FREEM/"AN'S HIISTORIfCAL COUARSE FOR' SClO0OLS
OUTLINES
OF
HIST ORY
lly
EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L.
LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.
NEW YORK
HOLT  & WILLIAMS
I872








PREFACE.
THE object of the present series is to put forth clear and
correct views of history in simple language, and in the
smallest space and cheapest form in which it could be
done. It is meant in the first place for schools; but it is
often found that a book for schools proves useful for other
readers as well, and it is hoped that this may be the case
with the little books the first instalment of which is now
given to the world.  The present volume is meant to
be introductory to the whole course. It is intended to
give, as its name implies, a general sketch of the history
of the civilized world, that is, of Europe and of the lands
which have drawn their civilization from Europe. Its
object is to trace out the general relations of different
periods and different countries to one another, without
going minutely into the affairs of any particular country,
least of all into those of England. This is an object of
the first importance, for, without clear notions of general
history, the history of particular countries can never be
rightly understood. This General Sketch will be followed




svi                  PIL'EFA C'.
by a series of special histories of particular countries,
which will take for granted the main principles laid
down in the General Sketch. In this series it is hoped
in time to take in short histories of all the chief
countries of Europe and America, giving the results of
the latest historical researches in as simple a form as
may be.  Those of England and Scotland will shortly
follow the present introductory volume, and other
authors are at work on other parts of the plan. The
several members of the series will all be so far under
ihe supervision of the Editor as to secure general accuracy of statement, and a general harmony of plan
and sentiment. But each book will be the original work
of its own author, and each author will be responsible
for his own treatment of the smaller details.  For his
own share of the work the Editor has, besides the
General Sketch, taken the histories of Rome and Switzerland. The others will be put into the hands of various
writers, on whose knowledge and skill he believes that
he can rely.
SOMERLEAZE, WELLS,
Aubust 23, 1872.




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS.. 
CHAPTER II.
GREECE AND THE GREEK COLONIES....... 19
CHAPTER III.
THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH........   48
CHAPTER IV.
THE HEATHEN EMPIRE.                         80
CHAPTER V.
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN EMPIRE....         94
CHAPTER VI.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST...... 11 O




viii             CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
PAGE
THE FRANKISH EMPIRE..                    I23
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SAXON EMPERORS.....    137
CHAPTER IX.
THE FRANCONIAN EMPERORS.......46
CHAPTER X.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES...  159
CHAPTER XI.
THE SWABIAN EMPERORS......... 175
CHAPTER XII.
THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE...99
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GREATNESS OF SPAIN..,,.. 234




CONTEIVTS.                   i.
CHAPTER XIV.
PAGE
THE GREATNESS OF FRANCE......... 28
CHAPTER XV.
THE RISE OF RUSSIA............ 302
CHAPTER XVI.
THE. FRENCH REVOLUTION.......... 325
CHAPTER XVII.
THE REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITALY.             347








OUTLINES
OF
HISTORY
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN OF THE NATIONS.
Diterent nations of the world (I)-diference  between East and
[Vest (2)-the Ar;yan nations (3)-connexion among their languag'es (3)-amoount of pror-ess made by them before their dispersioz (4) —their advances in  relifion and gorvernment (5)-the
Sezmilic nations (6) -their religius ielJuence on the world (6)the Turanian and other Xon-Aryan nations (7)-their extent in
Asia (7)-traces of them in Europe (7) —movemeets of the AJyans
in Europe and Asia (8)-geographical shape of Europe (9)-the
three -reat peninsulas (Io)-advance of the successive Aryan
svwarms ( II)-the Greeks and Italians ( I, 12)-the Celts (12) —
the Teutons (I3)-the Slaves and Lithuanians (14)-later 7'.,ranian settlements in Europe; fHungarians and Turks (I4)-d/4,ferent degrees of importance among the Aryans of Europe (I5)I'ome the central point of all European History (I5)-Division
of' periods before and after the Roman Dominion (I6).
I. Different Aspects of History.-The history of the
various nations of mankind  may be looked at in many
and very different ways; and the importance of different
parts of history varies widely according to the way in
B13




2            ORIGIN OF TILE NATIONS.           [CHAP.
which they are looked at. One who wishes to trace out the
history of religion, or of language, or of manners and
customs, will often find as much that is useful for his
purpose among savage nations, who have played no irmportant part in the world, as among the most famous and
civilized people. But researches of this sort cannot be put
together into a continuous tale; they are not history strictly
so called. By history in the highest sense we understand
the history of those nations which have really influenced one
another, so that their whole story, from the beginning to our
own time, forms one tale, of which, if we wholly leave out
any part, we cannot rightly understand what follows it.
Such a history as this is found only in the history of the
chief nations of Europe, and of those nations of Asia and
Africa which have had most to do with them.
2. Difference between East and West.-But between the
history of the East, as we may vaguely call it, that is chiefly
the history of Asia and AJrica, and the history of our own
Western world in Europe and America, the gap is in many
ways wide. To take one point of difference among many,
the history of the East does not give the same political
teaching as that of the West. It is in a much greater degree
the history of a mere succession of empires and dynasties,
and in a much less degree the history of the people. We
shall therefore do right if we deal with the history of the
W~est as our main subject, and treat of the history of the
East only so far as it bears on the history of the West. For
history in the highest sense, for the history of man in his
highest political character, for the highest developements of
art, literature, and political freedom, we must look to that
family of mankind to which we ourselves belong, and to that
division of the world in which we ourselves dwell. The
branch of history which is history in the highest and truest
sense is the history of the Aryan nations of Europe, and of




I.]              EAST AND WEST.                      3
those who have in later times gone forth from among them
to carry the arts and languages of Europe into other continents. The history of these nations forms Westernt or
European history, the history of Europie and of European
Colonies. But here too we shall find some periods and
countries of higher interest and importance than others.
Still the whole, from the earliest times to which we can trace
it back, forms one connected story. No part is altogether
void of interest in itself, none is altogether cut off from connexion with the general thread of continuous history. And
with regard to particular times and places, this part of history
reaches the highest degree of interest and importance that
history can reach. It takes in the history of those times and
places which most directly concern ourselves, and it takes in
the history of those times and places which have had the
deepest and most lasting influence on the world in general.
It is then to the history of Europe, and of the Aryan nations
in Europe and in European colonies elsewhere, that the
present sketch, and the more detailed histories which are
to follow it, will mainly be devoted. The history of other
parts of the world, and of other families of the human race,
will be dealt with only so far as those other nations and
countries are brought into connexion with the long unbroken
tale of European history.
3. The Aryan Nations.- Some readers may perhaps by
this time have asked what is to be understood by a word
which has been already used more than once, namely, the
Aryan nations. That is the name which is now generally
received to express that division of the human race to which
we ourselves belong, and which. takes in nearly all the
present nations of Europe and several of the chief nations
of Asia.  The evidence of language shows that there
was a time, a time of course long before the beginning of
recorded history, when the forefathers of all these nations
B 1,




4            OR.IGIN OF THE NA TIONS.          [CIHAP.
were one people, speaking one language.  Sanscrit, the
ancient language of India, Persian, Greek, Latin, Engflish,
and other tongues, many of which we shall soon have
occasion to speak of, are really only dialects of one common
speech. They show their common origin alike by their
grammatical forms, such as the endings of nouns and verbs
and the like, and by what is more easily understood by people
in general, by their still having many of the commonest and
most necessary words, those words without which no language
can get on, essentially the same. Now many of the nations
which now speak these languages have for ages been so
far parted from one another, that it is quite impossible that
they can have borrowed these words, and still less these
grammatical forms, from one another. We can thus see that
all these nations are really kinsfolk, that they once were only
one nation, the different branches of which parted off from
one another at a time long before written history begins.
4. Early State of the Aryan Nations.-But what we
know of the languages of the various Aryan nations tells us
something more than this. By the nature of the words
which are common to all or most of the kindred tongues we
can see what steps the forefathers of these various nations
had already taken in the way of social life and regular government in the days before they parted asunder. And we can
see that those steps were no small steps. Before there were
such nations as Hindoos and Greeks and Germans, while the
common forefathers of all were still only one people, they had
risen very far indeed above the state of mere savages. They
had already learned to build houses, to plough the ground,
and to grind their corn in a mill. This is shown by the
words for ploughing, building, and grinding being still nearly
the same in all the kindred languages. It is easy for anyone to see that our word mill is the same as the Latin mola,
and that our old word to ear —that is, to iploigh-the ground,




I. ]           THE EARL Y AR Y. ArS.                5
which is sometimes use'd in the Old Testament, is the same
as the Latin arare, which has the same meaning. But no
one ought to fancy that the English word is deri.ved from the
Latin, or that we learned the use of the thing from any
people who spoke Latin, because the same words are found
also in many other of the kindred languages, even those which
are spoken in countries which are furthest removed firom
one another. We see then that words of this kind-and I
have only chosen two out of many —are really fragments
remaining from the old common language which was spoken
by our common forefathers before they branched off and
became different nations. It is therefore quite plain that
the things themselves, the names of which have thus been
kept in so many different languages for thousands of years,
were already known to the Aryan people before they parted
into different nations. And I need not say that people who
build houses, plough the ground, and grind their corn,
though they may still have very mnuch to learn, are in a
much higher state than the people in some parts of the
world are in even now.
5. Early Aryan Religion and Governmefit. —But language again tells us something more of the early Aryan
people than the progress which they had made in the
merely mechanical arts. We find that the names for various
family relations, for the different degrees of kindred and
affinity, father, mother, brother, sister, and the like, are the
same in all or most of the kindred tongues. We see then
that, before the separation, the family life, the groundwork
of all society and government, was already well understood
and fully established. And we see too that regular government itself had already begun; for words meaning kihzg or
ruler are the same in languages so far distant firom one another
as Sanscrit, Latin, and English. The Latin words rex, regere,
regnum, are the same as the Old-English rica, rixian, rice,




6            ORIGIN OF THE,7A TIONS.          [CHRAP.
words which have dropped out of the language, but which
still remain in the ending of such words as bislhoirick,
where the last syllable means government or- possession.
And we can also see that the Aryans before their dispersion
had already something of a religion. For there is a common
stock of words and tales common to most of the Aryan
nations, many of which they cannot have borrowed from one
another, and which point to an early reverence for the great
powers of the natural world. Thus the same name for the
sky, or for the great God of the sky, appears in very different
languages, as Dyags in Sanscrit, Zeus in Greek, and the OldEnglish God Tiw, from whom we still call the third day of
the week Tiwesdacg or Tuesday. And there are a number of
stories about various Gods and heroes found among different
Aryan nations, all of which seem to come from one common
source. And we may go on and see that the first glimpses
which we can get of the forms of government in the early days
of the kindred nations show them to have been wonderfully
like one another. Alike among the old Greeks, the old
Italians, and the old Germans, there was a King or chief with
limited power, there was a smaller Council of nobles or of old
men, and a general Assembly of the whole people. Such
was the old constitution of England, out of which our
present constitution has grown step by step. But there is
no reason to think that this was at all peculiar to England,
or even peculiar to those nations who are most nearly akin
to the English. There is every reason to believe that this
form of government, in which every man had a place,
though some had a greater place than others, was really
one of the possessions which we have in common with
the whole Aryan family. We see then that our common
Aryan forefathers, in the times when they were still one
people, times so ]long ago that we cannot hope to give
them any certain date, had already made advances in civiliza



I.]           TITE SEMITIC.,7A TIOArS.             7
tion which placed them far above mere savages. They
already had the family life; they already had the beginnings
of religion and government; and they already knew most
of those simple arts which are most needed for the comfort
of human life.
6. The Semitic Nations. —Such then were the original
Aryans-that one among the great families of mankind to
which we ourselves belong, and that which has played the
greatest part in the history of the world. Still the Aryan
nations are only a small part aimong the nations of the earth.
It is not needful for our purpose to speak at any length ot
the nations which are not Aryan; but a few words must be
given to the two great families which have always pretty
well divided Europe and Asia with the Aryans, and with
whom the history of the Aryans is constantly coming in
contact. Next in importance to the Aryans we must place
those which are called the Sezitic nations, among whom
those with whom we have most concern are the Hebrews,
the Phawnicians, and the Arabs. And in one point we must
set them even above the Aryans; for the three religions
which have taught men that there is but one God-the
Jvewish, the Chr/istian, and the MIahometan-have all come
from among them. But those among the Semitic nations to
whom this great truth was not known seem often to have
fallen into lower forms of idolatry than the Ar.yans. Now the
Semitic nations have, so to speak, kept much closer together
than the Aryans have. They have always occupied a much
smaller portion of the world than the Aryans, and they
have kept much more in the same part of the world. Their
chief seats have always been in south-western Asia; and
though they have spread themselves thence into distant
parts of the world, in Asia, Africa, and even Europe, yet
this has mainly been by settlements in comparatively late
times, about whose history we know something.  Their




8            ORIGIN OF THIE 1VA4 TIOvS.         [CHAI.
languages also have parted off much less from one another
than the Aryan languages have; the Semitic nations have
thus always kept up more of the cha: acter of one family than
the Aryans.
7. The Turanian Nations.-The rest of Asia, which is not
occupied either by Aryan or by Semitic people, is occupied
by various nations whose tongues differ far more widely
from one another than the Aryan tongues do. Still there
is reason to believe that many of them at least were
originally one people, and at all events it is convenient for
our purposes to class together all those nations of Europe
and Asia which are neither Aryan nor Semitic. The people
of the greater part of Asia are commonly known as the
Turanian nations. In the old Persian stories Turaln, the
land of darkness, is opposed to Iraln or Aria, the land of
light; and it is from this Iran, the old name of Persia, that
it has been thought convenient to give the whole family the
name of Aryanls. And besides that large part of Asia wlhich
is still occupied by the Turanians, it is plain that in earlier
times they occupied a large part of Europe also. But the
Aryans have driven them out of nearly all Europe, except a
few remnants in out-of-the-way corners, such as the Fins and
Laps in the north. The Bnasues also on the borders of
Spain and G(aul, whether akin to the Turanians or not, are
at least neither Aryan nor Semitic, so that for our purposes
they may all go together. Except these few remnants of the
old races, all Europe has been Aryan since the beginning
of written history, except when Semitic or Turanian invaders
have come in later times. But in Asia the nations which
are neither Aryan nor Semitic, the Chinese, Monagols, Turks,
and others, still far outnumber the Aryan and Semitic nations
put together.
8. The Aryan Dispersion.-We have seen that there was
a time, long before the beginning of recorded history, when




I.]          TH7E AR YAN DISPERSION.                 9
the forefathers of the various Aryans dwelled together as one
people, speaking one language. And the advances which
they had made towards civilization show that they must
have dwelled together for a long time, but a time whose
length we cannot undertake to measure.  Nor can we
undertake to fix a date for the time of the great separation,
when the families which -had hitherto dwelled together
parted off in different directions and became different
nations speaking tongues which are easily seen to be
near akin to each other, but which gradually parted from one
another so that different nations could no longer understand
each other's speech. All that we can say is that these are
facts which happened long before the beginnings of written
history, but which are none the less certain because we learn
them from another kind of proof. The various wandering
bands must have parted off at long intervals, one by one,
and it often happened that a band split off into two or more
bands in the course of its wanderings. And in most cases
they did not enter upon uninhabited lands, but upon lands
in which men of other races were already dwelling, among
whom they appeared as conquerors, and whom, for the most
part, they drove out of the best parts of the land into outof-the-way corners.  First of all, there are the two great
divisions of the Eastern and the I/estern, the Asiatic and
the European, Aryans, divisions which became altogether
cut off from one another in geographical position and in
habits and feelings. From the old mother-land one great
troop pressed to the south-east and became the forefathers
of the Persians and Hindoos, driving the older inhabitants of India down to the south, into the land which is
properly distinguished from Hilndostalz by the name of the
Deccan.  The other great troop pressed westward, and,
sending off one swarm after another, formed the various
Aryan nations of Europe.  The order in which they




Io           ORIGZIN OF THE ArA 77ONVS.        [CHAP.
came can be known only by their geographical position.  The first waves of the migration must be those
whom we find furthest to the West and furthest to the
South. But. in order fully to take in the force of the
evidence furnished by the geographical position of the
various Aryan nations in Europe, it is needful to say a
few words as to the geographical aspect of the continent
of Europe itself.
9. Geographical Shape of Europe. —A glance at the map
will show that, of the three continents which form the Old
World, Europe, Asia, and Africa, the first two are far more
closely connected with one another than either of them is
with the third. Africa is a vast peninsula-in our own day
indeed it may be said to have become an island-united to
the other two by a very narrow isthmus. But Europe and
Asia form one continuous mass, and in some parts the
boundary between the two is purely artificial. Some maps,
for instance, make the Don the boundary; others make it
the Voa,-a. The most northern and the most central parts of
Europe and Asia form continuous geographical wholes; it is
only the southern parts of the two continents which are quite
cut off from one another. And it is in these southern parts
of each that the earliest recorded history, at all events the
earliest recorded history of the Aryan nations, begins. Central Europe and central Asia form one great solid mass of
nearly unbroken territory. The southern parts of each continent, the lands below these central masses, consist of a
series of peninsulas, running, in the case of Europe, into the
great inland sea called the YMediterranean-the sea which
brings all three continents into connexion-in the case of
Asia into the Ocean itself. Europe thus consists of a great
central plain, cut off by a nearly unbroken mountain range
from a system of islands and peninsulas to the south, which
is again balanced to the north by a sort of secondary system




.L]          GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE.                   II
of islands and peninsulas, the Baltic being a sort of northern
Mediterranean. We might almost say the same of Asia, as
the mouths of the great rivers which run to the north form
several peninsulas and inland seas. But then this part of the
world has always been, so to speak, frozen up, and it never
has played, nor can play, any part in history.
IO. The three great European Peninsulas.-We thus
see that the southern part of Europe consists mainly of three
great peninsulas, those of Siain, Italy, and what we may
roughly call Greece. Of these, the two eastern peninsulas
are purely Mediterranean, while Spain, from its position at one
end of the Old World, could not help having one side to the
Ocean. So Northern Europe may be said to consist of the
two Scandinavian 5eninsulas and of our own British islands,
which in a certain way balance Spain, and which, in a
general glance, seem peninsular rather than insular. Now
of the three southern peninsulas, it will be seen at once that
the eastern one has a character of its own.  Though the
nearest to Asia, it is in its geographical character the most
thoroughly European. As Europe is, more than either of
the other continents, a land of islands and peninsulas, so
Greece and the countries near to it are, more than any other
part of Europe, a land of islands and peninsulas. It is
therefore hardly more than we should expect when we find
that the recorded history of Europe begins in this eastern
peninsula, that is to say, in Greece; that for several ages the
history of Europe is little more than a history of this and
the neighbouring peninsula, that is to say, of Greece and
Italy; that the third peninsula, that of Spain, first appears
in European history as a kind of appendage to the other two;
and that the historical importance of central and northern
Europe belongs to a later date still.
II. The Aryan Settlement of Europe. The Greeks and
Italians.-This does not however necessarily prove that the




T2           ORGI/V OF TIlE NV, 7irOTS.        [CHAP.
two peninsulas of Greece and Italy were positively the first
parts of Europe which received Aryan inhabitants. There
can be no doubt, from the close likeness of the Greek and
Latin languages, that the Aryan inhabitants of those two
peninsulas branched off from the original stock as one
swarm, and parted most probably at the head of the great
Iradriatic Gulf. They thus became two nations, or rather two
groups of many nations; but the fact that the Greek and
Latin languages agree so closely together shows that there
vas a time when the forefathers of the Greeks and the forefathers of the Italians had already parted off from the forefathers of the Hindoos and Germans, but had not yet parted
off from one another. Now the time when they occupied
these two peninsulas must have been long before the beginnings of recorded history, so that it is impossible to give
any details of the way in which the land was conquered.
Still it is not in the least likely that they found the land uninhabited. They may have found earlier inhabitants who were
not Aryans, as the Aryans certainly did in many other parts
of Europe, or they may even have found Aryan settlers earlier
than themselves. The exact relations between the Greeks
and the other ancient nations of south-eastern Europe are in
some respects very hard to make out, and the little that can
be said about it in such a sketch as this had better be said
when we collie to speak of Greece somewhat more particularly. But of the people whom the Italians found in the
middle peninsula of the three, we must say something more.
I2. The Italians and Celts.-In the case of the Italians,
we know a little more of the nations, both Aryan and otherwise, whom they seem to have found in their peninsula. In
some parts they most likely found a non-Aryan people, and it
can hardly be doubted that, if they entered their peninsula by
land from the head of the Hadriatic Gulf, they already found
a Celtic people in the northern part of it. The Celts were




r.]                 YTHE CELTS.                     13
the first wave of the Aryan migration in central Europe, and
we therefore find them the furthest to the west of any Aryan
people. In historical tires we find them in Gaul, in the
British Islands, in parts of SSpain and Italy, and in the border
lands of Itfay and Germany south of the Danube.  Now it
is not likely that they found any part of these lands quite
uninhabited; it is far more likely that they found an earlier
people dwelling in thenm, whom they slew or drove out. In
Spain indeed and in Southern Gaul we know that they did
so, because, as has been already said, there is a small district
on each side of the Pyrenees, where a non-Aryan tongue is
still spoken by the 3asques. These, we cannot doubt, are
remnants of the earlier people who inhabited Spain and
Southern Gaul, and most likely other parts of Western
Europe, before either the Celts or Italians came. And we
can hardly doubt that the Italians found people of this
race, perhaps in their peninsula itself, and at any rate on its
borders. But the Italians never settled far west of their own
peninsula; the first Aryans who pushed their way into
Western Europe as far as the Ocean were the Celts. But we
must now mark that, as the Aryans pressed upon and slew or
drove out the Turanians and other earlier settlers whom they
found in the lands into which they came, so presently other
Aryan swarms came pressing upon the first Aryans, and
dispossessed or drove them out in like manner. Thus, in
Western Europe, while the earlier inhabitants have been
driven up by the Celts into very small corners indeed, the
Celts themselves were in the end also driven up into corners,
though not into quite such small corners. Thus, out of all
the lands where the Celts once dwelled, their languages,
of which the -British or Welsh, the Breton, and the
Irish tongues still survive, are now spoken only in certain
parts of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. This change is partly
because, as we shall see as we go on, a large part of the




14           ORIGIN OF THE NA TIONS.           [CHAP.
Celts were conquered by the Romans, and learned to speak
their language. But it is also partly because another wave
of Aryan settlement presently came into Western Europe,
pressed upon the Celts from the east, and drove them out ot
a great part of the land, just as they had driven the earlier
people. And so in later times, other branches.Qf the Aryan
family have pressed backwards and forwards, and have
conquered and displaced other Aryan nations, just as much
as those that were not Aryan. But there can be no doubt
that the Celts, whom we find the furthest to the west of any
Aryan people, were the first Aryans who made their way into
the western lands of Spain, Gaul, and Britain.
i3. The Teutons or Dutch.-The second Aryan swarm in
Western Europe, that which came after the Celts, is the one
with whose history we are more concerned than with that ot
any other; for it is the branch of the Aryan family to which we
ourselves belong. These are the Teutons, the forefathers of the
Gernmans and the English, and of the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians in Northern Europe. They do not appear in history
till a much later time than the Celts, and then we find them
lying immediately to the east of the Celts, chiefly in the land
which is now called Germany. From this they spread themselves into many of the countries of Europe; but in most
cases they got lost among the earlier inhabitants, and learned
to speak their langt age. The chief parts of Europe where
Teutonic languages are now spoken are Germany, England,
and Scandinavia.  In the last-named country we cannot
doubt that the present Teutonic inhabitants were the first
Aryan settlers; for it is plain that they found a Turanian
people there, some of whom still remain, by the name of
Laps and Fins, in the extreme north of Sweden and Norway
and on the eastern coast of the Baltic. But in most places
the Teutons, as the second wave, came into lands where
other Aryan settlers had been before them. Sometimes they




L.]        THE TE UTONS AND SLA ES.                IS
may have simply come in the wake of the Celts as they were
pressing westward; but sometimes they found the Celts in
the land and drove them out, as was especially the case in
our own island. Of the first coming of the Teutons into
Europe we can say nothing from written history, any more
than of the first coming of the Celts. But many of their
chief settlements, and among them our own settlement in
Britain, happened so late that we know a good deal about
them. The true name of the Teutons is Theodisc or Dutch,
from Theod, feople, as one might say " the people," as opposed to foreigners.  The Germans still call themselves
Deutschen in their own language, and not so long ago the
word Dutch was still used in English in a sense at least as
wide as this, and did not mean only the one people to whom
alone we now commonly give the name.
14. The Slaves and Lithuanians.-The third wave of
Aryan settlement in the central parts of Europe consisted of
the Slaves and Litlhuanians, whom for our purpose we may
put together. It must not be thought that the word Slave,
as the name of a people, comes from slave in its common
sense of bondman. It is just the other way, for the word
slave got the sense of bondman because of the great number
of bondmen of Slavonic birth who were at one time spread
over Europe. This third swarm forms the Aryan inhabitants
of the central part of Eastern Europe, of Old Prussia and
Lithuania, of Russia, Poland, Bohemia, of parts of Hungary,
and of a large part of the countries which are subject to
the Turks. They thus lie to the east of the Teutons, who in
after-times turned about and greatly enlarged their borders at
their cost. And it is also among these Slavonic people that
we find the only instances in Europe of a Turanian people
turning about and establishing themselves at the cost of Aryan
nations.  One of these is the Hungarians or Malgars, a
people allied to the Fins who pressed in as conquerors, and




IS           ORIGIN OF THE NA 77JONS.          [CHAP.
founded a kingdom which still lasts, and where the old
Turanian tongue is still spoken. The other case is that ot
the Ottoman Turks, who still bear rule over many of the
Greeks, Slaves, and other Aryan and Christian people in
south-eastern Europe. And as we go on, we shall find other
cases in eastern Europe of Turanian nations invading or
ruling over Aryans; but it is only the Hungarians and the
Ottoman Turks who founded kingdoms which have lasted to
our own time. The last Aryan people to be mentioned in
this survey of Europe are the Lithuanians, whose language
and history is closely connected with that of the Slaves.
They are the smallest, as the Slaves are the largest, of the
great divisions of the Aryan settlers in Europe. But they
are of great importance, because their language is in some
sort the ver.y oldest in Europe, that is, it is the one which
has in many things undergone the least change from. the
common Aryan tongue from which all set out. But it is only
in a very small part of Europe, on.the south-east corner of
the Baltic, that the Lithuanian tongue is still spoken.
I5. Rome the Centre of European History.-Such is a
very short sketch of the settlement of the chief Aryan
nations in Europe.  The history of these nations forms
European history. But, even among these Aryan nations in
Europe, some have played a much more important part than
others. Thus the Lithuanians and Slaves have always
lagged behind the other nations.  Nor have the Celts
played any great part in history, except when they have
come under either Roman or Teutonic influences. The
nations which have stood out the foremost among all
have been the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons. And
among these it is the Romans who form the centre of the
whole story. Romc alone founded an universal Empire in
which all earlier history loses itself, and out of which all
later history grew.  That Empire, at the time of its




3I.]      ROME TISE CO~IMMONV CENTRE.               17
greatest extent, took in the whole of what was then the civilized world, that is to say, the countries round about the
AIcdii'rran;ea;z Sea, alike in Eur(npe, Asia, and Africa. The
Roman, Empire was formed by gradually bringing under its
dominion all the countries within those bounds which had
already begun to have any history, those which we may call
the states of the Old World. And it was out of the breaking
up of the great dominion of Rome that what we may call
the states of the lN\ew World, the kingdoms and nations of
modern Europe, gradually took their rise. Thus through the
whole of our sketch we must be ever thinking of Rome, ever
looking to Rome, sometimes looking forward to it, sometimes
looking back to it, but always having Rome in our mind as
the centre of the whole story. In the former part of our
sketch we have to deal with kingdoms and nations which are
one day to come under the power of Rome. In the latter
part of our sketch we have to deal with kingdoms and
nations, many of which actually formed part of the Roman
dominion, and all of which have been brought, more or less
fully, under Roman influences. In this way Rome will never
pass out of our sight.
I6. Division of Periods. —We may thus say that the
history of the civilized part of the world falls into three
parts. There is the history of the states which were in
being before the Roman dominion began, and out of whose
union the Roman dominion was formed. Then there is
the history of the Roman dominion itself. Lastly, there
is the history of the states w hich arose out of the breaking up of the Roman dominion. But we shall have much
more to say about the states which grew up out of the
breaking up of the Roman dominion than about the
states which were brought together to form  it.  There
are two reasons for this.  History which we can fully
trust, history which was written down at or soon after the
c




IS          OIGICZV OF TIlE ATA 71O.VS.      [CHAP. I.
time when things happened, begins only a few hundred years
before the Roman power came to its full growth. But a
far longer time has passed since the days when the Roman
dominion began to break in pieces.  Thus the portion
of trustworthy history which comes after the days of the
Roman dominion is much longer than the portion which
comes before it. And in these later times we have to deal
with many great and famous states, among which are those
which have grown into the chief powers of Europe in our
own day. But in the earlier time, the time before the Roman
dominion, we know very little of most of the European
nations: the history of most of them may be said to begin
at the time when the Romans began to conquer them. Of
most of them therefore the little that we have to say will be
best said when we come to speak of the Roman conquests.
But there is one European country which has a history of its
own before its conquest by the Romans, and a history longer
and nobler than that of the Romans themselves.  This
country is Greece. Of Greece then, and of Greece alone, we
must give a separate sketch in the next chapter, before we
begin to trace the steps by which Rome won her universal
dominion.




CHAPTER II.
GREECE AND THE GREEK COLONIES.
Conne xion betw.een the Greeks and Italians (x )-their relation to other
neighbouring nations (!) —their early advances over their kindrea
(I)-meaning of the name I Iellas (2) —eograshical character oJ
the country (2) —number of islands and peninsulas (2) —consequent
number of small states (2) —early political superiority of Greece (3)
-relations between the Grceks and Phownicians (4)-extent of the
Phzxnician  Colonies (4) —extent of the Greek Colonies (5) —dis-inction between Greeks and Barbarians (6)-relations of the Greeks
to the kindred nations (6)-relations among the cities of Greece (7)
— relations of the colonies to the mother cities (7)-early constitutions of the Greek cities; likeness of those to other Aryan
nations (8)-Kings-ip, Aristocracy, Democracy (8)- 7y'anny (9)
- Greek religion and mythology ( Io)-the Homeric poems ( II)the Dorian  mzi-ration (II)-the Alessenian zwars (II)-reforms'f SolSn at Athens ( I)-growth of the Persians (I 2)-their conquests of Lydia and the Greek cities of Asia (I2) —first   esian
invasion of Greece; Battle of llaronthn  ( 13)-second Persian
inzvasion of Greece; Battles of Salamis, Plataia, and Mfykale (13)
-gr-eaness of Athens ( I4)-b'rinzing of the Peloponnesian 4Wa
(I5)-Athenian  expedition to Sicily  (15)-Athens overcome by
Sparl a      (  5n)-the dominion of Spartl ( L 6)- the Peace of A ntalkidas (I6)-rise of Thebes (17) —rise of Macedonia under. Philip;
his supremacy in Greece ( IS)-conquests of Alexander the Great ( 19)
-rejcts of his conqfests; spread of Greek civilization in Asia (20)
-the Successors of Alexander in Asia and E;,ypt (2 ) —the later
Kings of Macedonia and E]peiros (22)-character of the later
history of Greece (23)-p-Jrevalence of Federal Governments in later
C2




20     GREECE AND THE GREEK COLONIESS. [CHAP.
Greece; Leagues of Achaia,,tolia. and resewhere (24)-grealness
of Sparta under iCeoimen&s (25) —interfewence of Romze in Greek
affairs (25)- Summnary (26).
I. The Greek Peopie. —Whether the Greeks were the first
Aryan people to settle in Europe or in Eastern Europe we
cannot tell for certain. But we do know for certain that they
were the first Aryan nation whose deeds were recorded in
written history; and there never was any nation whose
deeds were more worthy to be recorded. For no nation ever
did such great things, none ever made such great advances in
every way, so wholly by its own power and with so little help
from ai.y other people. Yet we must not look on the Greeks
as a nation quite apart by themselves. We have already
seen that the Greek people were part of a great Aryan
settlement which occupied both the two eastern peninsulas,
and that the forefathers of the Greeks and the forefathers
of the Italians must have kept together for a good while
after they had parted company from the other branches
of the Aryan family. There is some reason to think that
some of the other nations bordering near upon Greece,
both in the eastern peninsula and in the western coast of
Asia, in lilyria, Thzrace, Phrygia, and Lydia, were not only
Aryan, but were actually part of the same swarm as the
Greeks and Italians. However this may be, it seems quite
certain that most of the nations lying near Greece, as in
Epei-aos and Macedonia, which lie to the north, in Sicily
and Soutlhern Italy, and in some parts of the opposite coasts
of Asia, were very closely akin to the Greeks, and spoke
languages which came much nearer to Greek even than the
languages of the rest of Italy.  The people of all these
countries seem to have had a powecr beyond all other people
of adopting the Gieek language and manners, and. so to
speak, of making themselves Greeks. The Greeks seem, in
fact, to have been one among several kindred nations which




II.]          GEOGRAPHY OF GREECE.                    2I
shot in advance of its kinsfolk, and which was therefore able
in the end to become a sort of teacher to the others. And
one thing which helped the Greeks in thus putting themselves
in advance of all their kinsfolk and neighbours was the nature
of the land in which they settled.
2. Geographical Character of Greece.-Anyone who turns
to the map will see that the country which we call Greece,
but which its own people have always called Hellas, is
the southern part of the great eastern peninsula of Europe.
But we must remember that, in the way of speaking of the
Greeks themselves, the name Hellas did not mcan merely
the country which we now call Greece, but any country where
He/lnes or Greeks lived. Thus there might be patches, so
to speak, of Hellas anywhere; and there were such pat, hes
of Hellas round a great part of the Mediterranean Sea
wherever Greek settlers had planted colonies. But the first
and truest Hellas, the mother-land of all Hellenes, was the
land which we call Greece, with the islands round about it.
There alone the whole land was Greek, and none but Hellenes
lived in it. It is, above all the rest of Europe, a land of
islands and peninsulas; and that was, no doubt, one main
reason why it was the first part of Europe to stand forth as
great and free in the eyes of the whole world. For in early
times the sea-coast is always the part of a land which is first
civilized, because it is the part which can mnost easily have
trade and other dealings with other parts of the world. Thus,
as Greece was the first part of Europe to become civilized, so
the coasts and islands of Greece were both sooner and more
highly civilized than the other inland parts. Those inland
parts are almost everywhere full of mountains and valleys, so
that the different parts of the land, both on the sea-coast and
in the inland parts, were very much cut off from one another.
Each valley or island or little peninsula had its own town,
with its own little territory, forming, whenever it could, a




2    CLGREECE ANtD T71E GREEK COLONIES. [CHAP.
separate government independent of all others, and with the
right of making war and peace, just as if it had been a great
kingdom.
3. Character of Grecian History.-The geographical
nature of the land in this way settled the history of the
Greek people. It is only in much later times that a great
kingdom or commonwealth can come to have the same
political and intellectual life as a small state consisting of
one city. In an early state of things the single city is always
in advance of the great kingdom, not always in wealth or in
mere bodily comforts, but always in political freedom and
in real sharpness of wit. Thus the Greeks, with their many
small states, were the first people from whom we can learn
any lessons In the art of politics, the art of ruling and
persuading men according to law.  The little commonwealths of Greece were the first states at once free and
civilized which the world ever saw.  They were the first
sitates which gave birth to great statesmen, orators, and
generals who did great deeds, and to great historians who
set down those great deeds in writing. It was in the Greek
commonwealths, in short, that the political and intellectual
life of the world began. But, for the very reason that their
freedom came so early, they were not able to keep it so long
as states in later times which have been equally free and
of greater extent.
4. The Greeks and the Phcenicians.-XWhether the Greeks
found any earlier inhabitants in the land which they made
their own is a point on which we cannot be quite certain, but
it is more likely that they did than that they did not. But
it is certain that, when they began to spread themselves from
the mainland into the islands, they found in the islands
powerful rivals already settled. These were the Phaincianzs,
as the Greeks called them, who were a Semitic people, and
who played a great part in botlh Grecian and Roman history.




Ii.]        GREEKAS AND PHiVNICIANS.               23
Their real name among themselves was Caonaanlites, and
they dwelled on the coast of Palestiine, at the east end of
the Mediterranean Sea, especially in the great cities of
Sidon, Tyre, and Arados or Arvad. They were a more
really civilized people, and made a nearer approach to free
government, than any other people who were not Aryans.
They were especially given to trade and to everything which
had to do with a seafaring life. They had thus begun to
spread their trade, and to fiund colonies, over a large part of
the Mediterranean coast, before the Greeks becanie of any
note in the world. They had even made their way beyond
what the Greeks called the Pillars of H1raklts, that is,
beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, and had sailed from the
lMetiferranean Sea into the Ocean. They had there founded
the city of Gades, which still keeps its name as Cadiz, and
they founded other colonies, both in Spain and on the northwest coast of Africa, of which the most famous was Carthage.
They had also settlements in the islands of the ASgaean Sea,
as well as in the greater islands of Cyprus and Sicily, and it
was in these islands that they met the Greeks as enemies.
But, even before the Greeks had begun to send out colonies,
they had a good deal of trade with the Phcenicians. And as
the Phoenicians were the more early civilized of the two
nations, the Greeks seem to have learned several things of
them, and above all the nalhabet. The Greeks learned the
letters which the Phcenicians used to write their own language, which was much the same as the Hebrew, and they
adapted them, as well as they could, to the Greek language.
And fiom them the alphabet gradually made its way to the
Italians, and from the-m to the other nations of Europe, with
such changes as each nation found needful for its own tongue.
The Phoenicians did much in this way towards helping on
the civilization of the Greeks: btut there is no reason to
believe that the Phcenicians, or any other people of Asia or




24     GREECE AND TIlE GRLEEA' COLO7I...  [c..
Africa, founded any settlements in Greece itself after the
lHellenes had once made the land their own.
5. Foundation of the Greek Colonies.-From the mainland of Greece the Greek people gradually spread themselves over most of the neighbouring islands, and over a
large part of the Mediterranean coast, especially on the
shores nearest to their own land.  In fact, we may say
that the Phoenicians and the Greeks between them planted
colonies round the whole coast of the Mediterranean, save in
two parts only. One of these was Egypt on the south; the
other was Cenrial and Northern Italy, where the native
inhabitants were far too strong and brave to allow strangers
to settle among them. The Greeks thus spread themselves
over all the islands of the,fEgaan Sea, over the coasts of
Jfacedonia and Thirace to the north and of Asia Minor to
the cast, as well as in the islands to the west of Greece,!Korkyra and the others which are known now as the Ionian
Islands. A great part of this region became fully as Greek
as Greece itself, only even here in some parts of the coast
the Greek possessions were not quite unbroken, but were
simply a city here and there, and nowhere, except in Greece
itself, did the Greek colonists get very far from the sea.
Other colonies were gradually planted in Cyfirus, in Siczly
and Sout/ernz Italy, and on the coast of Illyria on the eastern
side of the Hadriatic.  And there was one part of the
Mediterranean coast which was occupied by Greek colonies
where we should rather have looked for Phcenicians; that
is, in the lands west of Egypt, where several Greek cities
arose, the chief of which was A' rgiz. These were the only
Greek settlements on the south coast of the Mediterranean.
But some Greek colonies were planted as far east as the
shores of the Euxine, and others as far west as the shores of
Gaul and Northzern Sfiain.  One Greek colony in these
parts which should be specially remembered was Mfassalia,




IT. ]        GREEEA'S AN.'D BARBARIANIS.              25
now Marseille. This was the only great Greek city in the
western part of the Mediterranean, and it was the head of
several smaller settlements on the coasts of Gaul and Spain.
In the southern part of Spain, and in the greater part of
northern Africa, the Greeks could not settle, because there
the Phoenicians had settled before them. And no Greek
sailors were ever bold enough to pass the Pillars of Herak!es and to plant colonies on the shores of the Ocean.
6. Greeks and Barbarians.-We have thus seen the extent
of country over which the Greek people spread themselves.
There was their own old country and the islands nearest to
it, where they alone occupied the whole land; and there
were also the more distant colonies, where Greek cities were
planted here and there, on the coasts of lands which were
occupied by men of other nations, or, as the Greeks called
them, Barbarians. This word Barbarians, in its first use
among the Greeks, simply meant that the people so called
were people whose language the Greeks did not understand.
They called them Barbarians, even though their blood and
speech were nearly akin to their own, if only the difference
was so great that their speech was not understood. It followed that in most parts of the world it was easy to tell
who were Greeks and who were Barbarians, but that along
the northern frontier of Greece the line was less strongly
drawn than elsewhere. Along that border the ruder tribes
of the Greek nation, the AEltolians, Akarnanians, and others,
lived alongside of other tribes who were not Greek, but who
seem to have been closely allied to the Greeks. If you turn
to the map, you will see along this northern border the lands
of  /acedZonia, Efieiros, and Thessaly. illacedonia was ruled
by Greek Kings, but it was never counted to be part of
Greece till quite late times.  Thessaly, on the other hand,
was always reckoned as part of Greece, though the people
who gave it its name seem not to have been of purely Greek




26     GA'E ECE A4NTD THE GCREEK COLONAiTES. [CHAP.
origin. In E'icnros again the samne tribes are by some writers
called Greeks and by others Barbarians, and it was only in
quite late times that Epeiros, like Macedonia, was allowed
to be a Greek country. So, among the colonies, though all
were planted among people whom the Greeks looked on as
Barbarians, yet it made a great practical difference whether
the people among whom they were planted were originally
akin to the Greeks or not. Thus, in many countries, as in
the lands round the Ag an and also in Italy and Sicily,
the Greeks settled chiefly among people who were really
very near to them in blood and speech, and who gradually
adopted the Greek language and nmanners. Thus both Sicily
and Southern Italy became quite Greek courtries, though in
Sicily the Greeks had to keep up a long struTggle against the
Phcenicians of Carthage, who also planted several colonies in
that island.  In Cyprus also the same struggle went on, and
the island became partly Greek and partly Phmonicialn. But
in those of the AEgxan Islands where the Phlcenicians had
settled, the Greeks drove them out altogether. For there
was no chance of the Phoenicians taking to Greek ways as
the Italians and Sicilians did.
7. The Greek Commonwealths.-Greece itself, the land to
the south of the doubtful lands like Maccdofiia and Epeiros,
was the only land which was wholly and purely Greek, where
there was no doulbt as to tihe whole people being Greek, and
where we find the oldest and most famous cities of the Greek
name. Such, in the great peninsula called Pe/oonnllsos, were
~Sia7rfla and Ai-,os, and, in early times, J/fyk/'t    CoGo/ii/z
too on the Is,;.tm.is, and beyond the Isthmus, Alfegara,
Atl/ens, T/'cbc!s, and, in very early times, Orcshozelzos. Each
Greek city, whenever it was strong enough, formed an independent state with its own little territory; but it often happened that a stronger city brought a weaker one more or
less under its power. And in some parts of Greece several




nI.]      THE g6E E/C COMM,.OATI3VEALL T1lS.       27
towns joined together in Leagues, each town managing its
own affairs for itself, but the whole making war and peace
as a single state. Thus in Peloponnesos, first AMyke'en, then
Argos, and lastly Sparla, held the first place, each in turn
contriving to get more or less power over a greater or
smaller number of other cities. And it would almost seem
that in very early times the Kings of Mykene had a certain
power over all Peloponnesos and many of the islands. Still,
even when a Greek city came more or less under the power
of a stronger city, it did not wholly lose the character of a
separate commonwealth. And when the cities of Old Greece
began to send out colonies, those colonies became separate
commonwealths also. Each colony came forth from some
city in the mother country, and it often happened that a colony
sent forth colonies of its own in turn. Each colony became
an independent state, owing a certain respect to the mother
city, but not being subject to it. And, as the colonies were
commonly planted where there was a rich country or a position good for trade, many of them became very flourishing
and powerful. In the seventh and sixth centuries before
Christ, many of the colonial cities, as AHIigtos in Asia, Sybaris in Italy, and Syracuse in Sicily, were among the most
flourishing of all Greek cities, far more so than most of
the cities in Greece itself. But the colonies were for the
most part not so well able to keep their freedom as the cities
in Greece were.
8. Forms of Government.-In the earliest days of Greece
we find much the same form of government in the small Greek
states which we find among all the Aryan nations of whose
early condition we have any account. But both the Greeks
and the Italians were unlike the Teutons and some of the
other Aryan nations in one thing. That is because they were
gathered together in cities from the very beginning, while
some of the other nations were collections, not so much of




z8    GREECE AND THE GREEKA COLONIES. [CIHAP.
cities as of tribes. Still the early form of government was
much the same in both cases. Each tribe or city had its
own Kinfg or chief, whose office was mostly confined to one
family, for the Kings were commonly held to be of the blood
of the Gods. The King was the chief leader both in peace
and war; but he could not do everything according to his own
pleasure. For there was always a Council of elders or chief
men, and also an Assembly of the whole people or at least
of all those who were held to have the full rights of citizens.
This kind of kingship lasted in Greece through the whole of
the earliest times, through what are called the Heroic Ages,
and in the neighbouring lands of Epeiros and Macedonia a
kingship of much the same kind lasted on through nearly the
whole of their history. But in Greece itself the kingly power
was gradually abolished in most of the cities, and they became commonwealths. At first these commonwealths were
aristocracies; that is to say, only men of certain families
were allowed to fill public offices and to take part in the
assemblies by which the city was governed. These privileged families would in most cases be the descendants of the
oldest inhabitants of the city, who did not choose to admit
new-comers to the same full rights as themselves. Some of
the Greek cities remained aristocracies till very late times;
but others soon became democracies; that is to say, all citizens
were allowed to hold offices and to attend the assemblies.
But it must be remembered that everyone who lived in a
Greek city was not therefore a citizen. For in most parts
of Greece there were many slaves; and if a man from one
city went to live in another, even though the city in which
he went to live was a democracy, neither he nor his children were made citizens as a matter of course. In a few
cities the name linzg, in Greek Basileus, remained in use
as the title of a magistrate, though one who no longer held
the chief power. And in Sparta they always went on having




6;. ]       FORAIS OF GTJO Vl'eRNMEA/'VT.          29
Kiiings of the old royal house, two Kings at a time, who retained much power both in military and in religious matters,
though they were no longer the chief rulers of the state.
9. The Tyrants.-All the three chief forms of government,
lMonatrc/y, ArZisfocracy, and Democraicy, were held in Greece
to be lawful; but there was another kind which was always
deemed unlawful. This was 7)jranny. It sometimes happened, especially in cities where the nobles and the people
were quarrelling as to whether the commonwealth should
be aristocratic or democratic, that some man would snatch
away the power fromn both and make himself Tyrant. That
is to say, he would, perhaps with the good will of part of the
people, seize the power, and much more than the power, ot
the old Kings. The word 7jyrant meant at first no more
than that a man had got the power of a King in a city where
there was no King by law. It did not necessarily mean that
he used his power badly or cruelly, though, as most of the
Tyrants did so, the word came to have a worse meaning than
it had at first. The time when most of the Tyrants reigned
in Greece was in the seventh and sixth centuries before
Christ; and the most famous of them were Peisistratos and
his sons, who ruled at Athens in the sixth century. In the
colonies, and especially in Sicily, Tyrants went on rising and
falling during almost the whole timie of Grecian history. But
in old Greece we do not hear much of them after the sons ot
Peisistratos were driven out, about the end of the sixth century,
till quite the later times of Grecian history, when Tyrants
again were common, but Tyrants of quite another kind.
Io. The Greek Religion.-The religion of the Greeks was
one of those forms of mythology which have been already
spoken of as growing up among most of the Aryan nations.
All the powers of nature and all the acts of man's life were
believed to be under the care of different dei.ties, of different
degrees of power. The head of all was Zeus the God of the




30     GAEt'JECE>  AND TIHE GRETEK COLONrIES. [cAigP.
sky, and he is described as reigning on Mloztuli O/lymos in
Thessaly, where the Gods were believed to dwell, with his
Council and his general Assembly, much like an early Greek
King on earth. The art and literature of the Greeks, and
indeed their government and their whole life, were closely
bound up with their religion. The poets had from the beginning many beautiful stories to tell about the Gods and about
the Heroes, who were mostly said to be children of the Gods.
And when the Greeks began to practise the arts, it was in
honour of the Gods and Heroes that the noblest buildings
and the most beautiful statues and pictures were made.
Ii. The Early History of Greece.-Of the earliest times
of Grecian history we have no accounts written down at the
time; we have to make out what we can from the traditions preserved by later writers, and from the notices of the
poets. For composition in verse always goes before composition in prose, and the earliest Greek writings that we
have are those of the poets. The poems which go by the
name of Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, give us a picture of
the state of things in the earliest days of Greece, and allusions
and expressions in them also help us to some particular facts.
But scholars no longer believe that the story of the war of
Troy is a true history, though the tale most likely arose out
of the settlements of the Greeks on the north-west coast ot
Asia.  These settlements were among the earliest of the
Greek colonies, the very earliest probably being the settlements in the southern islands of the AEgaean, which Homer
himself seems to speak of. These were so early that it is
vain to try to give them any exact date. Presently we get
giiimmerings, which seem to have been preserved partly by
poets and partly by tradition, of a great movement by which
the Dorians.r, a people of Northern Greece, came and conquered the Achaians in Pelofonne'sos and reigned in their
chief cities, Argos, Sparta, Corinth, and others. The other




t.]        EAA'RL Y HISTOR Y OF GREECE.              3r
chief division of the Greek nations was the lonzianls, whose
chief city was Athenis, and who are said to have planted many
colonies in Asia about the same time when the Dorians came
into Peloponnesos. And, when we get down to times to
which we can give something more like exact dates, we
have remains of several poets which sometimes help us
to particular facts. Thus we learn something of a war in
which Sparta conquered her neighbours of MlressezJe from
the poems of the minstrel Tyrtzios, who made songs to
encourage the Spartan warriors. This was in the seventh
century before Christ; and in the next century, Sol6z, the
famous lawgiver of Athlezs, made laws for his own city, and
first gave the mass of the people a share in the government,
which was the beginning of the famous'democracy. Sol6n
-was also a poet, and we have some remains of his verses,
which throw light on his political doings. So again, the
poems of Thieopnis of Jileg,ara throw some light on the disputes betwveen the nobles and the people in that city. But
from fragments like these we can get no connected history,
so that most of what we know of these days comes from
later writers, who did not live near the time, and whose
accounts therefore cannot be trusted in every detail. It is
only when we come to the Persianz Wars, in the beginning of
the fifth century before Christ, that we begin to have really
trustworthy accounts.  For those times we have the history of Zlero(otos, who, though he did not himself live at
the time, had seen and spoken with those who did. By this
time the chief cities of Greece had settled down into their
several forms of government, aristocratic or democratic.
And most of the colonies had been founded, especially those
in Itazy and Shaciy, which were at this time very flourishing,
though many of them were under Tyrants. Greece had now
pretty well put on the shape which she -wvas to wear during
the greatest times of her history, and she had now to bear




32    GREECE A(ND THE GREEAK COLOVIES. [CHAP.
the trial of a great foreign invasion and to come out all the
stronger for it.
12. The Persians.-The people of Persia, though they lived
far away from the shores of the Mediterranean, in the further
part of Asia beyond the great rivers Eutihrazes and Tzigris,
were much more nearly allied to the Greeks in blood and
speech than most of the nations which lay between them.
For they belonged to the Eastern branch of the Aryan family,
who had remained so long separate from their kinsfolk in
Europe, and who now met them as enemies. The Persians
first began to be of importance in the sixth century before
Christ, when, under their King Cyrus, they became a conquering people. He took Babylon, which at that time was
the great power of Asia, and also conquered the kingdom of
Lydiat in Asia Minor, a conquest which first brought the
Persians across the Greeks, first in Asia and then in Europe.
For the Greeks who were settled along the coast of Asia had
been just before conquered by Crtcsus, King of Lydia, the first
foreign prince who ever bore rule over any Greeks; and now,
as being part of the dominions of Crcesus, they were conquered again by Cyrus. The Greek cities of Asia, which had,
up to this time, been among the greatest cities of the Greek
name, now lost their freedom and much of their greatness.
And from this time various disputes arose between the Persian
Kings and the Greeks in Europe. The Athenians had now
driven out their Tyrants and had made their government
more democratic. They were therefore full of life and energy,
and they gave help to the Asiatic Greeks in an attempt to
throw off the Persian yoke. Then the Persian King Darius
wished to make the Athenians to take back Hifipias, the son
of Peisistratos, who had been their Tyrant. At last Darius
made up his mind to punish the Athenians and to bring the
other Greeks under his power; and thus the wars between
Greece and Persia began.




ii.]            THE PERSIAN  WrARS.                  33
13. The Persian Wars. —The first Persian expedition
against Greece was sent by Darius in the year 490 B.C. A
Persian fleet crossed the }Egaean, and landed an army in
Attica. But, far smaller as their numbers were, the Athenians, under their general AIiltiadis, utterly defeated the
invaders in the famous battle of I~aralthln. In this battle
the Athenians had no help except a small force from their
neighbours of Pla/aia, a small town on the Bceotian border,
which was in close alliance with them. This was the first of
all the victories of the West over the East, the first battle
which showed how skill and discipline can prevail over mere
numbers. As such, it is perhaps the most memorable battle in
the history of the world. Ten years later, in 480 B.C., a much
greater Persian expedition came under King Xerxes himself,
the son of Darius. He came by land, and all the native
kingdoms and Greek colonies on the north coast of the
Egaoean, and even a large part of Greece itself, submitted to
him. Some Greek cities indeed, especially Thebes, fought
for the Barbarians against their countrymen. But Athens,:St5arta, and several other Greek cities withstood the power
of Xerxes, and in the end drove his vast fleet and army
back again in utter defeat. In this year 480 were fought
the battle of Th/ermojzylai, where the Spartan King Leonidas
was killed, and the seafight of Salamis, won chiefly by the
Athenian fleet under Themisltokls. After this Xerxes went
back; but in the next year his general Mardonios was defeated
by the Spartans and other Greeks in the battle of PlaZaia,
and the same day the Persians were also defeated both by
land and sea at Myka/e, on the coast of Asia. These three
battles, Salamis, Plataia, and Myka/e, decided the war, and
the Persians never again dared to invade Greece itself. But
the war went on for several years longer before the Persians
were driven out of various posts which they held north of the
Egaean. Still they were at last wholly driven out of Europe,
1)




34    GRtEECE  IAND TILE GRleEEKC COLOI VIES. [CHAP.
and they were even obliged to withdraw for a time from the
Greek cities of Asia.
14. The Growth of Athens. — At thebeginningofthe Persian
Wars Sparta was gelerally looked up to as the chief state of
Greece; but, as Athens was much the stronger at sea, it was
soon found that sle was better able than Sparta to carry on
the war against the Persians, and to recover and protect the
isl:inds and cities on the coasts. Most of the cities therefore
joined in a League, of which Athens was the htcad, and which
was set in order by the Athenian Arzrteidres, surnamed the
ruist.  But after a time Athens, instead of being merely the
head, gradually became the mistress of these smaller states,
and most of them bec-.me her subjects, paying tribute to her.
Athens thus rose to a wonderful degree of power and splendour,
beyond that of any of the other cities of Greece. The chief
man at Athens at this time was Peri/les, the greatest statesman of Greece, perhaps of the world, under whose influence
the Athenian government became a still more perfect democracy. In his time Athens was adorned with the temples
and other public buildings which the world has admired
ever since. This was also the time of the great dramatic
poets, /Eschlyluzs, SoIhok/s, ]EZuripides, and AristoA/hwzes.
_.schylus had fought in all the great battles with the Persians.
Euripides and Aristophancs were younger men who lived on
through the next period. Oratory, which was so needful in a
democratic state, began to be cultivated as an art, and so
were the different forms of philosophy; in fact, there never
was a time when the human mind was brought so near to
its highest pitch as in these few years of the greatest power
a:nd splendour of Athens.
I5. The Peloponnesian VWar. —But the great power of
Athens raised the jealousy of many of the other Greek cities,
and at last a war broke out betvween A/t/zens and her allies
on the one side, and,SJb.u-a and her allies on the other.




rz]        5THE.EEL P OPOWVNESI4AN IWA.4R.           35
This war, which began in the year 431 B.C. and lasted for
twenty-nine years almost without stopping, was k.nown
as the Peit,olonesian ZWar, because it was waged by the
Athenians against Sparta and her allies, among Mwvhom
were the greater part of the cities of PC/elonoz'sos, besides
7'7Tebes and some other cities in other parts of Greece.
Of this war we know all the events in great detail, because
we have the history of it from writers who lived at the time.
The history of the greater part of the war was written by
7ThitcydlCZ1&s, who was not only living at the time, but himself
held a high command in the Athenian army. And the history
of the latter years of the war was written by XYenoj/z$lz, another
Athenian writer, who also lived at the time. This war might
be looked on as a war between onzians and Dorians, between
democracy and oligarch/y, Athens being the chief of the Ionian
and democratic states, and Sparta the chief of the Dorian
and aristocratic states.  But the two parties were never
exactly divided either according to descent or according to
forms of government. It is perhaps more important to remark that Sparta had many free and willing allies, while
Athens had but few, so that she had to fight mainly with
her own powers and those of the allies who were really her
subjects. During the first ten years of the war, down to the
year 42 I1, the two parties contended with nearly equal success,
thle Athenians being much the stronger by sea, and the
Spartans and their allies by land. A p: ace was then made,
but it was not very well kept; so that Thucydides says that
the years of peace ought to be reckoned as a part of the war.
Then, in 415, the Athenians sent a fleet to attack the city of
Syr-acuse in Sicily. The Syracusans got help from Sparta,
and so the war began again; but, after two years of fighting
and siege, the Athenians were altogether defeated before
Syiacuse. The allies of Athens now began to revolt, and
the war durinc the later years was carried  on almost
D2




36    GREECE AND THE GREEK' C'OLONIES  [CHAP.
wholly on the coasts of Asia. The Persians now began to
take a share in it, because they were eager to drive away
the Athenians from those coasts, and to get back the
Greek cities in Asia. But they did more in the way of
giving, and sometimes only promising, money to the Spartans
than by actually fighting. Several battles, chiefly by sea, were
fought in these wars with varying success; and it is wonderful to see how Athens regained her strength after her loss
before Syracuse. At last, in the year 405, the Athenians
were defeated by the Spartan admiral Lysandtros at Aigosiotnamos in the Hellespont.  Athens was now besieged, and
in the next year she had to surrender. She now lost all
her dominion and her great naval power, and was obliged to
become a member of the Spartan alliance. Her democratical government was also taken away, and an ohZarch/y of
thirty men was set up under the protection of Sparta. But in
the next year, 403, the oligarchy was put down, and Athens,
though she did not get back her power, at least got back
her freedom.
i6. The Dominion of Sparta.-At this time, at the end of
the fifth century before Christ, Spfitrla was more than ever
the greatest power of Greece. From this time Athens has
no longer any claim to be looked on as politically the first
power of Gieece. But she still remained one of the greatest
among the Grecian cities, and, as her political power grew
less, she became more and more the acknowledged chief in
all kinds of literature and philosophy. Her loss of anything like an equal power with Sparta led to great changes
in the course of the next century. New powers began to
come to the front. We shall, first of all, see the foremost
place in Greece held for a while by Thebes, the chief city of
Bceotia, which had always been reckoned one of the greater
cities of Greece, but which during the Peloponnesian war had
played only a s. couldary part as one of the allies of Sparta.




lI.]           SPARTA AND TIlEBES.                  37
Wre shall next see the power over all Greece fall into the
hands of a state which had hitherto not been reckoned to be
Greek at all, through the victories of the great Afacedonian
Kings, Philip and Alexander. But for a while the Spartans
had it all their own way. No state in Greece could stana
up against them; the government of most of the cities passed
into the hands of men who were ready to do whatever the
Spartans told them, and in many of them there even were
Spartan governors and garrisons. A few years after the end
of the Peloponnesian war, the Spartans made war upor'
Persia, and their King Arrgsilaos waged several successfu.
campaigns in Asia Minor. But by this time several of the
Greek cities had got jealous and weary of the Spartan
power, and the Persian King At;taxerixs, against whom the
Spartans were fighting, was naturally glad to help them
with both money and ships. So in the year 394 Agesilaos
had to come back to withstand a confederacy formed against
Sparta by Athens, Argos, Corbizth, and Thebes.  Several
battles were fought; and, though the Spartans commonly
had the victory, yet it was shown that the Theban soldiers
were able to do great things. In the former part of this
war the Persian King sent his great Phoenician fleet to help
the Athenians; but afterwards he was persuaded to change
sides, and in 387 a peace was made, called the Feace of
An/alkidas, by which the Greek cities of Asia were given up
to Persia, and those of Europe were declared to be every one
independent. But in truth the power of Sparta now became
greater than ever, and the Spartans domineered and interfered with the other cities even more than before. Among
other things, they treacherously seized the Kadimeia or citadel
of Thebes, and put a Spartan garrison in it.  They also put
down a confederacy which the people of Olyzthos were
making among the Greek cities on the coasts of Macedonia
and Thrace, and thus took a way what might have been a




38     GRELECE AzVD THIE GREEL.         COLOA\TiS. [ClHAP.
gr'eat check to the growing power of the Macedonian
Kinas.
I7. The Rise of Thebes. — It was now that the power of
Sparta was at its very highest that it was overthrown.  The
Thebrans, who had shown in the former war that they were
nearly as good soldiers as the Spartans themselves, now
rose against them. In 379 the Spartans were driven out
of Thebes; a democratical government was set up, and
Thebes, under two great citizens, RPe/lo'idas and Epamzeinzodars, became for a whllile the chief power of Greece.
The Spartans were defeated in 371, the first time they had
ever been defeated in a pitched battle, at Leuktra in Bceotia.
After this EpamneinOlndas invaded  Peloponnlsos several
times. He greatly weakened the power of Sparta by restoring the independence of Jlessenze, which the Spartans had
long ago conquered, and by persuading the Arknad-ia'ts to
join in a League and to found.ktegfalo folis or the Great City,
near the Spartan frontier. During the first part of this war
the Athenians took part with Thebes, and in the later part
with Sparta; and in the course of it they won back a great
deal of their power by sea, and again got many of the islands
and maritime cities to become their allies. At last, in 362,
Epamein6ndas was killed at lfant/inzeia in a battle against the
Spartans and Athenians, and after his death, as there was
no one left in Thebes fit to take his place, the power of the
city gradually died out.
I8. The Rise of Macedonia.-We have already seen that,
though the Macedonians were probably closely allied to the
Greeks, and though the bMacedonian Kings were acknowledged to be of Greek descent, yet,1macedonia had hitherto
not been reckoned as a Greek state. Its Kings had not
taken much share in Greek affairs, but several of them
had done much to strengthen their kingdoml against the
neighbouring Barbarians, and also to bring in Qreek arts




II. J          RISE OF AIA CACDONIA.                39
and civilization among their own people. Just at this time
there arose in Macedonia a King called PhziZij the son of
Amyntas, who did much greater things than any of the Kings
who had gone before him. His great object was, not exactly
to conquer Greece or make it part of his own kingdom, but
rather to get Macedonia acknowledged as a Greek state, and,
as such, to win for it the same kind of supremacy over the
other Greek states which had been held at different times byv
Mykene, Argos, Sparta, Athens, and Thebes. He artfully
contrived to mix himself up with Grecian affairs, and to
persuade many of the Grecian states to look upon him as
their deliverer, and as the champion of the god A20olldn. The
great temple of Del])hi had been plundered by the Pholkiazs,
and Philip put himself forward as the avenger of this crime,
and got himself acknowledged as a member of the Am /ziktioluic C'ounzcil, the great religious assembly of Greece, which
looked after the affairs of the Delphian Temple. This was
much the same as formally acknowledging Macedonia to be a
Greek state. Philip also conquered the Greek city of Olynithos
in the neighbourhood of his own kingdom, and made the
peninsula called Chalkidike, which runs out as it were with
three fingers into the /Egacan, part of Macedonia. This he
might perhaps not have been able to do, if the Spartans had
not already destroyed the great Greek alliance which the
Olynthians had begun to make in those parts. Philip was
several times at war with Athens, and it was during these
wars that the great orator Denzosthenezs made himself famous
by the speeches which he made to stir up his countrymen to
act vigorously. Philip's last war was against Athens and
Thebes together, and in 338 he gained a victory over them
at Chair-oz'eia in Bceotia, from which the overthrow of Grecian
freedom may be dated. After this, all the Greeks, except the
Spartans, were partly persuaded, partly compelled, to hold a
synod at Corinth, where Philip was elected captain-general of




40     GREECE AND TIE, GREEK COLONIES. rCIHAP.
all Greece, to make war on Persia and avenge the old invasions of Greece by Darius and Xerxes. But, while he was
making ready for a great expedition into Asia, he was murdered in the year 336 by one of his own subjects.
I9. Alexander the Great.-Philip was succeeded by his
son Alexander, known as Alexander the Great.  He was
presently acknowledged as the leader of Greece against the
Persians, as his father had been. Thebes however, where
Philip had put a Macedonian garrison, now revolted, but it
was taken and destroyed by Alexander. In the next year,
334, Alexander set out on his great expedition, and he never
returned to Macedonia and Greece. In the course of six
years he completely subdued the Persian Empire, fighting
three famous battles, at the river Granikos in Asia Minor in
334, at Issos, near the borders of Cilicia and Syria, in 333,
and at Arbela or Gauzgamnza in Assyria in 33I. In these last
two battles the Persian King Darius was present, and was
utterly defeated. Between the two last battles Alexander
besieged and took Tyre, and received the submission of
Egypt, where he founded the famous city which has ever
since borne his name, Alexandria. Soon after the battle of
Gaugamela Darius was murdered by some of his own officers,
and Alexander now looked upon himself as King of Persia.
He afterwards set out, half exploring, half conquering, as far
as the river Hyphasis in northern India, beyond which his
soldiers refused to follow him. At last he died at Babylon
in 323, having made greater conquests than were ever made
by any European prince before him or after him. And there
was no conqueror whose conquests were more important, and
in a certain sense more lasting; for, though his great empire
broke in pieces almost at once, yet the effects of his career
have remained to all time.
20. Effects of the Conquests of Alexander.-The conquests of Alexander, though they were won so quickly, and




II.]        CONQUESTS OF ALEXANDER.               41
though a large part of them were soon lost again, made a
great and lasting change throughout a large part of the world.
Both he and those who came after him were great builders of
cities in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and as far as their conquests reached. In each of these cities was placed a Greek or
Macedonian colony, and in the western part of Asia most of
these cities lived and flourished, and some of them, like Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria, soon took their place
among the greatest cities in the world. The Greek language
became the tongue of all government and literature throughout many countries where the people were not Greek by birth.
It was thus at the very moment that Greece began to lose
her political freedom that she made, as it were, an intellectual conquest of a large part of the world. And though, in
the cities and lands which in this way became partially
flellenized, there was neither the political freedom nor the
original genius of the great statesmen and writers of old
Greece, yet mere learning and science flourished as they had
never flourished before.  The Greek tongue became the
common speech of the civilized world, the speech which men
of different nations used in speaking to one another, much
as they use French now. The Greek colonies had done
much to spread the Greek language and manners over a
large part of the world. The Macedonian conquests now
did still more; but they did not, as the old colonies had done,
carry also Greek freedom with them.
2I. The Successors of Alexander.-The great empire of
Alexander did not hold together even in name for more than
a few years after his death. He left no one in the Macedonian royal family who was at all fit to take his place, and
his dominions were gradually divided among his generals,
who after a little while took the title of Kings. Thus arose
the kingdom of the Ptolemics in Egyflt, and that of the descendants of Selezlkos in the East, which gradually shrank




42    GREECE AND THE GREEK COLONIES. [CHAP.
up into the kingdom of Syria. In the countries beyond
the Tigris the Macedonian power gradually died out; but
various states arose in Asia Minor, which were not strictly
Greek, but which had a greater or less tinge of Greek cultivation. Such were the kingdom of Perganmos and the League
of the cities of Lykina. These arose in countries which had
been fully subdued by Alexander, and which won their
independence only because the descendants of Seleukos
could not keep their great dominions together. But Alexander's conquests had been made so fast that some parts
even of Western Asia were not fiilly subdued. Thus out of
the fragments of the Persian Empire several kingdoms arose,
like those of Pontos and Bit'zylzia, which were ruled by native
Kings, but which also affected something of Greek civilization.
And some real Greek states still contrived to keep their independence on or near the coast of Asia, as the city of Byzantiozn, the island of Rhodes, and the city of IHrakdeia, which
last was sometimes a commonwealth and sometimes under
tyrants. Of many of these states we shall hear again as they
came one by one under the power of Rome. But we are now
more concerned with what happened in Macedonia and in
Greece itself.
22. The later Macedonian Kings.-The death of Alexander
was followed by a time of great confusion i.n Macedonia and
Greece. Even while Alexander was away in Asia, the Spartans, under their king Afgis, had tried to throw off the Macedonian yoke, but in vain. After Alexander's death another
attempt was made by several of the Greek states, especially
the Athenians, who were again stirred up by Dcmosthenes,
and the AEtolians. These last were a people of western
Greece, the least civilized of all the Greek states, but which
now began to rise to great importance.  This was called
the Lamianz War. In the end the Athenians had to yield,
and they were obliged by the AM"acedonian general Ac4tiPatros




Ii.]       LA 77B'R MIA CEL) ONI.4 N  -INArGS.     43
to change their constitution, making it much less democratical
than before, and depriving many of tile citizens of their
votes. For many years there was the greatest confusion in
Macedonia and Greece and all the neighbouring countries.
And things were made worse by an attack from an enemy
with whom the Greeks had never before had anything to do.
Greece and Macedonia were invaded by the Gauls. By these
we need not understand people from Gaul itself, but some of
those Celtic tribes which were still in the east of Europe.
After doing much mischief in those parts, the Gauls crossed
over into Asia, and there founded a state of their own which
was called Galaz'ia, and, as they too began to learn something of Greek civilization, Gallo-grcecia. Meanwhile Kings
were being constantly set up and overthrown in Macedonia,
and each of them tried to get as much power and influence as he could in Greece itself. At this time too Epeiros, a country which hitherto had been of very little importance, became a powerful state under its King Pyrrhos,
who at one time obtained possession of Macedonia. He also
w-agcd wars in Italy and Sicily, which will be spoken of in
the next chapter, and he had a great deal to do with the
affairs of Peloponnesos, where he was at last killed in besieging Argos in 272. From this time things became rather
more settled; a second time of freedom, if not'of greatness, began in Greece, and a regular dynasty of Kings fixed
itself in Macedonia. The old royal family was quite extinct.
and the second set of Macedonian Kings were the descendants of,A4nzionos, one of the most famous of Alexander's
generals.  His son DemZ'trios, surnamed Polioyrke/s or the
Besieg-er, got possession of the crown of Macedonia in 294.
Both he and his son A4ntivonos Gonalas were driven out more
than once, but in the end Antigonos contrived to keep the
Macedonian crown, and to hand it on to his descendants, who
held it till the Macedonian kingdom was conquered by Rome.




44    GREECE AND TH1E GREEA' COLONIES. [CHAP.
23. The later History of Greece.-The last days of Grecian history, before the country came altogether under the
power of the Romans, are distinguished in several ways from
the times which went before them. The states which are
most important in these times are not the same as those
which were most important in the old days of the Persian
and Peloponnesian Wars. First of all we must remember
that Macedonia and EPeiros must now be reckoned as Greek
states, and that a large part of Greece, especially in the north,
was now always, till the Roman conquest of Macedonia, more
or less subject to the Macedonian Kings, or at least under
their influence. And, among the states of Greece itself, the
division of power was very different from what it had been
in earlier times. In the days which we have now come to
neither Athens nor Thebes was of very great account, and,
though Sparta was of great importance during part of the
time, yet its greatness was only, as we may say, by fits and
starts. We may say that the chief powers of Greece now
were Macedonia, Achaia, 2Etolia, and Shparta. Achaia and
AEtolia are states of which but little is heard in Grecian
history since the heroic times, and the strength which they
had now chiefly came from a cause which must be explained
a little more at length.
24. The Achaian and AEtolian Leagues.-What chiefly
distinguishes this part of Grecian history from earlier times
is that Nwe have now but little to do with single cities, but
with cities and tribes bound together so as to make states of
much greater size. With the exception of Sparta, the Greek
states which play the greatest part at this time were joined
together in Leagues, so as to form what is called a Federal
Government, such as there is now in Switzerland and in the
United States of America. That is to say, several cities
agreed together to give up part of the power which naturally
belonged to each city separately to an Assembly or Council or




vt[. L] IA TAR HIS TORY OF GRtEE CE.               45
body of magistrates, in which all had a. share. In a government of this kind the central powei commonly deals with
all matters which concern the League as a whole, while each
city still acts much as it pleases in its own internal affairs.
There had been several Leagues of this kind in Greece from
the beginning, but they were chiefly among the smaller and
less famous parts of the Greek nation, and they did not play
any great part in Grecian affairs. The only one which was
of much note in earlier times was the League of Baotlia, and
that could hardly be called a League with any truth, for
Thebes was so much stronger than the other Bceotian cities
as to be practically mistress of all of them. But now the
Federal states of Greece come to be of special importance,
because it was found that, as long as the cities stood one by
one, they had no chance of keeping their freedom against
the Macedonian Kings, and that their only chance of doing
so was by several cities acting together in matters of peace
and war as if they were one city. The greatest of these
Leagues was that of Achaia, which began with the ten
small Achaian cities on the south side of the Corinthian
Gulf. These cities had been joined together in a League
in early times, but in the times of the Macedonian power
they had gradually fallen asunder, and in the days of
Antigonos Gonatas several of them were in the hands of
Ty5rants, who reigned under Macedonian protection.  This
was the case with many other cities of Greece also, and it
was the great object of the League, as it grew and strengthened, to set free these cities and to join them on to its own
body.  It was about the year 280 that the old Achaian
towns began to draw together again, the chief leader in this
work being larkos of Keryneia. About thirty years after,
in 251, the League began to extend itself by admitting the
city of Sikyon as a member of its body. Sikyon had just
been set free by Aratos, who now became the leading man in




46     GREECE A.ND TILE GREEK COLONIES. [CHAP.
the League, and, under his administration and that of Phiofoimzei who followed him, the League took in one city after
another, Corinlthl, Alegfalobolis, Argos, and others, at first
only with their own good will, but afterwards sometimes
by force. At last all the cities of Peloponnesos and some
cities beyond the Isthmus became members of the League.
The.Etolian League on the other side of the Corinthian
Gulf did not bear so good a character as the Achaian,
though its form of government was much the same. For the.Etolians, though a brave people and always stout in defending their own freedom, were ruder and fiercer than most of
the Greeks, and were much given to plunder both by sea
and land. The:Etolian League thus greatly extended itself,
and became more powerful than that of Achaia, but its policy
was not so just and honourable as that of Achaia commonly
was.  There were also smaller Leagues in P/hokis and
Atkar-naia, besides the League of Epeiros, which was now
counted as a Greek land, and which had got rid of its Kings
and had changed itself into a Federal commonwealth. Thus,
except Sparta at one end and Macedonia at the other, by far
the greater part of Greece was parted out among the different Leagues.
25. The last Days of Independent Greece.-For a long
time the great object of the Achaians was to set free the
cities which were more or less under the Macedonian power.
But at last they became jealous of Sparta, which was again
becoming a great power, and in 227 a war broke out between
Sparta and the League. Sparta had now a great King called
(lZeonzenets, who had upset the old oligarchy and had greatly
increased the power both of the Kings and of the peQcple. By
so doing he put quite a new life into his country, and he
pressed the Achaians so hard that at last, in 223, they asked
help of Antfigonos Dosobn, King of Macedonia, which they only
got by giving up to him the citadel of Corinth. The Mace



nI.]          THE  A C       rLAZAT LEA G E.        47
donians and Achaians together defeated Kleomenes, and
Sparta's second time of greatness died with him. The
next King of Macedonia, P/i/l/p, kept on the alliance with
Achaia, and the Achaians and Macedonians fought together
in a war with E;tolia; but, though the League gained in
extent, it lost in real power and freedom by joining with a
prince who was strong enough to be its master. Peace was
made over all Greece in 216, but by this time the Romans
had begun to meddle in Greek affairs, and from hence tile
history of Greece and Macedonia chiefly consists of the steps
by which they were swallowed up in the Roman dominion.
This last stage of their history will therefore best be told in
our sketch of the history of Rome.
26. Summary.-The history of Greece which we have thus
run through, though it is the history only of a small part ofthe
world for a few hundred years, is worth fully as much study
as any later and wider part of history. It is, as it were, the
history of the world in a small space. There is no lesson to
be taught by history in general which is not taught by the
history of Greece. The Greeks too, we should never forget,
were the first people to show the world what real fre dom
and real civilization were. And they brought, not only politics,
but art and science and literature of every kind to a higher
pitch than any other people ever did without borrowing of
others. In all these ways Greece has influenced the world
for ever. Still the influence of Greece upon later history has
been to a great degree indirect. Greece influenced Rome,
and Rome influenced the world. But with the history of
Rome an unbroken chain of events begins which is going
en still. We will now try and trace it from the beginning.




