READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

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

CHAPTER XXXV

THE FRONDE AND THE FRANCO-SPANISH WAR

THE Peace of Westphalia, as we have seen, had not included France and Spain. France was still animated with the ancient spirit of rivalry, while Spain, on the other hand, though terribly exhausted, found in the aspect of affairs, some hopeful and encouraging circumstances. The state of her foreign relations was favourable. The peace which she had concluded with the United Netherlands had diminished the number of her enemies; on the side of England, now approaching the close of her long civil war, there was nothing to be dreaded; and though the German branch of the House of Austria was precluded by the peace from lending her any open assistance, yet she might reckon on the good wishes, and even the secret aid, of the Emperor Ferdinand II. Above all, the Cabinet of Madrid was encouraged by the domestic troubles which then agitated France.

The sedition of the Fronde, though it nearly caused a revolution in France, is important in the general affairs of Europe only as crippling for some years the power of that country, and ranging the military talents of Condé on the side of Spain.

Although the victories of Condé and Turenne had gratified the national vanity and thrown a lustre on the administration of Anne of Austria and Mazarin, they had not been purchased without many sacrifices and privations. As a financier Mazarin had no skill, and Eméri, his agent, was entirely unscrupulous. The taxes had been everywhere increased, and in some places, as Languedoc, it had been necessary to levy them by force. But it was the Parisians, and especially the sovereign courts, that had been chiefly incensed by the tyrannical proceedings of the cabinet. In 1644 Eméri had thought proper to revive an obsolete edict, passed in 1548, soon after the invasion of Charles V, and inspired by the fear that the capital might be besieged, by which it was forbidden to erect any buildings outside the walls of Paris. Its operation, how­ever, had subsided with the alarm which gave it birth, and the vacant space had been covered with the dwellings of the poorer classes of the population. The proprietors were now called upon to pay a tax in proportion to the space occupied; and, in case of non-compliance, they were threatened with the demolition of their houses. The president Barillon and several others, who pleaded in favour of these poor people, were snatched from their homes and incarcerated. Barillon was carried to Pinerolo in Piedmont, where he soon after died. Among other ways of raising money, Mazarin resorted to a forced loan, and put a duty on all articles of consumption entering Paris. This last measure, as it touched the pockets of all, may be regarded as the principal cause of the disturbances which followed. Having thus disgusted the citizens, his next step was to alienate the magistrates. The guaranty of hereditary succession to offices that had been purchased, renewable every nine years, expired on January 1st, 1648; and Mazarin, to insure the submission of the Parliament, and compel them to register his edicts, refused to renew it. As there were between 40,000 and 50,000 families in France dependent on these places, the discontent thus occasioned may be imagined. New magistrates were created, and the old ones were only continued in their places at a sacrifice of four years’ income. In order, however, not to offend the whole Parliament, the edict was confined to such chambers as were not strictly courts of justice; as the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aides, and the Grand Conseil. But these chambers called upon the Parliament to defend their rights; and by an Arret d’Union, deputies from all the chambers were summoned to meet together in the Chambre de St. Louis, and consult for the common good. The Arret was annulled by the Royal Council, yet the self-constituted chamber continued its sittings, and instead of confining itself to questions concerning the in­terest and jurisdiction of the Parliament, it now announced its object to be nothing less than the reformation of the State.

France seemed to be on the eve of a revolution, and the scenes then passing in England might well inspire the Queen and her minister with dread. After a little attempt at violence, Mazarin yielded, and allowed the Chamber of St. Louis to proceed. Nothing seemed wanting to the success of the movement but sincere and resolute leaders. But these were not forthcoming. The two chiefs of the Parliament, the advocate-general Omer Talon and the president Mole, were honest, well-intentioned men, but not of the stuff which makes revolutionists. How could a thorough reform proceed from the Parliament?—men with bought places which they regarded as an estate with succession to their heirs; bred up in all the forms of legal etiquette, and imbued with an unbounded reverence for the royal prerogative. Many, indeed, among the French nobles were willing to promote any dis­turbance that might overthrow Mazarin; for, if the people hated the Cardinal for his financial measures, the nobles both detested and despised him for his personal character. As a foreigner, both ignorant and neglectful of the ancient laws and customs of the country, Mazarin was naturally an object of suspicion and dislike. At the head of the malcontent nobles was the King’s uncle, Gaston d'Orleans. But the Catiline of the Fronde was the young and profligate abbe Francis Paul de Gondi, afterwards the celebrated Cardinal de Retz. Gondi, Count of Retz, of Italian origin, had come into France with Catharine de' Medici, and had, as we have seen, been one of the principal advisers of the St. Bartholomew. Since that period the family had been in almost hereditary possession of the archbishopric of Paris, and at the time of which we write the uncle of the Abbe Gondi was in the enjoyment of that dignity. The nephew had attached himself to the Duke of Orleans, and Mazarin had endeavored to gain him by making him Coadjutor to his uncle, and consequently successor to the archbishopric; an unlucky step for Mazarin, since this post gave the abbe great influence with the Parisian clergy, and enabled him to excite, through the pulpits, the fanaticism of the populace. The Coadjutor and the nobles with whom he acted had, however, no real sympathy either with the people or the Parliament; they were actuated only by vanity and self-interest, and the desire to wring as much as possible from the fears of the Court. Perhaps the only sincere leader of the movement was Broussel, an aged counsellor of the Parliament; a man of small means, but whose firmness and resolution made him the idol of the populace. After passing through a period marked by endless intrigues, the Court, supported by the éclat of Condé’s victory at Lens, caused some of the noisiest orators of the Parliament, and among them Broussel, to be arrested; upon which the people rose, barricaded the streets, and compelled his release. Seeing that the populace were no longer under the control even of the Parliament, the pride of Anne of Austria began to yield to the influence of fear, and to the advice of the unfortunate Henrietta of England, who since 1644 had been living in France. By the declaration of October 24th, 1648, one of the crises of the Fronde, the Queen conceded all the demands of the Parliament. Thus, on the very same day when the French policy was completely successful abroad by the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia, the government at home was in a state of dissolution; and that triumph of diplomacy —so much were the minds of the people engrossed with their domestic affairs—passed almost unheeded.

The support of Condé, who had returned to Paris in September crowned with the prestige of victory, and had helped to bring about the arrangement with the Parliament, was contested by Mazarin and the Coadjutor. Condé was, however, a dangerous confederate. His character, except on the field of battle, did not show to much advantage; his judgment was unsteady, his temper violent and overbearing. As he had a great contempt for the Parisians, and detested the lawyers, the Court found little difficulty in buying him by the alienation of some of the royal domains. His conduct towards the Parliament soon brought matters to a crisis. That body having been convened for December 16th, to consider how the Court performed its engagements, some of the members complained of the quartering of troops in the neighborhood of Paris. Condé, who attended the meeting as one of the guarantors of the Declaration of October, replied with threatening words and gestures, which were resented with a storm of groans and hisses. Condé, in great irritation, now went to the Queen, and pressed her to allow him to attack Paris; and after some deliberation it was resolved that, while the Spanish war was interrupted by the winter, Paris should be reduced to obedience by military force. On January 6th, 1649, Anne of Austria gave the signal by retiring with the Court to St. Germain. A civil war was now begun. Condé blockaded Paris, and the Parliament on their side, after treating with contempt a royal order to transfer themselves to Montargis, declared Mazarin an enemy of France, and ordered him to quit the Court in twenty-four hours, and the kingdom in a week. They allied themselves with the other Parliaments of the kingdom, and took into their service many nobles with their retainers; among whom may be named Condé’s brother, the Prince of Conti, the Dukes of Longueville, Elboeuf, Brissac, Bouillon, Beaufort, and the Marquis de la Boulaye. The Parisians chose Conti for their generalissimo; but they were no match for regular troops under a general like Condé. They were defeated in every skirmish; by February they began to feel the effects of famine; and on March 11th they were glad to conclude a peace with the Queen, through the mediation of the Duke of Orleans, which, from its being negotiated at the former seat of Richelieu, has been called the Peace of Rueil.

