READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

THE peace of Vervins was not very well observed on the part of France. The ruling idea which guided the foreign policy of Henry IV was to curb the power of the House of Austria : a plan incompatible with the letter of the treaty. In pursuance of this policy Henry became the supporter of Protestantism; not, perhaps, from any lingering affection for his ancient faith—his indifference in such matters has been already seen—but because the Protestants were the natural enemies of the Austrian House. Hence he was determined to support the independence of Holland. He annually paid the Dutch large sums of money; he connived at the recruiting for them in France; and in spite of a royal prohibition, granted at the instance of the Spanish ambassador in 1599, whole regiments passed into the service of the United Provinces. In aid of these plans Henry fortified himself with alliances. He courted the Protestant Princes of Germany, and incited them to make a diversion in favour of the Dutch; he cultivated the friendship of Venice, reconciled himself with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and attached the House of Lorraine to his interests by giving his sister, Catharine, in marriage to the Duke of Bar (January 31st, 1599); who, formerly, when Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson, had been his rival for the French Crown, and who in 1608 succeeded his father as Duke of Lorraine. The Porte was propitiated by Savary de Brèves, an able diplomatist; and the vanity of France was gratified by obtaining the protectorate of the Christians in the East. The Pope was gained through his temporal interests as an Italian Prince. Henry had promised, on his absolution, to publish in France the decrees of Trent; and, as he had refrained from doing so out of consideration for the Huguenots, he had, by way of compensation, offered to support Clement VIII in his design of uniting Ferrara to the immediate dominions of the Church; although the House of Este had often been the faithful ally of France. The direct line of the reigning branch of that family becoming extinct on the death of Duke Alfonso II, Clement VIII seized the duchy; and Caesar d'Este, first cousin and heir of Alfonso, obtained only the Imperial fiefs of Modena and Reggio (1597). The connivance of Henry gratified the Pope and caused him to overlook the Edict of Nantes.

The friendship of the Pope was also necessary to Henry for his private affairs, as he was meditating a divorce from his wife, Margaret of Valois, from whom he had long been estranged, and who had borne him no children. Flaws were discovered in Gregory XIII’s dispensation for kinship; and as Margaret herself, in consideration of a large pension from the King, agreed to the suit (July, 1599), a divorce was easily obtained. The choice of her successor was more difficult. Mary de' Medici, the offspring of Francis, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, by a daughter of the Emperor, Ferdinand I, was proposed, and supported by Sully who opposed all idea of a marriage with Gabrielle, now Duchess of Beaufort. The difficulty was solved by the sudden death of Gabrielle, April 10th, 1599. Henry, who was absent from Paris, though he felt and displayed an unfeigned sorrow for the death of his mistress, harbored no suspicions, and the negotiations for the Florentine marriage went on. Mary de' Medici, however, was nearly supplanted by another rival. Before the end of the summer, Henry had been captivated by a new mistress, Mademoiselle d'Entragues, whom he created Marquise de Verneuil. The Papal commissaries had, in December, 1599, pronounced his marriage with Margaret null; and on the 25th of April following the King signed his marriage contract with the Tuscan Princess, the second descendant of the Florentine bankers, who was destined to give heirs to the Crown of France.

A domestic rebellion, fomented by Spain and Savoy, diverted awhile the attention of Henry from his plans of foreign policy. Sully's economy and love of order had excited much discontent among the powerful nobles of France; the materials of sedition were accumulated and ready to burst into a flame; and a point that had been left undecided in the treaty of Vervins afforded the means of applying the torch. By that treaty the question between France and Savoy respecting the Marquisate of Saluzzo had been referred to the decision of the Pope; but Clement VIII, unwilling to offend either party, had declined to interfere. In order, if possible, to settle this question, and also to engage Henry to support his pretensions to Geneva, Charles Emmanuel, who then reigned in Savoy, paid a visit to the French King at Fontainebleau; where, alarmed apparently at the idea of being seized and detained, he agreed to decide whether he would give up Bresse in exchange for Henry's claims on Saluzzo. He had, however, no intention of surrendering either the one or the other; and he employed his visit to France in ingratiating himself with the French nobles, many of whom he gained by large gifts and still larger promises. It had been predicted by an astrologer that in the year 1600 there should be no King in France; and Charles Emmanuel made use of a prediction which, in that age, earned no slight weight, not only to rouse the ambition of the French nobility, but also, it is said, to stimulate a renewal of the odious enterprises against Henry’s life. A plan was formed to convert France into an elective monarchy, like the Empire, and to establish each great lord as an hereditary Prince in his government. It was thought that many towns as well as nobles might be drawn into the plot, nay, even that some princes of the blood might be induced to engage in it. Among the leading conspirators were the Dukes of Epernon and Bouillon (Turenne), and the Count of Auvergne, a natural son of Charles IX and uterine brother of the King's mistress, Henriette d'Entragues. But Marshal Biron was the soul of the plot: whose chief motive was wounded pride, the source of so many rash actions in men of his egregious vanity. Biron pretended that the King owed to him the Crown, and complained of his ingratitude, although Henry had made him a Duke and Peer, as well as a Marshal of France and Governor of Burgundy. Henry had mortified him by remarking that the Birons had served him well, but that he had had a great deal of trouble with the drunkenness of the father and the freaks and pranks of the son. Biron’s complaints were so loud that the Court of Spain made him secret advances; while an intriguer named La Fin proposed to him, on the part of the Duke of Savoy, one of the Duke's daughters in marriage, and held out the hope that Spain would guarantee to him the sovereignty of both Burgundies. After many pretexts and delays, Charles Emmanuel having refused to give up Bresse for Saluzzo, or Saluzzo for Bresse, Henry IV declared war against him in August, 1600, and promptly followed up the declaration by invading Savoy. Biron carefully concealed his designs, nor does the King appear to have been aware of them; for he gave the Marshal a command, who conquered for him the little county of Bresse, though still secretly corresponding with the Duke of Savoy. Henry's refusal to give Biron the command of Bourg, the capital of Bresse, still further exasperated him.

One of the most interesting incidents of this little war is the care displayed by Henry for the safety of Geneva. The Duke of Savoy had long hankered after the possession of that city, and had erected, at the distance of two leagues from it, the fort of St. Catherine, which proved a great annoyance to the Genevese. The fort was captured by the royal forces; and the now aged Beza, at the head of a deputation of the citizens, went out to meet the King, who, in spite of the displeasure of the Papal Legate, gave him a friendly reception, presented him with a sum of money, and granted his request for the demolition of the fortress. This war presents little else of interest except its results, embodied in the treaty of peace signed January 17th, 1601. The rapidity of Henry’s conquests had quite dispirited Charles Emmanuel; and although Fuentes, the Spanish Governor of the Milanese, ardently desired the prolongation of the war, the Duke of Lerma, the all-powerful minister of Philip III, was against it; for the anxiety of the Spanish cabinet had been excited by the appearance of a Turkish fleet in the western waters of the Mediterranean, effected through the influence of the French ambassador at Constantinople. Under these circumstances negotiations were begun. In order to retain the Marquisate of Saluzzo, which would have given the French too firm a footing in Piedmont, the Duke was compelled to make large territorial concessions on the other side of the Alps. Bresse, Bugei, Valromei, the Pays de Gex, in short, all the country between the Saone, the Rhone, and the southern extremity of the Jura mountains, except the little principality of Dombes and its capital Trevoux, belonging to the Duke of Montpensier, were now ceded to the French in exchange for their claims of the territories of Saluzzo, Perosa, Pinerolo, and the Val di Stura. The Duke also ceded Chateaux-Dauphin, reserving a right of passage into Franche-Comte, for which he had to pay 100,000 crowns. This hasty peace ruined all Biron s hopes, and struck him with such alarm, that he came to Henry and confessed his treasonable plans. Henry not only pardoned him, but even employed him in embassies to England and Switzerland; but Biron was incorrigible. He soon afterwards renewed his intrigues with the French malcontent nobles, and being apprehended and condemned for high treason by the Parliament of Paris, was beheaded in the Court of the Bastille, July 29th, 1602. The execution of so powerful a nobleman created both at home and abroad a strong impression of the power of the French King.

