i S ^ -^=-^0. «_^ p ^ 2° .« ,■; 00 .-i^ E •s^ Q SQ '^^ H-s m QP^ «.S S E + H O o> ^ < *'.2'^ ''00 > 1— t 570 Appendix C o w a H > g ° a> O !? 1 w M i(i •c ru! ^ -1 u b s "31—1 £! t; 2 E -E w- -It^ :§ 00 ^ >u. 'A E § ■ii ■S a> a s n E < s. S ft Appendix C 571 o H + S O fa > X l-c fi - S 5i •3 > o o A< " „ + £: - ^> 3S Ou Is 8 + a 2 4, o a -sis His / APPENDIX D GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY A complete list of the books mentioned under the chapter references, together with their publishers and prices. Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 1894. Scribner. New York. $2. 50. Adams, G. B. Growth of the French Nation. 1896. Mac- millan. New York. $1.25. Adams and Stephens. Select Documents Illustrative of English Constitutional History. Macmillan. New York. $2.25. Airy, O. English Restoration and Louis XIV. (Epochs of History.) 1900. Scribner. New York. $1.00. Anderson, F. M. Constitutions and other Documents Il- lustrative of the History of France (i 789-1901). 1904. H. W. Wilson. Minneapolis, Minn. $2.00. Andrews, C. M. The Historical Development of Modern Europe. 2 vols. 1899. Putnam. New York. $5.00. Armstrong, Edward. Lorenzo de' Medici. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1896. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Armstrong, Edward. The Emperor Charles V. 2 vols. 1902. Macmillan. New York. $7.00. Bain, R. N. Charles XII. and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1 719. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1895. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Bain, R. N. Scandinavia. A Political History of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. From 15 13 to 1900. Cambridge Uni- versity Press. Macmillan. New York. $1.90. Baird, H. M. History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France. 2 vols. 1879. Scribner. New York. $5.00. 572 Appendix D 573 Baird, H. M. The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre. 2 vols. 1886. Scribner. New York. $5.00. Baird, H. M. The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 2 vols. 1895. Scribner. New York, $7.50. Beard, C. Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the Close of the Diet of Worms. 1889. Kegan Paul. London. $2.00. Beazley, C. R. Prince Henry the Navigator. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1895. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Belloc, Hilaire. The Life of Danton. A Study. Scribner. New York. $2.50. Belloc, Hilaire. Robespierre. 1901. Scribner. New York. $2.00 net. Besant, Walter. Gaspard de Coligny. 1901. American Book Co. New York. $0.30; 1894. Chatto & Windus. London. $0.75. Bismarck. Letters to his Wife from the Seat of War, 1870- 71. Tr. by Harder. 1903. Appleton. New York. $1.00. Bismarck, the Man and Statesman; being the Reflections " and Reminiscences of Otto Prince von Bismarck. 2 vols. 1899. Harper. New York. $7.50. Bourriemie, A. F. Memoirs of Napoleon. Edited by Col. R. W. Phipps. 4 vols. Scribner. New York. $5.00. Bright, J. F. Maria Theresa. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1897. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Bright, J. F. Joseph II. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1897. Mac- millan. New York. $0.75. / Brown, Horatio R. F. Venice: an Historical Sketch of the Republic. 1895. Putnam. New York. $4.50. Bryce, James. The Holy Roman Empire. New Edition. 1904. Macmillan. New York. $1.00. Burckhardt, J. The Civilization of the Renaissance. Macmillan. New York. $4.00. Burke, Ulick R. A History of Spain from the Earliest Timcsto the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic. 2 vols. 1900. Longmans, Green. London and New York. $5.00, 574 Appendix D Burton, J. H. History of Scotland. 8 vols. 1898-1901. Blackwood. Edinburgh and London. Scribner. New York. $12.00 set. Busch, Moritz. Bismarck: Some Secret Pages of his History. 2 vols. 1905. Macmillan. New York. $10.00. . Cambridge Modem History. Planned by the late Lord Acton. Now ready: Vol. L (The Renaissance); Vol. II. (The Reformation); Vol. III. (The Wars of Religion); Vol. VIII. (The French Revolution); Vol. IX. (Napoleon). 1902-6. Macmillan. New York. $4.00 each. >• Carlyle, Thomas. History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, called Frederick the Great. 8 vols. 1900. Scribner. New York. $10.00. , Carlyle, Thomas. Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. Edited by Traill. 4 vols. 1900. Scribner. New York. $5.00. y Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution. Edited by Fletcher. 3 vols. 1902. Putnam. New York. $4.50 set. Cartwright, Julia. Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-97. 1903. Button. New York. S6.00. Cartwright, Julia. Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, 1474-1539. 2 vols. 1903. Dutton. New York. $7.50. Castiglione, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier. Done into English by Sir T. Hoby, anno 1561. 1900. D. Nutt. London. $7.50. Also translated by Opdycke. Scribner. New York. Sio.oo. . Cellini, Benvenuto. Life. Newly translated by J. A. / Symonds. 1903. Scribner. New York. .S2.50. Cesaresco, Countess E. M. Cavour. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1898. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Cheyney, E. P. An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England. 1901. Macmillan. New York. $1.50. Colby, C. W. Selections from the Sources of English History. 1896. Longmans, Green. New York. $1.50. Creighton, Mandell. Cardinal Wolsey. (Twelve English Statesmen.) 1888. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. / Appendix D 575 Creighton, Mandell. History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome. 6 vols. 1892. Longmans, Green. London and New York. $12.00. Dilke, Sir Charles. Problems of Greater Britain. 1890. Macmillan. New York. $4.00. Douglas, R. K. Europe and the Far East. Cambridge Uni- versity Press. Macmillan. New York. $1.90. Ely, R. J. Socialism: An examination of its Nature, its Strength, and its Weakness. 1894. Crowell. New York. $1.50. Emerton, Ephraim. Desiderius Erasmus. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1900. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Emerton, Ephraim. Mediaeval Europe (814-1300). 1894. Ginn. Boston. $1.50. Evelyn, John. Diary and Correspondence. 4 vols. 1902. Edited by Bray. Bell. London. $6.00. Ewart, K. Dorothea. Cosimo de' Medici. (Foreign States- men.) 1899. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Firth, C. H. Oliver Cromwell and the Rule of the Puritans in England. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1900. Putnam. Nevr York. $1.50. Fisher, G. P. The Reformation. New and Revised Edi- tion 1906. Scribner. New York. $2.50. Fiske, John. The Discovery of America. 2 vols. 1899. Houghton, Mifflin. Boston. $4.00. Fletcher, C. R. L. Gustavus Adolphus. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1890. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Foumier, August. Napoleon the First. Edited by E. G. Bourne. Holt. New York. $2.50. Froude, J. A. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. 12 vols. 1899. Scribner. New York. S18.00. Froude, J. A. Life and Letters of Erasmus. 1894. Scrib- ner. New York. Si. 50. Fyflfe, C. A. History of Modern Europe (i 792-1878). Popular Edition. 1896. Holt. New York. $2.75. 5/6 Appendix D y Gardiner, S. R. A Student's History of England. New Edition. 1898. Longmans, Green. London and New York. $3.00. Gardiner, S. R. Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (1625-60). 1899. Macmillan. New York. $2.00. Gardiner, S. R. History of England (1603-42). 10 vols. 1894-96. Longmans, Green. New York. S20.00. Gardiner, S. R. History of the Civil War (1642-49). 4 vols. 1 898-1901. Longmans, Green. New York. $8.00. Gardiner, S. R. History of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649-56). 4 vols. 1903. Longmans, Green. New York. $2.00 each. Gardiner, S. R. The Puritan Revolution, 1603-60. (Epochs of Modern History.) Scribner. New York. $1.00. Gardiner, S. R. The Thirty Years' War, 1618-48. (Epochs of Modem History.) 1903. Scribner. New York. $1.00. Garibaldi, Giuseppe. Autobiography. 3 vols. Translated by Werner. W. Smith. London. S8.00 set. Gee and Hardy. Documents Illustrative of English Church History. 1896. Macmillan. New York. S2.00. Gindely, Anton. History of the Thirty Years' War. 2 vols. 1898. Putnam. New York. $3.50. y Green, J. R. A Short History of the English People. Re- vised Edition. ,\merican Book Co. New York. $1.20. Harrison, Frederic, William the Silent. (Foreign States- men.) 1897. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. y Hassall, Arthur. Louis XIV. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1895. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Hassall, Arthur. Mazarin. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1903. Macmillan. New York. So. 75. Hassall, Arthur. The Balance of Power. 1715-89. (Periods of European History.) 1898. Macmillan. New York. $1.60. Hazen, Chas. Downer. Contemporary .American Opinion of the French Revolution. 1897. Johns Hopkins Press. Baltimore. $2.00. Appendix D 577 Headlam, J. W. Bismarck. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1899. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Henderson, E. F. A Short History of Germany. 