READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

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

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA

FROM his success at Nordlingen, Ferdinand III was thought to possess military talent, and it was hoped that he would take the personal command of the army; but on pretense of gout, he delegated that office to men like Gallas, Gotz, Hatzfeld, Piccolomini, and others, who were far inferior to Duke Bernhard and Baner. The Thirty Years' War was to linger on more than another decade; but, after the disappearance from the scene of its earlier heroes, Tilly, Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, its incidents possess but little interest, except for the military student. Its history assumes a most repulsive character. The war seems to be carried on merely for its own sake, without any great or even definite object, only to gratify the cupidity or ambition of a few leaders, excited by the subtle and selfish policy of France. Count Peter Brahe, who was dispatched by the Swedish government into Germany to help Oxenstiern, describes in his Journal the German Princes as divided among themselves and pursuing only their own private ends, while both high and low were seduced by French gold. Two armies in the pay of foreign Powers, yet composed for the most part of Germans, traversed the Empire in its breadth and length, plundering and maltreating their own countrymen, and reducing their fatherland to the condition of a wilderness. Even among the Swedes, the strict discipline at first maintained by Gustavus Adolphus had been gradually declining, and after the defeat at Nordlingen vanished altogether. Such were the crimes and cruelties they committed, that Baner himself confessed it would be no wonder if the earth should open, and, by a just decree of Providence, swallow up the wretches who were guilty of them. The effects on property and population may be estimated from a statement regarding the Duchy of Würtemberg alone, which between the years 1628 and 1650 is computed to have lost 118,742,864 florins, without reckoning the damage accruing from the uncultivated and desert condition of the lands. With regard to the population, 345,000 men are said to have perished between the years 1634 and 1641, and the Duchy, which had formerly contained about half a million inhabitants, counted in the last-named year scarce 48,000! Even six years after the Peace of Westphalia, when many of those who had fled into Switzerland had returned, there were 50,000 households less than there had been previously to the battle of Nordlingen.

In June, 1637, Baner succeeded in extricating himself from his entanglement at Torgau, in gaining Pomerania, and crossing the Oder in the face of Gallas and a far superior force. At Schwedt, he was joined by General Wrangel, father of the celebrated Charles Gustavus Wrangel; but the Swedes had great difficulty in maintaining themselves in Pomerania in this and the succeeding year. The Imperial cause was partially successful in the south. In June, Ehrenbreitstein was compelled to capitulate by John von Werth. The French had before lost Coblenz, and now retained nothing in the Electorate of Treves. The year 1638 opened under more favorable auspices for France. Duke Bernhard, breaking up in January from his winter-quarters in the Jura mountains, seized Laufenburg, Seckingen, and Waldshut, three of the Forest Towns under the rule of Austria, and laid siege to Rheinfelden, the fourth. John von Werth, arriving with a large force to its relief, compelled Bernhard to retire upon Laufenburg (February 28th). In the fight which took place on this occasion, the Duke of Rohan, the son-in-law of Sully and illustrious head of the French Protestants, who was serving as a volunteer in Bernhard's army, received a wound which caused his death in a few weeks. Only three days after his defeat, Bernhard of Weimar, with unparalleled boldness, led his army against the Imperialists, who were still engaged in celebrating their victory, and were totally unprepared for an attack. In the battle of Rheinfelden, March 3rd, Bernhard captured all the enemy's artillery, baggage, and standards, besides the terrible John von Werth himself, and three other Imperial generals. The conquest of Rheinfelden, Freiburg, and the whole of the Breisgau was the fruit of this victory. Having been reinforced by several thousand French under Count Guebriant and Viscount Turenne, Bernhard laid siege to Breisach; which, however, held out till December 19th. After its fall, Bernhard marched into Franche-Comté, reduced the fortresses, and put his troops into winter quarters.

Louis XIII and Richelieu looked upon these conquests as their own, —Bernhard, it was imagined, might be bought; he wanted two million livres for a new campaign, and he was invited to Paris to treat on the subject. All France was then en fête for the birth of a Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIV. After twenty-two years of marriage, Anne of Austria had given birth to a son, September 5th, 1638. On the occasion of the Queen's pregnancy, Louis XIII realized a project he had previously formed, and put his Crown and Kingdom under the protection of the Virgin Mary, by what has been called "le Voeu de Louis XIII". The grand festivals that were to take place in honor of this event were held out to Bernhard as an inducement to visit Paris; but Grotius, then Swedish ambassador at the French Court, warned him not to come. Bernhard sent in his stead Erlach, a patrician of Bern, to whom he had intrusted the command of Breisach. Erlach was not exempt from that passion for French gold which then raged like a contagion among the Swiss; he consented to become a spy on Bernhard, and promised that after the Duke's death all his conquests should be made over to France. The contemplated contingency was not long in arriving. Early in June, 1639, Bernhard took boat up the Rhine, intending to proceed by Neuenburg in the Breisgau, and thence into the interior of Germany. Although seized with a violent sickness at Hüningen, he persisted in continuing his journey, and died on board the vessel, July 18th, at the early age of thirty-six. He had had a misunderstanding, though not exactly a quarrel, with Richelieu on the subject of Breisach; whence arose a suspicion of his having been poisoned, for which, however, there was no foundation. Richelieu wanted possession of that fortress, while Bernhard wished to make it the capital of his projected principality of Alsace and the Breisgau; which he contemplated enlarging by a marriage with Amelia Elizabeth, widow of the Landgrave William of Hesse.

Bernhard, by his will, had entrusted the administration of his conquests to Count Otho William of Nassau, the Baron von Erlach, and Colonels Ehen and Rosen, and had instructed these generals, who called themselves the "Directory" of the Weimar army, to offer them to a prince of the House of Weimar: but Erlach conspired with Guebriant to defeat the Duke's intentions; a project the more easy, as none of Bernhard's brothers would accept the command. Soon after Bernhard's death, Ehen and Nassau went to Worms, and Rosen proceeded against the Forest Towns; their enterprises were successful, but meanwhile they had left Erlach and Guebriant in Neuenburg, where they could carry on their intrigues with the French government undisturbed. Towards the end of September, the Weimarian generals having been again driven out of the conquests they had made, and being further embarrassed by the demands of their unpaid mercenaries, Erlach persuaded his brother Directors to leave everything to him. On the 9th of October a treaty was concluded with France, by which the Weimarian generals were to receive 2,100,000 livres per annum, and to retain the gifts made to them, and the governments entrusted to them, by Duke Bernhard. On the other hand, they agreed to serve the French King, who was to name the commandants of Freiburg and Breisach, the garrisons of which places were to be half French, half German; and though the Directory retained the right of nominating the commandants in other places, yet both these and their soldiers were to take an oath of fidelity to Louis. The better part of Swabia and Alsace was, in fact, sold to France; and Breisach, Bennfelden, Freiburg, the Forest Towns on the Rhine and throughout the Breisgau, hoisted the French colours. Thus France profited by the death of Duke Bernhard, as she had done before by that of Gustavus Adolphus, and inherited the fruit of exploits which she had indeed paid for, and in some degree partaken, but which she can hardly be said to have performed.

The object of Duke Bernhard's fatal journey was to form a junction with the Swedes, who were marching southwards from Mecklenburg and Pomerania in order to deliver a decisive battle. The latter of these principalities they had reduced to the condition of a Swedish province. Baner, after receiving reinforcements from Sweden in the autumn of 1638, as well as a supply of French gold, began to march southwards, while Gallas retreated before him, and the Saxons were vanquished in every encounter. After an abortive attempt on Freiburg, in March, 1639, Baner defeated the Saxon army at Chemnitz, and captured and destroyed Pirna. Hence he pressed on into Bohemia, and appeared before Prague, May 20th; but the position of the Imperialists on the White Hill appearing too strong to be assaulted, he retired to Leitmeritz till October; during which period his divisions wasted the country around, and penetrated into Silesia and Moravia.

Meanwhile Hatzfeld had destroyed in Westphalia an army raised with English money, and commanded by Charles Louis and Rupert, sons of the unfortunate Elector Palatine, neither of whom had any military talent. Hatzfeld surprised them in the spring of 1639 at Vlotho, routed their army, and captured Rupert; Charles Louis, who lost everything, and almost his life into the bargain in crossing the Weser, escaped to Minden; whence he afterwards retired to London. After the death of Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, Charles I and the Prince of Orange, the nearest kinsmen of the young Elector, supplied him with money to purchase the services of the Weimar army, and in October, 1639, Charles Louis took the route through Paris in order to join it, travelling under the assumed, but easily to be detected, name of Louis Stuart. Richelieu hearing of his designs, of which he had foolishly talked, caused him to be apprehended at Moulins and carried to Vincennes; and it was not till the following spring that he obtained his liberation through the intercession of Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse.

England, engaged at that period in working out her domestic liberty, could not assume in the wars and negotiations of the Continent a part befitting a great nation. The treaty between France and the United Provinces, which assigned so large a portion of the coast of Flanders to the former country, was clearly most inimical to English interests; and Richelieu had dispatched the Count of Estrades into England in 1637, to assure himself of the neutrality of the English Court. Charles I answered proudly and worthily, that not only would he not consent to such an appropriation of the Flemish coast, but that he would do all in his power to hinder it; and to Richelieu's offer to support him against his subjects, he replied, that his own authority and the law of the land sufficed. Queen Henrietta, now reconciled with her husband, was also found impracticable; and Richelieu, nettled by the rejection of his offers, declared that they should repent it within a year. He determined to revenge himself by exciting the malcontents both in England and Scotland. As early as 1635 the Scots appeared to have reckoned on the support of France in opposing episcopacy. Richelieu employed one of his chaplains, a Scot named Chambers, as a go-between with the Covenanters, and when the disturbances broke out in Scotland, the French ministers were unable to conceal their joy. In 1640 the secretary of the Covenant made a formal demand for the mediation of Louis XIII, which was, however, declined. The paper fell into the hands of the English ministry, but Louis XIII disclaimed all knowledge of it, although both Richelieu and Bellièvre, the French ambassador in England, were privy to the demand. Richelieu had similar connections with the English malcontents, and Charles I always regarded him as one of the chief promoters of his misfortunes. There was a French party in the House of Commons, which informed Richelieu of all that passed there regarding France; and the five members whom Charles had intended to apprehend are said to have absented themselves on a hint which they received from the French ambassador. Charles revenged himself by giving an asylum to Richelieu's former friend, but now bitter enemy, Mary de' Medici, the Queen-Mother, who, after her expulsion from France, had hired an assassin to kill the Cardinal. Mary, hurt by the little attention paid to her by the Spaniards, quitted Belgium in the summer of 1638 for Holland, and afterwards went into England, where Queen Henrietta interested herself in favour of her mother. But Louis XIII would listen to the intercessions neither of the Dutch States nor Charles I for her return into France, and could only be brought to offer her a retreat in Italy. Driven from England by the rebellion, Mary de' Medici again retired to Holland, and thence to Cologne, where she died, July 3rd, 1642.