While the war with Savoy was going on, Mary de' Medici arrived in France, and Henry solemnized his marriage with her at Lyons, December 9th, 1600. The union was not destined to be a happy one. Mary was neither amiable nor attractive; she possessed but little of the grace or intellect of her family; and was withal ill-tempered, bigoted, obstinate, and jealous. On September 27th, 1601, the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII, was born.

Although the aims of Henry IV were as a rule noble and worthy of his character, the means which he employed to attain them will not always admit of the same praise. His excuse must be sought in the necessities and difficulties of his political situation. At home, where he was suspected both by Catholics and Huguenots, he was frequently obliged to resort to finesse, nor did he hesitate himself to acknowledge that his word was not always to be depended on. Abroad, where his policy led him to contend with both branches of the House of Austria, he was compelled, in that unequal struggle, to supply with artifice the deficiencies of force; and he did not scruple to assist underhand the malcontent vassals and subjects of the Emperor and the King of Spain. France is the land of political "ideas", and Henry, or rather his Minister, Sully, had formed a magnificent scheme for the reconstruction of Europe. Against the plan of Charles V and Philip II, of a universal THEOCRATIC MONARCHY, Sully formed the antagonistic one of a CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC, in which, for the bigotry and intolerance supported by physical force, that formed the foundation of the Spanish scheme, were to be substituted a mutual toleration between Papists and Protestants and the suppression of all persecution. Foreign wars and domestic revolutions, as well as all religious disputes, were to be settled by European congresses, and a system of free trade was to prevail throughout Europe. This confederated Christian State was to consist of fifteen powers, or dominations, divided according to their constitutions into three different groups. The first group was to consist of States having an elective Sovereign, which would include the Papacy, the Empire, Venice, and the three elective Kingdoms of Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia. The second group would comprehend the hereditary Kingdoms of France, Spain, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, and the new Kingdom of Lombardy which was to be founded; while the Republics or federate States, as the Swiss League, the contemplated Belgian commonwealth, and the confederacy of the Italian States would form the third. The Tsar of Muscovy, or as Henry used to call him, the "Scythian Knès", was at present to be excluded from the Christian Republic, as being an Asiatic rather than a European potentate, as well as on account of the savage and half barbarous nature of his subjects, and the doubtful character of their religious faith; though he might one day be admitted into this community of nations, when he should think proper himself to make the application.

But as a principal aim, and, indeed, essential condition, of the scheme, was the abasement of the House of Austria, many political changes were to be effected with a view to attain this end. Naples was to be withdrawn from Spain and annexed to the Papal dominions, while the Duchy of Milan, united with that of Savoy, was to form a Kingdom of Lombardy; Spain was to be still further crippled by the loss of her Belgian provinces; the Empire, now become almost hereditary, was to be rendered truly elective; the remains of the Hungarian Kingdom were to be strengthened, at the expense of Austria, by the addition to it of that Archduchy, as well as of the Duchies of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, besides such districts as could be recovered from the Turks, though the Austrian House was to receive a sort of nominal compensation by the suzerainty of the Helvetian and Belgian Republics. That Henry IV himself entertained any serious idea of the feasibility of this scheme may well be doubted, though a plan so well calculated by its grandeur to dazzle the French nation has been regarded by some of the historians of France as the main-spring of all his policy. But it sometimes served Henry as a basis for negotiation, and the mere conception of it is worthy of note, as showing a wonderful advance in political and social views.

The Spanish branch of the Austrian House was naturally in a more immediate object of Henry's solicitude than the Austrian. Philip III had succeeded, in his twenty-first Lerma. year, to the Spanish throne on the death of his father, Philip II, to whom, in character, he offered a striking contrast. Immediately after his accession Philip III committed the entire direction of affairs to his favorite the Marquis of Denia, whom, to the great indignation of the Spanish grandees, he created Duke of Lerma. That powerful minister possessed but limited abilities, and was utterly unversed in the art of government; but his manners were courteous and affable, and he had gained the favour of the ecclesiastics by his devotion to the Church.

One of the first acts of Philip III was to solemnize at Valencia his marriage with Margaret of Austria. About the same time (April, 1599) was celebrated the previously arranged marriage of the Archduke Albert and Philip II's daughter, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia; and in September they returned to the Netherlands, where they assumed the title of the "Archdukes". Albert now adopted all the formalities of the Court of the Escorial; assumed the Spanish dress and manners, and required to be served on the knee; a proceeding which gave great offence to the plain and unceremonious Netherlanders. As Philip II had reserved the liberty of garrisoning Antwerp, Ghent and Cambray with Spanish soldiers, the money and troops of Spain, notwithstanding the nominally independent sovereignty of the Archdukes, continued to be employed in Belgium as in the preceding reign. Albert, during his absence in Spain, had left Mendoza, Marquis of Guadalete, commander in the Netherlands, who undertook some plundering operations on the Rhine; but the campaign of 1599 presents little of importance. Prince Maurice of Nassau, Stadholder of Holland, the leader of the Dutch, was reckoned the ablest captain of the day; but he was suspected by the leaders of the republican party in Holland of a design to seize the sovereignty, and, with a view to that object, of endeavoring to prolong the war; and they therefore appointed commissioners to watch his movements; among whom Olden Barneveldt, Advocate of Holland, was the foremost. The Seven United Provinces had now reached a great height of prosperity. Their navy was the best in Europe; they were aided by Scotch and English troops; and though the peace of Vervins had deprived them of the open support of France, yet Henry IV continued secretly to assist them.

Siege of Nieuport  

A mutiny in 1600 among the Spanish and Italian troops of the Archdukes, occasioned by their pay being in arrear, seemed to Olden Barneveldt and the States to present a favorable opportunity for striking a blow in Flanders. Maurice, against his better judgment, was reluctantly persuaded to undertake the expedition, and after capturing some towns and fortresses, he laid siege to Nieuport. The Archduke Albert, accompanied by his consort, hastened to the relief of that important place, when Clara Eugenia appeared on horseback before the Spanish troops near Ghent, soothed them by her condescension, and animated them by her courage; and pointing to her costly earrings, she declared that she would part with them sooner than the men should lose their pay. Maurice had scarcely arrived before Nieuport when he was surprised by the intelligence of the approach of the Archdukes. Against the earnest advice of Sir Francis Vere, who commanded the English contingent sent to the aid of the States, he dispatched to certain destruction nearly a third of his army which had not yet crossed to the western side of the creek forming the harbor of Nieuport, in the vain hope that they might arrest for some time the advance of the Spaniards; but they were dispersed and almost entirely destroyed in an hour. A battle was now inevitable, and all the arrangements for it were entrusted to Vere. Maurice seems to have lost all confidence in himself and his troops, and in the hope of gaining some courage from despair sent away his numerous fleet, the only hope, in case of reverse, of salvation for his army : a resolution which by some authors has been styled heroical, but which rather shows that he had lost his head. The army of the States was saved chiefly through the bravery of Vere and his Englishmen; Sir Francis, ever in the thickest of the fight, was severely wounded. The Spaniards were defeated with great loss. Maurice, however, apparently for no adequate reasons, did not pursue the siege of Nieuport; he soon afterwards returned into Holland, and no other memorable action took place during this campaign.