CHAPTER III.
THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH.
4ncient extent of Italy (I)-Gauls, Venetians, and Ligeurians zithin
its modern boundary (I) —efect of the geography of the country on
its history (I) - inhabitaozt of Italy; the Etruscans and thi
Greek colonists (2) —two chief branches of the Italian race, Oscans
and.Latins (2, 3)-language, reli ion, anzdgovernnment; tendency
to the formation of Leaagnes (4) —origin of Rome; characteristics
of its histoly (5)-the Roman Ki'ngs (6)-dynasty and expulszon
of the Tarquinii (6) —the pozwers of the izings transfirred to the
Consuls (7)-disputes between Patricians and Plebeians (7)-Mwars
of Rome with her neighbours; taking of Veii (8)-taking of PRome
by the Gauls (8) —wars with the Santnites and Latins;;gradaal
conquest of Italy (9)-state of Italy under the Romans; distinction
of Romans, Latins, and Italians ( Io)-war with Pyrrhaos (I I)origin and hr losty of Carthage (I 2)-EFirst Punic [Var (I3) —cession
of S;icily; nature of the R'omtan Provinces (I4)-Second Punic
[Far; camtpairns of H7annibal and Scipio (I5) —Third Punic
WVar; destruLction of Carthage (I6)-first dealings of the Romnans
zwcith Greece ( I 7)-f irst Ifacedonian W[zr (I 7)-Second Alace(doian
[-Var; alliance of Rome wuith /Etolia and Achaia (i 8)-cam7,ai na
of Antiochos int Greece; Roman conquest of Etfolia (I9)- Third
AMacedonian [at-Vr; dismemberment of the Aiacedonian KinZg,/amlt
(20) —Fourth Alacedionian [Var; Miracedonia becomes a Provinzce
(21) —zwar -with Achnaia; dstrZuctio  of CorinZth (2 I)-the.Macedonian states in Asiaz; re'volt of the'Tarthians (22) —war wzitih
Antiochos; and extension of Roman ilfuentce in Asia (22)-forrmation of the Province of Asia (22)-conquest of Cisalpine Gaul (23)
-con     t of  (24)         abit of in (2)-inhabitants of 7ransalpine Gaul (25)affairs of MIassalia; formation ~of the Roman Province in Gaul




CHIAP. III.]    GEOGRAPHY OF I7AL Y.                        49
(25)- inzvasion of the Cimbri anzd Teu/ones; t: ir defeat by
/iarias (26)-Rome dotminant round the A/lditerrancan; her
relations zwit/z gypt (27)-internal disputes at! Rome; her relltioins
to her allies; murder of the Gracchi (27) —Zhe Social I4uro; final
conquest of the Samnites (28)-Civil War of Aalizus and Sulla;
Dictatorship of Sulla (28)-war with Mithiridates; camoaiguns oj
Sulla and Pomipeius (29)-Rotzan conquest of Sys-riar; dealinAgs with/
Parthia (3o) —disputes at Rome; rise of Ccesar (31) —Cesar's conguests in Gaul; his camnaigns in Geriany and Britali  (32)- -
Civil WIar of Ponipeius and CGesar; Dicaiorshiip anrd death oj
Ccesar (33)-Second Civil l War; Battles of'hilzippi and Aktion;
EgsPt becomnes a province (34) —/he yonuner Caesar becomes
Augustus; beginmniing of t/he RonanZ Eipire (35).
I. The Geography of Italy.-We now come to the history
of the second of the three great peninsulas, that of Italy.
Bult we must remember that in carly times the name of Italy
did not take in so large a country as we now understand by
that name, and that a great part of its inhabitants did not
belong to the race of whom  we shall have to speak of as
Ializans. The greater part of Northern Italy, all north of the
Po anl,1 a good deal to the south of it, was counted as part
of Gaul, and was inhabited by Celtic people akin to those on
the other side of the Alps.  Thus there was CisnaliPie Gaul,
Gaul on this sitle-that is the Italian side-of the Alps, as
well as Transaljsite Gaul, or Gaul beyond the Alps.  Aifilan,
Verona, Bologna, and other famous Italian cities thus stand
in what in early times was part of Gaul. And the country
in the extreme north-west was held by the Velzefians, a
people whose origin is not very clear. They gave their name
to the province of Venetia; but it must be remembered that
they had nothing to do with the city of Venice, which did not
begin till many ages later.  And the land bctween the Gulf
of Genoa and the Po was held by the Lzigurians, a people
who were most likely not Aryans at all, but a remnant of the
older inhabitants, like the Basques. And people akin. to the
E




50        THE ROMAN COMMONrVEAL~ TL              [CHAP.
Ligurians seem also to have held the islands of Sartlinia
and Corsicar, and part of Sicily. None of these lands were
counted as part of Italy in the earliest times, so that the
name of Italy belonged much more strictly to the peninsula
than it does now. The narme seems to have been first given
to quite the southern part only, and to have gradually spread
itself northwards.  The map will at once show that the
peninsula of Italy, though it is so long and narrow and has
so great an extent of sea-coast, is not so broken up by bays
and arms of the sea, nor has it so many islands round about
it, as the other peninsula of Greece. And though some parts
of Italy are mountainous, and though the great chain of the
A45elnines runs from one end of the peninsula to the other,
yet the whole land is not cut up into little valleys in the way
that the more part of Greece is. Two things came of this
difference between Greece and Italy.  First, the Italians
never became a seafaring people in the same degree that the
Greeks did, nor did they in the same way send out colonies
to all parts of the world that they knew. Secondly, in Italy
itself there never were so many great cities as there were in
Greece, and the small Italian towns were less jealous of their
separate independence, and more ready than the Greek cities
to join together in leagues.
2. The Inhabitants of Italy.-Setting aside those countries which were not then reckoned as part of Italy, we find
at the beginning of history three chief nations dwelling in the
peninsula.  The part of Italy between the 4Aruo and the
Tiber was called Eltruria, the land of the Rasena as they
called themselves, otherwise called Tyrrl-en~ianos, Tuscans, and
Etruscazs. The exact origin of the Etruscans is a great
puzzle, but most likely they were an Aryan people, though
their tongue was quite different from that of any of the
other nations of Italy. In early times they seem to have
spread over a much larger country both northwards and




II. ]        OTHE INHA7BI TAN7S OF ITAL Y.          51
southwards, but in trustworthy history they appear only in
the lands already spoken of on the western coast, where they
formed a confederation of twelve cities. They were great
builders and skilful in many of the arts, and they were held
to be specially wise in divination and all other matters
belonging to the worship of the Gods. The Etruscans, like
the Gauls and Ligurians, were settled in what we now call
Italy before authentic history begins. At the other end,
quite in the south, the Greeks planted many colonies, but
these belong to a later time, when we may say that trustworthy
history was beginning among the Greeks, though it had not
yet begun among the Italians. The map will show that this
part of Italy is much more like Greece, much more broken
up by bays and peninsulas, than the rest of Italy. The Greeks
were, as we have already seen, therefore able to found many
colonies here, some of which flourished so greatly in early
times that the country was known as Great Greece. But at the
time when history begins, all Italy in the older sense (that is,
not reckoning Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul), except Etruria,
was inhabited by people whom we may specially call Italials.
These, as we have already said, belonged to the same Aryan
swarm as the Greeks, and their common forefathers must
have stayed together after they had branched off from the
forefathers of the Celts, Teutons, and others. The greater
part of Italy was occupied by tribes sprung from this one
swarm, some of whom however were more closely allied to
the Greeks than others. But all may be looked on as coming
nearer to the Greeks than to any other branch of the Aryan
family. But, long before history begins, the Greeks and the
Italians had parted off into distinct nations, and the Italians
had also parted off into distinct nations among themselves.
3. The Latin and Oscan Races.-We thus see that, setting aside the Etruscans and the Greeks who settled in later
times, all the other nations of ancient Italy were allied to one
E 2




52        THE ROMAN COMMONV'EAL T.    [CHAP.
another, and all were more remotely allied to the Greeks. But
they had parted far more widely among themselves than the
different tribes of the Greek nation ever did. The Italian
nations fall naturally into two great classes, which we may
call roughly the Oscans, lying to the north-east, and the
Latinzs, lying to the south-west.  Of these the Latins were
those who were more closely allied to the Greeks.  The
Siculi or Sikels especially, in Southern Italy and in Sicily, to
which island they gave their name, and some other of the
tribes in the south, seem to have been as near to the Greeks,
and to have been as easily Hellenized, as their neighbours
in Epeiros and on the coast of Asia. The Oscan tribes,
Sabines, Umbrians, and others, were far more widely re
moved from the Greeks, and presently the Oscan races began
to press southward at the expense both of the Latins and of
the Greek colonies.  It was these Oscans of the south, the
Samnites, Lucanians, and others, whose incursions gradually
destroyed the greatness and freedom of the Greek colonies
in Italy.
4. Language, Religion, and Government.-Our knowledge of the ancient nations of Italy, besides the Romans, is
very scanty, but it would seem that the differences between
the Latin and Oscan races answered rather to the differences
between the Greeks and their most nearly allied neighbours
than to the differences of Dorians and Ionians among the
Greeks themselves. Still we cannot doubt that they always
had much in common in language, religion, and government. The old languages of Italy all gradually gave way
to the Latin, and we have only a few fragments remaining of
any of them. And of their religion, even of that of the Latins,
we know very little, because, when the Greeks and Romans
came to have dealings with one another, they began to call
each other's Gods by the names of those among their own
Gods which seemed most like them. Thus the Greek Zeus




IIn.]            ORIGIN OF ROMfE.                  53
and the Latin urbiter got confounded, and the other Gods in
the like sort. But one thing we can see, that none of the
Italian nations had so many stories to tell about their Gods
as the Greeks had. As for their government, we can see the
same elements as among the Greeks and other Aryans,-the
King or other chief, the nobles, and the ordinary freemen.
In fact, owing, as we have already said, to the nature of the
country, the common form of government in ancient Italy
was much the same as that common in the ruder parts of
Greece, several kindred districts or small towns joining
together in a League. Of these Leagues the most famous
in history was that of the Samznites, an inland people of the
Oscan stock, and that of the thirty cities of the Latins on
the west coast south of the Tiber.
5. The Origin of Rome.-But there was one Latin city
which was destined to be mighty and famous above all, and
to become the mistress of Latium, of Italy, and of the world.
This was the town of Rome on the Tiber. There were all
manner of traditions in ancient times, and all manner of
conjectures have been made by ingenious men in later days,
as to the origin of this greatest of all cities. Into these we
cannot go now. The story most generally believed by the
Romans themselves was that Rome was founded by Rozzmulus,
a son or descendant of lEeas (in Greek Aineias), one of the
Trojan heroes who was said to have escaped after the taking
of Troy, and to have taken refuge in Italy. But Romtlus or
]Romus is merely one of those names which were made up
because people fancied that every city and nation must have
taken its name from  some man.  The tales about the
foundation of Rome and about its early Kings are mere
legends which cannot be trusted. There can be little doubt
that Rome was at first a city of the Latins, founded on the
river Tiber as a Latin outpost to guard the march or border
against the Etruscans on the other side of the river. And




54        THE ROJMAN COMMONlYWEAL TH.    [CHAP.
there seems reason to believe that hard by th'e Latin town of
Rome was the Sabine town of Curizum, and that the two towns
made a league, and that their people gradually became two
tribes in one city, instead of two distinct cities. Even if this
tale should not be true, it is at least very well made up. For
it sets forth the way in which Rome became the greatest of
all cities, namely by constantly granting its citizenship both
to its allies and to its conquered enemies. Step by step, the
people of Latium, of Italy, and of the whole civilized world,
all became Rzomans. This is what really distinguishes the
Roman history fromn all other history, and it is what made the
power of Rome so great and lasting.
6. The Roman Kings. —There can be little doubt that
Rome, like the Greek cities, was at first governed by Kings,
who ruled by the help of a Senate and an Assembly of the
People. But the Roman Kings, unlike those in Greece, were
not hereditary, nor were they even chosen from any particular
family. It is said, and it is not at all unlikely, that the old
rule was to choose the King in turn firom the Romanzs of Rome
and from the Quzirizes of Curiumz. The legend givos us the
names of seven Kings, and it is most likely that the two or
three last names on the list are those of real persons. These
are the dynasty of the Tarquinii, about whom there have
been many opinions, but who most likely were Etruscans, and
who seem to have adorned Rome with buildings and works
of Etruscan art. At all events they greatly extended the
power of Rome, so that she became the greatest of all Latin
cities. The last King, Lucius Ytzrzuinius, called Sufzerbus or
the ProudR, is said to have acted as a cruel tyrant, and to
have had no regard for the laws of the Kings who had gone
before him. He was accordingly driven out with his family,
and the Romans determined to have no more Kings, and they
ever after hated the very name of King. This is said to have
happened B.c..5o, about the same time when the Tyrant




iI. ]           TILE ROMAN XINGS.                  55
Hippias son of Peisistratos was driven out of Athens. There
can be no doubt that the driving out of the Kings of Rome
is a real event, but, as we have no accounts of it written at
the time or for ages after, we cannot be certain as to the
details of the story or as to the exact time when it happened.
7. The Roman Commonwealth.-The Roman history is,
for want of contemporary accounts, very uncertain for a
long time after the driving out of the Kings. Much of
what commonly passes for Roman history is really made
up of legends, which are often most beautiful as legends,
but which still are not history. Much of it also comes
from what is worse than legends, namely, mere inventions in
honour of Rome or of some particular Roman family. We
must wait for two hundred years and more after the Kings
before we come to history of which we can fully trust the
details. Still we can make out something, both as to the
internal constitution of Rome and as to the steps by which
she made her way to the headship of Italy. The chief thing
to be remembered is that Rome was a city bearing rule over
other cities. The government of the Roman commonwealth
was the government of a city; and so it always remained,
even after Rome had come to be the head of Italy and even
of the world. When the Kings were driven out, the powers
which had belonged to the Kings were entrusted to two
magistrates, who were at first called Pretors and afterwards
Consuls, and who were chosen for one year only. The Senate
and the Assembly of the People went on much as they had
done under the Kings, but soon after the Kings were driven
out there began to be great dissensions within the Roman
Commonwealth. For there was a very old division of the
Roman people into Patricians and Plebeians or Commons, of
whom the Patricians for a long time kept all the chief powers
of the state in their own hands. Most likely the Patricians
were the descendants of the first citizens, and the Plebeians




56        7 t-< ROMAN'  COiMMONIVEA LTI.    [CHAP.
were the descendants of allies or subjects who had been afterwards admitted to the franchise. This division must have
begun in the time of the Kings, as it began to be of great
importance very soon after they were driven out. At first
the Consuls and other magistrates were chosen from among
the Patricians or old citizens only, though the Plebeians
voted in choosing them. There were long disputes between
the two orders, as the privileges of the Patricians were
felt to be very oppressive, and gradually the Plebeians
obtained the right to be chosen to the consulship and other
high  dignities.  The first plebeian Consul was Lucius
Sextius in B.C. 366, about the time when Epamein6ndas was
warring in Peloponnesos. After this the two orders were
gradually reconciled, and many of the greatest men in the
later history of Rome were Plebeians.
8. Wars of Rome with her Neighbours.-At the time
when the kingly government of Rome came to an end, she
was strong enough to make a treaty with Cartheage, in which
she contracts, not only on her own behalf, but also on that of
all the Latin cities of the coast as her subjects or dependent allies. But she seems to have lost a good deal of her
power after the Kings were driven out. Her chief enemies
were the Etruscans on the one side of her, and the
various Oscan nations, especially those called the zEquians
and VoIscians, on the other. With the Latin cities she was
for a long time in close alliance, Rome, as a single city, being
one party to the treaty, and the other Latin cities, as a
League, being the other party. About B.c. 396 Rome greatly
extended her power by the conquest of Ve'i, the nearest of
the great Etruscan cities. This was taken by Marcus Furius
Cantil/us, who was then Dictator; that is, he was invested for
six months only with greater powers than the Consuls themselves, as was often done in times of special danger and difficulty. But soon after this the Roman power received a great




iII.]        ITALIAN WARS OF ROME.                 57
check, for in B.C. 390 the Romans were defeated at the river
Allia by the Gauls, who, it will be remembered, held most of
the northern part of what is now called Italy. They were
now pressing southward, and invaded Etruria. The city of
Rome itself was taken, but the Gauls were soon either driven
out or paid to go away, and it is wonderful how soon Rome
got over this great blow. And from this time the Roman
history becomes somewhat more trustworthy, for we at all
events have the lists of the Consuls and other magistrates,
even though there is still much falsehood and exaggeration
in our accounts of their actions. The Romans had still to
withstand several invasions of the Gauls, and they had
many wars with their neighbours, in which, on the whole,
they went on increasing their territory, and ever and
anon admitting those whom they conquered to their own
citizenship.
9. The Roman Conquest of Italy.-At last, about B.C. 343,
there began a series of greater wars in Italy, in which the
Romans may truly be said to have been fighting for the dominion of the whole land. And in the space of about sixty
years they gradually won it. The Samnities, an Oscan nation,
were now the chief people in the South of Italy, a brave and
stout people, quite able to contend with the Romans on equal
terms. The first war with the Samnites did not last long,
and it was followed in 340 by a war between Rome and her
old allies the Latins. The Latins wished for a more complete union with Rome and for one of the Consuls to be
always a Latin; but to this the Romans would not agree.
The end of the war was that the Latin League was broken
up and he cities were merged in the Roman state one by
one.  Then, in 326, began a second Samnite War which
lasted eighteen years, and a third which lasted from 298 to
290. In these two latter wars the Samnites were helped by
the Etruscans and Gauls, but all were gradually subdued,




58        TIHE RO.I 0A;V COMITIO N AVEA 4T-.    [CHAP.
and by the year 282 Rome was pretty well mistress of all
Italy except some of the Greek cities in the South.
IO. The Italian States under Rome.-The condition of the
Italian states under the Roman dominion was very various,
but we may say that the free people of Italy now formed
three main classes, Romnans, Lalins, and Italians. Many of
the allied and conquered states were altogether merged in
Rome at a very early time, their people becoming Romans
and forming tribes in the Roman Assembly. Rome in the end
gradually admitted all the people of Italy to her own citizenship. But, till an Italian city which was subject to Rome
received the Roman citizenship, its people had no voice at all
in the general government, in choosing the magistrates, or in
matters of peace and war. And, after such a city received
the Roman' citizenship, the only way in which its citizens
could influence such matters was by themselves going to Rome
and giving their votes in the Roman Assembly. This should
be carefully borne in mind throughout, as it was the natural
consequence of the Roman government always being the
government of a city. Among the states whose people did
not at once become Romans, some had the Latinz franchise,
as it was called, the franchise which was at first given to the
cities of Latium and afterwards to others in different parts.
This did not give full Roman citizenship, but it made it much
easier to obtain it. Lastly, the Italianzs or Allies kept their
own independent constitutions in all internal matters, but
they had to follow the lead of Rome in all matters of peace
and war. Thus it was that the Roman dominion in Italy
was a dominion of a city over cities.
I I. The War with Pyrrhos.-We now come to the beginning
of the wars of Rome with the nations out of Italy, beginning
with one in which they had to fight for their newly won
dominion in Italy itself. Soon after the Roman power had
reached into Southern Italy, the people of the Greek city of




III.]          WAR WITH PYRRHOS.                    59
Taras or Tarcentzm contrived to offend the Romans, and they
then asked yrrhos, IKing of Epeiros, to come and help them
as the champion of a Greek city threatened by Barbarians.
Pyrrhos came over in 281, and the Romans had now to try
their strength against a way of fighting quite different from
their own, and that under the most famous warrior of the age.
Pyrrhos was joined by some of the lately conquered nations
in Southern Italy, who were glad of a chance of throwing off
the Roman yoke. He defeated the Romans in two battles,
but with so much loss on his own side that he was glad to
make a truce and to go over into Sicily, where some of the
Greek cities had asked him to help them against the Carthaginians. In 276 he came back to Italy, but in the next year
he was defeated at Bencvenzturz and left Italy altogether.
In the next few years the small part of Italy which still held
out against Rome was subdued.
12. Carthage.-Rome was now mistress of Italy, and she
soon began to be entangled in wars beyond its boundaries. The
greatest power besides Rome in the western Mediterranean
lands was the city of Carthage on the north coast of Africa.
This, as we have already said, was a Phaznician city, one of
the colonies of the older Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon.
Carthage, like Rome, was a city bearing rule over other cities;
for she had gained a certain headship over the other Phcenician
cities in Africa, much as Rome had over the Latin and other
cities in Italy. And besides the kindred Phoenician cities,
Carthage bore rule also over many of the native tribes
whom the Phoenician settlers found in Africa. And, unlike
Rome up to this time, she had, as trading cities and countries
always strive to have, large dominions beyond the sea. Carthage at this time bore rule over the islands of Sardinia and
Corsica, and she had also large possessions in Sicily. But in
Sicily a constant warfare was kept up between the Phoenician
and the Greek settlements, in which the Tyrants who at dif



60        THE R OMAN COfMMA ONWEA L TH.    [CHAP.
ferent times reigned in Syracuse specially distinguished themselves. Such were GehSn, who reigned at the time of the Persian War, Dionysios, who reigned at the time of the war between Sparta and Thebes, and Agalthok/es, who lived in the
time of Pyrrhos. As Tyrants in their own city, these men
did many evil things; still they deserve some honour as
champions of the Greek nation against the Phoenicians.
These wars also bring out another point of difference between
Carthage and Rome. For, while the Romans waged their wars
by the hands of their own citizens and allies, the wars of
Carthage were mainly carried on by barbarian mercenaries,
that is, soldiers serving simply for pay, whom they hired from
Gaul, Spain, Africa, anywhere in short. A state which does
this can never hold up for good against one which uses native
armies; and it is a sign of the great wealth and power of
Carthage, helped still more by a few very great men who
appeared among her citizens, that Carthage could hold up so
long as she did. Carthage had indeed one other great advantage, namely that, as a trading city, she was very strong by
sea, while the Romans had as yet had hardly anything to do
with naval affairs. Thus Carthage and Rome were the two
great states of the West, and it could hardly fail but that war
should spring up between them about something. And it
was the more likely, as the island of Sicily lay between them,
where the Carthaginians had large possessions, and where the
Greek cities were closely connected with the Greek subjects
of Rome in Southern Italy.
13. The First Punic War.-A cause of quarrel was soon
found in the disputes among the different towns in Sicily.
Rome, as the head of Italy, undertook to protect the Mlamerinnes, a body of Campanian mercenaries who had seized the
town of liessire on the strait. Their enemies were Hrieronz,'ing qof Syracuse-for those who were formerly called Tyrants
now called themselves lAingts-and Cartlhage. Thus arose the




irn.]           THE PUNIC WFA4RS.                 6i
first Punic War, so called from the Latin form of the name
Phamnician. This war went on between Carthage and Rome
for twenty-four years, beginning in B.C. 264, and Hieron had
soon to change the Carthaginian alliance for the Roman.
During so long a time the two great cities contended with
very varied success, the war being chiefly carried on in
and about Sicily, though at one time the Roman Consul
ilarcus Atilius Regulus, who is one of the most famous
heroes of Roman legend, carried the war into Africa. For a
long time the Carthaginians had greatly the advantage at
sea; but gradually the Romans came to be their match at
their own weapons, and at last a great naval victory was
won by the Consul Cains Lutatuzs Catulus, which made the
Carthaginians ask for peace. The First Punic War ended
in B.C. 241.
14. Beginning of the Roman Provinces.-This victory over
the Carthaginians was the beginning of a new state of things,
and gave Rome quite a new class of subjects. For, when
peace was made, Carthage had to give up her possessions
in Sicily, and the island, except the part which belonged
to Hieron, became a Roman 5irovince. This was the beginning of the Roman frovinccs, that is the dominions of
Rome out of Italy. Their condition was much worse than
that of the Italian allies, for the provinces were ruled by
Roman governors, and had to pay tribute to Rome. The
Provincials in fact were mere subjects, while the Italians,
though dependent allies, were still Allies. Though they were
bound to serve in the Roman armies and to follow Rome in
all matters of war and peace, they still kept their old constitutions and no Roman governors were sent to rule them.
15. The Second Punic or Hannibalian War.-Twentythree years passed between the end of the first Punic War
and the beginning of the second. But in the meanwhile
the Romans got possession rather unfairly, of the islands of




62        THfJE ROMAV COAIIOMOVWEAL TH         [CIIAP.
Sardinia and Corsica, which Carthage had kept by the peace.
On the other hand a Carthaginian dominion was growing up
in Spain under HanmilcarBarkas, one of the greatest men that
Carthage ever reared, his son-in-law Hasdrubal, and his son
Hannibal, the greatest man of all, and probably the greatest
general that the world ever saw. Another quarrel arose
between Carthage and Rome, when Hannibal took the Spanish
town of Saguntumn, which the Romans claimed as an ally.
War began in 2I, and Hannibal carried it on by invading
Italy by land. This was one of the most famous enterprises
in all history. Never was Rome so near destruction as in
the war with Hannibal. He crossed the Alps and defeated
the Romans in four battles, the greatest of which was that of
Cannce in B.C. 216.  Many of the Italian allies revolted
against Rome, and the war went on in Italy till B.C. 203. By
that time the Romans had taken Syracuse, which, after
Hier6n's death, had forsaken their alliance, so that all Sicily
was now a Roman province. They had also, while Hannibal
was in Italy, conquered the Carthaginian possessions in Spain.
Lastly, the Roman general who had been so successful in
Spain, Publius Cornelius Scipio, crossed over into Africa, so
that Hannibal had to leave Italy and go back to defend Carthage itself. He was defeated by Scipio in the battle of
Zamna in B.C. 202. Peace was now made, Carthage giving
up all her possessions out of Africa, and binding herself not
to make war without the consent of the Romans. That is
to say, Carthage now became a dependent ally of Rome.
The Semitic races could no longer dispute the dominion of
the Mediterranean lands with the Aryans.
I6. The Third Punic War.-The last war with Carthage
began about fifty years after the second. The Carthaginians
were always at variance with their neighbour /Alassinissa
King of NAun-idit, who had been an useful ally of Rome in
the former war. The Romans constantly favoured Massi



II. ]       CONQUEST OF CAR T~A CE.               63
nissa, and in B.C. 149 war broke out again between Rome
and Carthage. Three years later Carthage was taketi by the
younger Scipio, Publius Cornelius.S'cijbio Emzilianas; the
city was destroyed; part of its territory was given to Massinissa, and part became the Roman province of Afr-ica  This
is an example of the way in which Rome advanced step by
step. By the First Punic war Carthage lost territory, but it
remained quite independent. The Second made it a dependent
ally of Rome, but left it free in its internal government. The
T/zi;-d destroyed the city and made the counitry a province.
It is perhaps hardly needful to say that Africa, as the namne
of a Roman province, does not mean the whole continent,
but only the immediate territory of Carthage.
17. The First Macedonian War.-We see the same way
of advancing step by step in the next great corquest made
by Rome, which was going on at the same time as the Punic
Wars. This was the conquest of Macedonia v nd G-eece. Many
things were beginning to bring the Romans and the Greeks
together, and, when any people began to have anything to do
with Rome, however friendly their dealings might be at first,
it always ended in the other nation being sooner or later
swallowed up in the Roman dominion. The Romans already
had Greek subjects in Italy and Sicily.  They were now
beginning to know something of the language and literature
of Greece, and to imitate them in writings of their own. For
it is about this time that the Roman literature which we now
have begins. The Romans now began to have dealings with
the Greeks in Greece itself; but their first dealings were quite
friendly. A war broke out with Ilyria in B.C. 229, which ended
in the island of Klorkyra and the cities of A4poiiodia and
Epidanzmnos submitting to Rome.  These were Greek cities
on the Illyrian coast, and they welcomed the Romans as
deliverers. But Rome had now got possession on the Greek
side of the A/Egean, and the conquest of those lands had




64        THE ROMAN COI 1iMONWUEAL TH.    [CHAP.
really begun. In 215 Phi//i King of Macedonia made a
league with Hannibal, and in 213 the First MIacedonlian War
began, while the second Punic War was still going on.
In this war Philip was helped by the Leagues of Achaia,
Akarnania, and E.peiros, while Rome found allies in the
League of Altolia, in Altalos King of Pergainos in Asia,
and lNabis Tyrant of Snarla. Since the fall of Kleomen's
Sparta had been in a state of great confusion, and she had
had several wars with the Achaians, in which Phzilopoihnen,
the last great general of Greece, greatly distinguished himself. Peace was at last made in 205, and some changes of
frontier were made; but the chief result of the war was that
Rome had now begun steadily to interfere in Greek and
Macedonian affairs.
i8. The Second Macedonian War.-The first war with
Macedonia did not affect the position of that kingdom, or of
any other of the Greek states, as independent powers. The
S'econd. Macetoanian War, which began in B.C. 200, marks
another stage in the progress of conquest. The Romans
now stepped in to help the Athenians, who were their allies,
and who had been attacked by Philip. The Aitolians took the
Roman side from the beginning, and the Achaians joined
them in 198. In I97 the war was ended by the defeat of
Philip at Kynos/keihaiJ in Thessaly, and the next year, I96,
the Roman Consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus proclaimed
the liberty of all those parts of Greece which had been under
his power. Philip thus lost a large part of his territory, and
had to become a dependent ally of Rome. And from this
time we may count the Greek allies of Rome, though nominally free, as practically dependent.
19. The Conquest of lEtolia.-The Eltoiians now invited
the Seleukid King Antiochos the Great to cross over from
Asia and attack the Romans in Greece. He crossed over in
192, and several Greek states joined him, but the Achaians




IIT.]        THtE MAACEDON-IAN WARS.                65
held steadily to Rome. In I9I Antiochos was defeated at
ThermojSylai by the Consul M/[anius Acilius Glabro, and his
allies the AEtclians were presently, in I89, obliged to become
a Roman dependency, being the first within the borders of
Greece itself. Rome also took the islands of Zakyntlics ald
Kiep/hzalnia, and the Achaian League was extended over all
Peloponnesos. Rome was now really mistress of Greece, and
Grecian history from this time consists mainly of her dealings
with the states which had become practically her subjects.
20. The Third Macedonian War.-The ThirdA acedonian
War, waged with Perseus the son of Philip, began in 171.
Most of the Greek states were now on the Macedonian side,
as it had become plain that Rome was much more dangerous
than Macedonia. But the Achaians remained allies of Rome,
though they were from this time treated with great insolence.
The war ended with the victory of Lucius Emnzilius Paullus
at Pydna in i68. The Macedonian kingdom was now cut up
into four commonwealths, all dependencies of Rome. EfPeiros
was subdued and most of its cities destroyed.
2 1. Final Conquest of Macedonia and Greece.-TheFourth
IAfcedonian War happened at exactly the same time as the
Third Punic War, in I49. The Macedonians rose under one
A.ndriskos, who called himself Philip, and gave himself out as
the son of Perseus. He was successful for a time, but he
was overthrown in I48, and Macedonia, after so many stages,
at last became a Roman province. There were also many disputes between Rome and Achaia, which now grew into a Mwar,
and in I46 the Achaians were defeated by Lucius  inummius,
and Corinth was destroyed in the same year as Carthage. The
League awas dissolved for a while, and the Achaian cities
became formally dependent on Rome. But Athens and
several other Greek cities and islands still remained nominally independent. The history of these times was written
by Poiybios, a leading man in the Achaian League, but who,
F




66        THE R01f4,'V COI(M'OAN!V'EAL 7TI.       [CHAP.
being a prisoner at Rome, formed a close friendship with the
younger Scipio and other chief Romans.  He was thus able
to look with his own eyes at two different stages of the
world's history in a way that perhaps no one else ever could.
22. The Romans in Asia.-Malcedonia and Greece formed
easy stepping-stones for the Romans to meddle in the affairs
of Asia. By far the greatest of the Macedonian kingdoms
in Asia was that of the descendants of Selenkos, which for
a while took in all Alexander's conquests in Asia. But this
great dominion was cut short in the East about B.C. 256
by the revolt of the Parthians in Northern Persia. They
established a kingdom under the descendants of their first
leader Aszhk or Arsake's, which in after times was the chiet
rival of Rome. The eastern provinces of the Seleukid King s
thus fell away one by one, but at the time of the Second
Punic \Var they still reigned from the i/Egean to far beyond
the Tigris  But it must be remembered that there were
several states in WTestern Asia, both native and Macedonian,
like the kingdoms of Pergamnzos and B'itlhynia, which did not
form part of their dominion. All these states were more or
less tinged with Greek culture. We have already seen how
Antiochos, called the Great, had crossed over into Greece
and had been there defeated by the Romans. The Romans
of course then crossed into Asia, and Antiochos was defeated
by Luzcius Scifiio at A/agnesia in I89. Antiochos had now to
give up all his dominions west of Mount Tauros, and the
great dominion of the Seleukid Kings shrank up into a mere
Kingdom of Syria. But their capital Anztizoc orn the Orontes
still remained one of the chief seats of Greek culture, and one
of the greatest cities of the world. The Romans now became
really masters of all -Western Asia, though, after their manner,
they did not as yet formally take any part of the land to
themselves. What Antiochos gave up the)y divided among
their allies, giving the largest share to Eunmene's King of Per



III.]           CON,:QUESTS Is  ASIA.               67
gnamos. The kingdom of Eumenes thus became the greatest
state in Western Asia, and his capital, like Antioch, became
a great seat of Greek culture and learning. And a little later
the cities of Lykia joined together in a free and most wisely
managed Confederation, much after the pattern of the Achaian
League. But from this time Pergamos, Lykia, and all these
Macedonian or Hellenized states looked up to Rome, just as
the Greeks in Greece itself had already learned to do. At last
in I 33 A/ta/os, the last King of Pergamos, left his dominions
to the Roman People, and the greater part of them were
made into a Roman province, by the name of the Province oJ
Asia, the first province that Rome held beyond the 2Agaean.
23. The Romans in Western Europe. Conquest of Cisalpine Gaul.-In all these wars with Carthage, Macedonia,
and Syria Rome had to struggle with enemies who met her
on something like equal terms. All were civilized states, and
the Macedonian Kings, both in Macedonia and in Asia, had
kept up the military discipline of Philip and Alexander.
We must now see how Rome dealt with the people of the
HWest, the forefathers of some of the chief nations of modern
Europe, but who then were only brave barbarians. Her first
conquest among these was naturally that of those lands within
the Alps which are now reckoned part of Italy, but which
were then known as Cisaihzine Gaul. The Gauls, it will be
remembered, had once taken Rome itself, and they had shown
themselves dangerous enemies to Rome by helping the Samnites and Etruscans against her. It was no wonder then
that the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul began almost as soon as
the conquest of Italy was over. The lands south of the Po
were won before the First Punic War, and in the time between
the First and the Second Punic Wars the conquest went on,
and several colonies were planted beyond the Po. The Gauils
greatly helped Hannibal in his invasion of Italy, but tthey
presently paid dearly for so doing. For, as soon as the
F2




68        THEZS ROMAN COMMYONWVEA TL Fi        [CHAP.
Second Punic War was over, the conquest of Cisalpine Gaul
went on, and was ended by about I9I. The land was now full
of Roman and Latin colonies, and it soon became a Roman
land and began to be reckoned part of Italy. Liguria and
Venetia were conquered soon afterwards, so that the Roman
power took in all within the Alps, all that we now call Italy.
24. The Conquest of Spain.-Meanwhile the third and
most western of the three great peninsulas, that of Sain, was
being added, like Greece and the neighbouring countries, to
the Roman dominion. Spain was the only one of the great
countries of Europe where the mass of the people were not
of the Aryan stock. The greater part of the land was still
held by the Iberians, as a small part is even now by their
descendants the Basques. But in the central part of the
peninsula Celtic tribes had pressed in, and we have seen
that there were some Phacnzcian colonies in the south and
some Greek colonies on the east coast. In the time between
the First and Second Punic Wars Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and
Hannibal had won all Spain as far as the Ebro for Car/hafge.
But during the Second Punic War, between the years 211
and 206, the Carthaginian territories in Spain were all won
for Rome by the Scipios. Rome thus became the chief power
in Spain, even before the Second Punic War was over, and
before she had conquered all Cisalpine Gaul. But Spain has
always been a hard country to conquer, and the Romans
had constant wars with the native tribes. Still we may look
on the Roman dominion in Spain as finally established in
B.C. 133, when the younger Scipio took NAtnzattia. This, it
will be remembered, was in the same year as the bequest
of Attalos which gave Rome her first Asiatic possession, and
Numantia was taken by the same general who had taken
Carthage. From this time all S, ain was a Roman province,
except sorre of the mountainous parts in the north, where
native tribes still remained free.




InI.]    COATQULESTS IN SPAIN AND GA L-'.           69
25. Beginning of the Conquest of Transalpine Gaul.The conquests of Rome in Transarlpine Gaul, Gaul beyond
the Alps, began a little later. Gaul in the geographical
sense, the land between the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees,
and the Ocean, was then, as now, peopled by different races,
speaking different languages. In the south the old non-Aryan
inhabitants still held their ground. The districts near the
Alps were chiefly held by Lzigurians, while AgIuitainc, a name
which then meant the land between the Pyrenees and the
Garonne, was Iberian. In the centre the Aryan Celts had
settled, but the next wave, the Teutons, were most likely
already pressing upon them, though when our kinsfolk first
crossed the Rhine it would be hard to say. The Mediterranean coast of Gaul was fringed by that group of Greek
cities of which Massalia was the head. Massalia was a great
trading city, and it became an ally, at first a really equal
and independent ally, of Rome. This was in 218, at the
beginning of the Second Punic War. The Romans had once
or twice to cross the Alps to defend their Greek allies, and
at last, in 125, a Roman province was formed in Transalpine
Gaul, in the land which has ever since kept the name of Provence. At the same time the colony of Aque a Sextia, now
Aix, was founded. As usual, the Roman dominions advanced,
and twenty years later the Roman province reached as far as
Geneva to the north and Tolosa or Toulouse to the west.
26. The Cimbri and Teutones.-It is not unlikely that the
Romans would now have gone on and conquered the whole
of Gaul, if an event had not happened which put a stop for
some time to their further progress in those parts. For about
this time Gaul was invaded by a vast host of barbarians called
Cimbri and 7Tutones, who came from the North, but about
whom there has been much doubt whether they really were
of Celtic or of what we call Teutonic race. They defeated
several Roman commanders in Gaul, but in Io02 the Teutones




70        THE ROMAAN COALMMONWEA4 L TIL.     [CHAP.
were utterly defeated by the Consul Caius Marius near
Aque Setfli&e, and in the next year the war was finished by
the two Consuls Marius and Quinlus Lutatius Catuizis overthrowing the Cimbri also at Vercelice in Cisalpine Gaul. This
was the same sort of danger from which Rome had been saved
long before by Camillus, the danger of being overthrown, not
by the chief of a civilized people like Pyrrhos or Hannibal, but
by a people who were still altogether barbarous. If any
men of our own race had a hand in this invasion, it gives it a
special interest for us; but, at all events, as saving Rome
from this great danger, the defeat of the invaders was
one of the greatest events in Roman history, and Caius
Marius is one of Rome's most famous men. But, fully to
understand the condition of Rome, and especially to understand the position of Marius, we must look back a little at the
state of things in Italy while these great conquests were going
on abroad. It will however be better to keep the details ot
the internal affairs of Rome, as far as may be, for the special
History of Rome, and to speak chiefly of those things which
concern the relations of Rome to her allies and subjects.
27. Rome and her Allies.-We have thus seen that, in
the space of about two hundred years, from the beginning of
the Samnite Wars to the conquest of Numantia and the
inheritance of the Province of Asia, Rome had come to be
the mistress of all the lands round the Mediterranean Sea.
The whole was not as yet fully annexed and made into
provinces, but no power was left which had the least chance
of holding out against Rome. The only great power with
which Rome had had no war was se kingdom of Egyft.
There the descendants of the first Ptoleiny, all of whom
bore his name, still reigned, and Egypt was the richest
and most flourishing of the Macedonian kingdoms, and its
capital Alexandria was the greatest seat of Greek learning
and science. But when the Romans began to be powerful in




II[.]        ROSME AND HER ALLIES.                  71
Asia, even the Ptolemies, who often had wars with the Seleukids, began to look to Rome as a protector. It was this
vast dominion, while it made Rome so great in the face of
other nations, which led to the corruption of her constitution
within, and at last to the utter loss of her freedom. The
form of government which had done so well for a single city
with a small territory did not do at all for the government
of so large a portion of the world. Throughout the Roman
dominions the Roman People was sovereign; the Assembly of
the People made laws and chose magistrates for Rome itself,
and sent out generals and governors to conquer and rule
in the subject lands. The firovincials, and even the allies,
had no voice in settling the affairs of the vast dominion of
which they had become a part, and they were often greatly
oppressed by the Roman officers.  Meanwhile in Rome
itself the great offices had been gradually thrown open to the
Pltebeians as well as the Patricians, and hardly any legal
distinction was left between the two orders. The constitution
was therefore really demzocratic; for the sovereign power lay
in the Assembly of the whole People, which made the laws
and chose the magistrates. And in choosing the magistrates
they also indirectly chose the Senate, as it was mainly made
up of men who had held the different magistracies. Still
the constitution had a great tendency to become practically
aristocratic. For the men who had held great offices, whether
patricians or plebeians, began to form a class by themselves,
and their descendants, who were now called nobles, began
to think that they only had a right to hold the offices which
their forefathers had held. Then again the old citizens of
Rome were largely cut off in the endless wars, and manyfreedmen-that is, men who had been slaves-and strangers got
the citizenship, so that the character of the Roman People
was greatly lowered. And, as every citizen who wished to
vote had to come to Rome in his own person, the Roman




72        THIE ROMIAN COMMONWEALTI.   [CIIAP.
Assembly had become far too large, and gradually turned
into a mere mob. Then again many citizens were wretchedly
poor, while rich men had made themselves great estates out
of the land which rightly telonged to the commonwealth.
Thus, instead of the old political strife between fiatricians
and plebeianzs, there had come, what was a great deal worse,
a social strife between the rich and the poor. While Rome
had still powerful enemies to strive against, these evils did
not make themselves so much felt; but, when Rome had
nothing more to fear, they began to be very glaring, and men
had to seek for remedies for them. And, along with all this,
the Italian states, which had not been raised to Roman
citizenship but which had borne a great part in the wars of
Rome, now demanded to be made Romans. The cause of
the poor against the rich was taken up by Tiberizis Semnfi5onius Gracchus, in the year 133; and the cause both of the
poor and of the allies was taken up by his brother Caiius in
i23. But both of them were murdered by the oligarchs, who
wished to keep all power and wealth in their own hands.
28. The Social War.-After the death of the Gracchi the
ill will between the nobles and the people, and the further ill
will between the Romans and the Italians, still went on.
The next great leader of the popular party was Caitus IMarius,
of whom we have already heard as the conqueror of the
Teutones. He was not of any high family, but was born at
Arpinum, an old town of the Volscians, whose people did
not obtain the full Roman citizenship till I88. His sympathies therefore lay with the people against the oligarchs, and
still more with the Italians against either the nobles or the
mob of Rome. He was an excellent soldier, and first began
to distinguish himself in the war with 7iugurtha, who had
usurped the kingdom of NWzumzidia, whose King Massinissa
had been so useful to Rome in the Punic War. This war
began in I I, and in io6 Ilarius brought the war to an end




IlI.]           -~2HE SOCIAL [VAR.                 73
and led Jugurtha in triumph. Very soon after came the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones and Marius' great success
against them. He was now the chief man in Rome and
the leader of the popular party. But the complaints of the
Italians still went on, and in the year go most of them rose
in arms. This was called the Social MWar, that is the war
with the Socii or Allies of Rome. It was ended in the
course of the next year by all the allies, except the Samnites
and Lucanians in the south of Italy, submitting and being
made Roman citizens. The Samnites, whom it had cost
Rome so much trouble to conquer two hundred years before,
still held out. Marius held a command in this war, and so
did Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who had been his lieutenant in
the war with Jugurtha; but Marius did little or nothing, and
went far to lose his old credit, while Sulla showed himself
the rising man of Rome. Presently a Civil War, the first
in Roman history, broke out between Marius and Sulla, in
which the Social War, which had never quite come to an
end, merged itself. At one stage of this war Sertorius, a
Roinan general on the Marian side, held 5S)ain almost as a
separate power, having a Senate of his own, which he said
was the real Roman Senate. In 83 Sulla came back from
his wars in the East, of which we shall speak directly, and
the Samnites, who had never laid down their arms, joined
with the Marian party, and began openly to declare that
Rome must be destroyed. Rome had never been in such
danger since quite the old times, and there can be no doubt
that Sulla, who now saved Rome and crushed the Samnites
and the Marian party, fixed the future history of the world
far more than Caesar or anyone else who came after him.
Sulla now took to himself the supreme power at Rome, with
the title of Perijetual DiL tator. But, when he had quite
rooted out the Marian party, and had passed a series of laws
to confirm the dominion of the aristocracy, he gave up his




74        TILE ROM0tAN COl.MONW~EALTH.    [CHAP.
power, and lived as a private man till he died soon after.
Rome had now passed through her last trial within her own
peninsula. The Samnites, who had withstood to the last,
had been utterly cut off, and the other Italians had become
Romans.
29. The Mithridatic War.-While Rome went through this
great trial at home, she had to undergo another almost as
great abroad. She had to wage a war greater than any that
she had waged since the conquest of Carthage and Macedonia. One of those states in Asia Minor which had arisen, as
was before mentioned, out of the ruins of the old Persian Empire, was Pontos, the Kingdom of the Euxine Sea-Pontos in
Greek meaning the Sea, and specially the Euxine Sea. Its
Kings were of native blood, but, like all their neighbours,
they made a certain pretence to Greek culture, and the
acquisition of the province of Asia by the Romans made
them neighbours of Rome. Pontos was now ruled by
li/thrida/es the Sixth or the Great. A war with him broke
out while the Social War was going on in Italy, and Mithridates succeeded in winning all Asia. He then ordered
all the Romans and Italians who were settled in Asia to be
massacred in one day, which the people everywhere did very
willingly-they had made themselves so hateful. Then his
generals, like Antiochos, crossed over into Greece, where
many of the Greeks took his side. Sulla then, in 87, came
into Greece, stormed Athens, won two great battles at Chairdneia and Orchzonzenos in Boeotia, and then, being called
home by the news of the successes of Marius, patched up
a peace by which Mithridates gave up all his conquests.
Such a peace was not likely to last, and, as soon as he
had a good opportunity, Mithridates began the war again.
This was in 74, and the second war between him and
the Romans, first under Lucius Licinius Lucullus and then
under Cnczus Pomnpeius, called MAagnus or the Great, lasted




ITI.]   iI/TIHRIDA TIC AND SYRIAN  WARS.            75
ten years. It ended in the overthrow of the Pontic kingdom,
which was split up in the usual way, and in the complete
re-establishment of the Roman power in Asia.
3o. The Conquest of Syria.-In the history of Rome one
conquest always led to another, and, after the overthrow of
Mithridates, the Roman arms were carried by Pompeius
much further towards the East than they had ever gone before.
tiigratzes, King of Armenia, who had helped Mithridates, was
utterly humbled; Syria, the remains of the great Seleukid
kingdom, was partly made a Roman province, partly divided
among dependent princes.  Pompeius also took Jerusalenz
in the year 63, and Palestine was henceforth under the Roman
power, though it was often held by vassal Kings, like the
Herods in the New Testament.  The Roman power now
reached from the Oceanz to the Eu_/irates, and the Roman
Commonwealth may now be looked on as having taken the
place of Alexander and his successors in Asia, as the champions of the WVest against the East. But each increase of
dominion laid it open to fresh enemies. The Part/lian Kings
became formidable enemies, and indeed rivals, of Rome.
We shall hear a great deal of the wars and other dealings
between Rome and Parthia. But the first attempt of the
Romans against Parthia, which was made by Mlarcus Licinius Crasstus in the year 54, was utterly unsuccessful. Crassus
was defeated and killed, and the more part of his army were
made prisoners.
3I. State of Things at Rome.-Meanwhile it was being
shown more and more how unfit the government of the
single city of Rome was to rule all Italy and the world. New
discontents arose out of the admission of the Italians to
the Roman citizenship, and the commonwealth was torn in
pieces by the (-isputes of the leading men. We now come
to the famous men of the last days of the Commonwealth,
-Pomiseiuts and C'assus, of whom we have already heard,




76        THE ROMAMV COMMfONWEALTH              [CHAP.'IVarcus Tullius Cicero the great orator, Marcuzs Porcius
Cato, and the most famous of all, Caius 7ulzius Casar. We
shall say more of their doings at home in our special History
of Rome. It may here be enough to say that, as far as
natural gifts went, Caesar was perhaps the greatest man that
ever lived, being great in all ways, equally as soldier, statesman, and scholar. He was of an old patrician house, but he
was connected with the family of Marius, and he took up
the cause of the people not honestly, like the Gracchi, but
to serve his own ends. The whole commonwealth was now
utterly corrupt; still Pompeius and Cicero, though there were
plenty of faults on their side, did strive to defend the law
and constitution such as it was, while the Roman people had
sunk into a mere mob, which men like Caesar could use as
they chose.
32. Casar's Conquests in Gaul.-In the year 59 Caesar was
Consul, and in the next year he went into Gaul, which had
been given him as his province, and where he spent about
seven years in conquering the whole of the country. Instead
of a small part of southern Gaul, the Roman dominion now
reached to the Rhine and the British Channel. In this war
the Romans first begat to have to do with people of our own
race and with the land in which we now live. Our own
people, the English, were still in their old land by the Elbe,
and CaEsar never came near them. But there were several
Teutonic tribes:n north-eastern Gaul, and in the year 55
C(+sar crossed into Germany itself, but he did not conquer
any part of the land. In the same year 55, and again in 54,
he crossrd over into Britain, but he made no lasting conquest
and left no Roman troops behind him. Britain was then
inhabited by a Celtic people, the Britons, who gave their
name to the island, and whom our forefathers, when they
came into Britain long after, called the WIelsh or strangzers.
Both the German and the British expeditions were made




III.]         CONAQUESTS OF C~ESAR.                77
rather to show the power of Rome than to make conquests
which it would have been hard to keep. The Rhine thus
became the boundary of the Roman province of Gaul; that
is to say, the Germans on the left bank of the Rhine became
subjects of Rome, along with the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants of Gaul, while the Germans on the right bank remained
free.' This conquest of Gaul by Caesar is one of the most
important events in the history of the world. It is in some
sort the beginning of modern history, as it brought the old
world of Southern Europe, of which Rome was the head,
into contact with the lands and nations which were to play
the greatest part in later times, with Gaul, Germany, and
Britain.
33. The Civil War of Pompeius and Caesar. —Cesar had
been all this time winning fame and power in Gaul, in order
to make himself master of his country. Things got into
great confusion while he was away, which was just what he
wanted. At last, in the year 49, Caesar openly rebelled, and
another Civil Wtar now began, Pompeius commanding the
armies which were faithful to the Commonwealth. But now
that the Roman dominion took in so large a part of the
world, a civil war between Romans was not necessarily
fought in Italy. The power of Pompeius lay chiefly in the
lands east of the Hadriatic; so, while he was gathering his
forces there, Caesar marched to Rome and got the People to
make him first Dictator and then Consul for the year 48.
Then he crossed over to Epeiros, and presently defeated the
army of l'ompeius and the Senate at I>harsalos in Thessaly.
Pompeius was presently murdered in Egypt, and in about
three years' time CQesar was able to overcome all who withstood him in Africa, Sptain, and elsewhere. The battle of
Pharsalos is one of the most important battles in history, as
it really ended the Roman Commnonwzealthz, and began the.
Roman Efmpire, which we may almost say has gone on ever




78        THE  0OA3.4N COMMlONWEAL TIA.    [CHAP.
since. The forms of the Commonwealth lasted long after,
but from this time the Romlan world always had a master.
Caesar was now master of the Roman dominions, and was
made Dictator for life. He was also called Inpcralor (the
word which is cut short into Emnperor), a tidle which in
some sort belonged to every Roman general, but which
Caesar was allowed to use in a special way. But he was not
satisfied with being Dictator and iDnfierafor; he wished to be
KIinza and to wear a diadem. This was more than men could
bear; so many of the senators, among whom the chief were
Cozis Cassius and  la'rczLs 7iznizus Brutus, conspired and
slew him in the senate-house (March I5th, B.C. 44). Caesar
was a Tyrant; he had overthrown the fi-eedom of his country
and had seized a power beyond the laws. But it should
not be forgotten that for the provinces it was a distinct gain
to get one master instead of many. The real lesson to be
learned from the overthrow of the Roman Commonwealth is
that states which boast themselves of their own freedom
should not hold other states in bondage.
34. The Second Civil War.-After the death of CcTsar
followed a time of great confusion, lasting for thirteen
years. Brutus and Cassius, who had killed Caesar, stood
up for the Commonwealth, and there was a war between
them  and AJlarcus Anltolnius, one of Caesar's officers, and
Cesar's great-nephew, Ca/izs Octavius. Caesar had adopted
Octavius as his son; so his name became Caius 7zdi/s
Ccasar Octavianus. These two, along with Ml/arcus Attziiiuis Lefidus, formed what was called a Triumvirate for
settling  the affairs of the Commonwealth.  Meanwhile
13rutus and Cassius, like Pompeius, had gone to the East,
and in 42 was fought the battle of Phihzfii in Macedonia
between themn and the Triumvirs, in which the hopes of
the party of the Commonwealth were crushed.  Presently
Antonius professed to make war upon the Parthians, but




:'I1.]       BEGINVAir G OF THE EXLPIRE.           79
he did nothing great, for he was utterly bewitched by
Kicopatra, Queen of Egypt, the last of the dynasty of the
Ptolemies. Wlar presently followed between Caesar and
Antonius, and Antonius and Kleopatra were altogether defeated in a sea-fight at AXtion, near Ambrakia, on the west
coast of Greece (31). Antonius and Kleopatra presently
killed themselves, and Egypt became a Roman province.
All the lands round the Mediterranean had now come under
the Roman dominion, though here and there there were principalities and commonwealths which had not been formally
made into provinces.
35. The Beginning of the Empire.-There was now no
one left to withstand Caesar, and the Senate and People gradually voted him one honour and office after another, which
made him practically master of the state, though the outward
forms of the Commonwealth went on as before. But he was
never called Kinzg, or even Dictlaor, like his uncle, for that
title had become almost as hateful as that of King. But the
new title of Au zigstus was voted to him, and all who succeeded
him in his power called themselves Cewsar and A4uguszus.
But he is specially known as Anufustus Cesar. This is the
beginning of the Roman Enmpire, for, of the various titles
borne by Augustus and his successors, that of Emnperor
(Inmqertalor) or chief of the army was the one which prevailed in the end. The rest of' the history of Europe is the
history of the Roman Empire in one shape or another, and
we shall see that the title of Roman Emperor went on almost
to our own times. The first Emperor then was Caius 7zulius
Cwsar Octavianulitzs, and we may count the Empire as beginning
in B.c. 27, when he received the title of Azugusltus. The last
Emperor was Francis, King of Germnzay, who gave up the
Empire in A.D. I8o6. The differences between the early and
the later Emperors we shall see as we go on, but there was a
continuous succession between them without any break.




CHAPTER IV.
THE HEATHEN EMPIRE.
Extent of the Romian Empire; distinction of the Lnatin, Greek, and
Oriental Provinces (I) -nature of the Rominz  dominion; all the
inhabitants of the Emtsire gradually become Romans (2)-reign of
Augustus; stealthy iztrodiu-ction qf AMonarchy (3).-wars with the
Germans; zoictorly of Arm.zinius (3) — Roman Literature and Art
(4) -the Claudian Emperors; conquest of Britain; the Empire
passes f-o  fthe Ceesarian fitnnily (5)-the Flavian E]mperors;
wars wzith the _c7s, Batavians, and Dacians (6)-the Good
Entper'ors; origin of the Roman Law (7)-Empferors chosen by
the arntv; distinction of Romans and Barbarians; the Illyrian
Emzperors (8)-the Tyrants (9)-restoration of the KAingdom of
P[rsia; wars betwveen Persia and Rome (Io)-wars with the
Teutonic nations; first appearance of the Goths (IO)-origin of
Christianity; its advance and pe-secutions (II)-re(fnz of. Diocletian; his division of the Emfpire (12)-last persecution of the
Christitans; Conslantine embraces Christianity (x 2)-Summaiy
(I3).
I. Extent of the Roman Empire.-At the time when the
government of Rome was practically changed from a
commonwealth  to  a monarchy, the Roman  power had
spread over all the lands which could be looked on as
forming  the civilized  world.   These lands fall naturally
under three heads, the distinction between which will be
found to be of great importance as we go on.  In the
Western provinces, as Gaul and Spain, to Which we may
add Africa, where Carthage had been restored by Caesar
as a Roman colony, the Romans appeared, not only as a




CHAP. IV.]   EXTENT OF THE EMIPIRE.              8I
conquering, but as a civilizing people. Roman customs and
the use of the Latin language took firm root; the whole
civilization of these lands became Roman, and the native
tongues and customs lived on only in out-of-the-way corners,
such as the mountain land of the Basques in Spain and
Southern Gaul. But in Greece, and in those lands whither
the Greek speech and customs had been carried by Greek
colonists or by Macedonian conquerors, the Greek civilization, the older and the higher of the two, still held its ground.
These lands became politically Roman, but they remained
socially and intellectually Greek, and Greek still went on as
the language of literature and polite life. But in the further
East, in the lands beyond Mount Tauros, in Syria and
Egypt, though they had been ruled by Macedonian Kings,
and though great Greek cities had arisen as their capitals,
the native languages and religions and general habit of
thought never died out, nor were they driven, as in the West,
into out-of-the-way corners. It is only in a very superficial
sense that these lands can be said to have ever become
either Greek or Roman. This distinction between what we
may call the Latin, the Greek, and the Oriental provinces
must be carefully borne in mind throughout. It was not a
distinction made by law, but it was one which had most important practical results.  Speaking roughly, the Roman
dominion was bounded by the Rhine, the Danztbe, the
Eufihrates, and the great deserti of Africa. It did not reach
quite so far as this at the very beginning of the Empire, but
the few outlying lands which were needed to bring it to those
boundaries were added during the reigns of Augustus and
the other earlier Emperors. And within those boundaries
we may look on the Latin provinces as reaching from the
Ocean to the Hadriatic, the Greek as reaching from the
Hadriatic to Mount Tauros, and the Oriental as taking in
the lands beyond.
G




82            TIHE  EA4 THIIEN ELIPIRE.        [CIIAP.
2. Nature of the Roman Dominion.-It must always be
remembered that the establishment of the Roma;z Emzpire
was not a formal revolution.  The old republican forms
went on in Rome, and the relations between the ruling
city and the allied and subject states were i.n no way changed.
But as the Empire, as the power of one man, became step by
step more firmly established, the tendency was to break down
the old distinctions.  Particular families, and sometimes
whole cities and regions, were admitted to the Roman
franchise, till at last all the free inhabitants of the Empir'e
were declared to be Romzan citizenzs. From this time all tee
subjects of the Empire were legally equal, and all who spoke
either Latin or Greek began to look on themselves as
Romans. The Empire, which had once been a collection of
cities and provinces in different degrees of subjection to one
ruling city, gradually changed into a vast dominion, all the
inhabitants of which were alike fellow-subjects of the Emperor. Rome, instead of being the ruling city, thus became
merely the capi'tal or seat of government. And we shall see
that, as time went on, Rome ceased even to be the seat of
government, and other cities took its place.
3. The Reign  of Augustus.-Counting the reign  of
Augustus to begin when he received that newv and special
title, it lasted forty-one years, from e.c. 27 to A.D. 14.
During all that time he was practically master of Rome
and of the whole Empire. He became so by the means of
uniting various great offices in his own person, and by having
special grants of authority made to him by the Senate for
periods of ten years.  Men thus became gradually used to
th:e rule of one man, and, though all the old magistracies and
the old forms went on, they gradually sank into mere forms.
The l,:gions were kept up as a standing army, and the
goverrnnment gradually became a military monarchy. Augustus however never took on himself anything of the




Iv.]           REIGN OF A UGUSTUS.                 83
pomp of royalty, but behaved simply as the first magistrate
of the commonwealth.  He did not seek to make any
great conquests; ~till several wars, both successful and unsuccessful, were carried on during his reign. The small part
of Spain which remained independent was subdued, and the
lands south of the Danube were all added to the Empire.
There were also wars at this time which more concern us, for
the two Claudii, the stepsons of Augustus, first Drusus and
then Tiberius, waged long wars with the Germans beyond the
Rhine, and it was hoped that Germany would be subdued as
well as Gaul. Had this happened, the future history of the
world must have been utterly changed. And every one who
speaks English or any other Teutonic tongue ought to
honour the name of the German hero Armninius, who in A.D. 9
cut off three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus,
and stopped all fear of Germany becoming a Roman province. Drusus had in some of his wars reached the Elbe, so
that it is quite likely that he may have come across some of
our own forefathers.
4. Roman Literature and Art. —The reign of Augustus is
also famous as the time when many of the best-known Latin
writers lived. There is nothing in the Latin language which
at all answers to the native literature of Greece. Before
the Punic Wars we have only a few scraps. From that time
the existing Latin literature begins. But the Latin writers,
especially the poets, were too much given to imitation of
Greek models to produce anything at all equal to them. But
there were many great Latin writers in the time of the Civil
Wars, as Cicero and Czsan-, who were so famous in other
ways, and the poets Luzcrelius and  Cazlulus.  But the
Aufgus/an Age, as it is called, became specially famous for
the number of poets, such as the well-known names of Virgil,
Iforace, and Ovid, who lived at that time, and sang the praises
of Augustus and of their great patron his minister Caizus
G2




84           TIMED IEA TTIVN EMPIRE.            [CIHAP.
Cinizus Micecenas. Livy also (Titus Livius), the historian of
Rome, lived at this time. But both he and the greatest of
the Augustan poets had grown up under the Commonwealth.
Horace, for instance (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), had fought
against Augustus at Philippi, having been an officer in the
army of Brutus and Cassius. The most truly original Latin
writers, the satirist 7uvenal and the historian Tacitus, to
whom we may fairly add the great Roman lawyers, belong to
a later time. In the same way the Romans of this age greatly
imitated the Greeks in their buildings and in their works of
art generally, and it was only gradually that a really genuine
and national form of Roman architecture was worked out.
5. The Claudian Emperors.-As Rome was not legally a
monarchy, it is plain that the supreme power could not pass
at the will of the last Emperor.  But the stepson of Augustus,
Tiberius Claudius Nero, whom he had adopted, and who
therefore became his son according to Roman law, succeeded
without any difficulty, the Senate voting him all the honours
which Augustus had held. The Empire thus passed into a
new family, that of the Claudii. But, according to the law
of adoption, they counted as Cesars, and the Caesars became
a kind of artificial family, for no Emperor at this time was
ever succeeded by his own son.  Four Emperors reigned
by this kind of succession, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and
Nero. -All of these were Caesars by adoption, though not
by blood, and Caius, Claudius, and Nero were really descended from Augustus in the female line.  The first of
these four, Tiberius, reigned from A.D. 14 to A.D. 37. The
Empire was on the whole prosperous in his time; but he
did many jealous and cruel things, causing the death of
all of whom he was in any way afraid, especially of his
nephew Germanicus, the son of Drusus, and Germanicus'
wife Agri3Pfiznza. Germanicus took his name from his
wars in Germany, where he advanced  as far as the




Iv.]        THE CLA UDIAN EAiIPERORS.              85
Weser, but he was happily recalled by the jealousy of Tiberius.  Caius, commonly called Caligtula, the son of Germanicus, succeeded Tiberius, and reigned four years, from
37 to 41. He seems to have been quite mad, and did the
wildest and wickedest things in every way, and at last he
was killed by some of his officers. The soldiers then chose
Claudius, the brother of Germanicus and uncle of Caius,
and the Senate had to confirm their choice. This was the
first time that an Emperor was chosen by the army. Claudius
was a well-meaning man, but he was constantly led astray by
his wives and favourites. It was in his time that the Roman
conquest of Briizain began, and Claudius himself came for
a short time into Britain in the year 43. He reigned till
54, when he was poisoned by his last wife Agrzi5bzina, who
was the daughter of Germanicus and his own niece. She had
made him adopt her son Nero, who then succeeded, and
reigned well for a while, but gradually became the worst of
the whole family for every form of vice and cruelty. At last
the soldiers in the distant provinces began to rebli7and Nero
was deposed by a vote of the Senate, and died by his own
hand in the year 68. The Empire now passed quite away
from the Caesarean family; those who followed no longer
pretended to belong to that family even by adoption; yet all
who succeeded to the Empire still went on calling themselves
COesar and Augzustus to the very end.
6. The Flavian Emperors.-A time of confusion followed
on the death of Nero. The armies in various parts of
the Empire chose their own generals to be Emperors, and
several of them obtained possession of Rome, and were
acknowledged by the Senate and People for a little while.
Thus Galba, Ot/zo, Vitellius, succeeded one another very
quickly, each reigning a little time and being killed. At
last, in the year 70, a more permanent power was established
by Titus Flavius Vespasiannus, d who kept the Empire till his




86           THE HEA THEN EMPIRE.              [CHAP.
own death in 79, and was succeeded by his sons Titus and
Domitian in succession.  Vespasian made a much better
ruler then any of the Emperors who had gone before him,
and a long time of comparative peace and good government
now began. In Vespasian's time the 7ews, who had rebelled
in the timne of Nero, were subdued by his son Titus, and
7erusa/emz was destroyed.  And during the times of confusion, the Batavians, a people near the mouth of the
Rhine, very nearly akin to ourselves, had revolted and
tried to set up an empire of their own in Gaul. This movement too was put down about the same time as that of the
Jews. The power of Vespasian and his family was now
firmly established, but it is to be noticed that the Flavian
Emperors did not, like the 7ullianZ and Claudian, spring from
any of the great and ancient families of Rome. This is a sign
of the way in which old distinctions were breaking down. Titus
reigned but two years after the death of his father; he was
called the ])elig/-t of VMIankind, but his brother Domitian,
who succeeded him and who professed to be a careful and
severe assertor of the laws, gradually became as great a tyrant
as any of the Claudii. In his time the conquest of Britain was
completed by Agricola, and Rome found a new enemy to
strive against in the Dacians beyond the Danube. Domitian
was killed in 96, and the Flavian dynasty ended with him.
7. The Good Emperors.-We now come to a time which
in some sort continues the Flavian dynasty. The Roman
world had now got thoroughly used to the rule of a single man,
and there can be no doubt that the provinces were better off
under the rule of the Emperors than they had been under
the Commonwealth. And, from the accession of Vespasian
onwards, there was a great feeling in favour of legal and
regular government, of strict observance of the law and ot
respect for the authority of the Senate. It was about this
time that Law began to be a matter of special study, and




IV.]           THE GOOD EMPERORS.                   87
that the great Roman lawyers began to put together that
system of Roman Law, known as the Cizvi Law, which has
been the groundwork of the Law of most parts of Western
Europe except England.  Several famous writers, both in
Greek and Latin, flourished at this time, especially the great
historian Tacilus. T'he Emperors of this time, who are often
called specially the Good Enkmerors, formed a kind of artificial family, like that of the first Caesars, each man being
succeeded, not by his real son, but by one whom he had
adopted. Five thus reigned in order, Nerva from 96 to 98,
Trajan from 98 to 117, Hadrian from 117 to 138, Antoninus
Pius from 138 to I6I, and llnrcus Aurelius from I6I to i8o.
He was succeeded by Cozmmodus, who was his own son and
not merely a son by adoption; Commodus was the first
Emperor who was born during the reign of his father. Of
these Trajan was the first Emperor who was born out of
Italy, being a native of Spain. Marcus Aurelius was a
philosopher, who left some excellent moral writings behind
him. With him the time of the Good Emnperors ended. His
son Commodus was, for vice and cruelty, one of the worst
princes that ever reigned, and was at last murdered in 192.
8. Emperors chosen by the Army.-A time now followed,
lasting for nearly a hundred years, from 192 to 285, during
which there is no need to go through all the Emperors by
namne. Many of them reigned but a very short time. The
soldiers set up and slew Emperors as they chose, and the
Senate was obliged to make the usual votes in favour of those
who were thus set up. It was quite a rare thing for the
Empire to pass from father to son, or by fair election by the
Senate, or in any other peaceful and lawful way. The nearest
approach to founding a dynasty or succession of Emperors
in the same family happened in the family of Septiinius Severus, who reigned from 193 to 211. He and his sons called
themselves A untoninus, though it does not seem that they were




88            THE HEA THEN EM}iPIRE.             [CrfAr.
descended from, or even adopted by, any of the Emperors of
that name. Under Severus the government became still more
military than it had been before. He was succeeded by his
wicked son Antoninus, who is commonly called Caracalla.
And, after he was murdered in 217, two Syrian youths,
Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, who were said to te
Caracalla's sons, were set up in succession, who both took the
names of Aurelius and Antoninus. Of these Elagabalus was
one of the worst, and Alexander one of the best, of the
Emperors. In the time of Caracalla the old distinctions of
Romans, Latins, Italians, and Provincials were quite wiped
out.  Roman citizenship was now given to all the free inhabitants of the Empire, so that a man in Britain or Greece
or anywhere else called himself a Roman, as in the East
men have done ever since. It therefore happened that
many of the best and bravest Emperors, especially towards
the end of this time, were what would before have been
called Barbarians. That word now meant those who were
altogether outside the Empire. Many of the best of these
later Emperors came from Illyria. Claudiuls, Aurelian, and
others, brave and wise men who rose by their merits, followed one another in swift succession, and had much fighting
with the different enemies of Rome. At last one of the
greatest of their number made a complete change in the constitution of the Empire, which we must presently speak of.
9. The Tyrants.-While Emperors were thus set tip and
put down by the soldiers, it often happened that there were
several Emperors or claimants of the Empire at once; that is
to say, the armies in different parts of the Empire had each
set up their own general to be Emperor. And towards the
end of this period it often happened that one of these prctenders contrived to keep some part of the Empire for several
years, so that there were Emperors reigning in Gaul or
Britain or some other province or provinces only. But these




Iv.]              THE TYRANTS.                     89
local Emperors must not be mistaken for national rulers
of the provinces where they reigned; they claimed to be
Roman Emperors, and they of course aimed at getting the
whole Empire, if they could. Sometimes the reigning Emperor found it convenient to acknowledge them as colleagues;
if they were unsuccessful, they were called Tyrants. As in
old Greece a Tyrant had meant a man who unlawfully seized
on kingly power in a commonwealth, so now it meant a man
who called himself Emperor, but who was held not to have a
lawful right to the title. In the time of Gall//ienus, who reigned
from 260 to 268, the whole Empire was split to pieces among
various pretenders of this kind. One of these should be
specially noticed, because it is the only case among all these
divisions of anything like a real national state being founded.
This was at Palmyra in Syria, where one Odenathus was
acknowledged as Emperor, and after him his wife Zenobia,
one of the most wonderful women in history, reigned as Queen
of the East. But this new kingdom was put down by A zrelian,
one of the ablest of the Illyrian Emperors, in 271.
io. Wars with the Persians and Germans.- Most of the
Emperors from the time of the Flavian family onward had to
wage constant wars against the enemies of Rome in different
parts of her long frontier. And, what marks the beginning
of a new state of things, they had now constantly to fight,
not, as in former times, to make new conquests, but to keep
what they had got already. Yet some new provinces were
still for a while added to the Empire. Thus Trajan was a
great conqueror: he won several provinces in the East from
the Parthians, and also formed the province of Dacia beyond
the Danube.  But these distant conquests were not long
kept; the new provinces in the East were given up almost
at once by Trajan's successor 1lCadrian, and Dacia was
afterwards given up by Aurelian. In the East the Romans
had presently to fight with a new enemy, no longer the




90o           TIlE 111E 7TIEN EfPIRE.          [CHAP.
Parthianzs, but the real old 1'eirsizians. They had been kept in
bondage ever since the time of Alexander, but they rose up
about tnc year 226 and founded a new Persian kingdom
under A4rdleshir or Artnaxe-res, whose descendants, call, d the
Sasnsazidce, ruled over Persia more than four hundred years.
Many of the Emperors had to wage war with the Persians,
and among them Alexzondcr Severus and Valeriazn, the father
of Gallienus, who reigned from 253 to 260. He was taken
prisoner by the Persians, and died in captivity. But the
wars which the Romans had to wage in the West have a
more special interest for us, as from about the time of Marcus
Aurelius the various Teutonic tribes began really to threaten
the Empire. Marcus had much to do in fighting with our
kinsfolk along the Danube, and, before long, Teutonic nations
began to press into the eastern part of the Empire also. We
now first hear of the famous nation of the Goths, a people
whose speech was very nearly akin to our own, and also of
the Franks, whose name has in later history been more
famous still. The great Illyrian Emperors had much to do in
fighting both with the Persians and with the Goths and other
Teutonic people. And Claudius, who reigned before Aurelian
from 268 to 270, won a great victory over the Goths, who
for some time kept somewhat more quiet. We now come to
a time of great changes in the internal state of the Empire.
iI. The Growth of Christianity.-All this while, almost
from the very beginning of the Empire, a new religion had
been growing up in the world.  Our Lord Jesus Christ
was born in the reign of Augustus and was crucified in the
reign of Tiberius. Ever since that time Christianity had
been gradually preached in most parts of the Empire,
and the Christians were now a large and important body.
The Christians were often cruelly persecuted, but it should
be carefully noticed that, as a rule, it was not the worst
Emperors who most persecuted them. The truth is that




IV.]        GROWTH OF CHRISTIAAYTIY.               91
the heathen religion of ancient Rome was looked on as
part of the constitution of the state. Other Gods might
be worshipped, if only the old Gods did not lose their
worship, but a religion which taught that the Gods of Rome
and of all other nations were alike false, and which s:rove
to win over all mankind to that belief, was looked on as
dangerous to the Empire. Those Emperors therefore who
were most zealous to keep up the old laws and customs of
Rome were commonly the most anxious to put down the new
faith, and we therefore find that the Christians really suffered
most under good and reforming princes like Trajan and
Marcus Aurelius. Still the Church constantly advanced and
made converts, for men had now but little real faith in the old
Gods, and their worship was mainly kept up as a matter of
state policy. And Christianity also had no small influence
even on those who did not accept it as a religion. A higher
standard of morals and higher notions of the divine nature
became common even among the heathens, and many a philosopher who professed to hate and despise Christianity was
a better man for Christianity having been preached. At last
it became plain that a deadly struggle must come between the
old faith and the new. Those who held that the greatness
and glory of Rome were bound up with the worship of the
old Gods of Rome saw that the time was come when a stand
must be made. The Christians were now grown so powerful
that several of the later Emperors, especially Decius and
Valerian, looked on them as dangerous to the state, and
severe persecutions went on during their reigns. After that
time, there was a lull; the Christians were not molested for
a long time, and their doctrine spread among all classes of
people everywhere. At last, at the time which we have now
reached, among many important changes, came the last and
greatest persecution.
i2. D'ocletian and his Successors.-During all this time




92           THE, HEA THEN EMPIRE.             [CHAP.
the notion of the Roman Commonwealth, the forms of which
had been so carefully kept up under the earlier Emperors,
had almost wholly died out. The Empire had become a
military monarchy, in which the power of the prince rested
mainly on the support of his soldiers. And another change
gradually happened. All the inhabitants of the Empire
were now equally Romans, and the Emperors had to move
about wherever the needs of constant warfare called them.
Italy therefore ceased to be any longer distinguished from
the rest of the Empire, and even the importance of Rome
itself, as the centre of the Empire, was greatly lessened.
These great changes, which had already taken place in fact,
were now formally acknowledged. In the year 284 the
Empire fell to Diocletian, another of the able Illyrians of
whom so many had risen to the throne. He began quite
a new order of things. There were to be two Emperors,
with the title of Augustus, reigning as colleagues, with two
Cawsars under them. Speaking roughly, this fourfold division
answered to Italy itself and the neighbouring countries, the
Western provinces (Gaul, Spain, and Britain), the Greek,
and the Oriental provinces. Many of the forms of royalty
which had been unheard of before were now brought into
use, though even now no Roman prince dared to take the title
of King, and the Senate and Consuls still went on in name.
But Rome was now quite forsaken as a dwelling-place of the
Emperors, who found it better to live near the frontiers,
whence they could keep watch against the Persians, Germans,
and other enemies of the Empire. Thus Diocletian and his
colleague Maximnian lived respectively at Nikomedeia in Asia
and at Milan, while one of the Cersars was commonly placed
in Gaul or Britain, at Trier or at York. In 303 Diocletian
abdicated, and compelled his colleague Maximian to abdicate
also. But towards the end of their reign they put forth a
series of cruel edicts against the Christians, and the heaviest




Iv. ]     CHANGES UAVrLE' DIOCLETTIAAT.            93
of all the persecutions now took place. But the Church
lived through all attempts to destroy it, and its greatest
worldly success followed soon after this great persecution.
The system  of A4ugusti with Ce(sars under them was not
regularly kept up for any long time. A series of civil wars
followed, till at last the whole Empire was joined together
again in the hands of Cozstantine, called the Great. He
began to reign at York in 306, he obtained the whole
Empire in 323 and reigned till 337. He was the first Emperor who acknowledged himself a Christian, and other
important changes were made in his time, which will be
spoken of in the next chapter.
I3. Summary.-We have thus gone through the history of
heathen Rome both under the Commonrwealth and under the
Emnmire. It began as a single city; it gradually gained the
dominion first over Italy, and then over all the lands round
the Mediterranean Sea, and it gradually admitted its subjects
and allies to its own citizenship. When the government of a
single city became quite unable to act as the government of
the whole civilized world, all power gradually came into the
hands of one man, and the practical holding of all power
by one man gradually changed into an avowed monarchy.
Then, when all the inhabitants of the Empire were alike
Romans, the city of Rome became, as it wvere, lost in the
Roman Empire, and other cities began to be seats of government.  At the same time new enemies, namely our own
kinsfolk, were beginning to threaten the Empire, and a new
religion, that which we ourselves believe, was beginning to supplant the old religion of Rome. We have thus come to a time
of very great and speedy change, and to the first beginnings
of the state of things which still goes on in modern Europe.
There is in somne things a greater change between the first
Emperors and the Emperors after Constantine than there was
between the old Kings of Rome and the first Emperors.