2 vols. 1902. Macmillan. New York. $4.00. Hoist, H. E. von. The French Revolution Tested by Mirabeau's Career. 2 vols. 1894. Callaghan. Chicago. S3. 50. Hughes, T. A. Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits. (Great Educators.) 1892. Scribner. New York. $1.00 nel. Hume, M, A, S, Philip II. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1897. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Hume, M- A. S. Spain (1479-1788). 1898. Macmillan. New York. $1.50. y Hume, M. A- S. Modern Spain (i 788-1898). 1900. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Jackson, S. M. Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531). (Heroes of the Nations.) 1901. Putnam. New York. S2.00. Janssen, Johannes. History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages (goes to 1580). Translated from the German. 8 vols. Kegan Paul. London. $19.00. Jessopp, Augustus. The Coming of the Friars. 1901. T. Fi.sher L'nwin. London. $1.25. Johnson, A. H. Europe in the Si.xteenth Century, 1494- 1598. (Periods of European History.) 1898. Macmillan. New York. -Si. 75. Johnston, R- BL Napoleon: A Short Biography. 1904. Barnes. New York. $1.00. Kennan, George. Siberia and the E.xiJe System. 2 vols. iSq4- Century Co. New York. S6.00. King, Bolton. A History of Italian Unity (1814-71). 2 vols. 1899. J. Nisbet. London. Scribner. New York. $7.50. King and Okey. Italy To-day. 1901. J. Nisbet. Lon- don. Scribner. New York. S3. 00. Kitchin, G. W. Histon,' of France. (Closes with 1792.) 3 vols. 1881-85. Clarendon Press. Oxford. S7.80. KJaczko, Julian. Rome and the Renaissance. Translated bv J Dennie. 1903, Putnam. New York. $3.50. / 578 Appendix D Kbstlin, Julius. Life of Luther. 1903. Scribner. New York. SS2.50. Kovalevsky, M. Russian Political Institutions. 1902. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. Si. 50. Lea, H. C. A History of Auricular Confession and In- dulgences in the Latin Church. 3 vols. 1896. Lea Brothers. Philadelphia. $9.00. Lea, H. C. A Histor)' of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. 3 vols. 1887-88. Harper. New York. $9.00. Lea, H. C. The Moriscos of Spain, their Conversion and Expulsion. 1901. Lea Brothers. Philadelphia. $2.25. Lea, H. C. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 vols. 1906. Macmillan. New York. $2.50 each. Lecky, W. E. H. History of England in the Eighteenth Century. 7 vols. 1892-93. Appleton. New York. $7.00. Legg, L. G. W. Select Documents Illustrative of the History of the French Revolution. 2 vols. 1905. Clarendon Press. O.xford. S4.00. Lodge, Richard. Richelieu. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1896. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Lodge, R. Close of the Middle Ages (1273-1494). 1901. (Periods of European History.) Macmillan. New York. S1.75. Longman, F. W. Frederick the Great. (Epochs of Mod- ern History.) 1S98. Scribner. New York. $1.00. Lowe, Charles. Prince Bismarck: An Historical Biography. 2 vols. 1899. Cassell. London and New York. $6.00. Lowell, A. L. Governments and Parties in Continental Europe. 2 vols. 1900. Houghton, Mifflin. Boston. $5.00. y Lowell, E. J. The Eve of the French Revolution. 1900. Houghton, Mifflin. $2.00. Luther, Martin. Table Talk. Translated by W. Hazlitt. 1902. Macmillan. New York. Bell. London. $1.00. Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Translated from the Italian by N. H. Thomson. Second Edition. 1897. Clar- endon Press. O.xford. $1.10. Appendix D 579 / Mahan, A. T. The Influence of Sea Power upon History '^(1660-1783). 1898. Little, Brown. Boston. $4.00. y Mahan, A. T. The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire (1793-1812). 2 vols. 1898. Little, Brown. Boston. S6.00. Malleson, G. B. Duplei.x. (Rulers of India.) S0.60. Also Clive. (Rulers of India.) 1895. Clarendon Press. Oxford. Malleson, G. B. The Indian Mutiny of 1857. 1901. Scribncr. New York. $1.75. Marx, Karl. Capital. 1891. Swan Sonnenschein. Lon- don. $2. 00. Matthews, Shailer. The French Revolution: A Sketch. 1901. Longmans, Green. New York. $1.25. May, Thomas Erskine. The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third (1760-1871). 3 vols. 1896. Longmans, Green. New York. $4.50. Mazade, Charles de. The Life of Count Cavour. 1877. Chapman & Hall. London. S4.00. McCarthy, Justin H. Historj' of Our Own Times. 3 vols. 1901. Harper. New York. Vols. I-II, S2.50. Vol. III., Si. 25. McCarthy, Justin H. Ireland since the Union (1798- 1886). 1887. Belford Clarke. Chicago and New York. S4.00. McCrackan, W. D. The Rise of the Swiss Republic. 1901. Holt. New York. $1.50. Millard, T. F. The New Far East. 1906. Scribner. New York. $1.50. Milyoukov, Paul. Russia and its Crisis. 1905. The University of Chicago Press. $3.00. . More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. Cassell's Library. $0.10. Camelot Scries. So. 50. Morfill, W. R. History of Russia from the Birth of Peter the Great to Nicholas II. 1902. James Pott. New York. Sr.70. . Morley, John. Diderot and the Encyclopaedists. 2 vols. 1905. Macmillan. New York. S3.00. 580 Appendix D Morley, John. Life of William Ewart Gladstone. 3 vols. 1903. Macmillan. New York. S10.50. Morley, John. Oliver Cromwell. 1900. Century. New / York. $3.50. Morley, John. Rousseau. 2 vols. Macmillan. New York. S3.00. Morley, John. Voltaire. 1905. Macmillan. New York. / Si. 50. Motley, J. L. Rise of the Dutch Republic. 3 vols. 1883. Harper. New York. S6.00. Motley, J. L. History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to 1609. 4 vols. 1895. Harper. New York. S8.00. Motley, J. L. Life and Death of John of Bameveld. 2 vols. 1902. Harper. New York. S4.00. Napoleon. Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812. Notes by H. F. Hall. 1902. Dutton. New York. S3. 00. Old South Leaflets. 6 vols. (150 leaflets). 1896-1902. Old South Meeting House. Boston. Si. 50 each. . Parkman, Francis. Half Century of Conflict. 2 vols. 1903. Liule, Brown. Boston. Popular Edition. S3. 00. / Parkman, Francis. The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century. 1902. Little, Brown. Boston. S2.00. , Parkman, Francis. Montcalm and Wolfe. 2 vols. 1903. Little, Brown. Boston. S4.00. Pastor, Ludwig. The Histor}' of the Popes (1305-1513). Translated from the German. 1891-94. 6 vols. Kcgan Paul. London. $16.00. Payne, E. J. History of European Colonies. 1889. Mac- millan. New York. Si. 10. Pepys, Samuel. Diary and Correspondence. Edited by Lord Braybrookc. 4 vols. Bohn's Hist. Library. 1889-97. Macmillan. New York. S6.00. Perkins, J. B. France under Louis XV. 2 vols. 1897. Houghton, Mifflin. Boston. S400. Perkins, J. B. France under Mazarin. 2 vols. 1886. Putnam. New York. $4.00. / / Appendix D 581 Perkins, J. B. Richelieu. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1900. Putnam. New York. $1.50. Phillips, W. A. Modern Europe (1815-99). (Periods of European History.) 1901. Macmillan. New York. $1.60. Phillips, W. A. War of Greek Independence (1821-33). 1897. Scribner. New York. Si. 50. Prothero, G, W. Statutes and Constitutional Documents (1559-1625). 1899. Macmillan. New York. $2.00. . Putnam, Ruth. William the Silent. 2 vols. 1895. Put- •^ nam. New York. S3. 75. Rambaud, A. N. History of Russia. 2 vols. 1904. A. L. Burt. New York. S4.00. Remusat, Madame de. Memoirs. 3 vols. 1880. Apple- ton. New York. S2.00 each. Robinson, J. H. An Introduction to the History of Western Europe. 1903. Ginn. Boston. $1.60. Robinson, J. H. Readings in European Hi.story. 2 vols. 1904. Ginii. Boston. $1.50 each. Robinson, J, H., and Rolfe, H. W. Petrarch, the first Modern Scholar and Man of Letters. 1898. Putnam. New York. S2.00. Rose, J. H. Life of Napoleon I. 2 vols. 1905. Mac- millan. New York. S4.00. Rose, J. H. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era, 1 789-1815. Cambridge University Press. 1905. Macmillan, New York. $1.25. y Rosebery, Earl of. Napoleon: The Last Phase. 1900. Harper. New York. S3. 00. Saint Simon, Duke of. Memoirs. 4 vols. 1901. Pott. New York. S6.00. Say, L^on. Turgot. Translated by M. B. .\nder.son. 1888. McClurg. Chicago. Si. 00. Seebohm, Frederic. The Oxford Reformers. 1896. Long- mans, Green. London and New York. S4.00 net. Seeley, J. R. Life and Times of Stein, or Germany and Prussia in the Napoleonic Age. 3 vols. 1878. Cambridge University Press. S5.00. x / 582 Appendix D Seeley, J. R. Short History of Napoleon the First. 1901. Little, Brown. Boston. $1.50. Seignobos, Charles. Political History of Europe since 1814. Edited by S. M. Macvane. 1899. Holt. New York. $3.00. Sevigne, Madame de. Selected Letters. Edited by M. B. Anderson. McClurg. Chicago. $1.00. Sloane, W. M. Napoleon Bonaparte. 4 vols. 1902. Century Co. New York. $18.00 net. Smith, Munroe. Bismarck and German Unity. 1898. Macmillan. New York. Si. 00. Stephens, H. Morse. Portugal. (Story of the Nations.) Putnam. New York. $1.50. Stephens, H. Morse. A History of the French Revolution. 3 vols. 1902. Scribner. New York. $2.50 each. Stephens, H. Morse. Revolutionary Europe. 1 789-1815. (Periods of European History.) 1905. Macmillan. New York. $1.40. Stillman, W. J. Union of Italy (1815-95). i905- Mac- millan. New York. Si. 60. Sybel, H. von. Founding of the German Empire by William I. 7 vols. 1890-98. Crowell. New York. $14.00. Sybel, H. von. History of the French Revolution. 4 vols. 1867-69. Translated by Walter C. Perry. J. Murray. London. $8. 