The Northern Netherlanders still occupied Ostend, and as their sallies from that place occasioned much annoyance to the Flemings, they requested the Archduke Albert to attempt the reduction of it; a task which had baffled the skill of the Duke of Parma. Nevertheless, Albert, early in 1601, consented to begin a siege which is among the longest and most memorable in the annals of warfare. Ostend was defended by Sir Francis Vere, who, having lost the greater part of his garrison, amused the enemy with a pretended capitulation till he had received reinforcements; and he frustrated a rash and desperate assault of the Spaniards, by causing the sluices to be opened, and drowning large numbers of the assailants.  In 1601 Henry IV, who, in consequence of an affront offered to the French ambassador at Madrid, was at this time meditating open war against Spain, repaired to Calais, in order to encourage the Dutch by his neighborhood; and at the same time Queen Elizabeth went to Dover, in the hope that the French King might be induced to pay her a visit at that place. Fear of giving umbrage to the Catholics deterred Henry from crossing the Channel, but he sent his minister Sully, who was surprised to find that the English Queen had anticipated in many points his plans for the abasement of the House of Austria. The interview, however, had no practical result; the Pope hastened to make up the quarrel between France and Spain; but Henry gave Elizabeth to understand that if they did not unite their arms they might at least join their diplomacy; and he continued to send money secretly to the Dutch, and to wink at the succors forwarded by the Huguenot party to Ostend. Albert did not make much progress in the siege of that place; he was hindered sometimes by the operations of Maurice, sometimes by the mutinies of his own troops, as well as the difficulties naturally belonging to the undertaking. In 1602 the Spaniards were reinforced by the arrival from Italy of 8,000 men under Ambrose Spinola, a Genoese nobleman of large fortune and a sort of amateur soldier, who was devoted to the Spanish cause. Spinola mortgaged his large possessions in Italy in order to raise the succors just mentioned; while his brother Frederick appeared on the Flemish coast with a fleet fitted out at his own expense, and inflicted much loss on the Dutch commerce; in which enterprises he met a speedy death.

Death of Queen Elizabeth, 1603

Queen Elizabeth, who had succored the Dutch with 6,000 men, died before the siege of Ostend was brought to a conclusion. The Spaniards had retaliated by aiding O'Neill's rebellion in Ireland; but she lived just long enough to see its extinction. Her death (March 24th, 1603) was a great loss, not only for the Dutch and the Protestant cause, but also for Henry IV, who, besides counting on her help in his struggle with the House of Austria, was loath to see the Crowns of England and Scotland united on the same head. Henry, however, dispatched Sully into England to endeavor, if possible, to persuade Elizabeth's successor, James I, to act in concert with France with regard to the affairs of the Netherlands. It was a difficult task. Prejudiced by his maxims respecting the divine right of Kings, James looked upon the Dutch as rebels and traitors, and seemed inclined to listen to the advances of the Spanish Court, though he rejected those of the Pope with signs of the most bitter aversion. The Dutch had also sent Barneveldt, together with the young Prince Frederick Henry of Nassau, to congratulate James on his accession, and to solicit a renewal of the English alliance. James at length agreed to dispatch some troops into the Low Countries, whose pay was to be furnished by France, though a third of it was to go in reduction of the debt due from Henry IV to England (June 25th, 1603). Sully also sounded the English King on his grand scheme for the reorganization of Europe, and James, who was fond of speculation, seemed to enter wonderfully into the spirit of it; yet in the very next year he concluded a formal peace with Spain (August 18th, 1604). James, however, refused to deliver up to the Netherland Archdukes Flushing, Brill, and Rammekens, places which the United Provinces had assigned to Elizabeth as security for their debt; and though he offered his mediation to make the States accept a fair and reasonable peace, yet he appears to have reserved to himself, by a secret agreement, the right of assisting them. The treaty was limited to Europe, and James could not prevail upon the Spanish Court to open the Indies to British commerce. The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the following year inclined James more towards the French alliance, and in February, 1606, a treaty of commerce was concluded with France.

Fall of Ostend

Meanwhile the siege of Ostend still continued. Albert, weary of the enterprise, had devolved the conduct of it on Spinola, who at length succeeded in lodging his troops in the outworks; and the Dutch, despairing of the defence of the town, resolved to compensate themselves for its loss by the capture of Sluys, which surrendered on capitulation to Prince Maurice. Soon afterwards, as Ostend seemed no longer tenable, they instructed the commandant to capitulate (September 20th, 1604). The contending parties are said to have lost 100,000 men during this siege, which was now in its fourth year. Spinola, on entering the town, gave the commandant and his officers a magnificent entertainment, by way of marking his estimation of their conduct. The fall of Ostend had but little influence on the general progress of the war, which we shall here pursue to its conclusion. The brunt of the struggle was next year transferred to the borders of Overyssel and Gelderland but the campaign of 1605 offers little of importance. At the close of it, Spinola, ill supported by the Spanish Court, found it necessary to proceed to Madrid to hasten the supplies of troops and money which Philip III and Lerma were very slow in furnishing. On his way back he was seized with a fever, which prevented him from reaching the Netherlands till July, 1606, and the only event of much importance that year was the capture by him of Rheinberg. At the conclusion of this campaign negotiations were opened for a peace, of which Spain, and even Spinola himself, was now very desirous. The same result was ardently wished for by a large party in the United Provinces, at the head of which was John of Olden Barneveldt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, the first statesman and patriot of his age; and he at length prevailed upon Prince Maurice, who wished to continue the war, to enter into his views. The States, however, resolved not to treat unless their independence was acknowledged, a condition very unpalatable to the pride of Spain and the Archdukes. A subterfuge was at last hit upon. John Neyen, an Antwerp Franciscan, who had studied in Spain, and was now Commissary-General of his order in the Netherlands, was sent to Ryswyck (February, 1607), whence he was several times introduced secretly of an evening to Prince Maurice and Barneveldt at the Hague. The friar evaded a direct recognition of Dutch independence, by declaring that he was empowered to treat with the States "as if they were free". A truce of eight months, to begin on the 4th of May, was agreed upon, in order to conduct the negotiations; though not for a permanent peace, which would have been insufferable to Spanish pride, but only for a prolonged truce. The Hollanders, however, refused to suspend the hostilities by sea, and while the negotiations were pending, Admiral Heemskerk was dispatched from the Texel to the coasts of Spain and Portugal with a formidable fleet, and instructed not only to watch over the Dutch ships returning from the Indies, but also to inflict on the Spaniards all the damage he could. Heemskerk sailed to Gibraltar Bay, where the Spanish fleet, consisting of twenty-one large ships under the command of Admiral Davila, was drawn up in order of battle under the guns of the fortress. Upon this formidable array the Dutch commander bore down in full sail; the Spanish admiral at his approach retired behind his other galleons, pursued by Heemskerk, who, as he neared the Spaniards, was killed by a cannon ball; but Davila also soon shared the same fate. The officer who succeeded him in command, seeing that the fleet had sustained considerable loss, hoisted a white flag; but the Dutch, animated with an uncontrollable fury against the Spaniards, would not recognize it, and continued the fight till they had half destroyed the Spanish fleet, and 2,000 or 3,000 of the crews. Then, after repairing at Tetuan the damage they had sustained, which was comparatively trifling, they again put to sea in small squadrons in order to intercept and capture the Spanish merchantmen (April, 1607). This decisive victory had a great effect in lowering the pride of the Spaniards, and rendering them more practicable; they found their commerce ruined, and were forced to ask quarter of the "Beggars of the Sea". Yet when the ratification of the truce arrived from Spain it was not satisfactory. The independence of the United Provinces was not recognized; the instrument was signed “Yo el Rey” (I, the King), a form used only towards subjects, and it was not sealed with the Great Seal. At the entreaty of the Archdukes, however, the Dutch consented to recall their fleet till a satisfactory ratification should be obtained within a given period.