Richelieu, whose fate it was, though a zealous advocate of the Romish Church and of absolute power, to be the supporter from political motives of heretics and rebels, adopted the same line of conduct in Spain as he pursued in England. The affairs of the Spanish peninsula were now assuming a threatening aspect; Biscay and Catalonia, the only provinces which continued to retain any independence, were ripe for revolt; while the Kingdom of Portugal was meditating the expulsion of the Spanish House and the restoration of the line of Bragança; a revolution accelerated by the intrigues of Richelieu. Biscay and Catalonia shared neither the burdens nor the advantages of Castile; they were exempt from the heavy taxes of that country; but they were also excluded, as "foreign", from the commerce of the East and West Indies. Catalonia, with its dependencies Rousillon and Cerdagne, recognized the King of Spain only as Count of Barcelona, and even required that its envoys at Madrid should be treated on the same footing as foreign ambassadors. Philip IV and his minister, the Count-Duke Olivarez, resolved to put an end to this anomaly. In the French campaign in Rousillon in 1639, the Catalans had at first displayed some zeal and alacrity. Salces having been taken by Condé, the States of Catalonia levied an army of 12,000 men to cooperate with the Spaniards under the Marquis de los Balbases for its recovery, which was ultimately effected. But this success was to cost Spain dear. During the long siege—the French commandant did not surrender till January, 1640—the Catalan ranks were thinned by desertion, and the municipal bodies were negligent in furnishing the military supplies. Olivarez seized the occasion to assert the authority of Spain. The Count de Santa Coloma, Viceroy of Catalonia, was directed to make the men proceed to the wars, even if it were necessary to send them bound hand and foot; the very women were to be compelled to carry on their backs corn, oats, and straw, for the use of the army. Articles required for the soldiery were seized without scruple; even the beds of the gentry were carried off. Matters became still worse after the recapture of Salces. The King's army was distributed in winter-quarters in Rousillon and Catalonia, and the soldiers, a mixture of Castilians, Neapolitans, and Irish, were permitted, nay encouraged, to oppress the inhabitants in every possible way. As if they had been in an enemy's country the villages and even the churches were plundered.

Revolt of Catalonia

It was not likely that such things should be tamely borne by a people in so rude a state of civilization as the Catalans, among whom it was then a common practice for a man who had got into difficulties to turn bandolero, or brigand : such a step was called "going to the mountains", and was far from being regarded as a disgrace. Olivarez, at the very moment when the population were thus exasperated, ordered the Viceroy to levy 6,000 soldiers in Catalonia, who, contrary to the privileges of that country, were to be sent abroad; they were to be taught that they must serve his Catholic Majesty in all quarters, like other subjects of the monarchy. At this order the amusements of the carnival were suspended at Barcelona; the Bishop of Gerona excommunicated the perpetrators of the violences and sacrileges which prevailed in his diocese; remonstrances were addressed to the cabinet of Madrid, but were received with coldness and contempt. The Viceroy seized a sum of money belonging to the city of Barcelona wherewith to pay his troops, and imprisoned the magistrates who expostulated with him. But the day of vengeance was at hand. Annually, towards Corpus Christi day, it was customary for large bands of mountaineers to repair to Barcelona and its neighborhood to hire themselves for the harvest—a rude, half-savage race, with knives at their girdles and huge horns hanging from their shoulder-belts. As is usual in large gatherings, fury spreads as by contagion; one man animates another; they enter Barcelona, the burgesses join them, and every Castilian and foreigner that can be found is massacred. The Viceroy himself, while hastening to the port to embark on board ship, falls by the hand of an assassin (June 7th, 1640). All the towns of Catalonia and Rousillon followed the example of the capital; the King's army was dispersed, and of all the great towns succeeded only in retaining Perpignan.

The Court of Madrid was naturally filled with alarm; especially as symptoms of insubordination were manifesting themselves, not only in Portugal, but even in Aragon, the Balearic islands, and Naples. Olivarez resorted to negotiation and finesse. The Duke of Cardona, who succeeded Santa Coloma as Viceroy, was instructed to conciliate the Catalans; but he speedily died of fear and vexation. The Bishop of Barcelona was then appointed, and in conjunction with Olivarez endeavored to divide and amuse the Catalans. But the three deputies-general of the Catalan States, who formed the executive government of the province, were not to be duped. They entered into negotiations with the French Court, through Espenan the Governor of Leucate, respecting the establishment of a Catalan Republic under the protectorate of France. As a last step the Cortes of Catalonia, assembled at Barcelona in September, increated Philip IV to recall the troops which occupied Rousillon, and to countermand those that were on the march to the Lower Ebro; and they declared that they would defend their liberties to the death. But, instead of listening to the envoys of the Cortes, Philip caused them to be arrested; and the Catalans forwarded to all Christian States and Princes a manifesto setting forth the injuries they had received. The war had begun in Rousillon, where the insurgents were assisted by Espenan, the French Governor of Leucate. Du Plessis Besançon, the envoy of Louis XIII, in a public audience with the Catalan deputies at Barcelona, alluded to the bonds which had anciently united their principality to the Crown of France; and on the 16th of December, 1640, a formal treaty was entered into, and hostages given for the due execution of it by the Catalans. Louis XIII engaged to find officers to command the Catalan troops, and to provide, at the expense of that province, an auxiliary corps of 8,000 men. Catalonia and its dependencies bound themselves never to participate in any attack upon France, and to open their ports to the French fleets.

Portugal.

At the same time was consummated another event of still greater importance to the Spanish monarchy—the Portuguese revolution. Sixty years of union with Spain had only rendered Portugal more dissatisfied, because by the House of Austria she had been systematically oppressed, humiliated, and impoverished. None of the promises made by Philip II were observed. The commerce of Portugal with the Indies had been taken from her and removed to Cadiz; her military and commercial marine had been almost annihilated in the wars provoked by the Spanish cabinet; while taxes raised on the first necessaries of life were applied to the building of the palaces of Buen Retiro and Galinero near Madrid. Nevertheless, Portugal had long suffered in silence till the strife beginning between France and the House of Austria opened a prospect of redress. Relations had been established between the French Court and some leading Portuguese as early as 1630; and the revolution would probably have broken out long before but for the feeble and irresolute character of John Duke of Bragança, whom the Portuguese patriots destined for the throne, as the representative of their ancient Kings. An insurrection had actually occurred in 1637, when the insurgents proclaimed the Duke of Bragança, the grandson of him who had contended with Philip II for the throne of Portugal, for their Sovereign; but John, who had no inclination to risk his life and the large possessions still left to him, fled to escape the Crown that was thrust upon him.

The rebellion in Catalonia was the immediate cause of the Portuguese revolution. Portugal was then governed by Dona Margaret of Savoy, grand-daughter of Philip II and dowager Duchess of Mantua, as Vice-Queen; but it was her secretary, Michael Vasconcellos, who actually directed the government. He and Diego Suarez, another Portuguese, who resided at Madrid with the title of Secretary of State, both men of infamous character, had disgusted the Portuguese by their insolence and extortion. Towards the end of 1640 an order had arrived from the Spanish Court, directing the Duke of Bragança and the principal nobles of Portugal to march against the Catalans. The Portuguese resolved to imitate them instead. Pinto Ribeiro, majorduomo of the Duke of Bragança, a man of courage and talent, was the principal leader of the insurrection. Pinto had for some time been endeavoring to incite the nobles, and he organized the revolt almost without his master's knowledge. He was well seconded by the Duke's Spanish wife, Dona Luisa de Guzman, sister of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a lively and courageous lady. Pinto gave the signal for insurrection by firing a pistol in the royal palace at Lisbon on the morning of December 1st, 1640. The confederates, who had flocked to the palace at an early hour, now began the work of liberation, and being helped by the townspeople, soon overpowered the German and Spanish guard. In the tumult none distinguished himself more than a priest, who, with crucifix in one hand and sword in the other, now exhorting his friends, now cutting down his foes, cleared the way wherever he appeared. Several of the Spanish ministers were slain. Vasconcellos, who had hid himself in a closet under a heap of papers, was dispatched with a pistol shot and some sabre cuts, and his body thrown out of window. The cry then arose: "The tyrant is dead! Liberty and Dom John for ever!"

John IV

The Vice-Queen, who was arrested and kept as a hostage, was compelled by threats to order the Spanish commandant of the citadel to surrender; and the success of the insurrection being thus assured, a message was despatched to the Duke of Bragança at Villaviciosa to require his presence at Lisbon. He entered that capital in the very same equipage that had been provided for his journey to Madrid, Portuguese whither he had been invited by Philip IV. Never was revolution of equal importance conducted more quietly, speedily, and successfully. It seemed as if John IV ascended the throne of his ancestors in the regular course of succession. He was immediately proclaimed in the other towns of the Kingdom; the Portuguese colonies in India and Brazil, where the small detachments of Spanish troops could offer no effectual resistance, followed the example of the mother-country, and Ceuta, in Morocco, was the only settlement which Spain succeeded in retaining. The Portuguese Cortes, which assembled at Lisbon in January, 1641, confirmed the title of King John IV, and echoing the voice of liberty raised by the Dutch half a century before, asserted the inherent right of mankind to depose a tyrannical Sovereign, even were he legitimate, and not, like the King of Spain, a usurper.

John IV hastened to contract alliances with France and the Dutch Republic, each of which Powers promised to furnish him with twenty ships of war. England and Sweden also recognized the new King of Portugal, but contented themselves with entering into commercial treaties. The rebellion in Catalonia caused the success of that in Portugal. The whole disposable force of Spain, consisting of some 20,000 men under the Marquis de los Velez, the new Vice­roy, had been dispatched towards the frontier of Catalonia; and as the disturbances in that country, on account of its vicinity to France, were considered the more important, the troops were not recalled. The progress of Los Velez was marked by fire and blood. Xerta and Cambrils were taken and destroyed, together with their inhabitants; Tarragona was then invested, and as the Catalan army had been dispersed, Espenan, who had marched to its relief with 4,000 French, was glad to save his own force as well as the town by a capitulation. The Catalan revolution would have been crushed in the bud, but for the energy of Claris, canon of Urgel, and of the French envoy, Du Plessis Besançon. When the Spanish forces appeared before Barcelona, Claris exhorted the citizens rather to bury themselves under the ruins of the town than submit to the butchers of their brethren; while the French envoy organized the means of defence with wonderful quickness and skill, and sustained the courage of the Barcelonese by the promise of speedy and abundant succour from France. In the minds of the Catalans the dejection of fear had been succeeded by the fury of despair. Everybody, even the monks, flew to arms; and the insurgents cut off the last hope of pardon, by converting the alliance with France, concluded the preceding month, into a treaty of permanent union with that country (January 23rd, 1641). Baffled at Barcelona, Los Velez seized Tarragona, which he succeeded in maintaining against the French by defeating their fleet. For this defeat Richelieu banished to Carpentras the arch­bishop-admiral, Sourdis, and threatened to put him on his trial; whilst, on the other hand, Philip IV imprisoned his admiral, Ferrandina, for not having destroyed the French ships!