This peace, though ultimately abortive, arrested France on the brink of destruction. Turenne, who had been directed to remain with his army in Swabia till the spring, in order to insure the execution of the Peace of Westphalia, had signified to the Court his disapproval of the siege of Paris; had told Mazarin to rely no longer on his friendship, and had ended by placing himself and his army at the service of the Parliament and the public. Such a step on the part of Turenne seems almost inexplicable, except, perhaps, from some personal resentment against Mazarin, and the desire to recover Sedan for his family, confiscated by Richelieu in 1642. The Archduke Leopold, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, emboldened by these troubles, had advanced with his forces as far as the Aisne between Laon and Rheims; but on learning the peace of Rueil, he recrossed the frontier, and he and his lieutenants subsequently took Ypres and St. Venant. To wash out this disgrace, Mazarin directed against Cambrai the troops which had blockaded Paris, united with the ancient army of the Rhine; but Harcourt, who commanded (Condé had refused the post), though he gained some small successes, failed in the main enterprise. Meanwhile all was anarchy in France. In the provinces order and authority were shaken to their foundations; the taxes could not be regularly levied, and it was difficult to find money even for the expenses of the King’s household. Provence and Guienne were in a state of revolt; Paris and its Parliament were still restive. It cannot be doubted that the consummation of the English rebellion had some influence on these troubles. At Paris it was the universal topic. Nothing was talked of but liberty and a republic; the monarchy, it was said, had grown decrepit, and must be abolished.

As the best method of quelling these disturbances and procuring a little money, the Queen, with the young king, returned to Paris, August 18th, accompanied by Mazarin and Condé, and were well received by the Parisians. But Condé, by his pride and insolence, soon rendered himself insupportable, not only to the Queen and Mazarin but also to the Fronde. The Cardinal availed himself of this latter circumstance to ruin the Prince. He persuaded Condé that the Coadjutor and the Duke of Beaufort, now one of the chief demagogues of Paris, intended to assassinate him. Condé's carriage was actually fired at while passing over the Pont Neuf, and a valet killed. Mazarin has been suspected of having concerted this affair; however that may be, he at least knew how to avail himself of it. Condé denounced the outrage to the Parliament, and involved himself in an implacable quarrel with the heads of the Fronde. Thus de­prived of supporters, Condé became an easy victim to the arts of Mazarin. It was determined to arrest him, together with his brother Conti, and his brother-in-law Longueville. The promise of a cardinal’s hat for Gondi procured for the Court the assistance of the Fronde; the Duke of Orleans consented to the measure, and the three princes, when on the point of leaving a council that had been held at the Palais Royal, were arrested, and quietly conducted to Vincennes (January 18th, 1650). It is said that the order for this arrest had been obtained from Condé himself, on pretence that it was to be used against some other person. This was the second crisis of the sedition. The old Fronde had expired; its leaders had sold themselves to the Court; but in its place sprang up the new Fronde, called also, from the affected airs of its leaders, the Petits Maîtres. The beautiful Duchess of Longueville was the soul of it, aided by her admirer, Marsillac, afterwards Duke de la Rochefoucauld, and by the Duke of Bouillon. On the arrest of her husband and her brother, the duchess had fled to Holland, and after­wards to Stenai; where she and Bouillon’s brother, Turenne, who styled himself the “King's Lieutenant-General for the liberation of the Princes”, entered into negotiations with the Archduke Leopold. Bouillon himself had retired into Guienne, which province was alienated from the Court because Mazarin maintained as its governor the detested Epernon. In July, Bouillon and his allies publicly received a Spanish envoy at Bordeaux. Condé's wife and infant son had been received in that city with enthusiasm. But on the approach of Mazarin with the royal army, the inhabitants of Guienne, alarmed for their vintage, now approaching maturity, showed signs of submission; after a short siege, Bordeaux surrendered, on condition of an amnesty, in which Bouillon and La Rochefoucauld were included; and the Princess of Condé was permitted to retire (October 1st).

In the north, the Frondeurs, with their Spanish allies, seemed at first more successful. In the summer Leopold had entered Champagne, penetrated to Ferté Milon, and some of his marauding parties had even reached Dammartin. Turenne tried to persuade the Archduke to march to Vincennes and liberate the princes; but while he was hesitating, Gaston transferred the captives to Marcoussis, whence they were soon after conveyed to Havre. Leopold and Turenne, after a vain attempt to rouse the Parisians, retreated to the Meuse, and laid siege to Mouzon. The Cardinal himself, like his patron Richelieu, now assumed the character of a general. Uniting with his troops in the north the army of Guienne, he took up his quarters at Rethel, which had been captured by Du Plessis Praslin. Hence he ordered an attack to be made on the Spaniards, who were entirely defeated; many of their principal officers were captured, and even Turenne himself narrowly escaped the same fate (December 15th). The Cardinal’s elation was unbounded. It was a great thing to have defeated Turenne, and though the victory was Du Plessis’, Mazarin assumed all the credit of it. He forgot that he owed his success to the leaders of the old Fronde, and especially to the Coadjutor; he neglected his promises to that intriguing prelate, though Gondi plainly declared that he must either be a prince of the Church or the head of a faction. Mazarin was also imprudent enough to offend the Parliament; and he compared them with that sitting at London, which, indeed, was doing them too much honor. The Coadjutor went over to the party of the princes, dragging with him the feeble­minded Orleans, who had himself been insulted by the Queen. Thus was produced a third phase of this singular sedition— the union of the old Fronde with the new. The Parliament now clamoured for the liberation of the princes. As the Queen hesitated, Gaston bluntly declared that the dismissal of Mazarin was necessary to the restoration of peace; while the Parliament added to their former demand another for the Cardinal’s banishment. Mazarin saw his mistake, and endeavored to rectify it. He hastened to Havre in order to liberate the princes in person, and claim the merit of a spontaneous act. But it was too late; it was plain that he was acting only by constraint. The princes were conducted back in triumph to Paris by a large retinue sent to escort them. On February 25th, 1651, their innocence was established by a royal declaration, and they were restored to all their dignities and charges.

Mazarin, meanwhile, who saw that for the present the game was lost, retired into exile: first into Bouillon, and afterwards to Brühl on the Rhine, where the Elector of Cologne offered him an asylum. From this place he corresponded with the Queen, and continued to direct her counsels. The anarchy and confusion which ensued in France were such as promised him a speedy return. Châteauneuf had ostensibly succeeded to his place; but Orleans and Condé ruled supreme, and ministers were dismissed and appointed at their pleasure. The Parliament in its turn wanted to establish a republic of the robe, and passed the most violent resolutions, which the Queen, who was a sort of prisoner at the Palais Royal, was obliged to confirm. Anne’s situation—who was subjected on the one side to the dictation of the princes, on the other to the threats of the Parliament—became intolerable and the Coadjutor availed himself of her distress to push his own interests. He promised to procure the recall of Mazarin on condition of receiving a cardinal’s hat: a fact which can scarcely be doubted, though he pretends in his Memoirs that he made no such engagement. To relieve herself from her embarrassments, the Queen Regent resolved to declare her son of age when he should have completed his thirteenth year, on September 6th. This step would release her from of the rule of the Duke of Orleans; and at the same time her son would be able to confirm all that Mazarin had done in his name. Already in address, figure, and bearing, the youthful Louis XIV was admirably fitted to sustain the part of a king; and everybody acknowledged that he was formed to rule a people which loves to see absolute power fitly represented, and surrounded with pomp and splendour. On the day after his birthday, his majority was declared in a solemn Lit de Justice; but he was compelled to promise that Mazarin should never return, and thus to inaugurate his reign with a falsehood. In the same assembly was also published a Justification of Condé; yet that prince absented himself from the ceremony on the ground that the calumnies of his enemies prevented him from appearing before the King. By his haughtiness and violence he had again completely isolated himself. He had separated from the leaders of the Fronde; he had offended both the Court and the Parliament; nay, he had even alienated Turenne, who hastened to reconcile himself with the Queen and Mazarin. Anne had been advised again to arrest Condé; but he got notice of it, and fled to St. Maur. He had now no alternative but to throw himself into the arms of the enemies of his country.