CHAPTER V.
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN EMPIRE.
HTistory of Constantine; his changes in the government of the Em.
lire (I)-he fixes his cajpital at Constantinoiple or NVew Rome (i)
-reigns of Constantius and 7ulian (I)-establishment of Christianity; disputes and Councils in the Church (2)-forms assumed
by Christianity in different parts of the Empire (2)-revival of
paganism under 7ulian; its final extinction'(2)- Teutonic settlements within the Empire (3)-movements of the Goths; defeat and
death of Valens (4)-reigns of Theodosius and his sons (4) —Rome
taken by Alaric (4)-foundation qf the Gothic kinagdom in Spain
(4)-invasion of Attila (5)-later Emperors in the IVest; the two
Emgpires nominally reunited; rule of Odoacer inl Italy (5)-settlemenzts of the Buroundians and Franks in Gaul; reign and conquests of Chlodwzig (6)-settlement of the Vandals in Africa (7)reign of Theodoric in Italy (7)-inzermixture of Romans and
Teulons; origin of the -Romance nations (8)-growth of the Rontzece languages (g)-distinctions of Higfh and Law Dutch (xo)the English conquest of Britain; its differcnces f-otm the other
Teutonic settlements ( I I ).
I. Constantine and his Family.-The changes which were
wrought by Constantine made him one of the most famous
of all the Emperors. He was the son of Constantius, who
had reigned under Diocletian and Maximian in Britain,
Spain, and Gaul, and who, though not a Christian himself,
had, out of justice and humanity, done what he could to
protect the Christians. Constantine himself for a long time
did the same. He protected the Christians, but he did not




CHAP. V.] CONSATANTINE A'D IllHS FAMILY.            95
profess their religion till the last civil war in 323, which gave
him possession of the whole Empire. He presently made a
change which had a great effect upon the later history of the
Empire. Rome, as we have seen, had ceased to be the usual
dwelling-place of the-Emperors, and they had been commonly
living at Milan, Nikomedeia, and other places. Constantine
now fixed the capital of the Empire in the old Greek city of
Byzantion on the Bosporos, which he greatly enlarged and
called New Rlome, but which has ever since been better
known as Conslantinoope or the City of Constantine. The
chief power was thus placed in a city which was Christian
from what we may call its new birth, and which had none-of
the heathen associations of the Old Rome. And, as Constantinople was in its origin a Greek city, it soon again became,
though it was the capital of the Roman Empire, a city more
Greek than Roman, and it gradually became the chief seat
of Greek culture and learning rather than Antioch and
Alexandria. Constantine too in his new capital was able to
set more fully in order the despotic system of government
which had been brought in by Diocletian. From this time,
though the Senate and the Consuls still went on, we may
look on the Empire as being an absolute monarchy in form
as well as in fact. And moreover Constantine not only
reigned longer than any Emperor since Augustus, but he
established his power so firmly that the Empire lasted in his
family as long as any of his family were left. But they were
mostly cut off by their own kinsfolk. Constantine divided
his dominions among his three sons, but at last, in 350, the
Empire was united again in his son Constantizs, who reigned
at Constantinople till 361. There were several revolts and
rival Emperors in his time, as well as many disputes in the
Church, and unsuccessful wars with the Germans and Persians. But his cousin 7iuian, who was Ccesar under him in
the West, drove the Germans out of Gaul, and thus made




96       THIE EARL Y CHRIST/AN EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
himself a great name. At last his soldiers proclaimed him
Aufguslfus, and as Constantius died soon after, 7uliian got
possession of the whole Empire without much trouble. But
his reign did not last long, as in 363 he died in war against
the Persians, and the family of Constantine ended with him.
2. The Establishment of Christianity.-When Constantine
embraced Chi istianity the long struggle between the Church
and the power of heathen Rome came to an end. The
Church conquered the Empire. Not only did the Empire
become Christian, but Christianity became in a special way
the religion of the Empire.  Christianity has hardly anywhere taken firm and lasting root, except in those countries
which either formed part of the Roman Empire or learned
their religion and civilization from it, and from this time the
history of the Church and of the Empire go together.  Constantine, as was often done at that time, put off his baptism
till just before his death. Yet he acted throughout as the
chief ruler of the Church; and when Arius, a priest of
Alexandria, put forth new doctrines as to the more mysterious points of Christian belief, it was by his authority, as
Emperor, that a Council of Bishops was gathered together at
Nikaia.in Bithynia in 325. This is commonly called the
Council of Nice, and here the Nicene Creed was drawn up.
This was the first of what are called the General Councils of
the Church, several of which were held in this and the next
century. For men were at this time constantly disputing
about the deepest doctrines of the Christian religion, and
each heresy, that is, each new and strange kind of teaching,
commonly called for a Council to settle the dispute. The
truth is that the despotic system of the Empire had so
thoroughly crushed men's minds in all political matters that
it was only on points of religion that there was any free play
of thought at all. Moreover, while Christianity is.essentially
the religion of the Roman Empire, different forms of Chris



V.]    ESTABLISHAMIENT OF CHRISTIANITY.            97
tianity took their firmest root in different parts of the Empire,
according to the character and turn of mind of the people.
Thus ill the ~West, where Latin was spoken, men thought less
about s.ubtle points of doctrine; but we shall see that, before
long, Rome again became the ruling and Imperial city in
ecclesiastical matters, as she had once been in temporal
dominion.  Meanwhile, in the Greek-speaking provinces
men's minds were more given to hard questions of doctrine.
As the Greeks had in old times produced so many subtle
philosophers, so they now produced equally subtle divines.
And in the further East, in Syria and Egypt, in the lands
which had never thoroughly become either Greek or Roman,
men were constantly falling off into doctrines which both
Greeks and Latins thought heretical. This was the only way
that was left to them of asserting their national independence.
Thus the whole Empire gradually embraced Christianity; but
Christianity took different shapes in different parts, and there
were long disputings on various points of doctrine, and ot
course men did not become Christians of any kind all at
once. Many still clave to the old heathen worship, especially what we may call the two ends of mankind, that is to
say, the philosophers who trusted in their own wisdom, and
the rude peasantry in the country places. For Christianity was
everywhere preached first in the towns; hence it came that
the word faganus, which at first simply meant a countryman,
came to mean a pagan or heathen or worshipper of false
Gods. Still, from the time that Constantine professed himself a Christian, Christianity grew and paganism went back,
though it cannot be doubted that the spread of Christianity
was greatly hindered by the endless disputes in the Church.
Constantius favoured the Arians, and, after his death, paganism got a new start for a moment. For 7Zuian, though he
had been brought up as a Christian, and though in his own
life he was one of the best of all the Emperors, fell back again
H




98       THE EARL Y CIIST7AN EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
to the worship of the old Gods. But all the Emperors aftei
him were Christians, and, by the end of the fourth century aftei
Christ, the Christians were, to say the least, the great majority
in most parts of the Empire. Under the Emperors Gratian
and Theodosizs, who reigned between them from 367 to 395,
the public profession of paganism was quite put an end to.
3. The Teutonic Invasions.-We have now come to the
time when the nations of our own race began to make their
way into the Empire. \e have seen that the different German
tribes had been most dangerous enemies of Rome ever since
the time of Augustus, and that many of the most valiant
Emperors had had much ado to defend the Empire against
them. So it was still; Constantine and Julian had to fight
hard against the Germans, and so had Valentinian, the
next Emperor but one after Julian. But in all these wars,
though the Germans were constantly driven back, yet they
grew stronger and stronger, while the Romans grew weaker
and weaker.  Some of the Germans made their way into
the Empire in arms; others took service in the Roman
armies, and often received grants of land as their reward.
In both ways they learned something of Roman civilization
and Roman military discipline, without losing anything of
their own strength and courage. Presently it became not
uncommon for a Gothic or other Teutonic chief to be at
once King of his own people and to bear some title as a
Roman general or magistrate.  In such cases he and
his people served the Emperors or fought against them,
pretty much as they thought good, or according as they were
well or ill treated. And at the same time they learned something of the religion of Rome, so that most of the Teutonic
nations became Christians before they settled in the Empire
or very soon after. But it was for the most part in its Arian
form that they embraced Christianity. Thus we find Barbarians, who for the most part however were Christians.




v.]         TItE TEEUTOzC INVASIONS.               99
settled within the Empire, and before long they began to
occupy whole provinces. We have now come to the time
when the Teutonic settlements and conquests become the
most important facts in our history. It often happens that
the migrations and victories of one nation are caused by
some other nation pressing upon it.  And so it happened
now.  The movement of the Teutonic nations into the
Roman Empire which had already begun was greatly hastened and strengthened by the pressure of Turanian tribes
who were pushing their way from the East  The chief of
these were the Huns, who had been themselves driven out of
Ch/ina in the extreme east of Asia, and who were now
making their way into Europe. Though the Huns did not
themselves enter the Empire till long afterwards, and
though they never actually settled within it at any time, yet
this migration of theirs had a most important effect on the
state of the Empire, by the stir which it caused among the
Teutonic nations.
4. The Goths.-The first Teutonic people whom the Huns
met were the Goltis, who had lately formed a great kingdom
in the land north of the Danube, which bad been Trajan's
province of Dacia, but from which the Romans had withdrawn under Aurelian. They were beginning to become
Christians of the Arian sect under the teaching of a Bishop
named L'lS/~a or UTfi/as, whose translation of the Scriptures into the Gothic tongue is the oldest Teutonic writing
that we have. The Huns now came upon them like a storm;
some of the Goths submitted to the new invaders, while
others were allowed to cross the Danube and settle within
the Empire. This was in 376. The first Valentinian was
now dead: the reigning Emperors were his brother Vtalens
in the East and his sons Gratian and Valen/inian in the
West.  The Goths were so ill-treated by the officers of
Valens that they took to arms; a battle was fought near
H2




100      THE EARL Y CHRISTIAN EAMPIRE.   [CTIAP.
Hadrianople in 378, in which Valens was killed.  After this
the Goths were never driven out of the Empire, though many
of them took service in the Roman armies. This was a most
wretched time for the Empire; for, besides the movements
of the Barbarians, various Emperors or Tyrants rose and
fell in different Provinces, especially in Gaul and Britain.
Things went on a little better during the reign of Theodosius,
who is called the Great, and who reigned, first as a colleague
of the sons of Valentinian, and afterwards alone, from 379
to 395. Theodosius is famous for the penance to which he
submitted at the hands of Saint Amnbrose, the Archbishop
of Milan, who refused him admittance to the church till he
had repented of a massacre which he had ordered among the
turbulent people of T/essalonica. Theodosius was the last
Emperor who reigned over the whole Empire before it was
divided and dismembered; as soon as he died it began to
fall in pieces. He left two sons, of whom H1onzorius reigned
in the XVest, and Arcad/tis in the East. The West-Goths,
under their famous King A[aric, presently revolted, and,
though they were kept in check for a while by the Roman
general Sti/icho, at last, in 410, they took and sacked Rome,
which had never been taken by a foreign enemy since the
time of Brennus the Gaul. Alaric died soon after, >and the next
Gothic King At/iaulf made a treaty with the Empire and
passed into Gaul and Spain. German tribes of all kinds were
now pressing into Gaul, and from Gaul into Spain, and rival
Emperors were rising and falling. Athaulf wtent in name
as a IRoman officer to restore the province of Spain to the
Empire. In reality this was the beginning of an independent
Gothic kingdom in Spfiain and Southerln Gaul, and the way
in which this kingdom began is a good example of the way
in which the Roman Empire, its laws and titles, still exercised
a powerful influence on the minds of those who were really
its conquerors.




V.]           THE  LATER EM1IPERORS.               LOI
5. End of the Emperors in Italy. —Meanwhile the Western
Empire was being cut short in all quarters by the settlements
of the Franks, Burgzndians, Vandals, and other Teutonic
tribes in the different provinces, settlements of which we shall
speak of again presently. And while the Western provinces
were thus falling off one by one, the East had much ado to
hold up against the attacks of the Persians. Presently the
Romans of both Empires, and the Goths and other Teuitons
who had settled within the Empire, were all threatened by the
Turanian hordes under the famous Attila, King of the Hizns.
He went on for a while ravaging and conquering far and wide,
till at last he was defeated in the great battle of Czidlons in 45I
by the united powers of Romans, Goths, and Franks. This was
one of the most important battles in the history of the world;
it was a struggle for life and death between the Aryan and
Turanian races, and Christianity and civilization, and all that
distinguishes Europe from Asia and Africa, were at stake.
The names therefore of Aetlius, the Roman general, and of
the West-Gothic King Theodoric who died in the battle, are
names which should always be held in honour. It is needless
to go through the names of all the Emperors of this time: the
only one in the West who is worth remembering on his own
account is AMljorian, a wise and brave man, who reigned from
457 to 46I. At last, in 476, the succession of the Western
Emperors came to an end, and the way in which it came to
an end marks the way in which the names and titles ot
Rome were kept on, while all power was passing into the
hands of the Barbarians. The Roinan Senate voted that one
Emperor was enough, and that the Eastern Emperor Zeno
should reign over the whole Empire. But at the same time
Zeono vwas made to entrust the government of Italy with the
title of Patrician to Ortoacer, the chief of a German people
aliled the Hlerumi. Thus the Roman Empire went on at
Covnstantinople or New Rome, while Italy and the Old Rome




0o2     T'IE EARL Y CItIRS7A  AV EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
itself passed into the power of the Barbarians.  Still the
Roman laws and names went on, and we may be sure that
any man in Italy would have been much surprised if he had
been told that the Roman Empire had come to an end. We
shall presently see what important events came of this long
keeping on of the old Roman names and feelings.
6. Settlements of the Burgundians and Franks.-It was
through these settlements of the Teutonic tribes within the
Roman Empire that several of the chief nations of modern
Europe arose. We may perhaps call the Spanish kingdom
of the West-Got/hs, of which we have already spoken and
which began about 414, the first of the kingdoms of modern
Europe, the first which arose out of the breaking up of the
Roman Empire. For some while it was not merely a Spanish
kingdom, for it took in all Aquitaine or Gaul south of the
Loire, and the capital of the West-Gothic kings was at
Toulouse. Meanwhile the Burgundians and Franks, whose
names are so fanmous in later history, began to settle, at
first under a nominal subjection to the Empire, in other
parts of Gaul.  The Burgundians settled in the southeastern part of Gaul, where their name has lived on in
several kingdoms and duchies. And, towards the end of
the fifth century, the kingdom  of the Franks took firm
root in Gaul under their KiJng Chlodwig or Clovis-the
same name which was afterwards written Ludwig, Louis, and
Lewzis-who reigned from 48I to 5II. He became a Christian, and not only a Christian but a Catholic, which greatly
favoured his conquests, as all the other Teutonic Kings
were Arians. The dominions of the Franks now took in
part of their old country in Germany and also their conquests
in Gaul. And they have given their name to parts of both
countries; for part of Germany is still called Franken or
Franconia, and part of Gaul is still called France. In Latin
both namles are the same, Fr;a;zcia. But the Franks gradually




v.]           REIGN OF lYIEODORIC.                103
spread their conquests over a much larger part both of Gaul
and of Germany, bringing the different nations of both into
more or less subjection to them. Thus they conquered the
kingdom of the Bzrrgundian.? and won Aquitaine from the
West-Goths, leaving to them only a small part of Gaul on
the coast of the Mediterranean. But it was only in Northern
Gaul that the Franks really settled. It was out of these
settlements of the West-Got/s, Franks, and Burlundians
that all the modern states of Germany, Gaul, and Spain
have arisen.
7. The Vandals and the East-Goths.-But there were
other Teutonic settlements in the Empire which did not in
this way give birth to modern states and nations, because the
Emperors were, as we shall presently see, able to join them
again to the Empire. Among these were what we may call
rte worst and the best of the Teutonic settlements, those
namely of the Vandals in Africa and of the East-Got/s in
Italy. The Vandals were for some time settled in Spain,
but in 429 they crossed over into Africa and founded a kingdom of which Carthage was the capital. The Vandals were
Arians, and they cruelly persecuted the Catholic Romans whom
they found in the country, and this seems to have been one
reason among others why their kingdom did not last. The
kingdom of the East-Got/s in Italy was very different.
Their King Theodoric entered Italy in 489 by a commission
from the Emperor Zeno, overthrew Odoacer, and reigned
himself from 493 to 526. But, though he reigned in Italy, he
was never called King of Italy but only King of his own
Goths. Though he was an Arian, he in no way persecuted
the Catholics, and he let the Romans keep their own laws
and all that they were used to. Every year he named one ot
the Consuls, while the other was named by the Emperor at
Constantinople. Italy under Theodoric was the most peaceful and flourishing country in the world, more peaceful and




104     7IHE EARL Y CEHRIS 7 AN EMLAIPIA'E.   [CHAP.
flourishing than it had been for a long time before or than it
has ever been since till quite lately. The dominions of
Theodoric stretched far beyond Italy to the north, east, and
west, and he ruled the We3t-tothic kingdom in Gaul and
Spain as guardian for his grandson. But this great dominion
of the East-Goths did not last any more than that of the
Vandals in Afiica, and none of the modern states or nations
of Europe can be said to spring from either of them.
8. Origin of the Romance Nations.-We thus see that
new states arose out of the settlements of the Teutonic
nations in the western provinces of the Empire. And we
may say that not only new states arose but also new nations.
For, out of the mixture of the Roman inhabitants and the
Teutonic settlers, there arose a new state of things, which
was neither Roman nor Teutonic, but a mixture of the two.
The Goths and the other Teutons who settled in Italy, Spain,
and Gaul were by no means mere destroyers who swept
everything before them. They let the Romans keep their
own laws and language and part of their lands. And in
Spain and Gaul those nations, like the Goths and Burgundians, who had been converted by Arian Bishops gradually came over to the Catholic faith. Moreover, as the
Romans had all the learning and civilization on their side,
the clergy were for a long time almost always Romans, and
they kept the property and influence which they had before,
and indeed added to it. Thus the two nations were gradually
mixed together; and the conquerors, as being the smaller in
number, gradually came to adopt a great deal of the laws and
manners and especially the language of the conquered. Thus
there arose the modern p525anish/ and Italian nations, and the
two nations in Gaul, the people of Provence and Aquitailne
south of the Loire and the Frenich to the north. But of the
languages which were thus formed we must speak a little
more fully.




V.]   ORIGIN OF TIE ROMIAN NA TIONS.  105
9. Origin of the Romance Languages.-By the time
the Teutonic settlements in Western Europe took place,
Latin had become the common speech of Gaul and
Spain no less than of Italy. The old languages which were
spoken before the Romans came lived on only in a few
out-of-the-way corners, like the country of the Basques.
The language therefore which the Teutonic settlers found
prevailing, and which they had to learn in order to get
on with the people of the provinces, was Latin. That is to
say, such Latin as was spoken at the time, which of course
was not quite the same as the Latin of the great Roman
writers of earlier times, and the language no doubt differed
more or less in different provinces.  And, as the Germans
learned to speak Latin, the language naturally became still
more corrupted, and a good many German words crept into
it. Thus the common language of Italy, Gaul, and Spain
became a sort of corrupt Latin, which men used in common
speech; in writing they used fairly good Latin for ages after.
No one thought of writing in the common speech, which
began to be called Roman, in distinction from the Latin which
men wrote. Thus, out of the various dialects of this Roman
language, several of the chief languages of modern Europe
very gradually arose. These are those which are called the
Romance languages, those namely which have their origin
in Latin. The chief of these are Italian and Sbanlish in
their different dialects, Provencal in Southern, and Frenzchz in
Northern, Gaul. These languages had their beginning at
the time of which we are now speaking, but it was not until
long afterwards that men began to understand that quite
new languages had really grown up. And, besides these four
great Romance languages, a fifth, distinct from any of them,
which is still specially called Romanscz, is spoken in the
eastern parts of Switzerland, in what was anciently the
Roman province of Rcetia. And, stranger still, in the pro



Io6     THE EARL Y CHIRIST AAT EMIPIRE.   [CHIAP.
vince of Dacia, which the Romans held only from the time
of Trajan to that of Aurelian, a Romance language is still
spoken, and the people still call themselves Rounzans.  Of
the fourth great Latin-speaking country, Africa, we have
nothing to say in this way, for, as we go on, we shall see
how in Africa everything Roman and everything Teutonic
was utterly swept away.
Io. High and Low Dutch. —Such was the way in which
the Teutonic nations established themselves in the western
provinces of the Continent. Meanwhile other Teutonic settlements of quite another kind, and made by another branch
of the Teutonic race, were going on elsewhere. This is a good
place to stop and explain that there are two great divisions
of the Tezutonic or Duztch people, the Hzig/ and the Lozw. It
must always be remembered that, though we now commonly
use the word Dutch to mean only the people of Holland, yet
the word is always used in German, and was formerly used in
English, to mean the whole of the German people. And, as
the Germans called their own speech Thiotisc or Dutcz, meaning the language which could be understood, those people
whose language could not be understood were called Welsh
or strangers. The Hizgz-Dutch are those who live inland,
in the south of Germany away from the sea, while the
Low are those who live near the sea, by the mouths of the
great rivers Rhine, Weser, and Elbe. Into the greater part
of their country the Romans had never come since the days
of Drusus and Germanicus, and for a long time they knew
very little of the Romans, and the Romans knew very little
of them. They had not served in the Roman armies, and
they knew nothing about the Christian religion. They were
therefore in quite a different state from the other tribes who
had made their way into the continental provinces, and who
knew something of the civilization and religion of Rome,
even before they entered the Roman dominions. Of the




v.]          HIGH AND LOW f  DUTCH.               I07
earlier Teutonic settlers the greater part belonged to the
Hzjih-Dutch division, though the language of the Goths had
much more in common with the Lowz. But, though the LowDutch and Gothic languages are thus closely connected, yet
the settlements of the Goths have historically nothing to do
with the settlements of the Low-Dutch. The Low-Dutch
settlements which have had most effect on the history of the
world, and in which we have the deepest interest, were made
in quite another part of the Empire, and in quite another way.
The settlements of the Goths and Franks were mainly made
by land, while the great settlement of the Low-Dutch tribes
was made by sea.
i i. The English Conquest of Britain.-W-Te have seen
that in the island of Britain, of which the greater part
became a Roman province in the time of Agricola, the
Romans found a Celtic people, the Britons.  But in the
north of the island, and in the other great island of Irelandz, there was another Celtic people, the Scots or Irish.
The Romans never even tried to conquer Ireland, and they
never conquered the whole of Britain. The northern part
of what is now called Scotlaznd always remained free. In
the rest of the island the Britons were conquered, and
the land became a Roman province.  But in the fourth
century, when the power of Rome began to get weaker, the
free Celts in the northern part of the island, the Picts and
Scots, began to pour into the Roman province, and other
enemies began to come against the land from the east by sea.
These last were no other than our own forefathers. For we
ourselves, the Englzish people, belong to the Low-Dutch
stock, and we came into Britain from the old Low-Dutch
lands by the Elbe and the Weser. It was in the latter part
of the fourth century that these Low-Dutch tribes, and, first
among them, the Saxons, began to make attacks on Britain
by sea. The Saxons are also heard of as pressing into Gaul




tog     THE EARLY CH.RISTIAN EtMPIRE.    [CHIAP.
by land, and they even made one or two small settlements
there; but their attacks on Britain by sea were those which
led to the greatest results. For a while they were driven
off by the Romans, but when the Roman power began
altogether to give way in the reign of Honorius, the
Roman troops were withdrawn from Britain, about the
year 41o, and the island was left to shift for itself.  The
Teutonic invasions now naturally began again, and now it
was that our forefathers began to settle in the land where
we now dwell. No doubt men of many different Low-Dutch
tribes joined in these expeditions; but there were three
tribes which stood out above the others. These were the
Angles, the Saxons, and the yjutes. The Celts, the Britons
and Scots, have always called us Saxowns; but, as soon as
the different Teutonic tribes in Britain began to jcin together into one people, the name by which they called themselves was Angles or Englis/h, and the land was called
Anglia or England. Thus it was that our own people, the
Engzlish people, came from their old homes on the mainland, and won for themselves new homes in the isle ot
Britain.  They knew nothing and cared nothing for the laws
or language or arts of Rome.  They did not, like the Goths
and Franks, adopt the language and religion of the Romans;
they swept everything before them, and the Britons were
either killed or made slaves, or took refuge in the westerri
parts of the island. The Germans everywhere called the
people of the Roman provinces, whose tongue they did not
understand, Welsh, and that word in German is still applied to the French and Italians. But in Britain of course
the name meant the Britons; we called, and still call them,
the Welsh, and the part of the island which they still keep
we call Wales.  The first English kingdom  founded in
Britain was that of ICeznt, a kingdom of the 7zules, founded
in 4f49, two years before Aetius and Theodoric overthrew




v.]         THE ENGLISH IN BAI7TAIN.              Io09
Attila at Chalons.  Presently other kingdoms, Anglian and
Saxon, were founded, and, in a little more than a hundred
years, the greater part of that land which had been the
Roman and Christian province of Britain had become
the heathen land of the Angles and Saxons. Thus it was
that our English people settled in the land which thus became England, settling in quite another way from that in
which the other Teutonic nations had settled in the other
parts of the Empire. Our forefathers kept their own language
and their own religion. They did not become Christians till
about a hundred and fifty years after the English Conquest
began, and then they were not converted by those whom
they had conquered. And the tongue which we still speak,
though, like other tongues, it has gone through many changes,
is still in its main substance the old Teutonic speech of
our fathers.
12. Summary.-Thus, in the course of the fourth and fifth
centuries, the Roman Empire gradually became Christian.
The capital was moved to Constantinople, and, when the
Empire was divided, Constantinople always remained the
capital of the Eastern part. Meanxwhile the Goths, Franks,
and other Teutonic nations pressed into the Empire, and out
of their settlements the Romance nations of modern Europe
arose. The invasion of the Huns was driven back by the
united powers of Romans and Teutons.  The series ot
Emperors in the West came to an end, and the Empire was
nominally reunited, Theodoric the Goth reigning in Italy.
Meanwhile the Lozv-Dutchz tribes, the Angles and Saxons,
were settling in Britain, and making the beginning of our
own English nation.




CHAPTER VI.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST.
Continuation of the Roman Empire at Constantinople (i  ) —condition
of the Eastern Church (I) -reign of yustinian, his legislation and
buildings (2)-explois of Belisarius and ATarses; recoveJy oJ
4Afica and  taltl, (2)-Lombard conquest of Italy; relations of
Rnome and Venzice to the Empire (2) —wars wzith the Turks and
Avars (3)-greatness of Persia under the twzo Chosroes; Persianz
victories of Ieraclius (3)-rise of the Saracens; preaching oJ
Mllhozmet; spread of his religion (4)-the fist Caliphs; their
wars with the Enpire; conquests of Syria and Egyp5t; sieges of
Constantinople (5)-SSaracen conquests in Africa, Spain, and
Southern Gaul (5)-Saracen conquest of Persia; breaking up oJ
the Saracenic dominion; position of the later Calzphs (6) —the
Isaurian Em.perors; disspute about imagaes; decline of the Im1perialpower in Italy (7)-advance of the Lombards in Italy (8)the Aferneings in Gaul; they are succeeded by the Karlinags (8)Peppin invited into Italy; he becomnes Patrician of Rome (8)Charles the Great conquers the Lomzbards; his election  as
Emperor (8, 9)-Sunmnaiy (Io)
I. The Roman Emperors at Constantinople.-The succession of Roman Emperors thus came to an end in the
West, but the Empire still went on at Constantinople. The
Emperors who reigned there still claimed to be sovereigns of
fhe whole Empire, though they had no real power west of
the Hadriatic. The parts of the Empire which were really
under their dominion were chiefly those which either were
originally Greek, or where the Greek language and civilization had been spread by the conquests of Alexander; that is,




CH. VI.]  TIrE EMIPERAORS A T CONSTANTIANOPZE.  III
those which I have before spoken of as the Greek and the
Oriental provinces. Still it must be borne in mind that these
Emperors were strictly Ronzann Emperors. The Imperial succession went on without any break; the laws and titles of
Rome were kept up, and, though Greek was the language
which was most spoken, yet Latin remained for a long time
the official language, that which was used in drawing up
laws and public documents of all kinds. There is no necd
to say much about the Emperors who reigned at Constantinople between the death of Theodosius the Great and the
nominal reunion of the Empire in 476.  Their time was
mainly taken up with wars with the Persians, in which the
Romans generally got the worst, with the invasion of Attila
and his Huns, and with ecclesiastical disputes within the
Empire.  The people of the Oriental provinces especially,
who had never thoroughly become either Greek or Roman,
were constantly putting forth or adopting doctrines which
the Catholic Church, both of the Old and of the New Rome,
looked on as heretical.  Several Councils of the Church
were held during this time, and this was the time of some
of the most famous of the Greek Fathers, especially the
great preacher Saint 7ohuz Clrysostom, that is the Golden-::zot/z, who  was Patriarch  of  Constantinople.   The
Patrzarchs of Constantinople or New Rome were the chief
Bishops in the East, but, as the Emperors were always
at hand, they never won anything like the same power which
the Bishops of the Old Rome won in the West.  Thus,
though the history of the Eastern Empire is largely a history of ecclesiastical disputes, yet we never find there the
same kind of disputes between Church and State, between
the ecclesiastical and the temporal powers, which make up
so large a part of Western history.
2. The Recovery of Italy and Africa.-As the claims of
the Emperors who reigned at Constantinople to rule over all




112'THE RIOM4N EMPIRE IV TILE EAST.  [CHAP.
the dominions of their predecessors were never forgotten,
so they -were put forward whenever there was any chance
of making them good. And soon after the Emperors came
to an end in the West, the Emperors at Constantinople
had several opportunities of meddling in Western affairs.
The Franks were too powerful and too far off for the
Emperors to have any chance against them; so they were
held to be friends of the Empire, and in 5 Io Chlodwig himself was made Roman Consul for the year. ~With Italy the
Emperors had much more to do. We have seen that both
Odoacer and Theodoric entered Italy with a nominal commission from the Emperor Zeno, which at least kept up
the memory of the claims of the Emperors to rule in Italy.
As long as Theodoric lived there was no hope of anything
more than this; bu't after his death the power of the Goths
in Italy declined. So did also that of the Vandals in Africa,
and the reigning Emperor now began to think that it would
be possible to make both countries again really, as well
as nominally, parts of the Empire. This Emperor was
7ustinian, who reigned from 527 to 565, and was one of the
most famous of all the Emperors. He was famous for his
buildings, especially for the great church of Saint Sophia at
Constantinople, and still more for putting the laws of Rome
into the shape of a regular code.  Thus was formed that
complete system  of Roman law, called the Civil Law,
which has formed the groundwork of the law of the more
part of Europe. Jostinian was also famous for the great
conquests made in his reign, though he had not nmuch to do
with making them.himself.  His general Belisarius was perhaps the greatest commander that ever lived, as he did the
greatest things with the smallest means. He did something
to check the Persians, who were now very powerful under a
great King called Chosroes or Nushirvan. In 534 Belisarius
put an cnd to the Vacluial kingdom in Africa, and the next




VI.]        CONQUESTS OF yUSTINZ1AN.                  13
year, being then Consul, he landed in Sicily, and a long war
between the Romans and Goths went on under Belisarius
and his successor Nars's, till, in 553, the whole of Italy was
recovered to the Empire. Meanwhile the southern part of
Spfiai was also recovered from the West-Goths, so that
Justinian reigned both in the Old and in the New Rome, and
the Roman dominion again stretched from the Ocean to the
Euphrates. It would have been far wiser if Justinian had
left the West alone, and had given his mind to defending
his Eastern dominions against the Persians and against the
various enemies who were attacking the Empire from the
north. But, as Roman Emperor, he could not withstand the
temptation, and he most likely thought it his duty, to recover as many of the old provinces of the Empire as he
could.  But, after all, it was only for a very few years that
the Emperors were able to keep the whole of Italy. Three
years after justinian's death, in 568, a Teutonic people called
the Lombards began to pour into Italy, and they presently
conquered the whole North and some parts of the South.
Still a large part of Italy, including Rome and Ravenna, most
part of the South, and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica, remained to the Empire. Venice also, a city which
began to spring up in the fifth century, when men fled for
fear of the Huns and sought shelter in the small islands of
the Hadriatic, also kept up its connexion with the Empire,
but its connexion gradually became one rather of alliance
than of subjection.
3. Wars with the Persians.-We thus see that, at the
end of the sixth century, the Empire, though so large a part
of it had fallen away, still took in the greater part of the
countries round the Mediterranean Sea, and still kept all
the greatest cities of Europe, Asia, and Africa. But it was
threatened on all sides, not only by the Lombards in the West
but by the S!avonian and Turanian nations who were pressing
I




114    THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST.  [CrAlP.
in from the North in the countries by the Danube, and still
more by the Persians in the East. It was in the reign ot
Justinian that we first began to hear of the Turks. That
name does not mean those particular Turks who made their
way into the Empire long afterwards, and who hold Constantinople still. The Turks with whom we have now to do
belonged to other branches of the great Turkish race, which
is perhaps the most widely spread of all the Turanian races
of Asia, and of the different branches of which we shall often
hear again. Another Turanian people, the Avars, also appear
on the borders of the Empire at this time, and several Emperors, especially Mauzrice, who reigned from 582 to 602, had
much ado to defend their northern fiontier against them.
Meanwhile the Persians were at the height of their power,
and under another C/zosroes, a grandson of Chosroes called
Nushirvan, they bade fair to subdue all the Eastern
provinces of the Empire. Between the years 6I i and
615, the Persian armies overran the whole of Syria, Egypt,
and Asia, reaching to the Hellespont, and encamping at
ChalntZ'ddz within sight of Constantinople.  The Empire
was then ruled by i/craclz'us, one of the greatest names in
the whole list of Roman Emperors. He had been E-~arch
or Governor of Africa, and had risen to the throne by destroying P/uokas, who had rebelled and murdered the Emperor Maurice. For a while he seemed to do nothing to stop
the Persian invasions, but at last he arose; he restored the
old discipline of the Roman armies, and in a series of great
campaigns, from 620 to 628, he altogether broke the Persian
power, and won back all that Chosroes had conquered. But,
while the Romans and Persians were thus disputing for the
dominion of Asia, the Empire was again cut short in the
\Vest, for the Gothic Kings now won back the Roman province in Spnain; and it was presently cut short in the East
in a far more terrible way. For a power was now arising




VI.]            RISE OF QIMA IOME T.               I I 
-which was to overthrow the Persians and Goths altogether,
and to strike a deadly blow at the power of Rome.
4. Rise of the Saracens.-We now come to the rise of a
great Semitic power, the only Semitic power which has played
any great part in history since the time of the great dominion
of Carthage. For it must not be forgotten that the Persians,
though so widely cut off from their Western brethren, u ere just
as much Aryans as the Italians, Greeks, or Teutons. ZWe
also come to the rise of a new religion, the last of three great
religions which have come out from among the Semitic
nations, and all of which taught men that there is but
one God, and bade them to keep from the worship of idols.
First came rudaism, then C/Iristianity, and now the religion
of Ilahlomet. Maholnet was an Arab of Mlecca, the holy city
of Arabia, where he was born in 569. He gave himself out
for a prophet, and taught that, though both the Jewish and
the Christian religion were sent from God, yet he had himself
received a revelation more perfect than either. In his own
country there can be no doubt that Mahomet was a great
reformer. He swept away the idolatry of the Arabs; he greatly
reformed their laws and manners, and gathered their scattered
tribes into one nation. In his early days he had to bear much
persecution; but, as he grew powerful, he began to teach that
his new religion was to be forced upon all men by the sword.
So the Arabs, or Saracens as they are also called, as soon as
they had embraced the faith of Mahomet, held it to be their
duty to spread their faith everywhere, which in fact meant to
conquer the whole world. They everywhere gave men the
choice of three things, Koran, tribute, or sword,- that is,
they called on all men either to believe in Mahomet and to
accept the Koran, a book which contained his revelations,
to submit to the Saracens and pay tribute, or else to
fight against them  if they could.  By these means the
religion of Mahomet was spread over a large part of Asia
12




ni6    THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN TIlE EAST.  [CHAP.
and Africa, and we shall see that it made its way into
Europe also. As Christianity became the religion of the
Empire and of the nations which learned their civilization
from either the Old or the New Rome, so Mahometanism
gradually became the religion of most of those nations beyond
the Empire with which our history has much to do. We may
call it the religion of the East, as far as we have to do with
the East, just as Christianity is the religion of the West. It
has spread at different times as far as from Spain to India.
The people of all the countries conquered by the Saracens
and other Mahometan powers had either to embrace the Mahometan religion or else to buy the right to practise their own,
whether Christian or heathen, by the payment of tribute.
5. Wars of the Saracens and Romans.-As soon as all
Arabia had been joined together under the authority of
Mahomet, he and his followers began to spread their
power over the neighbouring countries; that is, of course,
mainly over the dominions of Rome and Persia. Mahomet
himself died in 632, before any serious attack was made
upon either, and he was succeeded in his power by rulers
called his Calill/s or Szuccessors, the first of whom was his
father-in-law Abu-Bekr. The Caliphs were at once spiritual
and temporal rulers, much the same as if in Christendom the
same man had been Pope and Emperor at once. Under the
first two Caliphs Abu-Bekr and Omar, the Roman provinces
of Syria and Egyjpt were conquered between the years 632
and 639. Now it should be remembered that these two were
the provinces in which Greek and Roman civilization had
never thoroughly taken root, where the mass of the people
still kept their old languages, and where men were always
falling away into forms of belief which were counted hereitcal according to the faith both of the Old and New Rome.
In these provinces therefore men may well have deemed
that they had little to lose by a change of rulers. It fol



VI.]     CONAQUESTS OF THE SARA CENS.  I
lowed then that, though the Saracens had to fight several
hard battles against the Roman armies in Syria, yet they met
with no general resistance of the whole people, and in Egypt
they met with no resistance at all. The great cities of
Antioch and Alexandlria, as well as 7ertsalcm, -were thus
lost to the Empire. But in the lands on this side of Mount
Tauros, where the influence of Greek culture and Roman
law was more deep and abiding, the Saracens never gained
any lasting footing. They often invaded the country, and
twice, in 673 and 7I6, they besieged Constanlinoszle itself,
but they made no abiding conquests. In Africa too, vwhich
had been far more thoroughly Romanized than Syria and
Egypt, they met with a long resistance. Their invasions
began in 647, but Carthage was not taken till 698, and the
whole country was not fully subdued till 709. From no part
of the Empire have all traces either of the Roman dominion
or of the Teutonic settlement of the Vandals been so utterly
swept away as from  Africa.  From  Africa in 7Io they
crossed into Sikain, and in about three years they subdued
the whole land, except where the Christians still held
out in the mountain fastnesses of the North. They conquered also a small part of Gaul, namely the province ot
Narbonne.  But this was the end of their conquests in
Western Europe. In 732 they were defeated in the great
battle of Tours by the Frank Charles Martel, of whom we
shall presently hear again. In 755 they were altogether
driven out of Gaul, but it took more than seven hundred
years more to drive them out of the whole of Spain.
6. The Saracen Conquests in the East.-The Saracens
thus lopped off the Eastern and Southern provinces of the
Empire, so that the Romans no longer held anything in
Africa, nor anything in Asia beyond Mount Tauros. Meanwhile they were pressing on with equal vigour against the
other great empire of Persia.  In about nineteen years,




II8    THE RO~MAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST.  [CHAP.
from 632 to 65I, the whole kingdom of Persia was conquered, and the native dynasty of the Sassanides, which
had reigned in Persia since the time of Artaxerxes, came
to an end.  Persia now gradually became a Mahometan
country.  The Saracens thence pressed northwards and
eastwards into Sind, the most western part of India, and
into the Turkish lands beyond the Oxus. For a short time
the whole of this vast dominion held together, and a single
Caliph was obeyed in Spain and in Sind. But, before
long, disputes and civil wars arose among the Saracens
themselves, as to the right succession of the Caliphate,.
and in 755 their empire was divided, and was never
joined together again.  One Caliph reigned in Spain,
another at Damascus and afterwards at b'ardad, each giving
himself out to be the true successor of Mahomet. Meanwhile in the East the Turkish tribes were pressing into the
Saracenic empire very much in the same way in which the
Teutonic tribes had pressed into the Empire of Rome. The
governors of the different provinces gradually made themselves independent, and various dynasties, chiefly Turkish,
arose, whose obedience to the Caliph at Bagdad became quite
nominal. Various sects also arose among the Mahometans,
just as they arose among the Christians, and each sect looked
on the others as heretics. But those who gave themselves
out as the orthodox followers of Mahomet always looked up
to the Caliph at Bagdad. So the Caliphs may be looked on
as keeping something like the power of a Pope after they had
lost that of an Emperor.
7. The Loss of Italy.-The descendants of Heraclius went
on reigning till about the end of the seventh century. Then
came a time of confusion, till at last, in 718, the Empire fell
to a valiant man named Leo, a native of Isauria, whose descendants reigned after him till the beginning of the ninth
century. The second siege of Constantinople by the Saracens




VI.]              LOSS OF ITALY.                  II9
was then going on, and it was mainly owing to his valour
and wisdom that the invaders were beaten back. This defeat
of the Saracens by Leo is really one of the greatest events of
the world's history; for, if Constantinople had been taken
by the Mahometans before the nations of Western Europe
had at all grown up, it would seem as if the Christian religion
and European civilization must have been swept away from
the earth. But, if Leo thus secured the Empire towards the
East, his conduct in religious matters did much to weaken
its power in the West. Though Spain and Africa had been
lost, the Emperors still kept Rome and all that part ot
Italy which was not conquered by the Lomzbards, as well
as all the great islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.
The Italian possessions of the Empire were ruled by
an Exarch or governor, who lived, not at Rome but at
YRavenna. Thus, as neither the Emperor nor his deputy
lived at Rome, the power of the Popes or Bishops of
Rome grew greater and greater. At last, during the reign ot
Leo, another religious dispute broke out, about the worship
or reverence paid to images and pictures in churches. This
worship Leo held to be idolatrous, and so did his son Constazntine, called Koprolnymos, who succeeded himn and reigned
from 741 to 775, and who also was a valiant varrior against
the Saracens. The party who thought with them were called
Iconoclasts or breakers of images, and there were constant
disputes about this matter in the Eastern Church all through
the eighth and part of the ninth centuries.  But in Italy,
when the Emperors tried to put away the worship and even
the use of images, men everywhere withstood them, the Popes
Gregory the Second and Gregory the Third taking the lead
against them. The result was that the Emperors lost all
real power in Rome.' But they kept Southern Italy for
a long time afterwards, and even at Rome their authority
was acknowledged in name down to the end of the eighth




120    THE ROMAN EMIPIRE IN THE EAS7T.  [CIIAP.
century. We must now see how even its formal acknowledgement came to an end.
S. The Franks in Italy.-Meanwhile the Lombards were
extending their dominion in Italy.  Under their Kings
Liudiprand and Astoaf, they took Ravenna and more than
once threatened Rome. There was no hope of any help
coming from the Emperors at Constantinople; so the Popes
and the Roman people sought for help in quite a new
quarter, namely at the hands of Pz~ipin the King of the
Franks. The Franks had now long been the ruling people
of Germany and Gaul. The descendants of Cihlodwig, the
German King and Roman Consul, went on reigning, though
their dominions were often divided into several small
kingdoms, and in the south of Gaul, especially in Aquitaine,
they had but little real power. These descendants of Chlodwig, the Merwin gs or ilferowinzgzans as they were called,
were one of the worst dynasties that ever reigned; few parts
of history are more full of crimes, public and private, than
the accounts of the early Frankish Kings. Latterly they
became weak as well as wicked, and all real power passed
into the hands of the Karlings, who governed by the title
of Mayors of the Palace. They came fi-om the Eastern, the
most German, part of the Frankish dominions, and their rise
to power was almost like another German conquest of Gaul.
One of these Mayors was Karl or Charles, called Miartel or
the Hanmmer, who won the great victory over the Saracens at
Tours in 732. He was succeeded by his son Pzipfin, who in
753 was chosen King of the Franks, the Merowingian King
Childieric being deposed, for it was thought foolish that the
title of King should belong t6 one man and the kingly power
to another.  Thus began the dynasty of the Karlings, the
sans of Charles, the second Frankish dynasty in Germany
and Gaul. Of their doings in Germany and Gaul we shall
speak presently; we have now to do with them in Italy. King




vTI.]              TILE FRANKS.                   121
Pippin came at the prayer of Pope Stephen the Third, and
saved Rome from the Lombards and won back from them the
Exarchate, that is the country about Ravenna, which they
had conquered. He became the virtual sovereign of the city;
but, as it was still not thought right wholly to throw away the
authority of the Emperors, he was called, not King or Emperor,
but Patrician. That word had quite changed its meaning
since it had meant the highest class of the Roman people;
it was now used rather vaguely, and it sometimes meant the
governor of a province; this last must have been the sense
in which they used it now. Pippin's son, Aarl or Charles the
Great, altogether conquered the Lombard kingdom in 774.
He then called himself King of the Franks and Lomzbards
and Patrician of the Ronzans. As such, he was ruler of all
Italy, except the part in the south which the Emperors still
kept. The Franks were thus the head people in all Western
Christendom.
9. Charles elected Emperor.-But a greater honour still
was in store for the Franks and their King. In 792, the
Emperor Constantine the Sixth, the grandson of Constantine Kopronymos, was deposed by his mother Eirine,
who put out his eyes and reigned in his stead. This gave
the Pope and the people of Rome a good excuse for throwing off the authority of the Emperors at Constantinople
altogether. They now said that a woman could not be
Caesar and Augustus, and that the Old Rome had as good
a right to choose the Emperor as the New.  So in the
year 800 the Romans of the Old Rome chose their Patrician
Charles to be Emperor, and he was crowned b) Pope Leo as
Cliarles Azgustlus, Enmieror of the Romanrzs. The Empire was
now finally divided, and for many ages there was one Emperor
reigning in the East and another in the West, each claiming
to be the true Roman Emperor. The Eastern Emperors never
got hack Rome again, nor any part of Northern Italy, but they




122    THIE ROAJAN EMAPIRE IN TILE EAST. [cH. VI.
kept their dominions in Southern Italy, where the Greek
tongue was still not wholly forgotten, for more than two
hundred years longer.
Io. Summary.-Thus, through the sixth, seventh, and
eighth centuries, there was only one Emperor, who reigned
at Constantinoble. Under 7ustinian a very large part of
the Empire was won back again from the Goths and
Vandals. But, in the course of the sixth and seventh centuries, a great part of the recovered provinces, together with
Syria and Egypt, were lost again. The Lombards established
themselves in Italy, and the Saracezs overthrew the kingdom
of Persia, conquered the Easteron and African provinces of
Rome, and established themselves in Spain. In the eighth
century the dispute about images led to the gradual separation of Rome and what was left to the Empire in Northern
Italy, and in its last year Rome parted off altogether from
the Eastern Empire, and chose the Frank Charles as separate
EmPberor of the IW~est.




CHAPTER VII.
THE FRANKISH EMPIRE.
Division of the Empire; the Western Etmpire held by the Frankish
Kings (I)-the Ommiad Caliphss; accession of the Abbassides (2)division of the Caliphate; relations between the two Caliphates and
the two Empires (2)-conquests and losses of the Saracens (2)reign of Charles the Great; extent of his Empire (3)-division of
the Frankish Kingdoms; Kingdoms of Germany, Lotharingia,
Karolingia, Burgundy, and Italy; different meanings of the
word Francia (4)-fin'al division of the Empire; end of the
Karlings in Germany (5)- Odo King of the West-Franks; shifting of the Kingdom between Laon and Paris (6) —Duchies oj
France, Burgundy, and Aquitaine; distinction between Northern
and Southern Gaul (6)-t/ugh Capet elected King; beginning of.
t.he modern Kingdom of France (6)-settlements of the Enil,-ish in
Britain; their conversion to Christianity (7)-the Northmen;
their invasions of Gaul and Britain (8)-supremacy of Wessex in
Britain; invasion and settlements of the Danes; formation of the
Kingdom of England (9)-settlements of the No.rthmen in Gaul;
settlement of Rolf at Rouen;;growth of the Duchy of Normandy
(io)-Summary (I I).
I. The Division of the Empire.-The Roman Empire was
now finally divided, and it might seem to have altogether
passed away from the true Romans. The Emperors of
the West from this time were Germans; they did not live
much at Rome itself, and their native language was German,
though Latin remained the language of law, government, and
religion. In the Eastern Empire the tongue commonly spoken




124         7TIE FRAVNISH EM.IrRE.             rCHAP.
was Greek; Latin had gone out of use even as an official
language; and, fromjhe time of the loss of Rome and Ravenna,
the Roman Empire of the East answered pretty well to those
parts of Europe and Asia which had thoroughly accepted the
Greek language and Greek civilization, Still each Empire
gave itself out as the continuation of the old Empire, and
the old Imperial titles went on. Only, while in the East the
Emperor was a Roman Emperor and nothing else, in the
West the Emperor was King of the Franks as well as EmPeror oflhe Romans. In truth, the choice of a German King
to be Roman Emperor was the greatest of all changes, and
it was really the beginning of quite a new state of things.
But men at the time talked as if things had gone regularly on,
and they spoke of Charles the Great as the lawful successor
of Constantine the Sixth. From this time then the Western
Empire, as long as it lasted, for about a thousand years after
Charles's time, was always held by a Frankish or other
German King. And in this way, through the union of the
Roman and German crowns, a large territory was now held
to belong to the Roman Empire which had never belonged to
the Empire in old times. And, though the new line of German Emperors lived but little in their old capital of Rome,
yet, for seven hundred years after the election of Charles, it
was held that no King had a right to be called Eimncror or
C&esar till he had been crowned at Rome by the Pope. The
Eastern Emperors meanwhile kept Constantinople, or the
New Rome, as their capital, and they were crowned by the
Patriarchs of Constantinople in the church of Saint Sophia.
2. Division of the Caliphate.-We mentioned in the last;bapter that, about fifty years before the final division of the
Empire, the Mahometan power was divided in much the same
wsay. The first four Caliphs, Abu-Bekr, Omnar, Ot/hzan, and
Ali, were all among the immediate friends or kinsmen of Mahomet. Then came the dynasty of the Ommnialds, who reigned




VII.]     DIVISION OF THE CALPIPHATE.            125
at Damascus. But in 750 they were overthrown by the descendants of Abbas, the uncle of Manhomet, who founded the
dynasty of the Abbassides, by whom the seat of their dominion
was after a while moved to BlaZdad on the Tigris. But a prince
of the Ommiad family, Abd-al-rahlmal by name, escaped to
Spiain, and was the founder of the dynasty of the Ommiad
Caliphs of Caordova. Thus, at the beginning of the ninth century, there were two rival Empires among the Christians and
two rival Caliphates among the NMahometans; and, as might
be expected, each of the Christian powers was at enmity with
the Mahometan power which was its own neighbour and on
good terms with the Mahomnetan power at a distance. The
Caliphs of Cordova were the natural enemies of the Western
Empire, and the Caliphs of Bagdad were the natural enemies
of the Eastern Empire. But there was commonly peace and
friendship between the Western Empire and the Eastern
Caliphate and between the Eastern Empire and the Western
Caliphate. And, just as the two Empires not only parted
asunder from one another, but each split up into various
kingdoms, so the two Caliphates gradually split up also.
Many Mahometan powers arose, which professed at most
a nominal allegiance to the Caliph either at Bagdad or at
Cordova. And some of these powers went on conquering at
the expense of the Christians. In the course of the ninth
century independent Saracen powers arose in the great Mediterranean islands of Sicily and Crete, which had up to that
time belonged to the Eastern Empire. In Spain itself the
Saracens never conquered quite the whole of the country, as
the Christians always maintained their independence in the
mountains of the North, whence they gradually won the whole
peninsula back again. In the ninth century then the four great
powers of the civilized world were the two Christian Empires
and the two MIahometan Caliphates. The British Islands were
independent of all, standing alone in being both Christian and




x26          THE FRANKISH EMIPIRE.             [CHAP.
independent. The other parts of Europe which acknowledged
neither Emperor nor Caliph were still heathen and barbarous.
3. Charles the Great.-The first Frankish King who became
Roman Emperor, the first man of Teutonic blood who was
called Cesar and Augustus, was, as we have said, Ch(arles the
son of Pippin, called I'arolus Matnus or Charles the Great.
In after times he became a great subject of French romance,
in which he is called by the French name of Charlemagfne.
Under him the power of the Franks rose to its highest
pitch. Francia, the land of the Franks, took in all Central
Germany and Northern Gaul. Besides this, Charles established the Frankish dominion over Southern Gaul and
Southern Germany, that is over Aquitaine and Bavaria, and
also over Arnmorica, the north-western corner of Gaul. Here
a great number of the Welsh from the Isle of Britain had
settled when their country was conquered by the English.
Thus the land was kno wn as the Lesser Britain or Britanny,
and the Celtic language, which had perhaps never quite
died out, was kept up by their coming. Charles also subdued the German people to the north of his own Francia,
that is our own kinsmen, the Saxons who had stayed
behind in Germany and had not gone into Britain. They
were still heathens, but he forced them to embrace Christianity. He thus became master of all Germany and Gaul.
And, as we have seen, as Emperor and King of the Lombards he held the greatest part of Italy, and he had also Spain
as far as the Ebro. He had also much fighting with the
nations to the east and north of Germany. To the north lay
the Scandinavian nations, called the Northzien, of whom we
shall have presently to speak more at large.  Of these
Charles had a good deal of fighting with the Danes, and he
brought them into some degree of submission to the Empire.
To the north-east of Germany beyond the Elbe lay the
~Slavonic nations who were spoken of in the first chapter,




~VI.]          CHARLES TILE GREA T.               I2?
who grew up into the different nations of the [1Vezlds, the
Poles, and the Czechs or Bohemzians, all of whom had at
different times to make submission to the Emperors, and a
large part of whose country has long formed part of Germany.
To the south-east were other Slavownic nations who had been
allowed to settle on the frontiers of the Eastern Empire.
Between these two branches of the Slaves, in a great part
of modern Hungary, the Turanian people of the Avars had
fixed themselves. With all these border nations the Emperor
Charles had much fighting, and most of them were brought
into more or less of submission. Under him then the Western
Empire was at a greater height of power than it had ever
been since the division after the death of Theodosius, and in
all his vast dominions Charles did what he could to encourage learning and religion by promoting learned men, founding
bishopricks and monasteries, and making laws for the government of his Empire. He first united Germany under one
head, and he won the rank of Roman Emperor for the German King. Like Constantine and Theodosius, he thought
of dividing the Empire among his sons, but, as all his sons,
except Lewis, surnamed the Pious, died before him, the whole
Empire passed at his death in 814 to that one son Lewis.
4. The Frankish Kingdoms.-So great a dominion as had
been brought together under Charles the Great needed a man
like Charles himself to keep it together. The second Frankish
Emperor Lewis was a good but weak man, and his sons were
always rebelling against their father and quarrelling with one
another. Several divisions of the Empire were made during
his lifetime, and after his death his dominions were, after
much fighting, divided in 843 among his sons Lothar, Lewis,
and Charles. Lothar was Emperor, and, as such, he reigned
in Italy, and he was meant to have at least a nominal
supremacy over his brothers. For his own kingdom he took
Italy and a long narrow strip of territory reaching from the




128          TIlE FRANK2ISH EMPIR E.           [CHAP.
Mediterranean to the Northern Ocean, and taking in what is
now Provence at one end and Holland at the other. This
country, from his name I.othar, was called Lotlharinlgia, and
part of it still keeps the name in the form of Iotlirineen or
Lorraine.  Part of his kingdom spoke German and part
Romance. To the east of him his brother Lewis, who is called
the German, reigned over a purely German kingdom, the
lands between the Rhine and the Elbe. Charles reigned in
Gaul to the west of Lothar.  Charles's kingdom was at first
called Karolingia, just as Lothar's kingdom was called
Lotharingia, only the one name has gone out of use, while
the other has remained. But the different kingdoms which
were now formed had no regular names. All the different
Kings were Kinzgs of the Franks, much as in earlier times
there had been several Emperors at once.  There now
came a time of great confusion, during which the different
kingdoms were split up arid joined together again in various
ways. But there was still always one King who was Emperor,
though he soon lost all real power over the others. And all
the Kings were of the house of the Karlings, save only in
the Burgzundian land between the Rhone, the Saone, and the
Alps, where Kings of other houses reigned, and which was
called the Kintdom of Burgzundy or Aries  At last, in 884, all
the Frankish kingdoms except Burgundy were joined together
underthe Emperor Charles the Fat. But in 887 all his kingdoms
agreed to depose him, and each kingdom chose a King of its
own. And the kingdoms which were now formed began to
answer more nearly to real divisions of nations and languages
than had hitherto often been the case. Thus from this time
the Eastern and Western Franks were never again united,
and the word Francia now has two meanings.  Eastern
or Teutonic Francia was the old Frankish land in Germany, forming part of the Eastern Kingdom. Western
or Latin Francia was the land between the Loire and the




vII.]       THE FiANAiKIS  KINVGDOMifS.           129
Seine, where men spoke Romance and not German, and
which formed part of the Western Kingdom.  Between
them lay Lotharingia, the border land, taking in modern
Belgium. This had no longer a King of its own, but it was
often disputed between the Eastern and Western Kings,
the Kings of Germany and Karolinzgia. In South-eastern
Gaul the Burgundian Kingdom went on, sometimes forming
one kingdom, sometimes two. And in italy, during the first
half of the tenth century, there were several rival Kings, some
of whom got to be crowned Emperors. But they had no
power out of Italy, and not much in it. And it must be remembered that all this time Southern Italy still belonged to
the Eastern Emperors, and that Sicily had been conquered
by the Saracens.
5. The End of the Karlings in Germany.-After the division
in 887 the Eastern or German Kingdom still stayed for a while
in the family of Charles the Great. For the East-Franks
chose as their King Arnulf, who was a Karling, though not by
lawful descent. But the W/estern Franks in Karolingia chose
Odo, Count of Paris, who had been very valiant in defending
his city against an attack of the Northmen, of whom we shall
hear presently. But King Arnulf was the head King, and
King Odo of Paris did homage to him for his crown; that
is, he became his man, and promised to be faithful to him.
Arnulf afterwards went to Rome and was crowned Emperor.
But the German crown did not last long among the Karlings.
The line of Arnulf died out in his son Lewis, called the Child,
and then the Eastern Kingdom fell to men of other families,
connected with the Karlings only in the female line or not at
all. From this time the Kingdom of Gernmany went on as a
separate kingdom, but we shall soon see that it had a great
deal to do with the other kingdoms which arose out of the
breaking up of the Frankish Empire. And it had much to
do in other ways with the Slavonic and Turanian people to
K




130          THE FRANI2ISH EMPIRE.             [CHAP.
the East, and in the end it greatly extended itself at the cost
of its Slavonic neighbours.
6. Beginning of the Kingdom  of France.-After the
election of Odo of Paris to the Wiestern Kiisnfdom, there
followed about a hundred years of shifting to and fro between
his new family and the old family of the Karlings. Sometimes there was a King of one house and sometimes of the
other. The Karlings still spoke German, and, when they
held the kingdom, their capital was Laon, in its northeastern corner.  The family of Odo were called Dukes of the
Freench, and they spoke French, as we may now call the
Romance speech of Northern Gaul, and their capital was
Paris. Their Duchy, the Duchy of France-that is, WI.estern
or Latin F-rancia-was, even when its Dukes were not Kings,
the most powerful state north of the Loire. But whichever
family held the crown, the Kings had very little power south
of the Loire. For in these times of confusion the Dukes and
Coznts,-who at first were only governors of the different
provinces, both in the Eastern and Western Kiilgdoms, had
grown up into hereditary princes, paying a merely nominal
homage to the King, whether he reigned at Laon or at Paris.
The Princes north of the Loire, the Counts of Flanders, the
Dukes of the Normans (of whom we shall say more presently),
the native princes of Britanny, and the Dukes of Burgundy,
were often at war with the Kings, and with one another.
These Dukes of Burgundy held the northern part of Burgundy, that of which Dijon is the capital; this did not form
part of the Kingdom of Burgundy, but of the Western Kingdom or Karolingia. South of the Loire, where men spoke,
not French but Provencal, the Dukes of Aquitaine and Gascony, and the Counts of Toulouse and Barcelona, had hardly
anything to do with the Kings at all. The most famous
among the Karolingian Kings at Laon was Lewis the Fourth,
called Fronz-beyond-sea, because he had been brought up by




VII.]        BEGIAvNINGS OF FRAAN7CE.             II
his uncle King iEth:lstan in England.  HIle had much striving with Hug/h the Great, Duke of the French, the nephew
of King Odo, who refused the crown more than once, but
who never had any scruple about rebelling against the
King. But on the death of the last Karolingian King at
Laon, Leu'is the Fifth, Huggh Caiet, the son of Hugh the
Great, was chosen King in 987. This was the real beginning
of the modern Kingdom of France. The Duke of the Frencn
was now King of the French. Paris became the capital
of the Kingdom, and, as the Kings of the French got hold of
the lands of their vassals and neighbours, bit by bit, the
name of France was gradually spread, as it is now, over the
greater part of Gaul.
7. The English in Britain.-We have thus seen how the
kingdoms and nations of Germany, Italy, Burgundy, and
France were formed by the breaking up of the great Frankish
Empire. Meanwhile our own English nation was growing up
in the Isle of Britait, which formed no part of the Empire,
and which men often spoke of as a world of itself. We have
already seen how the three Low-Dutch tribes, the Angles,
Saxons, and 7utes, settled in Britain, how they drove the
Britons or Welsh into the western part of the Island, and how,
as they gradually became one people, the whole nation was
called Aznglzes or English. They formed a great number of
principalities in Britain, among the chief of which were the
Kingdom of the mautes in lent, the oldest of all, the Kingdom
of the West-Saxons, which began in what is now Hampshire and gradually spread over all South-western Britain,
the Kingdom of the Mercians in the middle of England,
and the Kingdom of the Northutmbrians which, sometimes
under one King, sometimes under two, stretched from
the Humber to the Firth of Forth.  The Kingdoms of
the South-Saxons, East-Saxons, and East-Angles should
also be noticed, but they were less powerful than the other
K2




132           THE FRA. NKISIt E MPIRE.           [CHAP.
four. All these kingdoms had much fighting with one another,
as well as with the Britons or Welsh to the west of them and
with the other Celtic tribes of the Picts and Scots to the north
beyond the Forth. Sometimes one of their Kings gained a
certain authority over the other kingdoms; he was then called
a Bretwalda or Wielder of Britain. As we have already said,
the English remained heathens for about one hundred and
fifty years after their first settlement in Britain. Then, in 597,
Pope Gregory the Great sent over Augustine, who converted
the Kentish King  thekelberlt or Ethelebe-t, who was then Bretwalda; so Kent was the first Christian kingdom among the
English. Gradually all the English kingdoms were converted,
some by missionaries from  Kent or straight from  Rome,
some by the Scats, who were already Christians, but none, it
would seem, by the Welsh. And presently the English began
themselves to send missionaries to convert those of their
kinsfolk in their old land who were still heathens. One of
them, Wizfrith or Boniface, in the time of Pippin, was called
the A.postle of Gernzany. This was quite another way of
being converted from that of the Goths and Franks who embraced Christianity while they were pressing into the Empire.
But, even after they became Christians, the English still went
on making conquests from  the Wels/, and also carrying
on wars among themselves.  During the seventh and
eighth centuries the three great kingdoms of the WestSaxons, Mercians, and Nort/tumbrians were ever striving
for the mastery.  Sometimes one had the upper hand
and sometimes the other; but at the beginning of the
ninth century the different English kingdoms began to be
more closely united together, and they had also a common
enemy from without to withstand.
8. The Northmen.-We have already spoken of the
Aryan people in Northern Europe, called the Northmnen
or Scandinavians  These were a Teutonic people, whose




VI. ]    THE ENGLISH AND NOR THMEMN.             133
speech is more nearly akin to the I.ow-D)utch than to the
High. They had settled in the great peninsula to the northeast of the Baltic, where they were gradually making their
way against the Turanian inhabitants, the Fins and Laps,
and they had also occupied the peninsula called the Cimbric
C/ersonzesos or 7iitland, which is divided from Saxony by
the river Eider. In these peninsulas and the neighbouring
islands they gradually formed three kingdoms, those of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The Danes in the southern
peninsula had often to yield more or less of submission to
Charles the Great and his successors. But the Northmen of
the northern peninsula never submitted to the Empire, and
indeed the Swedes had for a long time to come but little
to do with the general affairs of Europe. They had enough
to do in striving with their own Turanian neighbours, and
in conquests toward the East, where they came to bear
rule over the Slavonic land of Russia.  But the Western
Scandinavians, the Danes and the Norweians who were
more specially called Northmen, began, towards the end
of the eighth century, to be fearful scourges both to Britain
and to all the coasts of the Empire. Even while Charles
the Great lived, they had begun to sail about and plunder
in various parts; and after he was dead, and when the
Empire began to break in pieces, they were able to
ravage almost wherever they pleased. After a while they
began, not only to plunder, but to make settlements, both
in Gaul and in Britain.  They also settled in Iceland,
in the Orkneys and in:he other islands near Scotland,
in the northern part of Scotland itself, and in the towns
on the east coast of Ireland.  But we have most to do
with their settlements in England and in Nor/hern Gaul.
For through their settlement in Gaul a new power in
Europe arose, and, what we should hardly have looked
for, their settlements in England had a great deal to do




134          TILE FRA.VKISH EMPIRE.           [CHAP.
with the making of the different English kingdoms in Britain
into one.
9 Formation of the Kingdom  of England.-We have
seen that, up to the end of the eighth century, the chief power
among the English in Britain was always passing from one
of the English kingdoms to another. But at the beginning
of the ninth century it came permanently into the hands of
Wessex. This was under EcRberht or Egbert, who was King
of the West-Saxons from 802 to 837. He was a friend of
Charles the Great, with whom he had taken shelter when he
was banished from his own country. It was no doubt the
friendship and example of Charles which set him upon doing
in Britain much the same as Charles had done in Germany.
Ecgberht gradually brought all the other English kingdoms,
and the Welsh both of Cornwall and of what we call Wales,
into more or less of subjection to his own Kingdom of the
West-Saxons. Other Kings went on reigning, but they were his
men and he was their lord, like the Emperor among the Kings
and princes on the mainland. Thus a great step was taken
towards joining all the English in Britain into one kingdom.
But the Scots beyond the Forth and the Northern Welsh in
Cumberland and thereabouts remained independent, so that
Ecgberht was still far from being master of the whole island,
and presently the Danish invasion seemed likely to shatter
the newly founded West-Saxon power altogether.  King.4lfred or Alfred, the grandson of Ecgberht and the most
famous of all our ancient Kings, who began to reign in 87I,
had much fighting with the Danes. The northern part of
England was conquered by them, and Danish Kings and
Earls reigned at York.  Presently they invaded Wessex,
whence they were driven out by Alfred in 878. But he found
it needful to make a treaty with the Danish King Guthrumn,
by which Guthrum was allowed to hold all the eastern part
of England, on condition of becoming King Alfred's man




vII.]       BREGCNZING OF NrORIMAND Y             I35
and also becoming a Christian. For the Danes were still
heathens, as the English were when they first came into
Britain, and they seem to have taken special delight in destroying the churches and monasteries. The Kings who came
after Alfred, his son LEdzard and his grandsons zEthestfan
and Edmund, had much fighting with the Danes in Britain.
But at last they were able to bring all the Teutonic people in
Britain, both English and Danish, into one kingdom; so they
were called Kinigs of the Eznglish and not merely Kings of the
West-Saxons. And all the princes of the Welsh and of the
Scots also became their men, so that they were Lords of all
Bri/ain. Sometimes, as being lords of the other world where
the Roman Emperors had no power, they were called Emperors of Britainz, or in Greek Basileus, in imitation of the
Emperors of the East. It was King Edward who first
received the homage of all Britain in 924. But it was not
till a long time after that the Danes in the North of England
were thoroughly subdued. But these settlements of the Danes,
by breaking up the other English kingdoms and by making
Englishmen everywhere ready to join against the invaders,
really did much to help the West-Saxon Kings in winning
the lordship of the whole island.
Io. Foundation of the Duchy of Normandy.-The Danes
and other NorthmGn also made many invasions of Gaul
through the whole latter half of the ninth century. They
more than once sailed up the Seine and besieged Parir.
There was one specially famous siege of Paris in 885,
when Count Odo did great things in withstanding the
Northmen, in reward' of which he was before long, as we
have seen, elected King. Soon after this the Northmen
began to make settlements in Gaul as they did in Britain,
and one of their settlements rose to great importance.
This was the settlement made at Rouen by a chief named
Roif, or in Latin Rollo. This was in 913, when Charles




136          TIHE FRANKSI EMIE'IPIRE.    [CIHAI. VII.
the Simnz5fe, who was King of the West-Franks-he was
of the House of the Karlings and reigned at Laon-and
Robert, Duke of the French, who was brother of King
Odo and was afterwards King himself, granted the land at
the mouth of the Seine to Rolf. For this he became King
Charles' man, and he served his lord much more faithfully
than ever the Dukes of the French did. Rolf was baptized,
as Guthrum had been, and the Northmen who settled in Gaul
gradually became Christians and learned to speak French.
Their name was softened into Normaans, and their land was
called Normnandy, and their prince the Duke of the l'ormains.
The Dukes of the Normans of the House of Rolf became
the'most powerful princes in Northern Gaul, and we shall
presently hear of them in England.
I I. Summary.-Thus, in the course of the ninth and tenth
centuries the great Frankish Empire broke in pieces; the
Kingdom of France arose in Gaul; the Kingdomz of Englaned
grew up in Britain; the Danes and Northmen settled both in
Britain and in Gaul, and their settlement in Gaul grew into
the Duchy of Normandy. During this time the RozmarLce
languages had hardly begun to be written, but men were
finding out that they were distinct languages from Latin.
Books on the Continent where still wholly written in Latin.
Thus Eginhard, the secretary of Charles the Great, wrote
the Life of his master, and there were other good writers
of history in all the Frankish kingdoms. But in England
our own En,,lish C'hronicle began to be put together in these
times, so that we have, what no other people in Western
Christendom has, our own history written in our own tongue
from the beginning.