00. Symonds, J. A. Renaissance in Italy. 7 vols. 1881-88. Scribner. New York. $2.00 each. Symonds, J. A. Short History of the Renaissance in Italy. 1894. Holt. New York. Si. 75. Taine, H. A. The Ancient Regime. 1896. Holt. New York. S2.50. Taine, H. A. The French Revolution. 3 vols. 1878-85. Holt. New York. S7.50. Taine, H. A. The Modern Regime. 2 vols. 1890-94. Holt. New York. $5.00. Terry, Benjamin. A History of England. 1901. Scott, Foresman. Chicago. Si-^^o. Appendix D 583 Thatcher and McNeal. A Source Book for Mediaeval His- tory. 1905. Scribner. New York. Si. 85 nel. I Thayer, W. R. Dawn of Italian Ind.;pendence (1814- 49). 1893. Houghton, Mifflin. Boston. $4.00. Tocqueville, Alexis de. State of Society in France before the Revolution of 1789. Translated by Henry Reeve. 1856. Murray. London. Traill, H. D., and Mann, J. S., Ed. Social England. 6 vols. 1901-3. Putnam. New York. S30.00. Traill, H. D. William III. 1905. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History. Published by the University of Pennsyl- vania. 6 vols. Longmans, Green. New York. $1.25 each. / Tuttle, Herbert. History of Prussia. 4 vols. 1884-96. Houghton, Mifflin. Boston. $8.25. Van Dyke, Paul. The Age of the Renaissance. (Epochs of Church History.) 1897. The Christian Literature Co. New York. Scribner. New York. $2.00 net. / Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Painters, etc. 5 vols. Bohn Library. Also 4 vols. 1901. Scribner. New York. S8.00. Villari, Pasquale. Life and Times of Machiavelli. Trans- lated by Linda Yillari. 1898. (Popular Edition.) Scribner. New York. S2.00 net. Villari, Pasquale, Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola. Translated by Linda Villari. 1899. Scribner. New York. $2.00 ntt. Wace, H., and Buckheim, C. A. Luther's Primary Works. Hoddcr and Stoughton. London. Lutheran Publication Society. Philadelphia. Si. 50. "Wakeman, H. O. Ascendency of France in Europe (1598- 1715). (Periods of European History.) 1897. Macmillan. New York. Si. 40. Waliszewski, K. Peter the Great. 1900. Appleton. New York. S2.00. Wallace, A. R. The Wonderful Century. Dodd, Mead. New York. $2.50. / 584 Appendix D Whitcomb, Merrick. Literar)' Source Book of the Italian Renaissance. 1904. University of Pennsylvania. Philadel- phia. $1.50. Also Literary Source Book of the German Renaissance. Whitman, Sidney. Imperial Germany: A Critical Study of Fact and Character. 1901. Chautauqua Press. $0.75. Whitman, Sidney. Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bis- marck. 1903. Appleton. New York. $1.60. Whitman, Sidney. The Realm of the Hapsburgs. 1893. W. Ilcincmann. London. $1.50. Wilhelmine, Margravine of Baireuth. Memoirs. Harper. New York. Si. 25. Willert, P. F. Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France. (Heroes of the Nations.) 1893. Putnam. New York. Si. 50. Willert, P. F. Mirabeau. (Foreign Statesmen.) 1905. Macmillan. New York. $0.75. Young, Arthur. Travels in France. (Bohn's Library ) 1890. ^Macmillan. New York. Si. 00. Zwingli, Huldreich. Selections from the Writings of. Edited by S. M. Jackson. 1901. Longmans, Green. New York. Si. 25. INDEX INDEX Abukir Bay, battle of, 387 Academy of France, 202 Act of Union with Ireland (English), 340, 486 Adrianople, Treaty of, 426 Africa, 79, 114,487-89, 504, 507-S, 520, 526; partition of, 540-42 Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of (r66S), 280; (1748), 315. 333. 335 Ajaccio, 385 Albania (Albanians), 493, 496 Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg, 490 Albigenscs, 54, 60, loi Alexander I. of Russia, 398, 404-6, 418-19, 491-92 Alexander II. of Russia, 492, 496, 500-1 Alexander III. of Russia, 498, 501 Alexander VI., Pope, 22, 34 Alexander, prince of Battenberg 497-98 Alfonso XII. of Spain, 518 Algeciras, Conference of, 541 Algiers, 508 Alsace, 224, 282, 476; acquired by Germany, 477 Alsace-Lorraine, 537 Alva, duke of, 164-68 America, 11-15, 337-38, 480 American colonies, 339, 480 Amiens, Peace of, 390, 394, 399 Amsterdam, 176, 280, 281 Ancien n'gime, 352, 361 Angelo, Michael, 18, 22 Angoulfime, duke of, 422 Annam, 507 Anne of Austria, queen of France, 274 .^nne of England, 327-30 Anthony, king of Navarre, 186, 188 189 Antwerp, 169, 172 Areola, battle of, 384 Armada, Spanish, 114, 153-54 "Armed peace," 538 Armenia (.Armenians), 498 Army, in Thirty Years' War, 213-14; Grand, of Napoleon, 405-6 Arras, Union of, 170 Artois, 76, 170, 276; count of, 357, 429 Assembly, Federal, of Switzerland, 523 Assembly, in French Revolution, 354-64; later, 442-44, 458-59, 478-79, 505 Asia, European occupation of, 542- 47 As^ignats, 361, 386 Auerstadt, batt'e of, 397 Augsburg, Diet of (1530), 77; con- fession of, 77; Peace of (1555), 82- 83, 203, 224; in Thirty Years' War, 226 Augustenburg, duke of, proclaimed in Schleswig-Holstein, 470 August the Strong, king of Poland (also Elector of Saxony), 295-97, 298 Austerlitz, 395 Australia, 487 Austria, acquires Bosnia and Herze- govina, 497, 51 5; allied with France, 317-19, 337, 404; at the Congress of Vienna, 415-19; Austrian Suc- cession War, 313-15, 333, 335, 336; 587 588 hidex Bohemia and, 206-10, 312-15, 31S, 449, 453, 472; dual empire of, 512-15; France and, rivalry with, 197, 199, 201, 207, 212, 222, 2S4, 287, 313-15. 317. ziz, 335-36; Germany and, 204-25, 313-15, 317-18, 322, 345-57. 368-78; Hungary and, 449, 452-54, 512-15; Italy and, 415, 417, 421, 433, 462- 63, 466, 471-72; opposes French Revolution and Napoleon, 365-66, 369. 371. 381. 383-85. 387-90, 395-96, 399, 403-4, 407-9; Poland and, 300, 321, 381, 403; policy of intervention, 419, 421, 433, 455-56; races in, 448-49, 453. 512, 514; revolution (1848), 449-59; rivalry with Prussia, 308, 312-22, 415, 455-57, 466, 471-72; Russia and, 317, 318, 511, 515; Seven Years' War and, 317-21, 337; Triple Al- liance, 504, 507, 511, 515 Austrian Succession War, 313-15, 2,2,1, 335 Austria-Hungary, 512-15 AtUo-da-Je, 40 Azores, 520 Azov, 292, 293, 297 Bacon, Francis, 156; impeachment of, 237 Bade.i, 396, 417-18, 434 Balance of power, 327, 398, 409, 416, 426, 432-33. 494, 495, 496, 499, 538, 540, 541; see Congress of Vienna, Congress of Berlin, etc. Balkans, 493-99 Barcbone's Parliament, 257 Barons, feudal, see Nobles Barneveldt, John of, 175 Barras, French Director, 382-83 Basel, Peace of, 381, 396 Bastille, destruction of, 357 Batavian Republic, 381, 385, 394 Bavaria, in Thirty Years' War, 205, 209-11, 219, 225; Napoleon and, 395-96; Austrian Succession War, 313-14; Austrian attempt to ab- sorb, 322; kingdom of, 395-96, 417; acquires Salzburg, 403; revo- lution, 1830, 434 Bayonne, Napoleon at, 401-2 Bazaine, Marshal, surrenders Metz to Prussians, 477 "Beggars" of Netherlands, 164, 167 Belgium, 157, 159, 170, 525-26; see Netherlands; annexed to France, 381; ceded by Austria to France, 384; with Holland merged into kingdom of the Netherlands, 31^, 524; kingdom of, 432-33, 524, S^S") 26; government, 525-26 ' Berg, 399 Berlin, Conference of, 540; Congress of (1878), 496-97, 507, 515; I>e- crees of, 400; Napoleon occupies, 397; revolution (1848), 446, 454 Bernadotte, Marshal, 528 Berri, duke of, 429; duchess of, 439 Bill of Rights, English, 272, 323, 327 Bishops' War, First, 247; Second, 248 Bismarck, Prince, Prime Minister of Prussia, 469-78; contest with Prussian Parliament, 469-70; Schleswig-Holstein affair, 470-71; War with Austria, 471-72; organ- izes North German Confedera- tion, 472-73; Franco-Prussian War 473-77; achieves unity of Germany, 477-78; Chancellor of the Empire, 508-11, 537 Blenheim, battle of, 286 Bloody Assizes, 270; see Jeffreys, Judge Bliichcr, Marshal, 411 Boers, 488-89 Bohemia (and Austria), 313-14, 472; Hussite revolt in, 206; Reforma- tion in, 206; Thirty Years' War, 207, 208-10; Austrian Succession War, 313-14; Seven Years' War, 318 Boleyn, Anne, 126, 129, 132 Bonaparte, House of, 443 Index 589 Bonaparte, Jerome, kingdom of Westphalia givpn, 398 Bonaparte, Joseph, Naples given, 399; king of Spain, 402, 422 Bonaparte, Louis, made king of Holland, 394; abdication, 404-5 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 5ee Napoleon I. Bora, Catharine von, 72 Borgia, Caesar, 22, 34 Boroughs in England, 482-84 Bosnia, 497, 515 Bothwell, earl of, 151 Boulanger, General, 506 Boulogne, Napoleon's naval arma- ment at, 395 Bourbon, duke of, 76 Bourbon, House of, 186, 193, 194, 207, 212, 222, 285, 327, 375, 417, 420, 428, 431, 439, 465, 475, 505, 516-18; rivalry with House of Hapsburg, 179, 207, 212, 222, 284, 317 Bourgeoisie, 430, 438-40 Boxer rising, 547 Boyne, battle of the, 325, 326 Brabant, 157, 159 Braganza, House of, 116, 519-20 Brandenburg (Prussia), 302-9; Thirty Years' War, 218-19, 225- 26, 305; beginnings of, 302-3; Spanish Succession War, 309 Brazil, 401, 420, 519-20 Brcitenfeld, battle of, 219 Breslau, Peace of, 314 Bright, John, 485 Brill, capture of, 167-68 British Empire, expansion of, 487-90 Brunswick, duke of, 397; proclama- tion of, 366; retreat at Valmy, 369 Brussels, 158, 161, 165, 432 Buckingham, duke of, 238-39, 241- 43 Bulgaria (Bulgarians), 493, 497-98, 499 Buni, 418, 433-34, 43 5 » 446, 447, 456, 470, 473 Bundesrath, 473 Bunyan, John, 273 Burgundy, duchy of, 35, 76, 77, 79, 157, 158 Bute, Lord, 33S Byron, Lord, 425 Cabinet government in England, 331, 480 Cabot, John, 12, 15, 43 Calais, 122, 140, 162, 184 Calendar, French Revolutionary, 3 79- 80, note Calmar, Union of (1397), 86 Calvinism, 94-97, 203-4, 225, 240 Calvin, John, 91-97, 182; in Geneva, 92-94; his church, 94-96; theology of, 96-97 Cambray, Ladies' Peace of (1529), 77 Campeggio, papal legate, 127 Campo Formio, Peace of, 384 Canada, 338, 487 Canning, George, 422-23, 426, 481- 82 Carlists, party in Spain, 517 Carlos, Don, Spanish pretender, 517 Carlsbad decrees, 434 Carnot, organizes French army of defence, 373, 381; member of the Directory, ^8^ Castlereagh, English minister, 481 Cateau-Cambresis, Peace of, 113, 162, 183, 184 Catherine de' Medici, 187, 188, 190-92 Catherine of Aragon, 125-29 Catherine IL of Russia, 299-301, 320 Catholic League in France, 193, 194, 195. 