At a meeting of his principal adherents held at Chantilli, Condé resolved upon war; and he proceeded at once to his government of Berri, and thence to Bordeaux (Sept. 22nd). Through his agent, Lenet, he had procured the support of the Spanish Government, which, besides promising considerable sums of money, engaged to send thirty vessels and 4,000 men to Bordeaux, while 5,000 more were to join the prince’s partizans at Stenai. Eight Spanish ships actually arrived soon after in the Gironde with troops and money; but ultimately Spain, always in want of means, did nothing of importance. The defection of Turenne spoilt Condé's plans, who wanted Turenne to march on Paris from the north, while he himself advanced from the south. The majority of Louis was also unfavourable to Condé; he had now to fight against the King in person, and the King’s name was a tower of strength. Louis and his mother were with the royal army, which was commanded by the Count d'Harcourt. The struggle lasted during the month of November. Condé, worsted in every encounter, offered to treat on the basis of Mazarin’s return; but the Cardinal, who saw that that event depended not on the Prince, refused to negotiate. He had quitted Brühl, towards the end of October, for Hui, in the territory of Liége, whence he had advanced to Dinant. He was in correspondence with the governors of provinces and places in the north of France, who were for the most part his creatures. La Vieuville—the same whom Richelieu had ousted—had again obtained the direction of the finances, and forwarded money to Mazarin; with which he levied soldiers in the electorate of Cologne and bishopric of Liége, After some anxious hesitation, Anne wrote to Mazarin, authorizing him to return “for the succour of the King” (Nov. 17th). The Parliament were furious, and unanimously opposed his return. They were now in a singular situation. On the one hand they were obliged to pronounce Condé guilty of high treason; on the other they were drawing up the most terrible resolutions against the minister who governed both the Queen and country. They had to oppose on one side absolute power and ministerial despotism; on the other an oligarchy of princes, united only by selfish views, and utterly regardless of the national interests.

Meanwhile Mazarin pursued his march, and penetrated by Rethel into Champagne. At this news the Parliament issued a decree, confiscating his estates, and even the income of his prebends. They caused his palace in Paris, together with the library and furniture, to be sold; and out of the proceeds they offered a reward of 150,000 livres to whomsoever should bring him to justice, “alive or dead”. Nevertheless, Mazarin continued his advance towards Poitiers, where the Court was then residing. His guards wore his own colours (green). The King went a league out of the town to meet him, and the very next day he assumed the ostensible direction of affairs. Fortune, however, seemed once more to turn. Condé, reinforced by the troops of the Duke of Orleans, and leaving his brother Conti and the Count de Marsin as his representatives in Guienne, marched against the royal forces under Hocquincourt, and defeated them near Bleneau (April 7th, 1652). The royal army would have been annihilated, had not Turenne arrived in time to save it. At this juncture, Charles II of England, who had fled to France with his brother, the Duke of York, endeavored to bring about an accommodation between the French Court and the princes; but a conference held at St. Germain, towards the end of April, had no result.

Condé having marched upon Paris, the stream of war was diverted towards the capital. During two or three months, Condé and Turenne displayed their generalship by counter­marches and manoeuvres about Paris, while the Court went from place to place. At length on July 2nd, Turenne ventured an attack on Condé, who had entrenched himself in the faubourg St. Antoine. The young King, accompanied by Mazarin, had come to the heights of Charonne to see the issue; and Turenne, although from the strength of Condé’s position, he would willingly have declined a battle, was neither willing to disappoint Louis, nor to awaken the suspicions of the mistrustful Cardinal. The Prince never displayed better generalship than on this occasion; yet he was on the point of being overcome, when he was saved by an unexpected accident. The Parliament, which had declared its neutrality, had entrusted the command of the Bastille to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, called in the Memoirs of those times La Grande Mademoiselle, the stout-hearted daughter of the Duke of Orleans, who had distinguished herself by the defence of that city against the Royalists. She took, with great valour but little judgment, a distinguished part in these wars; and it was said that her object was to compel the King to marry her, though he was eleven years her junior. While her father shut himself up in the Luxembourg, and would give no orders, Mademoiselle exhorted the citizens to stand by the Prince, and directed on the royal troops the guns of the neutral fortress which she commanded, the first of which she is said to have fired with her own hand. Even this circumstance, however, would not have saved Condé, had she not persuaded the citizens to open the gates and admit him and his troops; when Turenne was compelled to retreat. Louis XIV never forgave the Princess, who afterwards severely expiated her conduct.

The result of this victory was that Paris declared in favour of the princes; a provisional government was organized in that capital; the Duke of Orleans, though Louis was of age, was declared Lieutenant-General of the kingdom; and Condé, who still kept up his connection with Spain, was appointed generalissimo of the forces. The King having retired to Pontoise, summoned thither the Parliament of Paris, declaring null and void all that they should do in the metropolis. Only a few score members appeared at Pontoise, but they assumed all the functions of the Parliament. Louis had found himself compelled to announce his willingness that Mazarin should retire; but as the Cardinal was very loath to quit his post, the Parliament of Pontoise, by concert with the Court, drew up a remonstrance beseeching the King to remove every pretext for disaffection by dismissing his minister; and Louis, after pronouncing a pompous eulogium on Mazarin, permitted him to retire (Aug. 10th). The Cardinal now fixed his residence at Bouillon, close to the frontier.

The King, who had betaken himself to Turenne’s army at Compiegne, and received from all sides assurances of loyalty and devotion, offered an amnesty to Condé and the Parisians; but though all desired peace, none were inclined to trust an offer dictated by the influence of the detested Cardinal. Condé, however, though the Dukes of Wurternberg and Lorraine had marched to his assistance, began to find his position untenable. All the magistrates of Paris had been changed; the Court had gained the Coadjutor, by procuring for him from the Pope a cardinal’s hat; and while Condé despaired of the favour of the higher classes, de Retz caballed against him with the lower. The Parisians had sent some deputies to the King at Pontoise, who were delighted with their reception. Condé felt that it was time to fly. He quitted Paris for Flanders about the middle of October, and in the following month accepted from the Spanish general, Fuensaldana, the baton of generalissimo of the forces of Philip IV, with the red scarf which he had vanquished at Rocroi and Lens : thus degenerating from a rebel into a renegado. About the same time, the Queen and Louis XIV entered Paris, escorted by the troops of Turenne. At their approach the Duke of Orleans retired to Blois, where he spent the remainder of his life in the obscurity befitting it. Mademoiselle de Montpensier was relegated to Bois le Comte; Broussel was incarcerated, and about a dozen members of the Parliament were banished to various places. An edict of amnesty was published, from which, however, the Prince of Condé, the Duke of Beaufort, and other leaders of the Fronde, were excepted. Subsequently, in 1654, Condé was sentenced to death by the Parliament, as a traitor.