CHAPTER VIII.
THE SAXON EMPERORS.
The Xingdom of Germany; dealrinzgs with the  ~ageyars and Szlaves
(i) —the Saxon dKings; victories of Henry the Fowler and Otto
the Great over the Aiagyars (2)-Otto the Great crowned Emtperor;
relations between the Eimpire and the German lingdonm (2, 3)the later Saxon Emperors (3)-disputes betzueen the Eastern and
IWestern Churches (4)-the Macedonian Ezmperors in the East;
their victories over the Saracens (4)-Slavonic settlements in the
Eastern ZEmpire; wars zith the Russians and Bulgarians (5)greatness of England under Edgar (6)-.Danish invasions of
Engl6and; reign of Cnut in England (6)-greatness of the Scandinavian nations; great dominion of Cnut; effects of the Scandinavian settlements in Gaul and Russia (6, 7)-conversion of the
Scandinavians and Russians to Christianity (7)-Sumnmaly (8).
I. The German Kingdom.-The division of 887 separated
for ever the Kingdoms of the East and West Franks, those
which answer to Germany and France.  But the Kingdoms of
Italy and Burgundy were, after a while, once more united
with Germany. But this was not just yet. The Kings of the
East-Franks, the Eastern Kinfs as they were called, were the
head Kings, but as yet they only held their own land, the
Tezlc-onic Kiin;g-domz or Germany.  They had much ado to
defend themselves against the inroads of the Danes, to
defend and extend their border against the Slaves to the
north-east, and to drive back some new and fearful
enemies who had begun to show themselves to the south



138          7HE SAXONV EMPERORS.             [CHAP.
east. These were the Mlagyars or Hungarians, of whom
we have already spoken, who were pressing into Central
Europe, and who, wherever they came, did as much mischief
by land as the Northmen did by sea.  They were still
heathens, but in the end, before the tenth century was out,
they became Christians, and settled down into a regular and
powerful Christian kingdom. They have held their place
among the kingdoms of Europe ever since, and their land is
still called the Kinzdom of Hunogary. But, before the Hungarians had thus settled down among Christian nations, the
German Kings had to fight many battles against them to
keep them out of their own dominions.  As a safeguard
against the Hungarian invasions they founded a Mark or
border-state under a chief called a Markgraf or.,1arquess;
this was called the Easternz Mark, Ostinark or Oesterreich.
This grew into the Duchy of Austria, the Dukes of which
have, oddly enough, for a long time past been also Kings
of Hungary.  To the north of Hungary several Slavonic
states grew up during this time into Christian dukedoms
and kingdoms, especially those of Poland and Bohemia; but
the Wends on the south of the Baltic remained heathens
for a long time, and the Prizssia;zs to the east of them for a
longer time still.  Thus the K'ingdomz of Gernzany was the
central state of Europe, and it had to do with all parts of
Europe, East, West, North, and South. And it was soon to
rise to greater things still.
2. The Saxon Kings. —The dynasty which had most to
do with raising the German Kingdom to greatness was that
of the Saxons, whose Duke, Henry the Fozoler, was elected
King in 918. He did much to make his kingdom flourishing and powerful, and he had to wage many wars against
the Magyars. He was succeeded in 936 by his son Otto,
called the Great. He finally defeated the Magyars in a
great battle in 954. He had also much to do with the




VIII.]   RESTORA TZOA OF THE EMPIRE.              139
affairs of the Western Kingdom, and he often stepped in
to help the Karolingian King Lekwis, who was his brotherin-law, against his enemies in France and Normandy. But
he is most famous for again uniting the Romanz Elmire to
the German K'ingdom. Since Arnulf no Emperor had been
generally acknowledged, though some of the Kings of Italy
had been crowned Emperors at Rome.  In truth, Italy,
during the whole half of the tenth century, was altogether
torn in pieces by the struggles of rival Kings and wicked
Popes. In 951 Otto was invited into Italy, and he made
the King Berezgnar become his man. In 962 he was again
called on by the Pope and the Italians to deliver them from
Berengar altogether. So he entered Italy a second time,
and was crowned EmnLperor at Rome, by the Pope  oh/zn the
Tweift/z, one of the worst of all the Popes.
3. The Restoration of the Empire. —The coronation of
Otto the Great as Emperor put the Western Empire on quite
a new footing. Hitherto the Empire had had no special
connexion with any one of the several kingdoms which had
arisen out of the break-up of the dominion of Charles the
Great. The Imperial crown had been sometimes held by
one King, and sometimes by another, and very often there
had been no Emperor at all. But now Germany had, under
the Saxon Kings, become so much the greatest of all the
Frankish kingdoms that it was able to join the Empire
permanently to itself. The change was in truth a restoration of the Empire in a more regular shape after a time
of confusion. From this time it was held that whoever
was chosen King in Germany had a right to be crowned
King of Italy at Milan, and to be crowned Emperor at
Rome. There was not always an Emperor, because some
of the German Kings never got to Rome to be crowned
Emperors; but there always was either an Emperor or a
King who alone had the right to be crowned Emperor.




140          THIE SAXOiV EAMPER ORS.          [CHAP.
Thus the Kingdom of Italy was again united with the Kingdom of Germany. But both Bzrriulzdy and harolingia or
the Western Kingdom still remained cut off from the
Empire, Burgundy for a while and Karolingia for ever.
Still the Emperors kept a good deal of influence in Burgundy, and in the Western Kingdom too as long as any
of the Karlings reigned at Laon. But when the Kizngdom
of France was finally established, when the long line of
Kings of the French of the blood of Hugfi Capet began to
reign at Paris, France left off having anything to do with
the Empire at all. Otto the Great died in 972, and after
him reigned his son Otto the Second till 983. He had wars
with the Danes, whose King Harold, called Blaatand or
Blizetooth, he forced to become a Christian, and also with
the Eastern Emperors in Southern Italy. Then came Otto
the Third from 983 to 1002. He was called the Wonder oJ
the World. His great wish was to make Rome again the
head of the world and to reign there again, like one of the
old Emperors. But he died young, and his plans were all
cut short. Then came Henry the Second, a descendant of
Henry the Fowler but not of Otto the Great, who was the
last Saxon Emperor. He died in Io024.
4. The Eastern Empire.-It is now time to say something
of what had happened in the East since the election of Charles
the Great in the West. The Eastern Empire, as I before
said, was now chiefly confined to the Greek-speaking parts
of Europe and Asia. And, after the Eastern and Western
Empires were separated, disputes gradually arose between
the Eastern and Western Churches. They differed on some
points both of doctrine and ceremony, but the real ground
of quarrel was chiefly because the Eastern Church would
never admit the claims of the Bishops of Rome. The Iconoclast controversy went on during a great part of the ninth
century, but in the end the worshippers of images gained




v I.]      THE EASTERN EMPERORS.                 14I
the day. After Eir'ne there were several Emperors of different families, some of whom were weak men, while others
ruled well and fought manfully against the Saracens. At
last, in the latter part of the ninth century, a dynasty arose
under which the Eastern Empire won back a great deal
of its former power. This was the Basilian or Macedonian
dynasty, the first Emperor of which, Basil the First' or the
Macedonian, began to reign in 867. He was a law-giver,
and under him' the Byzantine dominions in Italy were greatly
increased. But the ti-me when the Eastern Empire reached
its greatest amount of power after the final division was
from 963 to 1025. Three Emperors, one after the other,
Niki~bhoros Phokas, 7ohn Tzimniskes, and Basil the Second,'won back many of the provinces which had been lost.
The Saracens, as we have already seen, were now cut up
into many small states, and, though the Caliphs went on,
they could no longer meet the Emperors on equal terms.
N ikephoros won back  Crete, and both  he and John
Tzimiskes, who murdered him and reigned in his'stead,
waged wars in the East, won back Antioch and other cities
which had been taken by the Saracens in their first
conquests, and again carried the Roman frontier to the
Euphrates.
5. The Slavonic Invasions.-We said at the beginning
that the Slavonic nations were the last of the great Aryan
swarms which had pressed into Europe, and that which had
played the least part in the general affairs of' the world. As
yet we have not heard much about them, except so far as the
German Kings had greatly extended their dominion to the
West at their expense. But we have now reached a very
important period in their history, chiefly with regard to their
dealings with the Eastern Empire. For a long time past
various nations had been pressing into the northern parts of
the Byzantine dominions, and the Emperors had constant




142          TIlE SA XON EAIt'ERORS:           [rCHAP.
wars to wage against enemies on their northern as well as
on their eastern frontier. Some of them settled within the
Empire, while others simply invaded and ravaged its provinces. Some of these invaders and settlers were 7cranians,
but many of them belonged to the race of the Slaves, who
play a part in the history of the Eastern Empire something
like that which the Teutonic people played in the West.
That is to say, they were half conquerors, half disciples.
Many of the north-western provinces of the Empire were
settled by Slavonic tribes, who have grown into the people
of S'ervia, Dalmatia, and the other lands now bordering on
Hungary, Austria, and Turkey. They even made large
settlements in Macedonia and Greece, but from some of
these they were afterwards driven out. It is even said that
the Macedonian Emperors themselves were really of Slavonic
descent. The Russians, also a Slavonic people, though their
princes were of Scandinavian descent, made several inroads
into the Eastern Empire in the ninth and tenth centuries,
and even attacked Constantinople by sea. But they were
finally defeated by the Emperor John Tzimiskes in 973.
Another great enemy was the Bulfgarians, a people originally
Turanian, but who learned to speak a Slavonic language,
and who were so mixed up with their Slavonic neighbours and
subjects that they may pass as one of the Slavonic nations.
They founded a kingdom in the north-western part of the
Empire, and they were for a long time a great thorn in the
sides of the Emperors. With these Bulgarians the Emperors
had many wars, till in the end their kingdom was altogether
destroyed by Basil the Second, who was called the Slayer of
the Bulgarians, when the Roman frontier was again carried
to the Danube. All these invaders and settlers gradually
became Christians, getting their Christianity from the
Eastern Church, as the Teutons and Western Slaves got
theirs from the Western Church.  But the-Popes and the




viII.]    DANIISH CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.           I43
Patriarchs of Constantinople had long disputes about the
obedience of the Bulgarians. It was under Basil the Second,
whose sister Theojhan'd married the Western Emperor Otto
the Second, that the separate Eastern Empire was at the
greatest height of its power, but after his death it greatly
fell back again.
6. England and the Danes.-England had a good deal to
do with the Western Empire during the time of the Saxon
Emperors.  The daughters of Edward the Elder were
married to the chief Princes of Europe, and one of them
named Eaadfyth or Edith was the first wife of Otto the Great.
It marks the central position of the German Kingdom that
its Kings made marriages with England at one end and with
Constantinople at the other. Under Edgar, who reigned
from 959 to 975, England was at the height of its power,
but in the reign of his son.Ethelred the inroads of the
Danes and Northmen began again.. At one time, in 994,
England was attacked at once by Olaf King of the Northmen and by Swegent or Sweyn King of the Danes. Olaf
was persuaded to become a Christian and to make peace
with England; so he went home to Norway and began
to bring in Christianity there. Swegen was the son of that
King Harold who had been overcome by Otto the Second; he
had been baptized in his childhood, but had fallen back into
heathenism. The war with Swegen went on till at last, in
1oI3, AEthelred was driven out and Swegen was acknowledged
King over all England. This was quite another kind of conquest from mere plundering inroads, and even from settlements in parts of the country, like that of Guthrum or that
of Rolf in Gaul. A King of all Denmark came against
England to make himself King over all England also.
Swegen died very soon and IEthelred did not live long after.
The war then went on between Cnut or Canute the son of
Swegen and Edmund the son of Ethelred.  At last, in




I44          TIE SAXON EMPERORS.               [CIAP.
1017, Cnut became King over all England; he inherited
the crown of his native country Denmark, and he also
woh Norway and part of Srwedgen.  He was thus lord of
all Northern Europe, and was by far the most powerful
prince of his time.  Though he came into England by
force, he ruled well and won the love of the people; but
after his death in I035 the bad government of his sons
disgusted the English with the Danish rule, and in I042
they again chose a native King in the person of Edward the
son of 7Ethelred.
7. Greatness of the Scandinavians.-The time when Cnut
reigned in England was the time when the Danes and
Northmen were at the height of their power. Denmark,
Norway, and 3Sweden were all powerful kingdoms; England
was under a Danish King, and princes of Scandinavian descent
ruled both in Normandy and in Russia. But wherever the
Northmen settled, though they always put a new life into the
lands which they made their own, they showed a wonderful
power of adapting themselves to the people among whom
they settled, and of taking to their manners and language.
Thus Cnut, when he reigned in England, became quite an
Englishman, and the Northmen who settled in Gaul became
quite French, and those who settled in Russia became quite
Slavonic. In this way the original lands of the Northmen
really lost in strength and importance, and became of less
account in Europe than they otherwise might have been.
For the best life of Scandinavia went away into other lands
to give a new life to them. About the end of the tenth and
beginning of the eleventh centuries, all the Northern nations,
except the Prussiatzs and Lih/uanians, gradually became
Christians.  The Scandinavians, like the other Teutonic
nations, got their Christianity from the West; but the Russians, like the Bulgalrians and the other nations who had
to do with the Eastern Empire, got their Christianity from




vIII.]       THE SAXON EMPER ORS.                I45
Constantinople and became part of the Eastern Church.
To this day they are the only one among the great
nations of Europe which remains in the communion of the
East, having nothing to do either with the Bishop of Rome
or with the Reformed Churches.
8. Summary.-Thus, in the ninth century and the begining of the tenth, the German kingdom advanced, and was
again united with the Roman Emnpire. The E]asternt Enmpire
gained back much of its power, and drove back its Slavonian
invaders. The Danes conquered England, and the Scandinavian people generally were at the height of their power.
The chief historians of this period were the German writers
who recorded the deeds of the Ottos. In England learning
had got back from what it was at an earlier time. In Gaul
men had already found out that the Rloman, or spoken tongue
of the people, had grown into a different language from the
written Latin. But we have no French writings as yet.
L




CHAPTER IX.
THE FRANCONIAN EMPERORS.
Succession of KIings, Conrad, Henry the Tlhird, Henry the Fourth,
Henry the Fifth (1)-dealings of Henry the Third with the Popes
(I)-disputes &btween Henry the Fourlh and Grefgory the Seventk
(I )-continued disputes betwveen the Popes and tHenry the FIfz/h ( I )
-causes of the y-rowth of the Papal power (2) —designs of GreCgory
the Seventh; disputes about investitures antd the m1arriagze of the
clergy (2)-growzth of the Duchy of Normandy (3)-reign oa
William the Conqueror; his claims on the crozen of EnLzfland
favoured by the Pope (3) -election of Hzarold of Enfgland: invasion
of Harold of 0Norway; Norman invasion and conquest of Eng,rrland
(3)-eff'cts of the Norman Conquest of England; use of the
French languaerr; closer connexion of Entland w/ith other lands
(4)-relations btween France and Normandy (5)-fffeels of the
Norman Conquest on France; greatness of -Henry the Second in
England (5)-advance of the Christians in Spain; eg)rowth of the
kindoam of Aragon (6)-Normnan Conquest of Sicily; foundation
and grozwth of the kingdom (7)-declineof the Eastern Empire (8)
-grozwth of the Turks; their dealings with the Caliphs (8)divisions of the Caliphate (8) —7ars between the  urL-ks and the
Eastern Emzpire; conquests of the Tur7ks in Asia Mintor (8)revival of the Empire under the }Aomnnenian Emnpcrors; dray of
t.e Turkish powoer (8)-causes of the Crusades (8, 9)-fthe Crusade
prreached by Peter the H~ernit and Urban the Second (9)-First
Crusade; taking of yerusalem  (9)-effects of the Crusades (9)Sultmm'zary (io).
i. Succession of Kings.-On the death of Henry the
Second, Conrad, a descendant of a daughter of Otto the
Great was chosen King.  He was the first of the Franconian




CH. ix.]  THE POPES AND THE EMPERORS.             I47
Emnjperors. They are so called as coming from the Eastern
or Teutonic ]francia, which, to distinguish it from  Latin
Francia or France, is commonly called Franconia. He was
crowned Emperor in Io027 and reigned till Io39. The chief
event of his reign was that in I032 the Kingdom of  ulSrgundy
was united to the Empire on the death of its last King Rudolf.
Thus three of the four Frankish Kingdoms were again joined
together, France alone, as we must now call it, standing
aloof. Conrad's son Henry the Third was one of the greatest
of all the Emperors. He was crowned King both of Germany
and of Burgundy in his father's lifetime. This was often done
in those days, in order to make the succession certain, and
to avoid the dangers of an interregnum or time when there is
no King. Henry was called into Italy in much the same way
as Otto the Great had been; for there were great disputes
at Rome, three candidates at once all claiming the Popedom.
King Henry came into Italy in I046 and deposed them all. He
then gave the Popedom to several German Bishops one after
the other, and they ruled the Church far better than the
Romans had done. He was himself crowned Emperor in the
same year. He did much to restore order and religion both in
Germany ar'd in Italy, and he maintained the authority of the
Empire better than had been done for a long time. He was a
close ally of our King Edward, with whom he was connected
by marriage. On his death in Io56 he was succeeded by his
son Hlenzry the Fourth, who was only six years old wihen his
father died, but who had been already crowned King. Hischildhood and youth was a time of great confusion, and, as
he grew up, he ruled at first very ill; and his oppression drove
the Sn-rons to revolt in I073. About the same time there
arose long disputes between the Emperors and the Popes,
which tore Germany and Italy in pieces. At one time Pope
Greory the S'eventh, the famous zil(debrand, professed to
depose the King, and in the beginning of Io77 Henry had to
L. 2




148       THE FRANCONIAA  EMPERORS.    [CHAP.
come and crave pardon of Gregory. In the same year the
Saxons and others in Germany who were discontented,
chose Rudolf Duke of Swabia King instead of Henry.
Rudolf was killed in Io8o, but, during nearly all the rest
of his reign, Henry had to struggle with one enemy after
another, the last being his own son Henry, whom he
had crowned King in Io99. Henry himself had driven
Gregory out of Rome in I085, and he had been crowned
Emperor by Clement the Third, whom  he had himself
appointed Pope. At last he died in IIo6, while still at
war with his son King Henry, who now reigned alone.
Henry the  7zft/h had nearly the same disputes with the
Popes which his father had had, but he was regularly
crowned Emperor at Rome in I II. He married Aftiilaa,
the daughter of our King Henry the First, but he had no
son, and the Franconian dynasty came to an end at his
death in II25.
2. Growth of the Papal Power.-The power of the Poties,
which has just been mentioned, and their disputes with the
Emperors, must be spoken of a little more fully. From the
time of Constantine onwards, the divisions of the Empire
and the constant absence of the Emperors from Rome had
greatly increased the power of the Popes. They had not, like
the Patriarchs of Constantinople, a superior always at hand.
Charles the Great had fully asserted the Imperial power over
the Church, but, after his Empire broke up, the power of the
Popes grew again.  It was checked only by their own
wickedness and their divisions among themselves,which Kings
like Otto the Great and Henry the Third had to step in and
put an end to. Things were very different now from what
they had been in the old times, when the whole or nearly
the whole of the Church was contained within the bounds
of the Empire.  First of all, there were now two rival
Emperors and two rival Churches, and the Empire and the




IX.]     GROWYTH OF THE PAPAL POVWER.             149
Church of the East in no way acknowledged either the Emperor or the Bishop of the Old Rome. And even in the West,
part of the Empire, namely the Kingdom of France, had cut
itself off from the main body, while new Christian kingdoms
like England, Hungary, and Denmark had risen up beyond
the Empire. In this state of things the Bishops of Rome,
who were looked up to by so many kingdoms as the chief
Bishops of the West, could hardly remain so submissive to
the Emperors as they had been when the Emperors were
the only Christian princes. The Popes had not as yet any
distinct temporal dominion, such as they had in after times;
still they were no longer mere subjects of the Emperor, as
they had been under Constantine or Justinian or Charles the
Great. In truth, it was to this undefined position that the
Popes owed much of their power.  And now  Grego-ry
the Seventh, the greatest of all the Popes, set himself
to work to establish the ecclesiastical power as superior
to the temporal.  To this end he laid down two main
rules, one that the clergy might not marry, the other that
no temporal prince should bestow any ecclesiastical benefice, as was then commonly done in Germany, England,
and most parts of Europe. Hence began the long quarrel
between Gregory and Henry the Fourth, and between many
Popes and Emperors after them. And we may mark that
the quarrel between the Popes and the Emperors was one in
which good men might and did take either side. A good
Emperor like Henry the Third did much good by clearing
away unworthy disputants, and giving to the Church a succession of worthy rulers. But the same power in the hands of a
bad prince led to the sale of bishopricks for money and to
many other abuses.  The great evil was that Popes like
Gregory the Seventh, who were really anxious for the purity
of the Church, acted too much as if the Church were made
up only of the clergy, and strove to make the clergy, with




150       THE FRANCONIAN r EMPERORS.    [CHAP.
themselves at their head, into quite a separate body from
other men. It is hard to say which party won in the end.
W\e may perhaps say that the Popes did succeed in overthrowing the power of the Emperors, but that they had
themselves to yield in the end to the power of other temporal
princes.
3. The Norman Conquest of England.-We have already
seen how in 987 the dynasty of the Karlings in the West
came to an end, and how Hugh, the Duke of the French,
became King of the French. Meanwhile the Duchy founded
by Rolf had grown up into great power and prosperity, and
Normandy reckoned among the chief states of Western
Europe.  And Normandy became greater still under its
famous Duke William, who subdued Enllgland, and who is
therefore known as William the Conquleror. It was now that
our own island, which had hitherto been looked on as another
world, began to have much more to do with the general
affairs of Europe.  King Ezdward, the last King of the
English of the old WVE;  -axon dynasty, was, through his
mother, a kinsman of I)elke William, and it would seem
that at one time of his life he made Duke XWilliam some
kind of promise that, as he had no children, he should
succeed him  on the throne of England.  But hovwever
this may be, when King Edward died in io66, the English
people, as there was no one in the royal family fit to
reign, gave the crown to Earl Harold, who was then the
greatest man in the country.  Duke William however put
forth his claim, and, though he found no one to help him
in England, he made most people in other lands believe
that he had the right on his side.  Especially he persuaded Hildebran.d, who was not yet Pope, but who already
had great influence at Rome, to take his part. So Pope
Alexander the Second declared in his favour, and blessed
his undertaking. This was the way in which the Popes




Ix.]        THE NORMAN CONQUEST.                IS!
seized every opportunity to extend their power both within
the Empire and in other parts of the world. William was
thus able to invade England, not only at the head of
his own Normans, but of men from all parts, who were
taught to look on the enterprise as a holy war.  England
was just at this time attacked by Harold Hardrada, King of
the Northmen, so that our King Harold had to fight against
two foes at once. He defeated Harold of Norway, but was
himself defeated and slain by Duke William in the famous
battle of Senlac or Haslingfs. Duke William was crowned
King at Christmas io66, but the English still withstood him
in many places, and it took him about four years to get full
possession of the whole country. He gradually found means
to give all the greatest estates and highest offices in England
to Normans and other strangers, and he handed on the
English Crown to his descendants, by whom it has been held
ever since.
4. Effects of the Norman Conquest of England.-The
establishment of Duke William and his followers in Normandy brought about some very great changes both in England and in the rest of Europe. The English were not killed
or turned out, as they had themselves done by the Welsh,
and they kept their own laws and language; yet for a long
time all the chief men in the land were of Norman or other
foreign descent. But it is wonderful in how short a time the
Normans in England became good Englishmen. This was
partly perhaps because Normans and English were, after all,
near kinsfolk, only the English had kept their own tongue,
while the Normans had learned to speak French. French remained for a long time the fashionable language in England,
and though, in the end, English became once more the speech
of all men in the land, yet in the meanwhile it became greatly
changed, and a great many French words crept in. Many new
ideas came in with the Normans, which gradually made great




152       THE FRANCONIAN EMPERORS.    [CHAP.
changes in our laws and manners. The power of the Kings
became much greater than it had been before, and William
made the whole kingdom far more truly one than it had
been up to his time. Since his days no one has ever thought
of dividing it. The Norman Conquest also caused far more
intercourse than there had been before between England
and other nations.  Learning flourished more, the art ot
building greatly advanced, and many reforms were made
in the Church; but it must not be forgotten that England
from this time was brought much more under the power ol
the Popes.
5. Relations between England and France.-Before the
Norman Conquest England and France, meaning thereby the
new Kingdom of Paris, had hardly anything to do with one
another. But France and Normandy were often enemies.
Ever since Paris became the capital, the Kings of the French
had felt themselves hemmed in by the Dukes at Rouen. And
now that the same man was Duke of the Normans and
King of the English, the Norman Dukes became still more
powerful in Gaul, and were still more dangerous neighbours
to their lords the Kings of the French. The King at Paris
was in truth shut in on every side by his own vassals,
the great Dukes and Counts, over whom he had no real
authority. Just at the time when the Empire was strongest
under Henry the Third, the Kingdom of France was weakest
under Henry the First, the'third of the Parisian Kings.
From this time there was a distinct rivalry, which we shall
constantly come across, between the Kings of the French
and the Kings of the English, who were also Dukes of the
Normans.  This rivalry has gone on almost ever since,
and we shall constantly meet with it in one shape or
another, and this rivalry had the further effect of keeping
up the old connexion between England and Germany, both
of them being rivals of France. I have already mentioned




Ix.]        EtNGLAND AND FRANCE.                 153
that Henry the First of England, the son of William and the
third of our Norman Kings, gave his daughter in marriage
to the Emperor Henry the Fifth. King Henry of England,
who reigned from I Ioo to  135, was born in England, and he
married Edith- or Matilda, the daughter of Malcohn King of
Scots.  Her mother Margaret was the granddaughter of
our King Edmund Ironside, so that Henry's children had
some English blood in them. In II54 Henry, the son of
Henry the First's daughter the Empress Matilda by her
second husband Geoffrey Count of Anjou, came to the Crown
of England. The pedigree in this case should be carefully
remembered, because with Henry the Second began the
Angevin Kings of England, who were neither Norman nor
English except in the female line. Henry presently married
Eleanor the heiress of Aquitaine; he thus was master of
the more part of Northern and Western Gaul, holding of the
King of the French far greater possessions than the King
held himself. Here is quite a new state of things, in which
the same man not only held both England and Normandy,
but had by far the greatest power in all Gaul. We shall
presently see what came of these changes.
6. Wars with the Mahometans in Spain.-The time of
the Franconian Emperors is also memorable as the time
when the great struggle between the Christian and Mahometan nations began to spread itself over a much wider
field. All this while wars had been going on with the
Saracens in all those parts of Europe and Western Asia
where they had settled. The Christians of Stpain, as I have
already said, had always kept their independence in the
mountainous lands in the north, and the conquests of Charles
the Great had been a further check to the advance of the
Saracens.  As the Western Empire began to be divided,
the Western Caliphate grew stronger.  The time of the
greatest power of the Mahometans in Spain was in the reign




154       TILE  FR. ANCOONIAN EMPERORS.    [CHAP.
of Abd-al-rahman the Third, from 912 to 96I. The Christian
kingdoms however still maintained their independence, and
in 103I the Western Caliphate came to an end, and the
Saracen dominion in Spain was cut up into several'small
states. The Christians were now able to advance, and in
Io084 Alfonso the Sixlth, who had united the two kingdoms
Leon and Castile, won back the old capital of Toledo, and
was near making himself master of the whole of Spain.
The Mahometans in Spain had now to call in their fellowbelievers in Africa to their help. Thus arose the Moorish
dynasty of the Almnoravides in Southern Spain, which put a
check for the while to the advance of the Christians. But
in ii 8, AlfoPnso of Aragon recovered Zarag-oza, that is
Ccesar-Aug-usta, the chief city of eastern Spain, and from
that time the kingdom of Aragon also began to grow in
importance.
7. Foundation of the Kingdom of Sicily. —Meanwhile the
Christians were also gaining ground on the Mahometans in
the great islands of the Mediterranean. I have said how
the Emperor NikiJhoros won back Crete for the Eastern
Empire, and in the beginning of the eleventh century Sardinia was won back by the people of the Tuscan commonwealth of Pisa. Soon afterwards, Norman adventurers began
to press into the South, and to make conquests at the expense
both of the Saracens and Eastern Emperors.  Under the
famous Robert Wiscard, they conquered nearly all the territory which the Eastern Emperors still kept in Italy. They
then crossed into Sicily in i062, and founded a county which,
in I130, under its third Count Roger the Second, became
a kingdom. Thus began the Kingdom of Sicily, where at
first French-speaking Kings reigned over Arabic-speaking
Mahometans and Greek-speaking Christians.  All three
languages gradually died out, but for a time all nations and
religions flourished under the Norman Kings. King Roger




ix.]        AD VANCE OF THE TURKS.                I55
afterwards won the Norman possessions in Italy, and the
little that was left to the Eastern Emperors. Thus the Kingdom of Sicily took in both the island and all the southern
part of the Italian peninsula.
8. The Eastern Empire.-We must now look to the affairs
of the Eastern Empire in Asia, and the more so, because its
affairs at this time led to the most famous of all the wars
between Christians and Mahometans, namely to the Crusades
or Holy Wars. These were the wars which the Christians
waged to win back the Holy Land, and especially the tomb
of our Lord at Jerusalem, from their Mahometan possessors.
After the death of Basil the Second, the Eastern Empire,
which, under the Macedonian Emperors, had again become
so powerful both in Europe and Asia, began once more to
fall back. As a new European enemy had arisen against it
in the Normans of Sicily, so a new and terrible enemy arose
against it in Asia. These were the Turks of the house of
Sejufk.  We may now look on the chief dominion of Asia
as being finally handed over from the Saracens to the
Turks. This change of power in Asia brought about two
memorable results. First, it was the cause of the heaviest
blow which the Eastern Empire had undergone since the
time of the first Caliphs. Secondly, it was the cause of the
Crusades which were waged by men from Western Europe. In
the course of the tenth century, the Eastern Caliphate may
be looked on as coming to an end as a political power. A
third Caliphate arose in Egypt, and the Caliphs of Bagdad
gradually fell under the control of their own mercenaries
and ministers, much as the Merowingian Kings of the
Franks had fallen under the control of the Austrasian
Mayors.  Meanwhile several Turkish dynasties arose in
Persia., and the Mahometan conquest of India began. At
last, in Io55, the Caliph A1 Kayern asked help of Togrel Beg,
the chief of the Seljuk Turks, much as the Popes had invited




156       THE FRANCONIAN EMPERORS.    [CIIAP.
Pippin and Charles the Great into Italy. The Caliphs were
now left in free possession of Bagdad, but a great Turkish
power now arose, which soon took in all Western Asi.a.
War soon arose between this new power and the Eastern
Roman Empire. In 107I, at the battle of Manzikert, the
Turks, under their Sultan AlU Arslan, gained a great victory
over the Romans, and the Emperor Romanos was taken
prisoner, as Valerian had long ago been by Sapor. The result
of this was that the Eastern Emperors lost, not only all that
had been won back under the Macedonian Emperors, but
nearly all their possessions in Asia. The dominions of the
Seljuk Turks now reached to the Hellespont. Palestine
meanwhile was conquered and reconquered by the different
Mahometan powers, and both the Eastern Christians and
the pilgrims from Europe who went to pray at Jerusalem
were far worse treated than they had been in the days of
the first Saracens. Meanwhile a new dynasty arose in the
Eastern Empire under Alexios Komninos, a wise prince,
whose family kept the throne for about a hundred years, and
produced some of the best rulers and bravest warriors among
the Byzantine Emperors. Again, in 1092, the Seljuk power,
like other Eastern states, was divided. One line of Sultans
reigned in Asia Minor, having their capital at Nikaia, and,
as they ruled over lands which had been won from the
Empire, they called themselves Sultans of Ronze.  Thus
everything favoured a common enterprise on the part of the
Christians. The Mahometans were divided; the Eastern
Empire was recovering itself, and men in the West were
stirred up by pilgrims who told of all that the Christians
suffered in the East. Thus the nations of the West were
moved to a great general enterprise to deliver their brethren
and the Holy Places from the power of the infidels.
9. The Beginning of the Crusades.-The duty of going
to deliver the Holy Places was first preached by Peter, a




Ix.]             THE CR USADES.                  I57
hermit of Amiens, though several Popes and Emperors,
Gregory the Seventh among them, had already dreamed of
such an undertaking. The cause was now zealously taken up
by Pope Urban the Second, who in o1094 held a Council at
Clernzont in Auvergne, at which the Holy War was decreed.
This war was called a Crusade, because men put a cross on
their shoulders to show that they were going to fight in a holy
war. Neither the Emperor Henry nor any of the Kings of the
West took any part in the Crusade, but many of the smaller
princes and a vast number of private men set forth on the
enterprise. Most of those who went on the First Crusade
were French-speaking people, from which it has come that
the Eastern nations have ever since called all the people
of Western Europe Franks. The Crusaders passed through
Asia Minor into Palestine, and at last, in Io99, they took
yerusalem.  They founded several Christian principalities
in Palestine and Syria, of which the head was the Kingdonm
of 7erusalem, of which Godfrey of Boulogne, Duke of Lower
Lotharingia, —that is of Brabant in the modern kingdom of
Belgium,-was the first King. The Crusaders kept Jerusalem for somewhat less than a hundred years; and, though
the kingdom was constantly helped by new Crusaders from
Europe, it had much ado to hold its ground against the
various Mahometan powers. Meanwhile, as the power of
the Turks had been so much weakened by the coming of
the Crusaders, the Komnenian Emperors were able to win
back a large part of Asia Minor, all the Euxine and!Egoean
coasts, and the Sultans of Rome were driven back into the
irland parts, and had their capital at Ikonion, instead of at
Nikaia. The effects of the Crusades were very important
in every way. Eastern and Western Christians were brought
across one another and across the Mahometans; and, though
they commonly met one another as enemies, yet they came
to know one another better, and to learn of each other.




I 8      THE ERANCONIAN EMPERORS.   [cH. Ix.
Both the Saracens and the Romans of the East had much
to teach the Western nations in many branches of art and
learning. But still more important than this was the general
stirring up of men's minds which followed on such great
events. From the time of the Crusades a great revival of
thought and learning of every kind began throughout Europe.
Io. Summary.-The time of the Franconian Emperors
was thus a time of very important changes. The great
struggle between the Pofies and the Einzerors began. The
Turkish power began. The Crusades began. The'Norman
Conquest of England took place. The Christians began to
gain ground again in Spain. It was the time when the chief
states of modern Europe began to form themselves, and
when the literature of the Romance languages began. It was
also a time when we find many good historical writers in
England, Germany, and Normandy. And it was a time of
great splendour in building, especially in building churches.
But they were still built in the round-arched or Ronmanesque
style; the use of the pbointed arch, and what is commonly
called the Gothic style, did not come in till near the end of
the twelfth century.




CHAPTER X.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
She Middle Ages; union of Roman and Teutonic elenents (I)-thl
Church and the Empire; how affected by the Teutonic settlements
(2)-idealpowers of the Emperor and the Popee; the theory only
inmperfectly carried out (2)-changes following on the transfer qo
the Empire to the German Kings (2)-stZdy of the Rontan Law
(2) —the Western Empire becomes German and the Eastern,Empire
becomes Greek (3)-condition of the various countries of Europe;
extension of the German ALingdom to the East (3)-the old 7'eutonic
constitution; three orders of mCen, nobles, freemen, and slaves (4)mixture of Roman and Teutonic ideas (4) —orign offiefs; Roman
grannts of landfor military service; 7eutonic custom of contpanionship to a personal Lord (5)-distinction of allodial and feudal
tenures; change of allodial holdings into feudal (5)-effects of the
feudal tenures; growth of the class of serfs (6)-introduction oJ
representative assemblies; growth of the power of thefeudal princes
(6)-comparison of the political state of England, Germany, and
France (7)-Kings commonly chosen out of a single family (8)origin of the Electors of the Enmpire (8)-the Crown of France
becomes strictly hereditary  (8)-uncertainty of succession in the
Eastern Empire (8) -spread of C'hristianity over nearly all
Europe (9)-division between the Eastern and the Western Churches
(9)-growth of the power of the Popes; tendency of the clergy to act
as a distinct class (9)-temporal powers of the clergy; special greatness of the German Prelates (Io)-distinction between regular and
secular clergy (II)-various orders of monks; the military orders
(II)-learning in the West chiefly in the hands of the clergy;
contrast in the East (12)-Greek becomes the language of the
Eastern Empire; continued use of Latin in the West (I2)-early




i6o    GLATERA L VIE TV OF THE M}IDDLE A CES.  [CH.
Teutonic literature; growth of the Romance languages (12)evivz;al of learning, in the t,'edfth centuzy (12) —position of the
towns in ancient Greece and Italy: their decline under the
Teutonic invasions (I3)-destruction of Roman towns in Britain
(I3) —growth of the towns in Germany; greatness of the Hanseatic
League (I3)-greatness of the cities in italy (I3)a-Summary (14),
I. General Survey of Europe.-We have now reached a
point in our history at which it will be well to stop and look
at the general state of things among the European nations.
The points which distinguish what are called the Middle Ages,
alike from what we are used to in modern Europe and from
the old days of heathen Greece and Rome, are now fully
established. The settlement of the Teutonic nations within the
Roman Empire had gradually brought about a state of things
in which we may see both Roman and Teutonic elements,
but in which the two had, as we may say, so joined together
as to make a third thing different from either.
2. The Church and the Empire.-The two great powers
in WVestern Europe were the Church and the Empire. Both
of these went on through the settlements of the German nations, and both in a manner drew new powers from the change
of things.  Men believed more than ever that Rome was the
lawful and natural centre of the world. For it was held that
there were of divine right two Vicars of God upon earth, the
Roman Enmtberor his Vicar in temporal things, and the Roman
isho.a his Vicar in spiritual things. This belief did not
interfere with the existence either of separate commonwealths
and principalities or of national Churches. But it was held
that the Roman Emperor, who was called Lord of the
World, was of right the head of all temporal states, and
that the Roman Bishop, the Pope, was of right the head of
all Churches. Now this theory was never carried out, if only
because so large a part of Christendom, all the Churches
and nations of the East, refused to acknowledge either the




x.]    TITHE CCJU~RCII AND 711E EUPIiRE          I6r
Emperor or the Bishop of the Old Rome. But it was much
more nearly carried out in the case of the Roman Bishop
than it was in the case of the Roman Emperor. For the
Popes did really make themselves spiritual heads of the
whole West, while the temporal headship of the Emperors
was never acknowledged by a large part even of the West.
But the continued belief which men still had in the Roman
Empire as a living thing is not only most remarkable in
itself, but it had a most important effect on the history of
the world. Still it is plain that the Roman Empire could
not really be the same thing as it had been before the
Teutonic nations came into the Roman dominions. Even
during the short time that the whole Empire of Charles the
Great stayed together, it made a great difference that the
Emperor was a German King, living for the most part in
Germany, and not at Rome or anywhere in Italy. And
afterwards the utter cutting off of France and Spain from
the Empire did much to take away from its character as an
universal monarchy, and to make the Emperors more like
common Kings over a particular nation. They were still
Kings of Italy and Burgundy as well as of Germany, but
most things were now tending to make the Empire more and
more German and less and less Roman. On the other hand,
as this was the time of a great new birth of learning, men
had begun, among other things, to study the Civil Law, the
old Law of Rome, as it was put together by the Emperor
7ustinzian. This study naturally led men to a respect for
the Imperial power, and thus helped to give the claims of
the Emperors a new source of strength. We shall see presently the effects of these different tendencies when we
come to the history of the Emperors during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.
3. The Nations of Europe.-Nearly all the nations of
Modern lEurope had now come into being. We may even
M




I62   GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE A GES.  [cH.
say that the two Empires themselves had begun to answer to
two of those nations. For the Eastern Empire had, through
the conquests of the Turks, come to answer pretty nearly to
those parts of Europe and of the coasts of Asia where Greek
was the prevailing language. That is to say, the Roman
Emfpire of the East might be said, speaking roughly, to have
become a Greek state. And, speaking still more roughly, it
might even be said that the Roman Emtpire of fhe West had
become a German State. For Germany was now the heart
and centre of the Empire, though the possession of the Kingdoms of Italy and Burgundy of course gave the Emperors
many Romance-speaking subjects. Southern Italy, it will be
remembered, now formed part of the Kingdom of Sicily. To
the West of Germany and Burgundy, beyond the Rhone, the
Saone, and the Maes, lay the Kingdom of France, the lands
held by the King of the French and his vassals.  In the
Spanish peninsula the Christian states of Castile and Leon,
Navarre, Aragon, and Portuggal, were all growing up, and
were gradually driving the Mahometans into the southern
part called Andalusia. These countries had now so little to
do with the Empire that more than one of the Kings of
Castile took the title of Emnhperor, as being the chief princes in
their own peninsula, just as our West-Saxon Kings had done
the like, as being the chief princes in their own island. It
was only towards the East, where Germany bordered on the
Slavonic nations, that the Empire had much chance of
extending itself. The Wends, the Slavonic people along the
south coast of the Baltic, in iTlecklenburg and Pomerania and
the other lands beyond the Elbe, gradually became Christians
and were joined on to Germany, and the Low-Dutch language
gradually displaced the Slavonic. Bohemia became a dependent
state, but it kept its own Dukes who afterwards became Kings.
So in the other chief Slavonic country, that of Poland, the
Dukes and Kings had sometimes to submit to the Emperors,




x.1         7WT.E NA TIONS OF EUROPE.             I63
but in the end Poland gradually became quite independent,
while Bohemia became more and more closely joined on to
the Empire. We may say nearly the same of the Kingdom
of the Alagyars in Hungary. To the East of Poland and
Hungary, Lithuania, where the people were still heathens,
and Russia, where they belonged to the Eastern Church,
had very little to do with Western Europe. In Northern
Europe, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway were distinct kingdoms. Sweden and Norway had, from their position, very
little to do with the rest of Europe, except so far as the
Orkneys and the other islands off Scotland were still closely
connected with Norway. But Denmark was a very important power, and its Kings made large conquests in various
parts of the coasts of the Baltic. EnlZanad, as we have said,
had become thoroughly welded into one kingdom under the
Norman Kings. Scotland was a distinct kingdom, but its
Kings were held to be the men of the English Kings. And,
during the time with which we are now concerned, came the
beginnings of the English Conquest of Ireland. We thus
see that most of the European states which still exist had
already come into being. From this point therefore we may
for the most part leave the internal affairs of each country to
be dealt with in its own special History. But we must still
go on with our sketch of those events which affected the history of the nations in general, and this will be a good point
to say something about the state of government, religion, and
other matters during what are called the Middle Ages.
4. Changes in the Old Teutonic  Constitution.-We
saw at the very beginning of this book that all the Aryan
nations set out, as far as we can see, with very much the
same kind of government. There was a King or chief as
the leader, there was a smaller Council of nobles or old men,
and there was a general Assembly of the whole people. This
was the form of government of the Teutonic nations at the
M2




164  CENERA L VIE W OF THE MIIDDLE AGES.   [cH.
time when they began to settle within the Roman Empire.
There were commonly three classes of men in the state, the
nobles, the common freeman, and the slaves. And men became slaves in two ways, either by being made prisoners of
war or by being condemned to slavery for some crime. And it
was also usual, especially in war-time, for men to attach themselves to the service of some particular leader, to become his
comnfanions or his men, who were bound to be faithful to him
and who looked to share such rewards as he had to give
them. This we may call the old Teutonic Constitution, being
at first common to all the Teutonic nations. But our own forefathers, when they settled in Britain, swept away all Roman
institutions more utterly than was done in any part of the
mainland. Scandinavia too never came under the Roman
power at all. It was therefore in Britain and Scandinavia that
this old constitution lasted longest on a great scale. In those
parts of the mainland which had always belonged to the Empire things went on somewhat differently. As we have already
said, Roman and Teutonic institutions influenced one another.
As the Roman Empire became something quite different when
it began to be held by German Kings, so the Teutonic Constitution was greatly changed by the Roman laws and institutions which were already established. The cities, for instance,
kept up something of their Roman constitutions; and as men
learned something of the Roman Law, they began to attribute
to the Teutonic Kings something of the great powers of the
Roman Emperors. And of course they did this all the more
after the Frankish Kings had actually become Roman Ermperors. And one institution arose out of the mixture of
Roman and Teutonic ideas which has had a most important
influence on the world ever since.
5. Origin of Fiefs.-It had been very common under the
Roman government to grant lands on condition of military
service. But such lands were held of the Roman Common



x.]             FEUDAL TENURES.                   I65
wealth or of the Emperor as its head, and their holding did
not create any particular personal relation between one man
and another. But when this Roman custom was combined
with the Teutonic custom of men following a chief as their
personal lord, a peculiar relation arose out of the union of
the two. The lord granted lands to his man or vassal on
condition of his being faithful to him and doing him service
in war. The land so granted was called a feudurm, fief, or
fee; and land held in this way was said to be held by afeudal
tenure.  Land which was a man's very own, which was not
held of any lord but was subject only to the laws of the
state, was called allodial. But it often happened that men
whose estates were small found it convenient to turn their
allodial holdings into feudal, and to agree to hold their land
of some powerful lord, in order to get his protection. And
the same thing was sometimes done on a great scale, as
when a prince who was conquered, or who feared that he
might be conquered, agreed to hold his dominions in fef of
the Emperor rather than lose them altogether.
6. Effects of the Feudal Tenures. —The general introduction of these feudal or military tenures caused some important changes both in political and in social matters. The
change was made gradually, and it was slower in England
than in most parts of the Continent; but its general effect
was to raise those men who held their lands by these new
tenures above all others, and to thrust the poorer freemen
lower down. In many countries they gradually sank into the
state of seifs or villains; that is, men who are not actually
slaves to be bought and sold man by man, but who are
bound to the land and pass with it. Meanwhile the class
of actual slaves was dying out, and the serf class was
increased both by the freemen who fell down to it, and by
the slaves who were raised into it. Again the smaller freemen lost power in another way.  The old Teutonic con



i66   GEAERAL VIE TV OF TIHE MIDDLE AGES.  [cH.
stitution, by which each freeman had a right to appear in
the national Assembly, could no longer be fully carried out
when the Franks or any other people had got possession
of a large country. All men could not come in their own
persons, and it was not for a long time, not till the twelfth
or thirteenth century, that anyone thought of choosing a
smaller number of men to speak and act on behalf of all, as
we now do in our own Parliament, and as is done in most of
the countries of Europe and America. From all these causes
working together two chief results happened. First, in most
parts of Europe the old national Assemblies either quite died
out, or were attended only by the chief men who could come
in their own persons. Secondly, each province or district
had a tendency to set up for itself: The Count or Duke,
who was at first merely the governor of a province, often
grew into an hereditary prince, acknowledging the Emperor
or other King as the lord of whom he held his dominions
in fief, but acting almost as an independent sovereign in the
internal government of those dominions.
7. Comparison of Different Countries.-These tendencies
were more or less at work in every part of Western Europe,
but they were carried out more fully and more quickly in
some countries than in others. Scandinavia and England
up to the timfe of the Norman Conquest were less affected
by them than other countries. In England the national
Assemblies never died out, but, as the Kings of the WestSaxons grew into Kings of the English, the Assembly of
Wessex became the national Assembly of all England. The
coming in of the Normans greatly strengthened the power
of the Crown, and thereby made the nation more thoroughly
one. But, on the other hand, it greatly strengthened the
feudal ideas, till it was thought that all land must be held of
a lord, of the King of course in the first instance, as the
supreme lord. In Germany also, the national Assemblies




x. ]           ELECTION OF KING S.                167
never died out; but the Bishops, Dukes, Counts, and other
princes gradually became sovereigns within their own dominions, and the Diet or Assembly of the Empire gradually
became little more than a meeting of princes. In Italy things
took a course so different from other countries that it will be
well to speak of it by itself. France for a while fell asunder
more completely than any other kingdom. The national
Assemblies ceased altogether, and the Kings became mere
nominal lords over the great princes who held fiefs of them.
But this in the end led to a greater strengthening of the royal
power in France than in any other kingdom. For the Kings
of the French got step by step into their own hands nearly
all the dominions of their vassals, as well as those of many of
their neighbours who were not their vassals. Thus, for the
very reason that the French Kings had once had much less
power than either the Emperors or the English Kings, they
came in the end to have much more power than either of them.
8. Ways of appointing Kings.-As for the way in which
Kings were appointed, by the old Teutonic Constitution the
Kings were chosen by the people, but for the most part out
of one particular family. In England this way of choosing
Kings lasted till the Norman Conquest, and died out only
very gradually afterwards. The Frankish or German Kings,
who by virtue of their election in Germany had a right to
become Romran Enmperors, were always elected. But in the
twelfth century the right of election began gradually to be
confined to a few of the chief princes of Germany, who were
fixed at seven, and who bore the special title of Electors. But
the Emperors, whenever they could, got their sons to be chosen
Kings in their lifetime, as Henry the Third and Fourth both
did. In this case, when the young King's father died, he
went on reigning without any interregnum, and in due time
he was crowned Emperor. In France the Crown became
more strictly hereditary than anywhere else, because, for more




r68   GENERAL VIEW OF THE MIDDLE.4 GES.  [cir.
than three hundred years after the election of Hugh Capet,
every King of the French left a son ready to succeed him,
and who had sometimes been crowned in his father's lifetime.
Thus in France the male line went on without any break,
while, both in Germany and in England, the Crown passed
several times from one family to another, though the several
dynasties were commonly of some kin to one another through
female descent. All that we have now been saying has to do
only with Western Europe. In the East the system of fiefs
was never introduced till the Latins began to make conquests
at the expense of the Eastern Emperors. And in the East
too the Empire went on as it had done from the time of the
first Caesars, often staying in one family for several generations, but being often seized on by any general or leading
man who was strong enough. This was a state of things
which had quite passed away in the West. In the Eastern
Empire too the power of the Emperors remained quite
despotic; still their government never became quite like the
despotisms of the East, as it was always tempered by some
remembrance of the old laws and traditions of Rome.
9. State of Religion.-By this time by far the greater
part of Europe was Christian. Poland and Hungary were
converted about the end of the tenth century, and the Scandinavian countries, as we have already seen, about the same
time. Only the Prussians and Lithuanians, and the Fins
and Lnaps in the extreme North, remained heathen. In Sjbain
the Saracens and Moors were of course Mahometans, and
there were still Mahometans in Sicily under the Norman
Kings. But, while nearly all Europe was thus Christian, the
division between the two great branches of the Church had
become wider than ever. After the eleventh century there
seemed no hope of a reconciliation between the Churches of
Old and New Rome. In the West the power of the Popes
was steadily growing, and it was at its height from the




x.]            STA TE OF RELIGION.         I69
eleventh century to the thirteenth, during which time several
Popes followed the example of Gregory the Seventh, in taking
upon themselves to depose the Emperors and other Kings,
and to give away their dominions. And, while the power of
the Popes was thus growing at the expense of civil rulers, it
was growing no less fast at the expense of national Churches
in each particular country. And, as the rule by which the
clergy were forbidden to marry was spreading everywhere,
they were becoming a class more and more separate from
other men, and more and more obedient to the Popes. In
all this there was much that we cannot help blaming, and the
Popes and clergy often thought too much of the interests of
their own order, and not of the welfare of the Church in
general; still we must remember that the Popes and other
clergy kept up religion and learning, and a general sense of
right and wrong, in very rough and wild times. There was
much to blame in their own conduct, but they were a great
check on the evil passions of men; and, whatever we say of
the Popes in particular, the general influence of the clergy
was a powerful influence for good.
Io. Position of the Clergy.-As the Popes were constantly
taking to themselves power in temporal matters, so we find
in these times the clergy in general taking a part in temporal
affairs which we should now think very strange. But this
was by no means wholly the fault of t'he clergy; as things
were then, it could hardly be otherwise.  The clergy had
nearly all the knowledge of the time in their hands, so that it
could not fail that they were largely employed in all matters,
including many which did not exactly belong to their own
duties. They acted as ministers of Kings and as lawyers,
and many of them did not scruple to wear weapons and
fight, though this was always held to be a wrong thing and
against the laws of the Church. In all parts of Western
Christendom the bishopricks and monasteries and other




o70   GENERAL VIE W OF THE MIDDLE A GES.  [cH.
ecclesiastical bodies were richly endowed, and held great
lands and lordships. In Germany especially most of the
Bishops and Abbots were princes of the Empire, and the three
Archbishops of Mainz, Kbzn, and Trier (called in French
Mayence, Cologne, and Treves) were among the Electors of
the Emperor. In other countries they did not rise to such
power as this, but they were always high in temporal power
and formed important members of the Parliament or othex
national Assembly.
II. The Monastic Orders.-The distinction between the
regular and the secular clergy was now fully established. The
regular clergy were those who went out of the world and
lived together as monks in monasteries; the seculars were
those who lived in the world as parish priests or canons of
cathedral and collegiate churches. There were many learned
men in both classes; but we have on the whole more
histories and other books written by the regulars than by
the seculars. The oldest monks in the West were the Benedictines, who followed the rule of Saint Benedict, the great
founder of the monastic life in Italy in the sixth century. But,
as the Benedictines grew rich and their discipline became less
strict, other orders of monks arose, who professed to bring back
an older and stricter discipline.  Such were the Cistercians,
an order of which many houses were founded in the twelfth
century; and in the thirteenth arose the different orders of
Friars, as the Franciscans and Dominicans, called after their
founders Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, who professed
more complete poverty than the older orders, and gave themselves much to preaching. All these different revivals, one
after the other, did good at the time, both among the monks
and among other men; but each new order commonly came
in the end to be rich and corrupt, like those which it had
undertaken to reform, and so a new reformation was needed.
But the strangest thing of all was that during the Crusade,




X.]         eTHE MIONASTIC ORDERS.                 I7I
there arose orders of monks who were also soldiers-men
who took the vows of monks, but whose further business it
was to fight against the enemies of Christianity. Two of
these military orders, the Temflars and the H]ospitallers
or Knights of Saint 7ohn, were the chief defence of the
Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. Another order of this
kind, called the Teutonic Kizzfgzts, arose in Palestine towards
the end of the twelfth century, and in the course of the
thirteenth they undertook to convert or conquer the heathens
on the coast of the Baltic, in Przussia and Lizonia, where
the order held principalities. Thus strangely were religious
zeal and the love of fighting mixed up in these times.
I2. Language and Learning —In all this it must be
remembered that we are speaking wholly of Western Christendom, and more especially when we speak of knowledge
being in the hands of the clergy. In the Eastern Empire
both the regular and secular clergy play a great part in history, but they neither had all learning to themselves, nor did
they fill temporal offices in the same way in which they did
in the West. In the East, where the Empire had gone on
uninterruptedly without any lasting barbarian conquests,
learning had never died out among the laity. The Latin
language \   now quite forgotten in the East. Greek was
the one tongue which men both wrote and spoke, though
of course they wrote much better Greek than they spoke.
Many of the histories which were written at Constantinople at this time were written by laymen, often by
Emperors and other men of high rank. But in the West
there was nowhere any one language common to all classes
of men. T-he use of Latin was everywhere kept up for
all purposes of religion and learning. The Church service
was still said in Latin, though Latin was now nowhere the
common language of the people. For in Germany, England,
and Scandinavia men spoke dtleir own Teutonic languages,




172   GENERAL VIE WV OF THE MIDDLE A GES.  [CH.
and in Italy, Aquitaine, Spain, and France, men spoke the
Romance tongues, which we must now look on as languages
distinct from the Latin. It thus came about that very few
books were written by laymen, and that very few books were
anywhere written in the speech of the people. Still, more
books were written in the speech of the people in the
Teutonic than in the Romance countries, because no one
could help knowing that High-Ditch, English, or Danish
was quite a different language from Latin; while men for a
long time looked on the vulgar tongue, as it was called, in
the Romance countries, simply as bad Latin, which no one
would think of writing. Thus we have many Old-English,
and some High-Dutch, writings older than anything in any
of the Romance tongues. In England we have what no
other nation has, a History of our own people from the beginning written in our own language. In Scandinavia too men
wrote their own legends and histories in their own tongue.
We begin to get French verse in the twelfth century, but it
is not till the thirteenth century that we get any prose. It
is somewhat later that we come to the first great work of
Italian literature in the famous poem of Dante Aizghieri.
The first chief writers in both these languages were, as might
be supposed, laymen. The twelfth century was a great new
birth of learning and science everywhere, partly because men
then began to have more dealings with the Greeks and
Saracens. Still, even after this time, laymen in Northern
Europe were, as a rule, not taught to read and write, though
reading and writing gradually became more common, and it
must always be remembered that, when a man could not
write, it does not at all follow that he could not read.
I3. Growth of the Towns.-Another thing must here be
mentioned, which was of special importance at the time
which we have just come to. This was the growing up of
the towrans into greater, in some parts into the very first, im



x.]         GCROW7I1 OF 7'HE TOIWNS.              I73
portance. In the old state of things, Greek and Roman, the
towns had, so to speak, been everything. Every freeman
was a citizen of some town or other, and the Roman
dominion was throughout a dominion of one city bearing
rule over other cities. The Teutonic settlements everywhere
drove the towns back; none of the Teutonic nations were
used to a town life. They looked upon the walls of a town as
a prison. In Britain, our own forefathers, who knew nothing
at all of Roman civilization, seem at first to have utterly
destroyed the Roman towns, and it was not till some time
after the first conquest that new Eg/'Zisi towns began to arise,
very often on the old Roman sites. In the other provinces,
the Goths, Franks, and other Teutonic settlers did not destroy
the Roman towns, but they lost much of their importance
and local freedom. But, as civilization began to grow again,
new towns began to spring up, and the old towns to win back
something of their old greatness. In Germany the Saxon
Emperors were great founders of towns; and, both there and
in other parts of the Empire, the old and the new towns alike
gradually won for themselves great privileges, which made
them almost independent within their own walls. And, as the
Imperial power declined and the Dukes and Counts grew
into sovereign princes, so in the same way the free Imperial
cities grew into sovereign commonwealths, acknowledging
only the outward supremacy of the Emperor. And in many
cases, like the towns of Old Greece and Italy, they joined together in Lealgules for mutual defence. Thus in Northern Germany, the Hanseatic Lerag'ue, the league of the great trading
towns, became a great power in all the Northern seas, and
often gave law to the Kings of Denmark and Sweden. But
the part of the Empire where the towns rose to the highest
pitch of greatness was Italy, especially the northern part.
There, from the eleventh century onwards, the towns, as we,
may say, became everything, just as they had been in old




174   GE ANERAL VIE WV 0F TILE  fID DLE A GES. [c H. x.
Greece. Here nearly the whole country was parted out among
the dominions of the different cities, and the whole land became
again an assemblage of commonwealths, independent of any
power but that of the Emperor. But though the freedom of
the Italian towns became greater than that of the towns in
Germany, it was not so lasting. In Germany a great many
of the towns always kept their freedom; and three of them,
the Hanse Towns of Li'beck, Bremen, and Hamburg, are
separate commonwealths even now.  But in Italy most of
the cities fell, just as those of old Greece did long before, into
the hands either of native lords or Tyrants or into those of
foreign princes. Thus it was that Italy became divided,
or rather grouped together, into the various principalities
which have lately been joined together again into the restored
Kingdom of Italy. But a few commonwealths contrived to
go on till the end of the last century, and one very small one,
that of San Marino, remains still.
14. Summary.-These are some of the chief characteristics
which we may look on as distinguishing the times known as
the Middle Ages from tines earlier and later. It is not easy
to say when the Middle Ages begin and end, as the name is
nothing more than a convenient way of speaking. But the
tendencies of which we have been speaking were about their
height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in the time of
the Swabian Emperors. We have now, so to speak, got
quite clear of the old Roman times, while we have not yet
got into the times which are more like those in which we
now live. In the course of the thirteenth century we shall
come across great changes.




CHAPTER XI.
TIlE SWABIAN EMPERORS.
The Hohenstaufen Kings and Emperors; orizin of the names Gu/ey
and Ghibelin (I)-reigfn and crusade of Conrad (I)-reign of
Frederick Barbarossa; his dealings with the Italian cities, with
the Popes, with Kings of Sicily, with the Eastern Empire (2)reign of Henry the Sixth; his conquest of Sicily (3) —double election
of Philip and Otto; reign of Frederick the Second; his dealings
with Sicily, Germany, Italy, and the Popes (4)-reign of Conrad
the Fourth; end of the Swabian dynasty; decline of the Imperial
power (4)-relations between England and France; dominions of
the Angevin Kings; reign of Henry the Second (5)-rivalhy of
Philihp Augustus and Richard Caeur-de-Lion (5)-reign of 7ohn
in England; his forfeiture of Normandy (5)-victory of Philzip at
Bouvines; Lewis of France in England (5)-reign of Lewis the
Eighth (6)-reign of Saint Lewis; his dealings with Henry the
Third; annexation of Toulouse (6)-effects of the reign of Saint
Lewis; advance of the French Kingdom (6)-grozwth of the English Constitution; union of Normans and English against
foreigners (7)-reforins of Simon of Montfort; nature of national
assemblies in England and elsewhere (7)-the English congquest of
Ireland (8) — state of fthe Kingdomo   of 7erusalcin; the Second
Crusade; taking of yerusalem by Saladin (9)-Crusade of the
Emperor Frederick, and the Kings Philip and Richard (Io)fEiederick the Second wins back yerusalem; its final capture by the
Chorasmzians ( o)-Crusades of Satint Lewis and of Edward the
First; final loss of the Holy Land (Io)-revival of the Eastern
Empire under the AKomnenian dynasty; its decline (I I)-Fourth
Crusade; taking of Constantinople by the Franks and Venetians
(I )-the Latin Emznpire of Constantinople; Eastern dominion aJ




176           THdE S TfK4BIA4i    EMV bAPERORS.        [CTAP.
Veinice (I2) —format!ion  qf various pirincipalities in the East,,
Emnperors of Aikaia and Trebizond (I2) - Conslantinople recovered by the Greeks; cynasty  of the Palaiolo0roi (I2) —the
Albioenses; Crusades ctaiI against themn; suppression of their
sect and of their national indeprendence (i 3)-reizrn of Aitnfred in
Sicily; Crusades preache/d against him (I4) —conquest of Sicily by
Charles of Anjou; execution of Conradin; revolt of the island of
Sicily ( 4) —state of North-eastern Europe; advance of Denmark
east of the Baltic (I5)-establishment of the Teutonic Knigzhts in
Prussia and Livonia ( 5) —nezw Maa,'omelan dynasties in Spain;
victories of the Caliph 7acob (I 6)-advance of the Christian Kingdams of Caszile, Aragtcn, and Portugal; the Moors confined to
Granada (I6)-rise of the Moguls; reigns of Yenghiz and Khi
descendants ( 7) - invasion of Central Eurojpe by Batou Khan;
subjection of Russia (I7)-overthrow of the Caliphate and of the
Seljuk Turks (I7)-Sumnma1y (8I).
I. Origin of the Guelfs and Ghibelins.-On the death of
Henry the Fifth in  I25, Lothar, Duke of Saxony, was
elected King, and in II33 he was crowned Emperor. He
submitted more readily to the Popes than most Emperors did,
and Pope Innocent the Second even gave out that he became
his man at his coronation. But on Lothar's death the Imperial
Crown passed to one of the greatest families which ever held
it, that of the Hohenstaufen or Dukes of Suwabia. The first
King of that house was Conrad the Third, who reigned
as King from  I 38 to I I52, but who was never crowned
Emperor.  He was the son of a daughter of the Emperor
Henry the Fourth, so that the Swabian dynasty did in a
manner continue that of Franconia.   It might also be said
to continue them in their policy; for the Emperors of this
family had fully as much to do in disputing with the Popes
as the Franconian Emperors had done.  This however did
not begin in the time of King Conrad, who had hardly anything to do with Italian affairs. But it should be noticed
that the two names of Gue/f and Ghibelin, which presently




XI.]          GUELFS AND GHIBE LINS.                 1 77
becamfe so famous in Italy, began during his reign in Germany. For Conrad had several wars with the Saxons and
others who disliked his election, and in one of the sieges the
war-cry of the rebels was WTe/f, after their leader, [ctVe
brother of Duke He/zry of Saxony, while the Kill,'s men
shouted Waiblinenez, the name of a village where their leader,
Duke Frederick of Swabia, the King's brother, had been
brought up. These names, written in an Italian fashion,
became Gueifs and Ghibelins: the Gueifs meaning those
who supported the Popes, and the GAibelins those who
supported the Emperors. King Conrad went on the second
Crusade to the Holy Land, in which he did not gain much
success; and it is a thing to be noted that he made a league
with lanlezzel, the Emperor of the East, against Rogaer King of
Sicily, who was making himself dangerous to both Empires.
2. Reign of Frederick Birbarossa. —But the reign of
Conrad was of little importance compared with that of his
nephew and successor F:rederick, who, from his red beard,
is commonly known as Frederick Barbarossa.  lHe was
chosen King in  1 52; he was crowned Emperor in I 155, and
reigned till I I9. The greater part of his reign was taken
up w\;ith the affairs and wars of Italy. The Italian cities,
as has been already said, had grown up into nearly independent commonwealths.  They often had wars with one
another, and, just as in old Greece, the smaller cities often
complained of the oppression of the greater.  Thus the
great city of Afianl sought to bring Como, Lodi, and others
of the smaller cities under its power, and the smaller cities
in their turn prayed the Emperor to come to their help.
Some of the cities, as Pavia, which had been the capital
in the Lombard times, and the great seafaring commonwealth of Pisa, were always strong on the side of the Emperors. But, gradually, most of the cities of Northern Italy
found that it was their interest to join together to defend
N




178         TIE SWABiAN EMPE RORS.               [CIHAP.
their independence against the Imperial power.  Thus was
formed the Lombard League, with which Frederick had long
wars, which will be best spoken of in the special History
of Italy. But, besides the cities, the Western Emperors had
other enemies to strive against in Italy. Popes and Emperors never could agree; disputes arose between Frederick
and Pope Hadrian the Fourth, who had crowned him. When
Hadrian died in 1159, a fiercer dispute broke out; for the
Popedom was claimed by two candidates, Victor and AZexandr. The Emperor took the side of Victor; therefore the
cities which were against him naturally took the other side,
and Frederick had to strive against all who followed Pope
Alexander.  The Kings of Sicily too, Will4iam  the Good
and William the Bad, were his enemies; and the Emperor
Mlanuel K'onzmieos, who dreamed of winning back Italy for
the Eastern Empire, also gave help to the revolted cities. The
end was that the Emperor had to make peace with both the
Pope and the cities, and in I 83 the rights of the cities were
acknowledged in a treaty or law of the Empire, passed at
Constanz or Constance in Swabia. In the last years of his
reign, Frederick went on the third Crusade, and, died on
the way.
3. Union of Sicily with the Empire.-Frederick was succeeded by his son Henry the Sixth, who had already been
chosen King, and who in the next year, I I 9, was crowned
Emperor. The chief event of his reign was the conquest of
the Kingdom of Sicily, which he claimed in right of his wife
Conzstance, the daughter of the first King William.  He
died in II97, leaving his son Frederick a young child, who
had already been chosen King in Germany, and who succeeded as hereditary King in Sicily. The Norman Kingdom
of Sicily thus came to an end, except so far as it was continued through Frederick, who was descended from the
Norman Kings through his mother.




x1.]            THE FREDERICKS.                   I79
4. Reign of Frederick the Second.-On the death of the
Emperor Henry, the election of young Frederick seems to have
been quite forgotten, and the crown was disputed between
his uncle P/iiliP of Swabia and Otto of Saxony. He was
son of Henry the Lion, who had been Duke of Saxony and
Bavaria, but who had lost the more part of his dominions
in the time of Frederick Barbarossa.  Otto's mother was
Mntilda, daughter of Henry the Second of England, a connexion of which we shall presently see what came.  Both
Kings were crowned, and, after the death of Philip, Otto was
crowned Emperor in 1209. But presently young Frederick
was again chosen, and in I220 he was crowned Emperor, and
reigned thirty years till his death in 1250. This Frederick t/he
Second, who joined together so many crowns, was called the
IWonder of the World.  And he well deserved the name, for
perhaps no King that ever reigned had greater natural gifts,
and in thought and learning he was far above the age in
which he lived. In his own kingdom of Sicily he could do
pretty much as he pleased, and it flourished wonderfully in
his time. But in Geraczny and Italy he had constantly to
struggle against enemies of all kinds. In Germany he had to
win the support of the Princes by granting them privileges
which did much to undermine the royal power, and on the
other hand he showed no favour to the rising power of the
cities. In Italy he had endless strivings with one Pope
after another, with Innocent the Third, Honorius th/e Third,
Gregory the Ninzth, and Innocent the Fourth; as well as
with the Gueazic cities, which withstood him much as they
had withstood his grandfather. He was more than once
excommunicated by the Popes, and in I245 Pope Innocent
the Fourth held a Council at Lyons, in which he professed to
depose the Emperor. More than one King was chosen in
opposition to him in Germany, just as had been done in the
time of Henry the Fourth, and there were civil wars all his
N2




i8o         THE SWABIAN EMPERORS.             [CHAP.
time, both in Germany and in Italy, while a great part of the
Kingdom of Burgundzy was beginning to slip away from the
Empire altogether. On Frederick's death, his son Conrad,
who had been chosen King in Germany in I237, and who of
course succeeded his father in the hereditary Kingdom ot
Sicily, was reckoned as King by the Ghibelins in Germany
and Italy. But he died in 1254, and he was never crowned
Emperor. With him ended the line of Swabia as Emperors
and as Kings of Germany and Italy. Moreover, from the
death of Frederick the Second, we may look on the power of
the Empire, as the great leading state of Europe and the
centre of all European history, as coming to an end.
5. England and France.-While the Swabian Emperors
reigned in Germany and Italy, the AnSgevin lKings reigned in
England. They began with H/elzry the Second, the grandson of Henry the First through his daughter the Ermpre.ss
Matilda. Now came the time when England was part ot
the dominions of a prince whose greatest power lay on
the Continent. The dominions which Henry held through
his father, his mother, and his wife, took up nearly the
whole of Western Gaul, and he held the mouths of the
great rivers Seine, Loire, and Garonne. Thus it came that
in England both the native English and the Norman settlers
were brought under the rule of a King who was not really
either Norman or English. Thus too it came that in France
the King was more than ever shut up in his own dominions,
when nearly the whole coast was held by a prince who was
Duke of Normandy and Aquitaize and Kizng of Engfland all
at once. Thus there began in England a more distinct rule of
foreigners over all the natives of the land of whatever race,
and in France the rivalry between the King and his great
vassal is more marked than ever. In France King Lewis the
Sixth, who reigned from I Io8 to  1137, had done something to
strengthen the royal authority, and he had also favoured the




XI.]         ENGLAND AND FRANCE.                   Is.
growth of the towns. His son Lewis the Seven/h was often
at variance with King Henry of England, but no very great
changes happened while they lived. It was quite different in
the time of their sons. Lewis died in I I 8o, and was succeeded
by his son Phizlip, called Philit/ Ag-uwstus, and Henry died
in I I89, and was succeeded by his son Richard, called Cawur
de Lion or the Lion-Heart. These two Kings joined in a
Crusade, of which we shall say more presently; but enmity
went on during the whole of their reigns, and things came to
a head in the time of King 7ohn of England, who succeeded
on the death of his brother Richard in I I99. He was lawfully
chosen King according to English law, and it does not seerr:
that any party in England thought of raising anyone else to
the crown.  But a party in Richard's foreign dominions
wished to have for their Duke young A rthur, the son of John's
elder brother Geoffrey, whose mother was Constance, the
heiress of Drifanny. John got Arthur into his power, and
he was commonly believed to have murdered him. This ot
course raised great indignation everywhere, and Philip took
advantage of it to cause a sentence to be passed by the
peers of his kingdom, by which John was declared to have
forfeited all the fiefs which he held of the Crown of France.
By way of carrying out this sentence, Philip conquered, with
very little trouble, all continental Normandy and the other
possessions of John in Northern Gaul. But the Duchy of
Aquitaine and the Norman islands were still kept by the
Kings of England.  From  this time England became
the most important part of the King of England's dominions, and all the natives of England, whether of OldEnglish or of Norman descent, began to draw together as
countrymen to withstand the strangers whom the Angevin
Kings were constantly bringing into  the land.  Meanwhile John contrived to quarrel both with Pope Innocent
and with his own subjects: ani in I214 Philip won the




182          THE SfIAB314A'N EMAPERORS.         [CHAP.
battle of Boltvines in Flanders over the English forces, together with those of John's nephew the Emperor Otto. In
this battle the French got the better of three Teutonic
nations, Germans, English, and Flemings all together. In
12I6, the Barons of England who had revolted against John
offered the crown to Lewis the eldest son of Philip of France.
He came over into England; but, as John died before long,
the supporters of Lewis gradually left him, and Henzry the
Third, the young son of John, was acknowledged King.
Two things strike us in this part of the story. On the one
hand, it seems strange that the Normans in Normandy, who
had had such long wars with the French, should have
allowed themselves to be conquered by Philip almost without making any resistance. On the other hand, it seems
strange that the Barons of England, whether we call them
Normans or Englishmen, should have offered the crown of
England to the eldest son of the King of the French. The
truth is that John was felt to be really neither a Norman
Duke nor an English King, and men most likely thought
that, if they were to have a foreign ruler, Philip and Lewis
would be better than John.
6. Saint Lewis.-After the death of Philip, his son Lewis
the Eight/zh, who had failed to get the Crown of England,
reigned for a few years in France, from I223 to I226. Then
came his son Lewis the Ninith, called Saint Lewis, and most
rightly so called, for he was perhaps the best King that ever
reigned, unless it were our own Alfred. The only evil was
that his personal goodness helped greatly to increase the
power of the Crown, and so in the end to make the Kings
of France absolute rulers. And in the like sort it helped
greatly to increase the power of France among other nations.
While Saint Lewis reigned in France, Henry the Third
reigned in Englmnd from 1216 to 1272. Henry made some
attempts to get back his possessions in France; but in 1259




x.L               SAINT LE WIS.                   I83
peace was made, by which Henry kept nothing except his
possessions in the South. In Saint Lewis's time also, but
while he was still young and under the rule of his mother
Blanche of Castile, the dominions of the Counts of Toulouse
were added to the royal possessions by a -treaty made in
1229.  Thus the Kings of the French, instead of being
cooped up in Paris and Orleans, as they had been up to
the time of Philip Augustus, had the more part of their
kingdom in their own hands. Their dominions now reached
to the Mediterranean Sea, and they had havens on all the
three seas, the iWediterranean, the Ocean, and the Channel.
And, though Provence and the other great fiefs of the Kingdom of Burgundy were not joined to France for a long time to
come, still from this time they began to have a connexion
with France. The French Kings began to meddle with their
affairs in a way which may be thought to have paved the
way for their conquest at a later time. Generally, just as the
German Kingdom was getting weaker, and was now in truth
splitting to pieces, the French Kingdom was getting stronger
and more united; and from this time France was always
reckoned amongst the foremost powers of Europe.
7. The Internal Affairs of England.-The internal and
constitutional affairs of England will be spoken of more at
large in the special History of England. But a few words
must be given to them, as they are closely connected with the
general course of European affairs. The thirteenth century
was a time of great changes, a time, so to speak, of beginnings and endings, throughout the world. As both Empires
practically came to an end, as the Kingdom of France, in
anything like its later extent and importance, may be said to
have begun, so now the Constitution of England began to
put on the shape which it has kept ever since. Under John
and Henry the Third we see how the fondness of the
Angevin Kings for foreigners of all kinds drove the natives