197 Catholic League, of Germany, 205, 209, 210, 212, 213, 215, 218 Catholic Reformation, 105; see Counter Reformation Catholics, in England, 266-67, 269, 482 Catholicism, 82, 86, 91, 102, 144, 146, 153. 203, 208, 225, 227, 235, 265, 267, 392, 451 590 Index Cavalier Parliament, 263-64, 268 Cavaliers, 250, 273 Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont, 462-66 Celts, 334, 432 Centre, clerical party in Germany, 509 Cervantes, u8 Chamber of Deputies, French, 428. 430, 431, 440, 441, 505 Chamber of Peers, French, 428 Chambord, count of, 505 Charlemagne, 25, 412 Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, 449-50; defeated at Novara, 450 Charles, Archduke (Austrian general) , 384 Charles Edward Stuart ("Prince Charlie"), Jii^-Z^ Charles V., Emperor of Germany (Charles I., king of Spain), 28; rivalry with Francis I., 31, 71, 76, 179; extent of dominions, 28, 37-38, 71; elected emperor, 28, 70; Reformation and, 70-72, 77-78, 79-84, 103; French-Spanish wars, 3i> Z^i 75~77' 79' ^^-j Protestant wars, 80-81; abdicates crown, 83, 161 Charles VI., Emperor (Archduke Charles of Austria), 286, 287, 312, Charles VII., Emperor (Charles of Bavaria), 313-15 Charles I. of England, 199, 239-55; domestic troubles, 240-41, 242-44, 247-49; foreign disasters, 242; and Scotland, 247-48, 252-54; appeal to arms, 250-55 Charles II. of England, 261-68, 280, 281; character of, 261-62; foreign policy, 265-67 Charles VIII. of France, invades Italy (1494), 30. 3^j 3S> 178 Charles IX. of France, 188, 190-92 Charles X. of France, 429-31 Charles I. of Roumania, 497 Charles I. of Spain (Charles V., emperor), rules for personal ends, 107-8; drains resources of Spain, 109 Charles II. of Spain, 284, 327 Charles IV. of Spain, 401 Charles XII. of Sweden, 294-98; see Peter I., the Great, of Russia Charles, prince of Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen, 495; sec Charles I. of Roumania Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, 28, IS7 China, spoliation of, 543-46 Christian IV. of Denmark, 212 Christian IX. of Denmark, 470-71; 527 Christian, prince of Glucksburg, 456; sec Christian IX. of Denmark Christina, queen of Sweden, 221, 294 Church, medixval, 44-55; organiza- tion and power, 45-50; clergy, 46- 47, 53; sacraments, 51-52; heresy, 53-54, 102; reform in, 97-98, 105; Roman, 67, 97, loi, 104, 193, 204, 205, 289; feudalism in, 46-47, 346-48; States of, see Papal States Church of England (or Anglican Church), establishment, 119-56, 144; Act of Supremacy, 129, 138, 144; Six Articles, 132; Prayer Book, 134, 135, 143. 144. 247, 256, 264; Forty-two Articles of Religion, 135; Act of Uniformity, 143, 144, 264; Thirty-nineArtirlesof Religion, 144 Cisalpine Republic, 384-85, 394 Cities or towns, mediseval, struggle for political freedom, 8, 23-24; in Italy, 7-9, 18; in Spain, 38; in Germany, 9 Clement VII., Pope, 127 Clergy, organization and power, 45- 50; constitute ^rst estate of feudal society, 47, 346; corruption, 53, 64, 98, 347-48; property confiscated in France, 361; in France, 506-7; in Germany, 509 Index 59' Cleves acquired by Brandenburg, 304 Clive, Lord, 338 Cobden, Richard, 485 Cochin China, 542, 544 Code Napoleon, 393 Colbert, 2 78 Colet, John, 120 CoUgny, Gaspard de, 190-92 Colloden Moor, battle of, 334 Committee of Public Safety, 372-73, 376, 378, 380 Commons, House of, 41 ; contest with king, 236-37, 271-72; representa- tion in, 482-83, 485 Commonwealth, English, 256-61 Commune^ of Italy, 7-10; political freedom, 8; extent of activity, 9; influence of Crusades, 9; com- mercial rivals, 10 Concordat, Napoleon's, 392; re- pealed, 507 Conde, Louis, prince of, 186, 189-90 Cond^, Louis, prince of (the Great Conde), 223, 280, 285 Confederation of the Rhine, 396, 399, 403, 407 Confucius, 543 Congo Free State, 526, 540, 541 Conservative Party, in Great Britain, 268, 484, 485, 487 Constantinople, 301, 426, 461, 489, 494, 499 Constitutionalism, 421, 434, 435, 443. 446, 454, 512 Constitution of theClergy, French, 392 Consulate, French, 388-94 Continental System of Napoleon, 400—1, 404 Conventicle Act, of England, 264 Copernicus, 19 Corday, Charlotte, 374 Cordeliers, French Club, 360 Corneille, 202, 2S8 Corn Laws (English), repealed, 485 Corsica, ceded to France, 385 Cortes of Spain, 38, 108, 116 Corvee, 350, 361 Council of Blood, 165 Council of Five Hundred (France), 383, 388 Council of the Ancients (France), 383 Councils of the Church, General, 80; of Constance, 55; of Trent, 102-4; of the Vatican, 104 Counter Reformation, 97-106; see Catholic Reformation; agencies, 101-2; becomes aggressive, 105-6; in Germany, 204 Coup d'etat of Napoleon, 388; of Charles X., 430; of Louis Napyoleon, 459-60 Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop, 129, 133, 134, 140 Crcspy, Peace of, 79 Crete, 425, 498 Crimean War, 461-62, 489 Cromwell, Oliver, 250-61, 262; con- quers Scotland, 256; subdues Ireland, 256; Lord Protector, 257- 61; foreign wars, 259-60 Cromwell, Thomas, 130-32 Crusades, influence on commerce, 9-10 Cuba, 518-19 Custozza, battle of, 466, 472 Czaslau, battle of, 314 Czechs, 206, 449, 452, 453, 512 Danton, 360, 363, 368, 370, 378 Dardanelles, 293 Darnley, Lord, 150 Da Vinci, Leonardo; see Vinci, Leo- nardo da Declaration of Indulgence, English, 266, 269-70 Democracy, reaction against, 414-27, 433, 436-37, 449-50. 452-57; progress of, 530, 534-3S Denmark, government of, 527; Nor- way and, 86, 528; Prussia and, 448, 470-71; Schleswig-Holstein affair, 447-4S, 456, 470-71, 527; Sweden and, 86, 294-95; Thirty Years' War, 212-16 592 Index Diderot, 351 Directorj-, French, 383-88 Discovery, Age of, 10-13 Disraeli, Conservative minister, 485 Dissenters, in England, 264, 266, 269, 272, 482 Divine Right, theory of, 232-33, 269, 271, 272 Doctrine, of works, 51-52, 66; of justification by f 499. 539-40 Elba, Napoleon at, 409-10 Elizabeth of England, 141-56, 231; character as woman, 141 ; as states- man, 142; religious policy, 142-45, 148; relations to Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, 146, 151-53; aids the Protestants, 152, 172-73; last years, 154-55 Elizabeth of Russia, 320 Emancipation Bill, Catholic (Eng- lish), 482, 486 Emigres, 357, 365, 429, 431 Emperor, election of, 26; weakness of, 27-28; Napoleon and title of, 396 Empire, of France, under Napoleon I., 394-412; under Napoleon III., 460-67, 474-76 England, 40-43. 119-56, 231-73, 323-40; American War, 339; and the Dutch, 172-73, 259, 265-67, 280, 283, 285, 336; Austrian Suc- cession War, 315, 317, 333, 335; church and religious freedom in, 128-32, 133-35, 138, 143-46, 234, 240-41, 245, 249, 252, 255, 263-64, 266, 267, 4S2; colonies of, 15, 43, 239, 287, 330, 332, 336-39, 416, 480, 487-90; constitutional mon- archy, 41-42, 232-33, 236-37, 242- 44, 248-49, 255, 269-70, 271-72, 327-29, 331; France and, 122-24, 140, 142-48, 151, 242, 265-67, 380-81, 283-87, 317-18, 323-40, 371, 381, 386-90, 395, 399-400, 402-3, 409, 411, 416, 426, 480-81, 489, 508, 511; government of, 41- 42, 232, 323, 327-28, 480-83; literature, 156; Louis XIV. and, 265-67, 283-85, 324, 327, 336; Puritan revolution in, 231-73; Reformation in, 121, 125-32, 133- 35, 143-46; Restoration, 261-71; Revival of Learning in, 119-22, 155; Scotland and, 123-24, 146-47, 151-53, 231-32, 247-48, 330; sea power of, 155, 317, 329, 330, 7,11, 338, 386-87, 399-400, 481; Seven Years' War, 317-18, 319, 320, 337- 38, 339; Spain and, 114, 122-25, 139-40, 145, 152-54. 162, 173, 241- 42, 238-39, T,T,'2-zz, 402-3, 409, 422-23; Spanish Succession War, 284-87, 329-30, 334; Thirty Years' War, 211-12, 238; under the Stuarts, 231-73; under the Tudors, 40-43, 119-56, 232-33; see Great Britain Index 593 Erasmus, 63-64; critic, translator, and editor, 63-64; "Praise of Folly," 64 Essex, earl of, 154 Eugene, prince of Savoy, 2S5, 286 Eugenie, empress of France, 477 Europe in nineteenth century, Minor States of, 5i6-29;Belgium, 525-27; Denmark, 527-28; Holland, 524- 25; Portugal, 519-21; Spain, 516- 19; Sweden and Norway, 528-29; Switzerland, 521-24 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 252, 254 Fawkes, Guy, 235 Federal Pact of Switzerland, 522 Federation, North German, 472-73 Fehrbellin, battle of, 307 Ferdinand of Aragon, conquers Naples and Spanish Navarre, 38; establishes Spanish Inquisition, 39; extends the royal authority, 38, 108; marries Isabella of Castile, 37 Ferdinand of Brunswick, 319, 338 Ferdinand I., emperor, 204 Ferdinand II., emperor, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 215, 223 Ferdinand I., emperor of Austria, 446, 454 Ferdinand I. of Naples, 420-21 Ferdinand VII. of Spain, 401-2, 420, 516-17 Fcuillants, 365 Finland, 298, 491 Five Mile Act, of England, 264 Flanders, 157, 159, 170, 171, 176; sec Netherlands, Flemings Flemings, 432 Fleury, Cardinal, 335 Florence, 18, 32-35; see Grand Duchy of Tuscany; ruled by the Medici, 33 Fontenoy, battle of, 333 Forest Cantons, 86, 90, 521 Formosa, Japan acquires, 545 France, 35-37, 178-202, 274-88, 322-40, 343-41J 4^8-32. 