King James felt at first some alarm at the negotiations between the Archdukes and the States; but he was at length satisfied with the explanations of Caron, the Dutch ambassador, and he sent Sir Ralph Winwood and Sir Richard Spencer to assist at the deliberations. It was now necessary for France to take a decided part. Henry deemed it prudent to join England in mediating a peace between Spain and her revolted subjects, and in August, 1607, the President, Jeannin, was sent into Holland with instructions for that purpose. The discussions, chiefly conducted by Jeannin and Barneveldt, were long and stormy, and the provisional truce had often to be prolonged. Neyen endeavored to corrupt Aersens, the Dutch secretary, by offering him a splendid diamond for his wife, and for himself a bond of Spinola’s for 50,000 crowns. Aersens communicated the offer to Prince Maurice, who advised him to accept it, and then to give up the bribes to the Council of State, and at a later stage of the proceedings Olden Barneveldt produced these bribes to Verreiken, the minister of the Archdukes, and covered him with confusion.

The leaders of the Republican, or anti-Orange party, among whom we may distinguish, besides Barneveldt, Ladenburg, Hogerbeets, and Hugo Grotius, Pensionary of Rotterdam, were willing not to haggle too closely about the terms; but the war party, which adhered to Maurice of Nassau, and which included the army and navy, the East India Company, the populace of the larger towns, and a considerable proportion of the clergy, appeared to recover its influence, and towards the end of 1608 the negotiations were on the point of being broken off. Holland especially, where Maurice was all-powerful, and Zealand, where his estates lay, and where he almost ruled as a Prince, were loud against a peace; and Zealand even threatened to give herself to England, unless the French would declare against Spain.

Philip III, through his ambassador, Don Pedro de Toledo, had endeavored to detach Henry IV from the Dutch cause by renewing his proposals for a matrimonial treaty between the families. Soon after the conclusion of the peace between Spain and England, Philip had tried to impress upon Henry that France and Spain, instead of opposing each other, should combine to dictate the law to Europe, and had suggested that they should cement their alliance by a double union between their children; for Henry had now a son and daughter. There was a large party in France in favour of this alliance, and Henry himself appeared to listen to the proposal, but he was dissuaded from it by Sully, the constant opponent of the House of Austria. The project when now renewed met with no better success. Early in 1609 Jeannin, seconded by the English ambassadors, succeeded in extorting some important concessions from the Spaniards, and he prevailed on the Dutch States to appoint a large deputation to accept the proffered terms. Accordingly a body of 800 deputies assembled at Bergen-op-Zoom to treat with the Spanish plenipotentiaries; and at last, on the 9th of April, 1609, a truce was signed for a term of twelve years. In the preamble to the treaty, the Archdukes acknowledged that, both in their own name and in that of the Catholic King, they treated with the Dutch States as with free and independent peoples.

The treaty was founded on the basis of uti possidetis. Spain now yielded on the question of the Indian trade, which had been one of the chief subjects of dispute, as well as respecting the navigation of the Scheldt, and the ruin of Antwerp was consummated for the benefit of the ports of Holland and Zealand. The Spanish envoys, though they struggled hard, could obtain no toleration of Catholic worship in the United Provinces. Great regard was shown in this treaty for the interests of the family of Nassau. It was provided that none of the descendants of William, Prince of Orange, should be liable for any debts he had contracted between the year 1567 and his death, and that such of his estates within the territories of the Archdukes as had been confiscated should be restored. The States took care that Maurice should suffer no diminution of income by the conclusion of the war, and they also augmented the appointments of Prince Frederick Henry and of Count William Louis of Nassau. These sums had been voted chiefly through the influence of Barneveldt; but they did not appease Maurice's jealousy and resentment against him, though for some few years longer an apparent friendship subsisted between them. By this treaty was terminated, after a war of forty years, the struggle of the Dutch for independence, though a like period was still to elapse before it was formally recognized by Spain. Up to this time the Dutch had enlarged their Union by the addition of the two important provinces of Overyssel and Groningen; they had extended their boundary on the Flemish side by the conquest of Sluys, Hulst, and several other places, constituting what was afterwards called Dutch Flanders; in Northern Brabant they had conquered several strong towns, including Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda, and Hertogenbosch; by means of Lillo and other forts they had obtained the command of the Scheldt; they had attacked, and vanquished in their own harbors, the powerful navies of Spain, and had interrupted and shared her commerce at the furthest extremities of the globe.

Policy of Henry IV

Meanwhile Henry IV’s policy of weakening the House of Austria seemed to involve him in the grossest contradictions; for, while he courted the German Protestants, he endeavored at the same time to stand well with the Pope, and at home he showed more favour to the Roman Catholics than to the Huguenots, as being both more able and more willing to extend and confirm the royal authority. Hence in 1603 he had recalled the Jesuits to Paris, had endowed several Jesuit colleges, and had entrusted to a celebrated member of the Society, the Pere Cotton, the difficult and delicate task of directing his conscience. Henry's former friends, the Huguenots, had indeed become his chief domestic enemies. The Duke of Bouillon, their principal leader, had long been intriguing with the malcontent French nobles, and with Spain; and in 1606 Henry had appeared before Sedan with an army, and compelled the Duke to surrender that place for a term of four years. But Henry's policy compelled him to inconsistencies even in the treatment of his rebellious vassals; and, for fear of offending the Protestant Princes of Germany, he granted Bouillon a complete pardon, allowed him to retain his offices and honors, and suffered him to install himself at Court.