The Dutch capture the Spanish fleet, 1639

Spain, during this period of domestic rebellion and revolution, was almost equally unfortunate in her foreign wars. In the campaign of 1688, indeed, the French had only doubtful success both in south and north. In Artois they were forced to raise the siege of St. Omer, but succeeded in taking the little town of Renti, and in Picardy they recaptured Le Catelet; while in the south, where they had invested Fuenterabia, they were entirely defeated and compelled to recross the Bidasoa. But by way of compensation a French fleet destroyed a Spanish one at Guetaria. In the following year the French were again unsuccessful in Artois, though victory attended their arms at Rousillon. The severest loss, however, which the Spaniards sustained in 1639 was the destruction by the Dutch of their fleet, the greatest which they had sent to sea since the Invincible Armada. The Spanish admiral, seeking refuge from the Dutch on the Kentish coast, was attacked, in neutral waters, under the very eyes of Admiral Pennington; nor could Charles do more than complain and accept an apology. In 1640 the French, besides their successes in Piedmont, where they took Turin, captured Arras, the capital of Artois, and long the rampart of the Netherlands against France. The inhabitants stipulated in their capitulation for the maintenance of the Artesian Parliament and States, exemption from the gabelle, or salt tax, and the proscription of Protestantism. In the following year the affairs of the Netherlands were not marked by any important event except the death of the Cardinal-Infant Ferdinand, who expired November 9th, 1641, of an illness caused, or at all events aggravated, by the fatigues of the war. Son and brother of two Kings remarkable for their incapacity, Ferdinand had distinguished himself in the defence of Belgium both by military and political talents of the first order. He was succeeded at Brussels by Don Francisco de Mello, an active and able captain.

Meanwhile in Germany the Swedes under Baner had been compelled, in the spring of 1640, to evacuate Bohemia, and to retreat through Saxony into Thuringia; and in May they formed a junction at Erfurt with the Weimarian army under the Duke of Longueville and Marshal Guebriant. The Swedish cause looked now more prosperous, as Amelia Elizabeth, the widow of the Landgrave William V of Hesse-Cassel, and at that period one of the most remarkable rulers of Germany, had, after two years of hesitation and negotiations with the Court of Vienna, resolved again to appeal to arms. The Landgrave her husband had in 1636 been put under the ban of the Empire, and his possessions had been confiscated; the States of his own dominions were against him; he was compelled to become a fugitive in Holland and Germany, while Hesse became the prey of the Imperial soldiery. In the midst of these misfortunes he died (September, 1637), leaving his widow the guardian of their eldest son William, then eight years of age, and Regent of Hesse. That principality had been made over by the Emperor to the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, and, to avoid the evils of war, the Landgravine's Council, as well as the Hessian States, and Melander, who commanded her army, pressed her to accede unconditionally to the Peace of Prague. But Amelia Elizabeth, who hated the Saxon Lutherans as much as she did her Imperial and Catholic enemies, would listen to no terms that did not place her Calvinist subjects on the same footing as the Protestants belonging to the Confession of Augsburg: she retired for a year into Holland, and afterwards, by protracting the negotiations with the Emperor, secured for a time the peace of her dominions. During this period she was her own minister and secretary, for Melander, who had been her adviser as well as her general, went over to the Imperialists, and nobody could tell what her conduct would be. In the autumn of 1639 the Landgravine united her forces with those of Duke George of Lüneburg. Duke Augustus of Wolfenbiittel and other Guelph Princes afterwards acceded to this little League; but they agreed not to join the Swedes, except in case of extreme necessity.

Leopold William

This necessity arose when the Imperial generals Piccolomini and Hatzfeld threatened to attack the Swedes in Thuringia. The Emperor had now deprived Gallas of the chief command, William, and given it to his brother the Archduke Leopold William, who, as Piccolomini was always at his side, proved more fortunate than most ecclesiastical generals. Leopold, who was Bishop of Passau and Strassburg, Archbishop of Olmutz, and claimant of the Bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, though not exempt from that love of strong drink which was the failing of the age, had at least the appearance and reputation of sanctity. So remarkable was his asceticism and chastity that he denied himself the smell of flowers, and could scarce endure the presence even of his sisters; hence his father attributed a peculiar efficacy to his prayers, and gave him the name of "Angel." It was by command of Leopold that Piccolomini and Hatzfeld, uniting their scattered divisions, had gradually driven Baner into Thuringia. Baner approached Piccolomini near Saalfeld; but his position was too strong to be attacked, and the hostile armies went into winter-quarters without anything important having been done.

In mid-winter Baner persuaded Guebriant to assist him in a bold attempt to carry off the Emperor from Ratisbon. Baner, having been joined at Neustadt, on the Orla, by 6,000 of the Weimarian army, and a few hundred French cavalry, after a masterly march through the Upper Palatinate which completely deceived the Imperialists, appeared unexpectedly before Ratisbon, January 17th, 1641, in which city a Diet was holding to debate the conditions of a general peace. Ferdinand III displayed great presence of mind on the occasion; he adopted excellent measures of defence, and, to show his contempt of the enemy, went out hunting with his usual state: a piece of bravado, however, which he had nearly cause to rue; for some of the Swedes, who had passed the river, seized a great part of his splendid equipage, and it was with some difficulty that he himself escaped. Ratisbon was saved by a sudden thaw, which prevented Baner crossing the Danube with the bulk of his army, and compelled him to a precipitate retreat; in which, as the roads were bad and the pursuit hot, the Swedes suffered much. Baner, however, succeeded in reaching Halberstadt, where he shortly after died (May 10th). It was said that he and two or three more of the Protestant generals had been poisoned by a French monk; but his death seems to have been hastened by one of those terrible carouses then in fashion, held at Hildesheim in the preceding October. Of three other partakers in those orgies, Christian of Hesse and Otho of Schaumburg died in the following November, Duke George of Lüneburg in April. Baner, whose health was already declining, was so prostrated by the debauch that he was half dead when he appeared before Ratisbon.

The Elector George William of Brandenburg, the brother-in-law of Gustavus Adolphus, who had made so contemptible a figure in the Thirty Years' War, had also died in December, 1640. He was succeeded by one of the most distinguished Princes that Germany possessed during the seventeenth century—Frederick William, the "Great Elector." Circumstances, however, at first allowed him no opportunity to display his talents, and in July, 1641, he concluded an advantageous truce with the Swedes, which may be regarded as the first step towards the elevation of Brandenburg. After the death of Baner, the Swedes found in Torstenson a commander equal in military talent to Gustavus Adolphus. Generals Pful, Wittenberg, and Charles Gustavus Wrangel, who immediately succeeded Baner, achieved nothing of importance during the campaign of 1641, except defeating the Imperialists at Wolfenbüttel, June 19th; a victory, however, which led to no result, and they subsequently found it necessary to retreat into Westphalia. The Swedish army, or rather the Germans of whom it was chiefly composed, were in a state of destitution and mutiny, and were often compelled to sell their arms and horses to obtain food. When Torstenson, with some Swedish reinforcements, came to take the command of them in the middle of November he found them at Winsen-on-Aller.

The prospect before him was not encouraging. Pful and Wrangel had, for different causes, taken offence, and absented themselves from the army; Wittenberg had broken his leg; the Guelph Dukes had abandoned the Swedish alliance; Melander, the general of Amelia Elizabeth, had thrown off the mask, and changing his name to Holzapfel, was become a Catholic and Imperialist; Guebriant was gone with the Weimarian troops to the Rhine. Torstenson himself was so gouty that when he broke up from his quarters, in 1642, it was necessary to carry him in a litter. Yet his enterprises astonished all Europe. After defeating the Imperialists, under the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, at Schweidnitz, taking that town and several other places (May), Torstenson marched through Moravia, captured Olmutz, and dispatched marauding expeditions to within a few leagues of Vienna. These Moravian conquests, however, he was compelled to abandon and return into Silesia. Here he spent three or four weeks in besieging Brieg, till the advance of Leopold and Piccolomini again obliged him to retreat, July 21st; when he occupied a fortified camp at Guben, near the confluence of the Neisse and Oder. Being reinforced by 4,000 Swedes towards the end of August, he was enabled to resume the offensive, and compelled the Imperialists to raise the siege of Glogau; but, as they cautiously avoided a battle, Torstenson marched into the Saxon Electorate, and, towards the end of October, laid siege to Leipsic. Leopold and Piccolomini hastened to its relief, and on November 2nd was fought what has been called the Second Battle of Leipzig; in which the Archduke was completely defeated, with the loss of all his guns and baggage. Leopold and Piccolomini, who with difficulty saved themselves, fled to Prague, whither they succeeded in rallying a considerable portion of their troops; but, being disgusted soon after by the appointment of Gallas as generalissimo, they resigned their command, and Piccolomini entered the service of Spain. Torstenson, after his victory, again attacked Leipzig, which he took December 6th, and levied a heavy contribution on the inhabitants. Then, after a fruitless attempt on Freiburg, he again marched into Silesia and Moravia, with the view of supporting his army. Guebriant had been almost equally successful on the lower Rhine. After signally defeating the Imperial general Lamboy at Kempen, January 17th, 1642, he had succeeded in occupying nearly the whole Electorate of Cologne and the Duchy of Jülich.

Conspiracy of Cinq-Mars

Meanwhile in France the policy of Richelieu was hampered by his domestic enemies, and the plots of Gaston of Orleans, the Count of Soissons, and Cinq-Mars, the youthful favourite of Louis XIII, a son of Marshal d'Effiat. Early in 1642 Louis XIII and the Cardinal proceeded to the south to encourage the army by their presence. In April, the French, under La Meilleraye, took Collioure and Elne, and blockaded Perpignan; while, in Catalonia, La Mothe-Houdancourt not only succeeded in defending that province, but even entered Aragon, captured Tamarite and Monçon, and threw forward his van to the gates of Saragossa. But Cinq-Mars, who followed Louis like his shadow, and exercised over him an almost unbounded influence, proposed to the King the murder of Richelieu; nor does Louis appear to have been wholly averse to the enterprise, which seems to have failed only through the irresolution of the contriver. Cinq-Mars was at the same time holding secret communication with the Spanish Court, and concluded an agreement that Gaston, on his retiring to Sedan, should be assisted by Spain with men and money. Cinq-Mars was at the same time endeavoring to effect a peace with Spain; for there were at that time in France two parties, the Cardinalists and the Royalists, of whom the former were for war and the latter for peace.