4.38-44, 458-63, 47S-79, 504-S; ascendancy under Louis XIV., 274-88, 327, 336; Austria and, 165-66, 369, 371, 381, 383-85, 3S7-90, 395-96, 399, 403-4, 407-9; Austrian Succession War, 313-15, 2,ZZ, 335; before the Revolution, 344-53; Bourbon res- toration, 409, 411, 428-30; church in, 347-48, 392, 506-7; England and, rivalry with, 122-24, 140, 142-48, 151, 242, 265-67, 380-81, 283-87, 317-18, 323-40, 371, 381, 386-90, 395, 399-400, 402-3. 409, 411, 416, 426, 480-81, 489, 508, 511; colonies of, 278, 287, 336-37, 338,344, 504, 507-8; Directory, 383- 88; European coalitions against, 280, 283, 285, 371, 381, 387-88, 407-9; feudalism in, 35, 200. 275, 346-50; Franco-Prussian War, 474- 77; French-Spanish rivalry, 29-31, 36, 38, 71-72, 75-76, 79, 1 12-13, 122, 162, 178-79, 183-84, 197-98, 201, 276, 279; Germany and, 83, 184, 197, 201, 222, 279, 280-82, 335, 387-88, 375-77; government of, 35-36, 178, 183, 201, 345-46, 353, 389, 390-93, 428, 443, 449, 505-7; in Spain, 401-3, 409, 422; Italy and, 383-85, 387-89, 394, 395, 462-63, 465, 466-67; literature of, 288; Louis Napoleon and, 443- 44, 458-67; Napoleon's reign, 388-413; Orleans monarchy, 430- 32, 436-41; political parties in, 439, 458, 505; Reformation in, 180-96; Republic of (1792-99), 369-8S; (1848-51), 441-44, 458- 59; (1870), 477-79, 504-8, 511; Revolution (1789), 344-413; (1830) 430-32; (1848), 438-44; revolu- tion, industrial, in, 439, 442; Russia and, 507, 537; sea power, 324, 338, 344, 386-87, 395, 399-400; Seven Years' War, 317-21, 337, 344; Spanish Succession War, 284-87, 327, 329-30; Thirty Years' War, 594 Index 20I, 222-26, 274; Turkey and, 79, 386-87, 426, 461-62 Franche-Comte, 2S2 Francis I., emperor (Francis of Lorraine), 315, 321 Francis II., emp>eror, 365, 384, 389; assumes title of emperor of Austria, 396 Francis I., emperor of Austria, 396; see Francis II., emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, 463, 512-15 Francis I. of France, conquers Milan (1515), 31; rivalry with Charles V., 31, 71, 76, 179; French-Spanish wars of, 31, 36, 75-77, 79, 179; alliance with the Turk, 79; Renais- sance and, 179-80; Reformation and, 179-82 Francis II. of France, 185, 188 Franco-German War, 474-77, 536-37 Frankfort-on-the-Main, 418, 447, 455 FrankUn, Benjamin, 339 Frederick, Elector Palatine, 208, 209-10, 211, 238 Frederick VH. of Denmark, 470 Frederick of Hohenzollern, 303 Frederick I. of Prussia, 309 Frederick II., the Great, of Priissia, 311-22, j,;^-x,; seizes Silesia, 313; domestic labors, 316, 321; per- sonal qualities, 311-12, 316; Seven Years' War and, 317-21; acquires West Prussia, 321; results of reign, 315. 322 Frederick the Wise, of Saxony, 65, 71, S0-81 Frederick William, Great Elector, 305-8; acquires four bishoprics and East Pomerania, 305; acquires sovereignty of East Prussia, 307; policy of paternalism, 306 Frederick William I. of Prussia, 309- 12; administrative genius, 310; acquires Stettin, 311 Frederick William III. of Prussia, 397 Frederick William IV. of Prussia, 446, 448, 454-56, 468; rejects the Imperial crown, 455; tries to form German union, 456 French Revolution, see Revolution, French Friars, 46 Friedland, battle of, 398 Fronde, 275-76 Galileo, 531 Gama, Vasco da, 11 Gambetta, organizes government of defence after Sedan, 477 Garibaldi, commands forces of Roman Republic, 452; captures the Two Sicilies, 464-65 Geneva, struggles for freedom, 91; Reformation in, 92-97 Genoa, Napwleon and, 385, 390, 394; annexed to Sardinia, 415 George I. of Great Britain, 330-32 George II., 320, 332-38 George III., 320, 338 George I. of Greece, 494, note German Empire, birth of, 477-78; Bismarck as Chancellor, 508-11; and the Catholic Church, 509; growth of socialism, 510; Triple Alliance, 511; see Germany, Prus- sia, etc. Germany, 25-20, 59-84, 203-27, 445-57, 468-79, 508-12; see Holy Roman Empire; see also Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, and German Empire; attempts to unify, 26-28, 395-96, 417-18, 434, 446-47, 455- 57> 472-73. 477-78; Austria and, 317, 322, 355-56, 471-73, 537; Austrian Succession War, 313-15, 335; Bund of, 418, 433-34, 435, 446, 447, 456, 470, 473; colonies of, 540; feudalism in, 26-27, 4i7', France and, 83, 183, 184, 222, 335, 381; Franco-German War, 475-77; German Parliament, 446-47, 455- 56; government of 26-27. 225, Index 595 446, 454, 473, 509; later Empire of, 508-12; Louis XIV. and, 277, 280-84; Napoleon and, 389, 395- 96, 399, 401, 406-8, 417; peasant revolt in, 74-75; Reformation in, 59-84, 202, 204; Renaissance in, 59-65; revolution of (1830), 433- 35; revolution of (1848), 446-48, 454-57; Russia and, 511, 537; Seven Years' War, 318, 319, 337, 338; Spain and, 107-8; see Charles v., Netherlands, revolt of; Thirty Years' War, 203-27 Ghent, pacification of, 169-70 Gibraltar, England acquires, 287,330 Gironde, 365, 370—72, 376 Girondists, 365, 366, 370, 372, 375 Gladstone, Liberal minister, 485, 487 "Glorious Revolution" (England), 271-73. 323 Gorgei, Hungarian patriot, 453 Grand Alliance (Empire, England, Holland), 285, 287 Gravelotte, battle of, 476 Great Britain (since 1707), see Eng- land; at the Congress of Vienna, 409, 414-19; colonies of, 487-90, 539-40,541-43.545; Crimean War, 461-62, 489, 495; Egypt and, 499, 539-40; foreign policy, 489-90; Germany and, 490, 511; govern- ment of, 490; Holy Alliance and, 418-19. 421, 422-23, 426, 481; Imperial Federation, 487-88; in- dustrial revolution, 532-34; Irish Settlement, 486-871 Portugal and, 423; reforms (since 1822), 481- 86; Russia and, 426, 489-90, 493, 494-96, 499; Turkey and, 426, 489-90, 495, 499 Great Elector, Frederick William, 305-8 Greece, revolution in, 423-27, 493-94 Greek Church, 289, 424, 493, 498 Greeks, 424, 493, 499 Grevy, President of the French Re- public, 506 Grotius, Hugo, 176 Grouchy, Marshal, 411 Grey, Earl, Whig minister, 483 Grey, Lady Jane, 136-37 Guelph, family of, 330 Guise, family of, 186, 191; Francis, duke of, 186, 188-89; Henry, duke of, 192, 193, 194 Guizot, French minister and his- torian, 440-41 Gunpowder Plot, in England, 235 Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, 212, 294; andThirty Years' War, 216-20 Gutenberg, John, 21 Haakon, king of Norway 529 Haarlem, 160, 168 Hague, arbitration court of, 548 Hals, Frans, 176 Hampden, John, 246, 251 Hanover, 298, 327, 332, 417, 473; House of, 330 Hapsburg, House of, 26, 70, 158, 199, 201, 205, 308; dominions, 28, 37- 38, 71, 206, 208, 287, 308, 315, 512, 514; division of, 83-84, 287; counts of, 86, 87, 521; rivalry w^th House of Bourbon, 197, 207, 212, 222, 284, 317; Austrian branch, 197, 276, 284, 312, 315, 453. 514; Spanish branch, 193^ 222, 276; rivalry with Prussia, 308, 312-22, 405, 455-57. 466, 471-72 Hdbert, 377-78 • Hebertists, 377-78 Henrietta Maria, queen of England, 240 Henry III. of France, 192, 193-94 Henry VII. of England, 41-43 Henry VIII. of England, 121-33; foreign policy, 122-23; his wars, 124; Defenderof the Faith, 125-26; marriage and divorce from Cathe- rine of Aragon, 125-29; breaks with Pope, 128; head of National Church, 128-29; suppresses mon- asteries, 130-31 596 Index Henrj' of Navarre, 190, igr, 193, 194; see Henry IV. of France Henry II. of France, occupies Ger- man bishoprics, 83, 184; renounces Italy, 113, 162, 183, 184 Henry IV. of France (Henry of Navarre), 194-98; abjures Prot- estant faith, 195; domestic poHcy, 195-97 Herzegovina, 495-97, 5i5 High Commission, court of, 245, 248 Highlanders, revolt of, 334 History, defined, 1-3 Hohenzollern, House of, 303, 305, 455. 473 Holland (Netherlands, Dutch Nether- lands, Seven United Provinces), 112, 157, 161, 165, 168, 169, 170, 172, 175-77; Austrian Succession War, 314-15; Belgium and, 416, 432-33. 524; France and, 381, 385, 394, 404; government, 524-25; Thirty Years' War, 174, 211 Holy Alliance, 418-19, 423, 426, 517 Holy Roman Empire, 25-29, 59, 309, 335; see Emperor, and Germany; origin of name, 25; government, 26-27; electors of, 26; feudalism in, 26-27, 417; decentralized by the Treaty of Westphalia (164S), 225; Austria and, 314, 318, 319, 396; Napoleon and, 389-90, 395-96, 399. 408, 417 Horn, count of, 163, 165 Hubertsburg, Peace of, 321 Huguenots, 186-93, 196, 198-200, 242, 274, 282-83; Great Elector and, 306 Humanism, 17; Italian and German, 60-61; in the universities, 17, 61- 63; reformers of, 64; in France, I So "Hundred Days," Napoleon's, 410- I I Hungary (Hungarians), 313, 449, 452-54, 512-15; revolution (1848), 449, 452-54 Huss. John, 55, 60, 206 Hutten, Ulrich von, 63 Iceland, 528 Illyrian provinces, 404 Independents, in England, 253, 264 Index, papal, 105 India, 337-3S, 387, 489, 499, 539. 540, 542 Indulgences, sale of, 52, 67-68 Innocent III., Pof>e, 54 Inquisition, Spanish, 39-40, 109-11, 117; first appearance of, 54, loi; Roman (also Papal Inquisition), 101-2, 183; in Netherlands, 160- 61, 162, 163 Intendants, French, 200, 345 Interim, 81 Ireland, Anglican Church dises- tablished in, 486; Cromwell con- quers, 256, 326; Home Rule agita- tion, 339, 486-87; Land Acts, 487; revolts of, 325, 326; relations to England, 325-26 339-40 Ironsides, Cromwell's, 251 Isabella, queen of Castile, 11, 37, 108 Isabella of Spain, 517-18 Ismail, pasha and khedive of Egypt, 539-40 Italy, 29-35, 445-57,462-67, 502-4; and the Congress of Vienna, 415- 16; and the Pope, 72, 76, 450-51, 503-4; art and literature, 16-18; Austria and, 384, 390, 395, 415, 417,421, 433,462-63,466,471-72; cities of, 7-9, 18, 32-33; colonial policy, 504; government, 502; lead- ing states prior to unification, 29- 35; Napoleon in, 383-85, 389-90, 394, 395. 