Mazarin, however, still remained in exile. He could not yet rely on the disposition of the Parisians, especially so long as the arch intriguer, the Cardinal de Retz, remained among them. But that subtle prelate at length outwitted himself. The Queen on entering Paris had received him very graciously, and even attended one of his sermons at St. Germain l'Auxerrois. Deceived by these appearances, de Retz put too high a value on his services. In order to get rid of him, the Court offered him the management of the affairs of France at Rome; but De Retz demanded in addition, honors, governments, and money for his friends; and when these were refused, he began to negotiate with Condé. But the time for such pretensions was past. On December 19th, after paying a visit to the Queen, he was arrested by a captain of the guard, and confined at Vincennes; whence he was afterwards removed to Nantes. This was the end of his political career; for though he contrived to escape from Nantes, whence he proceeded into Spain, and afterwards to Rome, he was not allowed to return to France during the lifetime of Mazarin. De Retz has preserved a great reputation chiefly through his literary talent. As a politician he had no patriotic, nor even definite views; he loved disturbances, partly for their own sake, partly for the advantage he derived from them. After the pacification of Paris, the malcontents in the provinces were soon reduced. Bordeaux, where the Fronde had revived under the name of L'Ormée, was one of the last places to submit.

While these things were going on, Mazarin had joined Turenne and his army near Bar; and towards the-end of January, 1653, he set out for Paris, which he entered February 3rd. Louis XIV went out in state to meet him, and gave him a place in his own carriage. It is said that the Cardinal had distributed money among the leaders of the mob to cheer him on his entrance; it is certain that he was not only received with acclamation by the populace, but also feasted by the magistrates. The jurists of the Parliament displayed servility, and he received the visits of some of those very counsellors who had set a price upon his head. Such was the end of the Fronde; a movement without grandeur or possible result, whose sterility only confirmed the power of the King and of the minister. From this time till the end of his life Mazarin reigned with absolute power; for he maintained the same influence over the young King as he had previously exerted over Louis’s mother. His avarice and despotism grew worse than before. The management of the finances was intrusted to the most unworthy persons, among whom Fouquet astonished Europe by his magnificence. Mazarin made the interests of France subordinate to his own avaricious views, and his plans for the advancement of his family. Fortune seemed to favour all his enterprises. His nieces, the Mancini, celebrated for their beauty, were all married into princely houses; and Louis XIV himself was with difficulty dissuaded from giving his hand to one of the six.

The Fronde is the last occasion on which we find the French nobles arrayed in open war against the Crown. Henceforth they became the mere satellites of the Court, whose power was supported, and whose splendour was increased, by their presence. While these events were taking place in France, King Charles I was publicly executed on the scaffold, January 20th, 1649; the House of Peers, as well as the monarchy, was abolished, and the government of the kingdom conducted by the Commons; Cromwell gradually assumed the supreme power, both military and civil, and after reducing the Royalists by his victories in Ireland, Scotland, and England, and reviving by his vigorous foreign policy the lustre of the English name, he finally, in December, 1653, caused himself to be named “Lord Protector”.

THE WAR AGAINST SPAIN

Meanwhile the Spanish war had been going on, with disastrous consequences to the French. The Spaniards had good leaders in the Archduke Leopold William and Don John of Austria, to whom was now added the great Condé. They also received material assistance from the Emperor Ferdinand III. In spite of the Peace of Westphalia, Ferdinand sent thousands of men into Flanders under the flag of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who, since his quarrels with France, had become a sort of partizan chief. Don John, whose exploit in saving Naples from the French we have already related, and who subsequently recovered from them the Tuscan ports, had, in 1651, laid siege to Barcelona; which city, after a blockade of thirteen months, both by sea and land, at length surrendered (October 12th, 1652). Gerona, Palamos, Balaguer, and other places next fell; and all Catalonia was ultimately reunited to the Spanish Crown, from which it had been separated during a period of thirteen years. In the same year the Spaniards wrested back from the French Gravelines and Dunkirk. Their conquest of Dunkirk had been facilitated by the conduct of the English Government, which had offered D'Estrades, the French commandant of Dunkirk, a large sum to put that place in their hands. D'Estrades honorably refused to accept the bribe, but referred the English agent to his own Court. Mazarin was inclined to cede Dunkirk to the English on condition of receiving 15,000 men and fifty vessels to act against the French rebels and the Spaniards; but Anne of Austria would not consent. In consequence of this refusal, the English fleet under Blake defeated a French fleet which was proceeding to the relief of Dunkirk (September 14th, 1652); and four days after D'Estrades was compelled to surrender to the Spaniards. Yet so fearful were the French Government of bringing upon them another enemy, that even this gross outrage failed to produce a war with England.

Nothing decisive was achieved in the campaigns between the French and Spaniards till, in the year 1657, Cromwell threw the weight of England into the scale. The most prominent figures on the scene during this struggle were Condé and Turenne, who, like two Homeric heroes, seemed to hold in their hands the fortune of war. Their skill was conspicuously displayed in 1654, when Turenne compelled the Spaniards to raise the siege of Arras; but was prevented by the manoeuvres of Condé from pursuing his advantage. It was in this school that the youthful Louis XIV served his apprenticeship in arms. The campaign of 1655 was almost wholly unimportant; but the reverses of the French in the following year, as well as the failure of some negotiations with Spain, which would not consent to abandon Condé, induced Mazarin to enter into a close alliance with the Protector Cromwell.

France had not been so forward as Spain in recognizing the new order of things in England. The French Court, connected with Charles I by his marriage with Henrietta, had viewed the rebellion with displeasure; and had exhibited this feeling by prohibiting the importation of certain articles of English manufacture. The English Parliament had naturally resented this conduct, and the establishment of the Republic had not been announced to France, as to other countries. Subsequently, in 1650, Mazarin had even listened to the proposals of the Dutch Stadholder, William II, to cooperate with him for the restoration of the Stuarts. The Spanish Cabinet, on the other hand, being desirous of the English alliance, had, immediately after the execution of Charles, acknowledged the Republic; and when Cromwell seized the supreme power, he was not only congratulated by the Spanish ambassador, but even informed that if he should assume the crown, the King of Spain would venture his own to defend him in it. At a later period, however, Mazarin, seeing the necessity for the English alliance, became a rival suitor for Cromwell’s friendship. But the Protector, though well aware of the advantages of his position, was for some time prevented by a war with the Dutch from declaring for either nation.

Instead of that sympathy and support which the English Republicans might naturally have expected from the Dutch Commonwealth, which English blood and treasure had contributed to establish, the States-General had interposed to save the life of Charles I; had acknowledged his son as lawful King of England, condoled with him on the” murder”, as they styled it, of his royal father, and given him an asylum in their dominions. This conduct was influenced by the youthful Stadholder, William II, who, having married Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I, was naturally in favour of the Stuarts; and he had at various times supplied Queen Henrietta with arms, ammunition, and soldiers in aid of her husband’s cause. In this policy William was supported by the Dutch clergy and the populace; which, incited by its ministers, was so furious against the English Parliament, or “rebels”, that Strickland, the Parliamentary envoy, durst not leave his lodgings; and on May 2nd, 1649, Dr. Dorislaus, his colleague, was murdered. The higher classes of the Dutch alone, and especially in the province of Holland, where the principles of an aristocratic republic prevailed, as well as with a view to commercial interests, were for the English Parliament, and advocated at least a strict neutrality. These principles had even threatened to bring the province of Holland into a dangerous collision with the Stadholder. After the peace with Spain, the question had arisen as to the reduction of the army, and what regiments were to be dismissed; and on these points the States of Holland were at complete variance with the Stadholder. They had shown a disposition to assert the right of self-government on these and other subjects, so that it even became a question whether the supreme power was to be vested in the States-General, or whether each province was to form an independent State. William attempted to decide this question by force, and dispatched some of his troops against Amsterdam, while the citizens prepared to defend themselves by cutting the dykes; when the young prince was fortunately saved from this foolish enterprise by the advice of his relative, Van Beverweert, and the mediation of the States-General. William’s negotiations, before mentioned, with the French Court for the restoration of the Stuarts, which he had entered into without consulting the States, were cut short by death. He was carried off by the small-pox, November 6th, 1650, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. A week after his death his wife gave birth to a son, William Henry, the future King of England.