184         T/HE SWABIAAT EMPERORS.            [CHAP.
of England, whether of English or Norman descent, to
join together against the strangers. The whole nation
joined together to force King John in 1215 to grant the
Great Charter., by which all the old rights and good laws
which he had broken were confirmed. This Great Charter
the Kings who followed had to confirm over and over again,
because they were always trying to break it; and it has been
the groundwork of English freedom ever since.  So again,
in the time of Henry the Third, when the King's misgovernment and his favour to foreigners again drove the Barons
and the whole people to rise against him, though the Popes
again took the side of the King and excommunicated
all who rose against him, we again find the whole English
nation, nobles, clergy, and people, acting firmly together. In
this war against Henry the Third the great leader was Simon
of Mlonlfort, the son of another Simon of whom we shall
hear presently.  Hle was, oddly enough, a Frenchman by
birth, but he inherited the Earldom of Leicester through
his mother; and, when he came to England, he threw in
his lot with his new country, and did in everything as a
good Englishman. It was by him that the Great Council of
the Nation, which was now called by the French name of
Parliament, was made to take the form which it has borne
ever since. Some kind of National Assembly was found
in nearly every part of Western Europe.  But in most
countries the Assembly consisted of Estates; that is, representatives of the different classes of freemen in the nation.
These, in most countries, were counted as three, Nobles,
Clergy, and Commons, the Commons generally being only
the citizens of the towns.  This sort of constitution was
set up in France by Philift the Fair, the grandson of
Saint Lewis. The States came together in each country
to grant money to the King, and to demand such changes
in the laws or other reforms as might be needed.  But




XI.]           SI1MON OF MIONTFOR T.              185
in France the States never met regularly, but only when it
suited the King's purposes, or when he could not help calling
theml together. In England, on the other hard, our Parliaments went on far more regularly, so that we have never
been left without a national Assembly of some kind from the
very beginning of things till now. And in England the
Parliament took the particular form of an assembly with
Two Houses.  The Earls, Bishops, and other great men,
grew into the House of Lords, and the Hrouse of Comnzons
was gradually formed out of the representatives of the people
in general. First of all, the freeholders of each county were
called on to send some of the knigzhts of that county to
represent them, and at last, when Earl Simon held a Parliament in 1265, he called on the cities and boroughs to send
each two of their citizens or buroyesses.  Earl Simon was
killed that same year in the battle of Eveszhanz, but the
system of representation which he had brought in was before
long firmly established under King Edward the First.
8. The Conquest of Ireland.-Duringthis time manythings
happened between the English Kings and their vassals the
Kinigs of Scots and Princes of Wales, which will be better told
in the History of England. But it must be mentioned here
that it was in the reign of Henry the Second that the English
dominion in Ireland began. At the very beginning of his
reign, in I 1155, King Henry got a Bull from Pope Hadrian the
Fourth, who was an Englishman and the only Englishman
that ever was Pope, giving him leave to conquer Ireland:
thus had the Popes taken upon themselves to dispose of
kingdoms. But it was not till 1170 that some nobles and
other private adventurers went over into Ireland under pretence of helping a banished Irish king called Dermnot. Two
years afterwards King Henry went over himself to receive
the homage of the whole country. From that time the Kings
of England always claimed to be Lords of Ireland, and the




x86         THE S W4 BIA T   EMPER ORS.        [CHAP.
city of Dublin and a greater or less part of the island was
always under the English power; but it was not for many
ages that they really got possession of all Ireland, and cruel
wars long went on between the English settlers and the
native Irish.
9. The Loss of Jerusalem.-A large part of the history of
this time might come under the general head of Crusades.
The first Crusades or Holy Wars had been undertaken
to win back the Holy Sepulchre from the infidels; but
after a while both the name and the thing began to be
greatly abused, and Crusades were preached against almost
anyone with whdm the Popes were at enmity.  The First
Crusade, as we have already seen, led to the establishment
of the Christian Kingdom of yerusalem in og099. The chief
strength of the kingdom lay in the two orders of military
monks, the TemhlZars and the Hospitallers or Knzghls of
Saint 7ohn, and many warriors from all parts of Christendom went to serve for a while in the Holy Land as a good
work. Still the Kings of Jerusalem had much ado to keep
their little kingdom from the attacks of the neighbouring
Mahometan powers, and several new Crusades had to be
made to help them, some of which were led by the
greatest princes in Europe. Thus in II47 the Second
Crusade was preached by Saint Bernard, one of the holiest
men of the time, and who is called the last of the Fathers
of the Church. Conrad King of the Romans and Lewis the
Seventh, King.of the French, both went on this Crusade, but
they were not able to do any great things. And there soon
arose a power in Egypt which became more dangerous
to the Christians of the East than any of the other Mahometan powers that were there. We have seen there had
been for some time a separate line of Caliphs in Egypt; these
were called the Fatimitres, as professing to be the descendants
of Fatlima, the daughter of Maihomnet.  But in 1171 their




XI.]              THE CRUSADES.                  I87
power was put down by yose ht surnamed Saladin, who
brought back Egypt under the spiritual power of the Caliph
of Bagdad, much as if the Eastern Church had been brought
under the power of the Bishops of Rome. Saladin became
the greatest Mahometan chief of his time; and in I 187 he took
Jerusalem and drove the Christians out of the greater part
of the kingdom. Thus far all the Crusades since the First
had been waged for the purpose of defending the Christian
possession of Jerusalem. We have now again to come to
Crusades which were waged, as the First had been, to win
back the Holy City from the Infidels, as well as to save
the small fragment of the kingdom which was left.
Io. The Later Crusades in Palestine.-The loss of Jerusalem roused the spirit of all Western Christendom. King
Henry of England took the cross, but he died two years later,
without ever setting out for the Holy Land. But in  I89 the
Emperor Frederick set out by land, but was drowned on
the way; and in I I9o P/hiiZ/ King of the French and his
great vassal Richard, the new King of the English, went
to the Holy Land by sea. King Richard did many great
exploits; but the princes quarrelled among themselves,
so that Jerusalem was not won back; but some parts ot
Palestine were still left to the Christians, and they were
allowed to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Of the Third
Crusade we shall have to speak by itself, as it did nothing
for the Holy Land at all.  But in 1228 the Emperor
Frederick the Second, who claimed to be King of Jerusalem
in right of his wife, notwithstanding the opposition ot
Pope Gregory the Ninth, really went to the Holy Land,
and won Jerusalem by a treaty with the Egyptian Sultan
Kamel, and was crowned King there. He was the last
Christian King who really reigned at Jerusalem.  For in
1244 the Holy City was again lost by the Christians, being
taken by the Mahometan Chorasmians, and it has never been




I88         THtE S IWt ABAN EMICEI.R OARS.     [ChIAP.
won back again. The Popes, instead of helping the Emperor
to win back his kingdom, were always excommunicating and
preaching Crusades against him. The Christians however
still kept some small parts of the kingdom, and in 1248
Saint Lewis, the King of the French, set out on a Crusade;
but, instead of going straight to Palestine, he first attacked
Egypt, as being the best way of winning the Holy Land. But
he was taken prisoner in Egypt; and though he did afterwards reach Palestine, yet he could not win back Jerusalem.
At last he came back to France in 1254, having done little
or nothing for the common cause, but having shown his own
courage and goodness in a wonderful way. In 1270 he set
out on another Crusade; but this time he began by besieging
Tunis, and died there. In 1270 Edward the son of King
Henry of England, afterwards the great King Edward the
First, went on another Crusade, and did something to stop
the final overthrow of the Christians in Palestine, though
even he could not win back Jerusalem. At last, in 1291,
A4cre, the last town which the Christians held in the Holy
Land, was taken by the TMahometans, and the Christian
Kingdom of Jerusalem came altogether to an end. But
the Emperors always called themselves Kinzs of 7erusalem as well as of Germany, and the same vain title has
been borne and disputed about by several other European
sovereigns.
IT. The Latin Conquest of Constantinople.-No one
perhaps would have expected that the Eastern Enzmire, the
great bulwark of Christendom against the Saracens and
Turks, and which the first Crusaders had professed to go
forth to defend, would be actually overthrown by a crusading army. We have seen that the Komnenian Emperors,
following in the wake of the first Crusaders, were able to win
back a large part of the Byzantine dominions in Asia. The
two Emperors who reigned after Alexios, yohn and Manuel,




x.]J  LA TIN CONQUEST OF COASTANTINOPLE.  I89
were both great warriors. _oa/z, who reigned from   II 8 to
1 143, did much really to restore the strength of the Empire;
but AIanuel, who reigned from   I 53 to I I8o, was rather a bold
knight-errant than either a good ruler or a great general.
He had to contend with many enemies both in Europe and
in Asia. In his time Greece was several times ravaged
by the fleets of the, Kings of Sicily,' he had to wage wars
with Hung'ary, and at last he was defeated in a great
battle against the Turks in II76. After his time the
Eastern Empire again began to decline; there were many
internal revolutions; Emperors were set up and put down;
the B'ulzarians revolted, and a separate Emperor set himself
up in the isle of Cy.jrus. At last, in 120I, several Western
princes, among the chief of whom were Baldwin Count of
Flanders and'oniface Marquess of Maontferrat in Italy,
were setting out on a Crusade, and they came to Venice to
ask for ships to take them to the Holy Land. Venice, it
will be remembered, had never been part of the Western
Empire, but had always kept on its nominal allegiance to the
Emperors of the East, till it had gradually become quite independent, as it was now. The three Italian cities, Venice,
Genoa, and Pisa, were now the greatest naval powers in
Europe. The Doge or Duke of Venice, Henry Dandolo,
agreed to let the Crusaders have ships and to go with
them himself; only the Crusaders were to conquer for the
Venetians the town of Zara in Dalmatia to which they laid
claim. Pope Innocent protested against this as being no part
of the business of a Crusade. Yet they not only took Zara,
but agreed to help Alexaios Anzgelos, the son of an Emperor
of the East who had been deposed, in getting back the
Empire.  This they actually did in I203.  But, as the
Romans or Greeks (whichever we are to call them) of Constantinople presently revolted, and slew the Emperors who
had been put in by the Crusaders, the Crusaders in I204




Igo         THE SWVABIAA  EMPERORS.            [CHAP.
again took the city; and the Roman Empire of the East mary
now be said to have come to an end.
I2. The Later Greek Empire.-When the Crusaders had
taken Constantinople, they went on to deal with the whole
Eastern Empire as their own. They set up Count Baldzv'in
as Emperor of Constantinople, and they divided among
themselves as much of the Empire as they could get. This
was the beginning of what was called the Latin Empire of
Constantinople: the word Latin being now often used, as
opposed to Greek, to express all those who admitted the
supremacy of the Roman Church and who used Latin as
their religious and official language.  Among the Latin
powers which now won settlements in the East, the
Venetians especially got possession  of many of the
islands and important points of the coast, which was the
beginning of their great Eastern dominion. Some of the
Venetian and other Latin possessions were never won back
by the Greeks, but on the other hand the, Latins were far
from conquering the whole Empire. The Greeks maintained their independence in Eferiros and at Nikaia' and
YTrajezous or 7rebizond in Asia; in both these latter cities
Greek princes reigned with the title of Emperor. Thus the
Eastern Empire was cut up into a crowd of small principalities, Greek and Frank (the meaning of this last word in
the East has already been explained), Despots of Epeiros,
Dukes of Athens, Princes of Achania, and what not; the Latin
Emperors at Constantinople being supposed to be lords
over all the Frank settlers. But, as the Emperors who reigned
at Nikaia, Theodlore Laskares and John Vatatzes, were very
wise and good princes, the Empire of Nikaia, which professed
to be the true continuation of the Roman Empire at Constantinople, grew and flourished; and in 1261 the Emperor
lfichael Palaiologos won back Constantinople, and the
Empire of the East in some sort began again. But it never




XI.]       THE LA 7YER GREEK EEMPIRE.             19g
won back its old power, for, besides the provinces which
were held by the Mlahometans and the new dominions of
the Venetians, some of the Greek and Frank princes still
went on reigning, and were independent of the Greek Emperor at Constantinople. The Empire of Trebizond especially
outlived the restored Empire of Constantinople.  In truth
this restored Empire of ConIstantinople was little more
than the most powerful of several Greek states which went
on from this time till they were all swallowed up by the
Turks.  But it must be remembered that the Emperors
of Constantinople still called themselves Eil-erors of the
Romans, and professed to continue the old Roman succession. From this time the Eastern Empire became more
strictly hereditary than it had been of old, and the crown
remained with very little interruption in the family of
Palaiologos, till the Empire was finally destroyed by the
Ottomnta Tuztrs.
I3. Crusades against the Albigenses.-We have just seen
how a Crusade, which was meant to be a war for the defence of
Christendom against the unbelievers, could be turned into anr
attack made by one set of Christians against another. But
when the Fourth Crusade was turned about into an attack
on Zara and Constantinople, Pope Innocent at least did what
he could to hinder such a falling away from the original
design of a Crusade. But presently Innocent himself caused
a Crusade to be preached, no longer against Mahometans,
but against Christians who were looked on as heretics. In
the South of Gaul, both in those parts which were fiefs of
the King of the French and in those which were held of
the Emperors as Kings of Burgundy, many men had fallen
away into doctrines which both the Eastern and the Western
Church condemned. Those who held these doctrines were
commonly called Albigenses, from the city of A/(bi. The
chief princes in those parts were the Counts of Toulouse and




192         THE SWYAB~ZAA  EAMPEROORS.          [CHAP.
the Counts of Provenzce: each of them held fiefs both of the
Emperor and of the King of the French; but the County of
Toulouse itself was a fief of France, while the County of
Provence was of course a fief of the Empire. The Counts of
Provence at this time were of the house of the Kings of A r agun.
In 1203 a Crusade was preached against Raymonozod cozuuL! of
Tonzlozlse, which was carried on at first by Simon ofJ /ontfort,
the father of the Simon who was so famous in English
history, and afterwards by Lewis the Ezighti, King of the
French. Simon even defeated Peter King of Ar,'-on in a
great battle, and obtained possession of Toulouse. It looked
at one time as if the house of Monlfort were going to be
established as sovereigns in the South of Gaul; but the end
of the matter was that the heresy of the Albigenses was put
down by cruel persecutions, and that in I229 the county
of Toulouse was, as we have seen, incorporated with the
Kingdom of France.
14. Crusades against Sicily.-In this way the Crusades,
which had first been preached only against the infidels, next
began to be preached against heretics. The next stage was
to preach them against any one who was an enemy of the
Pope. Thus Crusades were preached against the Emperor
Frederick, and after his death they were preached against
his son MAanfred King of Sicily, who began to reign in 1258.
Manfred was a wise and brave King, and he greatly helped
the Ghibelins in other parts of Italy; things almost looked
as if a Kingdom of all Italy was about to arise in the House
of Swabia. But the Popes were of course the enemies of
MIanfred. Even while King Conrad was alive. Pope Innocent
the Fourt/l had in 1253 professed to give the crown of Sicily
to Edhizczvltd the son of our King Henry the Third. But
nothing came of that: so in I262 Pope Urban the Fourl/z
offered the crown to C/harles Contn/ of An//on, the brother
of Saint L.ewis, who was also Count of Provence in right




xI.] ]   R USA4 DES IN SICILY AND PRUSSIA.        193
of his wife. Charles got together an army of French Crusaders, and in I266 he overthrew and slew Manfred in battle.
He then took the kingdom himself; and when, two years
afterwards, young Conradin, the nephew of Manfred, tried to
win back the crown, he was defeated in battle, and was beheaded by order of Charles. Charles was thus IKing of Sicily,
both of the island and of the mainland; but in I282 the
island of Sicily revolted against the oppression of him and
his Frenchmen, and the Sicilians chose as their King Peter
King of Aragon, who had married the daughter of Manfred.
A long war followed; the end of which was that Charles's
descendants kept the kingdom on the mainland, which was
commonly called the Kingdomn of Nanles, while the island
of Sicily became a separate kingdom  in the House of
Aragon: but in both kingdoms the Kings called themselves
Kings of Sicily, so that when the island and the mainland
were joined again long afterwards, the kingdom was called
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
I5. Crusades in the North of Europe. —Besides the real
Crusades against the Mahometans and what we may call
the mock Crusades against heretics and ether enemies of
the Popes, there were also, as we have already seen, Crusades against the heathens in the North of Europe. The
countries on the east side of the Baltic, Prussia, Lithuania,
Livonia, and Es/honia, were still idolatrous.  Poland had
become Christian at the end of the tenth century, and the
Polish Dukes and Kings had much trouble with their heathen
neighbours. Both Poland and Lithuania were much smaller
states now than they became afterwards. Russia at this
time was a much greatecr state, and came much further to
the west, than it did again till quite late times, for the Poles
and Lithuanians made large conquests at the expense of
Russia.  Both Russia and Poland were at this time often
divided between several princes; and one or two of the great
o




194         THE S VAB.IAN4V E MPERORS.         [CHAt'.
cities, especially the famous Novgo-od in the north, were able
to make themselves into republics.  But both Poland and
Russia were almost wholly cut off from the sea by their heathen
neighbours, and at one time it seemed as if the chief power in
those parts was likely to fall into the lands of Denmark, as
several of the Danish Kings, in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, made large conquests on the southern and eastern
shores of the Baltic.  But in the reign of Frederick the
Second great changes were made in those parts by the
establishment of the Teutonic Knights. They were first invited by some of the Polish princes to help them against the
heathen Prussians. Under their Grand AMaster Hermann of
Salza, they were commissioned by the Emperor Frederick and
by Pope Gregory the N/inth, who preached a Crusade against
the Prussians, to settle themselves in those parts about 123G.
They presently conquered Prussia and Eastern Pomerania,
and in I237 another order, called the Knights of the Sword,
who were established in Livonia, were joined with the Teutonic Knights. The territories of the Order now quite cut ofl
Poland, Lithuania, and Russia from the Baltic, and hindered
any fiurther advance of Denmark in those parts. The wars of
the Knights in those lands were looked on as holy wars, and
many men came from other parts of Europe to join them in
fighting against the heathens, just as they had done against
the Saracens in the East. But the government of an order
can never be a really good government, and the Knights often
showed themselves quite as dangerous neighbours to the
Poles, whom they had first come to help, as to the Prussians
and other heathens whom they had come to fight against.
I6. Advance of the Christians in Spain.-While Crusades
against heathens and Mahometans were thus going on in
the North and East, the whole history of Spain might be
called one long Crusade on the part of the Christians who
were winning back the land, step by step, from the Saracens




xI.]         THIE KINGDOMS OF SPAIZA.              I95
and Moors. The advance of the Christians was still checked
by the foundation of new Mahometan dynasties, which passed
over from Africa into Spain. As the Almoravides passed over
in the eleventh century, so the AhImohades, who were much like
a kind of Mahometan Crusaders, passed over in the twelfth.
Alfonso the Eighth, who, as being the chief prince in Spain,
called himself EmJSeeror, withstood them for a while; but, after
his death in II 59, Castile and Leon were again divided, and the
Almohades were able again largely to extend the Mahometan
territories. In 1195 7nacob, the Caliph of the Almohades, at
the head of a kind of general Mahometan Crusade, won the
great battle of Alarcos over Alfonso of Castile, the grandson
of the Emperor Alfonso; and as the different Spanish Kings
were constantly quarrelling between themselves, it almost
seemed as if the Mahometans were going again to get the upper
hand. But when the great Caliph Jacob was dead, and the
Christians began to join together again, the Almohade prince
Mahomet was utterly defeated in 1212 at the battle of Tolosa,
and from that time the Mahometan power in Spain steadily
went down. Ferdinand the Third, called Saint Feridinand,
who reigned over Castile from 1217 to I252 and who in 1230
finally united the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon, won back a
large territory, including the great cities of Seville and
C(ordova.  The Kings of Portzugal and Aragon also were
pressing their conquests in the West and East of the
peninsula.  The most famous of the Kings of Aragon was
17ames the Cotque?-or, Nwho reigned from 1213 to 1276. At
last nothing was left of the Mahometan power in Spain save
only the Kingdom of Granada in the South, which began in
1237, and which, having a good barrier of mountains, lasted
much longer than any one would have looked for. From this
time there were five kingdoms in Spain, Castie, A -racon, Portugal, anvanrre, and Gr-anada. Of these Castile was the greatest
and Navarre the smallest: but, as both Castile and Portugal
02




96         THlE SW ABIAN EAIPERORS:           [CItAP.
were chiefly employed with their wars with the Mahometans,
Aragon was the Spanish kingdom which had most to do with
the general affairs of Europe, as we have seen when speaking of the history of Sicily and Southern Gaul.
I7. The Invasions of the Moguls.-While Christians and
Mahometans were thus fighting in various parts of Europe
and Asia, a new power, a Turanian power, which was neither
Christian nor Mahometan, threatened to overwhelm both
alike. These were the WMoguls, commonly known in Europe
as Tcarlars, who in the thirteenth century burst forth from
the unknown lands of Asia, beyond either the Saracens
or the Turks, much as Attila and his Huns had burst
forth eight hundred years before. They began to rise to
power under Temujint or 7eng/hiz Khan, who reigned from
I2o6 to I227.  During the whole of the century he and
his descendants went on conquering and destroying through
the greater part of Europe and Asia.  In some parts
they only ravaged, and ravaged more cruelly than either the
Saracens or the Turks had ever done; in others they founded
lasting dynasties.  In religion they seem to have been a
kind of Deists, acknowledging one God, but not accepting
either the Christian or the Mahometan law. But all religions,
Christian, Mahometan, and heathen, were freely tolerated
among them, and in the end most of them became Mahometans. In Europe Batouz Kh/an pressed all through
Russia, Poland, and Hungary, as far as the borders of Germany. The furthest point which they reached to the west
was Lignitz in Silesia, the border province of Poland and
Bohemia, which had been Polish, but which now was Bohemian. They there, in I241, gained a battle over the Teutonic
Knights and all the princes of those parts.  All Europe
was natura.lly frightened at such an invasion, and the
Emperor Frederick tried to stir up all the other Kings to
a Crusade against these enemies, who were worse than




xi.]          THE MOGUL INVASION'S.               I97
Saracens or Prussians.  But the M\oguls pressed no further
westwards; they ravaged Hungary and the countries to
the north of it, but the only lasting dynasty which they set
up in Europe was at Kasan on the Volga, whence they
held Russia in their dependence. Thus Russia, which had at
one time seemed likely to become an important power in
Europe, was altogether thrust back for a long time. The
Lithuanians conquered all the western provinces, even the
old capital of Kiev, and the Russian Dukes, first of Vladimir
and then of Moscow, were looked on as mere subjects of
the Mogul Khans. In Asia, besides conquests in China
and other parts which do not concern us, the Moguls overthrew most of the existing powers, and founded a lasting
dynasty in Persia. The Chlorasmians, from the lands east of
the Caspian, flying before them, overthrew, as we have seen,
the restored Christian Kingdom  of Jerusalem.  In I258
Z1olagou, another grandson of Jenghiz, took Bagdad, and put
an end to the Abbasside Calizihate, though a line professing
to be the descendants of the Abbasside Caliphs went on in
Egypt, but without any temporal power.  The power of
the Seljuk Turks was also quite broken up, and the Greek
Emperors at Nikaia were greatly frightened, though in the
end the invasion of the Moguls helped the Eastern Empire
to last a little longer by destroying the power of the Seljuks.
But it was only for a little while, because the overthrow of
the Seljuk Turks made a way for the growth of the far more
famous Turkish power of the Ottomans, whose beginning
came a little later than the time which we have now reached.
IS. Summary.-Thus we see that the time of the Swabian
Emperors was a time of still greater changes than that of the
Franconian Emperors. In their time much was done towards
bringing the various powers of Europe into something like
the state in which they are now. The power of the Emnfire
came pretty well to an end, and Germany and ataly began




198        THE SWABIAN EMPERORS.                [CTI. XI.
to be collections of separate states, independent or nearly so,
as they have been ever since till quite lately. The Eastern
Emizire was broken up; the greatness of Venice began;
the Calziphqte perished, and the  Crusades came to an
end. But, while Christendom lost in the East, it gained in
the West by the great advances of the Christians in Sjain.
Castile now takes the first place in the Spanish peninsula. In the like sort France is now fully established as the
leading power of Gaul.  In England Normans and English
are fully reconciled; the Anzgetvin Kings, by the loss of the
more part of their foreign dominions, are driven to become
national sovereigns, and that parliamentary constitution is
established which has lasted ever since. The north of Europe was further from putting on its present form than the
west; but the establishment of the Teutonic Order, the check
given to the power of Denmark, the extension of Lithuania,
and the subjection of Russia to the Mogfuls are all events which
had an important effect on later times. This was also a time
of great intellectual progress  Universities began to arise,
among which Paris and Oxford were two of the most famous
north of the Alps.  In England we had Latin historians
and other writers, such as William of raln2esbury, 7ohn of
Snalisbury, and Maltthezu Paris, and the great Friar Roger
Bacon, who forestalled many of the inventions of later times.
In France prose writing began with Villehartdouin, who wrote
an account of the taking of Constantinople. Italian literature began under Frederick the Second, and in Germany this
was the time of the Minne singers or love-poets. The pointed
or Gothic style of architecture also began to come into use in
the last years of the twelfth century, and flourished greatly
in the thirteenth. Altogether this was, both in Europe and
Asia, a time when old systems were falling and new ones were
rising, and in most parts we may see the beginnings of the
state of things which we see now.




CHAPTER XII.
THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.
Decay of the Emnpire; the great Interregnum ( I )-  double election of
Richard and Alfonso ( I)-election of Rudolf; his grant of Austria
to his son (2)-reiguns of Adolf and Albert (2)-reign of Henry the
Seventh; his career in Italy (2)-history of yohn of Bohemia (2)reigns of Charles the Fourth, Wenceslaus, and Siegrz nd(2)-reigns
of Albert the Second and Frederick the Third (2)-new posiiion of
the Emnpire; its connexion zith the House of Austria (2)-papacy
of Gregory the Tenth; of Boniface the Eig,-hth (3) —the Avi non
Popes; suppression of the Teimplars (3)-the Great Schism (3)-the
reformingzf Councils, Pisa, Coonstanz, and?asel (4)-(Councils of
Errrara and Florence; reconciliation wzith the Eastern Church (4)
— iztelhlectual pre-eminence of Italy (5)-st/udy of the Koman law;
revival of classical learninfg (5)-invention of printizng and gzunpowder (5)-g-rowzth of the tyrants in Itatly; the Visconti at Mllan
(6)-constitutions of Venice, Genoa, and Florence (6)-revolution of
Rienzi at Rome (7)-relurn of the Poles; their temptoralpower (7)
-thze Two Sicilies; rzivalry of the tlozuses of Anjo u and A -ragon (8)
-dealinzs of En'gland with Wales and Scotland (9)-the hIzundred
Years' wa r between Fra nce and E nfgland ( r o)-claiim of Edward the
Third to the cr on of;France; victories of the Entglsh ( Io)-Peace
of Bretigny; independence and loss of Aquitaine (Jo) —wars of
Henry the Fifth; Treaty of Troyes ( Io)-exploits of,oan of Arc;
Irench conquest of Aquitaine (Io)-growth of France; annexations in the Kingdomz   of Burgundy; defeat of the French at
Courtray (i I)-beginniibi  of the Swiss League; the three Forest
Cantons; battle of Aiorgarten (I2)-the eight Cantons; battle of
Sempach (I2)-relations of the League to the Emp'ire, France, and
Austria (I2) —beginning of the Volois Dukes nf Bulrgndy; acui.




200        THITE DECLINE  OF TIlE EMPIRE.               [CHAP.
sition of Fanders (13)-reigns of 7ohn the Fearless and Philzi> the
Good; advance of the BurgJgundian power within the Empire (13)
-reigfn of Charles the Bold; his rivalry with Le7zis the El /iezth
I3) —his schemes and conquests; his war with the Confederates;
battles of Grandson, IMorat, and Nancy (I3)-eff-cts of the Burgunandian War on the Confederates (I3)-the Greek E mpire of 6onstantinople; its advance and decline (14)-rise of the Ottomszn
Turks; their conquests in Asia (14) —their advance in Europe;
institution of the yanissaries (I4)-rise of Timzour; he defeats
Bajazet at Afngora (I5) —etg'n of AMIahomet the Seconid; fall
of Constantinzople (I6)-conquest of Greece and  7i-ebizond;
taking of Otranto; death of Mahomet (I6)-civil war in Castile;
battle of Najara (I7) —7ars of Arag-on with PrFooence and
France (I7)-tmaritize discoveries and conquests of the Portauguese (I7) —union f Castile and Aragon; conquest of Granada;
beginning of the greatness of Spain (I7) —sate of the Scandinavian Kizngdoms; Union of Calmar (IS) —the House of Oldenburg in  Denmark;  offiirs of Sleswick and Holstein (I8)
-conversion of Lithuania; its union wit/i Poland; partition of
Prussia (I9)-deliverance of Russia from  the Mogfuls (I9)-the
Angevin Kings in Hungary; rein of Siegmund, his defeat at
Nikopolis (20)-expoitfs of Hfuniades; defeat of Wlamdislaus at
Varna (2o)-reign of Matthias Corvinus; destigrns of Austria on
Hzungary (20o)-groth of Universities (2I)-writers of history
and poetry (2I) —fnal triumph of the English laznguagle (2I)theology and ph zlosophy (21 ) —lvelinf doctrines taught; condition
of the villains (2I)-use of infantry in war (2I)-state of architec.
ture (2I)-Summary (22).
I. The Great Interregnum.-After the death of Frederick
the Second the power and dignity of the Western Empire
greatly declined. Italy now began quite to fall away. Many
of the Kings who were chosen in Germany never went to
Rome to be crowned Emperors at all, and those who did so,
though their passing through the country always made some
changes at the time, could not keep any lasting hold on the
Italian Kingdom. The Kingdom of Burgundy quite broke




XII.]       TILE  GREA T IATTERRE GNUM.           201
in pieces; some of its princes and commonwealths still kept
on their nominal connexion with the Empire, but others passed,
one by one, by one means or another, under the power of
France. Thus began that growth of France at the cost of
the Kingdoms belonging to the Empire, of which we had a
sort of foreshadowing in the battle of Bouvines, and which has
gone on ever since till it was stopped only yesterday. In
fact, after the death of Frederick the Second, his successors,
though they were still called Kings and Emperors of the
Romans, were really very little more than Kings of Germany,
and even in Germany their power was always growing less
and less. The time from the death of Conrad in I254 to the
year I273 is commonly called the Great Interregnum, because,
though more than one King was chosen during that time,
there was no King really acknowledged by all Germany, much
less by other parts of the Empire. In I256 some of the
Electors chose Richard Earl of Cornwall, the brother of our
King Henry the Third, and others chose Aifonso King of
Castile. Alfonso never came to Germany at all. Richard
came and was crowned King, but he never was crowned
Emperor, and he kept very little power in Germany, and
spent most of his time in England, where we often hear of
him in our own history. He died in 1271, the year before his
brother King Henry. This long Interregfnum was of course
a time of great confusion in Germany. The Empire quite
lost its hold over the neighbouring countries, and the princes
in Germany itself of course greatly enlarged their own
powers while there was no King to keep them in check. In
short, every sort of lawlessness and wickedness was rife
through the whole land. At last men felt that an end must
be put to such a state of things, and at last in I273 a King
dwelling in the land was once more chosen.
2. Kings of the Houses of Habsburg and Liizelburg.
-The King who was now chosen was not one of the great




202       THE DECZLINE OF THE EMPIRE.    [CHAP.
Princes of the Empire; he was Rudolf Count of Habsbrrg, a castle in Aa;gauzr in the south of Swabia. He
leigned till I292, and was a brave and wise man, who did
much to restore peace and to subdue Ottocar King of,Bohemzia and other enemies, but he never was crowned
Emperor. HIe was the founder of the House of Ziabsbur<
or of Austria, from which so many Kings and Emperors
were afterwards chosen.  For the old Margraves and
Dukes of Austria had come to an end, and the Duchy was
granted by Rudolf to his son Albert, from whom the later
Dukes, Kinbs, and Emperors of the Austrian House all
sprang. Neither Rudolf nor either of the two next Kings,
Adolfof Nassau and Rudolf's son Albert, was ever crowned
Emperor. Albert was the first Austrian King, and there were
no more for some time to come, for, when he was murdered
in 1308, the Electors chose Henry Count of Liizelburo
or Luxemburg, who reigned as Heniy the Seventh. In his
time it seemed as if the Empire were going to win back
again all its old power. For he went into Italy and was
crowned King at Milan and Emperor at Rome in 1312, but
in the next year, he died, by poison as was thought, and his
great schemes died with him. He was however able to provide
for his own family as Rudolf had done, for he contrived to get
the Kingdom of Bohemia for his son 70ohn, by marrying him
to the daughter of the last King Wenceslaus. This King
John figures a good deal in the history of the time, but not
so much either in his own kingdom or in Germany as in
going about as a kind of knight-errant in Italy and France.
At last he died in the battle of C'ecy between the French
and the English, of which we shall speak presently. He
was never Emperor or King of the Romans himself, but
several of his descendants were, as we shall soon see. On the
death of Henry the Seventh, there was a double election between Lezuis Duke of Bavaria and Freder.-'k Duke of Austria,




XII.]       THiE LUZELB UR G EMlPERORS.            203
the son of King Albert. But Lewis reigned in the end, and
in I328 he was crowned Emperor. He had great quarrels with
Pope 7ohn the Twezty-second, and each professed to depose
the other, just as Gregory the Seventh and Henry the Fourth
had done. He was again declared deposed in I346 by Pope
Clement the Sixth, and then John of Bohemia persuaded
the Electors to declare the Empire vacant and to elect his
son Chzarles, who reigned as Charles the Fou-rth. He was
crowned Emperor in I325, and, what one would hardly
have expected, he was crowned King of Burgundy at Arles
in i365. Charles made a good King in his own Kingdom
of Bohemia, but he sadly lowered the Empire both in Germany and in Italy. He is chiefly remembered for granting
a charter known as the Gola'en Bull, by which the way of
choosing the Emperor was finally settled, but by which the
powers of the Empire were still further lessened in favour of
the princes. Then followed several Kings who were never
crowned Emperors, and on whom we need not dwell long.
One of them, Wenceslaus, son of the Emperor Charles, so far
from taking heed to Italy, took none to Germany, and kept
always in Bohemia. At last, in I4Io, his brother Sie gmzund
was chosen King, and he was crowned Emperor in I433. He
was already Malrgrave of Bran denbui-    and i'ing of Hungary, and he afterwards became King of Bohemia. The truth
is that the Empire by itself was growing so weak and so poor
that it was found to be needful to choose some prince for
Emperor who had dominions of his own which would enable
him to keep up his dignity. And in Siegmund we get the
beginning of that special connexion between the EmjPire and
the Kinzgdom of Hungary which afterwards became of great
imnportance. Siegmund was specially zealous in the attempts
for reforming the Church, of which we shall hear piesently.
Ile died in I437. Then came his son-in-law A4belt Duke
of Austria, who died the next year, and was succeeded by




204      THE DECLINVE OF TIE EMPIRE.    [CHAP.
another Austrian Prince, Frederick Duke of Steiermzark or
Styria. His was a very long reign, lasting from I440 to
1493, but he himself did nothing memorable.  In I452
he was crowned Emperor at Rome, being the last Emperor who was crowned there. From the time of Siegmund
we may look on the Empire as putting on quite a new character. Neither as Emperor nor as King of Germany was
the Emperor any longer the chief prince of Europe. But the
Empire was now held by princes who were powerful through
their dominions both in and out of Germany, KCings of
Hungzary, Dukes of Austria, and so forth. And from the
time of Albert the Second, though the Emperors were still
always elected, yet the Electors always chose a member of
the House of Alustria, and most commonly the head of that
House. Thus from this time the Emperors were again very
powerful Princes, though it was not from the Empire that
they drew their chief strength. The House of Austria lent
its strength to the Empire, and the Empire lent its dignity to
the House of Austria, and, before the death of Frederick the
Third, the German Emperor was again the only Emperor.
How this came about we shall see presently.
3. The Popes at Rome and Avignon. —Ve left the Popes
disputing and waging war against the Emperor Frederick the
Second and his descendants both in Germany and in Sicily.
There were however some Popes who gave their minds to
better things. Thus, nearly about the same time that Rudolf
was chosen King, a very good Pope, Gregory the Tenth, was
chosen in 1271.  Indeed Gregory had a good deal to do
with the election of Rudolf, for his great wish was to put an
end to all the strifes and confusions which were going on in
Germany, Italy, and elsewhere, and to make all Western
Europe join together in an attempt to win back the Holy
Land. He even brought about for the moment the reconciliation of the Eastern and Western Churches, and, between




XIi.]        71/E POPES OF A VIGNON.             205
him and King Rudolf and King Edward in England, it
might have seemed that the whole world was going to start
afresh with a good beginning. But Gregory only reigned a
little while; he died in 1276, and the real power and glory
of the Popes died with him.  Boniface the Eighth, who
reigned from  I294 to I303, tried to get back all the
powers which any of the earlier Popes had ever made
use of. But the times were no longer suited for this. The
more Europe began to settle down into a system of distinct
nations, and the more the Popes began to put on the characters of Italian princes, the less were they able to act as
rulers of the whole world even in purely ecclesiastical matters.
Boniface the Eighth quarrelled with Philzip the Fair, the
King of the French, and in the end Philip sent and seized
him, and he died soon after.  The next Pope but one,
Clement the Fzifh, was a Pope of Philip's own choosing,
and was quite at his beck and call. He left off living at
Rome and moved his Court to A4vizgon in Provence, just
outside the French border, and in the dominions of the
French King of Naples.  He was thus more within the
power of his master. For seventy years the Popes lived at
Avignon instead of in their own place at Rome, a time which
men called the Babylonish Captivity. Of course this greatly
weakened their power. In Clement's time he and Philip
joined together to destroy the order of the Temfplars which
had done such great things in the Holy Wars. We can well
believe that many corruptions had come into the order, but
no one can believe the monstrous tales which the Pope and
the King got up against them, as if they had cast aside all
religion and morals altogether. It was no doubt the wealth
of the knights which Philip wished to seize; so the order
was suppressed throughout Europe, and in France many of
its members were cruelly put to death. The next Pope, fohn
the Twenty-second, had, as we before said, great disputes




2o6       THIE DECLINVE OF TIME EMPIRE.    [CHAP.
with the Emperor Lewis, and he was also thought to have
gone wrong in some hard points of theology.  This is one
of many things which shows how much men's minds were
now stirred on the subject of religion, as we shall presently
see. The Popes did not finally go back to Rome till 1376,
in the time of Gregory the E[eventh; and, when he died
two years afterwards, there was a double election.  Urban
the Sixth, an Italian, was the first chosen, and afterwards
Robert of Geneva, who called himself Clement the Seventh.
So the Church was divided.  Urban lived at Rome and
Clement at Avignon, and some nations followed one and
some the other; France of course took the side of the
Avignon Pope, and England therefore took that of the Pope
at Rome.  There were thus two opposition Popes, for,
when Urban and Clement died, their several parties chose
others to succeed them; and this state of things went on
till men got weary of their disputes, and tried to settle them
in another way.
4. The General Councils.-Ever since the time of Constantine, Genieral Councils, that is meetings of Bishops and
divines from all parts, had been summoned, first by the Emperors and afterwards by the Popes, whenever there were
matters to be discussed concerning the whole Church at large.
Such Councils were always held to have greater authority
than the Popes. But of course, after the separation of East
and West, they could not really represent the whole Church,
but only the Western part of it. So now a series of Councils
were held to settle the affairs of the Church, especially the disputes between the Popes. The first was held at Pisa in 1402.
This Council deposed both and chose a third Pope, Alexander the Fifth, who was succeeded by 7ohnt the Twentythird.  But as the other two, ]eneadict the Thirteenth and
Gregory the Twelfth, would not give in, this only made three
Popes instead of two. At last in 1415 another Council was




XIT. ]       TtIE GENERAL COUNCILS.                207
held at Constanz, chiefly by the help of King Siegmund, who
worked very hard to bring about the peace of the Church.
This Council deposed all the three Popes, and very rightly,
for John the Twenty-third, whether he were rightly chosen or
not, deserved to be deposed, for his wickedness reminded men
of the old times of John the Twelfth. The Council then
elected Martin the Ffth, who was acknowledged everywhere
as the true Pope. But the Council did some other things
which were less to its credit. The religious controversies at
the time, and the abuses of the Papal dominion, had led everywhere to much thought on religious matters and to the
putting forth of many new doctrines.  In England 7ohn
lWycl~ae, a doctor of Oxford, had written against many
things in the received belief and practice of the times, especially against the BeggiZg Friars, that is the Franciscans
and Dominicans, who professed to live upon alms.  He
made many followers, and his opinions spread, especially
in Bohemzia. Two of the chief Bohemian preachers, 7ohn
ifuss and rerome of Prague, were brought before the
Council and were burned, to the great shame of King Siegmund, who had plighted his word for the safety of Huss.
The followers of Huss in Bohemia now rebelled, and a
fearful civil war followed.  In I43I there was another
Council held at Basel, which professed to depose Pope Eugenius the Folurl, and which lasted on from I431 to I439.
This Council, had its decrees taken effect, would have greatly
lessened the powers of the Popes and increased those of the
Bishllops and the national Churches, bringing things in short
7more' to the state in which they welre in early times. But the
Council of Basel gradually fell into discredit, and it died ( ut.
The Popes never liked these Councils which were held in
places north of the Alps, like Basel and Constanz, and me inwhile Pope Eugenius held a Council of his own in Italy, ltrst
at Ferrara and then at Florence, where in 1439 anott,er




208       THIE DECLI,.E OF TMrE EMPIRE.    [CHAP.
nominal reconciliation with the Eastern Church was made.
This was because the Eastern Empire was just then at its
last gasp, and was glad to get help from the liest on any
terms. For the rest of th s century the Popes must be looked
on as little more than Italian princes, and we will speak of
them again as such.
5. The Revival of Learning in Italy.-During all this
time we imay look on It/af  as being in some sort the central
nation of Europe. It had indeed no kind of political power
over other nations, for the power of the Emperors was gone,
and this time, when the Popes were so much away in Gaul,
was just the time when they were less Italian, and had less
power, than at any time before or after. And Italy, cut up as
it was into many principalities and commonwealths, was in
no state to bear rule over other nations. Still it might be
called the centre of Europe, as being the country which had
more to do with the rest of the world than any other one
country. It was the country to which others looked up as
being at the head in arts, learning, and commerce, and it was
the country too where, just as in old Greece, there was the
greatest political life among the many small states; though of
course, as in old Greece also, this was bought at the cost of
constant wars between the different cities, and of many disturbances at home. The two nations which had been the
most civilized in Europe, the Greeks in the East and the
Saracens in the West, were now falling before the Turks
and the Spanish Christians.  The Italians in some sort
took their place. Ever since the twelfth century there had
been a great movement of gnen's minds in the way of learning, and this turned more and more towards the study of the
ancient Latin writers, and after a while the Greek also. And
studies of this kind also had an imp&rtant political effect.
Thus men in the twelfth century began to study the old
Rio;;anz Law and this study disposed them much in favour




xiI.]      TJE REVIVAL OF LEARATING.               209
of the Swabian Emperors. So again, somewhat later, the
study of the old Latin poets, and what they said about the old
Czesars, led men to welcome Henrsy the Seventh and the
Emperors who came after him.  The great poet Dante
Alighieri was strong on the Imperial side, both in his
poems and in his prose writings, and he complains of King
Albert for staying away from Italy and not taking heed
to the garden of the Empire. But, on the other hand. the
study of the ancient republican writers, and the praises
which they give to the killers of tyrants, several times stirred
up men in the fifteenth century to conspiracies against
the Popes and other princes. Towards the end of the time
with which we have to do printing was invented; and though
it was not invented in Italy but in Germany, by Guztenbur?
at Ma.;inz, yet it was in Italy, where there were more
learned men and writers than elsewhere, that it was for a
long while of the most importance.  Gunpowder too, an
invention as important in war as printing was in peace,
gradually came into use in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It quite changed the manner of warfare; the old
style of armour and the old style of fortification, both of
which had in Italy been carried to such perfection that men
could not be wounded and castles could not be taken by
any arms then known, now became of little use, and a new
order of things in warfare began.
6. The Commonwealths of Italy.-Meanwhile the political
state of Italy greatly changed. The separate cities, which
had in the twelfth century been independent commonwealths,
were gradually grouped together into larger states.  Sometimes the l.ord or tyrant of one city got possession of several
cities, so as to form a large continuous dominion. In such
cases a ruler generally tried to give some show of lawfulness to his power by getting the Pope or the Emperor to
invest him with his dominions as afief, and to give him the
P




210       THE DEC1.INVE OF TiHE EMJPIRE.   [CHAP.
title of Duke or Mlarquess as an hereditary prince.  Thus,
in the course of the thirteenth century, the chief power at
AMilan gradually came into the hands of the family of the
Visconti. Then, in 1395, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who was
Lord of Milan and held Pavia and other cities of Lombardy,
bought a charter from King Wenceslaus making him Duke
of Miran.  The Dukes of Milan, through the wealth and
industry of the cities over which they ruled, became far
richer and more powerful than many princes who had
much wider dominions, btit, now that their dominions were
made hereditary, they were laid open to the usual disputes
and wars as to the right of succession to the crown. When
Filifitpo Mtzria, the last of the Visconti, died in I447, the
Milanese tried to set their ancient commonwealth up again.
But they were obliged to admit Francesco Sforza, the sonin-law of the late Duke, as his successor. He was one of a
class of men of whom there were then many in Italy, mercenary generals who went about with bands of soldiers, hiring
themselves out to fight for any prince or commonwealth that
would pay themn, and by whose help most of the princes and
commonwealths of Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centtiries waged their wars.  Thus there was a new dynasty at
Milan, that of the.Sfor-za. Meanwhile, as some of the cities
of Northern Italy thus fell under the power of the Dukes
of Milan, so others came under the power of the commonwealth of Venice.  For it was in Italy at this time
just as it was long before in old Greece; one city bore rule
ever another. Venice, as we have seen, had gained the
first position in the world as a maritime power, holding
large possessions in the East. But in the fifteenth century
she was tempted to become a land power also, and she
obtained a large dominion over the cities in the northeast of Italy. The government of Venice had by this time
grown into a narrow oligarchy. The chief power was




XII.]         THE S TA 7ES OF ITAL Y.              211
in the hands of the noble families, quite shutting out the
people and leaving very little power to the Doge.  But,
though Venice was an oligarchy, yet it was a prudent and
moderate oligarchy, which never failed to supply wise
statesmen and brave commanders by sea.  For the fleets
of Venice were always manned by her own citizens or subjects, though by land mercenary troops were commonly used.
Genoa also remained a republic, and kept up a great deal ot
her old maritime power. At one time, in 1379, she seemed
almost on the point of conquering Venice. But at Genoa,
unlike Venice, there were constant internal revolutions, and
the city had several times to submit to the Dukes of Milan
and the Kings of France. The other great maritime commonwealth, Pisa, lost nearly all her power after a sea-fight
with the Genoese in I284, and at last in I406 Pisa became
subject to Florence. This last commonwealth, which had
not been prominent in the twelfth century, gradually became,
in the course of the thirteenth century, one of the chief states
of Italy. As Venice was the greatest example in later times
of an aristocratic commonwealth, so Florence was the greatest
example of a democracy. In this way the two in some sort
answer to Sparta and Athens in the old Greek times, and
when we come to the special History of Italy, it will be well
to compare the points of likeness and unlikeness between
these two great democratic commonwealths. At Florence
the old nobles were quite put down in I292, but in the course
of the fifteenth century a kind of new nobility gradually
arose; and one family in particular, that of the Medici,
gradually rose to have the chief power. in the state, though
without disturbing the forms of the commonwealth, or
taking any  particular title to themselves.  Such were
Cosmo de' Mredici, called the Father of his Country, and
his grandson Lorenzo. Their power was of a different kind
from that of the lords or tyrants, either in old Greece of
P2




212       TIHE DECLIYE OF THE EMPIRE.   [ECHAP.
in other cities of Italy. Nor was it such a power as that of
Perikles at Athens, as it passed on from father to son. It
was more like the power of Augustus and the other Roman
Emperors who respected the forms of the commonwealth.
On the whole, Florence, though the greatest and most famous
democratic state in later times, was by no means so pure and
regular a democracy as Athens was. Still there was no part
of Europe where there was so much life, political, intellectual, and commercial. Dante, the greatest of all Italian
poets, was born at Florence in 1265, and died in banishment
in 1321. Many other of the chief artists and men of letters
also belonged to Florence; the commerce of the city was
famous, and its bankers lent money to Kings in England
and elsewhere. And in the time of the Medici there was no
no city in Italy where greater encouragement was given to
the men who were engaged in reviving the old Greek and
Roman learning.  Yet, though mere learning flourished,
native genius died out with freedom, and in the later days
of Florence there were no men like Dante.
7. Rome and the Popes.-Rome meanwhile, forsaken as the
city was for so long both by the Emperors and by the Popes,
quite lost its old place in Italy, and did not begin to win it
back again till the affairs of the Popes became more settled
after the Council of Constanz. The Romans never forgot the
old greatness of their city, and, as men's minds were constantly
falling back on old times, one Cola di Rienzi in I347 set up
again for a short time what he called the Good State, and ruled
himself by the title of Tribune. So again, after the Popes
came back to Rome, there were one or two conspiracies to set
up the old commonwealth; but from the Council of Constanz
onwards we may look on the Popes as undoubted temporal
princes of Rome. They were gradually able to bring under
their power all that part of Italy, stretching from one sea to
the other, over which they professed to have rights by the




XII.]         ROME' AND THIE POPES.                  213
grants of various Kings and Emperors. The later Popes of
the fifteenth century must be looked on as little more
than Italian princes, and many of them were among the
very worst of the Italian princes.  Some of them, like
ANicolas the Fifil/, did some good in the way of encouraging
learning; and Pius Ite Second, who reigned from I.458 to
I464, and who is famous as a writer by his former name
of:Eneas Silviuts, tried, like Gregory the Tenth, to get the
Christian princes to join in a Crusade for the deliverance
of the East. But Sixt/us tle Fifthj and lznnocendt th7e Ezg/'i/t
were among the worst of the Popes, thinking of nothing
except increasing their temporal power and advancing their
own families.
8. The Two Sicilies.-The Two Sicilies meanwhile remained divided. The Kingdom of Sicily on the mainland,
often called the Kingdom of Napies, was in extent the greatest
state in Italy, and some of its Kings, especially Robert, who
reigned from 1309 to I343, played an important part in Italian
affairs. But it shows how much greater was the life of the
separate cities, even when not under a free government,
when we see how this large kingdom lagged behind the rest
of Italy, and how, even in political power, it was not more
than on a level with the principalities and commonwealths
of Northern Italy which were not abQve half its size. This
Kingdom of Sicily was much torn in pieces by civil wars
arising out of disputed successions to the Crown.  Two
bad Queens, 7ane the First (I343 to I382) and 7ane the
Second (I4I9 to I435), caused much confusion by their
different marriages and adoptions of successors.  During
the greater part of the fifteenth century the crown was
disputed between a branch of the Hotuse of Aragon, who
for the most part kept possession, and the Dukes of Anjou,
a branch of the royal House of France, who ever and anon
tried to make their own claims good. At last the claims of




214       THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
the Angevin princes passed to the Kings of France themselves, and then many important events followed. Meanwhile in the Island of Sicily the other branch of the house
of Aracon went on reigning. The first King Frederick, who
established the independence of the island, ruled bravely
and wisely, but after him the island kingdom became of
no account at all. At last Sicily became united to the Kingdom of Aragon itself, another step towards the great events
of the next period.
9. England, France, and Scotland.-A great part of
the history of the lands beyond the Alps during this time
is taken up by the long wars between England and France.
These had now become thoroughly national wars, and before long they grew into attempts at a complete conquest
of France on the part of England. And the wars between
England and France are a good deal mixed up with
the wars of the English Kings with Scotlland, and even
with Wales.  For, when England and France became
constant national enemies, it was the natural policy of
the French Kings to raise up enemies to their rivals
within their own island. It was the object of Edward the
First, like that of his namesake Edward the Elder in old
times, to join all Britain, as far as might be, under one
dominion.  That part of Wtales which still kept its own
Princes was joined on in 1282.  Wales was never again
separated from England; but once or twice, when there were
revolts in Wales, those who were discontented with the English rule tried to get help from France. How Scotlanzd was
for a moment united with England, how, after the death
of Edward the First, it was again separated under its King
ocr'L  Btrnce, how in 1328 Scotland was acknowledged
by England as an independent kingdom, but how constant rivalries and wars went on between the two kingdoms
in one island, must be told moie fully in our Histories of




xxI.]        ENGLAND AND FRANCE.                  215
England and Scotland. The point to be borne in mind now
is that, from this time, we find a steady alliance between
France and Scotland against England. This began as early
as the time of Edward the First. In the long wars of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries we now and then find
French troops serving in Scotland, while the Scots soon
learned to take service in France, and in the later wars we
find them serving against the English in every battle.
Through this close connexion with France, Scotland came
to hold a higher place in Europe than she could otherwise
have had from her size and position.
io. Wars between England and France.-During the
reigns of Edward the First and of his son Edward the
Second, who reigned from 1307 to 1327, the rivalry between
England and France did not lead to any great war. Philip
the Fair got possession of the Duchy of Aquitaine in the
year 1294, but he had soon to give it up again.  It was
in the reign of Edward the Third, from 1327 to 1377,
that the great war began which the French writers call
the Hundred Years' Var.  It was something like the
Peloponnesian War in Greece, in old times; for, though
there was not actual fighting going on for the whole time,
yet there was no firm or lasting peace between the two
countries for more than a hundred years.  Edward the
Third laid claim to the Crown of France through his
mother Isabel, who was a daughter of Philip the Fair.
But the French held that no right to the Crown could pass
through a woman. The French King, on the other hand,
Philip of Valois, was eager to get possession of Aquitaine.
A long war followed, which was famous for the taking of
Calais and for the great victories of the English at Crecy in
1346 and at Poitiers in I356. Edward, as was natural, was an
ally of the Emperor Lewis and of the Flemish cities, which
were now beginning to rise to great importance, though they




2I6       THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
never won the same complete independence as those of Italy.
As France had the feudal superiority over Flanders, the Flemings were better pleased when King Edward took the title of
King of France, so that they might seem to be fighting for
and not against their overlord. As King Edward was an ally
of the Emperor Lewis, it came about that King 7/ohn oJ
Bohemia took the French side, so that he and his son
Charles, who had just been chosen King of the Romans,
were both at Crecy, and King John was killed there. At
Poitiers another King rohn, the French King himself, was
taken prisoner, and, as David Kizng of Scots, the son of
Robert Bruce, was taken prisoner in I346, there were two
captive Kings in England at once. This first part of the war
with France was ended by the Peace of Breligny in 1360, by
which Edward gave up his claim to the Crown of France, but
he kept his possessions in Aquitaine, together with Calais and
some other small districts, and that no longer as a vassal of
the French King, but as an independent sovereign. Edward
then granted his dominions in the south to his son Edward,
called the Black Prince, who ruled at Bourdeaux as Prince ofJ
Aquitaine. Before long the Peace of Bretigny was broken by
the French King Charles the Fzfth, and, before the end of
the reign of Edward the Third, the English had lost nearly
all their possessions in Aquitaine except the cities of Bourdeaux and Bayonne. The cities commonly stuck to the
English rule, under which they were less meddled with,
while the nobles were mostly for an union with France.
After the peace was broken, King Edward again took up his
title of King of France, which was borne by all the Kings
of England down to the year I8oo. There now came a
time which was neither war nor peace. Many truces were
made, and now and then there was some little fighting,
but it was not until the reign of Henry the Fifth in England that the war began again on a great scale. He took




XII.]      THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR.               217
advantage of the dissensions by which France was torn
in pieces during the reign of the weak, or rather mad, King
Charles the Sixth. He won the Battle of Agincourt in I41 5,
took Rouen in 1419, and in I420 concluded the Treaty of
Troyes, by which Henry was to succeed to the Crown of
France on the death of Charles, and the Crowns of England
and France were to be ever after united. Both Charles and
Henry died in 1422, but a large part of France refused to
acknowledge the treaty, so, after their deaths, the war went on
between Charles the Seventh, who reigned at Bouiges, and
7ohn Duke of Bedford, who was Regent of France for his
nephew Henry the Sixth, who was crowned King at Paris in
143I. Now comes the great story of the waking up of France
under the famous Maid of Orleans, 7oan of Arc. She came
from the borders of Lorraine, but she was called the Maid of
Orleans because she relieved that city when it was besieged by
the English. By her means Charles the Seventh was crowned
at Rheims in 1429, thus getting the start of his English rival.
The war now went on for a long time, and it was for the most
part badly managed on the English side after the death of
the Duke of Bedford. The English were gradually driven
out, not only of France but of Aquitaine also, till at last, in
1453, Bourdeaux and Bayonne were finally taken by the
French, and the English kept nothing on the continent
except the territory of Calais. The Hundred Years' War
was now over. The Kings of England still kept on their
elfAm to the Crown of France, and they now and then professed to make attempts to recover it. But, though there were
for a long time many wars between England and France and
long enmity between the two nations, the notion of conquering France was never again seriously taken up after the
time of Henry the Sixth.
II. The Growth of France.-The long wars of the English were a great check to the growth of the kingdom of




218       THE DECLINE' OF TILE EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
France, yet it was growing all this time, both by uniting the
territories of the great vassals to the Crown and by annexations at the expense of its neighbours.  These were of
course mainly made at the expense of the Empire; but,
as Aquitaine had become an independent state by the Treaty
of Bretigny, its conquest also may be looked on rather as a
foreign conquest than as the union of a great fief to the
Crown. And during this time the French Kings began the
process which has gone on ever since, that of joining the
states which made up the Kingtdomi of Burgundy one by one
to the Kingdom of France. Even before this they had taken
the little County of Venaissin, but that had been given up
to the Popes.  But now they began in earnest.  In I314.
Ph]ilz, the Fair took advantage of the disputes between
the citizens of the Imperial city of Lyons and their Archbishops to annex the city to his own dominions. In 1349,
in the thick of the English wars, the last of the princes
of Vienne on the Rhone, who fronm their arms bore the title
of Dauphin or Dolphin, sold his dominions to Charles the
eldest son of King John of France, and from this time it
became the rule that the eldest son of the King of France bore
the title of Dauzhin. The County of Provence also, though
not part of the Kingdom of France, was, from the time of
Charles of Anjou onwards, held by French princes. And so
it came about that, somewhat after our present time, in 1481,
Lewis the Eleventh, the son of Charles the Seventh, was able
to add Provence also to France. The- French Kings also
more than once got hold of the County ofBurgundy orFranche
Conzt, of which Dole is the capital. But this they were not
able permanently to keep till long afterwards.  Still, before
the end of the fifteenth century, the acquisition of Provence,
Lyons, and the Dauphiny of Vienne had given the French
Kings a good half of the Burgundian kingdom. The only
princes of any great power left in that part of tha world




XII.]          GRO WTH OF FRANCE.                219
were the Counts, afterwards Dukes, of Savoy, who ruled on
both sides of the Lake of Geneva, and who had also possessions in the north-west corner of Italy. In other parts ot
the Empire also, even where the French Kings did not make
conquests, they were winning influence. To the north of
their own dominions they often had wars with the stout
people of the Flemish cities, over whom they sometimes won
victories, by whom they were sometimes defeated. The battle
of Courtray in the time of Philip the Fair is famous as the
first great victory north of the Alps won by townsmen over
nobles. On the whole, notwithstanding the long wars with
England, the kingdom of France had greatly grown in power
and in extent in the times between the middle of the thirteenth century and the middle of the fifteenth.
I2. Beginning of the Swiss League.-While the three
kingdoms which belonged to the Empire were thus getting
weaker and more divided, and while the kingdom of France
to the west of them was growing stronger and stronger, two
new powers gradually arose in what we may call the borderland of all these kingdoms. One of these lasted but a short
time, but the other has lived on to our own day. These are
the Duchy of Burgundy and the League of the Swiss Cantons.
This last began among three small mountain districts on
the borders of Germany, Burgundy, and Italy, called Uri,
Schwyz, and Unterwazlen.  They were German-speaking
members of the Empire, and there was nothing to distinguish
them from other German-speaking members of the Empire,
except they had kept far more than usual of the freedom of
the old times.  Like many other districts and cities of the
Empire, they joined together in a league for mutual defence.  This they had doubtless done from earlier times,
but the first written document of their union belongs to
the year 129I. The Counts of Habsburg, who had now
become Dukes of Austria, and who had estates within the




220       THE DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
three lands themselves, were now very dangerous neighbours,
and they had to.keep close together in order to guard their
freedom. This they made safe by the battle of Morgarten,
won over Duke Leopfold of Austria in 13I5. Presently
several of the neighbouring cities, Lxzern, Ziirich, and Bern,
joined their alliance, as also did the smaller towns of Zug
and Glarus; so that in the course of the fourteenth century
they formed a league of eight states. Its name was the Oda
League of High Germany, and its members were called the
Eidgenossen or Confederates; but the name of the Canton of
Schwyz gradually spread over the whole League, and they
came to be commonly called Swiss and their country Switzerland. But it is only in quite late times that those names
have come into formal use. Such a League was of course
much dreaded by the neighbouring nobles, but it was for a
long time favoured by the Emperors. The three lands had
been specially loyal to the Swabian Emperors, and they were
no less favoured by Henry the Seventh and Lewis of Bavaria.
Charles the Fourth was their enemy, but they were again
favoured by his son Siegmund. But the Dukes of Austria were
their constant enemies, and therefore, when the Empire passed
into the Austrian House, the Confederates had to be on their
guard against the power which had hitherto been friendly.
But they did not throw off their allegiance to the Empire,
and, during all the time of which we speak, the Confederates remained a purely German body, although some parts
of their territory, including Bern the most powerful member
of the League, lay within the bounds of the Kingdom of
Burgundy. The Confederates had to wage several wars for
the defence of their fieedom, as when in I386 they won the
battle of Semfach over another Duke Leopold of Austria and a
great confederacy of the nobles, and when in 1444 they were attacked by the Dauphin Lewis, afterwards Lewis the Eleventh.
They had also some disputes and even civil wars among




XII.]   BEGINNING OF THE SWISS LEAGUE.   221
themselves; but on the whole the League steadily advanced
and made many alliances with its neighbours. And these
commonwealths also, like those of Old Greece and of Italy,
conquered, or sometimes bought, various towns and districts,
which they held as their subjects. Thus, by the middle of
the fifteenth century, the Confederates had formed quite a
new power in Europe, and one which was getting more
and more independent of the Empire.  But they in no
sort formed a nation, because all the members of the League
were still purely German. They were simply one of many
German Leagues, which circumstances allowed to become
more independent than the others, and, as it turned out, to
survive them. We must now speak of the other power which
was growing up meanwhile in the border-lands, and with
which the Confederates presently had a great deal to do.
13. The Dukes of Burgundy.-It must be always borne
in mind that the name Burgundy has several meanings.
Thus, besides the Kingdom of Buirgundy, which, in the times
of which we are now speaking, quite fell to pieces and was
almost forgotten, there was the Duchzy of Burg-undy, which
was a fief of the Crown of France, and the County of Burg-undy, which was part of the Kingdom, and therefore a fief
of the Empire. A power now began to arise, which took in
more than one of these Burgundies, and which seemed not
unlikely to bring back the old times when there was a Middle
Kingdom of Burgundy or of Lotharingia lying between
Germany, Italy, and France. This came about in this way.
The French Duchy of Burgundy fell in to the Crown iin
136I, and Philip the son of King John of France became
the first of a new line of Dukes, that of Valois. He
married Margaret the heiress of Flanders, and thus united
two of the greatest fiefs of the Crown of France. Of these
Flanders, where the great cities were always quarrelling with
the Counts, was almost an independent state. After Philip




222       THE DECLINE OF TIlE EMAPIRE.    [CHAP.
there reigned three Dukes of his family, yohn the Fearless
from 1404 to 419, P/hil)f the Goodr frcm 1419 to 1467, and
Charles the Bold from I467 to I477.  All these Dukes, as
French princes, played a very important part in the affairs
of France. They were also always winning, in all kinds
of ways, by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest, large
territories within the Empire, including the greater part ot
the Netherlands or Low Countries, taking in nearly all both
of the present Kinzgdom of the Netherlands and the present
KIingLdom of Belgium, besides much which has now gone
to France. They thus were vassals at once of the Emperor and of the King of France, and they were really more
powerful than either of their lords, for their position as a
border power gave them great advantages, and their possession of the great cities of the Low Countries, turbulent
as their citizens often were, made them the richest princes in
Europe. Duke yohn the Fearless was murdered by the
Dauphin Charles, afterwards Charles the Seventh, and this
threw his son Duke Philip into the arms of the English.
Philip supported the English in France for a long time,
and, after he forsook their side at the Treaty of Arras
in I435, the English power in France fell away very fast.
Duke Philip reigned very prudently, and increased the power
of his Duchy in every way. But under his son, Charles the
Bold, his great power fell to pieces. There was a constant
rivalry between him  and Lewis the Eleventh.  He also
kept the world in general in alarm by endlessly planning
one scheme after another, and by annexing such of the
territories of his neighbours as he could get hold of. One
great object of his was to annex the Duchy of Lorraine, that
is the southern part of the old Lotharingia, the capital of
which is Nancy. This would have joined his dominions
in the Netherlands with the Duchy and County of Bur-.
gundy. But he also dreamed of getting Provence, and of




XTI.]      TILE DUCHY OF BURGUNDEY               223
making himself King of all the lands which had ever formed
part of any of the old Burgundian and Lotharingian Kingdoms. In this way he got into disputes with the cities on
the Rhine, with Duke Siegmund of Austria, and lastly with
the Conzfederates, the King of France of course taking care
to stir tip all his enemies against him. A war now followed
between Duke Charles and the Confederates, which was
carried on in the dominions of the Duke of Savoy north of
the Lake of Geneva. Charles was overthrown in two great
battles at Granson and Murten or Morat in I476. At last
he was defeated and killed in I477 in a third battle at Nancy,
whither the Confederates had gone to help Rene Duke of
Lorraine to win back his Duchy from Charles. This war had
two great results. The great power of the Dukes of Burgundy
was broken up. Charles' daughter Mary kept his dominions
in the Low Countries and (after a while) the County of Burgundy. But the Duchy of Burgundy was joined to the Crown
of France, and the scheme of a great power lying between
Germany and France came to an end. On the other hand,
the great victories of the Confederates raised their reputation
to the highest pitch. They now began to take a part in
general European affairs, and to count as a distinct power.
They also now began to win dominions in the Romancespeaking lands to the west and south of them. But their successes did much to corrupt them; the Swiss, as they now
began to be called, were such good soldiers that all the
princes of Europe, especially the Kings of France, were glad
to have them in their armies, and thus began the practice of
serving for hire, which was the disgrace of the Swiss League
till quite lately.
I4. The Eastern Empire. Rise of the Ottomans. —While
the Western Empire was quite changing its character, sinking
into a German Kingdom or rather into a Confederation of
German States, the Eastern Emj5ire, which had now become




224       THIE DECLINE  OF THE EMPIRE.   [CHAP.
practically Greek, came to an end altogether. After the
Greeks had won back Constantinople from the Latins in
1260, their Empire, under the last dynasty of the Palaiologoi, was but a shadow of the old Empire. Yet, as had
so often happened before, there was for a while a time of
revival, and the Emperors of Constantinople, Empierors oJ
tze Romans as they still called themselves, were able to join
on to their dominions many of the little states, both Greek
and Frank, which had sprung up at the time of the Latin
Conquest. During these last days of the Eastern Empire
there was more intercourse than before between the Greeks
and the Western nations, especially the Venetians and
Genoese. And, whenever the Greeks were in any trouble,
their Emperors always made a show of putting an end to
the division between the Eastern and Western Churches.
But schemes of this sort never really took root, as the Greeks
were fully determined never to admit the authority of the
Pope. These applications for Western help were commonly
made when the Eastern Emperors were hard pressed by an
enemy which seemed likely to swallow up, not only the
Eastern Empire but all Christendom. These were the Ottoman Turks, so called from their early leader Otl/man. They
arose in the middle of the thirteenth century, being first
heard of about 1240. This branch of the Turks produced a
succession of greater rulers than any other Eastern dynasty,
and their power has lasted till our own time. They gradually
swallowed up the provinces of the Empire in Asia, and most
of the other powers, Christian and Mahometan, in those
parts, and Turkish pirates began to ravage the coasts of
Europe. About 1343 they got a firmer footing in Europe
during some of the dissensions within the Empire, and they
were never again driven out. In 136I their Sultan M;orad
or Amzurath took Hadrianofile, which became the Ottoman capital. What remained of the Eastern Empire was




XII.]         THE OTTOMAN TURKS.                  225
now altogether hemmed in; all was lost, except Constantinople itself and a small territory round it, and some outlying
possessions, chiefly in Peloponnesos. Meanwhile the Turks
were spreading themselves to the north, and were overcoming the Slavonic lands which had learned their Christianity from the Eastern Empire, Ser-via, Buolgaria, and
other states in those parts. This brought them into contact
with Hlungary, and thus led to wars of which we shall speak
presently. The successes of the Turks were largely owing
to their taking a tribute of children from their Christian subjects, the strongest and bravest of whom were brought up
as soldiers, and formed a well-disciplined body of infantry
which overcame all enemies. These were called ranissaries
or New Soldiers. During the reign of Bajazet, surnamed
the Thunderbolt, who reigned from 1389 to I402, things
seemed as if the Eastern Empire and all the Christian states
of South-eastern Europe were about to be destroyed at once.
But they gained a respite in a strange way from the appearance of a new Mahometan power in Asia.
I 5. Rise of Timour.-The great Alogul Emtnire which had
been founded by y7enghiz had long ago fallen to pieces; but
dynasties rising out of it reigned for a long time in Persia,
and for a still longer time held Russia in bondage. In the
latter half of the fourteenth century a prince called Timnour
arose in Central Asia, whose descendants are commonly
spoken of as the Moguls, but who seems in truth to have
been Turkish rather than Mongolian. He was a Mahometan
of the Shiah sect, those who hold the divine right of Ali
the son-in-law of Mahomet, and who look, not only on all
the Ommiad and Abbasside Caliphs, but on the three first
Caliphs, Abou  Bekr, Omnar, and Otnhman, as usurpers. They
had always existed as a religious sect, but most of the great
Mahometan nations were Sonnites or orthodox Mahometans,
who look on all the first four Caliphs as lawful successors of
Q




22g6      THE DECLINRE OF THE EM.PIRE.   [CHAP.
Mahomet. Timour therefore made religious zeal an excuse
for attacking the whole world, whether Christians, heathens,
or such Mahometans as he looked on as heretics. At last he
came into Western Asia to attack the Ottoman Sultan
13ajazet, whom in his letters he addressed as the Ccasar,y lRome. Bajazet was utterly defeated and taken prisoner
in the battle of Ang~ora in 1402, and Timour never crossed
into Europe. He died in I405, and his great dominion, like
other great dominions of the kind, broke in pieces.
i6. The Fall of Constantinople.-The little that was left
of the Eastern Empire got a breathing space through the
overthrow of Bajazet by Timour. A civil war arose among
his sons, and the Ottoman monarchy was not again united
till I421 under Sultan A4muratl the Second.  Hie besieged
Constantinople in 1422, but the Empire still dragged on a
feeble existence till the accession of his son Mahomet the
Second, called the Conqueror, in I45I. All the Ottoman
Sultans hitherto had been great warriors, and, according to
the Eastern standard, wise rulers. Mahomet was perhaps the
greatest of them all. He presently besieged Constantinople:
the last Emperor of the East, Constantize Palaiologos,
made another of those reconciliations with the Western
Church of which we have already heard, but he gained no
real help from the West except a few volunteers who came
chiefly from Venice and Genoa. The great siege of Constantinople began, one of the first great sieges in which
cannon, which had been gradually coming into use in war
for about a hundred years, played a great part. The Emperor
did all that man could do in such a strait, but at last, on
May the 29th, I453, Constantinople was taken by storm.
Constantine died sword in hand, and the Roman E]mpire of
the East came to an end. Constantinople now became the
capital of the Ottoman Empire, and Justinian's great church
of Saint Sophla became a Mahometan mosque.. In a few




xii.]      FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.                227
years Mahomet conquered Peloponnesos and the greater
part of Greece, and in I46I he conquered the Greek Empire
of Trebizond, which thus outlived that of Constantinople.
He had thus got possession of nearly the whole mainland
which had belonged to the Eastern Empire at any time since
the first Saracen conquest.  But the Venetians still kept
several points of the mainland, besides Crete and Coruz
and some smaller islands. Some of the other islands were
still kept by Latin princes, and Rhodes was held by the
Knights of Saint John. Cypfrus too remained a Latin kingdom, though before long the Venetians gained that also.
Mahomet went on to plan the invasion of Western Europe,
and the Turks actually took Otranto in Southern Italy; but
the West was delivered by the death of Mahomet in I48I,
for his successor gajazet the Second was not a conqueror
like his father.
17. The Spanish Kingdoms.-The two ends of Europe, in
the Scandinavian and the.YSfanish peninsulas, played a less
important part in general history during this tinme than they
did either before or after. Their history is chiefly confined
to dealings within their own bounds. In Spain the Saracens
or Moors were now shut up in the one kingdom of Granada,
and, though there were often wars between them and their
neighbours of Castile, yet the Spanish history of this time is
much more taken up with wars and disputes among the
several Christian kingdoms. The history of Castile is connected with that of England, because our Black Prince,
Edward, Prince of Wales and Aq.uiaine, was persuaded in
1366 to lead an army into Spain to restore King Pedro or
Peter, surnamed the Cruel, who had been driven out by his
brother Henry of Trastamara. In this war Edward won his
third great battle of Najara or Navarete, and restored Peter,
who was however before long killed by Henry. Aranon
again was closely connected with the Two Sicilies.  The
Q2




228       TH7E DECLINE OF TIE EMPIR'E.   [CHAP
island kingdom was united to Aragon in I409, and A/fonso the'ifthl, wh~o was King from I416 to I458, was, during part of
that time, in possession of Naples. But, es he was succeeded
in Naples by his natural son Ferdinazd an.d ilaAragon by his
brother 7ohn, the two kingdoms were again separated for a
while, and Naples was all the while disputed by the Angevin
princes.  At one time, in I467, the war was carried into
Spain by 7orhn, Duke of Calabria, son of?enw, Couznt of Provence and Duke of Anjou, who called himself Khzi'g of Sicily.
This John came to help the Ctalahns who were in revolt
against John of Aragon. John had also wars with L~e.is of
France for the possession of the border County of Roussillon,
which changed hands several times between the two Crowns.
Por-tugal meanwhile was doing great things. Under okhr
the Great, who reigned from I385 to 1433, the Portuguese
began to take revenge for the long possession of Spain by the
Saracens of Africa by conquests in Africa itself. And at the
same time, under the Infant or prince Don Henry, they began
a course of navigation and discovery along the western coast
of Africa and among the islands of the Atlantic, which
went on during the whole of the fifteenth century. At last
the great discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1486 opened
for Portugal a yet wider dominion in India and other parts
of the East. In this work of exploring, conquering, and
colonizing distant parts of the world, other nations soon followed, but it was the Portuguese who first showed the way.
Meanwhile a great change took place in the Spanish peninsula, which led to great changes in Europe generally. This
came about through the marriage in I471 of Isabella Queen
of Castile with Ferdizana the Izfant of Arag'on, who soon,after succeeded to the Aragonese crown. The Crowns of
Aragon and Castile were ever afterwards, except for a
very short time, held together. In I48I the Catholic Ikiz.gs,
as Ferdinand and Isabella were called, began a war with




XII.]       SPAIN AND SCANDINA VIA.              229
Granada, whose King had invaded the Castilian territory.
In I492 they took Granada itself and united the kingdom
to Castile. The Mahometan dominion in Spain, which had
lasted through so many ages, was now at an end, and the
recovery of Granada might almost seem to make up in
Christendom for the loss of Constantinople at the other end
of Europe. Spain, as the united dominions of Ferdinand
and Isabella were commonly called, soon became the greatest
power in Europe.
I8. Northern Europe.-In the Scandinavian peninsulas,
the power of Denmark gradually sank in the course of the
thirteenth century. Towards the end of the fourteenth, in
1397, the three kingdoms were united by the famous
Union of Cahnar, under MIargaret Queen of Norway and
daughter of Waldemar the Third King of Denmark. This
union, with some interruptions, went on through the fifteenth
century. In 1448, under Christian the First, the House of
Oldenburg began to reign, which has gone on in Denmark
till our own time, and which held Norway also within the
present century. During all this time the Northern kingdoms
had many wars with the League of the Hanse Towns, and
the shifting relations began between the Kings of Denmark
and the Duchies of Sleswick and Holstein which have gone
on till our own days. Sleswick, the land north of the Eyder,
was the southern part of Denmark, which had become a
separate Duchy, but which was not a fief of the Empire. Its
people were partly Danish and partly Low-Dutch. Holstein
on the other hand, that part of Saxony which lay between
the Elbe and the Eyder, always was a fief of the Empire,
and its people were wholly Low-Dutch.
19. Russia and Poland.-Great changes took place in
the lands to the east of the Baltic during this period. The
Lithuanians, the last Aryan people in Europe to accept
Christianity, were converted towards the end of the four



~30       TH-E DIECLINE  OF THE EMIPIRE.   [CHAP.
teenth century.  Their Duke 7agellon married Hedwzig
Queen of Poland in I386, and was baptized and brought
about the conversion of his people.  He was the founder
of the dynasty of Kings of Poland of the house of 7agellon.
The union of Poland and Lithuania under one sovereign
formed one of the greatest states in Europe. The dominions
of the Jagellons stretched far to the east and south, taking
in a large part of Russia and reaching to the new conquests
of the Ottoman Turks. And in 1466 Casinir the Fourth
finally got the better of the Teutonic Knizghts, annexing
the western part of Prussia to Poland, and so cutting Prussia
off from Germany. Russia meanwhile, while cut short by
the Poles and Lithuanians to the west, was held in bondage
by the Moguls to the east. But, after Moscow became the
capital in 1328, Russia began to recover itself somewhat, and
at last, in I477, Ivan Vasilovitz completely freed the country
from the Mogul supremacy. Still Russia was altogether
hemmed in, and it had no means of taking any part in
European affairs for some time to come.
20. Hungary and the Turks.-Meanwhile Hungary shifted
about from one dynasty to another. Towards the end of the
thirteenth century the Hungarian crown passed by marriage
into a branch of the Asngevin house of Sicily. The greatest
King of this line was Lewis, who reigned from I342 to I382, and
who was also King of Poland. He was the father of Hedwig
who married Jagellon. Her sister 2~Mary married Siegmund,
who was afterwards Emperor, and who also became King ot
Hungary. In his time the Turks became dangerous to Hungary, and both Hungary and Poland soon became special bulwarks of Christendom by land, as the commonwealth of Venice
was by sea. In I396 King Siegmund and a large body of
Western allies were overthrown by Sultan Bajazet at NikoPolis. In the nextecentury a famous captain, 7ohn Huniades,
WVaiwodv or prince of Transsilzlania, greatly distinguished




xII.]        POLAND AND HUNGAR Y.                 23I
himself against the Turks; but in 1444 Wladislaus the son of
Jagellon, who was King both of Hungary and Poland, after
driving back Sultan Amurath for a while, was defeated and
slain by him at Varna. After this John Huniades was regent,
and in 1456 he drove back Sultan Mahomet from Belgrade.
His son Matthias Corvinus was King from I458 to 1490.
He did much to civilize his kingdom, and valiantly kept oft'the Turks, while on the other side he won great victories over
kthe House of Austria, who were striving to get the kingdom
of Hungary in their own hands.
21. Language, Science, and Art.-The progress of learning has been already spoken of with regard to Italy, as it was
there that it had most effect on the political history of the
country. But men's minds were at work in other parts of the
world also. Men were eager after knowledge in many ways.
Many of the Universities in different countries were now
of great importance, and in England Colleges began to be
founded in them.  History was in most countries still
written in Latin. In the thirteenth century we had some
good writers of history in England, especially Matthew
Paris, who spoke out boldly against both the Pope and the
King. But in England the writing of history went down
a good deal in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
There was, on the other hand, a series of historical writers
in French from the thirteenth century onwards, and in the
fourteenth and fifteenth we learn much about the different
stages of the Hundred Years' War from the French-speaking
writers Froissart and Monstrelet. In England in the fourteenth century English had again quite driven French out ot
use, except for legal and formal purposes. And we had now
such poets as Geofrey Chaucer, whose works did much towards fixing the standard of English language. There were
many divines and thinkers in various ways, some of whom,
as we have already seen, began, especially in Enzland and in




232       TIlE DECLINE OF THE E;MPIRE.   [CHAP.
Bohemia, to teach doctrines different from those which were
commonly received in the Church. And the general stirring
of men's minds led some into speculations about the natural
equality of mankind which led to revolts of the peasants both
in France and England in the course of the fourteenth
century.  The people called Loliards in England, the
followers of Wicklhze, often mixed up the religious and
the social movement together.  But in England villainage was on the whole dying out, while in many othcr
countries it was getting harder and harder. In war, up to
the invention of gunpowder, the knights and gentlemen who
fought on horseback still despised all othel troops, though
the Scots, the Swiss, the Flemings at Courtray, and the
Engfzish archers at Crecy, all showed what a good infantry
could do. These centuries also, the thirteenth, fourteenth,
and fifteenth, were the ages when architecture reached its
height in Europe, and when the finest churches and castles
were built. But it was only towards the end of this period,
as times grew quieter and law grew stronger, that we find
many great houses strictly so called, except within the walls
of the cities.
22. Summary.-During this time then the Emipire of tie
tZVest dwindled into insignificance, and the Empiire of the
East was destroyed altogether. A great Mlahomzetan power
was settled in the East of Europe, while the last Mahometa/z
kingdom was overthrown in the West. Sj5ain became a
great power. In Italy learning revived, but the freedom of
the cities was in most cases destroyed, and the corruptions of
the Popiedom grew greater and greater. Engzand and France
waged a long war, in which France was nearly conquered, but
she gained in the end, and won a large increase of territory
both from  England and from other powers. The Swiss
League and the Duchy of BPugrundy became important powers,
but the advance of the latter was cut short. The three




xIr.]                SUMMAR Y.                    233
Scarndinavian kingdoms were united, though not very firmly.
Prcand became a great power, and Russia laid the foundatio-n of her greatness by throwing off the yoke of the Moguls.
T he defence of Christendom against the Turks, though endlessly talked about by Popes and Emperors, really fell in
the main on Poland, Hungary, and Venice.