399; Revolution (1848), 449-52; rival French and Spanish claims, 29-31, 36, 38, 71, 76, 112- 13, 162, 178-79, 183-84; Sardinia and Italian liberation, 449-52, 462-67; Triple Alliance, 504, 507, 5". 515, 537. 538 Ivan IV. the Terrible, of Russia, 2S9 Index 597 Jacobin Club, 360, 380 Jacobins, 360, 373, 378 Jamaica, 260 James I. of England (VI. of Scot- land), 231-39; and Thirty Years' War, 211-12, 238; and Parliament, 235-37; an(l the Puritans, 233-35 James II. (duke of York), 265, 267, 268, 269-72, 324-25 James, the Pretender, 330 Japan, 490, 499-500, 544-47 Jeffreys, Judge; see Bloody Assizes Jena, battle of, 397 Jesuits (Society of Jesus), 98-106; constitution of order, 99-101; champions of the Papacy, 100-4, 105-6; at the Council of Trent, 104 Jews, 39, loi, 109-10 Joachim II., elector of Brandenburg, John IV. of Portugal, 519-20 John Sigismund, elector of Branden- burg, 304 Jonson, Ben, 156 Josephine (Beauharnais), empress of France, 394, 404 Joseph II., emperor, 321-22 Jourdan, General, 381, 383, 384 Julius II., 34, 125 Just, Saint, 378 Kappel, Peace of, 90-91 Kaunitz, Austrian minister, 317 Kitchener, General, 541-42 Knights, Teutonic, 304 Knox, John, 147, 148 Korea, 500, 546 Kosciusko, 300 Kossuth, Louis, 453 Kunersdorf, battle of, 320 Lafayette, marquis de, leader in National Assembly, 355; com- mander of the National Guard, 358; removes Royal Family to Paris, 359-60; in revolution of 1830. 431 Laibach, Congress of, 421, 423 Landfricden, 27 La Rochelle, 196, 199 Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 244-45, 248, 249 Laws of the Guarantees (Italian), 503 League of Cambray (France, Em- pire, Spain, Pope), 32 Leffevre, Jacques, 180 Legislative Assembly, 364-69 Legitimist, party in France, 439, 440, 458. 50s Leicester, earl of, 173 Leipsic, battle of, 408 Leop>old I., emperor, 308 Leopold II., emperor, 365-66 Leop)old of Saxe-Coburg, king of Belgium, 433 Leopold I. of Belgium, 425-26, 540, 541 Leof>old, prince of Hohenzollcrn- Sigmaringen, candidate for the throne of Spain, 475. 517 Leo X., Pop)e, patron of letters and art, 34; excommunicates Luther, 69; and Henry VIII., 125 Leo XIII., Pope, 506 "Letters of Obscure Men," 62-63 Lepanto, battle of, 1 14-15 LcUre de cachet, 345 Leuthen, battle of, 319 Leyden, siege of, 168-69; University of, 169 Liberalism, 413, 19, 435, 445. 454, 459 Liberals, party in Great Britain, 268, 484, 485. 487 Ligurian Republic, 385, 394 Lit de justice, 345 Lombardy, 384, 385, 417, 450. 463 London, Treaty of (1827), 426; Con- ference of (1830), 433; (1852), 456; Protocol of (1852), 456, 471 Long Parliament, 248, 261, 271 Lords, feudal, 20, 23; see Barons, also Nobles Lords, House of, Englisli, 41, 237, 255, 268 598 Index Lorraine, acquired by France, 335, 476; acquired by Germany, 477 Louise of Savoy, 181 Louis Philippe of France, 431, 438- 41 Louis XII. of France, claims Milan, 31; Holy League formed against, 31. 36 Louis XIII. of France, 198, 199 Louis XIV. (Grand Monarque), reign, 276-88, 344, 345, 352; England and, 265-67, 324-25, 327; absolute monarchy, 276-77, 345; court at Versailles, 277, 288; continental aggression, 279, 288, 324, 336; wars, 279-87: for Spanish Nether- lands, 279-80; with Dutch, 280-82, 307; of the Palatinate, 283-84, 327; of Spanish Succession, 285-87; seizes Strasburg, 282; revokes Edict of Nantes, 282-83, 306 Louis XV., 315, 334-36, 345-46, Louis XVI., 352; attempts reforms, 352-53; assembles the States- General, 353; flight to Varennes, 362-63; suspended by the Legis- lative Assembly, 367; condemned and executed by the National Convention, 370 Louis XVIII. of France, 409, 410, 411, 428-29 Loyola, Ignatius, 99, 205 Lun^ville, Peace of, 389-90 Lutheranism (and Lutherans), 82, 86, 88, 89, 203-4, 225 Luther, Martin, 60, 65-73; leader of Reformation, 64; his doctrines, 66- 67; protests against indulgences, 68; in revolt, 68-69; his theses, 68; excommunicated, 69; at Diet of Worms, 70-71; outlawed, 71-72; conservatism of, 73, 75; and peas- ant revolt, 74-75; death (1546), 80 Liitzen, battle of (1632), 220; (1813), 407 Lyons, revolt of, 376 Macedonia, 498-99 MacMahon, Marshal, 476, 505-6 Madagascar, 507 Madeira, 520 Magdeburg, 218 Magenta, battle of, 463 Maintenon, Madame de, 282 Malplaquet, battle of, 286 Malta, England acquires, 416 Mamelukes, 387 Manchuria, 500, 544, 546 Marat, 360, 368, 370, 372, 374 Marches of Umbria, seized by Garibaldi, 465 Marengo, battle of,: 389 Margaret of Navarre, 181 Margaret of Parma, 162-64 Maria de' Medici, 198 Maria Theresa, 312-22, 335 Marie Antoinette, 352, 365, 375 Marie Louise, empress of France, 404 Marignano, battle of, 31, 36 Maritime discoveries, 10-15 Marlborough, duke of, 285-86, 329 Marlowe, Christopher, 156 Marston Moor, battle of, 251 Marx, Karl, 535 Mary I. of England, 137-41; restores Catholicism, 138; marries Philip II. of Spain, 139; persecutions under, 139-40 Marj' II. of England, 270-71 Mary of Burgundy, 28, 158 Mary, queen of Scots, 146-53, 185; her character, 149 Massena, General, 388 Matthias, Emperor, 206, 208 Maurice of Nassau, 174-75 Maurice of Saxony, 81, 83, 183 Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, 205, 209, 210, 225 Maximilian, emp)eror of Mexico, 474 Maximilian I., emp>eror of Germany, 26-28, 59; attempted reforms, 27; lucky marriage alliances, 28, 158; death, 28, 70 Mazarin, Cardinal, 275-76 Index 599 Mazzini, Italian patriot, 451-52, 459 Meaux, 180-81 Medici, family of, 2,2,, 34 Mehemet AH, pasha of Egypt, 425, 494-95. 539 Melanchthon, 77 "Merry Monarch," see Charles II. of England Metternich, Prince (Austrian states- man), 408-9, 418-25. 432. 434. 443-46 Metz, 83, 184, 224, 476, 477 Mexico, 474 Middle Ages, 6, 7, 11, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23. S3. 159 Miguel, Don, Portuguese Pretender, 520 Milan, a fief of the Empire, 30, 31; rival French and Spanish claims, 31. 36, 71. 112-13, 179; revolution (1848), 449-50 Milan I. (Obrenovitch) of Servia, 497 Milton, John, 273 Minorca, 287, 330 Mirabeau, Count, 355, 362, 377 Mohammedans, set Turks, Turkey, etc. Molifere, 288 MoUwitz, battle of, 313 Moltke, von, Prussian general, 476 Monarchy, feudal, 23, 346; absolute, 23-24, 41-42, 129. ^ZZ^ 200, 232- ll, 242, 249, 272, 276, 345 Monarchist, party in France, 430, 438, 440, 458-59. 478, 505-6 Monasteries, 46, 72; English, sup- pressed by Henry VIII., 130-31 Monastic orders, 46, 98 Mongols, 289 Monk, George, General, 261 Monks, 45-46, 72 Monmouth, duke of, 270 Monroe Doctrine, 423, 474 Montenegro, 496-97 Montesquieu, 351 More, Sir Thomas, 120-21, 129-30; Utopia of, 120-2: Morea, 425, 426 Moreau, General (French), 383, 384, 389 Moors in Spain, 37, 39, 109-10, 116-17 Morocco, 508, 540-41 Moscow, Napoleon at, 405; retreat from, 406 Mountain (French party), 370-73, 376 Miihlberg, battle of, 81 Mukden, battle of, 546 Murat, grand-duke of Berg, 399; king of Naples, 402 Murillo, 118 Mutiny Act of England, 328 Nantes, Edict of, 196, 198, 199, 200, 306; Reign of Terror in, 377 Naples, Austria and, 287, 421; Bour- bons and, 417, 420, 465; Napoleon and, 399, 402; Piedmont acquires, 464-65; rebellion (1820), 420-22; revolution (1848), 449-50; rival French and Spanish claims, 29-31, 36,38 Napoleon I., Bonaparte, early Ufe of, . 385; commands the Army of Italy, 383; Treaty of Campo Formio, 384; Egyptian campaign, 386-87; coup d'etat of Brumaire, 388; first Consul, 389; Peace of Luneville, 389-90; Peace of Amiens, 390; administrative reforms, 391; Civil Code and Concordat, 392-93; emperor of the French, 394; re- news war with England, 395, 399; Austerlitz, 395; settlement of Germany, 395-96, 399; war against Prussia, 396-97; Peace of Tilsit, 398, 400; continental system, 400- I, 404; receives crown of Spain, 401-2; revolt of the peninsula, 402-3, 405; war with Austria, 404; invasion of Russia and retreat, 405-6; Prussia leads in German revolt, 406-7; defeated by the 6oo Index Allies, 408; assigned to Elba, 409; returns to France, 410; "Hundred Days," 410-n; abdication and exile, 411 Napoleon III., Louis, 443-44; Presi- dent of French Republic, 443-44; restores Papal Government, 451- 52, 459; coup d'etal, 459-60; foreign policy, 460; Crimean War, 460-62; champions Italian unity, 462-67; annexes Savoy and Nice, 464, 474; secures \'enetia for Sardinia, 466; failure of Mexican Expedition, 474; anger against Prussia, 474-75; Franco-Prussian War, 475-76 Narva, battle of, 295 Nascby, battle of, 252, 253, 254 Nassau family of, 165, 175 National Assembly (also Constituent Assembly), of France, 354-64 National Convention of France, 369- 72 National Guard of France, 358, 359, Nationalism, 413, 418, 419, 435, 445, 449. 