The death of William was followed by a change in the constitution of the United Netherlands. In a great assembly of the States, held at the Hague in January, 1651, Holland had succeeded in establishing the principle that, though the union, should be maintained, there should be no Stadholder of the United Netherlands; that each province should conduct its own affairs; and that the army should be under the direction of the States-General. In conformity with this decision, the office of Stadholder remained vacant till 1672. These events, however, not having produced any sensible alteration in the general conduct of the Dutch towards England, the Parliament, with a view to change this disposition, sent St. John, Lord Chief Justice, and Mr. Walter Strickland as ambassadors extraordinary to the Hague; and, to prevent a repetition of the former violence, forty gentlemen were appointed to accompany them. The ambassadors were instructed to propose a complete union and coalition between the two republics, and to insist that no enemy of the English Commonwealth should be sheltered in the Dutch provinces. But they could not succeed in bringing the States into their views, and were even again publicly insulted in the streets. There is no doubt that a great deal of commercial jealousy lay at the bottom of all these proceedings. The Dutch were now at the height of their commercial prosperity, and besides their large colonial trade, which often clashed with that of England, they almost monopolized the carrying trade of Europe. Sir Henry Vane, who was the chief director of all the transactions with the Dutch, declared it to be his fixed opinion that the commercial interests of Holland and England were irreconcilable, and that, for a permanent peace, the two republics must either form a coalition or else that the English must subjugate the Dutch Republic and reduce it to the condition of a province. Soon after the return of the English ambassadors from their fruitless errand, the House of Commons passed the celebrated Act Navigation Act, by which it was ordained that goods from Asia, Africa, and America should be imported only in English bottoms, as also goods from any part of Europe, unless they were the produce or manufacture of the country to which the vessels belonged. The States-General sent ambassadors to London to endeavor to mitigate this law; but the Parliament, on its side, met their demands with others concerning the massacre that had been committed at Amboyna (in 1623, the Dutch had massacred the English settlers in Amboyna), the fisheries, the right of the flag, etc.

It was during these negotiations that an apparently accidental collision between the English and Dutch fleets produced a war between the countries. The renowned Dutch admiral Tromp, being compelled, as he alleged, by stress of weather to take refuge at Dover with a fleet of more than forty sail, there met with Admiral Blake, who commanded a far inferior force; a battle, by whomsoever provoked, ensued, and was fought with obstinacy till night parted the combatants, when the Dutch retired, with some loss, to their own coast (May 19th, 1652). At the news of this affair the Parliament ordered all Dutch ships to be seized, and made preparations for a vigorous war. The Dutch sent the Pensionary Pauw to London to attempt a reconciliation; but the Parliament would listen to no explanations, demanded reparation, and, on its being refused, declared war (July). In 1652 and the following year several sanguinary battles were fought, in which Blake, Ayscue, Monk, and Penn distinguished themselves on the side of the English, and Tromp, De Ruyter, and De Witt on that of the Dutch. Victory sometimes favoured one side, sometimes the other; but, on the whole, the Dutch suffered most, and especially in their commerce. They are said to have lost more during these two years than in the whole eighty years of their struggle with Spain. At length they were so crippled by the great action fought in July, in which the gallant Tromp lost his life, that they were glad to accept of a peace on the terms dictated by England.

CROMWELL’S POLICY

Cromwell’s foreign policy was as vigorous as his domestic. It was his hope, he used to say, to make the name of English-man as much respected as ever that of Roman had been. He sought to obtain a footing on the Continent, both as a means of extending English trade and of supporting the Protestant interest in Europe. Hence when Bevemingk came as ambassador from the States to treat for peace, the Protector, as the Parliament had done before, insisted on a union of the two republics; but this the Dutch immediately rejected as impracticable, nor would they listen to another proposition that there should be three Englishmen either in the Dutch Council of State or in the States-General, and three Dutch­men in the English Council. The English demands were also in other respects so high, that the Dutch prepared to strengthen themselves with alliances in order to continue the war; and especially they entered into a treaty with Denmark, whose royal family was connected with the Stuarts, and that Power engaged to shut the Sound against the English. De Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland and President of the States-General, now almost directed the counsels of the United Netherlands. At the time of his election, in 1653, he was only twenty-five years of age; but he had already displayed all the best qualities of a statesman, besides a love of literature and a philosophical talent which had been developed by the teaching of Descartes. Although public feeling in the Netherlands was very much inflamed against England, De Witt was so convinced of the necessity for a peace, that he did not hesitate to stem the popular current, and, as Cromwell also lowered his demands, and abandoned the idea of a coalition, a treaty was at length concluded, April 15^th. A chief point of contention was the sovereignty of the seas. The Dutch yielded the honor of the flag, and agreed to salute English men-of-war by striking the flag and lowering the topsail; but the Protector, on his side, abated some of his former pretensions, as, for instance, that whole fleets should render these honors to a single man-of-war, and that the Dutch should not send more than a certain number of ships of war into the British seas without the express permission of England. The Dutch agreed not to help the Stuarts, and to make atonement and compensation for the massacre at Amboyna and the injury done to English trade in the East Indies and other places. The province of Holland alone, in a separate article, engaged that no prince of the House of Orange should ever be invested with the dignity of Stadholder, or even be appointed Captain-General. The King of Denmark was included in the treaty, the States-General engaging to make good any losses the English merchants had sustained by the seizure of their ships at Copenhagen.

After the conclusion of this peace Cromwell was at liberty to take a part in the great struggle between France and Spain, both of which Powers were soliciting his friendship. The Protector himself, as well as most of his Council, preferred a war with Spain. An attack upon the Spanish trade and colonies afforded a tempting prospect, whilst a war with France offered no such advantages. Cromwell’s religious views had also great influence in determining him against Spain, which, with Austria, was the chief supporter in Europe of that Popery which the Puritans so much abhorred. The same feeling had imbued the Protector with a great admiration of Sweden, distinguished among the northern nations as the champion of Protestantism, and therefore made him averse to a war with France, the close ally of Sweden. Thus during this period the foreign policy of the two maritime republics took an exactly opposite direction. After the Peace of Westphalia, it was no longer Spain, but France, as an ambitious and powerful neighbor, that became the object of apprehension in the United Netherlands; whilst in the great northern war entered into by Sweden about this time against Poland, Denmark and their allies, the Dutch, in the interests of their Baltic commerce, opposed the Swedes and supported the Danes.

In the course of 1654 Cromwell made some advantageous commercial treaties with Sweden, Portugal, and Denmark; Portugal especially granted the English an exclusive right of commerce with herself and her colonies. The negotiations were continued with the Spanish Cabinet, which made the Protector the most dazzling offers. Besides the personal bait of assisting him to the Crown of England, Spain offered to aid him in taking Calais, provided he would help Condé in a descent upon Guienne. But, while Cromwell pretended to listen to these offers, his resolution had been already taken. His demands upon Spain were such as it was impossible for that Power to grant—free trade with the Spanish Indies, and complete exemption for British subjects from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. The Spanish ambassador said that “to ask a liberty from the Inquisition and free sailing to the West Indies was to ask his master’s two eyes”. In the winter of 1654-5 two fleets left the shores of England, whose destination was unknown. One, commanded by Penn, with a body of troops under Venables, sailed to the West Indies, with the design of seizing the Spanish colony of Hispaniola. It failed in that enterprise; and, though it took Jamaica, both commanders were on their return incarcerated in the Tower. The other fleet, under Blake, which entered the Mediterranean, had a sort of roving commission. It employed itself in taking some French ships, in exacting reparation from the Grand Duke of Tuscany for some alleged former losses, while the Pope trembled at its neighborhood; it then sailed to the coast of Africa, to chastise the Deys of Algiers and Tunis for their piracies. But its principal object was the seizure of the Spanish American galleons. The Spaniards, on receiving the news of the attack upon their West Indian possessions, immediately declared war against England, and Blake received fresh instructions to lie in wait for their American fleet. For want of water he was compelled to abandon the enterprise to one of his captains, who succeeded in capturing two galleons and destroying others; and Blake himself soon after met his death in another and more honorable enterprise against the Spaniards in the Canaries.