Towards the end of April, Louis XIII, accompanied by Cinq-Mars, had proceeded from Narbonne to the French camp before Perpignan; Richelieu, then too ill for the journey, had remained behind; and subsequently, being doubtful of the King's disposition towards him, had gone to Arles. But reverses in the north, and especially the disastrous defeat of Marshal de Guiche at Honnecourt by Don Francisco de Mello, May 26th, brought Louis to his senses, who now addressed to his indispensable minister a letter assuring him of his unalterable affection and esteem. By Chavigni, the messenger who brought it, Richelieu sent Louis a copy of the treaty which Cinq-Mars had negotiated with the Spanish Court, and which had been forwarded to the Cardinal by some unknown hand. Cinq-Mars was immediately arrested, and the King hastened to the Cardinal, then at Tarascon, to assure him of his future fidelity. Both were now confirmed invalids. Richelieu was so ill that he could not rise from his bed to receive the King, and it was necessary to place another couch for Louis near the Cardinal's, in order that they might converse together. The King then set off for Paris, leaving the Cardinal with unlimited powers. The Duke of Orleans, as well as the Duke of Bouillon, the commander of the French army in Italy, who were both concerned in Cinq-Mars' plot, were arrested. Gaston, alarmed by threats of death, basely betrayed his companions, turned informer for the Crown, and furnished the necessary evidence against Cinq-Mars, Bouillon, and their accomplice De Thou, a son of the celebrated historian. Louis XIII degraded himself almost as much as his brother Gaston. Cinq-Mars having asserted that he had undertaken nothing against the Cardinal without the approbation of the King, Louis addressed a letter to the Chancellor, who presided over the commission appointed to try the prisoners, in which he defended himself like an arraigned criminal; admitting that the proposal to murder the Cardinal had been made to him, but asserting that he had rejected it with horror. Cinq-Mars and De Thou were condemned and beheaded at Lyons, September 12th. Bouillon escaped by surrendering his town of Sedan. Richelieu, surrounded by his guards, returned by slow journeys to Paris, travelling sometimes by land, sometimes by water. His progress almost resembled a triumph. He was earned in a splendid litter, so broad and lofty that it could not enter the gates of the towns through which he passed, into which he was admitted through breaches made in the walls. He arrived at the Palais Cardinal at Paris, October 17th, but almost immediately retired to his favourite seat at Rueil.

The great Cardinal-Duke now beheld his policy crowned on all sides with success. Not only had he triumphed over his domestic enemies, but the French arms also were every- where victorious. Francisco de Mello had derived but little advantage from his success at Honnecourt. In Spain, although Philip IV, bursting the torpid fetters in which Olivarez had enchained him, appeared at the head of his army at Saragossa, yet the fall of Perpignan was effected by a victory over the Spanish fleet, and, after suffering the extremities of famine, it surrendered September 9th, 1642. A little after (October 7th), La Mothe defeated the Spanish army under Leganez, which was threatening Lerida; an exploit which procured for him the Duchy of Cardona and the government of Catalonia, resigned by De Brezé. In Italy affairs were equally prosperous. After the death of Duke Victor Amadeus I, in 1637, a stormy minority had ensued in Piedmont. Louis XIII compelled his sister Christina, the dowager Duchess of Savoy, to renew the alliance with France; but the regency was contested by her brothers-in-law, Cardinal Maurice of Savoy and Thomas Prince of Carignano, grandfather of the celebrated Prince Eugene. Spain declared for Maurice and Thomas, who seized several places in Piedmont. But the Cardinal of Savoy was defeated at Ivrea by the French under the Count of Bar court, April 14th, 1641, who also obliged Prince Thomas to raise the siege of Chivasso. At length, in 1642, the two Piedmontese Princes recognized Christina as Regent and guardian of her son, and renouncing the Spanish alliance, entered into that of France; when Prince Thomas, being declared general of the French army in Italy, drove the Spaniards from all the places which they held in Piedmont and Montferrat. But in the midst of these successes the life of Richelieu was drawing to a close. On the 2nd of December he had his last inter­view with Louis XIII. at the Palais Cardinal, and on the 4th he died, at the age of fifty-seven.

Deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII

In spite of his brilliant qualities and the benefits which his policy had conferred upon France, Richelieu died unlamented by the French people. He possessed not that bonhomie which had procured for Henry IV so universal a popularity; nor could his vast schemes of policy be comprehended and appreciated except by a few among the higher and more educated class of Frenchmen. A large proportion even of that class have detested him as the founder of royal despotism; nor can it be denied that it was chiefly he who built up the absolute power of the French Crown. On the other hand, the experience of repeated revolutions has shown that a strong government and the centralization of power, seem to be indispensable for the peace, prosperity, and happiness of France; and, in this respect, Richelieu must be allowed to have thoroughly understood the genius and wants of the French nation. The France of that period, however, perceived not this necessity, and the death of the great statesman occasioned bonfires and rejoicings in various parts of the Kingdom. Richelieu had in the spring dictated his will to a notary at Narbonne. He left the Palais Cardinal to the King, and directed that a million and a half of livres, which he kept in reserve for unforeseen exigencies of state, should also be handed over to Louis. His extensive library he bequeathed to the public. Almost with his last breath he had recommended Mazarin to Louis as his successor, who, almost immediately after Richelieu's death, was summoned to the Council. The other ministers named by Richelieu were also retained.

Louis XIII did not long survive his great minister. After protracted decline, he died May 14th, 1643, at the age of forty-one. In temper cold and melancholy, though not deficient in courage, he possessed neither eminent virtues nor extraordinary vices; and perhaps the greatest praise that can be accorded him is, that he was aware of his own mediocrity, and was content to resign himself to the direction of a man of genius. By his will he appointed his wife, Anne of Austria, Regent of France during the minority of their son Louis XIV, then only in his fifth year; but, by way of check upon her, he named his brother, the Duke of Orleans, Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom; and, to control both, he instituted a Council, in which everything was to be carried by a majority of votes. It was composed of the Prince of Condé, Cardinal Mazarin, Boutillier, the superintendent of finance, and his son Chavigni. But Anne, by bribing Orleans and Condé, obtained the supreme direction of affairs, and granted to the Parliament of Paris, assisted by the Peers, the high privilege of abrogating the late King's will, and abolishing the compulsory Council.

Anne of Austria, now in her forty-second year, inspired universal sympathy by her good looks, her agreeable manners, and her past discomforts. The Cardinal, who, however, had never received priest's orders, was of much the same age as herself, and in person eminently prepossessing. He is supposed to have been the son of either a bankrupt tradesman or artizan of Palermo, who settled at Rome, where he became the cameriere, and afterwards majordomo, of the Constable Colonna. His introduction to Richelieu, the origin of his fortune, has been already described; and he who could win and retain the esteem of so keen and severe a judge of mankind must have possessed no ordinary qualities. To the surprise of all, and disappointment of many, Anne chose Mazarin for her minister.

The news of Richelieu's death reanimated the enemies of France. Philip IV of Spain, instigated by the Emperor, and by his own wife, Elizabeth of France, had begun to take a more active part in the military and civil affairs of his country. In January, 1643, he dismissed his minister, Olivarez, whom his adversaries reproached with detaining the King from the camp and the council-board, and whose policy had of late been everywhere unfortunate. Never, perhaps, has the art of the courtier been exercised with a more brazen felicity than in the method in which Olivarez had announced to Philip IV the revolution in Portugal. Entering the King's apartment with a smiling countenance, "Sire", he exclaimed, "I congratulate your Majesty on the acquisitions you have just made!". "What acquisitions?", inquired Philip. "The Duke of Bragança," replied the minister, has taken it into his head to be proclaimed King, and your Majesty can therefore confiscate his immense domains." Instead of a confiscation to be acquired, he was announcing the permanent loss of a Kingdom.

A congress had now been appointed to assemble in Westphalia to arrange a general peace; Ferdinand III and Philip resolved to strain every nerve before its opening, and the House of Austria vigorously resumed the offensive on all the theatres of war. On the side of the Netherlands, Don Francisco de Mello, at the head of a fine army, after threatening Arras, suddenly directed his march towards Champagne, and on the 12th of May, Rocroi was invested by his van. Here the Duke of Enghien, afterwards the renowned Condé, but then a young general in his twenty-second year, achieved his first victory (May 19th). In spite of the efforts to detain him of the veteran Marshal de l'Hospital, who had been associated with him as tutor and guide, Enghien flew from the banks of the Somme, routed the Spaniards, and sent 260 standards to Notre-Dame as tokens of his prowess. He next laid siege to Diedenhofen, the strongest place on the Moselle after Metz, and the key of Luxembourg. Diedenhofen surrendered August 10th, and remained thenceforth, until 1870, in the possession of France. Then, after taking the little town of Sierk, Enghien marched into Alsace, in order to support Guebriant, who had been compelled to recross the Rhine.

Spain, proportioning her efforts to her apparent grandeur rather than to her real strength, whilst thus exhausting herself in the struggle to maintain Belgium, was so weak at home, that, in order to attempt the reduction of Catalonia, she was compelled to expose unguarded to the ravages of the Portuguese the frontiers of Gallicia and Estremadura. Philip IV, at the head of 12,000 men with Piccolomini, whom the Emperor had sent to direct his movements, was marching in person towards the Lower Ebro. This activity was brought on by the threats of the Aragonese to throw themselves, like the Catalans, into the arms of France, unless they were speedily succored; for La Mothe-Houdancourt, after blockading the Spaniards in Tortona, Tarragona, and Rosas, the only places which they still retained in Catalonia, was making great progress in Aragon. But Philip's army recaptured Monçon, and compelled the French to retire into Catalonia (November, 1643). At sea the French retained their superiority; and on the whole, chequered with some reverses, the Spanish campaign went this year in favour of the French.

The German campaign of 1643 presents little worth detailing. In the south, Guébriant was driven back into Alsace; but having been reinforced with some of Enghien's troops in October, he reentered Swabia, and laid siege to Rothweil, which surrendered November 19th. Guébriant died a few days after entering the town, of a wound received during the siege. The confusion which ensued in his army upon his death enabled the Imperialists under the Duke of Lorraine, John of Werth, and other generals, to recover the place, and to scatter the Franco-Weimarian army. In the north, Torstenson had been able to do little more than maintain his former conquests. But a new enemy had now entered the field. Christian IV of Denmark had reconciled himself with the Emperor, and was intent on playing the part of mediator in the negotiations that were to ensue for a general peace. Such a policy was viewed with jealousy and suspicion by Sweden; Oxenstiem sought a pretext for declaring war against Denmark; and, towards the close of 1643, Torstenson received secret instructions to invade the Danish territories. But the relations between these two countries will require a few words of explanation.