CHIAPTER  XIII.
THE GREATNESS OF SPAIN.
Characteristics of modern Europe; formation of the existing powers
and nations (I) —progress of arts and inventions; falling back of
politi-alfreed'om (i)-increase of the royal power; introduction of
standing armies (I)-all Western Europe now Christian (2)-chief
causes of the Reformation of reigion; practical abuses; the power
of the Popes: disputes on points of theology (2)-different forms
taken by the Reformation in different countries; the Reformation,
as a rule, accepted by the Teutonic nations and refused by the Romance (3)-no real toleration on either side (3)-names given to
the d&flerent parties (3) —growth of the power of Spain; acquisition of various kingzdoms by conquest and marriage (4)-succession
of Charles the First of Spain; his election as the Enmperor Charles
the  iftih; the Austrian KAinfgs in Spain (4)-reign of Philip the
Second; annexation of Portugal (5)-reigns of Philip the Third
and FourthZ; wars with France and loss of territory; persecution
and expulsion of the AMoriscos (5)-rivahy of France and Spain
in Italy (6)-conquest of Naples by Charles the Eighth (6)-conquest of 2Milan by Lewis the Twelfth, and of Naples bi'e rdinand (7) —League of Cambray ag'ainst Venice; the Holy League;
restoration of the Medici at Florence (7)-rivalry of Charles anet
Francis; battle of Marignano; captivity of ranci.r at Pavia (8)
— sack ofRomne; peace between Charles and Francis; coronation
of Charles (8)-dominion of Charles throug hout Italy; suljugationz
of Florence (9)-zwars of Venice with the Turks; loss of Cyprus;
battle of Lepanto (9)-the Popes; their purely worldly policy
at the beginning of the period (Io)-imnprovement under the later
Poipes; Council of Trent; foundation of the 7resuits (Io)-rdgn of




CHAP. XIII.]   THEI GREA TNESS OF SPAIN.                     235
Maximilian ( I )-the EmXperors after Charles the Fifth; the 1Empire becomes purely German (I I)-begitninziS  of the Refor ation in
Germazny; preaching of Luther (I2) —reli.zous wars andpersecutions; invasion of the Turks (12) —growth of France; annexation
of Britanny (I3)-reign of Francis the First; Henry of England
takes Boulogne (13)-reign of Henry the Second; seizure of the
T.hree Bishopricks; Peace of Cdteau- Cambresis (I 3)-the Reformation in France; teaching of Calvin (I4)-persecutions and civil
wars in France; reign of Henry the Fourth (I4)-revolt of the
Netherlands against Spain; William  the Silent (I 5)-formation
of the Republic of the United Provinces (i6) —growth of the Swiss
Confederation; the Reformation under Zwingli and Farel (I 7)conquests of Bern from Savoy; Sazovy loses in Burgundy and gains
in Italy (I 7)-civil wars in Eng6land; reign of Henry the Eighth
(I7)-the Reformation in England; Henry throws off the t'plal
power; religious changes under Edward (I8) —restoration of the
Pope's power under Mary; final settlement under Elizabeth (I 8)relations between England and Scotland; reign of Mary in Scotland ( 9)-war between Elizabeth and Philip (1 9)-union of England and Scotland under 7ames; civil wars of EnglIand (I9)final separation of Denmark and Sweden under Gustavus Vasa
(20)-the Reformation in Denmark and Swedent; advance oj
Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus (20) -greatness of Poland;
humiliation of the Teutonic Order; foundation of the Du-c.-) J
Prussia;  its union  with  Brandenburg  (2 I)-disputes about
Livonia (2I)-growth of Russia; accession of the house of Romanoff; the Polish crown becomes purely elective (2 )-beginning
of the modern kingdom of Persia (22)-reigns ofa Selim the Inflexible and Suleiman  the Lazegiver; Turkish conquests in Hfungary
(22)-conquest of Cyprus and battle of Lepanto (22)-disputes in
Bohemia; the Elector Palatine chosen King; beginning of the
Thirty Years' War (23)-career of Gustavus Adolphus (23)-inteiference and advance of France (23)-peace of Westthalia;
degradation of the Emrpire.; acquisitions of Sweden and Firance
(24)-continued war between France and Spain; Peace of the
Pyrenees (24)-European  colonies and  settlements; different
kinds of settlements (25)-Portuguese settlements in 4Jfrica and
India (25)-discovery of America (26)-Spanish settlements in




236         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAZN.              [CHAP.
America (27)-French, English, and Dutch se/leinents in
Amer-ica (28) —-ogress of learning, art, and science; use of theZ
national languag'es (29)-Summary (30).
I. Characteristics of Modern Europe.-We are now
gradually passing into a new state of things. Nearly all the
nations and powers of Europe which now remain have been
already formed; the independent states are fewer and larger
than before, and things are beginning to be in many ways
more like what they are now than they have been hitherto.
The great advance of learning and science in the fifteenth
century altogether changed the face of the world, and three
great inventions, printing, gunpowder, and the mariner's
compass, were now fully in use and gave a wholly new
character to all matters both of war and peace. The general
stirring of men's minds, and the spirit of thought and enterprise which began to be abroad, took various forms. It led
to the great changes of religion which are spoken of as the
Reformnation, and it led to the discovery of new lands beyond
the sea, and to the establishment of colonies by the chief
European nations in distant parts of the world. In all
matters of intellectual progress, and in all the arts of ordinary
life, the time to which we have now come is a time of wonderful advance. But, for a long time after the beginning of
what we may call modern history, political freedom did not
go forward, but rather fell back. It was a time of much
deeper and more far-seeing policy than earlier times, and it
was a time when governments grew stronger, when laws could
be more regularly carried out, and when much of the turbulence and disorder of earlier times came to an end. But it
was also a time when, in mnost parts of Europe, Kings contrived to get all power into their own hands; it was a time of
wars which Kings waged for their own purposes, and in which
the nations which they governed had very little interest. To




XII.] CHARA CTERRIS77CS OF IODERN EUROPE.  237
wage these wars they had to keep standing armies, that is,
armies of soldiers who are constantly under arms and who constantly receive pay. A standing army need not be an army of
mere mercenaries, like thosc which served in Italy for any
prince or commonwealth that would hire them. Still it is
something very different from the state of things when a lord
calls on his vassals, or when a commonwealth calls on its
citizens, to fight when they are wanted to fight and then to go
home again. A standing army makes the government which
employs it far stronger; and it was by means of these standing
armies that the Kings in most parts of Europe were able to
overthrow those free institutions of earlier times which many
countries have only quite lately won back again. But the
main outward difference between these times and the times
that went before them is that the old ideas of the Church
and the E~nm5ire now passed away for ever. The Eastern
Empire was gone; the Western Empire survived in name only.
lThe Emperors were often very powerful princes, but it was not
by reason of their being Emperors that they are so. We
have now to deal very largely, not so much with nations, or
even with particular states, as with collections of states and
nations in the hands of particular families. And we now
come to that great revolution in religion by which the
Churches of Western Europe have ever since been still
more widely divided among themselves than in former times
the whole Western Church was from the Eastern. The
Eastern Church meanwhile remained for a long time as it
were hidden, most of the nations which belonged to it being
in bondage to the Turks. It is only in later times that the
Eastern Church has again become politically important as
being the religion of the great Empire of Rulssrz.
2. Causes of the Reformation.-At the beginning of the
sixteenth century we may say that the whole of Western
Europe was in communion with the Western Church.




238         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAZAr.          [CHAP.
And, though all men did not think alike as to the exact
authority of the Popfie or Biskot of.Rome, yet all looked
on him as being at least the head Bishop of the whole
Church.  There was no nation in the West which was
not Christian. The Lithuanians had been converted, and
the lrloors in Spain had been conquered.  If there were
any heathens left anywhere, it would be a few Laps in the
extreme North.  Nor was there any Christian nation in
the West which refused submission to the See of Rome.
The Albigenses had been put down long ago, and the revolt
of the followers of 7ohn tiHzss in Bohemia had, after much
hard fighting, been put down also. There had all along
been religious discontents among particular men, and
both in England and elsewhere many men had been
burned as heretics. Still no whole nation had as yet set
up any new ecclesiastical system for itself. But early in
the sixteenth century there began to be a much greater
stir about religious matters in most parts of Western
Europe.  This was partly owing to the general stir in
men's minds caused by the revival of learning, and partly
to the exceeding wickedness of the Popes of those times.'rhere were three things at which men were specially
offended. First, there were many practical abuses in the
Church which could have been done away with without
either casting off the authority of the Pope or making any
changes in doctrine. Many of these things the Councils
of the fifteenth century, at Constanz, Basel, and elsewhere,
honestly tried to mend; but the Popes always stood in the
way. The Popes themselves in after days tried to mend
many things, but not till it was too late. Then the authority
of the Popes was itself felt to be a great grievance, partly
because it was often so badly used, but also because, even
when it was well used, it interfered with the rights both
of civil governors and of national Churches. The truth




XIII.]'CA USES OF TIHE REFORMAATION.           239
is that the power of the Bishopis of Rome had grown up
from the same causes as the power of the Enqterors of R'ome,
that is, because Rome was the head city of the world.- And
now men were beginning to be discontented with the power
of the Popes from the same causes which had made the
power of the Emperors die away. That is to say, Christendom was split up into separate nations and kingdoms, and
Rome no longer kept its place as the centre of all. But, as the
power of the Popes was held to be a matter of religious belief,
it was not so easy to get rid of it as it was to get rid of the
power of the Emperors. And besides all this, many men held
that not a few of the doctrines which were believed and
of the ceremonies which were practised in the Church
were wrong in themselves, and had no ground in Scrip..
ture or in the practice of the first Christians. Disputes
arose about the Mass or sacrament of the Lord's Supper,
about the use of images and the practice of praying to
saints, about the state of men after death, about the necessity of confessing sins to a priest, about the laws which
forbade the clergy to marry, and about the practice of
saying the Church service in Latin now that Latin was
nowhere the tongue commonly understood. Some of these
disputes were about points which the Popes might have
yielded without giving up their general system, and which
indeed they have sometimes yielded in distant parts of the
world. But others were about points of doctrine strictly so
called, which those who held them to be true could not give
up so easily. Thus the early part of the sixteenth century
was a time, above all others, of religious controversies, and
these controversies led to the most important events, both
religious and political.
3. The Reformation in different Countries.-The end
of all these disputes was that a large part of Western Europe
gradually became separated from the communion of the See




240         THE GREA TVESS OF SPAIN.            [CHAP.
of Rome. This gradual change is commonly called the Reformation. And, as in old times Christianity took different
forms in the Latin, the Greek, and the Eastern provinces ot
the Empire, so nearly the same thing happened now. Allowing
for a good many exceptions, it may be said that the Teutonic
nations accepted the new teaching, while the Romance nations
clave to the See of Rome. And there were great differences
in the way in which the Reformation arose and was carried
out in different countries.  In some countries the change
arose among the people and was rather forced upon the
governments, while in others it was chiefly the work of
Kings and rulers. And change went much further in some
countries than in others. In some countries quite new forms
of worship and Church government were set up, while in
others men cast off the authority of the Pope and changed
what they thought wrong in doctrine and practice, but let
the general order of the Church go on much as it did before.
Thus, in our own island, of all the countries which made
any Reforrmation at all, England changed the least and
Scotlana the most. And in Ireland the great mass of the
people have always withstood all change, partly no doubt
because their English rulers tried to force it upon them.
And, though the stirring of men's minds, and the habit of
thinking for themselves which led to the Reformation, did
in the end lead men in most countries to see that they
ought not to persecute each other for differences in religion,
yet they did not find this out for a long time. For a long
time men on both sides held it to be a crime to allow any
kind of worship except that which they themselves thought
right. Thus the Reformation gave rise to civil wars
wherever the two parties were nearly equally balanced,
and to persecutions wherever one side was much stronger
than the other. Those who clave to the old teaching thought
it their duty to hinder the spread of the new, and those




xIx.1            GRO VWTII OF SPAI;V.             241
who adopted the new teaching thought it their duty to
hinder the practice of the old. It was only in a few cases,
where neither side was strong enough to do much mischiet
to the other, that the old and the new worship went on for
any time side by side. Those who accepted the Reformation were commonly called Protestant or Reformned, two
names which at first had different meanings, but which are
now commonly used without much distinction. Those who
clave to the Popes called themselves Catholics, as claiming
to be the whole and only true Church. The other side called
them in contempt Papisls and Romanists.  Perhaps it is
safest to use the name Roman Catholics, a name which is not
very consistent with itself, but which avoids disputes either
way, and which in England is the name known to the law.
4. Growth of the power of Spain in Europe. Charles the
Fifth.-From the latter part of the fifteenth century onwards
the power of Spain grew fast, and during the greater part ot
the sixteenth century we may fairly call it the greatest power
in Europe. The marriage of Ierdinand and Isabella had
united Aragon and Castile,; they had conquered Granada, and,
after Isabella's death in 1504, Ferdinand, in 1512, conquered
nearly all the Kingdom of Navarre, that is all south of the
Pyrenees. The whole peninsula, except Portugal, was thus
joined together.  Ferdinand also held Sardinia and the
island of Sicily, and in I50I, by wars which we must speak
of presently, he also got possession of the continental kingdom of Naples. Isabella was succeeded in Castile by her
daughter oortnna, who had married Philiz of Austria. HIe was
the son of,Mary of Burgundjy, the daughter of Charles the
Bold, and of MIzaximilian the son of the Emperor Frederick,
who was chosen King of the Romans in his father's lifetime.
Each chain in this pedigree ought to be renerembered, because
each marriage brought with it some fresh dominion, and so
helped to build up the great fabric of the Spanish power.
R




242         TI.E GREA 7'AESS OF SPAIN           [CHAP.
Mary, after her father's death, kept the Low Countries and the
County of Burgundy, while Lewis of France seized the Duchy.
Her son PhiZifi was thus sovereign of the Low Countries.
By his marriage with Joanna came the strange union of those
distant provinces with the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
Thus Charles, the son of Philip and Joanna, succeeded to all
the possessions of the Houses of Castile, Aragon, and Burgundy. In 1516 he succeeded one grandfather Ferdinand in
his Spanish dominions, and in 15 I9, on the death of his other
grandfather laximilian, he was elected to the Empire. In
Spain he was Charles the First, but, as he was the fifth
Emperor of the name, he is always spoken of in history
as Charles the Fifth. Thus the Emperor was again the
greatest prince in Europe, but this was not because lhe was
Emperor, but because of his dominions in Spain and the
Netherlands. Charles could hardly be said to belong to any
nation in particular, but he came in the male line of the
House of Austria, and the Kings of Spain of his dynasty
are called the Austrian Kings. He also obtained possession
of the County of Burgundy and of the Duchy of Milan, and
all these dominions he gave up to his son PhilizP  in I555.
5. Successors of Charles the Fifth.-After Charles the
Fifth came three Kings of Spain called Philitz. Philip the
Second reigned from 1556 to I598. He was a most bigoted,Catholic, yet almost the first act of his reign was a war
with the Pope Paul the Fourth in his character as a temporal
prince. In Philip's time began the war in the Netherlands
by which the northern provinces threw off the Spanish
yoke, of which we shall speak more presently. It was he
also who sent the famous Armada against England in
1588, and he also interfered largely in the affairs of France.
On the other hand, in 157I his fleet, in alliance with that
of the Commonwealth of Venice, won the sea-fight of
Lepanto-the ancient Naupaktos in the Corinthian Gulf



XIII.]          CHARLES THE FIFTHI.                243
over the Turks. This was the first great check which their
power met with. In I580 he got possession of the Kingdom of
Portugal, so that the whole Spanish peninsula was for a while
joined together under one ruler. As long as Philip lived, Spain
outwardly kept its place as the leading power of Europe; but
under the two following Kings, Philip the Third, who reigned
from 1598 to I621, and Philiz the Fourth, from I621 to 1665,
the Spanish power greatly decayed. The war in the Netherlands went on till the independence of the seven northern
provinces was acknowledged, and in I639 the Portuguese
threw off the Spanish yoke, and set up the dynasty of Bragnanza, which has reigned in Portugal till our own times. In
the reign of Philip the Fourth there was a long war with
France, which was ended in I659 by giving up Roussillon
and part of Artois to France. The Spanish dominions were
thus lessened in various places, though Spain still kept her
distant possessions of the Two Sicilies, Milan, the County of
Burgundy, and the Southern Netherlands. In its internal
government, Spain was during, all this time, the most despotic
and intolerant country in Europe. The old liberties of Castile
were overthrown by Charles the Fifth, and those of Aragon
by Philip the Second. Nowhere were Jews and heretics of
all kinds more cruelly persecuted, so that.in Spain the Reformation made no progress. The Moors too, who at the conquest of Granada had been promised the free exercise of their
religion, were shamefully oppressed. A revolt under Philip
the Second was put down with great cruelty, and at last, under
Philip the Third, the remnant of them, called Aforiscos, was
driven out of the country. This was a great loss to Spain,
as the Moors were a sharp-witted anrd hard-working people,
and the provinces where they lived were the most flourishing
parts of the peninsula.
6. French Invasion of Italy. —During the first half of the
sixteenth century, no part of Europe is brought more conR2




244         THE GREA TWESS OF SPArAr.          [CHAP.
stantly before our notice than Italy. But this is not now a
sign of the greatness of Italy, but of its decay. Italy had
now become the battle-field on which most of the princes of
Europe fought out their quarrels. During all this time there
was a long rivalry between France and Spiain, which was in
some sort a continuation of the dispute between the Houses of
Anjou and Aragon for the kingdom of Sicily, as that was a
continuation of the older dispute between Gue/fs and Ghibelins.
But now that the two sides were represented by the great kingdoms of France and Spain, the quarrel was carried out on a
much greater scale, and, between the two, Italy was torn to
pieces and utterly trampled under foot. What the Italians
called the invasion of the Barbarians began in I494, when
Charles the Ezghth of France took it into his head that he
had a right to the Kingdom of Naf/les. In two years he
marched all through Italy, conquered the kingdom with very
little trouble, and, as soon as his back was turned, lost it
again. Great confusion was caused throughout Italy by
Charles' march, and one result of it was that the Florentines
were able to get rid of the Medici, and Pisa was able to throw
off the yoke of Florence, and remained independent till 1509.
Presently, when the next King of France, Lewis the Twelfth,
again set up a claim to the Kingdom of  afaples and also to
the Duchy of Milan, Ferdinand did not scruple to make a
treaty by which Naples was to be divided between the two
Kings of France and Aragon. Lewis won the Duchy of
Milan in 1499, but, before the division of Nap/5es was fully
carried out, he and Ferdinand quarrelled over their spoil;
and the end of it was, that in I504 Ferdinand got possession of the whole kingdom, and was thus King of the Two
Sicilies. In these wars the Spanish infantry won a renown
which they long kept.
7. The League of Cambray.-Spain had thus gained a
footing on the mainland of Italy, and Ferdinand now went




XII1.]         TIE WARS OF ITALY.                 245
on to meddle still more with its affairs.  In I50o8 he and
Lewis of France, the reigning Pope 7ulizs the Second,
and the Emperor-elect Iaaximzilian, all joined together in a
league, called the League of Camnbray, to despoil the commonwealth of Venice. For each of these princes pretended
that part of its territories rightly belonged to himself.
Venice now seemed on the point of ruin, when again the
spoilers quarrelled among themselves, but this time it
did not happen as it had done in the case of Naples.
For Venice got back nearly all that she had lost, though
the commonwealth was never again so powerful after this
war as she had been before.  The cause of the division
among the enemies of Venice  was that Pope Julius,
when he had got all that he himself wanted from the
republic, made what he called the Holy League to drive
the Barbarians out of Italy. To this end he joined with
Ferdinand against Lewis. In 15I2 the French defeated the
Spaniards in a great battle at Ravenna, but Pope Julius
leagued himself with the Swiss, and by their means the
French were altogether driven out of Italy. Florence had
all along been in alliance with France, and, now that the
French were driven out, the commonwealth was obliged'
to receive the Medici again. Milan also went back to its
own Dukes of the House of Sforza. Lewis and Ferdinand
both died before long, Lewis in I 5 5, and Ferdinand in  1516.
8. Wars of Charles and Francis in Italy. —Lewis and Ferdinanid were succeeded by two young Kings whose rivalry
led to more wars.  Lewis w.as succeeded in France by
Francis the First, and Ferdinand, as we have seen, by his
grandson Charles. Both Charles and Francis sought for the
Empire on the death of Charles' other grandfather Maximilian
in  519, when Charles was elected. Thus the rivalry between
France and Spain was yet further heightened by the personal
rivalry between the two Kings. Francis had by far the most




246        THE GREA TNESS OF SPAZI.            [CHAP.
compact and united kingdom, but Charles united the power of
Spain, the wealth of the Netherlands, and the dignity of the
Empire. But before Charles succeeded, Francis had begun his
reign by another invasion of Italy. He had first to overcome
an army of Swiss in the battle of Marignano in I 515, and
he presently won back the Duchy of Milan. Then in
152I Pope Leo the Tenth, who was of the House of the
Medici, joined with the Emperor, and another war began,
which may be said to have gone on till I530. The armies
of the rival princes fought at both ends of Italy, both
in the Duchy of Milan and in the Kingdom of Naples.
In 1525 Francis himself was taken prisoner at the battle
of Pavia, and was only released after consenting to a
treaty (which he did not keep), by which he yielded many
things to the Emperor. Amongst other things, those parts
of the Netherlands which were held in fief of the Crown of
France, namely the Counties of Flanders and Artois, were
set free from all homage, just as the Duchy of Aquitaine
had been by the Peace of Bretigny. In all these wars the
princes and commonwealths of Italy, the Popes among them,
were dealt with as something quite secondary. The Duke oj
Milan was set up and put down again, as happened to suit
the Emperor who professed to be his protector; and in 1527,
when Clenzent the Seventh, who was also of the House of
the Medici, was Pope, Rome itself was taken and sacked by
+he Imperial troops, and suffered far more from them than
she had ever suffered in old times from the Goths or even
from; the Vandals. The Florentines took advantage of the
taking of Rome again to get rid of the Medici. But at last
in I529, the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of France
all came to terms. Francis betrayed all his allies, while
Charles stuck by his. In I530, Charles was crowned King of
Italy and Emperor, but instead of taking the two crowns, one
at Milan and the other at Rome, he took both crowns together




XIII.]        CHARLES AND FRANCIS.                247
at Bologana. All Italy was now completely under his power.
Charles was more powerful than any Emperor since Charles
the Great, and it might have seemed that the.old days of the
Empire were come again. But after the time of Charlds his
power in Italy passed, not to the next Emperor, but to his
son who reigned in Spain, so that it was plain where his real
strength lay.
9. The States of Italy.-The end of these wars thus was
that the power of the Emperor, or rather of the King of Spain,
was established throughout Italy. Charles was himself King
of the Two Sicilies, and, on the death of the last Duke
of Milan, he granted the Duchy to his son Philip, so that
the Kings of Spain ruled at both ends of Italy. The
other states of Italy too were really under his power,
much as, in the old days of Rome, the kingdoms and
commonwealths of Greece and Asia had been before they
were actually made into provinces. But there was one
Italian state which at least did not yield without a struggle.
This was the commonwealth of Florence, which the Pope and
the Emperor agreed should be obliged again to take back the
Medici, but it did not do so till after a long and terrible siege.
Then princes of the house of the Medici began to reign as
Dukes of Florence, and in 1557 Duke Cosmo added to his dominions the territory of the commonwealth of.S'ienna. Some
time after this he got from the Pope and the Emperor the
title of Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the memory of the old
republic was quite wiped out. Of the other commonwealths
Venice, Genoa, and Lucca, besides the little San  arzrino,
still went on.  But their governments were aristocratic,
and the only one of them which played any great part in
European affairs was Venice, which was still the bulwark of
Christendom by sea, as Poland and Hungary were by land.
But, in the course of the sixteenth century, the Turks won
from the Venetians many of their possessions both in the




248         7IE GRfEA TNESS OF SPAIJN.          [CIHAP.
islands and on the few points which they held on the mainland of Peloponnlsos.  And, notwithstanding their share in
the great victory of Lepanto, they had in I570 to give up the
island of Cy~irus, which the Turks had conquered, but they
still kept Crete and Corfi and some of the smaller islands.
Io. The Popes. —The l'ojps must, especially in these times,
be looked at in two lights, as Italian princes and as the heads
of those of the Western Churches which still clave to them.
In their temporal character the Popes were much mixed up in
the wars of Italy, and they had the great advantage of being
able to call on men to support their political schemes under
pretence of helping the cause of the Church.  During the
sixteenth century the Popes greatly extended their temporal
dominion, joining on to it many principalities and cities,
which, as they gave out, were held in fief of them; so that, it
their holders rebelled or if their families became extinct, they
would fall to the Pope as superior lord. In this way the
Popes came to be, even as temporal princes, the greatest
power in Italy after the Kings of Spain. At the latter end of
the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, the
corruption of the court of Rome, and the personal wickedness of the Popes, was at its height. Some of them were men
of most scandalous lives, as was Aile'xanzdcrr the Sixtt of the
Spanish family of Porgia, who was Pope when Charles the
Eighth came into Italy. And even those who were not so
bad as this were thoroughly worldly men, thinking more of
increasing their dominions and exalting their own kinsfolk
than of doing their duty as the chief Bishops of the
Church.  Such was Jzulzius the.Scond, the great fighting
Pope, and Leo the Tent/z and Clement the Seventh, the two
Popes of the house of Medici. Between them came Hadrian
the Sixth, a native of the Netherlands, an honest man
and anxious to reform  practical abuses, but who had no
kind' of love for Italian ways, or for the revival of ancient




xIII.]               THE POPES.                    249
learning, of which Leo the Tenth was a great promoter.
Hadrian however reigned only a very little time. It was in
the time of Leo the Tenth that the Reformation began to
be preached by Martin Lutther in Germany, but the Popes
for some time took but little heed of what was going on. But
towards the middle of the century things began to change.
The Reformation, as a system of doctrine, made but little
progress in Italy, and it never became the religion of any
Italian state. But there were many men, even high in the
Roman Church, who would have gladly yielded to the Reformers on some points, and there were still more who, without
wishing to change any of the received doctrines, were eager to
reform practical abuses and get rid of scandals. In this way
there came to be a marked change between the Popes at the
beginning of the century and those towards its end. These
later Popes were often fierce bigots, ready to persecute and
to approve of crimes done in the cause of the Church; but
they were almost always men of good lives in their own
persons, and eager to do what they thought their duty. One
famous Pope at this time was Sixtus the F/fth/, who reigned
from  I585 to I590; he was wonderfully active in bringing
his temporal dominions into good order. In 1545 a General
Council came together at Trent, which went on, with some
stoppages, till I563. This Council reformed many practical
abuses, but it fixed the Roman Catholic doctrines and
practices in a much more rigid shape than they had ever been
put forth before. Its decrees were not received by the Churches
which accepted the Reformation, and therefore the holding
of the Council only made the breach wider and more hopeless.
During this time too new religious orders were formed for the
special purpose of advancing the doctrines of the Church and
converting heretics and heathens. The chief of these was
the famous Society of 7esus, or Order of the _7esuits, founded
by the Spaniard Ignatius Loyo/a. This order was for a long




250         THE GA'EA TiNESS OF SPAIZV.        [CHAP.
time the chief support of the Papal dominion; and the Jesuits
won back a large part of Europe to the communion of Rome,
but in most countries, Roman Catholic as well as Protestant,
they contrived to make themselves obnoxious to the civil
power.
I I. The Emperors. —- rederick the Third was the last
Emperor who was regularly crowned at Rome.  His son
AMfaximilian, who married Mary of Burgundy, was never
crowned either at Milan or at Rome, but he took the new
title of Ezmperor-elect instead of merely K'izng of the Romans.
No later Emperor except Charles the Fifth was crowned in
Italy at all, and Charles, as we have seen, was not crowned at
Rome. Maximilian also took the title, which had never
before been formally used, of KinZg of Germany, and all the
Kings after him were called in formal language KiZngs of
Germanty and Empferors-elect.  And they were commonly
spoken of as Emperors, which before was never done unless
they had been crowned at Rome.  Maximilian was always
trying to do greater things than he was able to do, but, as
King of Germany, he certainly did something to restore.the
royal power, and much more to bring the country into greater
peace and order. In his time Germany was divided into
Circles, and a supreme court called the mizerialGi Chamber
was set up, changes which did not do all that they were wished
to do, but still did something. Then came the reign of
Charles the Fifth, and the great power of the Emperor,
though not of the Empire, in Italy and the world generally.
After Charles's abdication, his brother Ferdzinand, who was
already King of the Romans, succeeded. In his time and
in that of his successors Ylifaximilian /the Secbnet, Rudoof the
Second, and 4atlthias, we may say that the Empire was purely
German and had nothing to do with the affairs of Italy or of
the world in general. In the next reign, that of Ferdi/nand
the Second, things begain to change son-iewhat.




xIII.]         MAAR TIN L UTHER.                  251
I2. The Reformation in Germany.-In the reign of
Charles the Fifth came the beginning of the Reformation.
Nowhere was reformation more needed than in Germany,
where the Bishops and Abbots had grown into powerful
temporal princes, an; quite neglected their spiritual duties.
Towards the end of Maximilian's reign attempts began
to be made in the Diet for the reformation of practical
abuses, and about the same time the famous Martin Luther
began to attack, first the practical abuses, and then the
established doctrines, of the Church. This he began to do
in 51I7, and he was greatly followed by many people,
though little notice was at first taken of him in high places.
Luther was protected by his own sovereign Frederick
Eleclor of Saxony; and, when in 1520 a bull-that is, a
writing with the Pope's seal-was put forth against him
by Pope Leo the Tenth, Luther ventured to burn it. By
this time Charles the Fifth had been elected Emperor, and
in 152I Luther was condemned in a Diet of the Empire
at WVorms. But Luther was still protected by the Electors
of Saxony, and gradually many of the princes and cities of
Germany, especially in the north, embraced his doctrines.
Germany was further disturbed by a revolt of the peasants
in various parts, the only effect of which was to make their
bondage harder than it had been before. There were also
revolts of the Anabaitists, fanatics who not only preached
wild doctrines in religion, but tried to upset all government
and society. Against all movements of this kind, Luther
set himself quite as strongly as the Catholics did. His own
reformation meanwhile went on. At the Diet of Sfeyer in
i529 the Emperor and a majority of the Diet passed a decree
against all ecclesiastical changes. Against this the princes
who followed Luther protested, and thus arose the name
of Protestants, a name which originally meant the German
followers of Luther as distinguished, not only from the Roman




252         THIE GREA TNESS OF SPAIN.           [CHAP.
Catholics, but from the other Reformers who did not agree with
Luther in all points. In I530 the Lutherans or Protestants
drew u.p a statement of their doctrines, which was called
the Confession of Augsburg; in the next year the Protestant
princes and cities joined together in a confederacy for mutual
defence, which was called the Sozalcaidic Leagfue. But, when
some of them tried to get help from France, Luther protested
against such treason, and a kind of reconciliation was
patch'ed up with the Emperor. There wars no time when
Germany more needed to be at peace, for, besides France on
the one hand, the Turks were threatening on the other,
and Sultan Suleiman or Solomon in I529 actually besieged
Vienna, and ravaged the country as far as Regeznsburg or
Rlatisbon. In 1546 Luther died, and in the same year a war
broke out between the Emperor and the Catholics on one
side and the Protestant princes on the other, which went. on
with some stoppages till in I555, by the Peace o.f Aufgsburg,
the two religions were put on terms of equality throughout
the Empire. But this was no real toleration; it simply meant
that the Government of each German state might set up
which religion it pleased, Catholic or Protestant; nothing
was done for those persons in any state who might he of a
different religion from the Government. Thus, for instance,
in Austria, where a large part of the people had become
Protestants, the Catholic religion was brought back chiefly
by the help of the Jesuits. And in the same way Protestant!, of one sect did not scruple to persecute Protestants
of another; for in some parts of Germany men had followed the doctrines of the French reformer Calvin, and they
and the Lutherans drove one another out. D.uring Ferdinand's time and that of the following Emperors, religious
disputes went on, till, in the reign of Ferdinand the Second,
camn, the beginning of a more fearful religious war than had
ever happened before between Christian and Christian.




xiIr.]         FRANVCIS TIE FIRST.               253
I3. The Advance of France.-The power of France was
meanwhile advancing, and the jealousy between the French
Kings and the House of Austria, both in Spain and in the
Netherlands, was getting stronger and stronger. The Kings
of France were getting more and more absolute in their own
dominions, and they were still increasing their do-minions
at the expense of their neighbours. In their Italian wars
they failed; for they were never able to keep either the
Duchy of Milan or the Kingdom of Naples. But the only
great fief of the Crown of France which still kept its own
princes was now added to the royal dominions. This was
the Duchzy of Britanny, which passed to an heiress, Anne,
who married two Kings of France in succession, Charles the
Eig-/th and Lewis the Trzelftz. From this time Britanny
has been reckoned part of France, but to this day a large
part of the people do not speak French, but still use their
old Celtic tongue, akin to the WVelsh of Britain. Lewis the
Twelfth, though he did so much harm in Italy, made a good
King in his own kingdom, and was called the Father of the
PeoIpe. The next King, Frauncs the First, was thoroughly
bad in every way, except that he was a promoter of art and
learning. All these Kings were of the House of Valois, but
as neither Charles the Eighth nor Lewis the Twelfth left
any children, the Crown did not again pass from father to
son till the death of Francis in I547, when it passed to his
son Henry the Secotzd. There were some wars between
France and England at this time, but they were of small
moment compared with those either earlier or later. At one
time, in 1544, Henry the Eighth of England took Boulogne,
but in I557 the French got back CGlais, which the English
had kept ever since the time of Edward the Third. But these
ivars with England were nothing compared with the long wars
which Francis and his son Henry waged with the Emperor
Charles and his son Philip. These may be said to have




254         THIE GREA 7NESS OF SPAAr..    [CHAP.
gone on from 1520 to 1558. For, though peace was made
several times, it never was well kept or lasted long. The
French Kings, while cruelly persecuting the Protestants in
their own kingdom, did not scruple to help the Protestants
in Germany in their wars with the Emperor, nor were they
ashamed to encourage the Turks, the common enemies of
Christendom, to attack the Empire and its allies by land and
sea. In I537 Francis got hold of the greater part of the
dominions of Charles Duke of Savzoy, but this conquest
was not kept very long. Thus far the French Kings had
mainly sought after Italian dominion; they now began more
directly to attack the Empire on the side of Germany. In
1552 Henry the Second got hold of three Bishopricks of
the Empire, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which, though they lay
apart from the Kingdom of France and were surrounded
by the Duchy of Lorraine, were kept by France ever after,
till Metz was won back in our own times. Indeed from this
time, though Lorraine remained a fief of the Empire, yet
it began to come very much under the power of France, and
the family of Guise, who were of the' ducal House of Lorraine, began to play a great part in French affairs. After
Charles had abdicated, the war still went on, though of course
it was now a war between France and Spain, and no longer
between France and the Empire. At last the French underwent two great defeats at St. Quentin and Gravelines, on the
borders of France and the Netherlands, so the Peace of
Cdteau-Cambresis was made in I558, and the advance of the
French power was stopped for a time.
1T4. The Civil Wars of France. —From  the Peace of
Catteau-Cambresis till the end of the sixteenth century, the
history of France is mainly taken up with the religious wars
between the Catholics and Protestants within the country.
These lasted, with stoppages now and then, from 1562 to
1595.  The French Protestants were not Lutherans, but




XIII.]        CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE.               255
followers of yohn Chauzvin, or Calvin, a Frenchman by
birth, who settled at Geneva. His teaching went further
away from that of the Roman Church than Luther's did.
It was followed by all who accepted the Reformation in
the Romance-speaking countries, and also in part of Germany. The name Protestant therefore did not properly
belong to the Calvinists in France, who called themselves
the Reformed, and who were commonly known as Huguenots.
They were cruelly persecuted under Francis and Henry the
Second. After Henry three of his sons reigned in order,
Francis the Second from I559 to I56o, Charles t/Ie Ninth
from I560 to I574, and Henry the Third from 1574 to 1589.
The mother of these three Kings, Catharine of Medici, of
the House df Florence, had great power, which she used
very badly, during the reigns of all her sons. The religious
wars began in 1562, and in the latter part of them the
chief part on the Reformed side was taken by Henry of
Bourbon, King of Ni'avarre. He was the next heir to the
Crown of France after the sons of Henry the Second,
though the kindred between them in the male line was very
remote, as they were descended from different sons of Saint
Lewis. Henry had inherited from his mother the title of
K'intg of Navarre, and with it the possession of that small
part of the kingdom which lay north of the Pyrenees, and which
had been kept by its own Kings when all the rest had been conquered by Ferdinand of Aragon. ~ He had also large fiefs in
the South of France, which was the part where the Huguenots
were the strongest, like the Albigenses in the old times. The
two parties were always going to war, and always making
peace again; but,. when peace was made, it never gave
any real toleration. The Reformed religion was allowed to
be practised in particular towns and places, but men were
not allowed to follow what religion they pleased everywhere.
Philip of Spain meddled as much as he could, of course helping




256        THE GIREA  TRNESS OF SPA/N          [CHAP.
the Catholics. The most famous event of these times was the
massacre of the Huguenots at Paris on Saint Bartholomew's
Day, I572, rhich was called the rMassacre of Saint Bartholomzew. At last, when Henry the Third died in I589, the
Crown catne of right to Henry of Navarre, but he found thlat,
as long as he remained a Huguenot, Paris and the greater
part of the kingdom would not acknowledge him. So in
I593 he turned Catholic, and then he soon obtained possession of the whole land. Instead of the old title of KIing oj
tze French (in Latin Rex Francorumz), he called himself Kinc
of France and Navarre. Henry was murdered in I6Io, and
was succeeded by his young son, Lewis the Thirteenth, who
reigned till I643, and under whose famous minister Cardinal
Richelieu, the House of Bourbon began to take the first place
in Europe instead of the I-ouse of Austria.
I5. The Revolt of the Netherlands. —Meanwhile a deadly
blow was dealt to the power of Staihn in her distant possessions, and a new commonwealth arose in Europe. It will
be remembered that the Netherlands had been brought
together under the Dukes of Burgundy, and they had now
passed to Philiti of Spain as their successor. They were
a most important part of his dominions, for nowhere else
in Europe were there so many great and rich cities near
together; but the bad government of Philip, especially
his religious persecutions, and above all the cruelties of
his Lieutenant the Duke of Alva, led to a revolt.  This
began in I568, and the war went on till i6o9. The great
leader of the revolt was William Prince of Orang-e, called
the Silent.  His principality of Orange was one of the
small fiefs of the Kingdom of Burgundy which had not been
swallowed up by France, though it was now almost wholly
surrounded by French. territory. In this he was something
like Henry of Bourbon, with his little kingdom of Navarre,
for the Prince of Orange had private estates in the Nether



XIII.]    RE VOLT OF TILE:VE 7IIERLANDS.         257
lands which were really worth much more than his principality. His wisdom and endurance led to the deliverance of
all the northern part of the Netherlands from the Spanish
yoke. At the beginning of the revolt the Southern provinces
were the most zealous; but after a while, as their people were
mainly Catholics, they fell back under the power of Spain,
and they remained a dependency of one power after another,
till such parts of them as escaped being swallowed up by
France became the present K-zingdom of B'elgium.
i6. The United Provinces. -Meanwhile the Northern provinces, Holitand, Zealand, and others, where the people were
mostly of the Reformed religion, stuck by the Prince of Orange,
and called in help fiom England, France, and the German
branch of the House of Austria. But none of these foreign
helpers did them much real good; so at last they forrned themselves, in 158i, into the Federal CGommonwealth of the Seven
Uznited Provinces.  In 1584 the Prince was murdered; for
Philip, who stuck at no crime in what he thought the cause
either of the Crown or of the Church, had offered rewards to
any one who would murder him. AfterWilliam's death the war
was continued by his son Maurice, and it went on after Philip's
death till peace was made in I609. The peace was in name
only a truce for twelve years, because Spain was too proud to
acknowledge the independence of her revolted subjects, but
the war now really came to an end, and the United Provinces,
answering nearly to the present Kinzgdo  of the Netherlands,
were firmly established as an independent power. This was
one of the most famous wars in all history, for never did so
small a power so long and so successfully withstand a great
one. Some of the greatest generals of the age were brought
against the Provinces. There was the Duke of Alva first,
and then Don 7ohn of Austria, Philip's half-brother, who had
won the battle of Lepanto, his nephew the famous Alexander
Duke of Parma, and lastly the Marquess Spinola, whose
S




258         THE GREA T;VE3SS OF SPAIN.         [CHAP.
great exploit was the siege of Ostend, in the latter years of
the war. The Dutch, as the people of Holland and the other
United Provinces are now commonly called in a special way,
did everything for themselves; for they. got hardly any real
help from those who professed to be their allies in England
and France. Thus a new state and a new commonwealth was
formed in Europe.  In strictness the Provinces were still
members of the Empire, but their allegiance was quite nominal, and in I648 their absolute independence of the Empire
was formally acknowledged. Owing chiefly to the daring and
activity of their people in all things to do with trade and
the sea, the United Provinces, small as their territory was,
reckoned during the whole of the seventeenth century as
one of the chief powers of Europe. They came afterwards
to defy France, as they had before defied Spain, and things
so turned about that, before the end of the century, they
were helping Spain against France.
17. Switzerland and Savoy.-Meanwhile the older Federal
commonwealth which had grown up at the other end of the
Empire was playing an important part in European affairs.
From the middle of the fourteenth century till after the war
with Burgundy, the Cnolederates had made many conquests
and alliances, but they did not admit any new Canton into their
own body. But in the latter years of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century five new Cantons were made,
Freiburg, Solothurn, basel, Schafzhausen, and AAf5cnzell.
These made up the Thirteen Cantons, which lasted till the end
of the eighteenth century. All these were purely German, but
now begins the connexion of the League with the Romance
lands. About the end of the fifteenth century the Confederates
won a small territory in Italy, and we have seen that they
played a great part in the wars of that country. And, ever
since the Burgundian War, they had been making their way
to the West, in the lands of the now pretty well forgotten




xIII.]      S7WITZERLAND AND SA VOY.              259
Kingdom of Burgundy. The history of the Dukes of Savoy
now becomes of great importance. For, whereas they had
lands both in Burgandy and in Italy, they have almost ever
since been losing their lands north of the Alps and winning
new lands to the south. At last, in our own day, they have
lost all their old Burgundian dominions, but have become
Kings of all Italy. But at this time it seemed as if the power
of Savoy was going to be wiped out altogether. We must
remember that the territories both of the Confederates and of
the Dukes of Savoy were still parts of the Empire, though
their real connexion with it was very slight. As in Germany,
religious and political affairs had much to do with one another; but Switzerland had its own Reformation distinct from
that of Germany. The new ductrines were first preached at
Ziiirich in 15 I9, by Ulrich Zwincli, whose teaching in many
things went further away from the received faith than that of
Luther. He also did good by speaking against the custom
of men hiring themselves out as mercenary soldiers. Ziirich,
Bern, and several other Cantons accepted his teaching,
while others remained Catholic and some were divided. A
civil war followed, and Zwingli was killed in battle in 1531.
Meanwhile the Reformation was preached by W[illiam Farel
in the lands bordering on the Confederates to the west,
and especially in the free city of Geneva. That city was
hemnmed round by the dominions of the Dukes of Savoy, who
were always wishing to get hold of it. Now that Geneva
had embraced the Reformed religion, there was a further
pretext for attacking it, and in 1534 Duke Charles of Savoy
besieged the city. But Geneva was in alliance with Bern and
with some others among the Confederates; so a Bernese
army marched to deliver Geneva, and at the same time took
the opportunity of conquering a large part of the dominions
of Savoy on both sides of the Lake of Geneva. Other parts
wvcre seized by the Canton of Freibuig, though it remained
2




260         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAIiV.          [CHAP.
Catholic, and by the little Confederation of Wallis or Valais,
which was in alliance with the Swiss. Bern not long after
also annexed the Bis/zobrick of Lausanne —the Bishop of
Lausanne, like other Bishops of the Empire, being a temporal
prince-but in 1564 she restored to Savoy her conquests south
of the Lake. The result of all this was that the Confederates, themselves a purely German body, became the head
of a large number of Romance-speaking subjects and allies,
who in later times have been made Cantons alongside
of the original German States.  Gtneva from this time
remained a free city, though the Dukes of Savoy still
sometimes tried to seize upon it.  And presently the great
French Reformer, 7/ohn Calvzin, came there, and became
the real ruler of the city, which thus grew into a kind
of centre for men of all lands who followed his doctrines.
After this time the affairs of the Confederates had but little
to do with the general state of things in Europe, but it
should be noticed that in i648 they were, like the United
Provinces, acknowledged to be quite independent of the
Empire. As for Savoy, almost as soon as Bern had conquered the northern districts, the whole of the Duke's
dominions were overrun by France, but they were gradually
won back by the next Duke E'mmanztel zilzibert.  From
this time the Dukes of Savoy began to look more to
their Italian than to their Burgundian dominions. Thus a
dispute with France about the marquisate of Saluzzo was
ended by the Duke Charles Emzmanuel, who reigned from
I58o to I630, keeping Saluzzzo and giving up the district
of Bresse to France. These are but small districts, but
they show the way in which France was winning the old
Burgundian lands bit by bit, while Savoy was losing territory
north of the Alps and gaining it in Italy.
I8. The Reformation in England.-The affairs of the
countries of which we have thus far spoken were all




xiII.]    THE REFORMA TIONr IN ENGLAND.           26I
closely conn.ected with one another.  England meanwhile
was constantly mixed up with the general course of affairs,
but she did not engage in any such great wars on
the Continent as she did in either earlier or later times.
After the ending of the great war with France, England
was torn in pieces by the Civil Wars between the different
claimants of the Crown of the Houses of York and Lancaster, and there was no King whose title was altogether undisputed till the accession of tHenry the Eighth in I509. He
was always mixed up with foreign affairs; and when the
Empire was vacant, in 1519, he had some notion of getting
chosen himself, and there was talk more than once of his
famous minister, Cardinal Wolsey, being chosen Pope. But
in truth nothing very great was done by England on the
Continent at this time, except that, as we have seen, the
English conquered, and for a short time kept Boulogne.
The Reformation in England is commonly said to have
begun under Henry the Eighth, but in truth Henry changed
very little either in doctrine or in ceremony. What was done
in his time was to restore and enlarge the authority which the
old Kings had in ecclesiastical matters, and to declare that the
Pope had no jurisdiction in England. All through his time
men who taught the Reformed doctrines were burned as heretics. It was only when Henry's son, Edward the Sixth, succeeded, in 1547, that any strictly religious changes were
made. Then, in 1553, came Henry's daughter Mary. She
was, through her mother Katharine of Aragon, a cousin of the
Emperor Charles, and she married his son Philip, afterwards
Philip the Second of Spain. Thus England was in close
alliance with Spain and at enmity with France. Now it was
that England lost Calais, and so had no longer any possessions on the continent. Mary also undid all that had been
done by her father and brother; not only were the old doctrines and ceremonies restored, but the authority of the Pope




262         THE GREA TNAESS OF SPAIN.          [.CHAP.
was set up again. Under her sister Elizabeth, who began to
reign in I558, the English Reformation was finally settled.
The Pope's authority was again thrown off, such changes as
were thought needful were made in doctrine and worship,
but the general system and government of the Church went
on. But the reign of Philip and Mary, under which many men
were burned for their religion, had thoroughly set Englishmen against anything that had to do with either Spain or
the Pope, and many men in England wished that change had
gone further in religious matters than it had gone.
19. England and Scotland. —Meanwhile the relations betw:een England and the neighbouring Kingdom of Scotland
were very important. The old wars often began again, and,
when 7ames the Fifth of Scotland died in I54i, leaving only
a young daughter called Mary, there was talk of joining the
two kingdoms by marrying her to Henry the Eighth's son
Edward, afterwards Edward the Sixth. But all that came of
this was further wars, and the throwing of Scotland still more
thoroughly on the side of France. Queen Mary was brought
up in France and she married the Dauphin Franlcis, who was
afterwards King for a little while. She was thus Queen of
Scotland and Queen Consort of France, and she claimed to
be Queen of England also, because, according to the extreme
views of the Papal power, she had a better right to the English
Crown than Elizabeth. After the death of Francis she went
back to Scotland, but about this time the greater part of the
people of Scotland embraced the Reformation in a very extreme form, while Mary stuck to the old religion. She was
afterwards driven out of her kingdom for her personal crimes,
and took refuge in England, where she was kept in ward
for many years. She thus naturally got to be looked on as
a Catholic saint and confessor, and she became a centre of
conspiracies against Elizabeth at home and abroad. At last,
in 1587, she was beheaded for her share in a plot against




XIII.]      ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.                 263
Elizabeth's life. The indignation of the Catholic party everywhere was great, and now the quarrel between England and
Spain broke out on a great scale. Elizabeth and Philip had
for many years been doing each other harm in a small way,
but now in I 588 Philip sent his great Armatda against England,
which did nothing. Elizabeth now came to be looked on as
the head of the Reformed party throughout Europe, and she
gave some help at different times to the Reformers both in
France and in the Netherlands. The war between England
and Spain went on during all Elizabeth's reign; but when,
on her death in I603, the Crowns of England and Scotland
were united under Mary's son 7amcs, Sixth of Scotland and
First of England, the policy of England altogether changed.
For James truckled to Spain, and England for a long time
lost the position which she had before held in Europe.
The reign of his successor Charles the First was mainly taken
up with internal affairs, and the latter years of it with the great
Civil War, which led to the King's beheading in I 649. All this
time is one of the most important parts of our history, both
in England and Scotland, but it is mainly taken up with the
internal affairs of the two countries, which have comparatively
little to do with the general course of things in Europe. But
the union of England and Scotland under one King had this
effect, that Scotland was no longer the enemy of. England,
nor could it any longer be an ally of France in wars between
France and England.
20o. Northern Europe.-It was in the beginning of the sixteenth century that the attempt to join together the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, which
had never been carried out for any long time together, came
wholly to an end. Christian the Second, called Christian the
Cruel, who became King of Denmark and Norway in 15I3,
became King of Sweden also in I520; but his oppression provoked revolts in all his dominions. In 1523 he was driven




264         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAIN.           [CHAP.
out of both Denmark and Sweden. The Swedes chose as their
King the famous Guslavus Vasa, who had been their leader
in driving out Christian. He brought in the doctrines of
Luther, but less change was made in the order and government of the Church in Sweden than anywhere else except in
England. Under Gustavus Sweden began to rise to a much
higher position in Europe than it had ever held before. He
died in I56o, and the Kings who followed him were of no
great account till the famous Gustavus Ado/Jhus, who
began to reign in I6II. Of him we shall hear more in the
history of the great wars in Germany.  On his death in
1632 came his daughter Christina, in whose time a part of
Norway, the province of namteland with other districts, and
the isle of Gotland, were won from Denmark. All this
while Denmark and Norway remained under the same
King.  Under Frederzck the First, who reigned from
1523 to I533, the Lutheran religion was established in
Denmark; but after his death there were disputes about
the succession to the Crown, and wars with the city of
Liibeck. Under Frederick the Secondu, who reigned frcm
1559 to I588, the free people of Dilmarsen, who had all
this time kept on their old freedom at that end of Germany
just as the Forest Cantons did at the other end, and who
had more than once defeated the Counts of Holstein and
Kings of Denma.rk, were at last conquered. His son Christian
the Fourth reigned from I588 to I648, and we shall hear of
him again.
2I. Russia and Poland.-In Poland and Lithizania the
descendants of J7qagellon went on reigning till nearly the
end of the sixteenth century.  Under them  Poland was
at the height of its power, and it formed one of the greatest
states of Europe. Its territory now stretched far to the east,
and took in large countries which had once been part of
Russia, and which have since become part of Russia again.




XIII.]         RUSSIA AND POLAND.                  265
But in the course of the sixteenth century, when the Russian power began to rise again, parts of these territories
were won back again, and from that time the Polish frontier
has commonly gone back. But before this, as we have seen,
the Teutonic Order was greatly humbled in I466, when
the Knights had to cede the western part of Prussia to
Poland, and to hold the eastern part as a fief of the
Polish Crown.  This led to a further change in I525.
The Grand-Master Albert of Brandenburg had become a
Lutheran. By a treaty with Sigismund the First of Poland,
the Teutonic order was abolished as a sovereign power,
and Albert became hereditary Duke of Prussia, holding
his duchy, which took in East Prussia only, as a fief
of Poland. After a few generations the Duchy of Prussia
and the Mark or Electorate of Brandenburg were, in I6I I,
joined together.  Thus began the power of the House of
Brandenburg or Prussia, which has gone on so greatly growing to our own times.  In I657, under Frederick Wiilliam
the First, who was called the Great Elector, the Duchy
of Prussia became independent of the Crown of Poland,
just as the Duchy of Aquitaine three hundred years before
became independent of the Crown of France. In I70I, to
go on some way beyond our present time, the great Elector's
son Frederick took the title of King of Prussia instead of
Duke.  Thus the Electors of Brandenburg, besides their
possessions in Germany, held the'Duchy or Kingdom of
Prussia, which was cut off from their Electorate by that part
of Prussia which had been ceded to Poland. The other
possessions of the Order to the North were treated in
nearly the same way. In I56I the Grand-Master of Lizvonia,
Gotthard KCettler, who had also turned Lutheran, gave up all
the dominions of the order to Poland, except Curland, which
was made into a Duchy for himself, just like Prussia for
Albert. But in the one case, out of the treaty with Albert,




266        THE GREA TWAESS OF SPA iV.         [rCIAP.
arcse one of the great states of Europe, while out of the
treaty with Kettler nothing came but long wars between
Sweden and Poland for the lands east of the Baltic, till in the
end they were all swallowed up by Russia. But long before
this Russia was making great advances. 7ohn or Ivan the
Fourth, known as Ivan the Terrible, reigned from I533 to
1584, and his doings towards his own subjects were among
the strangest in history. But, besides wars with Sweden and
Poland waged with various success, he altogether overthrew
the power of the Moguls or Tartars of Kasan, who had
once held Russia in bondage; he took Astrakhan also, and so
extended the Russian dominions to the Caspian Sea. He was
the first of the Russian princes who took the title of Czar.
Some say that this name is simply a Slavonic word meaning
King, while according to others it is the Russian form of
Casar; anyhow it is certain that the sovereigns of Russia, who
have latterly been called Emperors, have always wished, as
the most powerful princes belonging to the Eastern Church,
to be looked on as successors of the Eastern Emperors.
Russia was now a powerful state, but it was cut off from
the Baltic by the Poles and Swedes, and from the Black Sea
by the Tartars of Crim or the Crimea, so that Russia had
no havens except on the Caspian and the White Sea. It was
by the White Sea, from the port of Archanzgel, that Russia
now began to have trade with England and the other nations
of the West. In 1589 the old line of Rubric came to an end,
and great confusions followed, among which the Poles were
able in I605 to place a pretender, who professed to be the
true heir, on the Russian throne. But in I6I3 the Russians
chose Michael Romanoff, from whom the present royal
family springs in the female line, and Russia began to
flourish again, though it had to wage wars with Sweden
and Poland with various success to the end of the century.
In I573 the Poles made their crown purely elective, instead




XIII.]         RUSSIA AND POLAND.                267
of choosing, as before, from the royal family. Sometimes
they chose a native Pole, sometimes a foreign prince;
but from this time all power came into the hands of
the nobles, to the damage both of the King and of the
people, and Poland began to go down both at home and
abroad.
22. Turkey and Hungary.-Under Bajazef the Secondz,
the successor of Mahomet the Conqueror, the Ottoman
power did not advance, but in some parts rather fell
Back. In his time a new Mahometan enemy rose to the
east of him.  This was the modern kingdom  of Persia,
which rose again, very much as Persia had risen again under
Artaxerxes in the third century, by the preaching of a national
religion. Only this time it was not the preaching of the old
Persian religion, but that of the Shiah sect of Mahometanism. The Turks and Persians were thus not only political
enemies, but looked on each other as heretics. The new
dynasty, which began with Shah Ismael in I50I, was
known as that of the Sophis. Endless wars now followed
between the Turks and the Persians; meanwhile Selim the
Inflexible, who reigned from 1512 to I52o, added Syria and
EgySpt to the Ottoman Empire, and obtained a surrender of
the Calp5hate from the nominal Abbasside Caliph at Cairo.
Then came Suleinzan-that is, Solomon-the Lawgiver, who
reigned from 1520 to i566, and was one of the greatest of
the Sultans. It was in his time that Francis of France made
alliance with the Turks against the Empire. Under him
the Ottomans made great conquests.  In 152I he took
Belgrade; in I522 the IKnights of Saint yohn were driven
out of the island of Rhodes, after which the Emperor Charles
gave them the isle of AIalta, which they successfully defended against the Turks in a great siege in I565. But
meanwhile Suleiman conquered a large part of lungazry'.
In 1526 Lewis the Second, King of Hungary, was killed at the




268         THE GRi.EA 7TESS OF SPA IA         [CHAP.
battle of Mohacs, after which the crown passed in the end,
though not without a good deal of opposition, to Lewis's
brother-in-law, Fe~rdinand Archduke of Austr-ia, who was
afterwards Emperor. But the greater part of the country
fell into the hands of the Turkls, and Buuda became the
seat of a Turkish Pasha. The Hungarian Crown has ever
since been held by the Archdukes of Austria. It was in the
course of these Hungarian wars that Suleiman made his
way into Germany, and besieged Vienna. He had also
wars with the Empire in other parts, as along the coast
of Africa, where the Emperor at one time took Tunis.
And in 1543 the Turkish fleet was actually brought by the
Most Christian King into the waters of Italy and Provence,
where Nizza or Nice was in vain besieged by the Mahometans. Suleiman was the last of the great line of Sultans
who had raised the Ottomans to such power. After his
death, though the Turks still made some conquests, they no
longer threatened the whole world as they had done before.
In the reign of the next Sultan, Selim, the Turks gained the
island of Cykprus and lost the battle of Le.tauto; and from
this time they had constant wars with the Persians to the
east, and with the Poles and with the Emperors, in their
character of Kings of Hungary, to the north.
23. The Thirty Years' War.-We now come to the great
war which took up all the later years of this period, which
had Germany for its centre, but in which most of the nations
of Europe had more or less share. This is called the T7hirty
Years' Wi'ar. It began inBohezzia, where the intolerance of the
King, the Emperor Ferdinand the Second provoked a revolt.
In I6I9, just about the time that Ferdinand was crowned Emperor, he was deposed in Bohemia, and the Elector Palative
Frederick, a Protestant Prince, was elected in his place. It
w.as like the old wars of the Hussites beginning again. The
next year Frederick was driven out of Bohemia, and he pre



xiii.]       TIHE THIRTYI YEARS' WAR.               269
sently lost his own dominions as well.  MXeanwhile, at the
other end of Ferdinand's dominions, the Protestants of
Hungta;y revolted, and for a while turned him out of that
kingdom  also.  But the great scene of the war was Germany, where it was first of all carried on between the
Catholic and Protestant princes within the country; but
gradually, as the Emperor, with his famous generals
7Tilly and Wallenstein, seemed likely to swallow up all
Germany, other powers began to step in.  The first was
Christian the Fourth King of Denmark, who was himself a
Prince of the Empire for his German dominions. In I625 he
became the chief of the Protestant League, but he was soon
driven out and obliged to make peace. Presently, in I630,
a greater power stepped in from the North. This was the
famous Gustavus Ado/Pbzsl.h  King of Sweden, who became
foer two years the head of the Protestants, and carried onwar with wonderful success for a short time till he was killed
in the battle at Li'tzen in I632.  In this war Gustavus
showed himself one of the greatest leaders that ever commanded an army. By this time other nations were beginning
to take part in the war. England never formally joined in
it,.but there was, as was natural, a strong feeling in England on behalf of the Protestant cause, all the more so as
Frederick's wife Elizabeth was a daughter of James the First,
and many Englishmen and Scotsmen served in the Swedish
army.  France too, under Cardinal Ric'helieu, began to
meddle, first making a treaty with Gustavus and helping him
with money, and afterwards, in i635, joining openly in the war.
Richelieu, just like Francis the First, though he oppressed
the Protestants in France, did not scruple to make a league
with the Protestants in Germany and with the Protestant
powers of Sweden and Holland, in a war which had begun
as a war for religious liberty in Bohemia and Germany.
From this it now changed into a war fcr the aggrandizement




270         IZTHE GREA TAESS OF SPAIN.         [CRI.P.
of France, all the more so as most of the Protestant
States of Germany made peace with the Emperor in I635.
Meanwhile the Emperor Ferdinand died in I637, and was
succeeded by his sin Ferdinand the Third.  The war
went on for a while in most parts of Europe with various
success, the chief leader in Germany on the Protestant
side being Duke Bernhard of Weiymar. In I642 the great
minister of France, Cardinal Richelieu, died, and his power
passed to another Cardinal, Ma.Iaar~in. In I643 Lewis the
Thirteenth died, and then began the long reign of Lewis
the Fourteenth, who was only five years old when he came
to the crown.  Thus the latker part of the war went on
under a different Emperor and different sovereigns both
of France and of Sweden from those under whom it had
begun. In this latter part of the war the French arms,
under their great leaders Tuzrenne and tile Prince of Conda,
began to be decidedly successful. At last, after long negotiations, peace was made in I648.
24. The Peace of Westphalia.-The peace which was
now made, which is known as the Peace of Wgestp,zaia,
made some important changes in Europe. In Germany the
two religions were put quite on a level, but the country had
been utterly ruined by the long war, and whatever traces
were left either of authority in the Empire or of freedom in
the people quite died out. From this time Germany long
remained a mere lax confederation of petty despotisms and
oligarchies, with hardly any national feeling. Its boundaries
too were cut short in various ways.  The independence of
the two free Confederations at the two ends of the Empire,
those of Switzerland and the United Provinces, which had
long been practically cut off from the Empire, was now
formally acknowledged. And, what was far more important,
the two foreign kingdoms which had had the chief share in
the war, France and Sweden, obtained possessions within che




XIII.]       IPE'CE OF WE/STPHALIA.               271
Empire, and moreover, as guarantors or sureties of the peace,
they obtained a general right of meddling in its affairs.
Sweden received territories in northern Germany, both on
the Baltic and on the Ocean, part of Pomerania,'the city of
Wismar, and the Bishopricks of Verden and Bremen.  The
free Ilanseatic city of Bremen remained independent, as
well as Liubeck and Hamburg; but these were now the only
remnants of the famous Hanseatic League which had once
been so great. But for these possessions the Kings of Sweden
became Princes of the Empire, like the Kings of Denmark
and Hungary, the Elector of Brandenburg, and any other
princes who had dominions both in the Empire and out
of it. But the territories which were given to France were
cut off from the Empire altogether. The right of France
to the Three Lotharingian Bishvofricks, which had been
seized nearly a hundred years before, was now formally
acknowledged, and, besides this, the possessions and rights
of the House of Austria in Elsass, the German land between
the Rhine and the Vosges, called in France Alsace, were
given to France.  The free city of Strassburg and other
places in Elsass still remained independent, but the whole
of South Germany now lay open to France. This was the
greatest advance that France had yet made at the expense
of the Empire. Within Germany itself the Elector of'ranedenburg also received a large increase of territory. The war
in Germany was now over, but the war between France and
Spain still went on, till I659. Then France gained Roussillon,
and a few places in Lorraine and the Netherlands, and Dunkirk was given to England, much as England had at other
times held Calais and Boulogne and afterwards Gibraltar.
In the next year Lewis the Fourteenth seized the little
principality of Orange, but this was afterwards given back.
25. European Settlements in the East.-We have now
come to the time when European History spreads itself




272         TIlE GREA T.,ESS 0F SPAZI4.         [CHAP.
beyond Europe itself and those parts of Asia and Africa
which had immediate dealings with Europe. In the last years
of the fifteenth century new worlds were opened, both in
the East and in the West, and gradually all those European
nations which had any power by sea began to trade, to
conquer, and io make settlements, in parts of the world
which before were never heard of. In this way Eng,i-rd,
Franzce, Spazin, Portzd4al, and Hollazd have all, like the old
Greek commonwealths, planted colonies in various parts of
the world. But there has been difference between the ways
of colonizing in the two times. An old Greek colony was an
independent state from the beginning, owing a certain respect
to the mother city, but in no ways subject to it; but the
colonies planted by European kingdoms have been looked
on as parts of the dominions of the mother country and have
been held as dependent provinces. The colonists therefore,
when they have got strong enough, have commonly thrown
off the yoke of the mother country, and have made themselves
into independent states. Then again we may make some
distinctions among the different kinds of colonies. In some
pi ices the European settlers have gradually killed or driven
out the native inhabitants, much as the English did with the
Welsh when they first came into Britain. This has been the
case with most of the colonies of England. The English
settlers have often been largely mixed with settlers of
other European nations, and even with slaves from other
lands, but they have hardly mixed at all with the natives.
In other cases, as has happened in most of the colonies
of Spain, the Europeans and the natives have mixed a
great deal, and things have been somewhat as they were in
the time of the conquests of Rome; that is to say, large
bodies of men speak Spanish  who are not Spaniards
by blood.  Then there is a third class of European
possessions in distant lands, where Europeans bear rule




X1II.]           UR OPEAA4  COLONIES.              273
over the natives, but neither drive them out nor mix with
them, and indeed cannot be strictly said to settle or colonize
at all. Such is the great dominion of England in India,
which is something quite different from our colonies in
A4merica, Africa, and Australia. Possessions of both sorts
began in the times with which we have now to do. The
colonies strictly so called were chiefly planted in America,
while dominions of the other kind were chiefly gained in the
distant parts of Asia and Africa. The first European state
which began this course of distant dorrinion was Portugal;
of this we have seen the beginning in the time of Don
Henry. Before the end of the fifteenth century Portugal
had made a great number of settlements along the west
coast of Africa as far south as the Equator. Then, when
yasco de Gama found out the passage to India round the
Cape of Gonod Ho.pe, the Portuguese carried on their discoveries and settlements along the eastern coast of Africa,
along the coast of the Persian Gulf, and on into Southern
India and into the peninsulas and islands beyond India. This
quite changed the course of trade with India and the far East
generally.  ititherto trade had gone by way of Alexa'tndia
and Venice; now it went by the longer but easier way round
the Cape. Throughout the sixteenth century the Portuguese had a far greater Eastern dominion than any other
European power; indeed they could hardly be said to
have an.y European rivals in Asia at all. The Spaniards
held only the Philzibine Islands, and the settlements of
the English and Dutch and other nations did not begin
till the seventeenth century.  Russia indeed, after she
had overthrown the Tartar dominion, went on to win a
vast territory in Northern Asia, the great land of Siberia.
But this was not gained by sea; it was the mere extension of European Russia by land to the east, and the cold
and profitless country of Siberia could never be compared
T




274        T7E GREA TNYLSS OF SPAIN.           [CHAP.
with the rich possessions of other European nations in Asia
and Africa.
26. Discovery of America. —But the land of European
colonization, as distinguished from mere dominion, the land
in which European settlers have grown up into independent
nations, was the New World, America. It was in the last
years of the fifteenth century that this New World began
to be opened to the men of the old. It has been thought
that the old NAorthmen who settled in Iceland touched
on some parts of the coasts of North America, and it is
quite certain that they made a settlement in Greenland,;
which lasted till the fourteenth century. But, if they ever
found out any of the lands in which the great Spanish and
English colonies were afterwards planted, they certainly
made no settlements in them of their own. The New World
was first found out in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, a
Genoese in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella, who was
not seeking a world to the west, but, now that the earth was
known to be round, was trying to find a westward road to
India. Thence the lands which he first discovered came to
be called the West Indies. These were the islands in the
Gulf of Mexico, and one of the first of those on which he
landed he called Hispaniola, or New Stpain. It is also
called Saint Domingo or Hayti.  But Columbus did not
land on the continent till I498, and before that time -Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian in the service of Henry the Seventh
of England, had made his way to the mainland of North
America much further to the north. Thus America was
discovered by citizens of the maritime commonwealths of
Italy, but acting, not in the service of their own cities, whose
fleets never got beyond the Mediterranean, but of the Kings
who commanded the Ocean. This marks how the course
of trade and of dominion was now changing. And the new
continent took its name of America from a third Italian,




XtII.J.      DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.               275
Amerizgo Vesjucci, who at one time was thought to have
reached the mainland before Columbus. He too was in the
service of Spain: thus it was that, though Italy had no part
in the discovery of America, yet Italians had the chief
part in it.
27. The Spanish Colonies.-Thus the New World was
found out, and all Europeans then held that they had a perfect right to seize upon any countries beyond the bounds
of Christendom, and to do pretty much as they pleased
with the people. The Spaniards in this way conquered the
rich countries of Mexrico and Peru, where they found gold,
much as in old times the Phcenicians had found gold in
Spain itself. Those countries had reached a high degree
of civilization and regular government without any dealings
with the civilized nations of Europe or Asia. And they were
without many things, such as iron, horses, and the use of
alphabetic writing, without which no Christian or Mahometan
country would have thought it possible to get on. They were
of course heathens, and the idolatry of the Mexicans was of
a specially horrible and bloody kind. The Spaniards dealt
with the natives in a way not unlike that in which the first
Saracens had dealt with Christians and heathens, mixing up
the notions of conquest and conversion in a strange way.
But it is certain that no Mahometans ever treated their Christian subjects so badly as the Spaniards did the natives in
America. At last, when it was found that they could not do the
hard work of the mines, neg-ro slaves from Africa were brought
in to work in their place. The Portuguese in their African
settlements had made many negro slaves, and thus the slavery
of the black man in the New XWorld began, which went on
for a long time in all the European colonies, and which
still goes on in Brazil and the Spanish Islands.  And
thus too began. what was yet worse than slavery itself, the
trade in slaves, the stealing and bringing them over from
T 2




276         TIIFE GREATNESS OF SPAIN1.        [CIIAP.
Africa, which is now forbidden by all civilized nations. The
great Spanish dominion in America now began. Mexico
was conquered by Hernando Cortez between I5i9 and 152I,
and Peru by Francisco Pizarro between I532 and I536.
And, shameful as was the greediness and cruelty shown by
the Spaniards, there was something very wonderful in the
overthrow of such great powers by such small bodies of men.
But a wide difference must be made between the conquest of
Mexico and that of Peru. For Cortez, though he did several
very cruel deeds, really tried to convert and civilize the
countries which he conquered, while Pizarro seems to have
had no objects of this kind. Thus began the great Spanish
dominion in America, which has grown up into several independent nations speaking the Spanish tongue.
28. French, English, and other Colonies.-The next people
after the Spaniards who began to settle in North America
were the French, and the next were the English, and the
settlements of both nations had a good deal to do with the
religious dissensions at home. The first attempt at a French
settlement was made by Huguenots in I562, in the land to
which they gave the name of Carolina, but it was not till
I607 that any lasting French settlements were made in
America. From that time the French gradually occupied,
or laid claim to, a vast territory in North America, taking
in a great deal of the western part of the present Uniced
States and of the lands to the north of them. These were
called Canada and Iozisiana, but in a much wider sc:se
than those names bear now.  These settlements of the
French in North America have all passed either to England or to the United States, but sonme of their settlements in the West Indies and ttheir small possessions
in South America at Cayenne remain French still.  The
English sailors, Gilbert, Drake, and others, kept making
discoveries and waging war with the Spaniards during the




XI iI. ]      COL OVIES IhV AMERICA.              277
whole reign of Elizabeth, and in 1585 Sir Walter Raleigh
tried to begin the colony of Virginia, but it was not really
settled till I6o6. This was the beginning of the Englzish
colonies in North America, which have grown up into the
United States.  New England was next colonized, and
afterwards Maryland: both of these were largely peopled by
those men in England who were dissatisfied with the state of
religion, and who were often persecuted for not conforming to
the law in such matters. For no one as yet thought of allowing perfect freedom to all religions; each country, Catholic
or Protestant or whatever it was, punished with penalties,
greater or less, all those who did not conform to the established
religion. So men tried to get more freedom by settling in
distant lands. Thus the French Huguenots tried to settle
in America, and thus, amongst the English colonies, New
England was largely peopled by Puritans, that is, zealous
Protestants who thought that reform in the Church of
England had not gone far enough; and Maryland was largely
settled by Roman Catholics, who followed the Pope and the
Council of Trent, and held that the Church of England had
gone wrong by having any Reformation at all. The English
colonies in America were all held to be parts of the English
dominions; but most of them had free constitutions, and
they were able to do much as they pleased in their own
local affairs.  Meanwhile the Dutch, who, having freed
themselves from Spain, were fast driving the Portuguese
out of the commerce of the East Indies, settled in North
America also, and founded a colony called New NVetherlana
between Maryland and New England. In South America,
besides the French, the English and Dutch had some small
possessions. But the great South American power besides
Spain was Portugal. For t'ile Portuguese founded the great
colony of Brazil, after some opposition from the English,
Dutch, and French. The Portuguese began to settle in




278         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAIN.             [CHAP.
those parts about I53i, and after I66o they had Brazil
wholly to themselves.
29. Learning, Art, and Science.-All this time the mind
of man was making great progress in all parts. The revival
of learning in the fifteenth century did something to check
original genius in Italy, for all men took once more to writing
in Latin. But in the sixteenth century there were again great
Italian writers both in prose and verse, and the time from the
later part of the fifteenth century till that of the sixteenth was
the great time of Italian painting.  Learning also spread
through all parts of the West, and there were great scholars
in most countries, in none more than in the United Provinces
after they had won their freedom. There too men began to
give special heed to the Law of Nations, that is to the rules by
which different countries hold themselves to be bound in their
dealings with one another. In this time also men began to
have truer notions on matters of physical science; to learn,
for instance, that the earth goes round the sun, instead of
the sun going round the earth. In religious matters too the
endless controversies, both between the Roman Catholics and
the Protestants and between the different classes of Protestants, brought out a great number of learned and zealous
theological writers on all sides. Nor was this only a time of
learning, but also of original genius, for, besides Italy, it was
the age of the greatest poets of England, Sfpaiz, and Portugal.
France perhaps lagged a little behind in poetry, but she had
many good writers in prose. Generally throughout Europe,
men were taking to their own languages for poetry and
history, though some great histories were s-till written in
Latin, and Latin was still the common language of leaining
and science. Men also began to learn more of each other's
languages, a-nd the Italian language especially was much
admired and studied in other countries. In Germany the
standard of the language was fixed by Luther's translation




XIII.]    LEARNING AND LITERA TURE.               279
of the Bible, which had this effect, that the High-Dutch in
which he wrote it became the received language of Germany, while the Low-Dutch, though the natural tongue of
so large a part of the country, came to be looked down on
as a mere vulgar dialect. But, after the wretched times of the
Thirty Years' War, both learning and native literature sadly
went down. Altogether, the time from the latter years of
the fifteenth century to the middle of the seventeenth was
one of the most fertile times, both in great scholars and in
great writers in their own tongues, but it would be endless to
try to set their names down here. It will be better done in
the histories of their particular countries.
30. Summary.-In this period we see theEm1pire practically
come to an end. In strictness there was no Emperor after
Charles the Fifth, and the Imperial title no longer carried
with it any authority in Italy, and not much in Germany.
It had become little more than a title of honour in one branch
of the House of Austria, while the greatest power in Europe
had really passed away to the other branch of the House of
Austria which held Spcain and its dependent states. At the
beginning of the period Spain was decidedly in the first
place, but, before the end of it, the Spanish power greatly
lessened, and France, by the result of the Thirty Years'
WlrVar, became the leading power instead of Spain. Italy
sank into a mere dependency of Spain, except so far as
Venice still fought the battles of Christendom against the
Turks. Germzany, after taking the lead in the Reformation,
was utterly ruined and divided by the Thirty Years' War.
Swilzerland held a high position at the beginning of the
period, and the dominivn of its Cantons in the Romance lands
began. But before the end of the period the reputation of
the Confederates greatly sunk through the practice of mercenary service. flHungary had sunk, partly into a Turkish
province, partly into a possession of the Ihozuse of Austria.