Although Cromwell had broken with Spain, he had not yet made any alliance with France. The two countries were for some time kept apart by a religious question. Early in 1655 the Duke of Savoy had commenced a persecution against the Vaudois who dwelt in the High Alps of Piedmont. The numbers of these poor people had increased so much that there was no longer room for them in the three upper valleys, in which alone their religious liberties were guaranteed, and they had consequently descended lower down the mountains. In the middle of winter appeared an edict ordering them, under pain of death, to quit their new abodes in three days, unless they could make it appear that they were become Roman Catholics. Exasperated at this cruel proceeding, their brethren in the High Alps flew to arms, and solicited the assistance of the Vaudois of Dauphiné and of the Protestants of Geneva and Switzerland; but before help could arrive, they were attacked, and many of them massacred, by the Piedmontese troops, in conjunction with some French troops of the army of Lombardy. How the news of this act was received by the Protestants of Europe may be imagined; the feeling excited in England is shown by Milton’s sonnet on the subject. Cromwell immediately ordered a general fast, and set on foot a subscription for the sufferers, which produced nearly ,£40,000. He also desired Mazarin to put an end to the persecution. He told the Cardinal that he well knew that the Duke of Savoy was in the power of the French Court, and that if they did not restrain that Sovereign, he must presently break with them. Mazarin, though he promised to use his good offices, at first demurred to this demand as unreasonable; but dreading the vigorous steps which Cromwell was preparing to take, and being apprehensive of the effect of his applications to the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, the States-General, and the Swiss Protestant cantons, the Cardinal obtained from the Duke of Savoy an amnesty for the insurgents, and an indemnity for the families which had been expelled.

Soon after the settlement of this affair, a treaty of peace and commerce was concluded between England and France (November 3rd). The most important provision of it, with regard to political matters, was that the Stuarts and their adherents were not to be harboured in France. Although England was now at war with Spain, no military alliance was concluded between England and France. Mazarin was not yet prepared to pay Cromwell’s price for it—the surrender of Dunkirk, when captured, to England. Hence probably an attempt of the Cardinal’s to negotiate with Spain in 1656; on the failure of which he again resorted to Cromwell, prepared to submit to his conditions. On the 23rd of March, 1657, a treaty was accordingly signed at Paris, by which it was agreed that 6,000 English foot, half to be paid by France and half by England, should join the French army in Flanders. Gravelines, Mardyck, and Dunkirk were to be attacked with the aid of an English fleet; Dunkirk, when taken, was to be delivered to the English; and the other two towns, if captured previously, were to be placed in the hands of England, as security till the condition respecting Dunkirk should be fulfilled.

The help of the English troops under General Reynolds, and of the English fleet, turned the war in Flanders to the advantage of the French. In the campaign of 1657, Montmédy, St. Venant, and Mardyck were taken; when Mardyck, in the capture of which an English fleet had assisted, was, according to treaty, put into the hands of the English. Early in the following spring Cromwell compelled Mazarin reluctantly to fulfill his engagements by ordering the siege of Dunkirk. It was a common opinion that Mazarin would have directed the allied forces against Cambray, in order to make himself bishop and prince of that city, and the attention of the Spaniards had been chiefly turned towards the defence of that place. Don John of Austria was now Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. In 1656, the Emperor Ferdinand, with the view of pleasing the cabinet of Madrid, and in the hope of marrying his son to the heiress of the Spanish Crown, had made room for Don John by recalling the Archduke Leopold William from Flanders, and at the same time Fuensaldana, Leopold’s lieutenant, was replaced by Caracena. A jealousy between Condé and Leopold had prevented them from acting cordially together; but the haughty and impracticable Bourbon did not cooperate much better with the new governor. The Spaniards were astonished to find that Dunkirk, instead of Cambray, was the point of attack. Turenne, after a long and difficult march, had invested that place (May 25th, 1658). Don John, aware, too late, of his mistake, flew to its relief in such haste that he left his baggage and artillery a day’s march in the rear, and encamped in presence of the enemy without the means of fortifying his position. In vain had Condé remonstrated; his sure and experienced eye foresaw the inevitable result. Next day, when Turenne marched out from his lines to engage the Spaniards, Condé inquired of the Duke of Gloucester, the younger brother of Charles II, who was by his side, “Have you ever seen a battle?”. “Not yet”. “Then in half an hour you will see us lose one”. His prediction was speedily verified. The artillery of Turenne, aided by that of some English frigates on the coast, to which the Spaniards had not the means of replying, had already thrown them into disorder before the engagement became general. The charge of three or four thousand of Cromwell’s veterans, composing the left wing under Lockhart, decided the fortune of the day. The Spaniards attempted to rally, but were dispersed by the French cavalry. On the right the French infantry were equally successful, in spite of all the efforts of Condé. The rout was complete: 1,000 Spaniards and Germans were killed or wounded, 3,000 or 4,000 more were made prisoners, including many general officers; Condé himself escaped with difficulty. This battle, fought on the 14th of June, 1658, called the “Battle of the Dunes”, from its being fought on the dunes or sand hills which line the coast in that neighborhood, decided the fate of Dunkirk. That place capitulated on the 23rd, and on the 25th, Louis XIV in person surrendered it to Lockhart. Lord Fauconberg, Cromwell’s son-in-law, who was sent to compliment Louis, was received with princely honors; and in return, the Duke of Crequi and Mazarin’s nephew, Mancini, were despatched to the Protector with the present of a magnificent sword, and an apology from the Cardinal for not coming in person to pay his respects to so great a man! The remainder of the campaign of 1658 was equally fortunate for Turenne. In a short time he took Bergues, Fumes, Gravelines, and other places, and overran all Flanders to within a few leagues of Brussels. These reverses, coupled with others in Italy and in the war with the Portuguese, induced the Spanish Cabinet to think of a pacification; especially as Spain had now become in a manner isolated through the death of the Emperor Ferdinand III and the policy of France with regard to the Rhenish League.

GERMANY

The state of Germany after the Peace of Westphalia was state of eminently favorable to French interests. Sweden, the close ally of France, held large possessions in the Empire, which gave her a voice in the Imperial diet. The German princes had become even more independent of the Emperor, and several of them looked up to France for support and protection. In 1651, two leagues had been formed in Germany, with the professed object of carrying out the Peace of Westphalia. The first of these leagues was occasioned by the disorders committed by the troops of the Duke of Lorraine; through whom, as we have seen, the Emperor assisted Spain in her struggle with France. To avert this scourge, the German princes most exposed to it, namely, the Electors of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and the Bishop of Minister, formed a League at Frankfurt (March, 1651), which they subsequently induced the Circles of Swabia, Franconia, and Lower Saxony to join. This union, from the religion of those who formed it, was called the Catholic League. About the same time, in North Germany, the Queen of Sweden, as Duchess of Bremen, the Dukes of Brunswick and Luneburg, and the Landgravine of Hesse also entered into a treaty, called the Protestant League, on the pretext of maintaining their territories and upholding the Peace of Westphalia. These leagues afforded Mazarin an opportunity to meddle in the affairs of Germany. He demanded that France should be admitted into them as guarantor of the treaties of Westphalia, and he subsequently made them the basis of the Rhenish League, in which French influence was predominant. These leagues were naturally regarded with suspicion and dislike by the Emperor; who, alarmed by the prospect of further coalitions, caused the provisions of the treaties of Münster and Osnabrück to be confirmed by the Diet of Ratisbon in 1654. This was called the Complement of the Peace of Westphalia, and served as the groundwork of the capitulation subsequently extorted from Ferdinand’s son and successor, Leopold. Treaties in 1656 with the Elector of Brandenburg and the Elector Palatine served further to strengthen French influence in Germany. The Palatine had, in fact, sold himself for three years to France, in consideration of an annual pension.