Sweden

After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish States had recognized his daughter, Christina, then six years of age, Queen Elect, and an oligarchical government had been established, from which the Queen-Dowager, as well as the late King's brother-in-law, the Palsgrave John Casimir of Kleeburg, were entirely excluded. By direction of Gustavus before he left Sweden, the regency was in the hands of a Great Council, consisting of five Colleges, viz.: the Aulic Court, War Council, Admiralty, Chancery, and Treasury; comprising altogether twenty-five persons; and the heads of these Colleges, who were severally the Constable, Marshal, Admiral, Chancellor, and Treasurer, formed the executive government. As the Chancellor Oxenstiern had procured the appointment of two of his kinsmen to the offices of Constable and Treasurer, he was enabled to conduct the government with almost absolute power. He controlled completely the education of the young Queen, and, though he procured for her the best instruction in art, science, and literature, the course pursued was calculated to extinguish all feminine qualities. The Queen-Dowager, hurt at seeing herself excluded from all power and influence, opened communications with Christian of Denmark, holding out to him as a bait the hand of Christina for his eldest son; and Christian, though he perceived what a foolish and ruinous course she was entering on, did not hesitate to encourage her by his protection. In 1640 a Danish man-of-war was sent to Nykoping to bring her away, and she fled into Denmark, accompanied only by one lady and a Dane sent for the purpose. After some stay in Denmark, Mary Eleanor proceeded into Brandenburg, and did not return to Sweden till 1648.

This occurrence produced a coldness between Sweden and Denmark, which was further increased by Christian's subservient policy to the Emperor. An angry correspondence ensued between the two governments; nothing was wanting but a pretext to declare war; and this was afforded by a quarrel respecting the Sound dues. Sweden, by treaties with Denmark, was exempt from this toll, and she made use of the privilege to cover with her flag the goods of foreign merchants. The Danes retaliated by seizing three Swedish vessels, and Torstenson received in consequence the order already mentioned to enter Danish territory. He conducted the invasion in a manner remarkable both for boldness of design and finish of execution. His intention was kept entirely secret, and meanwhile his operations were calculated to avert all suspicion of his real design. He caused reports of his movements to be circulated which alarmed Bavaria; he threw bridges over the Elbe at points where he had no idea of crossing; and it was not till he reached Havelberg, December 6th, that he declared to his officers his intention of taking up his winter-quarters in Holstein, Sleswig, and Jutland.

The peculiar constitution of Denmark rendered that Kingdom an easy prey to so enterprising an enemy. The King Denmark, being tied down by rigorous capitulations, all the real power in the State lay with the nobles, who held Crown lands on condition of paying a fifth to the King, and maintaining the fortresses in an efficient state of repair; but this duty had been shamefully neglected. The Council, composed of seven members chosen by the nobles, would neither grant the King any extraordinary supply in this emergency, nor even suffer his German mercenaries to remain in the country. It is not surprising, therefore, that Torstenson, who entered Holstein January 16th, 1644, when war was first declared, found it an easy task to overrun the Danish territory. Krempe and Glückstadt, in Holstein, alone defended themselves; the whole of the Danish peninsula was speedily overrun; but Torstenson's attempts to pass over to the islands were unsuccessful. At the same time Gustavus Horn and Lars Kagg entered the Danish province of Schonen in Sweden, took Helsingborg (February 17th), and then Landskrona; but Malmo, which was defended by Christian in person, resisted all their efforts.

The Emperor directed Gallas to follow Torstenson into Denmark; a step which, after the annihilation of Guebriant's army, might be ventured on with the more confidence. But Gallas, at best no very brilliant commander, seemed to have lost with advancing years what little military talent he had formerly possessed, and to have fallen deeper into his errors of over-much caution and dilatoriness. He did not leave his quarters till May, and then marched with such deliberation that it was July before he reached Holstein; where, after taking Kiel, he resorted to his old method of a fortified camp. Torstenson, though seriously unwell, assembled his army at Rendsburg in the first week of August, newly equipped at the expense of the Danes. Sickness had not deprived him of his adventurous daring. Leaving a small force in Sleswig and Jutland, he offered the Imperialists battle; and, as Gallas did not think fit to leave his camp, passed it contemptuously with his whole army, without the loss of a single baggage-waggon, and reached Ratzburg in safety. Gallas was now compelled to retreat on Bernburg and Magdeburg, during which operation he lost a great part of his army, and on the 23rd of November his cavalry was annihilated. He is said to have brought back only 2,000 men into Bohemia. At sea, meanwhile, the Swedish Admiral, Klas Elemming, had appeared, in June, with a fleet of forty sail; the old King, Christian IV, went out to give him battle; an action ensued, in which Christian displayed conspicuous valour, and the victory at nightfall remained undecided. The Swedish admiral being killed a little after, Charles Gustavus Wrangel, the celebrated general, was appointed to succeed him, and was victorious at sea, as he had formerly been on land, defeating the Danish fleet between the islands of Femern and Laaland; but the summer of 1644 was unpropitious for naval operations, and little was done.

Battle of Jankowitz, 1645

Early in 1645 Torstenson again penetrated into Bohemia, and in March, at Jankowitz, in the neighborhood of Tabor, achieved over the Imperialists one of the most signal victories of the Thirty Years' War. Of the three Imperial generals, John of Werth alone escaped; Gotz was slain, Hatzfeld taken prisoner; 7,000 of their men fell in the action, and 70 colors became the trophies of the victors. In the north, General Konigsmark drove Prince Frederick, son of the Danish King, out of the Bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, which had been relinquished to him by the Emperor Ferdinand II; but the Swedes could not maintain themselves in Jutland, Sleswig, and Holstein, though at sea they captured the island of Bornholm. The Dutch and French had now begun to interfere in the quarrel in the interest of their commerce with regard to the Sound dues; they had pressed their mediation on the belligerents, and a congress had been opened at Bromsebro, while hostilities continued. Christina now reigned in Sweden, having assumed the reins of government on her eighteenth birthday, December 8th, 1644. The memory of her great father procured for her extraordinary respect and influence, and she fortunately reposed her confidence in Salvius, the advocate of peace. Oxenstiern and the Council were opposed to any accommodation; but after six months of negotiation, she made the Chancellor lower his terms, and on the 14th of August, 1645, the peace of Bromsebro was concluded. The terms were still hard for Denmark. Swedish vessels were exempted from all tolls in the Sound and Belts; Denmark ceded Jamtland, Hejeadalen, and Oesel, for ever, Halland for thirty years—the same thing under a different name; Christian's son Frederick renounced Bremen and Verden. The further operations of Torstenson against the Emperor, after his victory at Jankowitz, were remotely supported by the Turks. The declining power of that people, whose history we have brought down to the accession of Amurath IV in 1623, now caused them to play only a subordinate part in the affairs of Europe, and for a long period there has been no occasion to advert to their proceedings; though, had thev possessed their former might, the Thirty Years' War would hardly have been neglected as an opportunity of extending their dominions at the expense of the Empire. Yet they still commanded the means of annoyance, as they continued to occupy Buda and a considerable portion of Hungary on the left bank of the Danube.

Turkish History

The insubordination of the Janissaries had continued after the accession of Amurath, but at length, by their own moderation and submission, they restored peace to the distracted Empire. Its affairs had altered so much for the better, that Sir Thomas Roe, in a letter to Sir Isaac Wake, April 6th, 1628, observes "My last judgment is that this Empire may stand, but never rise again". In 1632 the Janissaries attempted another abortive revolt, and after this period Amurath IV displayed a cruelty and bloodthirstiness which had not before been observed in his character. From that year to 1637, he is said to have put to death 25,000 men, and a considerable number of them with his own hand. The attention of Amurath was diverted from the affairs of Europe by his wars with Persia and the Druses. In 1638 he captured Bagdad, which had been fifteen years in the hands of the Persians; when he caused several thousand prisoners to be slaughtered before him as he sat upon a throne. In June, 1639, he entered Constantinople in triumph. But his constitution was already broken through fatigue, excitement, and debauchery; and being seized with a violent fever, he died February 9th, 1640, at the age of thirty.

Amurath was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim, whom he had ordered to be put to death. Ibrahim, now in his twenty-fifth year, would willingly have declined the diadem. The change of rule, however, was tranquilly effected; and with the hope of enjoying better times under the new Sultan, even the Janissaries and Spahis were tranquil. Ibrahim, though not altogether destitute of talent and mother-wit, soon betrayed a total want of princely dignity, and passed his days in the inmost recesses of the harem, with women, jugglers, and musicians.

At the beginning of the new reign peace was renewed with the Christian Powers, many of which, as England, France, Venice, and Holland, now maintained resident ambassadors at the Porte. The only relations which seemed to threaten hostility were those with the Emperor; but in March, 1642, the peace between the two Powers was renewed at Szony. The only open war waged during the reign of Ibrahim was that with Venice. In spite of many disputes between the Venetians and the Porte, the peace between these Powers had remained unbroken since 1573; but the bombardment of Valona by the Venetians in 1638, when in pursuit of some Barbary pirates who had taken refuge there, was an affront which the Porte found it difficult to digest, although Venice had expiated her offence by the payment of 250,000 sequins. In 1644 immense preparations were observed in all the Turkish arsenals, and it was readily and rightly conjectured that the object of them was Crete, the only important outlying possession that remained to Venice. The Turkish fleet, with a large army on board, the whole under the command of Yusuf, a Dalmatian renegade, left Constantinople in April, 1645. A landing was effected and the town of Canea taken; but the war dragged on several years, and it was not till 1648 that the Turks laid bootless siege to Candia, the capital of the island. The ill-success of this war, and especially the Turkish losses in Dalmatia, where the Venetians captured the almost impregnable fortress of Clissa, gave rise to serious discontent at Constantinople; most of the great officers of state, as well as the leaders of the Janissaries, rose against Ibrahim; the Mufti pronounced his deposition; and his son Mahomet IV, a child only seven years old, was saluted Sultan in his place (August, 1648). The unfortunate Ibrahim was soon afterwards strangled in the prison to which he had been committed.

Although during the period we have been surveying no open breach occurred between the Empire and the Porte, yet the Turkish Pashas who ruled in Hungary supported Ragotsky, Voyvode of Transylvania, in an attempt upon Ferdinand's dominions which had been stimulated by the policy of Mazarin. On pretext that the Emperor had violated his promises to the Hungarian Protestants, Ragotsky incited a revolt in that Kingdom, and the Austrians had great difficulty in maintaining themselves in Pressburg and some of the neighbouring Hungarian counties. Torstenson, after his victory at Jankowitz, united himself with Ragotsky (1645), threw a bridge over the Danube, and attempted to seize the Emperor at Vienna; but the wild and undisciplined troops of his ally proved rather a hindrance than a help, and Ragotsky himself concluded a separate peace with the Emperor. Torstenson, who was so ill that he could travel only in a litter, was soon after forced to raise the siege of Brünn. Being now determined to retire, he intrusted the maintenance of his conquests in Bohemia and Silesia to General Konigsmark, but subsequently devolved the chief command on Charles Gustavus Wrangel. His last feat, before his retirement, was the capture of Leitmeritz. In the boldness and decision of his military genius Torstenson more resembled his great master, Gustavus Adolphus, than did any other of that King's generals. He was accompanied in his last campaign by Charles Gustavus, son of the Palsgrave of Kleeburg, who was subsequently to mount the throne of Sweden, and who, in the school of Torstenson, became a distinguished commander.