At the same time Henry endeavored to ingratiate himself with the Pope. On the death of Clement VIII, March 5th, 1605, the influence of France had been exerted in the Conclave to procure the election of Cardinal Alexander de' Medici, a kinsman of the French Queen; 300,000 crowns were expended in the purchase of votes, and Alexander assumed, with the tiara, the title of Leo XI. But in less than a month the death of Leo occasioned another vacancy. It was supplied by the election of Cardinal Camillo Borghese, who took the name of Paul V. (May 16th, 1605). Cardinal Bellarmine, the great Jesuit theologian, had nearly obtained the tiara; but his profession was against him; the Sacred College feared that, if the Society of Jesus once succeeded in seizing the throne of St. Peter, they would never relinquish it. Originally a Consistorial advocate, Borghese had risen through every grade of the clerical profession; but he had lived in seclusion, buried in his studies, and his character was but little known. After his accession a great change was observed in him. He had conceived the most extravagant ideas of the greatness of his office, and began his administration with acts of extreme rigor. He endeavored to break down all the restraints which the Italian governments had placed on the Pontifical authority in the relations of Church and State, and in most instances he succeeded in extorting concessions; but Venice opposed a formidable resistance. In that Republic a little knot of liberal thinkers had been formed, at the head of whom was Fra Paolo Sarpi, the celebrated historian of the Council of Trent. Endowed with great originality of mind, Sarpi appears to have anticipated some of the doctrines of Locke; but it is difficult to describe the exact nature of his religious tenets; they seem to have approximated to those of the Reformation, and by some he was considered a Protestant in disguise. It is at all events certain, that he was a most determined enemy of the secular influence of the Pope; and Cardinal Borghese, a nephew of Paul V, is said to have hired some assassins who attempted to poignard him. The contumacy of Venice soon occasioned open strife. The government having instituted before a secular tribunal a prosecution against two ecclesiastics, the Pope launched against the Republic an interdict in all its ancient forms (April 17th, 1606). The Signory replied by a proclamation, in which they expressed their resolution to uphold their sovereign authority, and ordered the clergy to continue divine service, without regard to the Papal interdict; a command which was universally obeyed, except by the three orders of the Jesuits, Capuchins, and Theatines, who, persisting in their fidelity to the Pope, were banished from the Venetian territories. Paul V now meditated open force against the refractory Republic, when Henry IV, to whose designs the friendship both of Venice and the Pope was needful, interposed his mediation. At his instance the Venetians made several concessions; but, supported by Spain, they resolutely refused to receive back the Jesuits, and Paul was compelled to concede the point.

Shortly after this affair, Henry, in pursuance of his plans against the House of Austria, began to sound the Pope concerning the liberation of Italy from Spanish domination, and the wresting of the Imperial Crown from the Habsburgs. Agreeably to his grand European scheme he held out to Paul the bait of Naples; and though the Pontiff did not venture to give his direct consent, Henry trusted that the first victory would secure it. With the same views he also made advances to Venice and the Duke of Savoy. Venice promised her aid in consideration of receiving a portion of the Milanese; and she was also to have Sicily, if the Allies succeeded in wresting that island from the Spaniards. The Duke of Savoy was attracted with the prospect of Milan and the Crown of Lombardy. Charles Emmanuel's eldest son was to marry Elizabeth of France, Henry's eldest daughter; and the Duke was to claim Milan in right of his wife, a daughter of Philip II of Spain, and by way of compensation for Belgium and Franche-Comté, bestowed upon his sister-in-law, Clara Eugenia. France, or at all events Sully, affected to renounce all her pretensions in Italy, and to seek nothing but the honor and glory of rescuing that peninsula from foreign domination; only Gaston, Duke of Anjou, Henry's third son, an infant two years old, was to be affianced to the heiress of Mantua and Montferrat. Henry, however, had not quite the disinterested views of his minister. His policy may be said to have survived by tradition to the present day, for it embraced a plan which in 1860 we saw realized by one of the supplanters of his dynasty : namely, to round off the French territory by the cession of Savoy, and perhaps also of Nice, by the Duke of Savoy, in return for the help of France in conquering Milan. In fact, Henry's scheme anticipated the modern union of nationalities. Henry aimed to unite under the scepter of France all who spoke a Romance tongue on this side the Alps and Pyrenees, a design which would ultimately include Lorraine, Walloon Belgium, and Franche-Comté: and he had already begun to stir in this matter with regard to Lorraine, by demanding for the Dauphin the hand of the Duke of Bar's only daughter by his deceased wife, Henry's sister; a demand which the Duke had not ventured to refuse.                           

These plans were connected with another for striking a blow in the heart of Spain itself, which, however, was defeated by an unforeseen occurrence. Spain still contained many thousand families of Moriscoes, not only in Granada, but also in Valencia and Aragon, and even in Castile and Catalonia. Henry I. had early in his reign opened secret communications with these discontented subjects of the Spanish Crown; and in a memorial addressed to the French King, the Moriscoes affirmed that they could raise an army of 80,000 men. In 1605 a French agent employed in these intrigues had been detected and hanged in Valencia; a circumstance which served still further to inflame the bigoted hatred with which the unfortunate Moriscoes were regarded by the Spanish Court. The Christianity which it had been attempted to inculcate upon that people during the last century had made no real progress, though forced conversions were accomplished; for the monks dispatched to preach the Gospel to them, by way of supporting their arguments, were accompanied by the hang­man. The Archbishop of Valencia had long endeavored to persuade Philip III to expel all the Moriscoes from Spain, or send them to the galleys, and educate their children in the Christian faith; the Archbishop of Toledo, who was brother to the Duke of Lerma, and Grand-Inquisitor, went still further, and demanded the death of all the infidel race, without distinction of age or sex. The humanity, or the self-interest of the lay nobility, the estates of many of whom would be ruined by the massacre or banishment of the Moors, opposed for a while the execution of these barbarous measures, nor did the Court of Spain deem it prudent to resort to them, while engaged in war with the revolted Netherlands; but scarcely had a long truce been concluded with the United Provinces, when an edict was published for the expulsion of the Moors from Valencia. An insurrection which the Moriscoes had attempted in the mountains was suppressed, and more than 130,000 of them were compelled to embark, and thrown upon the coast of Africa, where three-fourths of them perished of hunger and fatigue. The remainder succeeded in reaching Oran and Algiers.

On the 9th of December appeared another edict directing the embarkation of the Moors of Granada, Murcia, and Andalusia; and on the 10th of January, 1610, a third for the expulsion of those of Aragon, Catalonia, and Castile. These last were driven towards the Pyrenees, and were forbidden to carry with them either money or bills. Some 100,000 of them passed into France, either by crossing the mountains, or taking their passage to Marseilles; but, in spite of the former tamperings of the French government with them, they did not fare much better than those expelled direct from the Spanish ports. Henry IV published, indeed, an ordinance (February 22nd, 1610) which, however, was soon recalled, directing that they should be received and suffered to remain, but after making professions of Catholicism, an alternative which they had already rejected in their native homes; and that vessels should be provided for such of them as wished to depart. It was thought that large numbers of them would have been willing to embrace Protestantism; but Henry was afraid to take a step which would have excited the religious prejudices of the mass of the nation. Many of the Moriscoes became the victims of the fanatics through whose districts they passed; the greater part of them were detained for months on the Provençal coast for want of transport, and were reduced to a state of indescribable distress by the inhumanity and extortions of the officers appointed to superintend their embarkation; and when at last they contrived to get on board their vessels, numbers of them were robbed and even thrown into the sea by the sailors, while many more died of misery and privation. So numerous, it is said, were the corpses cast into the sea, that the inhabitants of Marseilles abstained from eating fish, and gave the name of grenadines to the sardines, as having banqueted on the flesh of the unhappy Moors. Thus was consummated at vast expense, and at the price of inflicting an incurable wound on the future prosperity of Spain, that inhuman system of persecution which had been carried on since the administration of Ximenes. At the time of the expulsion of the Moors Henry IV was meditating open war against the House of Austria, both in Germany and Spain; and he was in hopes that he should be able to attack Philip III soon enough to obtain the services of some of the Moriscoes. He was organizing two large armies destined to enter Spain at the opposite sides of San Sebastian and Perpignan; 14,000 men under Lesdiguières were ordered to join the Duke of Savoy in the operations contemplated in Italy; while Henry himself was preparing to lead another army to the assistance of the German Princes in the affair of the Duchy of Jülich.