530 Navarino, battle of, 426 Navigation Acts of England, 259, 265 Necker (French minister), 353 Nelson, Admiral, 386-87, 399 Netherlands, Austrian, 287, 1};^;^ Netherlands, Dutch (Seven United Provinces), 170-77, 226, 279, 286, 287; see Holland Netherlands (or Low Countries), 28, '57-77; revolt of, 112, 113, 157-77; under Spain, 158, 160-74; king- dom of, 416, 432-33 Netherlands. Spanish, 112, 170, 176- 77, 266, 279, 2S6, 287; Austria ac- quires, 287; Louis XIV. and, 266, 279-80 Newfoundland, 287, 330 New model ordinance (England), 252 Newton, Sir Isaac, 531 Ney, Marshal, 406, 410 Nice, annexed to France, 384, 464 Nicholas I. of Russia, 426, 436, 454, 460-62, 492, 495 Nicholas II. of Russia, grants a con- stitution, 501; and The Hague court, 548 Nimwegen, Treaty of, 282 Nobles (nobility), 20-21, 23-24; in England, 41-43; in France, 35, 198, 200, 275-76, 346; in Poland, 300, 426 Nordhngen, battle of, 221, 222 Northumberland, duke of, 135-37 Norway, Reformation in, 86; Sweden and, 86, 528-29 Nuremberg, Peace of, 78, 79 Nystadt, Treaty of, 298 Gates, Titus, sec ' ' Popish Plot " O'Connell, Daniel, Irish patriot, 482, 486 Orange Free State, 488 Orange, House of (House of Nassau), 165, 175. 416, 524, 525 Orders in Council, English, 400 Orleanist, party in France, 458, 505 Orleans, duke of (Egalite), 375 Orleans, duke of (Louis Philippe), 431 Orleans, duke of (Regent), 334-35 Oscar II. of Sweden, 529 Osman Pasha, 496 Otto, king of Greece, 426-27 Ottoman Empire, 460-61, 489, 493— 99; see Turkey Oudenarde, battle of, 286 Oxenstiern, Chancellor of Sweden, 221 Palatinate, in Thirty Years' War, 2IO-I2, 225; War of the, 283-84, 327 PapalStates, 33-35, 384,404,417,433; insurrection quelled by Austria, 433; revolution (1848), 449-52; held by French for the Pope, 465. 466; annexed to Italy, 467, 503-4 Index 6oi Paris, Commune in, 478; insurrec- tion of workingmen, 442; munici- pality of, 368, 378; mob rule in, 356-60, 366-67, 369, 370, 372, 379, 382; occupied by the Allies, 409; by the Germans, 477; Peace of (1763). 338, 344; (1898), 519; Parlement of, 36, 275; revolution (1789-95), 353-83; (1830), 430-31; (1848), 430; Treaty of (1814), 409; (1815), 411, 414; (1856), 461, 489, 495; University of, 181 Paris, count of, 441 Parliament, English, 24, 41-42; con- trols taxation, 42, 236, 242; under theTudors, 41-42, 128-29, 138-39, 143, 232-33; contest with king, 235-37. 240-43. 248-49, 271-72; supremacy established, 272; con- stitution building, 327-29, 331 Parliament, German, 446-47, 455- 56; offers Imf)crial crown to Frederick William IV., 455 Parliaments (parlemeiits), French, 36, 183, 201, 345 Parma, duke of, 153, 170-74 Paul III., Pope, 80, 99 Paul IV., Pope, 98 Pavia, battle of, 76, 179, 181 Peasants, revolt in Germany, 74-75; of France, 349-50; in Russia, 492; in Poland, 436 Pedro I., emperor of Brazil, 519- 20 Pedro II., emperor of Brazil, 520 Penance, 51-52, 65-66 Perry, Commodore, 544 Petition of Right, Kngli.sh, 242-43, 263, 271 Peter I., the Great, of Russia, 290-99; policy, 91-92; reforms, 393, 29S; designs on Sweden, 293; opposed by Charles XII., 294-97 Peter III., 320 Petrarch, 16-17 Philip II. of Spain, 110-17; character, III, 116; champions Catholicism, 112-14; his wars, 112-15, 162, 165-74 Philip III. of Spain, 117 Philip V. of Spain, 284, 286, 287 Philip of Hesse, 80, 89 Philippines, 518-19 Philosophers, French, 350-51 Pichegru, General (French), 381 Piedmont, annexed by Napoleon, 394; granted a constitution, 452; insurrection (1820), 421; war with Austria, 449-50, 452 Pitt, William (the Great Commoner), 337-38 Pitt, William (the younger), 340 Pius IX., Pope, 450-52 Plevna, siege of, 496 Plain (French party), 370 Plombiercs, Treaty of, alliance be- tween Sardinia and France, 462 Poland (and Poles), and Sweden, 294-96, 298; Austria and, 300, 321, 381, 403; duchy of Warsaw, 398, 403-4,416,435; internal weakness, 296, 299-300; Napoleon and, 39S, 403-4; Prussia and, 300, 304-5, 321, 381, 398, 416; revolution (1830), 435-37; Russia and, 290, 299-300, 321, 403-4. 416, 435-37, 491-92, 500 Pole, Cardinal, 138 Polish Succession War, 335 Politics, meaning and relation to history, 3 ; shaped by commerce and industry, 535-41 Pomerania, East, 225, 305; West, 224, 294, 29S, 305, 307, 308, 310 Pompadour, Madame de, 337, 344, 352 Pope (and papacy), see Reforma- tion; and Charles V., 72, 76, 103, 127; and councils, 103-4; and Indulgences, 52, 67-68; and Ref- ormation, 58-227; infallibility of, 104; power of, 45-46, 51-52, 80, 104-5, 125-29; Henry VIII. and, 124, 125, 127-32; Napoleon and, 6o2 Index 384, 392, 404; Papal States, 384, 404, 417, 433. 450-52. 465, 466- 67; and the Italian State, 503-4 "Popish Plot," of England, 267-68 Port Arthur, 545-46 Porto Rico, 519 Portsmouth, Peace of, 500, 546 Portugal, explorations and discover- ies, 10-14, 19; colonies of, 13-14, 520-21; Spain and, 13, 115; Na- poleon and, 400-1, 519; revolution (1820), 420, 423, 519; Brazil and, 519-20 Potsdam, 311 Pragmatic Sanction of Emperor Charles VI., 312-13 Prague, 206, 208, 209, 221, 318; Peace of (1635), 221, 222; (1866), 472 Presbyterianism, 148, 234 Presbyterians, in England, 252-54, 264 Pressburg, Peace of, 395 Pride's Purge, 254 Prince Henry the Navigator, 10 Privileged orders, of France, 346-48, 361, 411 Protectorate, Cromwell's, 257-61 Protestantism (and Protestants), 85, 86, 91, 100, 112-14, 132, 135, 141, 146, 161, 169, 186,203-5,207,216 217, 220, 227, 522 Protestant, origin of name, 78 Protestant Union of Germany, 205, 208, 209, 210 Prussia, 302-22; see Austria, Ger- man Empire (of 187 1); acquires Alsace and Lorraine, 477; allied with Austria against the French Revolution, 366, 371, 381; at the Congress of Vienna, 415-18; Austro-Prussian War (1866), 471- 73; beginnings of, 304-5; 5pe Bran- denburg; Bismarck as Prime Min- ister, 469-7S; Denmark and, 448, 470-71; Franco -Prussian War, 474-77; French Revolution and Napoleon, 366, 369, 371, 3S1, 396" 400, 406-9, 4n, 434; king of, becomes emperor of Germany, 478; Poland and, 300, 304-5, 321, 381, 398, 416; revolution (1848), 446- 48, 454-57; rivalry with Austria, 308, 312-22, 415, 455-57, 466, 471-72; Seven Years' War, 317- 21,337; Sweden and, 294, 298,307- 8,310-11; Thirty Years' War and. 218-19, 225-26, 305; Zollverein, 434 Prussia, East (also duchy of Prussia) 304-5. 307. 309; West, 304, 309, note; 321 Ptolemy, geographer and astronomer, II, 19 Pultava, battle of, 297 Puritans, 145, 233-34, 239, 252; revolution of, in England, 231-73 Pyrenees, Peace of, 118, 276 Quadrilateral, 449, 463 Quebec, captured by Wolfe, 338 Quiberon, battle of, 338 Racine, 288 Radetzky, Austrian general, 449-50 Ramillies, battle of, 286 Rastadt, Peace of, 287 Ratisbon, Diet of, 216 Reformation, 59-227; in Germany, 59-84; in Europe, 85-106; in England, 119-56; in Netherlands, 157-77; in France, 178-202; and Thirty Years' War, 203-27; Coun- ter Reformation of Catholic States, 97-106 Reform Bill, England, 483-84 Reichstag, 473 Reign of Terror in France, 372-80 Rembrandt, 176 Renaissance, characteristics, 5-24; economic revival, 6-10; maritime discoveries, 10-15; revival of learn- ing, of the fine arts, 15-18; period of investigation and invention, 18- Index 603 21 ; emancipation of the individual, 21-23; destruction of feudalism, growth of absolutism, 23-24; dif- ferent character in Italy and Ger- many, 6a-6i Republicans, party in France, 439, 441, 443-44,458-59, 478-79, 504-6 Republic, Third, of France, 504-8; allied with Russia, 507; church, 506-7; colonial expansion, 507-8; government, 505 Requesens, 168-69 Restitution, Edict of, 215-16, 217, 221, 224 Restoration, English, 261-71, 273 Reuchlin, John, 62, 63 Revival of learning, 15-18, 60 Revolutionary Tribunal, French, 374-75, 378-80 Revolution, French, 344-413; system of government and society before, 344-50; revolt against feudalism, 350-51; demand for reform, 350- 53; States-General assembled, 353; National Assembly, 350-64; con- trolled by mob, 356-60, 362, 367, 372; abolition of privileges, 361; assignals, 361; constitutional mon- archy, 361-64, 381-83; declares war against Austria, 365-66; over- throw of monarchy, 367; militant democracy, 368-69, 381; Reign of Terror, 369, 372-79; Louis XVI. executed, 370-71; First Coalition against, 371,381; civil war,376-77; fall of Robespierre, 379-80; peace with Prussia and Spain, 381; the Directory , 383-88 ; defeat of Austria and Treaty of Campo Formio, 384- 85; the Rhine boundary, 384, 390, 408; expedition to Egypt, 386-87; Second Coalition, 387-88; the Consulate, 388-94; see Napoleon Richelieu, Cardinal, 198-202, 274; domestic jxilicy, 199-201, 212; absolute monarchy, 200-01, 345; foreign policy, 201, 218, 222 Rizzio, David, 150 Robespierre, 355, 360, 363, 368, 370, 373, 378-80 Roland, Madame, 375 Rome, and Renaissance Popes, 33-34, 97, 98; sacked and pillaged, 76; Republic of, 451-52; Italian troops enter, 467; national capital, 467 Romanoff, House of, 290 Romanoff, Michael, 290 Roosevelt, President, 546 Rossbach, battle of, 319 Roumania (Roumanians), 493-96 Roundheads, 250 Rousseau, 351 Royal Society of England, 273 Rubens, 177 Rudolph II., emperor, 205, 206 Rump Parliament, 254, 256, 257, 260 Rupert, Prince, 251 Russia, 289-302, 491-501; alliance with French Republic, 507, 511; at the Congress of Vienna, 409, 416-19; Austria and, 515; China and, 499-500; Congress of Berlin and, 496-97, 507. 