Negotiations for a general peace had been already opened. Ever since France had taken up arms, Pope Urban VIII. had not ceased to press that Power to abandon the Protestant alliance and reconcile herself with the House of Austria. In 1636 Urban had so far succeeded as to induce some of the Catholic Powers to treat at Cologne, whither he dispatched Cardinal Ginetti as Legate and mediator; but, though the Emperor and the Catholic King sent representatives to Cologne, France declined to do so, regarding the assembly only as intended to separate her from her Protestant allies, the Swedes and Dutch, who could not be expected to treat under the mediation of the Pope. The Count of Avaux and John Adler Salvius, the ministers of France and Sweden, had renewed at Hamburg, March 15th, 1638, for three years, the alliance between those countries, with the express provision that neither should enter into a separate peace; and, as at the commencement of 1641 the prospect of a general peace was as distant as ever, the alliance was again extended till such a peace should be effected. Meanwhile the Emperor had conceived the impracticable design of treating with the States of the Empire alone, without the participation of foreign Powers; and it was with this view that he had summoned a Diet at Ratisbon in 1640; where, as already related, he had been so nearly captured by Baner. At length, in December, 1641, preliminaries were arranged at Hamburg between Conrad von Lützen, the Imperial ambassador, and Avaux and Salvius on the part of France and Sweden. It was agreed that the towns of Munster and Osnabrück in Westphalia, which were to be declared neutral, should become the seats of two congresses composed of the representatives of the Powers directly or remotely interested in the war, that is, of most of the States of Europe. The reasons for choosing two towns were, because one would not have sufficed to accommodate the crowd of ministers who were expected to attend; and because it was desirable to avoid any collision between the Papal Nuncio and the Protestant plenipotentiaries, as well as any disputes concerning precedence between France and Sweden. Hence, as a general rule, the representatives of the Catholic Powers were to assemble at Munster, and those of the Protestant Powers at Osnabrück, but the Dutch plenipotentiaries were to treat at Münster with the Spanish, without any mediator; and as the affairs of the Empire were to come before both assemblies the Emperor was to be represented in both towns. The two congresses were, however, to be considered as one; and the towns mentioned were selected because they lay near each other, and had every facility of communication.

The conferences were to have been opened in March, 1642; but more than a year was lost in squabbling about forms and points of etiquette. At last, in July, 1643, the Imperial plenipotentiaries opened the congresses, and the ministers of the other Powers began to arrive; but it was not till October that the Spaniards appeared: the Venetian envoy came in November, and the French plenipotentiaries did not arrive till April, 1644. The Papal Nuncio, Fabio Chigi, Bishop of Nardo, afterwards Pope Alexander VII, and the Venetian senator Contarini, who subsequently became Doge of Venice, took up their residence at Münster, as mediators between the Catholic Powers; while the King of Denmark, as mediator between the Emperor and Sweden, had dispatched to Osnabrück as his ministers Lipsius and Langermann. This attempt at mediation on the part of Denmark produced the war already related between that country and Sweden; and the functions designed for Christian IV.were ultimately transferred to Contarini.

Never before had such an assembly of the members of the European commonwealth met together. Not only were the greater States represented, but ministers from the Electors, spiritual and temporal Princes, and great cities of Germany, whom the Emperor with much reluctance at length consented to admit, as well as from such Powers as the Duke of Savoy, the Duke of Mantua, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, nay, even from Catalonia, newly revolted from Spain, also appeared at the congress. The quiet little town of Münster, a century before the scene of the strangest suppression of all social distinctions, was now enlivened with Court ceremonies, splendid banquets, and the equipages of prelates, princes, and ambassadors; while the Papal Nuncio might behold, suspended from the tower of St. Lambert's church, the bones of that fanatical heretic who for a brief period had enjoyed a more absolute sway over his followers than had ever fallen to the lot of the haughtiest Pontiff. One nation alone accustomed to play a great part in the affairs of Europe was conspicuous by its absence. England was unrepresented in these important transactions. The civil troubles of that country had effaced her for a time as a member of the great European system.

Considering the extent, variety, complication, and importance of the interests at stake, it was not to be expected that the negotiations for a peace should be brought to any very speedy termination; but a still more efficient and dangerous cause of delay was the insincerity of some of the chief Powers, who had engaged in them rather by way of homage to public opinion than from any wish for their success. The generals and ministers of these States loved the war for its own sake, as it gave them employment and made them of importance. France and Sweden were intent on seizing as large a share as possible of the spoils of the Empire, while the Emperor himself felt a repugnance to negotiations which he saw could be completed only by vast sacrifices on his part. Since the fatal mistakes committed by Ferdinand II in engaging in the Italian war and dismissing his army under Wallenstein, almost every year had been marked by signal defeats and losses. France had made herself mistress of Alsace and the Forest Towns, as well as of several places in Luxembourg and in the Electorates of Treves and Cologne: the Swedes occupied Pomerania, and had garrisons in Saxony, Westphalia, Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia; and the Emperor might sometimes see with his own eyes, from the ramparts of his capital, the ravages of the enemy and the burning of his villages. A portion of his own subjects was in arms against him; another large part of the Empire, comprising the Electorates of Brandenburg and Saxony and the dominions of the Dukes of Lüneburg, had declared its neutrality; and Ferdinand III was thus reduced to recruit his armies from his hereditary dominions and those parts of Germany which remained faithful to him, now almost exhausted by the efforts and sufferings of so long a war. Yet he was still disposed to protract the struggle, and risk the fortune of events rather than immediately consent to inevitable sacrifices; and such were the instructions he gave to the Count of Nassau and M. Wolmar, his plenipotentiaries at Minister. Spain, also, mindful of her former grandeur and prosperity rather than of her present fortunes, could not persuade herself to make concessions to an enemy whom she both feared and despised. France, from the hopes of gain, adopted the same procrastinating policy. No sooner did the French ministers arrive at Munster than they began to raise questions respecting their right of precedence over the Spanish ambassadors, more for the sake of protracting the negotiations than with any other view; whilst the Germans, without any such motive, but merely from a puerile love of titles and distinctions, followed their example. The title of "Excellence", a common one in Italy, borne by the Venetian minister, excited the jealousy of the Electors of Brandenburg and Bavaria, who insisted that their representatives were entitled to the same distinction; and when the Emperor conceded that title to such of them as were "persons of rank" (Standespersonen), new disputes arose as to who were to be included in that category! While the conferences at Munster were thus embarrassed by the French, those at Osnabrück were suspended altogether by the war between Sweden and Denmark, which rendered the latter Kingdom a belligerent instead of a mediating Power; and, as the French would not take a step without the Swedes, the negotiations were for a time arrested. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the proceedings of the congress were prolonged several years, and made dependent on the events of the war.

Whilst Torstenson was pursuing his successes in Germany, as already related, the campaigns of 1644 and 1645 had also been favorable to France. In Flanders the French, under the nominal command of the Duke of Orleans, but in reality under that of La Meilleraye, Gassion, and Ranzau, captured Gravelines, after a brave resistance, July 23rd, 1644, while about the same time the Prince of Orange had taken the Sas of Ghent. Enghien and Turenne, having marched to the Rhine, attacked the Imperial general Merci at Freiburg in the Breisgau (August); and, though they were repulsed, Merci found himself compelled to retire into Würtemberg. It is on this occasion that Enghien is said to have thrown his baton into the enemy's lines, a story of somewhat doubtful authenticity. Turenne and Enghien now descended the right bank of the Rhine towards Baden, and captured Phillipsburg, September 9th, where they found a hundred guns. Enghien established himself in this fortress, while Turenne, crossing the Rhine, took Worms, Oppenheim, and Mainz, without firing a shot. Bingen, Bacharach, Landau, and Kreuznach were also occupied by the French, who thus commanded the course of the Rhine from Basle to Coblenz. When Enghien entered Mainz, and to the Latin harangue of the chapter and municipality, replied with facility in the same language, he astonished the Germans almost as much as by his victories. The French campaign in Germany in 1645 was also brilliant, but chequered. Enghien, quitting the valley of the Rhine, entered that of the Danube, and laid siege to Nordlingen. Merci flew to its rescue, but was defeated on the heights near the town, August 3rd, chiefly by means of the German cavalry. Merci was killed in this battle, while John of Werth, abandoning his artillery, retired upon Donauworth. Nordlingen and Dinkelsbuhl now fell into the hands of the French, who were, however, soon obliged to retire on the Neckar. Enghien was compelled by illness to return into France, but Turenne recrossed the Rhine in November, captured Treves after a short siege, and reestablished the Elector in his capital, who, at the instance of the French and Swedes, had been released from his captivity in order to take part in the congress. The French arms had also, on the whole, been successful in the Netherlands. Mardyck, Linck, Bourbourg, Cassel, St.-Venant, Bethune, Lillers were captured; and, after forming a junction with the Prince of Orange, other places were taken; but before the end of the year Cassel and Mardyck were recaptured by the Spaniards. In Spain itself the French had not been so successful. In 1644 they were driven out of Aragon, and Philip IV then undertook, in person, the siege of Lerida, which covers the western frontier of Catalonia, and defeated, with great loss, La Mothe-Houdancourt, who endeavoured to defend it, May 15th. Lerida having capitulated, July 31st, the Spaniards next took Balaguer, and threatened Barcelona; but at this juncture Philip was recalled to Spain by the dangerous illness of his Queen, who died October 6th, and by the progress of the Portuguese in Galicia and Estremadura. In consequence of his ill success, La Mothe-Houdancourt was recalled to France and put upon his trial, and the Count of Harcourt was appointed his successor as Viceroy of Catalonia. In May, 1645, Du Plessis-Praslin took the important maritime town of Rosas; and Harcourt, crossing the Segre, defeated the Spaniards under Cantelmo at Llorens, June 23rd. That commander was also subsequently driven from Balaguer, which capitulated, October 20th.

Pope Innocent X

In Italy also matters had not gone so favorably for France. Pope Urban VIII, who died in July, 1644, was succeeded by Innocent X. (Cardinal Pamphili), who showed himself decidedly hostile to French interests; and he directed against Mazarin a bull depriving all Cardinals who absented themselves from Rome, without permission of the Holy Father, of the right to assist at the Conclave. To alarm the Pontiff, Mazarin, with the help of Duke Thomas of Savoy and the Genoese, embarked a French army at Genoa (May, 1646), and laid siege to Orbitello, a Spanish possession on the coast of Tuscany; where, however, Duke Thomas was defeated, and compelled to retreat with the loss of all his guns and baggage, by a Spanish army, which had marched from Naples through the Roman States. This disgrace was retrieved by another expedition, which sailed from Toulon under La Meilleraye, and succeeded in taking Piombino and Portolongone (October, 1646). The French, by thus establishing themselves on the coast of Italy, compelled the Pope to a more humble deportment; but the success was purchased by neglecting Catalonia; and in November, Leganez, whom Philip IV had restored to favour, compelled the French to raise the siege of Lerida.