280         THE GREA TNESS OF SPAINV.   [cH. XIII.
On the other hand, several old powers greatly advanced and
some new ones came into being. Englzand and Scotland,
though not yet united into one kingdom, became one power
as regards other nations. Sweden suddenly grew into a firstclass power. Poland both gained and lost, but Russia, her
neighbour to the East, grew in a manner which, in her
own part of the world, might almost be set against the
growth of Spain in the West. But she was not as yet of any
importance in European affairs generally. The power of the
Turks rose to its height, but it met with its first great check
and began to go down. Savoy, losing territory to the north
of the Alps, gained territory to the south, and thus had its
course marked out for it as an Italian power. The revolt of
the Netherlands against Spain gave birth to the new commonwealth of the United Provinces, which at once rose to
the rank of a great -power. The treaty of Poland with the
Teutonic Knights gave birth to the new power of Prussia,
though Prussia did not become great till the United Provinces had begun to go down again. And, besides these
shiftings of territory and risings and failings of various
powers, we have in this period the Reformation and all its
results, and we have the great stirring of men's minds which
partly caused it and partly followed it. And we have the
discovery of New Worlds both in the East and in the West,
and the conquests and settlements of all the seafaring
powers of Europe in those distant lands.




CHAPTER XIV.
THE GREATNESS OF FRANCE.
Growth of thepower of France; accession of Lewis the Fourteenth;
his character and absolute dominion (I) -his aggressions on Sgpiain
and the United Provinces; league against France; defence of the
United Provinces by IWilliam of Orange (I ) —Peace of Nimwegen;
acquisitions of France (I)-Lezis at the height of his power;
seizure of Strassburg (2)-devastation of the Palatinate; second
league against Lewis; Peace qf Rys-wick (2)-schemzes fo, r the
partition of the Spanish dominions; War of the Spanish Succession (3) —eewis' persecution of the Protestants; losses of France
by his reig n (3)-E-ngland under the Parliament and the Protectorate; her greatness under Cromwell; wars with the United
Provinces (4)-degradation of England under Charles and lames
the Second; wars with the United Provinces; election of William
of Orange (4)-different efects of the Revolution in England.,
Scotland, and Ireland; union of the Kingdoms of England and
Scotland (5)-share of Great Britain in'the wars with France;
accession of the Hanoverian dynasty (5)-reign of the Emperor
Leopold; growth of Brandenburg under the Great Elector;
Prussia becomes a kingdom  (6)-affairs of Hungary; siege of
Viitnna by the Turks; the Hunlzarian Crown becomes hereditary;
Peace of Car'owiit.z; reigns of yoseph the First and Charles the
Sixth; advance of the Austrian power; Peace of Passarowitz
(6)-dc y of the Spanish power (7)-affiirs of Italy; advance
of Savoy (8)-wars of Venice with the Turks; war of Candia;
conquest and loss of Pelotponnzesos (9) —great position of the United
Provinces; changes in their form of government; Stadholdership
of William  the  Third  (io) —greatest extent of the power of
Sweden; Denmtark and  Sw.vaxlen become absolute monarchies (x I)



28z        THEk' GREA TN~ESS OF FRANCE.           [CHAP.
exploits of Charles the Tze/lfth ( I I )-loss of territory and lesseningz
of the royalpower in Szoeden; comparison of Sweden and Savoy
(i )-decline of Poland; reigns of 7ohn Sobieski; and Aunguslus
the Strong (I2)-decline of the power of the Turks; the tribute of
children no loznger levied; advance of the subject nations (I3)Eznglish and Dutch settltments in India; beginning of the East
India Company (I4)-the Mogul Emperors (I4)J-English settlemnents in Aladras, Bombay, and Calcutta (I4)-English settlements in /North A merica; annexations of the Swedish and
zDutch colonies (I5)-French colonization in Louisiana (I5)Summary (i6).
i. Conquests of Lewis the Fourteenth.-We have now
come to the time when France takes the same place among the
nations of Europe which had for a while been held by Spain,
and becomes in the like sort the object of fear to most other
nations. We have seen that the power of France was confirmed, as against the Empire, by the Peace of 1Wes/phalia in
i648, and, as against Spain, by the Peace of the Pyrenees
in I659. Thus the House of Bourbon had humbled both
branches of the House of Austria. The reigning King was
now Lewis the Fourteenth, who came to the crown as a child
in I643, and reigned seventy-two years, till I7I5.  The
earlier part of his reign was a time of great confusion and
rebellion, but from the time of his taking the government
on himself, on the death of Cardinal Mazarin in I66I,
till the end of his long reign, no King of any country
ever kept things more wholly in his own hands. He was
served by very able ministers and generals, but his own will
gave the law to France, and thereby to a great part of
Europe.  His common saying was, " I am the State;" and
he made himself so; for, besides greatly advancing the power
of France in Europe, he greatly advanced the royal authority
in France.  The States-General were never summoned; he
humbled the Parliamzent of Paris, the chief court of law, which




XIv.]       LEWIS TZIE FOURTEENTH.                283
had hitherto put some check on the King's will; in short he
made France still more thoroughly an absolute monarchy
than it was before. He married Maria Theresa, an Infanla
or Princess of Spain, and at the marriage all rights to any
part of the Spanish dominions which might thus pass to himself or his children were solemnly given up. Notwithstanding this, when Philip the Fourth of Spain died, in I665, Lew-is
gave out that by an old law of the Netherlands certain parts
of those provinces ought to pass to his Queen rather than to
the next King, Charles the Second.  This frightened the
United Provinces, who feared that the claim would extend
to them.  Presently, in I667, he invaded the Netherlands,
and in the next year he, for the first time, conquered the
County of Burgundy, now called Franche Comte, which still
belonged to Spain, and the Imperial city of Besanfon, which
had now become a part of the County. These last conquests
he gave up the same year by a treaty at Aachen, but he kept
his conquests in the Netherlands. Next, in i672, he attacked
the United Provinces, and, to their great shame, he had
both England and several German princes on his side. But
after a while the English Parliament compelled the King,
Charles the Second, to make peace.  The war now became
general; the Emperor Leofpold and King Charles of Spaain
made a league with the United Provinces, so strangely had
things turned about since they first threw off the Spanish yoke.
The Empire as a body was neutral, but some of the German Princes, among them the Great Elector of Brandenburg,
Frederick Williazm, joined the league against France; so did
Denmark, while Sweden took the French side, so that there
was a kind of separate war going on in the North. It was
in this war that William Prince of Orange, the descendant
of William  the Silent, and who was afterwards King of
England, first made himself famous.  At last peace was
made at Nimwegen in x.678 and I679, by which France kept




284        7'trILE GRIA' TNESS OF FIRANCE.     [CIAP.
most of her new conquests in the Spanish Netherlands, with
the Cournty of Burgundy and the city of Besanfon, and some
Imperial towns in Elsass which had not been given up by
the Peace of Westphalia. In all this war Lewis had been
spreading his influence far and wide, and making alliances
everywhere.  Just as other Kings of France had done,
though he was a cruel persecutor of the Protestants in
France, he helped the Hungarian Protestants against their
King the Emperor, and even allied himself with the Turks,
as Francis the First had done.
2. Lewis the Fourteenth and William of Orange.-Lewis
was now at the height of his power, and his flatterers called
him Lewis the Great. But, even after these great successes,
he never could keep quiet; he went on annexing small places
in Elsass, and at last, in I68I, he seized on the free Imperial
city of Strassburg in time of peace.  Then he began to
meddle in Italy, and, among other things, he picked a quarrel
with the commonwealth of Genoa, bombarded the city, and
made the Doge come and ask humbly for peace. More smaller
wars with Spain followed, and in I688 Lewis seized Avignons,
which belonged to the Pope, and directly afterwards he
began a new war, because he could not get a candidate of his
own chosen to the Archbishoprick of Kobn. But by this time
one very important change had taken place. lames the Second
of England, who, like his brother Charles, had been in the
pay of Lewis, had been driven out, and his nephew and sonin-law Wi/lliam Prince of Orang-e, the Stadholder of the
United Provinces, had been chosen King of England in his
stead. England was now therefore against France, and King
William was the very soul of the general league called the
Grand Alliance, which was now made to keep Lewis from
bringing all Europe under his yoke. But William found it
hard to manage many of his allies, as both Spain and the
German princes were often anxious to throw the burthen of




xIV.]         WILLIAM OF ORANGE.                 285
the war on England and the United Provinces, and towards
the end of the war Lewis contrived to detach the Duke of
Savoy from the Alliance. This war went on almost everywhere at once. The thing by which it is best remembered
is the cruel ravaging of the dominions of the Elector
Palatine by Lewis's orders at the beginning of the war.
Many battles were fought and towns taken on both sides,
especially in the Netherlands; and at last peace was made
at Ryswick, by which most of the conquests on both sides
were restored. France especially gave up the places which
had been seized in Germany, except the great city of Str-assburg, which she was allowed to keep.
3. War of the Spanish Succession.-Another war began
in I700, on the death of Charles the 3Second of Spain. This
is called the War of the Spanish Succession. As Charles
had no children, there was a great question as to who should
succeed to his dominions, and several treaties had been made
between England and the United Provinces, France, and the
Entire, to hinder the whole of the Spanish dominions from
being any longer united. By the last treaty they were to
be divided among the several claimants, and the Crown of
Spain itself was to pass to the Archduke Charles of Austria,
the son of the Emperor Leopold, But, when King Charles
of Spain died, it was found that he had left the whole of
his dominions to Philip of Anjou, the grandson of the King
of France. Philip the Fifth therefore succeeded to the Crown
of Spain. But war broke out in I701: the Emperor, England,
the United Provinces, Brandenburg or Prussia (whichever
we are now to call it), and afterwards Savoy, all took part in
it. The war went on in all parts with various success till
1713 and 1714, when it was ended by the Treaties of Utrecht
and Rastadt. This was the war in which the Duke of
Marlborouogh carried on his great campaigns in the Netherlands, and in which England got possession of Gibraltar.




286        THE GREA TNVESS OF FRANc"E.          [CIIAP.
By these treaties the great Spanish monarchy was divided,
in a way of which we shall say more when we come to the
several countries which were concerned in the division. But
Philip kept Spain and the Indies, that is the distant
possessions of Spain in America and elsewhere, so that
Lewis succeeded so far that he had established his grandson
on the throne of Spain. But in this last war he had made
no such conquests for his own kingdom as he had made
in his earlier wars.  And these constant wars, and his
despotic government at home, had greatly weakened and
impoverished his kingdom. It was weakened above all by
Lewis's persecutions of the Protestants. In i685 he revoked
the Edict of Nantes, which had been granted in their
favour by Henry the Fourth. A most cruel persecution
followed, chiefly in the South, where the Protestants were
most numerous. This was a great blow for France, as
crowds of skilful and industrious men left the country, and
carried their skill to England and elsewhere. But as far as
mere military glory went, there had as yet been no time
when France had had so large a share of it as during the
reign of Lewis the Fourteenth.
4. England.-It marks the great position which France held
during this time, that, in telling the history of France, we have
to tell so large a part of all the countries at least in the West
of Europe. But this was a most important time, both in our
own island and in other countries. From the execution of
ChYarles the First in I649 to the Restoration of his son Charles
the Second in I66o, Envland was a commonwealth. During
the first years after the King's death, the Long Parliament,
which had overthrown him, kept the government in its own
hands. But in i653 the great general of the Parliament,
Oliver Cromwell, took on himself the chief power by the title
of Lora Protector, for, like Caesar at Rome, he did not dare to
call himself King. He kept his power till his death in i658,




XIV.]    THE E2NGLISH COMMIONWEAL TH.             287
and then came a time of confusion till the Restoration of
Charles the Second. Under the government of the I'arliament and of the Protector England rose again to the place,
or more than the place, in Europe which she had held
under Elizabeth, and which she had lost under the first two
Stewart Kings. Scolland, where Charles the Second had
been acknowledged King after his father's death, was now
united with England. Ireland was conquered as it had
never been conquered before. A war was waged with the
Uited Provinces, in which the great admirals of the two
commonwealths, Blake on the English side, and De Ruyter
and Van Tronfi on the Dutch, won victories over each other.
The Island of 7aznaica in the West Indies was won from
Spain; the Protector interfered to protect the Protestants in
Savoy, who were persecuted by their Duke, and he made
advantageous treaties with most of the powers of Europe.
All this was changed after Charles the Second came to the
Crown, for he had no care for the honour of the nation, and
he actually was in the pay of Lewis of France, the secret
object of their schemes being to set up absolute power a) d
the Roman Catholic religion in England. Charles first ma'e
men angry in I663 by selling Dunkirk' to the French Kii g.
Then followed a war with the United Provinces from I664 to
i667, just at the time when the Plangue of London happered
in i665, and the Great Fire in I666. In this war the Du:lh
fleet sailed up the Thames, a thing which no enemy's fleet had
done since the old times of the Danes. In this war L(wis
professed to be on the side of the Dutch, but intrigues,here
going on between him and Charles. Though in I668 a T7 idle
Alliance was concluded between England, Sweden, and the
United Provinces, to check the advance of France, yet,,,hen
Lewis invaded Holland in I672, Charles joined him and
another naval war between England and the United Provinces followed. Peace.iowever was made the next year,




288       THE GREA TNESS OF FRANCE.            [CHAP.
and after a while Mary, the niece of Charles and daughter of
y7ames Duke of York, was married to her cousin Wlilliam,
Prince of Orange. In I685 7names came to the throne. He
had openly become a Roman Catholic, and his illegal doings
in favour of those of his own religion at last obliged him
to leave the country, and William  and Mary were chosen
King and Queen.
5. Great Britain.-The effects of the Revolution which
placed William and Mary on the throne were different in
the three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. In
England the old laws and liberties were restored after a time
of misgovernment. In Scotland, which at the restoration of
Charles the Second had again become a separate kingdom,
the Stewart Kings had tried in vain to force the rites and
government of the English Church on a people who preferred
a system departing further from that of Rome. William
and Mary were therefore gladly chosen in Scotland, and the
Presbyterian Church was finally established. But in Ireland,
where the mass of the people were Roman Catholics, the
cause of James was maintained for a while. But in the end
Ireland was more thoroughly conquered than ever, and the
native Roman Catholic inhabitants were ground down for a
long while under the dominion of the Protestant English.
Thus the Scots gained their liberty and the establishment of
their own religion by the same revolution which enslaved Ireland. In I707, in the reign of Queen Anne, who succeeded
William, England and Scotlandwere joined together into one
kingdom, with one Parliament, called the Kizzgdom of Gr-eat
Britain, Ireland remaining a separate and dependent kingdom. Meanwhile, after the election of William and Mary,
now that the same man was King of England and Stadholder of the United Provinces, England took a leading part,
as we have already said, in the last two wars against Lewis.
By the Treaty of 7trecht, England, or we should now rather




xiv.]      AFFAIRS OF GREA T BRITAIN.             289
say Great Britain, gained the fortress of Gibraltar, which we
have kept ever since, and the island of Minorca. This was
the English share in the partition of the Spanish monarchy,
and it was our first possession in the Mediterranean. Tangier had been an English possession during the reign of
Charles the Second, but Tangier lies outside the Strait. In
all these ways England became more mixed up with continental affairs than she had been before, and this was
still more the case when, just before the death of Lewis the
Fourteenth, the Crown of Great Britain passed to a foreign
prince who was actually a reigning sovereign, which William
was not, except in his little principality of Orange. This was
George Elector of Hanover, a descendant of James the First
in the female line, who, as neither William nor Anne left any
children, was chosen by Parliament to succeed, as being the
next Protestant heir.  Thus England had again, after so
many years, a King who could not speak English.
6. Germany and Hungary.-rWe have seen how utterly
the power of the Emperors came to an end by the Peace of
Westphalia; and the next Emperor, Leopold, who succeeded
Ferdinand the Third in i658 and reigned till I705, was not a
man likely to set it up again. The German princes now did
much as they pleased, and many of them did not scruple
to become the allies of Lewis.  In fact, in a great part
of Germany the King of France was much more the real
head than the Emperor.   The most famous German
prince of this time was the Great Elector of Brandenburg,
Frederick William, who has been already spoken of as
taking a part in the war against Lewis.  It was under
him that the House of Hohenzollern, as the family of the
Electors of Brandenburg and Kings of Prussia is called,
began to rise to greatness.  He inherited and gained
several fresh territories in Germany, and, as we have
seen, he made his Duchy of Prussia independent of Poland.
U




290        TIE GREA TNESS OF FRANCE.           [CHAP.
His son Frederick, the first King of Prussia, took a share
against France in the War of the Spanish Succession; he
also inherited a possession at a great distance, namely the
Principality of Neufchdtel in the old Kingdom of Burgundy. This small state was in close alliance with the
Canton of Bern, and it has since become a part of Switzerland. The next King, Frederick William  ite Second, who
succeeded in I7I3, received some further additions to his territories in Western Germany by the Peace of Utrecht. Thus
Prussia, as it must now be called rather than Brandenburg,
was advancing step by step to the position of a great power
in Europe.  The Emperor Leojold meanwhile, besides the
wars with France, had much to do in his kingdom of Hun~ary, both with the wars against the Turks and with the
revolts of the Hungarians themselves, who were stirred up by
his cruel persecutions of the Protestants. The Protestants
did not scruple to join with the Turks, and we can hardly
wonder at them; for the Christian subjects of a Mahometan
power, though they are dealt with as an inferior people,
are not denied the free exercise of their religion. In i683
the Turks besieged Vienna, which was delivered by 7yohn
Sobieski, King of Poland, and Charles Duke of Lorraine.
After this the war went on, and the Turks were gradually
driven out of the part of Hungary which they held, and peace
was made at Carlowitz in 1699. In the midst of all this the
Crown of Hungary, which, though it had been so long in the
Austrian family, was still by law elective, was made hereditary
in i687.  Leopold then gave up the kingdom to his son
7oseph, who in I69o was chosen King of the Romnans, and
succeeded his father in I705. He took a leading part in all the
affairs of Europe during his time. The war with France went
on, and so did the civil wars in Hungary, till 171 I, after which
we hear of no more revolts for a long while. In that year
Joseph died, and was succeeded by Charles the Sixth. He it




X1v-T]       A USTRIA AND TURAKEY.        291
was whom the Allies had wished to make King of Spain,
and now the fear of uniting Spain with the dominions of the
House of Austria helped to incline the Allies to peace. By
the terms of peace the House of Austria got, as its share
of Spanish dominions, all that remained of the ShanisU
Netherlands, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia, and the
D)uchy of Milan, except some parts which were given to the
Duke of Savoy. In I715 another war began with the Turks,
which was ended in I718 by the Peace of Passarowitz, by
which more territory was won from the Turks, including Belgrade the capital of Servia. Thus the House of Austria at
this time gained a great increase of territory, but it was all
to the advantage of the House of Austria, not all to that'of
what was still called the Roman Empire.
7. The Spanish Peninsula.-The history of Spain during
this time, as far as it concerns us, has pretty well been told
already. The power which had been so great under Charles
the Fifth and Philip the Second had now sunk to nothing,
and Spain was disputed about by other powers without
asking the consent of its own people. But of the competitors
for the Spanish Crown the Spaniards certainly preferred
the French candidate to the Austrian, except in Catalonia,
where the people took the other side.  They had been
deceived by the French in earlier wars. Portugal during
this time has hardly any general history. At first it took the
side of the French, and afterwards that of the allies. And
we must not forget that, besides the loss of its possessions
in different parts of Europe, Spain itself suffered dismemberment.  For, as we have seen, England got, not only the
island of Minorca, but also the fortress of Gibraltar on the
mainland of Spain itself.
8. Advance of Savoy. —Italy also has very little history
during these times. From this time onwards we shall find
both Italy and the Netherlands used as a kind of battle-field
u 2




292        TZIE GREA TNESS OF FRANCE.          [CHAP.
for the wars of other nations. We have seen how, by the
Treaty of Utrecht, several parts of Italy were again made to
change masters, and how, for the first time since Charles the
Fifth, the Emperor, though we can no longer say the Emipire,
again became an important power in Italy. But there are
two independent states in Italy, of whose history some account
mast be given. The House qof Savoy was steadily making
its way. From the beginning of the seventeenth century the
Dukes of Savoy had sought to add to their dominions the
possessions of the commonwealth of Genoa, and also whatever they might be able to win in Lombardy, which was then
divided between the commonwealth of Venice and the
Kings of Spain as Dzukes of Milan. Genoa they were not to
win for a long time, but, by taking a part dexterously, and not
very scrupulously, in every war, they always contrived to
gain something by each treaty of peace. Thus Duke Victor
Azmadeus the Second took a part in both the wars of the
Allies against France. He gained in some campaigns and
lost in others; he changed sides more than once, but he
gained an increase of territory both by the Peace of
Ryswick and by the Peace of Utrecht.  His gains by this
last peace were very great, including a part of the Duchv
of Milan, and, more than this, he became a King. The
Dukes of Savoy had for a long time claimed to be Kinzgs
of Cyprus and 7erusalem, but these were mere nominal
kingdoms, while now Victor Amadeus became real King of
the Island of Sicily, while the kingdom on the mainland
went to the Emperor. The Two Sicilies were thus again
divided, as they had been in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. The Dukes of Savoy in all this show a marked
contrast to the other princes of Italy, and the corruption
which had spread itself over most parts of Italy under the
Spanish domination had hardly touched their dominions.
They were thus able to do great thingso and, though their




XIV.]          THE ITALIAN STA TES.                293
policy as yet was purely selfish, they were really laying the
foundation of the power which in our own time has grown
into the restored Kingdom of Italy.
9. Wars of Venice.-The other Italian state of which
some account must be given during this time was the commonwealth of Venice, which was still nobly playing its part as
the champion of Christendom against the Turks. Cyprus had
been lost, but the Venetians still kept Crete. But in I645 the
Turks attacked the island, and a war in its defence went on
for twenty-four years. This war, as the greater part of it was
taken up by the siege of the town of Candia, was commonly
called the War of Candia. The Venetians were helped, just
as in the old times of the Crusades, by volunteers and others
from various parts of Europe, France, Spain, England,
and Savoy; but at last, in I669, Candia could no longer
hold out, and the whole island passed to the Turks. In i684
the Venetians joined the Emperor Leopold and the Poles in
their war with the Turks, and presently Francesco Morosini,
who had commanded at Candia, conquered the whole of
Peloponnesos, and was afterwards elected Doge. It was in
this war that the Parthenon, the great temple at Athens,
which had become a church under the Eastern Emperors and
a powder-magazine under the Turks, was finally broken down
when Morosini was besieging Athens. Peloponnesos was
confirmed to Venice in the Peace of Carlozoitz in I699, but
it was won back by the Turks in I715, as well as whatever
Venice still kept in the East, except the Ionian Islands and
one or two points on the west coast. In 17I6 the Turks in
vain tried to take Corfu, but in 1718 the Emperor Charles
forsook Venice just when there was a chance of winning
back Peloponnesos. With the Peace of Passarowitz in that
year the history of the wars of Venice in the East, which
had gone on ever since the taking of Constantinople in
1204, came to an end.




294        TIHE GREA 7NESS OF FRANCE.           [CIAxP.
io. The United Provinces.-During all this time the
seven United Provinces, as what we have already said will
show, held a much higher position in Europe and the world
in general than could have been looked for from the extent
of their territories. And they did this notwithstanding an
awkward constitution in which each of the states of which
the Confederation was made up kept nearly all the rights of
sovereignty. In Holland, which was the leading province of
the seven, there was a chief magistrate called a Stadholder,
who often held the same office in other provinces also.
This office had passed on for some generations, almost as
if it had been hereditary, in the family of the Princes of
Orange. But, when William the Second died in I650, his
son William the Third was not yet born, and the office was
formally abolished in I667. At this time the States were
chiefly led by a famous statesman of Holland, 7ohn de Wilt,
but in I672 there was a revolution; De Witt and his brother
were murdered, and the Prince was appointed Stadholder.
It was he who carried on the great defence of the Provinces
against France, but after his death the office of Stadholder
was again abolished for a long while.
ii. The Northern Kingdoms.-Sweden, like the United
Provinces, held during all this time a greater position in
Europe than it was really able to keep. Queen Christina
abdicated in I654; the wars went on during the time of the
next King, Charles the Tenth, and in I66o Charles the
Eleventh concluded the Treaties of Oliva and Copenhagen,
by which Sweden gained almost all Livonia from Poland,
and obtained from Denmzark all that part of Denmark which
lay within the northern peninsula, so that Denmark now kept
only 7iitland and the islands. Sweden now had greater territories than it had at any time before or since, and in this
King's reign, in I682, the royal power was made absolute by
law. The same had been done in Denmark in I66o, in the




XIV.]        CHARLES THE TWELFTH.                 295
reign of Frederick the Third.  Then, in I697, came the
famous Charles the Twelfth. He was presently attacked by
Denmark, Poland, and Russia all at once. He first beat
the Danes, and then the Russians in the famous battle of
NVarva; then he passed on into Poland, where he deposed
one King and set up another; then he passed on into Russia,
where at last he was defeated at Pultowa, and had to take
shelter in the Turkish dominions at Bender.  There he
stayed in a sort of captivity for a while, but in I714 he
made his way almost alone to Stralsund in his Pomeranian
dominions, where he was besieged by the forces of Denmark,
Prussia, and Saxony. In 1718 he was killed in attacking
Frederickshall in Norway.  His sister Ulrica succeeded
him. Absolute mono rchy was now again abolished, and
the royal powers were made very small. In I720 and I721
peace was made by Sweden with her various enemies, and
the Swedish dominions were cut short in all parts. Livonia
and the neighbouring countries were given up to Russia,
whose territories now reached to the Baltic. Brezmen and
Verden were given up to Hanover, and part of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia. So of the fruits of the German victories of
Gustavus Adolphus nothing was left except part of Pomnerania
and the town of Wismar; but the Scandinavian territories
which had been won from Denmark in the last century were
still kept. Charles the Twelfth had won victories which astonished the whole world, but he taxed the resources of his
kingdom beyond its strength, and Sweden since his time has
never been what it was during the whole of the seventeenth
century. But, on the other hand, Sweden now reached to
the extreme south of her own peninsula, and was no longer cut
off by Denmark from the Western seas. In fact Sweden has
to some extent, like Savoy, been gaining territory at one end
and losing it at the other, though the gains have been greater
in the case of Savoy and the losses in the case of Sweden.
12. Russia and Poland.-We need say but little about




296        THE GREA TNESS OF FRANCE.           [CHAP.
the history of Russia in this chapter, because its wonderful
advances towards the end of this time will come better as a
connected story in the next chapter. Poland meanwhile had,
as we have seen, to give up her new territory of Livonia to
Sweden, and presently, in I672, she had to give up the border
province of Podolia to the Turks, and to submit to pay a
tribute. But in I674 the Poles chose as their King their
own famous general, 7ohkn Sobieski, the same who delivered
Vienna in I683. Both before and after he became King, he won
several victories over the Turks, and got back part of the lost
territories, and for a time joined to Poland IMoldavia and
Wallachia, the two Danubian principalities of which there
has been much talk of late years. These conquests were not
long kept.  Sobieski died in 1696, and the Poles did not
choose a new King for more than a year. Then they chose
Frederick Au ustus, Elector of Saxony, who turned Catholic
to receive the Crown, since which time the Electors and
Kings of Saxony have been Catholics, while their people
have remained Protestant.  This King is called Augzustus
the Stronlg. He won back the strong town of Kaminiec from
the Turks, but, having joined the league against Charles
the Twelfth of Sweden, he was utterly overthrown in 1702.
Charles called on the Poles to depose Augustus and choose
a new King; so in I704 they chose one of their own nobles,
Stanislaus Leszczynski.  But he reigned no longer than
Charles could help him, and, after Charles' defeat at Pultowa
and after a civil war in Poland, Augustus was brought back.
Poland was now falling very fast from the high place which
it had once held in Europe.
I3. The Turks.-The chief events in the history of the
Turks have already been told when we spoke of their wars
with Venice and in Hungary. Though they conquered Crete
and recovered Pelohyonnesos, yet on the whole the power of
the Ottomans was going down. Some of the Sultans, like
Mahomnet the Fourth, in whose time Vienna was besieged,




xiv.]         POLAND AND TURlE Y.                 297
were men of spirit, and Mahomet sometimes commanded hic
own armies, but some were very weak men indeed, and none
were like the great series of Sultans who had founded the
Ottoman dominion. One great reason for the decline of the
Ottoman power was that the tribute of children was no longer
regularly levied on the subject nations. The 7anissaries' had
become a kind of hereditary caste, and their old spirit was
quite gone.  In former times all the best servants of the
Sultans, both in war and peace, had come from among the
tribute children. Now that the tribute was no longer levied,
the Sultans had no longer the same succession of able and
faithful servants, and the subject nations were no longer deprived of the men who were most fitted to be their leaders.
As long as the tribute was levied, we may say that the subject
nations could not revolt. As it was, we do not hear of any
revolts for some time to come, but the subject nations now
began to gain strength and their masters became weaker.
I4. European Settlements in India.-The English dominion in India began during this time. The great sailors of
Elizabeth's time had made their way into the Indian seas as
well as into those of the West, and a systematic trade with
India, carried on, as was usual in those days, by a Company,
began in the times of James the First. The English mer.
chants had at first to withstand the opposition of the Dutch
in the islands, and of the Portuguese on the mainland. The
Dutch had got possession of the Islands called the Spice
Islands, which form part of the great group of islands which
lie beyond the two peninsulas of India, and in I623 great
indignation was caused by what was called the Massacre oJ
Amboyna, when several Englishmen were put to death by a
sentence of the Dutch Court in the island. With India itself
the English began to trade in a regular manner about I613,
then they received a charter from the reigning Emperor
yehangir. The great power in India was now the Mogul
Empire, ruled by Mahometan princes, sprung from Baber,




298'THE GREA TNESS OF FRANCE.    [CHZP.
a descendant of Timour, who established himself in India
in I526. His grandson Akbar, in whose time the Mogul
dominion was spread over the greater part of India, was the
greatest and best of all Mahometan rulers. But in truth he
gave up Mahometanism, and set up a new religion of his own.
yehangir was his son. The first settlements in India were
of course merely factories for trade, but in those distant
seas it was needful for merchants to fortify their factories,
and to have ships able to withstand an enemy. Commercial
enterprises thus gradually changed into political and military enterprises, and the Company, which was at first merely
a company of traders, came to have its dominions and armies
like a sovereign prince or commonwealth, and in the end to
have rule over nearly all India. These times however are
yet to come; but the story of the English power in India is
something like the history of Rome; wherever the English
merchants settled and fortified their factories, their dominion
really began.  Their first settlement was at Surat, one
which became of more importance began at Madras in
I640; and in I662 the King of England, as distinguished
from the trading Company, first became possessed of a
dominion in India. This was Bombay, which was given to
England by Portugal on the marriage of Charles the Secondto the Portuguese Infanta AKatharine. But this new dominion was before long granted by the King to the Company.
In I698 began the English settlement at Calcutta, and these
three, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, remained the chief
seats of the British dominion in India. During all this time
there were many disputes between different sets of merchants
about the right of trading with India, till at last, in 1708, the
East India Company was put on the footing which it kept long
after, and under which it gradually obtained either sovereignty
or commanding influence in most parts of India. By this
time the Mogul Empire was much weaker than it had been
at the time when the English first settled. Shah 7ehan, the




XIV.]        THE ENGLISH ZN INVDIA.             299
son of Jehangir, who reigned from I627 to I658, was a great
prince, but under his son Aurungzebe, who reigned from I658
to 1707, being thus nearly contemporary with Lewis the
Fourteenth, the Empire, though outwardly at its highest pitch
of splendour, was really falling to pieces. For Aurungzebe
was a bigoted Mahometan, and his intolerance led to a revolt of the Mahralttas, a Hindoo people who founded a great
dominion in Central India. And presently the rulers of the
different provinces under the Mogul Emperors began to grow
into independent princes, keeping up only a nominal submission to the Great AMogul, as he was called. This is the same
thing as we have seen so often in other parts of the world, in
the Caliphate and in the Empire and in the Kingdom of
France. By these means the progress of the English in India
was much helped. But we must remember that all this time
there was no sign at all that the English were likely to come
to the head power in India. There were as yet nothing but
one set of traders and settlers among others, Portuguese,
Dutch, French, and Danish. Some of these settlements of
other nations remain still, though the English have so greatly
outstripped them.  But with the islands-except Ceylon,
which lies close to the peninsula, as Sicily does to Italythe English have had but little to do. They have always
chiefly belonged to the Dutch and Spaniards.
15. European Colonization in America.-During all this
time colonization was going on briskly.  The two great
maritime and commercial powers, England and the Unzited
Provinces, now took the lead in it. It was now that Eltgland was rising to her great position by sea, and her new
power led both to the foundation of new colonies and to
the conquest of the colonies of other European nations.
The Spaniards and Portuguese kept their great possessions
in America, though the Spanish power had utterly gone
down in the New World as well as in the Old. The Dutch




300        TI/E GREA TNESS 01 FjA NCE.         [CHAP.
colony of New Netherland was flourishing, though the
Dutch and English often had quarrels. In I638 the Swedes
also, now that Sweden had become a great power, set up a
colony on Delaware Bay, but in I655 this colony was conquered by the Dutch, and was joined to their own New
Netherland. But New Netherland itself did not last very
long, for it was conquered during the first war between the
Dutch and the English in Charles the Second's time, and
several English colonies were made out of parts of it. The
chief town, New Amsterdam, changed its name to New
York, in honour of the King's brother, ya;zes Duke of York.
Other colonies were planted during Charles the Second's
time, as Carolina and New 7ersey, and especially Pennsylvania, which was planted by the famous Quaker Williamz
Penn, who made laws for his colony, and established greater
toleration in religion than was to be found anywhere else.
Meanwhile the French claimed to hold all the vast regions
to the north and west of the English colonies, and, whenever
there was war between France and England in Europe,
there was also war between the French and English colonies
in America. By the Peace of Utrecht in I713 the French
colony of Acadie was given up to Great Britain, and became
the colony of Nova Scotin. But, on the other hand, the
French were really colonizing at the mouth of the Mlississippi, in their province of Lozuisiana, and in I718 they
founded the city of New Orleans. The last of the English
colonies in these parts was Georgia, which was founded in
I.'23. That made up the number of the thirteen colonies
in North America, which still remain as the thirteen oldest
states of the American Union.
I6. Summary.-Thus, during this period, France gained a
great increase of territory, and more than once she caused
great alliances to be formed to withstand her. The great
Spbanish monarchy was divided, all its outlying possessions




xiv.]         COLONIIES IVA MllERI RCA.           301
in Europe being separated from Spain. England and Scotland were more firmly joined together, and began to take
a leading part in all continental affairs, and Great Britain
for the first time won a footing in the Mediterranean.
In Germnany the Emi5erors became mere Austrian princes
but, as Austrian princes, they gained a great increase opower, both in Italy, from which they had so long been shut
out, and in South-Eastern Europe as Kings of Hungary.
In Northern Germany also we see the beginning of a great
and more strictly German power in the growth of Brandenburg or Prussia. In Italy, Savoy advanced, and Venice still
maintained a gallant, though on the whole a losing, fight
against the Turks. In Northern Europe S'zeden had, by the
end of the period, quite lost the great position which it held
at the beginning, though it had gained some territory at the
expense of Denmark. Poland was fast sinking, while the
greatness of Russia was beginning. The power of the Turks
was now much less to be feared, and, if they gained territory
from Venice, they lost their possessions in Hungary and
the neighbouring lands.  In India the Dutch drove the
Portluguese from the Islands, and the Engzlish settlements
in India itself began.  Colonization went on steadily in
North A znerica, and the English colonies were decidedly getting the upper hand. In the way of learning and literature, the United Provinces still produced great scholars and
political writers; but for literature in their own tongues England and France certainly stood at the head. Many of the
most famous writers of both those languages, and also some
of the chief philosophers, belong to this time..Stanin and
Ilaly had greatly sunk; and G6ermany had not thoroughly
recovered from the Thirty Years' Wai, though it is impossible
not to mention the great scholar and philosopher Ieibnzitz.
Generally, French influence had too much power in Germany
just now for anything very original to be done.




CHAPTER XV.
THE  RISE  OF RUSSIA.
Character of the period (I)-rivalry of Austria and Prussia (2)revival of the power of Spain; reign of the Emperor Charles the
Sixth; exchange of the Kingdoms of Sardinia and Sicily (2)- TIWar
of the Polish Election (2)-the Pragnmatic Sanction (2)-War of
the Austrian Succession; Prussian conquest of Silesia; electiog q/
Charles the Seventh (3)-Maria 7heresa: her husband Francis
electedEmnperor (3) —Frederick the Great; the Seven Years' War (3)
-reign of yosepkh the Second (3)-the Hanoverian Kings in England; attempt of the Pretender; dealings zwith France, Spain, and
Sweden (4)- Wvar with Spainz; share of England in continental
wars; administration of Pitt (4)-revolt oj the American colonies; war with France and Spain (4)-independence of Ireiantd
(4)-reign of Lezis the Fifteenth; annexation of Corsica and Lorraine (5)-improzved state of thin5gs in Spain; the Family Compact; administration of Pombal in Portugal (6!-chanfges in
italy; advance of Sazvoy; revolution in Genoa and Corsica (7)the Popes (7)-Reigfn of Peter the Great in Russia; his conquests
from Sweden andotherpower s p; rise of Russia (8)-reignzs of wiozmel
in Russia; Catharine the Second; conquest oJ Crim ~7 zrtasy (8)affiirs of Poland; the threefpartitions (8)-loss ofpozoer and tlerritory by Sweden; state of Denmark and the Duchies (9) -affairs q/
the NMtherlands; the Stadholders in the United Provinces nmade
hereditary; revolts in the Austrian Netherlands ( o)-success of Zhe
Turks against Austria ( II)-their wars wzth'Russia; successive
losses of territory; dealings of Russia with the Christian  nations
(I I)-growth of the English poazer in India; career of Clive; relation of England to the native states; trial of Warren tfastingS
(12)-the En,lish Colonies in America; conquest of Canada ( 3)




CH. XV.]        THE RISE OF RUSSIA.               303
-revolt of the colonies; foundation of the United States (I3)cession of Florida (I3)-Summary (I4).
I. Character of the Period.-The greatest change which
took place in Europe during the time to which we have now
come was undoubtedly the growth of the great power of
Russia. No other state in Europe changed in anything like
the same degree till quite the last years of the eighteenth
century. Still Russia did not come to at all the same kind
of rank which had been held by France, and, before that, by
Spain. Nor did Russia rise to its greatness by displacing
France in the way in which France rose by displacing Spain.
Therefore, though this chapter is called after the greatest
event of the period, still Russia will not be the centre of our
story in the same way that the Empire was for so long, and
afterwards Spain and France. In fact during this time there is
not any one power in Europe which stands out in any marked
way above all others. There are several great powers which
are much more nearly on a level than before, and among them
one very important one is growing up in the form of Prussia.
A great part indeed of this period is taken up by rivalries
between France and England, and between Prussia and
Austria. It is not always easy to remember which side each
power took in the many wars of this time, but one rule is a
pretty safe one, that England and France will not often be
found on the same side.  In short, no power in Europe
holds a higher place at that time than our own country.
Without exercising any general dominion or making any
general conquests, England had a hand in nearly everything
that went on.  But we must, in this chapter, make the
Imperial House of Austria the centre of our story, as hardly
anything happened during this whole time in which that
House had not a direct share.
2. The Reign of Charles the Sixth.-The greater part




304            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CHAP,
of the German history of this period is taken up with the
rivalry between the IHouse of Austria, the family of the
Kings of Hungary and Archdukes of Austria, out of whom
the Emperors were no\v chosen allnost as a matter of course,
and the House of Ho/elzol/crilt, the House of the Kings of
Prussia and Electors of Brandenburg, who had begun to rise
into greatness under the Great Elector. But this did not begin
till some time later on, not till after the death of the Emperor
Charles the Sixth/. The first disturbance came-what we
should hardly have expected-from Spain. The new French
King of Spain, Phiiliz the Fzfth, under his minister Cardinal
Alberoni, tried to get back the lands which Spain had lost,
especially the Kingdom of S3arrinia, which had passed to the
Emperor, and that of 3Sicily, which had passed to the Duke of
Savoy. The Spaniards actually conquered Sardinia, and went
some way towards conquering Sicily. But France, Englantd,
and the United Provinces presently joined the Emperor in the
Quadrupble Alliance aga'nst Spain, and the end of it was that
Spain had to give up her projects, and the Emperor and the
King of Sicily exchanged their two Italian kingdoms. Thus
the Emperor Charles the Sixth became King of the Two
Sicilies, like Frederick the Second, and the Dukes of Savoy
became Krings of Sardinia, the title by which they were
known till the present King became KinZg of Italy. This was
in I720, and in the same year the Emperor made what is
called a Pragzmatic Sanction, which was guaranteed by the
chief powers of Europe, and by which all his hereditary
dominions, Hungary, Sicily, Austria, and the rest, were to
pass to his heirs female in case he left no son. Presently
this Emperor got entangled in a series of unsuccessful wars.
On the death of Augustus the Strolng, in 1733, there wa3 a
double election to the Crown of Poland between Frezderick
Augustus Elector of Saxony, the son of the late King, and
Stanislaus, who had before been made King by Charles the




xW.]           CHARLES THE SIXTH.                 305
Twelfth. The Emperor and Russia supported Augustus, but,
as Lewis the Fifteenth had married the daughter of Stanislaus,
he took upon him to make war on the Emperor, and he was
joined by Charles Emlzmanuel the Thid, King of Sardinia,
and by Philipz of Sp5ain, or rather by his wife Elizabeth of
Parmza, both of whom had designs on the Austrian possessions in Italy. Thus a war took place in which the two Bourbon Kings were joined against the Emperor, and in which for
once England took no part. The end of this war, called the
War of the Pois/h Election, was that the House of Austria
lost the greater part of its Italian dominions. There was,
as usual, a good deal of shifting among the smaller Duchies,
but the important changes were that the Two Sicilies were
given to a younger son of the King of Spain-making a third
Bourbon kingdom in Europe-and part of the Duchy of Milan
wis given to the King of Sarcdinia, whose frontier thus advanced a little as usual. And not only the House of Austria
but the Empnfire lost also, for it was settled that the Duchy of
Lorraine, a fief of the Empire, should pass to Stanislauswho gave up his claim to the Crown of Poland-for life, and
should be joined to France at his death. Thus France again
advanced at the expense of Germany. The Duke of Lorraine,
3Francis, who had m irried Maria Theresa, the daughter of the
Emperor Charles, got the succession to the Grand Duchy of
T7uscany, where the line of the AlMedici was dying out, instead
of his own Duchy of Lorraine.
3. The Wars of Austria and Prussia.-It was in this
Away settled that the hereditary dominions of the House of
Austria should pass to the House of Lorraine, as representing the House of Habsburg in the female line. And it was
no doubt expected that the Empire and the Kingdom of
Germany would pass quietly along with the hereditary states.
And all this did happen in the end, but not till after much
disputing and fighting. When the Emperor Charles died in
x




3o6            TElE RISE OF RUSSIA.              [CIHAP.
1740, all his hereditary dominions, the iNigzdomzs of 1[lzngary and Bo/hemia, the Archdutchy of Austria, and the
rest, passed, according to the Pragmatic Sanction, to his
daughter Maria Theresa, who was of course called by her
highest title, that of Queen of Hungary.  The Emf ire of
course was at the disposal of the Electors, and there was
an interregnum  of two years.  But, notwithstanding the
Pragmatic Sanction, various princes began to lay claim to
the whole, or to particular parts, of the dominions of the
House of Austria. Above all, Charles Elector of Bavaria
gave himself out as the rightful heir, and his claim  was
supported by France. Meanwhile Frederick the Second of
Prussia, commonly called Frederick the Great, who had just
succeeded his father Frederick William and had inherited
from him a well-disciplined army, put forth a claim to the
greater part of the Douchy of Silesia, and presently took
possession of it by force. The nex-t year the French and
Bavarians overran Austria; and in I742 the Elector of
Bavaria was elected Emperor as Charles the Seventh. Maria
Theresa had now to take refuge in Hungary, where, notwithstanding all that the Hungarians had suffered from her predecessors, she found great zeal in her cause. Presently Eng'lzand
and Sardinia came to her help, and the war went on in
Germany till 1745, when Charles the Seventh died, and Maria
Theresa's husband Francis was elected Emperor. From this
time she was called the Eminrcss-Qceen, being Queen of Hungary in her own right and Empress as wife of the Emperor
Francis.  The war went on between the Empress-Queen,
England, and the United Provinces on one side, and France
and Spain on the other, till I748, when Silesia was formally
given up to the King of Prussia. It was under Frederick the
Great that Prussia, the growth of which had begun under the
Great Elector, rose to be one of the chief powers of Europe.
He was a philosopher and writer, and, when he was not at war,




xv.]         THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR.                307
he did much to make things better within his kingdom. But
there was a good deal more fighting to come before the end
of his reign, for in I756 another war broke out between him
and the Empress-Queen. This was called the Seven Years'
War. Now things turned about, for not only Russia, Poland,
and Sweden, but even France, was on the Austrian side, and
Frederick was surrounded by enemies and left alone on the
continent. England however joined him, and in 1762 Peter
the Third of Russia, who was a great admirer of Frederick,
changed sides. The way in which Frederick bore up for
so long against so many enemies was one of the greatest
triumphs of military skill on record. There was another
small war in Germany in 1777 about the succession of
Bavaria, between Frederick and the Einjeror Joseph the
Second.  Joseph had been elected King of the Romans in
1764, and he succeeded his father in 1765, being also made
by his mother fellow-s6vereign of her hereditary dominions.
In I78o Maria Theresa died, and Joseph reigned alone.
Joseph had great schemes of reform in all his dominions,
but he was too fond of putting everything to rights according
to his own notions, without regard to the old laws of his
different kingdoms, so that in the end he did more harm than
good. In this way he tried to sweep away all the old institutions of Hungary, but just before his death in I790 he
restored them. He was succeeded by his brother, Leopiold
the Second, and he in I792 by the last Emperor, Francis
the Second. By this time quite a new state of things was
beginning throughout Europe.
4. Great Britain. —During a great part of this time during
which Great Britain was so. much mixed up with the affairs
of the continent, she had herself a foreign King. George the
First could not even speak English, and he thought much
more of his Electorate than of his Kingdom. The same nmay
be said of George the Second also, though he had got so fai
X2




308            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CIHAP.
as to speak English. Thus England got mixed up in several
wars with which she had not much to do. At the beginning
of George the First's reign, Lewis the Fourteenth, just before
his death, abetted the attempt made in I715 by the son of
James the Second, who called himself Jamnes the Third, to
win the Crowns of England and Scotland, for of course he did
not acknowledge the Union of the two kingdoms. This attempt failed, and England was on good terms, and even in
alliance, with the Duke of Orleans, who was Regent for the
young King Lewis the Fifteenth. This was the time when
England joined with France and the Emperor Charles to
withstand Spain. This time England really was threatened,
for Spain now took up the cause of the Pretender, as did
Charles of Sweden, who was angry because the King of Great
Britain had got his possessions in north-western Germany.
In George the Second's reign we had another war with
Sjbain, which began in I739, and which was forced on the
King and his Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, by the general
wish of the people, who were stirred up by tales of wrongs
done to Englishmen by the Spaniards in America. But
little came of this war, except some additions to geographical
knowledge in the shape of the famous voyages of Lord
Anson. Then, from I741 to 1748, England plunged into a
war on the continent about a matter with which she had
nothing to do at all, namely the war of the Austrian Succession, in which, as we have seen, England took the side of the
Queen of Hungary, and France that of the King of Prussia
and the Emperor Charles the Seventh. Nothing came of
this war either, as the English and French gave back their
conquests to each other at the end of it; but it should be
remembered that in 1745 the son of the Old Pretender,
Charles Edward, with French help, made an attempt to gain
the British Crowns for his father.  Scotland he actually did
hold for a while, and he kept court at Edinburgh, but this




xv. ]           WARS OF ENGLAATD.                 309
rebellion was quelled, like the earlier one, at the Battle of
Culloden. Then a war with France arose out of the quarrels
between the colonists of the two nations in America, and
this war got mixed up with the Seven Years' War in
Germany. The war, as far as England was concerned, was
chiefly waged by sea and in America; and under the administration of Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, many
victories and conquests were made, especially in the year
1759. The war went on into the reign of George the Third,
which began in 1760, and it was ended in I763 by the Peace
of Paris, by which England got back much that had been
lost by the war, and greatly enlarged her American possessions. But presently, in the reign of George the Third, the
greater part of those possessions were lost altogether. An
attempt to impose taxes on the colonists led to resistance.
The thirteen colonies, from New England to Georgia, revolted, and in 1776 they declared themselves independent,
and thus made the beginning of the great Federal Republic
of the United States. The French stepped in during the
war to help the colonists, and they were presently joined by
Spain and the United Provinces; and, when peace was
made in I783, Great Britain had to acknowledge the independence of the States and to give back Minorca to Spain.
But Gibraltar, our other Spanish possession, was kept, and
its defence during this war against the forces of France and
Spain is one of the exploits of which Englishmen are most
proud. In 1782 Ireland, which had hitherto been a kingdom
dependent on Great Britain, became independent, the two
kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now having the same
King but distinct and independent Parliaments. It was also
during this time that the English power vastly extended
itself in India, but that will be better spoken of in a separate
section.  During all these wars Great Britain commonly
confined herself to her position as an insular power. She




3IO            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.              [CHAP.
made no attempt at winning continental dominion, as she
had done in the times of the old wars with France. Her
only outlying possessions in Europe were Gibraltar and
Minorca; on the other hand, though foreign powers gav(
help to pretenders to the British Crown, there was no serious
attempt on the part of any enemy to get possession of an,
part of the British Islands. The true object of these war:
was dominion in distant parts of the world, and the grea
gains and losses of England and France were not made ii
Europe, but in America and India. It marks quite a nev
state of things that this should be so. Europe had now
ceased to be the only world of European nations. The
great maritime powers held dominions in the East and West
greater than they possessed at home; and the colonies which
England lost have grown into a great English-speaking
nation in the New World.
5. France.-The long reign of Lewis the Fourteenth was
followed by the reign, nearly as long, of his great-grandson
Lewis the Fifteenth, who also came to the crown in his
childhood, and reigned till I774. Lewis the Fourteenth, with
all that is to be said against him both as a man and as a
King, was at least a ruler with a strong will, who had objects,
and who largely carried those objects out. But Lewis the
Fifteenth, though not without capacity, seems to have wilfully given himself up to vice and idleness and the dominion
of unworthy favourites. Yet France, as we have already
seen, kept up her position as a great power throughout his
reign, and she even gained some increase of territory. We
have already seen how France took a leading part in all the
chief wars of this time-how she was commonly opposed to
Austria, except in the first war with Spain and in the Seven
Years' War-how, except in the first war with Spain, she was
always opposed to England, and how her wars with England
were mainly carried on by sea, and among the colonial posses



xv.]         LORRAINE AND CORSICA.                3II
sions of the two countries.  In Europe France extended
herself in two places during this time, namely in Lorraine,
where the Duchy, which had been given to King Stanislaus
for life and which had greatly flourished under him, was
joined to France at his death in I766. And, as by this time
nearly the whole of Elsass had been annexed bit by bit, the
lands which France had taken from the Empire since the first
seizure of the Three Bishopricks now formed a large and
compact territory. The other gain of France at this time
was in quite another part of Europe, namely the Italian
island of Corsica. This had been for a long time subject to
the commonwealth of Genoa. But the Genoese government
was oppressive, and the Corsicans revolted more than once.
Their chief leaders were the two Paoli, father and son, of
whom the second is much the better known. The Genoese
called in the French to help them, and at last, in I768, they
gave up their rih.Ls to France, and the French presently conquered the island. These annexations happened during the
reign of Lewis the Fifteenth, during which time the internal
state of the kingdom was getting worse and worse.  His
grandson Lewis the Sixteenth tried to make things better as
well as he could; but he was quite unfit for such a task, and
he had in the end to suffer for the misgovernment of his
forefathers, and for the despotism under which they had
brought their own kingdom and so many lands which they
had added to it.
6. Spain.-We have already seen that S;pain during this
time, perhaps because her dominions were now so much
smaller, showed much more of life than she had shown
during the latter part of the sixteenth century. This was
shown both in a marked improvement in her government at
home and in a vast advance in her European position. If her
attempts to win back her lost territory failed, she was able to
set up Spanish princes on more than one throne in Italy.




312           THIE RISE OF RUSSIA.            [CHAP.
In the time of A4beroni we have seen that France and England were united against Spain; in the later wars it was the
other way, and France and Spain were commonly joined together against England and the allies of England on the
continent. And in 1761, the two Bourbon kingdoms were
still more closely united by what was called the Family
Comnpact. Presently they both set upon Portugal, as being
an ally of England. The reigning King of Portugal was
Jose:ph, who had an able minister called the Marquess oJ
Pombal. By the brave resistance of the Portuguese and the
help of the English, the French and Spanish invaders were
driven back. During this period the yesuits were driven out
both of Spain and Portugal, having been found, as they were
in most countries, to be dangerous to the civil power.
7. Italy.-During this period Italy again gained some sort
of show of independence as compared with its state in the
seventeenth century. It still formed a collection of distinct
principalities and commonwealths, of which the commonwealths were oligarchies and the principalities despotisms,
and most of the princes were members of foreign royal
families. Little room was thus left for any real national feeling. Still the whole country was not so utterly under the
power of one foreign King as it had been in the days of
the Spanish dominion. On the other hand, the commonwealth of Venice, which had done such great things in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, seemed to lose all
strength and life after the loss of Peloponnesos. F'or a
moment indeed after the Peace of Utrecht, and still more
after the exchange of Sicily and Sardinia, it might seem that
Italy was as completely held down by the German branch of
the House of Austria as it had before been by the Spanish
branch. Among the other states there were constant changes
during the several wars, but things were at last settled by the
Peace of 1748. One Bourbon prince from Spain, Charles,




xv.]            CHANG ES IN ITAL.Y.               313
who afterwards succeeded to the Crown of Spain, was settled
in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, another became Duke of
]'armza and Piacenza, and the Emperor Francis was Grand
Duke of Tuscany, where he was succeeded in I765 by his son
Leopold, who afterwards was Emperor. Leopold did a vast
deal for his Duchy and was as good a prince as a despotic
prince can be. But the only really national princes in Italy
were those of the House of Savoy, who were now Kings of
Sardinia, Victor Amadeus the Second and Charles Emmnanuel
the Third. They took a part in every war, and were not very
scrupulous about changing sides, but they always gained
something in the end. This time, by the Peace of I748, they
gained another part of the Duchy of Milan, the rest being
left to the House of Austria. In all these changes the people
were handed over from one master to another without their
wishes being thought of at all. The only parts of Italy
where any life remained among the people at this time were
Genoa and Corsica. In the war of the Austrian Succession
Genoa took the side of France, so in I746 it was occupied by
the Austrians. But the people, without any help from the
oligarchical government, rose up and drove the Austrians
out, a revolution which had a good deal of effect on the
course of the war in those parts. And we have seen that, as
the people of Genoa rose against the yoke of Austria, so the
people of Corsica rose against the yoke of Genoa, till they
were handed over to France. The Popes of this time, especially'enedict the Fourteenth and Clenzent the Four-eentht, were
mostly very good men, but they had ceased to be of any importance as temporal princes, and the best of them were
unable to make any thorough reform in their own dominions.
Clement the Fourteenth, who is perhaps better known by his
family name of Ganganelli, altogether put down the Order
of the 7esuits in 1773, but it was afterwards set up again.
8. Russia and Poland. —We now come to what is really




314            THIE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CHAP.
the greatest event during this time, namely the wonderful
rise of Russia. For this we must go some way back into our
former period, so as to tell the story straight on. Russia was
already a powerful state in its own part of the world, but it
was quite cut off from any dealings with Europe in general
till the reign of Peter the Great. He began to reign together
with his brother Ivan in I682, and alone in I689. During
their joint reign Poland finally gave up to Russia a great
deal of the Russian territory which she had formerly held.
Presently Peter began to turn his mind to naval affairs. He
improved his one haven of Archangel, and presently, in I696,
he conquered Azof from the Turks, so that he now had a haven
on the Black Sea. Then he twice travelled in various countries, especially Holland and England, to learn such things
as might be useful for his own people. Between his two
journeys came his war with Charles the Twelfth of Sweden,
which in the end turned to the greatest advantage of Russia.
For Peter got Livonia and the other possessions of Sweden
east of the Baltic, and so he had a footing on a third sea.
Within this newly-gained territory he founded his newlymade capital of Saint Petersburg, which thus supplanted
Moscow, as Moscow had supplanted the earlier capitals.
Later in his reign he extended his borders on the other
Russian sea, the Caspian Sea, at the expense of Persia. He
took the title of Enzeror of all tle Russias, which amounted
to a claim over the Russian provinces held by Poland. In
the internal state of the country he made many changes,
bringing the clergy under the control of the civil power, and j
making improvements in many ways, though it must be remembered that improvements of this kind, when made by the
single will of a despot, do in fact only make his despotism
stronger. Still Peter is entitled to the honour of having raised
his country from a very low position in Europe to a very great
one. His policy was carried on by his widow Catharin.e,




xv.]         CA ThARzINE THE SECOND.              315
who succeeded him in I725, the Crown of Russia passing,
like the old Roman Empire, sometimes by will and sometimes by revolution, without any very certain rule of succession. During the greater part of the eighteenth century
the throne was filled by women, Anne the niece of Peter,
Elizabeth his daughter, and lastly Catharine the Second, who
succeeded in 1762 by the murder of her husband Peter t/e
Third, and reigned till I796. With some checks, Azof for
instance being twice or thrice lost and won again in the wars
with the Turks, Russia, notwithstanding its internal revolutions, went on advancing in the face of other nations. Under
Catharine the Second the great conquest of Crim Tartmay
was made. Russia now got rid of the last trace of the old
Tartar dominion, and she again had free access to the Euxinle,
as when Russian fleets threatened Constantinople in the ninth
and tenth centuries. But the chief advance towards Western
Europe was made by the share of Russia in the successive partitions of Poland. The internal government of that country
was so bad, both the King and the people being subject to a
tumultuous nobility, that the state grew weaker and weaker.
The last two Kings, Augustus Elector of Saxony, son of
Augustus the Strong, and Stanislaus Poniatowski, a native
Pole, were forced on the country by Russia, and attempts at
internal reform, as being likely to make the kingdom stronger,
were always checked. At last, in I772, the Empress Catharine
of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and the EmipressQueen, as Queen of Hungary-though the last very unwillingly-joined together to partition Poland, each taking
certain provinces. In 1793 another partition was made by
Russia and Prussia only, and in 1795 Poland was destroyed
altogether as an independent nation and its remaining territory was divided between its three neighbours. But it must be
remembered that what was then understood by Poland took
in both the old Kingdom of Poland the Duchy of Lithuania,




3i6            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CHAP.
and the Russian provinces held by Poland. Russia got
back most of her old territory, and she took also the greater
part of Lithuania. Prussia took West Prussia, the greater
part of old Poland, and a small part of Lithuania. Austria
or Hungary (whichever we are to call it) took the rest of old
Poland, and, oddly enough, some territory which had once
been Russian. In the Russian provinces the mass of the
people were still Russian, and they had often suffered persecution from Poland for cleaving to the Eastern Church.
This however does not justify the breach of the law of
nations, and the other two powers, which divided Poland
itself, had not even thus much of excuse to make. By this
partition, Russia, which had hitherto stood on the confines
of Europe, was brought as it were into the middle of the
continent and into the thick of European affairs.
9. Northern Europe.-During this time the Scandinavian
Kingdoms, especially Sweden, were of much less account
than they had been in the period before it. Neither of them
now took much share in the general affairs of Europe.
Sweden had had more than one war with Russia, and in 1743
she had to give up the district called Carelia on the Gulf
of Finland, and this time without gaining any territory to
the west. The history of the country is mainly remarkable
for its internal revolutions. After the changes of I720 the
government became almost wholly aristocratic; but in I772
the royal power, with the good will of the mass of the people,
was set up again. In Denmark meanwhile the government
remained an absolute monarchy, but the country was on the
whole well governed and prosperous, and its naval power
especially was greatly increased. During this time too the
ever shifting Duchies of Sleswick and Holstein were at last
wholly united with the Danish Crown, Holstein being held
as a fief of the Empire, while Sleswick was not.
Io. The Netherlands.-During this time those provinces




xv.]            THE NEETHERLANDS.                 317
of the Netherlands which had belonged to Spain were held
by the House of Austria, while the Seven United Provinces
remained independent; but, like Sweden, their importance
in Europe in the eighteenth century was very much less than
it had been in the seventeenth. In the War of the Austrian Succession the United Provinces supported the Queen
of Hungary, and the Austrian provinces were overrun by the
French. But when, in 1747, the Dutch territory also was
invaded, a change in the internal constitution followed, by
which the Prince of Orange, William the Fourth, was made
hereditary Stadholder. During the war between England and
France which arose out of the revolt of the American colonies,
there was a short war between England and the. United
Provinces, but both the grounds of quarrel and the terms of
peace had almost wholly to do with the colonial possessions
of the two countries. Presently there were disturbances in
the country and dissatisfaction with the Stadholder, William
the Fizth, which gave both the King of Prussia and the
Emperor Joseph the Second excuses for interfering. By
the end of this time, about I790, the United Provinces had
sunk into utter insignificance, being almost wholly under the
control of Prussia.  In the Austrian Netherlands also the
changes made by Joseph the Second led to revolts.
I I. The Turks.-The power of the Turks during this time
had altogether ceased to be dreaded by Christian nations.
The advances of Russia during this time form the greater
part of the European history of Turkey, but it was not till
the reign of Catharine the Second that the advantage set
steadily in on the Russian side, and in the early part of
the period Turkey was decidedly successful on the side of
Austria.  During the reign of Mahmoud the First, who
reigned from 1730 to I754, in a war which began in I737,
the Turks, by the Peace of Belgrade in I739, recovered
from Austria the city of Belgrade, and all that had been




318            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CHAP
given up by the Peace of Passarowitz. And by this treaty
Russia was not to keep any fleet in the Black Sea. But in
the war between Catharine the Second and Mustafiha the
Third, which began in I769, the advantages were wholly on
the Russian side. The loss of territory by Turkey during the
reign of Catharine was great. By the Peace of Kainardji, in
1774, the Sultans gave up their superiority over the Tartar
Khans of the Crimea. The Khan was then recognized as an
independent power, but the country was soon afterwards conquered by Russia. By the next war, which was ended by the
Treaty of Jassy in I792, the Turkish frontier fell back to the
Dniester. But almost more important than these losses of
territory-was the system of interference in the internal concerns of the Sultan's dominions which went on from this time
on the part of Russia. As the Turkish government grew
weaker, and as the tribute of children was no longer levied,
the Christian nations, Greeks, Slavonians, and others, which
were under the Turkish yoke; began to revolt whenever they
had a chance. In so doing they were of course always encouraged by Russia, though they seldom really gained anything by Russian meddling in their affairs. Still this tendency
of the Christian nations to revolt, and the encouragement
given to these revolts by Russia, all mark the beginning of a
new state of things in Eastern Europe, and one which is going
on still. It should specially be noticed that by the Treaty of
Kainardji Russia obtained certain rights of interference in
the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and WZallachiia,
which were under the superiority of the Sultans, without
forming part of their immediate dominions. In these wars,
Russia, which sixty years before had had no European haven
except on the White Sea, was able to send fleets into the
Mediterranean. She was now fully established, not only as
one of the chief powers of Europe, but as the ruling power in
the south-east as well as in the north-east. The Eastern




xv.]         71I1E ENGLISZ INV IVDi.A.            319
Church, which had been so long kept down under MIahometan bondage, now again begins to be of importance, as
being the religion both of the greater part of the Christian subjects of the Turks, and also of Russia which professed to be their defender.
I2. The English power in India.-It was in the course
of this period that the great English dominion in India grew
up out of what were at first the mere mercantile settlements
of the East India Company. But this was not till after a
hard struggle with the French, who at one time seemed likely
to gain the greatest power in the peninsula. In 1746, during
the war of the Austrian Succession in Europe, Labourdonnais,
the French governor of the Mauritius, seized Madras, which
was kept till the end of the war. But meanwhile Dufileir,
the governor of Pondicherry, the chief French settlement in
India, formed great schemes of French dominion in the East,
and wars went on between the French and the English in
India, under cover of supporting different native princes.
These wars did not even stop when France and England
were at peace, in the time between the two wars of the
Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. In 1756 the
English settlement at Calcutta was taken by Suraj-ad-dowla,
the Nabob of Bengal, one of the princes who owed a nominal
vassalage to the Great Mogul.  Now it was that many
Englishmen died in what was called the Black Hole. But
now came the great advance of the English power under
Clive and the battle of Plassy in 1757, in which the Nabob,
with a vast native army and with a small body of French
auxiliaries, was utterly overthrown by Clive's little army
of English and of natives under English discipline. This
battle laid the real foundation of the English dominion in
India. But the war with France still went on in Southern
India with varying success till the Peace of I763, when Ponaicherry, which had been taken by the English, was restored




320            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.             [CHAP.
to the French. Since then it has been commonly taken and
given back whenever there has been any war between England and France. But neither the French power in India
nor that of any other European nation has, since the days of
Clive, been able to stand up against that of England. Sincte
that time the English dealings with India have been much
like those of ancient Rome in the Mediterranean lands. One
state after another has first become dependent and then
has been incorporated, just as when a kingdom or commonwealth was made a Roman province. It must be remembered that all this time the English dominion in India was
not in the hands of the English Government, but still in those
of the Company. It was only in I784 that the affairs of
India were brought at all into the hands of the Home
Government by the institution of the Board of Control, a
body acting in the King's name, to control in certain cases
the management of affairs by the Company. After Clive, the
most famous name in the history of British India was that of
the Governor-General Warren Hastings, who was impeached
and tried before the House of Lords on various charges of
oppression and misgovernment, and was acquitted after a
trial which lasted many years.
13. The Independence of the United States.-Georgia
was the last English colony that was founded in North
America during this time.  The English colonies lay
wholly along the east coast; the French possessions in
Canada and Louisiana hemmed them in to the north and
west, and the Spanish colony of Florida to the south. The
colonies of the different European nations took a large share
in the several wars of the century. In 1759 Canada was conquered by the English troops, British and colonial; this war
was memorable for the victory and death of General kWolfe
at Quebec. A large French-speaking population in Canada
was thus handed over to English rule, and the French settle.




xv.] INDEPEtNDENCE OF THE UNITED STA TES. 321
ments now no longer stood in the way of the growth of the
English colonies to the west. By the same treaty of I763
FZorida was given up by Spain to England, and Louisiana
was divided between England and Spain, the Mississippi
being the boundary. The French were thus quite shut out
of North America. Then came the attempt on the part of
Great Britain to tax the colonies, their revolt, and the
assistance given them by France, and afterwards by Spain.
IWhen the colonies in 1776 declared themselves independent,
each colony formed an independent State, joined together
only by a very lax Confederation. But when the war was
over, a closer union was found necessary, and in 1789
the constitution of the United States f Anmerica, as a
perfectly organized Federal commonwealth, remarkably like
the constitution of the Achaian League in old times, was fully
established. Each State kept its independence in its own
affairs, but the Union formed one nation in all dealings with
other powers. The first President of the new commonwealth
was George Washing/on, who had been the great leader of
the colonists during the war. This constitution was gradually accepted by all the States. By the treaty of 1783 Florida
was given back to Spain, and the late British conquest of
Canada, with the colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
and Newfoundland, remained part of the British dominions.
The States were thus hemmed in to the north, and for a
while to the south also; but they had free power of growth
to the west, where new settlements were quickly founded and
were admitted into the Union as independent States on the
same terms as the first thirteen.
14. Summary.-The greatest events during this period are
thus to be found in the furthest parts of the civilized world.
The rise of Russia in Eastern Europe, the foundation of the
English dominion in India, and the establishment of the
United States in America, are the three greatest events of
y




322            TILE RISE OF RUSSIA.            [CHAP.
the time. They are more than mere common conquests
or acquisitions of territory. Each one of them is the real
beginning of a new state of things. The English now fairly
took their place as the leading people of the earth in
colonization and distant dominion. The British Empire in
India is the greatest example of distant dominion, as distinguished from proper colonization, on the part of any European power; and the establishment of the United States as
an independent power has given to a people of English birth
and speech the means of growing to far greater extent and
power than they could have done if they had remained dependent on the mother country. Geographical knowledge
was also greatly increased by the more thorough survey of
the islands of the Eastern Ocean, including the vast island,
or rather continent, of Australia, which, just at the end of
the period with which we are now dealing, opened another
field for English colonizatibn. France was now altogether
driven out of the world of distant dominion, and the other
colonizing powers, S3pain, Portugal, and Holland, could at
most keep what they had got. None of the changes which
happened in Western Europe at this time were at all on the
same scale as these, for the gains and losses of the maritime
powers had been made much less in Europe than in their
distant possessions. In Europe, the three Western powers,
Enlzgnd, France, and Sp5ain, kept nearly the same position
at the end of the period which they had held at the beginning.
The United Provinces and the Scandinavianz kingdoms had
fallen from their momentary greatness, and Italy hardly
existed, except as the battle-field for other powers, and as a
land in which the younger branches of ruling families might
be provided for. But the House of Savoy was still pushing
its way, and it gained some increase of territory by nearly
every fresh treaty of peace. But in Eastern Europe the advance of Russia, at once against Sweden, Poland, and Turkey,




xv. ]               SUMMAIAA R 5Z                  323
the way in which, from having been cooped up inland, she
made her way into both the Baltic and the Mediterranean,
and became a great and even threatening power, formed
the greatest European change of the time. Russia, after
having been thrown back for so many ages, had at last won
the place which she had tried to win when she attacked Constantinople in the old times. Her advance is also remarkable
as bringing into prominence a race and a religion which had
long been kept in the background. The Slavonic nations
with whom we have hitherto had most to do, the Poles, Bohemians, and others, belonged to the Western Church, and
were more or less closely connected with the Western Empire.
But with the rise of Russia, a Slavonic country which got its
Christianity and civilization wholly from Constantinople, both
the Slavonic race and the Eastern Church again rise into
special importance. And so in some sort does the Eastern
Enmpire also, by means of the influence which the Russian
princes, as the most powerful princes of the Eastern Church,
were able to exercise on those nations of their own Church,
both Greek and Slavonic, which were still in bondage to the
Turks. The advance of Prussia during the same time was
very important, but it was not so important as this. The
change was not so sudden, and it was not so great in itself.
A new German power came to the front in Germany, and it
has gradually grown to be the head of Germany, much
in the same way as Wessex grew in England, Castile in
Sp.-in, and France in Gaul. But its rise did not, like the rise
of Russia, bring a race and a religion from the background
to the front. The partition of Poland, in which Russia
and Prussia had the chief share, stands pretty well by itself
in history; disputed and tributary dominions have often
been divided between several claimants, but there is no other
case of a great and independent country being cut up in this
way among its neighbours. These political changes and the
Y2




32.4            THE RISE OF RUSSIA.           [CIe. XV.
rise of these new powers were very great events in themselves,
and they were also closely connected E ith the stir in men's
minds which went on during this time. During the eighteenth
century mea were speculating on religion, government. and
society in a more daring way than they had ever speculated
on so great a scale before. French and French-speaking
writers, Voltaire, Rousseau, and others, were leading on men's
minds towards that general crash of existing things, good and
bad together, which marks the next period in so large a part
of Europe. And rulers like the Emperor 7oseph, Frederick
of Prussia, and Catharine of Russia helped to the same end.
For, though they ruled as absolute princes, yet the great
changes which they made, both good and bad, tended to unsettle men's minds, and to make them more ready to break
with the past altogether. This whole period then was one
of very great importance, but it was mainly in the way of
preparation for what was coming. It was a time of great
advance in both physical and moral science, and one of great
mechanical discovery. But in most branches of art, learning,
and original composition the eighteenth century was below
either the times before or the times after it. It seemed as
if the world needed to be stirred up by some such general
crash as was now near at hand.