German History. Rodolph II                                      

Brought up in Spain, gloomy, fanatical, given to abstruse stories, fonder of observing the stars in his retirement at Prague than of attending to the affairs of his dominions, the Emperor Rodolph II, though himself unfit to govern, was yet loath to resign any share of his power to his eldest surviving brother, Matthias, the heir presumptive of his hereditary lands; who, though himself not the model of a ruler, was better fitted than Rodolph by his manners and his German education to conduct the affairs of the Austrian dominions. It was with reluctance that Rodolph was at length compelled to entrust the administration of Hungary and Austria to Matthias, who, in the discharge of these functions, and without the approbation of the Emperor, made concessions to the Hungarian Protestants, and concluded with the Turks the peace of Sitvatorok already mentioned. In order to carry out these measures, Matthias had, indeed, by a family compact, virtually deprived Rodolph of his power.

In April, 1606, he summoned to Vienna his younger brother, Maximilian, who had some years governed Tyrol, and his two cousins, the Archdukes Ferdinand and Leopold of Styria; who, by a formal act declared Matthias head of the house of Habsburg, on account of the mental unsoundness betrayed from time to time by Rodolph. To this act, which was kept secret, the Archduke Albert, Sovereign of the Netherlands, the only other surviving brother of the Emperor, also acceded. Matthias was already contemplating the deposition of Rodolph, and a year or two afterwards he openly manifested his hostility by convening at Presburg the Austrian, as well as the Hungarian, States (February 1st, 1608), which by an Act of Confederation agreed to support Matthias. This was, unquestionably, a revolutionary movement, and Rodolph ordered the Austrian and Hungarian States, thus unconstitutionally united, to separate; but he was not obeyed. Long negotiations ensued between the Emperor and Matthias, which, however, led to no result. It was evident that the differences between the brothers must be decided by arms. The bigoted government of Rodolph had caused the greatest discontent in Bohemia and Moravia; the latter province was in a state of open revolt.

Matthias, by the advice of his minister, Cardinal Klesel, entered it with an army, and advanced to Czaslau in Bohemia, where, after convoking the combined States of Austria and Moravia, he invited those of Bohemia also to a general assembly on the 4th of May. Rodolph parried this blow by summoning the Bohemian States to Prague, though, as the majority of them were Protestants, he could expect no favorable result; and meanwhile Matthias advanced with his army to the neighborhood of that capital. Here he permitted the States to conduct the negotiations with the Emperor, or rather to name their terms; and on the 29th of June, 1608, a treaty was concluded, by which Rodolph ceded Hungary to Matthias, with the title of King, as well as the Archduchy of Austria above and below the Enns. Matthias also received the title of King-Elect of Bohemia, with the consent of the Bohemian States; who expressed their wish that he should immediately undertake the government of Moravia. On the other hand, Matthias took upon himself Rodolph's debts in Hungary and Austria, and abandoned to him his own share of Upper Austria.

Neither the Bohemians, however, nor the States of Hungary and Austria were content with these capitulations. The latter insisted upon the confirmation, nay, even the extension of the religion liberties granted to them by the Emperor Maximilian II, nor would they do homage to Matthias as their new lord till he had complied with their demands. After long negotiations Matthias found himself compelled to yield, and on the 19th of March, 1609, he signed a capitulation conceding complete religious toleration. The Bohemian Diet, which had been assembled to declare Matthias successor to the Crown of Bohemia, had also demanded the re-establishment of all their ancient privileges in matters of religion, which, through the influence of Spain and the Jesuits, had been much curtailed during Rodolph’s reign, and Rodolph had referred the settlement of the question to a future assembly. When this met, Rodolph's counsellors refused to recognize any other Protestant sect than that of the Utraquists, although many of the leading men in Bohemia, as Count Schlick, Count Thurn, and the eloquent Wenzel von Budowa, were either Lutherans or belonged to the freethinking fanatics called Picards. The Diet, finding that they could obtain no concessions, appointed a provisional government of thirty directors to sit at Prague; they raised an army, and named Count Thurn, Leonard von Fels, and John von Bubna to the command of it; and they published the articles for the maintenance of which they had resorted to these violent and extra­ordinary measures. Rodolph, who had neither troops nor money, by the advice of the Spanish and Saxon ambassadors, agreed to a capitulation, with the secret determination of evading it; and on the 12th of July, 1609, he signed the celebrated Royal Charter (Majestais-Brief) which was the immediate occasion of the Thirty Years' War. By this instrument liberty of conscience was allowed to all Bohemians who belonged to certain recognized religions; they were ad­mitted to the University of Prague; they received permission to build churches on all Crown lands, to appoint consistories, and even to choose protectors, a thing at variance with all good government; and all ordinances which the Emperor or his successors might hereafter issue in contravention of the charter were declared beforehand null and void.

There was a Prince, afterwards destined to obtain the Imperial scepter, who regarded all these concessions to the Protestants with the most lively abhorrence. The Archduke Ferdinand of Styria possessed energy and talents, and an autocratic disposition; he had been bred up in the principles of Spain and the Jesuits, and looked upon the uprooting of Protestantism as the special vocation of his life. In this respect he trod in the footsteps of his father Charles, who, at the beginning of the Catholic reaction, had committed to the flames 12,000 Lutheran Bibles and other books. In like manner Ferdinand, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, had effected holocausts of heretic works, at Gratz and Laibach, and in the former place founded a convent of Capuchins on the spot where they had been consumed. He resorted to dragonnades against his refractory Protestant subjects; and even in some towns erected, in terrorem, gibbets in the market-places, though he seems not actually to have used them.

In his cousin and schoolfellow, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, afterwards the first Bavarian Elector, Ferdinand found a strenuous coadjutor of kindred principles; and both were destined to become leading figures in that great war of bigotry and intolerance which disfigured the first half of the seventeenth century. In other respects Maximilian possessed good talents, and was one of the best rulers Bavaria ever had. An act of aggression, which at once gratified Maximilian's religious prejudices and augmented his dominions, had no little influence in producing that state of things in Germany which rendered possible the Thirty Years' War.

Troubles of Donauwörth

Donauworth, a free Imperial city in the Circle of Swabia, but to which the Dukes of Bavaria asserted some ancient pretensions, had adopted the Protestant confession; but it held within its walls a small minority of Catholics, through whom the Jesuits were endeavoring to foment a reaction. In 1606 the abbot of the Benedictine abbey of Holy Cross thought fit to marshal in the streets a procession conducted with all that gorgeous pageantry in which the Romish Church delights, though such things had before been tolerated only in a quiet way. Disturbances followed; the procession was hooted and assaulted by the mob; and Maximilian at length procured from the Aulic Council a decree by which Donauworth was placed under the ban of the Empire, and the execution of the sentence entrusted to himself (August, 1607). As the inhabitants showed no signs of submission, Maximilian, in November, after publishing the ban with the customary solemnity, dispatched some troops to take possession of the town; together with four Jesuits and two barefooted friars to bring the inhabitants to a proper sense of religion. A demand was then made for the expenses of executing the ban, which were estimated so high as to render payment impossible; and thus Donauworth, from a free Imperial Pro­testant city, was converted into a Catholic provincial town of Bavaria.