The French campaign in Flanders in 1646 had been successful. Enghien took Courtrai, and made himself master of the greater part of the course of the Lys. Great things were anticipated from a contemplated junction between the French and Dutch armies; but these hopes were frustrated by the insanity of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, with which malady he had been some time threatened. Antwerp was saved from attack by this circumstance, but Mardyck was retaken August 25th, and in October Dunkirk yielded to the arms of Enghien, assisted by some French vessels and a Dutch fleet under Tromp. The success of Turenne this year in Germany was no less striking, and by compelling the Bavarian Elector to a truce, was one of the causes which immediately led to the Peace of Westphalia. Descending the Rhine, which he crossed at Wesel, and marching round through Westphalia and Hesse, Turenne formed a junction on the Lahn with Wrangel and the Swedes (August 10th); when the united force penetrated by rapid marches to Augsburg, and pushed its van up to the very gates of Munich. The old Elector, Maximilian, was weary of the war, and had already, in the preceding year, sent his confessor to Paris, to negotiate a separate treaty, which, though entirely conformable to the interests of France, had gone off, from the suspicions entertained of Maximilian's sincerity. The latter now sued for peace, and in March, 1647, a treaty was signed at Ulm, by which Maximilian, and his brother the Elector of Cologne, engaged to remain neutral so long as the war should last. The Elector of Mainz and the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt were soon after compelled to follow this example. Thus did the Emperor become completely isolated solely by superiority in maneuvering, and without fighting a single battle. He was now in a condition which appeared to render a capitulation necessary; yet he contrived to hold out another year or two.

The first result of the congress at Münster was a treaty between Spain and the United Provinces, which was quite unexpected, as the Dutch, by their treaty with France, had bound themselves not to enter into a separate peace. But the situation of Spain rendered it absolutely necessary for her to bring to a close the war in the Netherlands. The serious nature of the Catalan revolt has been already seen, while the independence of Portugal seemed to be established beyond all hope of recovering that Kingdom, except by the most gigantic efforts. An abortive conspiracy of the Archbishop of Braga had only resulted in establishing King John more firmly on the Portuguese throne. John had won the hearts of his subjects by his generous and patriotic conduct, in devoting the revenues of his private domains to the public service, and by leaving it to the States to impose the necessary taxes in their own way; in return for which, they raised for him a supply of double the amount that had been demanded. In 1643 the Spaniards had been defeated in Estremadura, with great loss, by the Portuguese under Dom Matthias Albuquerque; and the demands made on the Spanish resources by the war in the Netherland and in Catalonia obliged Philip IV, for the present, to neglect Portugal. His affairs in Italy were in no better condition, where a revolt had broken out in both Sicilies. His necessities had led him to exhaust those provinces both of men and money; the people groaned under the weight of enormous taxes, rendered all the more hateful and galling through the ecclesiastics, barons, and high officers of state being exempt from them; and the misery having been increased by a year of famine, the popular discontent exploded. An insurrection at Palermo, led by a manufacturer named Alessio, who was slain in a riot, was put down without much difficulty; but a more terrible one had broken out at Naples, where the sufferings had been greater than in Sicily, and where the harshest oppression had been aggravated by the most brutal and insolent tyranny. The last Viceroy, indeed, Don Alfonso Enriquez, Admiral of Castile, had resigned his dignity rather than be the instrument of the extortions of the Spanish government; but a man of different stamp was appointed his successor, the Duke de los Arcos. The lower classes had no untaxed food left but fruit and vegetables and, to meet the expense of the French war, Arcos put a tax upon fruit.

Two abortive attempts at insurrection had already been made, when Tommasso or 'Mas Aniello, a poor young fisherman, put himself at the head of the Neapolitan populace, and became for a moment master of Naples. The soldiers were routed, the bureaux of finance destroyed, the houses of obnoxious financiers and unpopular grandees were stormed and plundered, the Viceroy was seized in his palace, and compelled to abolish the more oppressive taxes in order to save his life. He was then shut up in the Castle of St. Elmo, and forced to reestablish by a formal treaty the immunities enjoyed during the reign of Charles V. But the success of 'Mas Aniello turned his head. He accepted an invitation from the authorities to a banquet of reconciliation; the people, disgusted by his extravagances, forsook him, and he was murdered by the satellites of Arcos (July 16, 1647). The anarchy, however, was not at an end. The populace buried 'Mas Aniello with great pomp, and on the 21st of August a fresh explosion ensued, the people massacred all the Spaniards they could seize, blockaded the Viceroy in Castel Nuovo, and in place of a poor fisherman, chose for their leader the Prince of Massa; who seems to have accepted the office by an understanding with the government, and in the hope of effecting an accommodation. The insurrection now began to assume the form of revolution. One party desired a Republic, another was for the Pope, a third wished to exchange the rule of Spain for that of France, and with this view made advances to the French Court.

After the open declaration of war against Spain in 1635, the French ministry had been bent on wresting Milan and Naples from the Catholic King through the aid of Italian Princes; and a plan was formed to make the Duke of Savoy King of Naples, while his own dominions were to be divided between the Cardinal, his brother, and France; the latter taking Savoy, Nice, and Villafranca. Pope Urban VIII was to aid the undertaking, and an independent state was to be erected in the Neapolitan territory for Cardinal Antonio Barberini. But this scheme was never carried out, and was put aside by the death of Urban and accession of Innocent X, an opponent of French interests. The Neapolitan revolt of 1647 induced France to attempt something for herself. The desire for a Republic prevailed among the Neapolitans, who dispatched a deputation to Rome to solicit the aid of France through the French ambassador in that city. The envoys made the acquaintance of Henry II, fifth Duke of Guise, then residing at Rome with the view of procuring a divorce; and they offered him the same post in their new Republic as the Prince of Orange held in Holland. The French agents in Italy appear to have approved this arrangement, though it was never sanctioned by Mazarin; who suspected that Guise aimed at procuring the Crown of Naples for himself, while the Cardinal-minister wished to place it on the brow of Louis XIV. Mazarin's chief view, however, was at all events to wrest Naples from Spain; and he did not, therefore, oppose Guise, though he lent him no warm support. Descended on the female side from the ancient Angevin Kings or Pretenders of Naples, there can be no doubt that Guise was meditating the seizure of what he considered his hereditary rights, though it is pretended in his memoirs that he was laboring only for France. It appears, indeed, from Mazarin's letters, that Guise was striving to render the French hateful and ridiculous at Naples; he asserted that he himself was no Frenchman, but a Lorrainer, and now an Italian by adoption; and he left off writing anything but Italian even to his friends in France.

A piece of cowardly treachery on the part of the Spanish government promised to improve Guise's chances. A Spanish fleet, commanded by Don John of Austria, an illegitimate son of Philip IV, appeared off Naples, October 4th, and the Viceroy, after communicating with Don John, proclaimed that the Catholic King had ratified the ancient franchises of Naples, and granted a general amnesty. This announcement was received with shouts of joy. Next day, however, both the castles and fleet opened fire on the unsuspecting city, and Don John landed several thousand soldiers; but the populace, armed with tiles and stones, and such like weapons, compelled them to retreat. Cries now arose on all sides of "Long live the Republic!" The portrait of Philip IV was dragged through the streets with every mark of contumely and insult; Massa was executed as a partisan of Spain, and an armourer, named Gennaro Annese, was chosen leader in his place. Passing through the Spanish fleet in a swift-sailing felucca, Guise landed at Naples amid the acclamations of the people, November 15th. But the opportunity of wresting Naples from the Catholic King was lost through the supineness and ill-policy of the French Court. The French fleet did not appear off Naples till December 18th; and when it arrived the Duke of Richelieu, its commander, a great-nephew of the Cardinal, would not recognize Guise, although the people had elected him Duke of Naples; and the French fleet, after an affair of small importance with that of Spain, returned to Portolongone, January, 1648. Guise, nevertheless, who displayed considerable military talent at this conjuncture, continued to maintain himself at Naples; the Spanish government, despairing of retaining that Kingdom, recalled their fleet; till the remissness of France inspired them with fresh hopes, and determined them l;o resort to intrigue and stratagem. The Duke of Arcos was recalled and replaced by the Count of Onate, at that time Spanish ambassador at Rome, a man of supple, insinuating manners; Annese and other popular leaders were secretly gained; during the temporary absence of Guise from Naples, who had lost his popularity, a report was spread that he was treating with the Spaniards; Annese and his confederates opened the gates to Don John and Onate, who entered with cries of "Peace! Peace! no more taxes!" and the people being thus thrown into confusion, and knowing not what to believe, the Spanish restoration was accomplished almost without a blow, April 1st. Guise, being afterwards captured at Capua, was kept four years a prisoner in Spain.

Spain-Holland

The breaking out of this rebellion, as well as the other embarrassments of Spain, to which we have adverted, naturally induced the Spanish Court to press on to a definite conclusion the treaty with the United Provinces, the preliminary conventions of which had been signed at Munster, in January, 1647. The success of Spain in detaching the Dutch from their allies has been attributed to her able diplomacy, conducted chiefly by Antoine Brun, a native of Dole, in Franche-Comté; but it must also, perhaps, be partly ascribed to a false step on the part of Mazarin. The Dutch had been alienated from the French alliance by a proposition made to the Spanish Court by the Cardinal in the course of the nego­tiations, to exchange Catalonia and Rousillon for the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté. They were naturally alarmed at the prospect of having a powerful nation like France for their immediate neighbor; and, though the project appears to have been withdrawn, Antoine Brun very skillfully kept alive the jealousy of the Dutch. On the 30th January, 1648, they signed, at Munster, a definitive treaty with Spain, which conceded all that they desired. The United Provinces were recognized as free and sovereign States, to which Philip IV renounced all pretensions for himself and for his successors. The conquests made by each party were to be retained as they stood; an arrangement which made over to the Dutch, Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda, Herzogenbusch, Grave, and Maastricht, in Brabant; Hulst, Axel, and Sluis, in Flanders; together with part of Limburg. In like manner, Spain ceded to the Dutch all the conquests they had made in Asia, Africa and America; no great sacrifice, however, on her part, as these conquests had been achieved at the expense of the revolted Portuguese, and Spain's chance of recovering them was very slight indeed. The basest feature of this peace was the abandonment by Spain of the commercial interests of the inhabitants of the Spanish Netherlands, who had so loyally stood by her, by sanctioning in favour of the Dutch the closing of the Schelde, as well as of the Sas of Ghent, the Zwyn, and other channels of communication with the great river, thereby ruining the trade of Brabant and Flanders. Thus, after a terrible and bloody struggle of eighty years' duration, the establishment and recognition of the United Provinces were at last effected under more favorable conditions than the most sanguine of their leaders might have anticipated—a struggle in which we know not whether most to admire the stubborn perseverance of Spain in the midst of all her disasters and defeats, or the fortitude, valor, and good fortune of the Dutch, who made the war itself a source of strength and profit.