Such being the state of things at the time of the somewhat sudden death of the Emperor Ferdinand III (April 2nd, 1657) Mazarin formed the plan of wresting the imperial crown from the House of Austria, and even of obtaining it for Louis XIV. The opportunity was rendered more promising by the circumstances of the Imperial House. Ferdinand’s eldest son, whom he had procured to be elected King of the Romans, with the title of Ferdinand IV, had died in 1654; and the Emperor had not since succeeded in procuring that dignity, a necessary passport to the imperial crown, for his second son, Leopold Ignatius, who was now only seventeen years of age, and consequently still a minor. The situation was further embarrassed by the circumstance that the Emperor, only two days before his death, had signed an alliance with John Casimir, king of Poland, and had pledged himself to assist that Sovereign in the war then going on between him and Charles X, King of Sweden; a policy which was adopted by the Archduke Leopold William, the uncle and guardian of the youthful heir of the House of Austria.

When the news of Ferdinand III’s death reached Paris, Mazarin dispatched the Marquis de Lionne and Marshal Gramont into Germany to canvass for the imperial crown, under the ostensible pretext of demanding reparation for some violations of the Peace of Westphalia. Lionne was a dexterous and practised diplomatist; but the real weight of the embassy rested with Gramont, a man of the world, with manners at once agreeable and dignified. His task it was to gain by his social qualities the goodwill of the German Electors and Princes in those interminable banquets and drinking bouts which sometimes lasted from midday almost to midnight. It is probable that Mazarin never seriously thought that he should be able to obtain the imperial crown for Louis. His real design seems to have been to transfer it to the Elector of Bavaria, or at all events, to wrest it in any other manner from the House of Austria; and the canvassing for Louis would serve at least to create division and to gain time. The French ambassadors, on their way through Heidelberg, renewed the alliance with the Elector Palatine, who, for a further sum of 140,000 crowns, and a yearly payment of 40,000 more for three years, placed himself entirely at their disposal. France might also reckon on the three spiritual Electors; among whom the Elector of Mainz alone was actuated by honest, and what he deemed patriotic, motives. Thus, half the Electoral College had been gained, but not the most influential half. Of the other four Electors, John George II of Saxony was for the House of Austria, out of love for precedent and custom, and also, it is said, from the hope, which everybody but himself saw to be chimerical, of marrying his daughter to the youthful Leopold. Frederick William of Brandenburg was also in favour of Leopold. Political motives connected with the invasion of Poland by Charles X of Sweden, and his own views on the duchy of Prussia had now induced the far-seeing Elector of Brandenburg to renounce the Swedish alliance, and consequently that of France, for a league with the House of Austria and the Poles, as will be explained in the following chapter. Leopold himself, as hereditary King of Bohemia, the crown of which country, as well as that of Hungary, he had received during his father’s lifetime, possessed the Bohemian Electorate; but being a minor, his vote was not yet valid. The eighth and last Elector, Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria, was hesitating and undecided.

It was not without great opposition that the French ambassadors were admitted into the Electoral Diet, and they soon perceived that Louis’s chance was hopeless. The Elector of Mainz, however, was as desirous as the French Court itself to break the Austrian succession. At his suggestion, Gramont proceeded to Munich, urged the young Elector to become a candidate for the imperial crown, and offered him a yearly pension of a million crowns from France in support of that dignity. Ferdinand Maria was timid, quiet, and devout; and though urged by his consort, a princess of the ever-aspiring House of Savoy, to seize the glittering prize, he listened in preference to his confessor and to his mother, an Austrian archduchess, who dissuaded him from the attempt. The Elector of Mainz now made another effort to separate the Empire from the Austrian monarchy, by proposing that Leopold’s uncle, the Archduke Leopold William, the former governor of the Spanish Netherlands, should assume the imperial crown; but this also was declined, and Leopold requested that the votes destined for himself should be transferred to his nephew.

As it was now plain that the Empire must fall into the hands of Ferdinand’s son, the French Court directed all its endeavors to cripple his power, by imposing on him a rigorous capitulation through the German Princes, who were indeed themselves desirous to restrain the imperial authority. At his election he engaged, among many other articles which regarded Germany, not to furnish the enemies of France with arms, money, troops, provisions, or other commodities; not to afford lodgings, winter quarters, or passage to any troops intended to act against any Power comprised in the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster; nor to interfere in any way in the war then going on in Italy and the Circle of Burgundy. Leopold I received the Roman Crown July 31st, 1658, after an interregnum of about sixteen months. He had now completed his eighteenth year, and was therefore, according to the Golden Bull, no longer a minor. As a younger son, he had been destined for the Church, and his education had been entrusted to the Jesuits; so that when his destination was changed by the death of his brother, there was not perhaps a more learned sovereign in Europe. He had displayed from his youth a remarkable piety, and appears to have been a well-meaning prince, but of narrow mind and little spirit, the slave of forms and ceremonies, which he willingly adopted to avoid contact with the outer world, and he was glad to let his Lord Chamberlain rule in his stead.

The Imperial Capitulation would have been of little service to France without some material guarantees for its observance; and these Mazarin provided by converting the two German Leagues already mentioned into one, styled the Rhenish League. Within a month of Leopold’s coronation, this union, purporting to be for the maintenance of the Peace of Westphalia, was signed by the three Spiritual Electors, the Bishop of Munster, the Count Palatine of Neuburg, the Dukes of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the King of Sweden on the one part, and by the King of France on the other. The Confederates pledge themselves, without regard to difference of religion, to stand truly by one another, and to unite in case of an attack; and with this view to keep continually on foot an army of 2,300 horse and 4,900 foot. Louis XIV on his side engaged to hold in readiness 800 horse and 1,600 foot, and five guns, whenever they should be required. These forces were styled “the Army of his Most Christian Majesty and of the allied Electors and Princes”. A Directory of the League was established at Frankfurt, under the presidency of the Elector of Mainz, to watch over the common interests. The Rhenish League was the culminating point of French policy with regard to Germany. Its immediate object was to prevent the Emperor from interfering in the war in Flanders and Italy; and hence the French ambassadors regarded it as a complete compensation for their failure with regard to the imperial crown—indeed, as a triumph. The accession to it of so many Catholic prelates and princes, much to the vexation of Pope Alexander VII and the Court of Rome, showed that the old spirit of intolerance was dying out, and that the traces of the religious war of Germany were obliterated, never more to be revived. The League was renewed for three years in August, 1660, and flourished long, but at the expense of France, which not only paid the princes belonging to it, but also their ministers and mistresses. Leopold returned no answer to the ambassadors of the Confederates sent to acquaint him with the establishment of the League; yet he subsequently gave it a sort of tacit recognition, by demanding from Louis XIV, as a member of it, a contingent of troops to act against the Turks. Louis sent double the number demanded, and it was indeed the French who, in the Turkish campaign of 1664, carried away the chief honor.