The "Troubles of Donauworth" are important in general history only by their consequences. The German Protestan Princes had, in 1603, entered into an alliance at Heidelberg to protect themselves from the innovations daily made by Austria and Bavaria, and being alarmed by the proceedings at Donauworth, convened an assembly at Ahausen, an ancient convent in the territory of Anspach. Here the Elector Palatine, Frederick IV, and Prince Christian of Anhalt, who had summoned the meeting, were met by Joachim Ernest and Christian, the two Margraves of Brandenburg-Anspach and Brandenburg-Culmbach, together with the Count Palatine, Philip Louis of Neuburg, and the Duke John Frederick of Wurtemberg; and they formed, for a period of ten years, a defensive alliance, called THE PROTESTANT UNION (May 14th, 1608). The objections which they took against the proceedings at Donauworth were, that it was not competent to the Aulic Council to pronounce sentence against a free Imperial city, such power residing only in the Diets and the Imperial Chamber; and further, that the execution of the ban had been entrusted to a Prince of the Circle of Bavaria, whilst the decree was against a State of the Circle of Suabia. By the Act of Union, the allies agreed to provide an army and a common chest, and they named the Elector Palatine to be their director in time of peace; but in case of war, any Prince whose territory should be attacked, when the general affairs of the Union were to be directed by a council of war. At sub­sequent meetings held at Rothenburg on the Tauber and Hall in Suabia, the Margrave Joachim Ernest was appointed general of the Union out of the territories of the allied Princes, with Christian of Anhalt for his lieutenant. The Union was eventually joined by fifteen Imperial cities, including Strassburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg, by the Landgrave Maurice of Hesse, and by John Sigismund, the new Elector of Brandenburg.

The Catholic League

This alliance on the part of the Protestants provoked a counter one of the Catholics, organized by Maximilian of Bavaria. At his invitation the plenipotentiaries of the Bishops of Würzburg, Constance, Augsburg, Passau, Ratisbon, and other prelates assembled at Munich in July, 1609; and the Catholic States of the Circles of Swabia and Bavaria agreed to enter into an alliance which afterwards obtained the name of the CATHOLIC LEAGUE. The alliance purported to be only a defensive one; but in case of need great powers were entrusted to Maximilian as its director, who had raised a little standing army under the command of Count Tilly, already notorious by the cruelties which, in the service of the Emperor, he had committed against the Protestants. In August the League was joined by the three spiritual Electors; and subsequently an alliance was made with the Pope, and subsidies demanded from Spain. Thus the great religious parties of Germany were formally arrayed against each other: for open violence nothing was wanting but the occasion, and this was afforded by a dispute which arose respecting succession to the Duchy of Jülich.

On the 25th of March, 1609, had died, without issue, John William, Duke of Cleves, Jülich and Berg, Count of the Mark and Ravensberg, and Lord of Ravenstein. Numerous claimants to the Cleves succession arose, of whom the most important were the following four: 1. The Albertine, or then Electoral, House of Saxony, which founded its pretensions on a promise of the reversion of the Duchies of Jülich and Berg given by the Emperor Frederick III in 1483. 2. The Ernestine, or Ducal, House of Saxony alleged, besides this promise common to both branches of the family, the marriage contract between the Elector John Frederick and Sybille of Cleves, Jülich and Berg (1526); which had been confirmed by the Emperor Charles V, the Diet of the Empire, and the States of the three Duchies. 3. John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, claimed by right of his wife, Anne of Prussia, daughter of Mary Eleanor of Cleves-Jülich-Berg, eldest sister of the last Duke, as well as by the letters patent of Charles V., 1546, confirmed by his successor in 1566 and 1580, which appointed the Duke's sisters to the succession. 4. Philip Louis, Palsgrave of Neuburg, who also pleaded the claim of his wife, Anne of Cleves-Julich-Berg, younger sister of the deceased Duke, by whom he had a son, Wolfgang William. The whole question, therefore, turned on the following points: Whether the contested duchies were solely male fiefs, or female as well? Whether the reversion of the House of Saxony, founded on the assumption of their being male fiefs, was to be preferred to a subsequent privilege in favour of the sisters of the last Duke? Whether such a privilege, first granted in 1526, could be opposed to the marriage contract of 1546? and lastly, Whether the daughter of the eldest sister could contest the claim of the son of the youngest sister?

In the present posture of affairs the question of this succession derived its chief importance from the circumstance that, though Protestantism had spread around them, the Dukes of Cleves-Jülich-Berg had remained firmly attached to the orthodox Church, thus constituting one of the few large Catholic lay Powers among the temporal Princes of Germany. As the various claims had arisen from the awards of his predecessors, the Emperor Rodolph II evoked the cause before the Aulic Council, as the proper tribunal in all feudal disputes; and to this course the Elector of Saxony, always the subservient friend of the House of Austria, readily consented.

That unfortunate strife between the Lutheran and Calvinist divines, which divided the German Protestants into two hostile camps, had nowhere been attended with more disastrous effects than in Saxony. During the latter portion of the sixteenth century the Elector Augustus, brother and successor of Maurice, had introduced a sort of Inquisition into his dominions; and by the Confession of Faith styled theConcordien-Formel, or Formula of Concord, published in 1580, had, as it were, erected Lutheranism into a Protestant Papacy. The confession was forced upon clergymen and schoolmasters; those who refused it were turned out by hundreds from office; Melanchthon himself was abused in his grave, and the adherents of his principles were designated by the names of Philipists or Crypto-Calvinists. Calvinists were regarded as children of perdition, to be exterminated from the earth; and from this period Saxony approximated much more nearly to the doctrines of Rome than to those of the Reformed Church. Christian I, the son and successor of Augustus, was rather more moderate. He died in 1591, leaving a minor son, Christian II; but before he was buried the Saxon nobles rose against his Chancellor Krell and his party, who from their moderation were suspected of Calvinism. Many of them were persecuted and banished; Krell himself was thrown into prison, where he was kept ten years; and after repeated tortures, was at length beheaded. Christian II had few good qualities, and died suddenly in July, 1611. He was succeeded by his brother, John George, whose conduct contributed greatly to enhance the sufferings of Germany during the Thirty Years’ War. As the Emperor naturally preferred such good friends and semi-Catholic Princes as the Saxon Electors to the other claimants of the Cleves inheritance, he made no difficulty in granting to Christian II the eventual investiture of the litigated fiefs; but, till a definitive judgment should be pronounced, he sequestered them into the hands of his cousin Leopold, Bishop of Passau, the brother of Ferdinand of Styria. This step, however, proved fatal to the Saxon cause. The Elector of Brandenburg and the Palsgrave of Neuburg, reckoning on the support of France and the United Provinces, resolved to make common cause; and regardless of the Emperor's prohibition to the subjects of the duchies to acknowledge any lord till the Imperial decision was awarded, they jointly occupied those territories, and assumed the title of “Princes in possession”.

The reliance which the Protestant Princes placed on Henry IV was not unfounded. In the autumn of 1602, Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse, surnamed “the Learned”, had visited his court incognito with the view of effecting a German Protestant League under the protectorate of France. Schemes were agitated of procuring the Imperial Crown for Henry, or else for the Duke of Bavaria, who, with all his fellow-feeling for the House of Austria in matters of religion, harbored a secret jealousy of its greatness. The support of Bavaria would have brought with it that of all Catholic Germany; but the times were not yet ripe for action. Maurice and Henry, however, parted on the best terms; the latter assured the Landgrave that, in his inmost soul, he was still devoted to “the religion”, and that he should make a fresh public confession of it before he died, assurances which contrast strongly with those which he was always giving to the clergy, the French parliament, and the Court of Rome, and forcibly illustrate Henry’s own admission that the law of necessity made him say one thing while he meant another. He was easily induced to listen to the applications of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Palsgrave for assistance, and on his representations the States of Berg, Cleves, the Mark, and Ravenstein consented to put their fortresses into the hands of those Princes, but on condition that the Roman Catholic worship should be maintained. The city of Jülich, on the other hand, which was under the influence of the Margravine of Burgau, fourth sister of the late Duke, declared for the opposite party, and admitted the captain of the Archduke Leopold, who had already assembled an army, and who was supported by the Belgian Archdukes (December, 1609).