After this peace the Spaniards and Dutch took no further part in the congress, and the war between France and Spain of course continued. During the year 1647 it had not gone very favorably for France. Mazarin, in order to find employment for Enghien, whose demands had become troublesome, had made him Viceroy of Catalonia. By the death of his father, in December, 1646, he was now become Prince of Condé. His operations in Catalonia were not calculated to add to his reputation. He renewed the siege of Lerida, and, with an unbecoming fanfaronade, opened the trenches to the music of violins. But Lerida seemed destined to be fatal to French generals. It was gallantly defended by the commandant, Don Gregorio Britto, who, after every assault or skirmish, sent ices and lemonade for the refreshment of Condé. The French army suffered from desertion as well as from the sallies of the garrison, and, on the approach of the Spaniards, Condé found himself compelled to raise the siege. He afterwards achieved some trifling successes, but, on the whole, the campaign was a failure. In 1648, Condé was sent into Flanders, and was followed in the government of Catalonia by Mazarin's brother, Cardinal Michael Mazarin, Archbishop of Aix, a man without any capacity, who in a few months grew weary of the employment, and was succeeded by Marshal Schomberg. Neglecting Tarragona and Lerida, Schomberg carried Tortosa by assault, July 12th. The Archbishop, at the head of his clergy, was killed in the breach.

During this period the French were not more successful in the Netherlands. After the treaty with Bavaria, Turenne was marching into Luxembourg, when nearly all the cavalry of the Weimarian army refused to follow him across the Rhine, unless their pay, then several months in arrear, was forthcoming. Turenne followed the mutinous troops into the valley of the Tauber, and killed several hundreds; of the remainder, some surrendered, but the greater part took service under the Swedish General Konigsmark, in Westphalia. This affair prevented Turenne from entering Luxembourg till September; and as Marshals Gassion and Ranzau, who commanded the French forces in Flanders, could not agree, the advantage in this campaign lay with the Spaniards.

After the dispersion of the Weimarian army, and the withdrawal of Turenne beyond the Rhine, Maximilian, the now aged Elector of Bavaria, and his brother, the Elector of Cologne, again took up arms, in order to support the Emperor against the Swedes in Bohemia (October, 1647); though he endeavored to reconcile this step with the treaty of Ulm, and declared that he had no wish to break with France, but only with Sweden and Hesse. The French, however, would not recognize this distinction, and Turenne was directed to support Marshal Wrangel. This commander, who had taken Eger, in Bohemia, finding himself no match for the united Imperial and Bavarian forces, made a masterly retreat into Westphalia. In April, 1648, he was joined by Turenne in Franconia, when the allied army advanced towards the Danube, the Imperialists retreating before them. These were overtaken and defeated at Zusmarshausen, near Augsburg (May 17th), where Melander, or Holzapfel, the former general of Amelia Elizabeth of Hesse, was killed; the Bavarian army retreated beyond the Inn, leaving garrisons in Munich and one or two other places; the Elector took refuge at Salzburg; and, in spite of the efforts of the Imperialists to succor it, Bavaria lay at the mercy of the Franco-Swedish army. A harrying war followed, marked by murder, burning, and devastation, but without any signal victories. While these things were going on in Bavaria, the fortune of war was equally adverse to the Imperialists in the Netherlands and Bohemia.

In the former country, after some nearly balanced successes, Condé gained one of his most splendid victories over the Archduke Leopold, near Lens, August 20th, 1648, and completely dispersed his army. The plan of the German campaign this year had been a double attack on Austria, through Bavaria and Bohemia. This latter part of it was conducted by General Konigsmark, who penetrated to Prague, and took that part of the city called the Kleinseite (Little Town) lying on the left bank of the Moldau, where an enormous booty was captured (July 31st). Charles Gustavus, now appointed generalissimo, arrived soon after with reinforcements from Sweden; but the remaining portions of Prague resisted all the efforts of the Swedes to master them. These disasters, however, had determined the Emperor to conclude peace; and thus, singularly enough, the Thirty Tears' War was finished at the same place where it had broken out. The labors of the men of the sword were now superseded by those of the diplomatists; the Wrangels, the Turennes, and the Konigsmarks, gave place to the Oxenstierns, the Avaux, and the Trautmansdorfs; and the fruits of many a bloody campaign were disposed of with a little ink and a few strokes of the pen.

Towards the end of September the conferences at Osnabruck were transferred to Munster, where, after negotiations which had lasted between four and five years, were signed the two Treaties of Westphalia (October 24th, 1648). Of these treaties we can only give the principal conditions. The objects of the peace may be divided into two heads: the settlement of the affairs of the Empire, and the satisfaction of the two Crowns of France and Sweden. With regard to Germany, a general amnesty was granted; and all Princes and persons were, with some exceptions as to the immediate subjects of the House of Austria, restored to their rights, possessions, and dignities. The question of the Palatinate, one of the chief objects of the war, was settled by a compromise. The Duke of Bavaria was allowed to keep the Upper Palatinate, with the Electoral dignity and rights; while the Lower or Rhenish Palatinate was restored to the eldest son of the unfortunate Frederick V, and an eighth Electorate erected in his favour. On the extinction either of the Bavarian or the Palatine line, however, both Electorates were again to be merged into one. With regard to the political constitution of the Empire, it was determined that laws could be made and interpreted only in general Diets of all the States; which were also to have the power of declaring war, levying taxes, raising troops, making treaties, &c. The French and Swedes did not succeed in their attempt to procure the abolition of the custom of choosing a King of the Romans during the lifetime of the Emperor, which might have endangered the hereditary succession of the House of Austria. The demand of the German States that no Prince should be put under the Imperial ban without the approbation of a Diet was referred to a future assembly, and was finally established by the capitulation of the Emperor Charles VI. Several reforms were made in the constitution of the Imperial Chamber and other tribunals, tending to give the Protestants a larger share of power. The authority of the Aulic Council was recognized by this treaty, but nothing was determined respecting its constitution, and it was not till 1654 that the Emperor, of his own authority, fixed the number of Aulic Councillors (besides a President and Vice-president) at eighteen, of whom six were to be Protestants. But the most important article of this part of the treaty was that by which the various Princes and States of Germany were permitted to contract defensive alliances among themselves, or with foreigners, provided they were not against the Emperor, or the public peace of the Empire—conditions easily evaded.

Respecting the affairs of religion in the Empire, as the Catholics sometimes pretended that the Religious Peace of 1555 had been only temporary, and ceased to have force of law after the dissolution of the Council of Trent, it was now formally renewed, subject to certain interpretations; and it was agreed that members of the Reformed Church, or Calvinists, were comprehended under it, and put on the same footing as those belonging to the Confession of Augsburg, or Lutherans. This concession was opposed by the latter sect, but readily agreed to by the Emperor. And in general everything concerning religion was referred to the footing on which it stood on New-Year's day, 1624, hence called the decretory, or normal, year.

With regard to the satisfaction of France, the Bishopricsof Metz, Toul and Verdun, which, indeed, she had held for nearly a century, were ceded to her in full sovereignty, as well as Pinerolo in Piedmont. The Emperor and the House of Austria also ceded to France all their right to Breisach, Upper and Lower Alsace, the Sundgau, and the prefecture of the ten Imperial cities of Hagenau, Rosheim, Oberehnheim, Landau, Weissenburg, Schlettstadt, Colmar, Münster im Gregorienthal, Kaisersberg, and Türkheim, on condition that the Catholic religion should be upheld in these lands and towns. France was empowered to maintain a garrison in Phillipsburg. The Breisgau and the Rhenish Forest Towns were to be restored to the House of Austria. It had been debated whether France should hold Alsace as a fief of the Empire, with a seat in the Diet, or in full sovereignty. Avaux had inclined to the former plan, which was also supported by the Elector of Bavaria, and several of the Catholic States of Germany; while, on the other hand, it was opposed by the Protestant States assembled at Osnabrück, and by the Emperor, who was unwilling to see his most dangerous enemy admitted, as it were, into his very household. Servien too, the colleague of Avaux, disapproved of a plan that would lower the dignity of France, by rendering its King a vassal of the Emperor; and this view of the matter prevailed at the French Court.

For the satisfaction of Sweden were ceded to her, as perpetual and hereditary fiefs, all Western Pomerania, together with the towns of Stettin, Garz, Damm, and Gollnow at the mouth of the Oder, the islands of Wollin, Usedom, and Rügen, the city and port of Wismar in Mecklenburg, and the secularized Bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, the former as a Duchy, the latter as a Principality; with seat and triple vote in the Diets of the Empire. Sweden was allowed to erect a University, which was afterwards established at Greifswald.

Other articles regulated the compensation to be made to German Princes; by which the Houses that chiefly profited were those of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, and Hesse. Brandenburg, which was soon to assume a foremost rank among German States, for the part of Pomerania which she abandoned to Sweden, received the Bishopric (henceforth Principality) of Halberstadt with the Lordships of Lohra and Klettenberg, the Bishoprics of Minden and Camin, the former secularized as a Principality, and, after the death of Prince Augustus of Saxony, the reversion of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg secularized as a Duchy.

By the Peace of Westphalia the independence of the Swiss League was recognized, and the Empire acknowledged also the independence of the Northern Netherlands, nor made any provision for the free navigation of the Rhine. The question respecting the succession to the inheritance of Jülich was referred to future adjustment. There were many other articles respecting the surety and guarantee of the peace, its execution, the pay of the soldiery, evacuation of fortresses, &c., which it is not necessary here to detail.

As the Pope seemed to be included in the peace as an ally of the Emperor, under the expression "the Princes and Republics of Italy", the Nuncio Chigi, immediately after the completion of the treaty, entered a protest against it; not indeed against the peace itself, but against the articles which it contained detrimental to the Church of Rome; and Pope Innocent X soon after published a bull (November 126th) declaring the treaties of Munster and Osnabrück null and void. Such weapons, however, were now mere bruta fulmina. Even the Catholic Princes, who were glad to see the war ended, gave little heed to the Pope's proceedings; and Ferdinand III himself, notwithstanding his devotion to the Holy See, did not hesitate to forbid the circulation of the bull.

Thus the policy of France and Sweden was entirely successful. These countries, besides raising up a counterpoise to the power of the Emperor in Germany itself, had succeeded in aggrandizing themselves at the expense of the Empire. Sweden, indeed, in the course of the next century was to lose most of her acquisitions; but France had at last seated herself, for more than two coming centuries, on the Rhine; the House of Austria lost the preponderance it had enjoyed since the time of Charles V, which was now to be transferred to her rival; and, during the ensuing period, France was the leading European Power; a position which she mainly owed to the genius and policy of Cardinal Richelieu. Thus the Peace of Westphalia marks a new era in the policy and public law of Europe.

CHAPTER XXXV

THE FRONDE AND THE FRANCO-SPANISH WAR