CHAPTER XVI.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Character of the time (I)-reign of Lewis the Sixteenth; the StatesGeneral of 1I789; they become the National Assembly (2)-Consfitution of 1790; abolition of monarchy; National Convention;
execution of the Aing (2)-Reign of Terror; Robespierre; establishment of the Directory (2)-foreign wzars of the Republic; rise
of Napoleon Buonaparte (2)-annexations in Germany, Italy, and
the Netherlands; wars in Switzerland and Egypt (2)-Buonapasrte
seizes the chief power as Consd; character of his rule; treatits of
Luneville and Amiens (2, 3)-Buonaparte calls himnself Emperor
of the French and King of Italy (3)-conquests of Buonaparte;
his dependent Kings (3)-he invades Russia; liberation of Germany (3)-fall of Buonaparte; his return j$;-omz Elba; battle of
Waterloo; his final overthrozo (3)-effects of the French Revolution
in  Germany; abolition of the  Empire; title of Emperor of
Austria; the new Kinfgs; the Confederation of the Rhine (4)Buonaparte's victories over Prussia and Austria; greatest extent
of Buonaparte's dominion in Germany (5)-formation of the German Confederation (5) —changes in Italy; its resettlement at the
Peace (6)-dealinzgs of Buonaparte with Spain; yoseph Buonaparte
made King; campnaigns of the Duke of Wellington; return of
Ferdinand the Seventh (7)-Kinffg 7ohn of Por-tzgal goes to Brazil;
liberation of Portugal (7)-changes in the Netherlands; union of
the zewhole Netherlands into one Kingdom  (8)-the French in
Switzerland; the Helvetic Republic; the Act of Mediation; formotion of the Swiss Confederation (9)-share of England in the
general War; bombardment of Copenhagen (Io)-rebellion  in
Ireland; Union of Great Britain and Ireland (Io)-war with the
United States; settlement at the Peace (Io)-Russian conquest of




326         TZIE FR'E'ACH REVOLU710N.             [CHAP.
Finland; election of Bernadotte in Sweden; union of Sweden and
Norway ( II)-affairs of Denmnark (X )-reigns of Paul and
Alexander in Russia (I2)-Peace of 7lisit; wars with Sweden,
Tiz-key, and Persia (ir2) —French invasion of Russia; Kingdonm
of Poland united with Russia (I2) —decay of the Turkish Enmpire;
indnepndence of Ser-via, Egypt, and other provinces; Turkish wars
with France and Russia; accession of Afahmoud (13) — nglish
conquests in India; colonization of Australia (14)-revolutions aj
Ilayti (14)-growth of the United States; paurchase of Louisiana;
abolition of slavery in the Northern States ( I5)-Summary (i6).
I. Character of the Time.-We have now come, we may
almost say, to our own times, to times which old people still
living can remember. And these times are times so full of
matter that it would be vain to try to do more here than to
point oust the general effect which the events which then happened had on the relations of the states of Europe to one
another.  It was a time which saw such an upsetting of the
existing state of things everywhere as had never happened
before in so short a space of time. The centre of everything during this time is France; and in France at this time
men did what had never been done before; that is, they
went on the fixed principle of changing everything, whether
it were good or bad, wherever their power reached, both in
their own country and elsewhere.  There was a general
change of everything, often out of a mere love of change,
and there was in particular a silly way of imitating old
Greek and Roman names and ways, even when they were
nothing to the purpose. But in this general crash the evil
of the older times was largely swept away as well as the
good, and means were at least given for a better state of
things to begin in our own time.
2. The French Republic.-The events of the French
Revolution must be told in the special History of France. It
is enough to say here that Lewis the Sixteenth, the grandson




XVT.]        TILE I'ENCHI REPUBLIC.             327
of Lewis the Fifteenth, who succeeded him in 1774, had to
pay the penalty of the misgovernment of so many Kings who
had gone before him, and above all of the last two. Now that
there was such a spirit of thought and speculation about in the
world, men could no longer bear the abuses of the old French
system of government, the absolute power of the King and
the monstrous privileges of the nobles and clergy. The
finances of the country too were in utter disorder, and
generally there was need of reform in everything. Lewis the
Sixteenth, an honest and well-intentioned man, but not strong
enough for the place in which he found himself, tried hard to
make things better, though perhaps not always in the wisest
way. At last, in I789, the States-General were called together, which had not met since I6I4. They were presently
changed into a National Assembly, which made the greatest
changes in everything, abolishing all the old privileges, and
giving all things as it were a fresh start. Among other
things they wiped out the old provinces, so many of which
had once been independent states, and divided the whole
country into departments, called in a new-fashioned way
after rivers and mountains. The small part of Elsass which
remained independent, and the territories of Venaissin and
Avignon in the old Kingdom of Burgundy, which belonged
to the Popes, were now finally swallowed up by France.
Then came a time of great confusion and rapid changes.
In I790 a new constitution was made, by which the King's
power was made very small indeed, but the old title of
Kizn  of the French was revived. In I,-92 monarchy was
abolished, and France became a Republic under the National
Convention; in the next year the King was beheaded, and
now religion and everything else was swept away. Now
came the Reign of Terror; one party after another as it rose
to power put its enemies to death. Among the men who had
the chief hand in this general destruction was the famous




328        THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.            [CIlA^'.
Robespierre. He was a native of Arras in Artois, but, owing
to the conquests of Lewis the Fourteenth in the Netherlands,
his country was now French. But before long a time of
rather more quiet began under the Directory. Meanwhile
France was at war with many of the powers of Europe; for
Kings began to be afraid of the example of France spreading.
In I790 war began with the Emnperor and the King of Prussia,
and, directly after the King's execution in 1793, war was
declared against England also. Thus began the long Wars
of the French Revolution, in which almost every part of
Europe took a part at one timte or another, and which went
on, with some stoppages, till 8  5. The first part of the war
may be looked on as lasting till 1797. It went on in the
Austrian Netherlands, along the Rhine, and in Italy, and it
was in the Italian part of the war that Napioleon Buonapiarte
began to make himself famous. He too, like Robespierre,
was a Frenchman only through the annexations of France,
being an Italian of Corsica who had to learn the French
language. His victories in Italy forced the Emperor Francis
to give up the Austrian Netherlands to France, and Piedmont
and Savoy were also annexed. This was the way in which
things went on during the whole time; sometimes territories
were actually added to France; sometimes they were made
into separate states, nominal republics, which were altogether
dependent on France. But for the old republics of Europe,
whether aristocratic or democratic, no more respect was shown
than for Popes or Kings. As the Emperor had given up so
large a territory to France, to get something in exchange, he
joined the French in destroying the ancient commonwealth
of Venice, and they divided its dominions between them.
France was wishing to get a power in the east of Europe,
and therefore took the Ionian Islands as part of her share.
Then, in 1798, Buonaparte planned an expedition to Egzypt,
and, to get money, the Directory attacked Switzerland, be



XVI.]         RISE OF BUONAZIPARTE.               329
cause Bern was known to have a large treasure. Presently,
in I799, another war began against the Emperor, who was
helped by Russia; this war chiefly went on in Switzerland.
At home the Directory greatly mismanaged things, and,
when Buonaparte came back the same year, he was easily
able to upset it and to take all power into his own hands. An
old Greek would have said that he made himself Tyrant; but,
after the fashion of calling everything by Roman names, he
first called himself Consul and then Evzberor; he had a
Senate and what not, being in truth a still more absolute
ruler than ever Lewis the Fourteenth had been.
3. Napoleon Buonaparte.-Buonahparte was now master
of France, and he came nearer to being master of Europe
than any other one man had done before. For fifteen years
the whole continent was in confusion, Kings and kingdoms
being set up and put down again pretty much as it pleased
him. But in France itself, though his rule was altogether
despotic, and though in the end he made himself hateful by
draining all the resources of the country for his endless wars,
there can be no doubt tehat the land gained by having a
time of quiet after the disorders of the Revolution. He
restored the Christian religion, and, like Justinian, put out a
code of laws for his dominions. During the time when he
called himself Consul, peace was made with the Empire at
Luneville in i8OI, and with England at Amiens in I802.
By the former peace all Germany left of the Rhine was
given up to France. The Rhine was in the Roman times
the boundary between independent Germany and the Roman
province of Gaul; but the modern kingdom of France had
never come anywhere near the Rhine till the annexations
began in Elsass. But now France got the Rhine frontier
from Basel to its mouth, or we might say, from its
source to its mouth; for Switzerland was now merely a
French dependency. In I804 Buonaparte called himself




330         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CHAP.
Emperor of the French, and he crowned himself at Paris,
sending for the Pope to anoint him. In this his object was
to give himself out as the successor of Charles the Great,
not merely as the successor of any of the local Kings of
France.  For it was of course part of his plan that men
should look, as Frenchmen commonly do, on the great
German Emperor as a Frenchman. It shows how thoroughly the old notion of the Empire had died out, when
such a pretence could have any effect on men's minds.
Since Buonaparte's time the title of En.mferor, which once
meant so much, has ceased to have any particular meaning.
Everybody that chooses now calls himself an Emperor;
the title has even been borne by several adventurers in
Mexico and the West Indies. But, besides calling himself Emperor of the French, Buonaparte made part of
Northern Italy into a Kingdom, and called himself King oJ
IRalv in imitation of the old Emperors.  No King of Italy
had been crowned since the Emperor Charles the Fifth was
crowned at Bologna, but now Buonaparte was crowned
again the next year at Milan as King of Italy. Before he
had taken up these titles, he was again at war with England,
and he planned an invasion of our island, which he never
carried out. For the power of France by sea was broken by
the great naval battle of Trafalgar against the English;
from this time Buonaparte did much as he pleased by land,
but the smallest arm of the sea stopped him everywhere.
Meanwhile his great land campaigns spread with little
stoppage over the years from  I8o5 to I809.  He now
brought the greater part of Western Europe more or less
under his power. He set up his brothers and other dependents as Kings of Sfain, Naples, Holland, and elsewhere, and he moved them from one kingdom to another,
or joined their dominions on to France, just as he thought
good. He cut short the dominions both of Prussia and




xvI.]     0 VERTHRO 0   OF B UONAPAR 7E.          331
Austria, and made himself really master of the rest of
Germany, joining what he pleased to France, and calling
nimself Protector of the rest. In I8II his power stood at
its height. What he called the French Empire took in
Franzce with all its old conquests, Germany west of the
Rhine, the Netherlands and the United Provinces, and
North-west Germany also, so that the French frontier
took in Hamburg and Liibeck, and reached to the Baltic.
At the other end it took in all ~Western Italy, including
Rome; the remainder belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, of
which Buonaparte called himself King. Beyond the Hadriatic a large territory, made up of the former possessions
of Austria and Venice and the Republic of Ragusa, was
also part of the French Empire. The Kingdom of Nafples
was held by his brother-in-law Murat, but Sicily and Sardinia were still held by their own Kings, because they were
islands, and the British fleet could help them. Denmark was
his ally, and Spain was under his brother. But presently deliverance began to come from two quarters. In i812 Buonapal te thought good to invade Russia, but the climate fought
against him as well as the people, and he had to come back
the next year, for the first time, utterly discomfited. The next
year, 1813, Gerymany began to rise against him, rather by a
common impulse of the people than by any act of the governments. But Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and most of the smaller
German states, gradually joined against him. Germany was
now set free in the great battle of Leipfzig. Meanwhile, ever
since I8o8, when 70seph Buonafparte had been sent to be
King of Spain, the British troops had been engaged in the
deliverance of the peninsular kingdoms. Now it was that
the Duke of Wellington won his great victories over several
of Buonaparte's best generals. In 1814 the Allies entered
France on both sides, the English from the south, the other
powers from the east. Several battles were fought at both




332         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CHAP.
ends of the country. At last Paris was taken, Buonaparte
abdicated, and he was allowed to hold the little island of Elba,
keeping the title of Emperor. The French people were now
quite weary of him, and they gladly welcomed the restoration of the old royal family in the person of the last King's
brother, who called himself Lewis the Eigfhteenth.  But
in the next year, I815, Buonaparte came back; he was
received by the army, and reigned again for a few months,
till the Allies again gathered their forces, and he was overthrown for ever by the English and Prussians at Waterloo.
He now abdicated again, but this time he was not trusted
to remain anywhere in Europe, but was kept in ward for
the rest of his days in the island of Saint Helena, a British
possession in the Atlantic between Africa and America. The
wars of the French Revolution were now over. By a series
of treaties made at Paris and Vienna, the boundaries of the
different states of Euro)pe were settled afresh, and France
had to give up the conquests which she had made during
the republic and in the time of Buonaparte. The boundaries
of the restored kingdom did not greatly differ from what
they had been before the wars of the Revolution began.
4. The Fall of the Empire.-The part of Europe which,
next to France itself, was most affected by the French Revolution was Germany. The changes in Italy were in themselves
equally great, but Italy had already been partitioned out over
and over again, while Germany had never before fallen under
a foreign dominion. It was during this time that the old state
of things, and the old ideas which had lasted so long, came
finally to an end. The Roman ENmf5ire and the Kingldonz of
Germany were now abolished even in name. First of all, as
we have seen, the Austrian Netherlands, which were now
pretty well separated from the Empire, and all Germany
west of the Rhine, including the three great Archbishopricks of Mainz, AK6n, and Trier, and the old royal city of




xvI.]      TIE.FALL OF TIlE EXPAIRE.             333
Aachen, were all added to France. Meanwhile the princes
who lost their dominions by the Peace of Lunevi/le were
allowed to make up for it at the cost of the bishopricks
and free cities east of the Rhine, and a new electorate of
Hcssen-Cassel was made, whose Elector, as it turned out,
never had any one to elect. In I804, as soon as Buonapartc
began to call himself Emperor of the French, Francis tthe
Second, being Emperor-elect of the Romans and King of
Germany, began to call himself Hereditary Emiperor oJ
Austria, whatever that meant. And in I8o5, after the war
had begun again and after the Austrians and Russians
had lost the great battle of Austerlitz, the Emperor made
a treaty with Buonaparte at Pressburg, which is drawn up
between the Eniecror of Germany and Austria and the
Emneror of the French and King, of Italy.  It was time
that the Empire should come to an end when its chief had
in this way forgotten who he was. And so it happened
within two years. Many of the Germnan princes had by this
time joined Buonaparte. They declared themselves independent of the Empire, and they began to call themselves by
higher titles, King of Bavaria, King of WI47rttembero, and
so forth. They then made themselves into the Conzfederation of the Rhine, which was put under the protection
of Buonaparte, and they added to their dominions such of
the remaining free cities and smaller principalities as
they thought good. This was in i8o6, and in the samc
year the Emperor Francis formally resigned the Empirn
altogether, and no Roman Emperor has since been chosen
Thus the old Kingdom of Germany, which had gone on eve:
since the division of the dominions of Charles the Great,
and the Roman Empire, which had gone on in one shape or
another ever since Augustus Caesar, came at last to an end.
The Kingdomn of Burgundy was now wholly forgotten, and
all of it was now either annexed to France or, being part of




334         TIlE FRENCH RE VOL UTiON.          [CHAP.
Switzerland, was quite under French influence. As for the
third kingdom, that of Italy, we have seen that Buonaparte
called himself by its name, though by the Treaty of Pressburg he promised that France and Italy should not be joined
again after his time. Thus all traces of the old state of
things passed away. But the former Emperor Francis still
went on calling himself Emperor of Austria, and his successors in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Archduchy of
Austria, and his other hereditary dominions, have gone on
doing so ever since.
5. The Settlement of Germany.-The union of the German States, which had been so lax ever since the Peace of
Westphalia, now quite passed away. Buonaparte had now to
deal with the separate states which had not submitted to him.
Prussia had made a separate peace long before, and now, in
i8o6, the King Frederick William the Third made a league
with France by which he obtained the Electorate of Hanover,
which belonged to the King of Great Britain. But the yoke
of the French alliance was too hard to bear, and war broke
out between France and Prussia, in which Prussia was supported by Saxony. Now came the great battle of 7ena, in
which the Prussians and their allies were utterly defeated.
Saxony now gave way, and the Elector was made King
and joined the Confederation of the Rhine. In the next
year Prussia was cut short at the Peace of Tilsit; her
western dominions and some other districts were made
into a Kinogdom of Westhahalza, or which Buonaparte made
his brother 7Jerome King, while the Polish possessions of
Prussia, except West Prussia, were made into a Grand
Duchy of Warsaw, which was given to the new King of
Saxony. Austria meanwhile, having again ventured on war
in I809, was overthrown at Wagram, and had to yield her
south-western dominions to France and Bavaria, being thus
quite cut off from Italy and the Hadriatic. Lastly, North



XVI.]    THE GERMAN CONFEDERA TION.               335
western Germany, including the free cities of Liibeck, Bremen,
and Hamburg, was altogether joined on to France. To
crown all, the German states were made to send men
to help in Buonaparte's attack on Russia. Then, in I813,
came the uprising of the German people, which the German
governments had to join one after another. And lastly, in
8 I 5, at the Congress of Vienna the state of Germany
was finally settled as it stayed till a few years back. There
was no longer an Emperor or a King of Germany, but
the German princes and free cities, of which last four only,
Liibeck, Bremen, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, were left, formed
themselves by a lax Federal tie into the German Confederation. Many of the small States were swallowed up, and the
boundaries of all were settled afresh. And it should be
marked that several of the chief princes who were members
of the Confederation joined it for parts of their dominions,
but not for all. Francis of Austria, who had been Emperor,
and his successors, were to be Presidents of the Confederation, they joined it for the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Archduchy of Austria, the County of Tyrol, &c., but not for the
Kingdom of Hungary or their other dominions out of Germany.
So the greater part of the Prussian dominions were within
the Confederation, but the Kingdom of Prussia itself, that is
East Prussia and the Polish provinces, lay out of it. So too
the Kings of Great Britain, Denmark, and the Netherlands
-a new kingdom to be presently spoken of —were members of the Confederation for Hanover (which was now
called a kingdom), Holstein and Lauenburg, and Li'zelburg
severally. The German princes whom Buonaparte had set
up as Kings, those of Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Saxony,
kept their titles; but as the King of Saxony had stuck to
Buonaparte as long as he could, a large part of his kingdom
was added to Prussia. All the princes promised free constitutions to their people, but most of them forgot to give them.




336        THE FRENCH RE VOL UTIOA.M           [CHAP.
6. Italy. —Italy was as much tossed to and fro during
these times as Germany. It is hardly worth while to mention
all the little commonwealths and principalities which were
set up and put down. The first conquests from Austria and
Venice were made into the Cisaliine Refiublic, which was
afterwards changed into Buonaparte's CKingdom of Italy. A
large part, at last taking in Rome itself, was, after many
shiftings, a Ligurian RepAublic, a Kingfdom of Etruria, and
what not, joined on to France, and the Pope, Pitus the
Se ventlh, was got into Buonaparte's power. In the South,
first Buonaparte's brother 7osefih and then his brother-inlaw Muralt held the Kingdom of Napfes. When things were
settled in I8I5, the princes who had lost their dominions
came back again. The King of the Two Sicilies, who had
all along kept the island, got back the continental kingdom
also. So the King of Sardinia got back Piedmont and
Savoy, and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the lesser
principalities were set up again, and the Pope again held
Rome and his old temporal dominions. But the commonwealths were not set up again. Lucca became a Duchy;
Genoa was joined on to Piedmont, and the Duchy of Milan
and the Venetian dominions, which had changed their names
so often, were made into the Kingdom of Lombardy ana
Venice, and joined on to Austria. Only little San Marino
kept its freedom. Thus Germany and Italy both remained
disunited, cut up among a number of absolute princes. But
there was this difference between them: the German princes
were Germans, and the country had a certain unity, however
lax, in the Confederation. But Italy was altogether cut up.
A large part was held by Austria and by the Pope, and the
other Kings and Dukes were not real Italian princes, but
all looked to Austria as their chief. Piedmont indeed was
held by a native prince, but its government still was despotic.
This was the third time-under Charles the Fifth, under




XV.]            ITAL Y, SPAIN, ETC.                337
Charles the Sixth, and again under Francis the Secondthat the House of Austria had the chief power in the Italian
peninsula.
7. Spain and Portugal.-Under Charles the Third, who
had been King of the Two Sicilies, Spain went on greatli
recovering itself, as it had done before under Philip the Fifth.
In the reign of Charles the Fourth, under the administration of
Godoy, when the French Revolution began, Spain at first acted
against France; but afterwards, in I796, she joined France
against England and Portugal, as she did again when war
broke forth once more in I803. Buonaparte presently began to
meddle in Spanish affairs, and he caused the King to abdicate
in I807. He then moved his brother 7osep5h from Naples to
Spain, but the patriotic Spaniards proclaimed Ferdinand the
Seventh, the son of the late King, though he was actually in
Buonaparte's hands. Then came the great struggle in which
the French were finally driven out of the Peninsula by the
English victories. In I814 the lawful King Ferdinand came
back, but he overthrew the free constitution which had
been made during his captivity, and reigned as an absolute
monarch. Meanwhile Portugal, the old ally of England,
was overrun by the French, and 7ohn the Sixth, the King or
rather Regent for his mother Maria., left Portugal for the
great Portuguese colony of Brazil, where he went on reigning, and did not return to Portugal till after the peace. The
Portuguese at home meanwhile shared in the war of independence along with the English and Spaniards.
8. The Netherlands.-The Austrian Netherlands, as we
have seen, were conquered and joined to France, with which
they remained united till the Peace.  The Seven United
Provinces were in 1795 turned into a dependent commonwealth called the Batavian Reyublic, which in I8o6 was
turned into a kingdom for Buonaparte's brother Lewis. But
in I8io Buonaparte took his brother away, and joined
z




338         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CHAP.
Holland and the other provinces to France. At the Peace
the whole Netherlands, except the districts which had been
conquered by Lewis the Fourteenth, which France was allowed
to keep, were formed into a Kingdom of the Netherlands,
under William Prince of Orange, who also held the Grand
Duchy of Liizelburg or Luxemburg within the German
Confederation.
9. Switzerland.-The old state of things in Switzerland,
the Confederation of the Thirteen Cantons surrounded by
their allied and subject states, went on till 1798, when the
French came to seize the treasure at Bern. This had the
good effect of releasing the Romance-speaking people of
Vaud from  the yoke of Bern, but the French went on to
invade the democratic cantons also. They now set up what
they called the Helvetic Repiublic, which took in the old
cantons and most of their allies and subjects. But they
were no longer to be a Federal state in which each
member is independent in its internal affairs; the Helvetic
Republic was a single commonwealth in which the cantons
were no more than departments. Geneva and some other of
the allied districts were added to France, some now, and
some afterwards in Buonaparte's time. But, as the new
Republic did not suit the Swiss people, who were used to
a Federal constitution, Buonaparte in I803, by the Act oJ
Mediation, gave them a better constitution, in which the
old cantons and several new ones were joined together as
separate states, but on equal terms, without the old distinctions of confederates, allies, and subjects. Now for the first
time there were independent Romance-speaking cantons as
distinguished from  allies and subjects.  Buonaparte kept
Switzerland altogether dependent on France, but on the whole
he treated it somewhat better than he did other countries.
At the peace, Geneva and the other districts which had
been joined on to France were set free, and the Swiss Con



xvi.]             GREAT BRITAIN.                  339
federation of twenty-two cantons was formed, though with
very lax union among themselves. The neutrality of the
Confederation was acknowledged, as was also that of the
northern part of Savoy, which had once belonged to Bern.
This, with the rest of Savoy, went back to the King of
Sardinia, and it was not to be given away to any power
except Switzerland.
Io. Great Britain and Ireland.-The external history of
our own country chiefly consists of the long war with France,
with the short stoppage after the Peace of Amiens. England
was the one enemy whom Buonaparte could never cajole or
win over, as, at one time or another, he did all the powers of
the Continent. She was the object of his special hatred, and
he did all that he could to ruin her trade, by forbidding, when
he was at the height of his power after the Peace of Tilsit,
all dealings between England and any continental state.
But England kept her power by sea, and, except the great
campaigns of the Duke of Wellington in Spain and Portugal,
it was by sea that the English share in the war was carried
on. The great victories of Nelson, at the mouth of the N2ile
in 1798 and at Trafalgar in I8o5, altogether broke the naval
power of France, and of Spain, which at Trafalgar was joined
with France. Equally successful, but less righteous, were
the two attacks on Denmark in I8oI and I8o6, in which
latter Copenhagen was bombarded. Meanwhile there was a
rebellion in Ireland in 1798, the suppression of which was
followed by the union of the Kingdom and Parliament of
Ireland with that of Great Britain in I8oo00, when the title of
King of France, which had been borne ever since the time of
Edward the Third, was at last dropped. Towards the end
of the great war with France there was unhappily a war with
the United States from I813 to 81I5. By the final Peace
England, as usual, kept large distant conquests, but she
gained no territory in Europe, except the island of Mfalta,
Z 2




340         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CIrAP,
which, up to the French Revolution, had belonged to the
Knights of Saint Yohn, and that of the Frisian island of
~elizgoland, a possession of Denmark. The Ionian Islands
also, part of the old Venetian dominion in Greece, were made
into a Republic, under a protectorate on the part of England
which did not differ much from actual sovereignty.
I. The Scandinavian Kingdoms.-At the beginning of
the French Revolution the reigning King of Sweden, Gustavuis the Third, was engaged in a war with Russia, which led
to no change on either side. He also increased the royal
power, but he was murdered in I792. The next King, Gustavus the Fourth, was more zealous than anybody else against
Buonaparte and the French, but he had no means of doing
any great things, and he contrived to offend all other powers
and his own subjects as well. Russia now conquered all
Finland, and in I809 the King was deposed and the free constitution was restored, without either the despotism or the
oligarchy which had of late prevailed by turns. As the new
King, Charles the Thirteenth, had no children, the Swedes
chose Bernadotte, one of Buonaparte's generals, to be Crown
Prince and to succeed to the kingdom at his death. In 1813
Bernadotte joined in the war of liberation in Germany, and
led the Swedish troops against his old master. As Sweden
had taken the part of the Allies, while Denmark had been
on the side of France, it was settled at the peace that Norway, which had all this time been joined to Denmark, should
be joined to Sweden, to make up for the loss of Finland,
which was kept by Russia. But the Norwegians withstood
this arrangement; they chose a Danish prince for their
King, and they made themselves the freest constitution of
any state in the world that has a King at all. They were
so far conquered that they had to accept the union with
Sweden, but they were joined only as a perfectly independent kingdom, keeping its new constitution.  Meanwhile




XVI.]          RUSSIA AND POLAND.                 341
Denmark still remained an absolute monarchy. WVhen the
Empire came to an end, Denmark incorporated its German
duchy of Holstein with the kingdom.  At the Peace Denmark obtained the small piece of Pomerania which was held
by Sweden; but this was presently given up to Prussia in
exchange for the Duchy of Lauenburg, and the King of
Denmark became a member of the German Confederation
for the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg.
12. Russia and Poland.-After the death of Catharine
the Second in 1796, her son Paul succeeded.  In his time
the Russian armies acted with those of Austria in the campaigns of Italy and Switzerland, but Paul soon afterwards
made a separate peace vWith Buonaparte. Paul seems to have
been quite mad, and he was murdered in I8oI. His son
Alcxander remained at peace with France till I805, when he
again joined with Austria, but, after the overthrow of both
Austria and Prussia, he made peace with Buonaparte at
Tilsit, and a small part of the Lithuanian possessions of
Prussia was added to Russia. Alexander and Buonaparte
seemed to have pretty well agreed to divide Europe between
them, as if they were to be the Eastern and Western
Enoperors. Russia and France remained at peace for six
years, during which time Finland was conquered from
Sweden and a war was waged with the Turks, in which the
Russian frontier was advanced to the Danube, much as, long
before, the French frontier had reached the Rhine. By another
war which went on at the same time with Persia, Russia
gained a large territory in the land between the Euxine and
Caspian Seas.  At last, in I812, came the French invasion of Russia, which led to the fall of Buonaparte, and
Russia took a leading part in the last wars in which he was
overthrown. At the general Peace the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw, which Buonaparte had formed out of the Polish
provinces of Prussia, and to which the Polish territory




342         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CHAP.
gained by Austria at the last partition had been added,
was taken away from  the King of Saxony. The Grand
DZucry of Posen was given back to Prussia.  The rest
was made into a Kingdom of Poland, with a constitution
of its own, which was united with Russia as a separate
state, like Sweden and Norway, or like Great Britain ant
Ireland just before the union.  The city of Cracow, the
old capital of Poland, which stood at the meeting of the
dominions of the three powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austriz
was made into a separate commonwealth, under the protec
tion of all of them. The new Kingdom of Poland did not
differ very much in extent from the old kingdom before its
union with Lithuania and its conquests from Prussia.  It
did not take in all that had belonged to the old Poland, but
it took in some other lands which had not been part of it.
13. The Turks.-Sultan Soelim the Third came to the
throne in I789, while Turkey was engaged in the war with
Russia and Austria which was ended by the Peace of 7assy.
He had to struggle against enemies on every side. The
Turkish power had now got very weak, and many of the
subject nations, Christian and Mahometan, were seeking for
independence. Many of the distant Pashas in Europe and
Asia seemed likely to set up for themselves, just as happened
at the breaking up of the Caliphate and of the Mogul Empire.
Especially the Christians of Servia revolted in I8o6 under
Czerni George (that is, Black George). Servia was conquered
again in I813, but in I8I5 it again revolted under Milosh
Obrenowitz, and it was after a while acknowledged as a
separate, though in some degree dependent, state, as it still
remains. And in Czernafgora or Montenegro, the small mountain land on the borders of the old Turkish and Venetian
possessions, the Christians had never submitted, and they
kept up a constant warfare with the Turks.  So did the
Christian Suliots in Epeiros and their Mahometan neighbour




xvi.]         RUSSIA AND TURKCEY                  343
Alli Pasha of Joannina; and the Mamelukes in Egyipt were
practically independent. In the midst of all this came the
successive French and Russian wars, and it was of course
the interest of Russia to stir up discontent everywhere among
the subject nations, and especially to put herself forward as
the protector of all who belonged to the Eastern Church.
In the war with France both Russia and England naturally
took the Turkish side, and it was by English help that the
French were driven out of Syria and Egypt. In the war
with Russia, equally naturally as things stood then, England
was on the Russian and France on the Turkish side. But
Selim, who was a reformer, was deposed in I807 and presently murdered, and then came Mahmoud the Second,
whose reign lasted till I839, taking in great events which
will come in the next chapter.
I4. British Possessions abroad.-It was during this time
that the English dominion was practically spread over nearly
all India. During the administrations of the Marquess Cornwallis and the Marquess Wellesley as Governors-General,
the greater part of the country was either annexed to the
English dominions or brought wholly under British influence.
In the course of the war large conquests were also made
among the French, Dutch, and Spanish possessions, and by
these means England acquired Ceylon, the great colony of
the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius or Isle of France,
several of the West India islands, and a small territory in
South America. Colonization was also beginning in Australia and in the neighbouring island of Tasmania or Van
Diemen's Land. Meanwhile we may mention, though it did
not happen in any British colony, that in the island of Saint
Domingo, Hispaniola, or Hayti, which, at the beginning of
the Revolution, was held partly by France and partly by
Spain, the negroes in both parts set up for themselves. A
number of revolutions followed in imitation of those in




344         THE FRENCH RE VOL UTION.           [CHAP.
Europe; sometimes republics were set up, while sometimes
a successful negro called himself Enmperor in Hayti, just as
Buonaparte did in France.
15. The United States.-The new Constitution of the
United States came into force in the same year that the
French Revolution began, and for about sixty years a remarkable succession of able rulers filled the office of President.
The republic grew and prospered, and a great number of
new States arose, especially in the lands to the West. But
one territory was added in a different way. Spain had now
given up her possessions in Louisiana to France, and in
I803 the whole of the French possessions in North America
were bought by the United States. The States thus gained,
not only the territory which forms the present State of
Louisiana, but a claim to all the lands beyond the Mississippi lying south of the British and north of the Spanish
settlements. Out of this territory a great number of new
States have gradually been made. During this time too
negro slavery was done away with in the Northern States
of the Union, but not in the Southern. Out of this difference mainly came the disputes between the Northern
and Southern States which have been so important in late
years.
i6. Summary.-Thus, in the space of about five-and-twenty
years, Europe was more changed than it had ever been before
in the same space of time. The great wonder of these times
was that, in France itself and in all the countries which were
brought altogether under French influence, old ideas and
old institutions were utterly swept away in a way that never
happened at any other time. It followed of course that much
that was good and much that was bad perished together.
France itself since the Revolution has never had a government of any kind that could last for any time. But, on the
other hand, none of the ever-shifting French governments




xvI. ]              SUMMAR Y.                    345
have brought in anything like the abuses and oppressions of
the old monarchy. So in other countries, where the old
governments went on or where the kings came back again at
the general peace, though the restored princes often forgot
their promises and went on reigning as despots, yet men
in general had learned lessons which they never forgot, and
which bore fruit afterwards. Even where there was no great
political change, there was a wide social change; and we
may say generally that, since the French Revolution, there
has been no part of Europe where the people have been so
utterly down-trodden as they were in many parts before.
Thus serfage, answering to villainage in the old times in
England, has been abolished wherever it still went on,
though in Russia this has been only done quite lately by
the present Emperor. And, though no man ever did more
than both Buonaparte himself and the Allies who overthrew
him in parting out nations to this and that ruler without
asking their leave, yet during all this time ideas were growing up which have taught men that such things should not
be done. So again, though the union both of Germany and
of Italy was not to happen at once, yet the wars of Buonaparte led men in both countries in different ways to feel
more strongly than they had ever felt before that all Germans and all Italians were really countrymen, and that they
ought to be more closely joined together. As for particular
changes, France came out at the end of the war with nearly
the same boundaries and under the same dynasty which she
had at the beginning, but with her internal state utterly
changed. England had raised her own position in Europe
to the highest pitch; her European territory had been increased only by a small island or two, but she had vastly
increased her colonial dominions. Germany had changed
in everything; the Empire was gone, and, after the time of
confusion, a lax Confederation had at last arisen, in which




346        TIHE FRENCH REvL UTION.    [cH. XVI.
it could not fail that the two great states of Austria and
Prussia would strive for the mastery. Italy was still cut
up into a crowd of small states; Austria held a large part
of Northern Italy, and had a commanding influence everywhere. Spain had got back her old dynasty. Portugal
might be said to have become a dependency of Brazil,
instead of Brazil being a dependency of Portugal; this is
the only case of a state of the Old World being governed
from the New. Switzerland had got rid of the old distinctions, and a Confederation on equal terms had been made.
The whole of the Netherlands, less happily, were joined into
a single kingdom. Sweden finally withdrew from the lands
east and south of the Baltic, but the whole of the greater
Scandinavian peninsula came under one ruler, though its
two parts remained distinct kingdoms, Norway keeping her
new and very free constitution. Russia had grown at all
points, and Poland had been restored in a kind of way,
though not a way at all likely to last. In the New World
the great English-speaking commonwealth was fast advancing. And this time, as commonly happens in times of great
general stir, was a time of great inventions and of great
writers in various ways. Germany above all now thoroughly
awoke, and both her learned men and her original writers
began to take the place which they have ever since kept.




CHAPTER XVII.
THE REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITALY.
Character of the present time; strongerfeeling of nationality; change
in the nature of wars (i)-revolutions in France; reign of Lewis
the Eighteenth; illegal acts and deposition of Charles the Tenth;
Revolution of 7uly (2)-reign of Louis-Philizppe; attempts of
Louis-Napoleon Buonaparte (2) —Revolution of February; LouisPhilippe driven out; the second Republic; administration  of
Cavaignac (2)-Louis-Napoleon Buonaparte chosen President; he
seizes absolute power and calls himself Emperor (2)-his wars with
Russia and Austria; Savoy and Nizza taken from Italy (3)-he
attacks Prussia; Prussia supported by all Germany; victories of
the Germans; Buonaparte taken prisoner; Paris taken; Elsass
recovered by Germany (3)-the third Republic; the Commune of
Paris; administration of M. Thiers (3)-steps towards the union
of Germany; the Zollverein-revolutions of 1848 (4)-war between
Prussia andAustria; formation of the North-German Confederation; Austria shut out of Germany (4)-union of Germany against
France; the southern states join the Confederation; King William
chosen Emperor (4)-disturbances in Italy; dominion of Austria;
reign of Charles-Albert in Sardinia (5)-reign of Pius the Ninth;
revolutions and wars of I848; the new republic suppressed (5)constitutional reign of Victor-Emmanuel in Sardinia; his second
war with Austria; help given by France; French attempts to divide
Italy (5, 6)-the Italian States join Sardinia; exploits of Garibaldi; Victor-Emmanuel chosen King of Italy; the Pope kept at
Rome by the French (6)-Italy joins Prussia against Austria; recovery of Venice (6)-recovery of Rome (6)-reign of Ferdinand the
Fifth of Hungary; revolutions in Hungary andAustria; Hungary
conquered by Russian help (7)-reforms after the war with Prussia,




348   REUNION  OF GERMANY AND ITALY. [CHAP.
Francis 70oseph King of Hungary (7)-weakness of the Turks;
Greek [War of Independence; battle of Navarino; kingdonm of
Greece (8)-wars between Turkey and Russia; independence of
Egypt (9)-Crimzean War; affairs of the Danubian Principalities
(9)-union of Russia and Poland; revolts of the Poles under
Nicholas and Alexander the Second; serfage abolished; suppression of the republic of Cracow ( Io)-reign of Ferdinandthe Seventh
in Spain; revolts on behalf of the Constitution; inter.vention oJ
Fr-ance (i )-civil war on the death qf Ferdinand; reign and deposition of Isabel; election of Amadeus of Italy ( I)-rcevolutions
and civil wars of Portugal; reign of Donna Maria ( i) -searation of Belgium and the Netherlands; affairs of Luxemburg (12)changes of government in the Swiss Cantons; war of the Catholic
and Protestant Cantons; establishment of the Federal Constitution
(I3)-Denmark becomes a constitutional state; disputes between
Denmark and the Duchies; Sleswick and Holstein joined to
Prussia (I4)-affairs of Sweden and Norzay; reforms in Sweden
(I5)-affairs of Great Britain; less interference in continental
affairs than before; extension and increased independence of the
British Colonies; abolition of slavery (I6)-wars and mutiny in
Idia; thegovernment transferredfrom the Comzpany to the Crown
(I6)-firm  union of all Great Britain; troubles in Ireland;
measures for its benefit (I6)-revolt of the Spanish colonies in
America; revolutions of IMexico (17)-separation of Brazilfrom
Portugal (I8) —advance of the United States; secession and reconquest of the Southern States; abolition of slavery (I9)-Summary (20).
I. Character of the Time.-We have now come altogether
to our own times, and there is so much to tell that we must
try to cut our tale very short indeed. A long time of peace
has been followed by a time full of wars. And there is much
to mark in these latest wars. Military science has greatly
advanced, and the means of getting about have been greatly
improved. It has therefore followed that wars have been, on
the one hand, carried on with much greater armies, but that,
on the other hand, they have been brought to an end in a




XVJI.]      CHARACTER OF THE TIME.                349
much shorter time than formerly. There has been no Thirty
Years' War, not even a Seven Years' War, in our time. There
has also been a much stronger feeling of nationality than
there ever was before. Some nonsense has been talked about
this matter, because it is not always easy to say what makes
a nation. For, though language proves more than any other
one test, it will not always do by itself. Thus in Switzerland four languages are spoken: yet the Swiss certainly
make one nation. But, when men thoroughly feel themselves to be one nation, when they wish to come together as
such and to get rid of the dominion of foreigners, it is clearly
right that they should be able to do so. Now this is what
men have been striving to do in different parts of Europe in
our own time more than they ever did before: and this
feeling has been shown above all things in the steps
that have been taken for the joining together of the great
nations of Germany and Italy, which had been so long
split up into a number of small states. This change is the
greatest event of our times; but it will perhaps be better
understood if we first run through the changes that have
happened in France, as they have had so much to do with
the history of the other countries, but we must tell the tale
in as few words as may be.
2. Revolutions in France.-After the final overthrow of
Buonaparte, Lewis the Eifhleenth came back again, and
reigned as a constitutional King, but many of those who
came with him would gladly have had the old state of things
back again, when the King ruled as he pleased, and when
the nobles and clergy were set up above the rest of the
uiation. Of this sort was his brother, the next King Charles
the Tenth, who was the last who was crowned at Rheims,
and the last who called himself King of France. For when, in
I83o, he put out some ordinances which were wholly against
the law, the people of Paris rose, and King Charles was




350    REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITAL Y.  [CHAP.
driven out in the Revolution of 7uly. We may mark in all
these changes how the one city of Paris always'acts, and how
the rest of France accepts what it does. This time, when
the King was driven out, his cousin Louis-PhiliziPe Duke of
Orleans was made King, with the old title of King of the
French, and with a freer constitution.  France was not
engaged in any great wars during the time of these three
Kings; only in Africa the piratical power of Algiers was put
down, and all that part of the coast of Africa became a
French dominion. After some revolts at Lyons and Paris
early in his reign, Louis-Philippe reigned quietly till I848;
only twice in his reign Louis-Nai5oleon Buonaparte, a nephew
of the first Buonaparte, tried to make a disturbance. The
first time he was allowed to go free; the second time he was
imprisoned, but he escaped. But in i848 the King's government had become unpopular, and in February of that year
he was driven out, as Charles the Tenth had been. This
time a Republic was set up, and in June there was a second
revolt in Paris of the more extreme republicans, which was
put down by General Cavaignac. But when the President of
the Republic was to be chosen, Louis-Napoleon Buonaiparte,
who had been allowed to come back, was chosen by many
votes over Cavaignac. He was chosen President for four
years, and he swore to be faithful to the Republic. But at the
end of the third year, in December I85 I, with the help of the
army, he seized upon the government, as his uncle had done,
calling himself President for ten years with nearly absolute
power. The National Assembly, which passed a vote to
depose him, was dissolved by force; many men were killed,
and others were sent to the unhealthy colony of Cayenne,
while most of the chief men of the country were imprisoned
for a while. A year after, in December i852, he called himself Emperor, as his uncle had done before him.
3. The Wars of France.-When Louis-Napoleon Buona



XVII.] WARS AND REVOLUTIONS OF FRANCE.   351
parte took the title of Emperor, he gave out that the Empire
should be peace, but there have been wars in Europe ever
since, in which France has taken the chief part. In I854,
when a quarrel again arose between Russia and Turkey,
France and England both joined in the war against Russia
and shared in the victories over the Russians in the Crimea.
In I859, when there was a dispute between Austria and Sardinia, France made war upon Austria, and it was given out
that France would free Italy from the Alps to the Hadriatic.
But when the French armies reached the strong fortress of
Verona, all that was done was to make a peace with
Austria, by which Italy was freed only as far as the Mincio.
At the same time the two provinces of Nizza and Savoy, the
remaining Burgundian possessions of the King of Sardinia,
were given to France. This new possession took in the
districts whose neutrality had been guaranteed, and which,
according to old treaties, if they ever passed from Sardinia,
were to pass to Switzerland. Lastly, in I870 France declared
war upon Prussia, the reason given being that there had
been talk of giving the Crown of Spain to a distant kinsman of the King of Prussia. But Prussia was supported
by all Germany. The French crossed the German frontier,
but they were driven out in a few days, and then the German
armies entered France, and won a series of victories.
Buonaparte himself became a prisoner. Meanwhile he was
declared deposed, and a Republic was again set up in
Paris. Paris was besieged, and surrendered to the Germans, and a treaty was made by which, besides the payment of a large sum of money, nearly all Elsass, together
with that part of Lorraine where German is spoken and
also the strong fortress of Metz, were given back to Germany. Thus S/rassburg and the other German places
which had been gradually taken by France have become
German again, and the French frontier, which first reached




352    REUNION OF GERMANY AND I7TA  Y:  LCIIAP.
the Rhine in I648, is now kept quite away from it. Soon
after the peace with Germany, Paris was held by the Communists or extreme Republicans, and the city had again to be
besieged and taken by the Government of the new Republic
under the President M. Thiers, who was at one time chief
minister under King Louis-Philippe.
4. The Union of Germany.-The German princes who
were set up again at the Peace, mostly forgot their promises
of setting up constitutional governments; still the national
spirit largely tended towards progress and union. And one
great step towards it was taken as Prussia gradually, from 18 I 8
onwards, became the centre of a commercial union among
the German states, the members of which agreed to levy no
duties on merchandise passing from one state to another,
but to levy them only at the common frontier. This union,
called the Zollverein, was gradually joined by most of the
German states. In I848 there were revolutions over the most
part of Europe, and among them in Prussia, Austria, and
most of the German states; an attempt was made at the same
time to join Germany together under an Emperor and a
common Parliament, instead of the lax Confederation which
had gone on since I8I5.  But, before long, things came
back much as they were before, till in I866 a war broke out
between Prussia and Austria, in which the German states
took different sides. Prussia got the better in so short a
time that it has been called the Seven Weeks' War. By
the peace which was now made Austria was shut out from
Germany altogether, the Kingdom of Hanover and some
smaller states were annexed to Prussia, and the Northern
states were formed into the North-German Confederation,
under the presidency of Prussia, with a common constitution and Assembly. When France made war on Prussia
in I870, the Southern states took part in the war as well
as the Northern. They soon joined the Confederation,




XVII.]         UNION OF GERMANY.                  353
Bavaria, the largest of them, keeping some special privileges
to herself. Thus all Germany, except Austria, Tyroi, and
the other German dominions of the House of Austria,
was joined together much more closely than it had been
ever since the Thirty Years' War, or indeed since the great
Interregnum. And while the German siege of Paris was
going on, King Willianz of Prussia, being in the great hall
of Lewis the Fourteenth at Versailles, received the title
of German Emperor from the princes and free cities of
Germany. And presently the German lands held by France
were, as we have seen, joined again to the new Empire. Of
course, in the old use of words, this was a restoration, not of
the Emlpire, but of the Kingdom of Germany, for in old times,
as we know by this time, the title of Emperor could be held
only by one who was, or claimed to be, sovereign of either the
Old or the New Rome. But now that several of the German
princes are called Kings, it would have been hard to find
a better title than Emperor for the chief of a Confederation
which has Kings among its members.
5. The Revolutions of Italy.-Italy can hardly be said
to have had any history from 1815 to I848. There were
many conspiracies, and some insurrections, in different
parts of Italy, especially in I83.  But the Austrian
power was strong enough, not only to hold the Austrian
possessions of Lombardy and Venice, but to keep the
smaller princes on their thrones. Meanwhile the movement
for the liberation and union of Italy was growing up in its
north-western corner. In I83I a new branch of the house o1
Savoy, that of Carignano, succeeded to the Sardinian crown
in the person of Charles Albert. In the early part of his
reign he ruled harshly, but he was an enemy of Austria.
Then, in I846, the present Pope, Pius the Ninth, was chosen,
and for a while it seemed as if he were going to do great
things for Italian freedom; so much so that his dominions
A A




354    REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITALY.  [CHAP.
were partly occupied by Austria in I847.  In the course
of I847 and 1848, most of the Italian princes gave their
people constitutions. Milan and Venice rose against Austria,
and now the King of Sardinia entered the Austrian dominions
in Italy at the head of an allied army from various parts of
the peninsula. But he was finally defeated at Novara in
1849, and he abdicated, and was succeeded by his son Victor
Emmanuel the Second. Meanwhile Venice, which had again
become a republic, was recovered by Austria. Rome, whence
the Pope had fled and where a republic had been set up, was
overcome by troops sent by the new republic of France, and
the constitutions in the other Italian states were withdrawn.
Thus after I849 Italy was left in much the same case as
she had been in before the insurrections. The Pope was
maintained in his dominions by French help, Austria had
recovered her possessions, but Sardinia still remained a constitutional and advancing state, for King Victor Emmanuel
steadily kept his word to his people.
6. The Union of Italy.-And now, after ten years, came
the beginnings of the great movement which has at last
made Italy one. In I859 there came the war between Sardinia and Austria, in which France took a part: by the
peace Austria gave up Lombardy, but kept Venetia. France
now tried to make what was called an Italian Confederation,
but, as Austria was to have been a member of it, it could
have been no real Confederation at all, and the Italians
settled the matter themselves by most of them willingly joining themselves to the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel. Now
it was that Garibaldi, who had before defended Rome against
the French, wonderfully delivered the Tzwo Sicilies, and joined
them also to the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel. The King
of Sardinia thus had possession of all Italy, except the part
held by Austria, and Rome, where the French still kept the
Pope in possession. In I86I Victor Emmanuel was made




xvuII.           UNION OF ITALY.                 355
King of Italy by the Italian Parliament, and in I865 the capital
was removed to Florence, till Rome could be had. The kingdom had hardly been established in I86I when Count Cavour,
who had had the chief hand in bringing about the new
state of things, died. When the war broke out in I866 between Prussia and Austria, Italy joined Prussia, and Austria
gave up Venice and Verona, keeping however, not only the
old Venetian possessions in Dalmatia, but Istria, Aquileia,
and Trent, Italian-speaking places which formed part of the
ancient Kingdom of Italy. Lastly, when the war between
France and Germany caused the French troops to be withdrawn from Rome, Rome was at last joined on to the Italian
kingdom, and it now of course is the capital of Italy. Thie
Pope's spiritual position remains unchanged, though he is
no longer a temporal prince.
7. Hungary and Austria.-Francis the First of Hungaly,
who till I806 had been the Emn5eror Francis the Second, went
on reigning in Hungary, Austria, and his other states till I 836.
Then came Ferdinand the Fifth. In 1847 and I848 there
were revolutions in Austria and Hungary as well as elsewhere. The Hungarians stood up for their ancient constitution with certain reforms, and, when Ferdinand abdicated,
they refused to acknowledge Francis Yosep5h, who succeeded
him in Austria, because the abdication was not lawful according to the laws of Hungary. Afterwards they set up a republic
under the famous Kossuth. But unluckily feuds had arisen
between the Magyars and the other races in Hungary, and
this greatly helped the reconquest of the country by Austria,
which however was not done without the help of Russia.
Hungary now remained crushed till after the war between
Austria and Prussia. Then the government was put on a
better and more lawful footing; Austria and Hungary became
two distinct states under a common sovereign, and Franczs
7oseph was lawfully crowned King of Hungary in I867.
AA2




356    REUNION OF GERMANY AVD ITAL Y. [CHAP.
Since then Hungary and Austria have agreed well together;
but difficulties have arisen through the other states, Bohemia
and the rest, asking for more or less distinct governments.
The Austrian Empire, as it is called, is in fact a mere joining
together of various nations without any natural connexion;
but this is the general character of South-Eastern Europe,
and Hungary seems marked out to be the leading state
among the Christian nations in those parts.
8. The Deliverance of Greece.-We have seen that the
Ottoman power had been growing weaker and weaker, while
the subject Christian races were growing stronger. Servia
had won her freedom, and Montenegro had never lost hers.
In I821 the Greeks revolted. The War of Independence
began, strangely enough, in the Danubian Ptincipalities
of Wallachia and Moldavia, but presently the Greeks revolted in all parts of the Ottoman dominions where they
were strong enough. In some parts they were put down
with cruel massacres, but in the greater part of Old
Greece the inhabitants, Greek and Albanian, with some
little help from the other subject races and much more
from volunteers from Western Europe, were able to hold
their ground against the Turks. But in I826 Sultan Mahmoud called in the help of the Pasha of Egypt, Mahomet
A4i, who had a better disciplined army than his own. His
son Ibrahim —that is Abraham-brought the Greeks almost
to destruction, and Peloponnesos might have been altogether
wasted, had not the three powers, England, France, and
Russia, stepped in and crushed the Ottoman fleet at Navarino, the old Pylos, in 1827. The French troops afterwards
drove the Egyptians out of Peloponnbsos. The end of this
was the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece. It has
had two Kings, Otho of Bavaria who was turned out in 1862,
and George of Denmark, and, since that time, the kingdom
has been increased by England, in I864, giving up the pro



xVII.]        GREECE AND TURKE Y.                 357
tectorate of the Ionian Islands, which became part of the
Kingdom of Greece. But the new state has not been so
prosperous or well governed as it was once hoped that it
might have been. It has been cooped up within a bad
frontier, and moreover the Greeks have had their heads too
full of the memories of the old times, and they have been too
fond of copying the institutions of Western countries which
are not suited to them.
9. Turkey and Russia.-Meanwhile great changes went
on in the Ottoman dominions themselves, and the Turks
had several wars with Russia and other powers. In 1826,
Sultan Mahmoud destroyed the yanissaries, who had now become a turbulent and useless body. In 1828 a war with Russia
followed. The next year the Russians got as far as Hadrianopfie, and a treaty was made by which Russia gained some
advantages at the mouth of the Danube and made some stipulations on behalf of the Christians in Turkey. Then followed
wars with MIahomet4 Azi, the Pasha of Egypt, in which several
of the European powers took part, and which were ended in
I84I by Egypt becoming a nearly independent state, though
under the superiority of the Porte. Lastly came the war
with Russia in I854, in which France, England, and Sardinia
afterwards joined on the Turkish side.  It ended in i856
by Russia agreeing to certain terms which lessened her
power in the Euxine and giving up a small territory, which
kept her away from the Danube, much as France has
since been kept away from the Rhine.  Meanwhile; as
Greece has been altogether cut off from the Ottoman dominions, and as Servia and Egypt had been made practically
independent, so also the Principalities of AJoldavia and
Wallachia, dependent states whose position was very anomalous, and which formed a constant excuse for disputes
between Russia and Turkey, have been formed into a
separate principality, whose connexion with Turkey is purely




358    REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITALY.  [CHAP.
nominal. But the Roumnans, like the Greeks, have been too
fond of imitating Western forms of government for which
they are not fit.
Io. Russia and Poland.-We have seen that, by the Peace
of I815, Poland, in the latest sense of the word, became a
separate constitutional kingdom, to be held by the Russian
Emperor. Such a state of things may last between two constitutional kingdoms like Sweden and Norway, where, though
Sweden is the greater, it is not so very much greater; but it
could not last between a huge despotic Empire and a small
constitutional Kingdom. Disputes therefore naturally arose,
especially after the accession of Nicholas in 1825; the constitution was not carried out; so in I831 the Poles revolted,
declared the throne vacant, and held out for several months
against the Russian power. But they were crushed and very
harshly treated, and the Polish constitution was taken away.
The wars between Russia and Turkey have been already spoken
of; during the great war with France and England, Nicholas
died, and was succeeded by the present Emperor Alexander
the Second. In his time the serfs have been set free, but in
i863 another Polish revolt was put down as harshly as the
other, and the Polish kingdom has been quite swept away.
In 1846 too the commonwealth of Cracow, which had been
set up at the Peace as a sort of representative of old Poland,
was added to the Austrian dominions.
I I. Spain and Portugal. —In Spfain Ferdinand the Sevenlth
came back and refused to abide by the constitution which
had been set up during the war with Buonaparte. Several
risings on its behalf took place, and, in I820, it was restored. A civil war followed, and in 1822 French troops
entered Spain to restore the King's authority.  This was
done, but not till after much fighting, and the French did
not leave Spain for seven years. In 1833 Ferdinand died.
The Spanish law as to the succession of females hiad been




XVII.]        SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.                 359
altered backwards and forwards several times, so on Ferdinand's death there was a civil war between the partisans of
his daughter Isabel and those of his brother Charles or Don
Carlos. The Carlist party was strong only in the northern,
the Basque, provinces, but the war went on a long time,
and was not fully put an end to till I840. Spain was now
ruled as a constitutional state, but it has been constantly
disturbed by insurrections of the army, and at last the misgovernment and bad life of the Queen caused her to.be
deposed in I868, like Mary Stewart in Scotland. Spain now
remained for some time without a King or a settled government of any kind; several candidates for the crown were
proposed, and some wished for a commonwealth. At last, in
1870, a son of the King of Italy, Amadeus Duke of Aosta,
was chosen King. Owing to all these confusions, the position of Spain has been much lower in Europe than it was
of old, besides the loss of its American possessions. In Portugal meanwhile a constitution was proclaimed in I820, at the
same time as in Spain, the King, 7ohn the Sixth, being in
Brazil. From this till i832 there was a time of great confusion and civil war between the absolute party under Don
Miguel or Michael, the King's younger son, and the constitutional party under his eldest son Don Pedro or Peter, who
succeeded in i826 and who presently abdicated in favour of
his daughter Maria. In I828 Don Miguel assumed the crown,
but he was at last driven out, and the Queen was acknowledged. The strangest thing of all was that Pedro, after
giving up the crown himself, acted as Regent for his young
daughter. Since then there have been some disputes and
risings in Portugal, but there has been no revolution or
serious change.
12. The Netherlands.-By the Peace of I815 all the
provinces of the Netherlands had been made into one kingdom, but the Norihern and Soathern provinces, differing in




j60    REUUNION OF GERIANVY AND ITAL Y.  [CHAP.
religion and other things, did not well agree together; so in
1830 the Southern provinces revolted. Then the Kingdom
was divided: the Northern part, which had been the United
Provinces, went on as the Kingdom of the Netherlands in
the House of Orange; while the formerly Spanish, and afterwards Austrian, Netherlands became the Kingdom of Belgium under the House of Coburg, the first King being
Leofold, who had been husband of the Princess Charlotte
of England. This arrangement has gone on since, only
there have been disputes about the Duchy of Liizelburg or
Luxemburg, which was held by the King of the Netherlands
as a member of the German Confederation, and which since
the fall of the Confederation has been declared neutral.
I3. Switzerland._-Switzerland has remained a Federal
state ever since the Peace in I8I5, and since that time it has
not been engaged in war with any other state. But there have
been great changes in its own constitution, and at one time
there was even a civil war. About I831 there were disputes
in most of the Cantons, which ended in their governments
being made much more popular, but nothing was done to
the Federal Constitution. In 1847 a war broke out between
the Catholic and Protestant Cantons, in which the Protestants had the better. It was now seen that the tie between
the Cantons needed to be made much stronger, and in 1848
a new Federal Constitution was made, in many things very
like that of the United States, only, instead of a single President, there is a Council of Seven, with much smaller powers.
An attempt to change this constitution, by taking away power
from the several Cantons and giving it to the Federal body,
was made in 1872, but it was not carried by the vote of
the people.
14. Denmark and the Duchies.-Denmark remained an
absolute monarchy till the accession of Frederick the
Seventh in I848, who at once gave his people a constitution.




xvII.]    SWITZERLANVD, DENM/ARK, ETC.            36I
Since then there have been endless disputes about the two
Duchies held by the Danish Kings, Holstein undoubtedly
being part of Germany, while Sleswick was not a member
of the German Confederation and its people were partly
German and partly Danish. A war went on from I848 to
185I, but this time Denmark kept both Duchies. But in
I864, under the present King Christian the Ninth, disputes
arose again; a war followed, and the Duchies were given up
by Denmark to Prussia and Austria, and again in I866 by
Austria to Prussia alone. The northern or Danish part of
Sleswick was to have been given back to Denmark, but this
has not yet been done.
15. Sweden and Norway.-At last we come to those countries in which during all these years there has been no
revolution or great disturbance. One is our own country;
the other is the two Scandinavian kingdoms of Sweden and
Norway. Bernadotte, who had been already chosen Crown
Prince of Sweden, succeeded to both kingdoms as Charles
the Fourteenth, and the two crowns have since stayed in
his family. On the whole the two kingdoms have gone on
well side by side; having the same King, but each keeping its
own constitution. A disposition has sometimes been shown
to encroach on the independence of Norway, but the Northmen have always been able to hold their own. During the
reign of the present King improvements have been made
in the Swedish constitution also, and greater liberty has been
given to people of other religions than the Lutheran.
I6. Great Britain and Ireland.-No time has been more
important in our own history than this last of which we are
now speaking, but its events have been mainly of a kind
which will be best treated in a separate History of England.
It has been a time of great advance at home in every way,
both politically and socially, and it has also been a time
of great inventions and great progress of men's minds.




362    REUNION OF GERMANY AND ITA LY  [CHAP.
England has also had something to do in some way or
another with most of the affairs of the continent of Europe,
but she has been engaged in only one great war, namely
that with Russia, from 1854 to i856, nor has she gained
or lost any European territory, unless we reckon it a loss
that she has withdrawn from the protectorate of the
Ionian Islands. But this time has been a time of great
changes and great advance in the British possessions in distant countries. The trade in negro slaves was finally forbidden in 1807, and slavery itself was abolished throughout
the British dominions in I833. The colonial dominions of
England have vastly extended themselves, especially in
Australia and North America. And most of them have
received constitutions which have made them altogether
independent in their internal affairs. In Canada alone has
there been any serious disturbance. There was a rebellion in i837 among the French Canadians, but the colony
has since been made almost independent, and it is now
highly prosperous. In India we have had to wage several
wars, and several provinces have been annexed. Here the
British dominion was altogether shaken for a time by the
Mutiny of the native soldiers in I858. After its suppression,
the government of India was taken from the Company and
given to the Crown, and the phantom of the Great Mogul
came at last to an end, as the last nominal Emperor had
been concerned in the mutiny. There have also been wars
with China, Persia, and Abyssinia, and generally England has
come more and more to the position of an insular power,
withdrawing from any great interference with the affairs of
the continent of Europe, but keeping up trade and colonization in all parts of the world, and being therefore ever
and anon engaged in distant wars. The whole island of
Great Britain has long been firmly joined together, notwithstanding the differences of race and speech in different




XVII.]    GREA T BRITAIN AND IRELAND.              363
parts which have still not wholly died out.  But the remembrance of ancient misgovernment has constantly kept
up the spirit of disaffection in Ireland, which has broken
out into more than one conspiracy and rising, though
none on any great scale. Every care has been taken by
a succession of measures to do justice to Ireland, by the
admission of the Roman Catholics to equal rights with Protestants, by the disestablishment of the dominant Protestant
Church, and by laws for the benefit of the occupiers of
land. But it would seem that the memory of old wrongs
is even now stronger than the feeling of recent benefits.
I7. The Spanish Colonies in America.-If this period
has been one of great change in the Old world, it has been
one of equal change in the New. The example of the British
colonies, which had given birth to the great commonwealth
of the United States, has been followed by the Sgpanish
Colonies also. But it must be remembered that there is
this great difference between the Spanish and the English
colonies, that, though in the United States the people are not
of purely English blood, yet the mixture has been with other
European nations or with slaves brought from Africa, and
not at all with the natives of America.  But in the
Spanish settlements the Europeans and the natives have
been largely mixed, and in truth the native blood prevails.
When the national government in Spain was upset by
Buonaparte, the Spanish colonies began to set up for themselves in I8Io. Mfexico was recovered, but it revolted again
in I820. A certain Iturbide called himself Emperor for a
while, as people did in other places, but after a while a
Federal Commonwealth was established. But the country
has never been quiet for a long time, and it has lost the
great province of Texas to the United States. In i862 a
quarrel arose with England, France, and Spjain; from this
England and Spain soon withdrew, but France went on




364    REUNVION OF GERMANY AND ITALY   [CHAP.
and in 1863 the Austrian Archduke Maximilian was set up
under French influence as yet another Emperor; but he
was not acknowledged by the whole country, and in I867
he was overthrown and shot by the native President 7vuarez.
Chili also separated from the Spanish dominion in I8io, and
Peru in I820, and now Spain has no dominions on the continent of America, and in the Spanish island of Cuba there
have been endless disturbances.
i8. Brazil.-The great Portuguese settlement in South
America has had a somewhat different history from either
the English or the Spanish colonies.  It separated from
the mother-country, but it is the only state in the New
World which, instead of becoming a republic, has remained
under a prince of the old royal family.  King 7ohn the
Sixth, as we have seen, reigned in Brazil when he had to
leave Portugal, and he called himself King of Brazil as well
as of Portugal. In 1822 Brazil was declared independent
with a free constitution, under 1)on Pedro as Emperor. The
crowns of Brazil and Portugal have since remained distinct,
as on Pedro's abdication he was succeeded by his daughter.Maria in Portugal, and by his son Pedro in Brazil. Brazil
has had fewer disturbances, and has been more prosperous,
than any other South American state.
I9. The United States.-But neither in the Old nor the
New World has this period made more important changes
than it has in the commonwealth of the United States.
Many new States have been founded towards the West,
and the great dominion of Texas, which had been part of
Mexico, first became a separate commonwealth, and was
afterwards joined on to the Union.  But the greatest
event in the history of America has been the war which
began  in  I86i between the Northern and  Southern
States.  There were many causes of difference between
them, the chief being the allowance of slavery in the




xvII.)]     ORTHI AND SOUTHI AMAERICA.            365
South, which had long died out in the North. On the
election of Abraham Lincoln as President, in I86o, South
Carolina seceded from the Union, and the rest of the
Southern States presently followed her. They called themselves the Confederate States, and set up a Federal constitution, nearly the same as that of the United States, under
yeferson Davis as President. Then followed the war which
lasted till I865, when the Confederate States had to submit.
Just about the same time President Lincoln, having just
been chosen President a second time, was murdered. The
result of the war has been the reconstitution of the Union,
and the final getting rid of slavery throughout all parts of
the North American continent. In Brazil and in the Spanish
and Dutch colonies it still goes on, but in Brazil it will come
to an end before many years.
20. Summary.-Thus, in our own days, France has again,
for the third time, tried to get the chief power in Europe,
and a third time she has been beaten back, and has been
driven to give up part of her former conquests. The rest of
Europe has been completely changed by the union of Italy
into one kingdom, and by the union, though less close, of
nearly all Germany under the leadership of Prussia. Austria
has withdrawn from both German and Italian affairs, and
has become a state joined with Hungary, something in the
same way as Sweden and Norway. The last traces of Polishl
independence have been trampled out, and Denmark has been
cut short by the complete loss of the Duchies. Two new
kingdoms have arisen, namely Belgium and Greece, of which
the former has prospered much more than the latter. The
whole East of Europe has during the whole time been more
or less unsettled, as it doubtless always will be, as long as
a Mahometan power rules over Christians. On the whole
Europe has greatly gained in freedom and good government
since the end of the wars of the French Revolution. But on




366 REUNION OF GERAMANY AND ITAL Y. [cH. XVII.
the other hand, the keeping up of vast standing armies by
nearly all the governments of the Continent makes peace at
all times uncertain, and the tendency of later times has been
to lessen the importance of the smaller states and to group
Europe under a few great powers. Still, both in our own
island and in most other parts of Europe, men may be very
glad that they live in our own day and not in any of the
times which have gone before us.
THE END.




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-    The Same, in English, with German Notes. 12mo.......   B0
-  Emilia Qalotti. 12mo.................................. 4C
Lodeman's Cerman Conversation Tables. Boards..   40
Mugge. Riukan Voss. 12mo....................0........           40
-   Signa die Seterin. 12mo.....................             40
Nathusius. Tagebuch eines Armen Fraeuleins. 12mo....  75
Otto's German Conversation Grammar. 12mo. Roan... 1.75
-   Evans' German  Reader. With Notes and Vocab. By
Prof. E. P. Evans. 12mo. Roan............................... 1.50
-    Key to Otto's German Grammar. Paper..............   75
-    Beginning German. With additional Reading Matter.
By L. Pylodet. 16mo. Clo.................................... 1.W
Prinzessin Ilse. With Notes. 12mo..........................  50
Putlitz. Was Sich Der Wald Erzahelt. 12mo.................   50
B —   adekuren. With Notes. 12mo................0.....   50
--  Das Herz Vergessen. With Notes. 12mo..............   50
-   Vergissmeinnicht. With Notes. 12mo................    40
Schiller. Jungfrau yon Orleans. With Notes. 12mo......   50
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-    Wallenstein's Lager. "         2mo......................   50
-    Die Piccolomri.,       "      12mo.......................   59
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-    Wallenstein. 19mo. Cloth............................. 1.50
-    Maria Stuart. With Notes. i2moo.......................   60
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?  or, Do You Speak German?
18mo. Board............................................      0
Storme. Easy German Reading.  16mo. Cloth..........           1 00
Storme. Immensee. With Notes  12mo.................    40
Tieck. Die Elfen. Das Rothkaeppchen. With Notes. 12mo.   60
Wessely, English.German Dictionary.  16mo. Cloth....  1.0C
Wnitney, Prof. W. D. German Grammar. With Exercises. 12mo. Roan...........................................   S.75
-    German Reader. With Notes and Vocab. 12mo. Roan. 2.00
Wilhelmi Einer muss heirathen, and Benedix, Eigensinn.
12mo..................................0....................  4{
Witcomb and Otto's Guide to German Conversation.
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Standard Educational Works.
ITALIAN.
Cuore's Italian Grammar. 12mo. Roan..................... $1.
Key to above. Paper....................................  75
Dalr', Ongaro. La Rosa Dell' Alpi. with Noes. 12mo. PaIer.  75
James and Grassi. Italian-English Dictionary, 8vo. Hf. roan  2.00
Nota, Alberto. La Fiera. With Notes. 12mo. Paper....   75
Parlate Italino? or, Do You Speak Italian? 16mo. Bds. MO
Pellico. Francesca da Rimini. 12mo. Paper............... Z
SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE.
Caballerc La Familia de Alvareda. 12mo. Paper..... 1.00
Habla Vd. Espanol? or, Do You Speak Spanish? 16mo....   60
Habla Vd. Ingles? or, Do You Speak English?............   60
Lope de Vega y Calderon. Obras Maestras. 12mo. Cloth, 2.00
Spanish Hive; or, Select Pieces from Spanish Authors. With
No'es and Vocabulary. 16mo. Cloth......................... 1.25
Fallais Portuguez? or, Do You Speak Portuguese? 16mo...  60
Fallais Ingles? or, Do You Speak English? 16mo. Boards...  6(
HEBREW.
Deutsch's Hebrew  Crammar. 8vo. Cloth.............. 2.50
-  Key to the Pentateuch. Part I. Cloth..............  1.50
Fuerst's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. Translated by
Davidson. 8vo. Half morocco........................,.... 9(
MISCELLANEOUS.
Bain's Brief English Grammar. 18mo. Boards........  50
Key to the above. 18mo. Boards..........................,
Anglo-Saxon Manual. ByProf. S. M. Shute. 12mo. CLth, 1.S
Corson. Handbook of Saxon and Early English. 8vo.......... 3.0G
Cox's Mythology. 16mo. Cloth......................... 1..
Dictation Exercises. By Miss Sewell and Mrs Urbino.
(English Spelling Book.) 12mo. Boards...................... 
Yonge, Miss. Landmarksof History. 3vols. 12mo. Cloth.
I. Ancient History..................................  1-.0
II. Medieval History...................................... 1.25
ill. Modern History........................................ L
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