In November, 1609, the Prince of Condé, Henry IV’s nephew, carried off his wife, Charlotte of Montmorenci, to whom Henry was attached, into the Spanish Netherlands, and placed her under the protection of the Archdukes Albert and Clara Eugenia; whilst he himself took shelter at Cologne, and afterwards set off for the Court of Philip III. Henry thereupon warned the Archdukes not to shelter his "nephew", under pain of incurring his hostility. Albert and Clara Eugenia, according to their custom, beat about till they had received instructions from the Court of Spain; which, while it affected to interpose between Henry and Condé only for the good of both parties, recommended the Archdukes to give the fugitives an asylum. But that this was the real cause of war cannot for a moment be supposed. Henry's conduct on this occasion was guided by the advice of the cold and politic Sully; who pointed out that now, when the House of Habsburg was hampered by its domestic quarrels, was the moment to strike a blow; and he contrasted the disorder of the Empire with the unity of France, and the prosperous state of her finances. Long, indeed, before the flight of Condé the French arsenals had resounded with the din of preparation, and negotiations had been opened which embraced the greater part of Europe. Early in 1610 Henry had concluded at Hall, in Swabia, a treaty with the German Protestant Union to uphold the rights of the inheritors of Cleves, and to drive from Jülich the Archduke Leopold. France promised to raise 10,000 men; the confederated Princes as many more; the Dutch, who entered warmly into the affair, in the hope of seizing the Spanish Netherlands, engaged to provide 17,000 or 18,000 men; the King of Denmark favored the cause, and even the unwarlike English King, James I, embarked in the quarrel and promised a contingent of 4,000 men.

The views of Henry and Sully embraced the wresting of the Imperial scepter from the House of Austria; a scheme which appeared to be feasible only by enticing the Duke of Bavaria with the hope of obtaining it. The Elector of Brandenburg and the Elector Palatine had consented to accept a Catholic Emperor, but with guarantees for religion; the vote of Ernest of Bavaria, Elector of Cologne, uncle of the candidate, might be reckoned on; but a fourth vote was still necessary to secure a majority. The only other Protestant Elector was Christian of Saxony, a Lutheran, but, as we have said, devoted to the Imperial House. It was resolved, therefore, that if he obstinately adhered to that alliance, and continued to betray the common cause of Protestantism, the act by which Charles V had deprived John Frederick of the Saxon Electorate should be declared null and void, and that dignity be restored to the Ernestine branch of the House of Saxony. It was hoped that the resistance of the Imperial family would be paralyzed by the distracted condition of their dominions, and that anti-dynastic revolutions might be excited in Hungary and Bohemia, and national Princes substituted there for the ruling house. French and German envoys were employed to propagate these schemes even in Transylvania and Wallachia; while from the north the King of Sweden and his son had assured Henry of their good wishes. It does not appear how far Maximilian of Bavaria himself had entered into this plan for transferring to him the Empire, although Sully positively asserts that he gave his consent to it; yet it is certain that he remained perfectly quiet at the time of the French King’s projected invasion, notwithstanding that the members of the Protestant Union had taken up arms.

The preparations of Henry IV were on the grandest scale. Besides the armies destined for Italy and Spain, as already mentioned, he had prepared, instead of the 10,000 men promised to the German Princes, an army of more than 30,000, which he intended to lead in person to Jülich. The plan of the campaign was to seize all the passages of the Meuse, and to surprise Charleroi, Maestricht, and Namur, while at the same time the Dutch were to blockade the Flemish harbors; the Belgian democracy was to be invited to rebellion; the nobles who possessed any jurisdiction were to be expelled; and a Republic was to be proclaimed. A junction was to be formed at Düren or Stablo with the German Princes and Maurice of Nassau; in case of prompt success in the north, Franche-Comté was next to be attacked; and then, according to circumstances, the King was either to march into Italy or Bohemia, and to call upon the Germans to decide the great question about the Empire. The Pope, alarmed at these mighty preparations, endeavored to effect an accommodation. The Emperor and the Catholic King were disposed to make large concessions; the Belgian Archdukes granted a passage to the French army, and agreed to send back the Princess of Condé; and even Henry himself felt some natural hesitation on the brink of so momentous an enterprise. His plans had been differently received in France, according to the tempers and views of men. They were of course regarded with an evil eye by the old fanatical Catholic party, whose resentment he dreaded. The Jesuits were at work spreading sinister rumors; it was said that the King meant to destroy the Catholic religion in Germany; the cries of the soldiers were commented on, who declared that they would follow the King anywhere, even against the Pope; and sermons were daily delivered containing invectives against the Edict of Nantes, and the government and person of the King. Nay, even the Queen herself, and her favorite Concini, were in secret correspondence with Madrid.

The cares of Henry were aggravated by a presentiment of his own approaching fate. Dark rumors of conspiracies were floating about, and he communicated to Sully his conviction that he should be murdered on the occasion of the first great public solemnity. Such an occasion was approaching. On the 20th of March, 1610, Henry had issued a decree conferring the regency on his wife, Mary de' Medici, during his absence from the kingdom, but subject to a council of fifteen persons, with whom all the effective authority would lie. As the Queen, like any other member of it, had only a single vote, Mary's self-love was sorely wounded by this step; and she persuaded Henry to complete the long-deferred ceremony of her coronation, although he grudged both the expense of that pageant and the delay which it would cause in his departure.

And now everything was arranged for carrying out that grand scheme of policy which Henry had so long been meditating. The troops had begun to move; the Queen had been crowned with great pomp at St. Denis by the Cardinal de Joyeuse, May 13th; her solemn entry into Paris was fixed for the 16th; and three days afterwards the King was to set off for the army. But on the 14th, while passing in his carriage from the Rue St. Honoré into the Rue de la Ferronerie, its progress was arrested by two carts; and at this moment a man mounted on the wheel and stabbed the King with a knife between the ribs. Henry threw up his arms, exclaiming "I am wounded"; and the assassin seized the opportunity to repeat the blow more fatally, by stabbing him to the heart. He never spoke more. The murderer was seized by the King's suite, and turned out to be one Francis Ravaillac, who had begun a noviciate in the convent of the Feuillants at Paris, and had afterwards been a schoolmaster in his native town of Angouleme. In his examination he assigned as his motives for the deed, the King's having neglected to convert the Huguenots, and his design of making war upon the Pope.

Thus perished Henry IV, and with him his extensive projects, at a time when his robust constitution, at the age of nearly fifty-seven, still promised many years of life. The main features of his character will have been gathered from his history, for his virtues and defects were alike without concealment. In the more private intercourse of life his tastes and habits were of the simplest kind. Some parts of his conduct it would be difficult to defend; but it may be easier to rail at his faults and weaknesses than to imitate his virtues.

CHAPTER XXX

THE COMING STRUGGLE