515; England and, 387-88, 460-61, 4S9-90, 493, 495, 496, 499; expansion in Asia, 489, 493, 497, 499; France and, 507, 537; Finland and, 291, 498; Holy Alliance of Alexander I., 41S-19, 423, 426, 491; Japan and, 490, 499-500, 545-46; Napoleon and the Treaty of Tilsit, 398-409; Poland and, 290, 299-300, 321, 403-4, 416, 435-37, 491-92, 500; revolution in, 490, 500-1; Seven Years' War, 318-20; Sweden and, 290, 293-98; Turkey and, 299, 300-1, 426, 461, 489, 493-99; under Catherine II., 299-301; under Peter the Great, 290-99 Ruyter, Admiral, 280 Ryswick, Peace of, 284 Sadowa, battle of, 466, 472 Sakhalin, 546 6o4 Index Sans Souci, 323 Sardinia-Piedmont, acquires Genoa, 415,417; and Austria, 421, 449- 50, 452; Crimean War, 462; grows into kingdom of Italy, 462-65; Napoleon and, 3S4; revolution (1848), 449-50. 452 Savonarola, n Savoy, duke of, 34-35, 91, 260; House of, 35, 452; annexed to France, 364, 384 Saxe, Maurice de, Marshal, 315, Saxony, Charles XII. and, 295-98; Napoleon and, 398, 408, 416; Prussia and, 415-16, 471; Ref- ormation in, 73-74, 80-81, loi, 303; Seven Years' War, 318-19; Thirty Years' War, 210, 218-19, 221 Scharnhorst (Prussian Minister), 407 Schleswig-Holstein, 447-48, 456, 527; Prussia acquires, 472 Science, progress of, 531-36 Scotland, and England, 123, 146, 151-53. 247-48, 252-54, 334; and France, 123, 147-48; Reforma- tion in, 147-48; Cromwell and, 256; union with England, 232, 256, IV^ Sedan, battle of. Napoleon III., defeated and taken prisoner, 476- 77 Self-denying Ordinance (English), 252; (French), 364 Senate (French), 505 Separation .\ct (French), 507 Separatists, 145 Sepoys, mutiny of, 488 Serbs, 493, 495, 497, 499, 512 Servia, 494, 497-98 Settlement, Act of, English, 327 Seven Years' War, 317-21, 337 Shakespeare, William, 156 Shimonoseki, Peace of, 545 Short Parliament, 247 Siberia, 499, 501 SicUy, Bourbons in, 417, 421, 464-6S' Piedmont acquires, 464-65; revolt of (1820), 421; Spain (Aragon) and, 29, 30; 5ft' Naples Sieyes. Abbe, 355, 360 Silesia, claim to, disputed, 30S; seized by Frederick the Great, 313; final cession to Prussia, 321 Silesian Wars, 313-15, 317 Slavs, 289, 302, 304, 424, 449, 493, 496, 512. 513 Smalkald, League of, 78; war of, 80-81 Social-Democrats, party in Germany, 510 Socialism, 439, 441-43. S^o. S^^, 534-35 Socialist party in France, 439, 442- 43 Society, mediaeval, characteristics, 6-7, 19, 20, 21, 346-50; Renais- sance characteristics, 6, 17, 21-23, 61 Solferino, battle of, 463 Somerset, duke of, 133-35 Sophia, electress of Hanover, 327, 330 Sorbonne, i8r Spain, 11-14, 37-40, 107-18, iio-i8; Austrian Succession War, 313, ZZ'^~2>yi Bourbons in, 184-87, 420, 422, 475, 516-18; causes of decay, 37-40, 108-10, 1 16-17; colonies of, 13-14, 2,1^-12,, 422-23, 517, 518- 19; England and, 114, 122-25, 139-40, 145. 152-54, 162, 173, 238-39. 241-42, Zl'i-ZZ, 402-3, 409, 422-23; France and, 29-31, 36, 38, 71. 75-76, 79; 112-13, 122, 162, 178-80, 182-84, 197-98, 201, 222, 276, 283, 285, 371, 381; Ger- many and, 107-8, 184; govern- ment, 38-40, 108-9, 116, 518; In- quisition in, 39-40, 101-2, 109- 10,111,420,516; Italy and, 29-31, 36, 38, 71, 76, 112-13, 178-79. 183-84; literature and art, 118; Index 605 Moors in, 37, 39, 109-10, 1 16-17; Napoleon and, 401-3,409; Nether- lands and, 1 1 2-14, 158, 160-74, 222; Portugal and, 13, 115; re- bellion of (1S20), 420-23; Spanish Succession War, 284-87, 329-30; Turks and, 79, 107, 1 14-15 Spanish-American War, 518-19 Spanish Succession War, 284-87 "Spanish Fury," 169 Spenser, Edmund, 156 Spinoza, 176 Stadtholder of Netherlands, 168, 175, 281 StafiFord, Thomas Went worth, carl of, see Wentworth, Sir Thomas Stamp Act, 339 Stanislaus Lesczinski, king of Poland, 296 Star Chamber, Court of, 42, 248 States-General of France, 36, 201, 345, 353; of the Netherlands, 158, 161, 524 States of the Church (Papal States), 33-35; see Pope, Church St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 187, 190—92 St. Germain, Peace of (1570), 189, 190 St. Helena, Napoleon conveyed to, 411 St. Petersburg, founding of, 297 Storthing, Norwegian parliament, Strasburg, 224, 282 Strcltsi, 291-93 Stein (Prussian statesman), 407, 418 Stettin, acquired by Prussia, 311 Stuarts, 231-71 Sudan, 541- !-' Suez Canal 539-40 Supreme Being, cult of, 378-79, 392 Suspects, Law of the, 373 Swed<^n, Charles XII. rules, 294-98; Gustavus Adolphus rules, 212, 216, 294; independence gained under Crustavus V'asa, 86; Louis XIV. and, 280, 281, 307-8; mistress of the Baltic, 216, 290, 294-97; Norway and, 528-29; Poland and, 295-97, 298; Prussia and, 294, 298, 307-8, 310-11; Reformation in, 86; Richelieu and, 218, 222; Russia and, 290, 293-98; Seven Years' War, 318, 319; Thirty Years' War, 216-22, 224, 294 Swiss Guard of Louis XVI., massacre of, 367 Switzerland (Swiss Confederation), 86-97, 226, 521-24; Congress of Vienna and, 522; government, 522; Reformation in, 87-97; Treaty of Westphalia and, 226, 521 Talleyrand, 409, 415 Tenth Penny, tax in Netherlands, 167-68 Test Act, English, 267-68, 269, 272, 482 Tetzel, 67, 68 Teutonic Knights, 304 Thermidorians, rule of, 380-83 Thermidor,9thof,fa]lof Robespierre, 379 Thiers, historian and President of the French Republic, 440-41, 478 Third Estate (tiers etat, bourgeoisie), 24, 47. 348-49. 353-54 Thirty Years' War, 207-27; Bohe- mian Period, 208-10; Palatine Period, 210-12; Danish Period, 212-16; Swedish Period, 216-22; French Period, 222-24; Peace of Westphalia, 224-27; efiFects on Germany, 223, 226 Thorn, Treaty of, 304 Three Henries, War of, 193 Tilly, General, 210, 212, 214, 218- 19 Tilsit, Peace of, 398-401, 404-5 Toleration Act, of England, 272-73, 323 Toleration Edict of France, 188 6o6 Index Toleration, religious, 82, 188, 196, 199-200, 227, 235, 253, 259, 266, 269, 272-73, 413, 482, 487 Tonkin, 507, 544 Tonnage and poundage, 241, 243, 244, 249 Tories, 268-69, 271, 286, 329-31, 481-84; see Conservative Party Toul, 83. 184, 224 Toulon, revolt of, 376; Napoleon at, 377> 382. 386 Trafalgar, battle of, 399-400, 402 Transvaal, 488, 542 Trent, Council of, 80, 102-5; work of, 102-4, 204 Triennial Act, English, 249 Triple Alliance (1667), 29; (1883), 505, 507, 5", 515, 537 Troppau, Congress of, 421 Tudor, House of, 41 Tudor monarchy, 41-43, 119-56, ^I'^-J.Z^ 236 Tuileries, royal family prisoners ^"1 3S9> niassacre of the Swiss Guard at, 367; invaded by re- publican mob, 441; burned during the Commune, 479 Tunis, 504, 508, 537 Turenne, Marshal, 223, 280 Turgot (French statesman), 353 Turkey, England and, 426, 4S9-90, 493, 494-96, 499; Congress of Berlin, 496-97; Crimean War, 460- 62, 489, 495; European Powers and, 461, 489, 494, 495, 496; Greece and, 424-27, 493-95; loss of Egypt, 494-95. 499, 539-4°; Russia and, 426, 489-90, 493-99, 537; see Turks, Ottoman Empire Turks, 10, 28, 32, 78-79, 107, 114-15, 292, 293,300-1, 425, 493-99 Tuscany, 2,1, 417. 449. 45° Two Sicilies, 30, 417 Tyrol, given Bavaria, 395; rises against French, 403 Ulrica Eleanor, queen of Sweden, 298 Ulster, 326 Ultra-royalist, party in France, 429- 30 United Netherlands, 169-70 United Provinces; see Holland United States, 239, 339, 422-23, 518- 19, 546 Universities, mediieval 17, 62 Utrecht, Peace of, 287, 329-30 Utrecht, union of, 170-71, 174; see Dutch Republic Valmy, battle of, 369 Van Dyck, 177 Vasa, Gustavus, 86 Vassy, massacre of, 188-89 Vatican, palace of, 467, 503 Vauban, 285 Venetia, 417, 450, 463, 466, 472; see Venice Venice, Austria and, 384, 415, 463; see Venetia; ceded to France, 395; insurrection (1848), 449-50; power and decay, 9-10, 31-32, 114; united to Italy, 466 Velasquez, 118 Vendee, La, insurrection in, 376-''7, 439 V'erdun, 83, 184, 224 Verona, Congress of, 422 Versailles, 277, 288; Peace of (1783), 339; (1871), 477; banquet of, 358; mob invades, 358-59; States- General assemble at, 353; King William takes the title of emperor in, 478 Vervins, Peace of, 197 Victor Emmanuel II., 450, 452, 462-67 Victoria of England, 490 Vienna, 206, 286; besieged by Turks, 78; Congress of, 4c/, 414-19, 32, 522, 524; Napoleon \-Qi^%, 395; Peace of, 403; revolution 'i«4v^}' 445-46, 452-53 Villfele, ultra-royalist French i'""njster, 429-3^ Index 607 Vinci, Leonardo da, 18, 22 Voltaire, 3x6, 351 Voyages, Portuguese, lo-ii; Spanish, 11-13 Wagram, battle of, 403 Waldenses, 54; massacre of, 182 Wallenstein, 213-21 Walpole, Sir Robert, zz'^-n, 334 Washington, George, 339 WcU^aw, duchy of, 398, 403, 416, 435; insurrection in, 436 Wartburg, castle of, 71, 73 Waterloo, battle of, 411 Wellesley, Sir Arthur; see Wellington Wellington, duke of, 403, 409, 411, 483 Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 244, 245- 46, 248 Westphalia, Peace of, 174, 201, 224- 27, 276; kingdom of, 398, 403 Whigs, 268-69, 271, 286, 329-32, 483-84; see Liberal Party White Hill, battle of, 210 Wilhelmina, queen of the Nether- lands, 525 William L, king of the Netherlands, 432-33. 524 William I. of Orange (the Silent), 161, 163, 165-72 William L of Prussia and the Ger- man Empire, 468-69, 473, 475, 476, 478 William II., emperor of Germany, 511-12 William III. of England, 267, 270, 271, 281, 283, 284, 323-27, 336; see Williara III. of Orange William III. of Orange, 267, 270, 271, 281, 283; see William III. of England Windischgraetz, Austrian general, 453 Wittelsbach, House of, 322 Wittenberg, 65, 68, 73 Witt, John de, 280-81 Wolsey, Cardinal, 124, 127; his dis- grace, 127 Worms, Diet of, 70-72; Edict of, 72, 77 Wurtemberg, kingdom of, 395-96, 417. 434 Wyclif, John, 55, 60 Yorktown, surrender of, 339 Young, Arthur (English traveller), 349-50 Zealand, 159, 168, 170, 172 Zollvcrsin, 434 Zurich, Reformation in, 89 Zwingli, Ulrich, 87-90; as humanist and democrat, 88; quarrel with Luther, 89; opposed by Forest cantons, 90 ^\:^u'm lS(!Ag78 H 96 89 ^Xi K-.-^^'t^^' Dr / 8 / ^ u