The interregnum in the Empire, the subsequent capitulation of the new Emperor, the Rhenish League, the alliance of the House of Austria with John Casimir of Poland, and its consequent share in the war against the Swedes, were all circumstances which precluded the Spaniards from the hope of any further assistance from Germany; and this circumstance, coupled with the losses and reverses already mentioned, made them anxious for peace. On the other hand, these events were encouraging to France, and might well have induced her to prolong the war and complete the conquest of Flanders. But France herself was exhausted, and her finances in disorder; Mazarin, with increasing years, was become more desirous of peace; and Anne of Austria, who wished not to see her native country too much abased, was incessant in her entreaties that he should put an end to the war. The Queen-Mother had also another motive: she wished to marry Louis to the Spanish Infanta. An obstacle which had stood in the way of this union during the negotiations of 1656 was now removed. At that time Maria Theresa was sole heiress of the Spanish crown; and for this reason a marriage between her and the King of France was of course distasteful to the Spaniards. But in 1657 Philip IV had had a son born to him, afterwards Charles II, and the objection mentioned had consequently in a great measure disappeared, though the chances of the Spanish succession were still strong enough to be alluring to the French minister. Such a succession would be far more than equivalent to any advantages which might be expected from continuing the war, especially as it was held that in any event the Spanish Netherlands would, according to the customs of those countries, fall to the Infanta, as Philip’s child by his first wife.

Under these circumstances, negotiations were renewed between the French and Spanish Courts in 1658. The dilatoriness 0f Philip IV was hastened by a stratagem. Mazarin entered into negotiations with the Duke of Savoy for a marriage between Margaret, daughter of that prince, and Louis XIV; and the Courts of France and Turin met at Lyons. The fear that this union would be accomplished, and that France would then carry on the war to extremities, induced Philip to send an ambassador to Lyons, to offer the Infanta’s hand to the French King. The Piedmontese princess, whose feelings had thus been trifled with, was now dismissed with a promise of marriage in case the negotiations should fail; the preliminaries of a peace were discussed at Lyons, and subsequently arranged at Paris, and in May, 1659, a suspension of arms was concluded. But now another obstacle arose where it might have been least expected. Louis XIV had fallen desperately in love with Mazarin's niece, Mary Mancini, a young lady of no great beauty, but clever and fond of poetry and literature. It was no doubt the Queen-Mother who put an end to this unsuitable amour; yet, whatever may have been Mazarin’s real feelings, his letters to the young King on this subject display the soundest sense, conveyed in the noblest language. He sent off Mary Mancini to La Rochelle, and on the following day he himself left Paris for the frontier, to negotiate the peace. He and the Spanish minister, Don Louis de Haro, held their conferences in the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidasoa, near Hendaye, which was neutral ground; for Haro would not yield precedence by going to the Cardinal at St. John de Luz. Mazarin displayed at these conferences a regal splendour which quite threw the Spanish minister into the shade. At the first interview the Cardinal appeared with twenty-seven court carriages, each drawn by six horses, and filled with French nobles, and attended by a splendid retinue of pages, guards, and livery servants.

The question respecting the Prince of Condé formed a difficult point in the negotiations. Spain, in her treaty with that prince, had engaged to effect his restoration to all his honors and governments. After Condé’s treasons, this was a hard stipulation for the French Court to accept; Mazarin, moreover, owed the Prince a grudge for his personal insults. The Cardinal, however, receded so far from the preliminaries as to promise that Condé should have the Government of Burgundy, and his son the place of Lord High Chamberlain; but in return for these concessions he exacted the towns of Avesnes, Philippeville, and Marienburg in the Netherlands, and the county of Conflans in the Pyrenees. When the negotiations had made some progress, Gramont went in state to Madrid to demand the hand of the Infanta for his royal master. Louis had a rival in the young Emperor Leopold, who, in spite of his capitulation, had offered to declare war against France in return for the Infanta’s hand. But peace had now become a necessity for Spain, and the offer of Louis was accepted.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees, which restored peace to France and Spain, was signed November 7th, 1659. The conditions were almost entirely in favour of France. Spain ceded in the north all Artois (except St. Omer and Aire), and several towns in Flanders, Hainault and Luxembourg, together with Marienburg, Philippeville, and Avesnes between the Sambre and Meuse; in the south she abandoned Rousillon and Conflans, except the places on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, and that part of Cerdagne lying on the French side of the same mountains. On the other hand, Spain recovered what she had lost in Italy. Louis engaged not to assist the Portuguese; and this had been a great allurement to the Spaniards to conclude the treaty, who were in hope to subdue Portugal after the peace. Spain in a great degree abandoned her ally, the Duke of Lorraine; for though Charles IV was restored to his dominions, a considerable part of them, namely, Moyenvic, the Duchy of Bar, and the county of Clermont, was incorporated with France. The Duke had attended the conferences in the vain hope of procuring better terms. Charles II of England had also appeared on the Bidasoa. Cromwell was now dead; his son Richard had resigned the Protectorate, and the English Government was again in the hands of the Parliament. Don Louis de Haro wished to draw Mazarin into an alliance for Charles's restoration; but though the Cardinal dreaded the permanent establishment of the English Republic, he was not prepared to oppose it by entering into war.

The Treaty of the Pyrenees was followed by a marriage contract between Louis and the Infanta. In this instrument, Maria Theresa made that famous renunciation of all her prospective rights to the Spanish Crown, which afterwards led to the war of the Spanish Succession. It is probable that even the Spanish Court itself was not sincere in thinking that this renunciation would be observed. The wording of the very clause in which it was contained was calculated to raise questions likely to produce a war. The renunciation was made to depend on the payment of the dowry, and to extend to all inheritances and successions, whatever were their title, known or unknown.

The marriage could not be immediately celebrated, as, on account of the relationship of the parties, it was first necessary to procure a dispensation from Rome. Philip IV, too, who was then in bad health, wished to accompany his daughter to the frontier. The French Court therefore lingered during the winter in Provence; for which it had another motive in a wish to display its authority in those parts, which had been in a state of fermentation ever since the Fronde. Condé, who had written to the Cardinal to desire a reconciliation, visited the Court at Aix, in January, 1660. In the spring the French Court proceeded slowly through Perpignan to St. Jean de Luz, where it arrived May 8th; and three days afterwards Philip IV came to St. Sebastian. The French and Spanish ministers, however, were delayed more than three weeks in settling some points with regard to the treaty; and it was not till June 3rd that Don Louis de Haro, being provided with the procuration of the French King, espoused the Infanta in his name at Fuenterabia. On the following day Philip IV met his sister, Anne of Austria, in the Isle of Pheasants. They had not seen each other during forty-five years. On this occasion the Infanta accompanied her father, and Louis XIV, concealed incognito among the young lords in his mother’s suite, obtained the first view of his bride. Next day the Kings of Spain and France met upon the island and swore to the observance of the treaties. On June 7th the Infanta was delivered to her husband, and on the 9th the marriage was consummated at St. Jean de Luz. The Court then proceeded by easy journeys to Paris, which they entered in state August 26th.

The Peace of the Pyrenees was the last important act of Mazarin, whose life was now drawing to a close. By this  treaty he completed the policy of Richelieu, and put the finishing hand to the diplomatic triumphs of Münster and Osnabrück. It cannot be doubted that the Peace of Westphalia and that of the Pyrenees secured for some time the supremacy of France. The credit of both these measures is due to Mazarin; and some of the chief advantages of the latter were secured by the personal exercise of his extraordinary diplomatic talent. That he made France pay dearly for these triumphs must be allowed. He enriched himself unscrupulously at her expense, and amassed a large fortune, which he made over in his last days to the King. To Louis he appears to have discharged his duties with fidelity. Some of his last days were spent in advising the young King as to his future course; and he recommended to Louis Le Tellier, Colbert, Pomponne, and other ministers who achieved so much for the greatness of France. The young monarch was already impatient to seize the administration. The control of Mazarin was becoming irksome to him; and the very next day after the Cardinal's death he announced to his Council, “For the future I shall be my own prime minister”.

Cardinal Mazarin died March 8th, 1661, at the age of fifty-nine. Like Richelieu, he had conducted the affairs of France during a period of eighteen years.

CHAPTER XXXVI

THE NORTH OF EUROPE (1644-1661)