later title) died, a new political question, vastly
disturbing, was brought into affairs. That death left no heir
to the crown in the Valois line, and the King of Navarre, of
the House of Bourbon, was now nearer in birth to the throne
than any other living person. Henry had, long ere this,
retracted his abjuration of 1572, had rejoined the Huguenots
and taken his place as their chief. The head of the Huguenots
was now the heir presumptive to the crown, and the wretched,
incapable king was being impelled by his fear of Guise to look
to his Huguenot heir for support. It was a strange situation.
In 1588 it underwent a sinister change. Guise and his brother,
the Cardinal, were both assassinated by the king's body-guard,
acting under the king's orders, in the royal residence at the
Castle of Blois. When the murder had been done, the cowardly
king spurned his dead enemy with his foot, as Guise, sixteen
years before, had spurned the murdered Coligny, and said "I am
King at last." He was mistaken. His authority vanished with
the vile deed by which he expected to reinvigorate it. Paris
broke into open rebellion. The League renewed its activity
throughout France. The king, abandoned and cursed on all
sides, had now no course open to him but an alliance with
Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots. The alliance was effected,
and the two Henrys joined forces to subdue insurgent Paris.
While the siege of the city was in progress (1589), Henry III.
fell a victim, in his turn, to the murderous mania of his
depraved age and court. He was assassinated by a fanatical
monk.
Henry of Navarre.
Henry of Navarre now steps into the foreground of French
history, as Henry IV., lawful King of France as well as of
Navarre, and ready to prove his royal title by a more useful
reign than the French nation had known since it buried St.
Louis, his last ancestor on the throne. But his title was
recognized at first by few outside the party of the Huguenots.
The League went openly into alliance with Philip of Spain, who
even half-stopped his war in the Netherlands to send money and
troops into France. The energies of his insignificant soul
were all concentrated on the desire to keep the heretical
Béarnese from the throne of France. But happily his powers
were no longer equal to his malice; he was still staggering
under the blow which destroyed his great Armada.
Henry received some help in money from Queen Elizabeth, and
5,000 English and Scotch came over to join his army. He was an
abler general than any among his opponents, and he made
headway against them. His splendid victory at Ivry, on the
14th of March, 1590, inspirited his followers and took heart
from the League. He was driven from his subsequent siege of
Paris by a Spanish army, under the Duke of Parma; but the very
interference of the Spanish king helped to turn French feeling
in Henry's favor. On the 25th of July, 1593, he practically
extinguished the opposition to himself by his final submission
to the Church of Rome. It was an easy thing for him to do. His
religion sat lightly on him. He had accepted it from his
mother; he had adhered to it--not faithfully--as the creed of
a party. He could give it up, in exchange for the crown of
France, and feel no trouble of conscience. But the Reformed
religion in France was really benefited by his apostacy. Peace
came to the kingdom, as the consequence,--a peace of many
years,--and the Huguenots were sheltered in considerable
religious freedom by the peace. Henry secured it to them in
1598 by the famous Edict of Nantes, which remained in force
for nearly a hundred years.
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The reign of Henry IV. was one of the satisfactory periods in
the life of France, so far as concerns the material prosperity
of the nation. He was a man of strong, keen intellect, with
firmness of will and elasticity of temper, but weak on the
moral side. He was of those who win admiration and friendship
easily, and he remains traditionally the most popular of
French kings. He had the genius for government which so rarely
coincides with royal birth. A wise minister, the Duke of
Sully, gave stability to his measures, and between them they
succeeded in remarkably improving and promoting the
agricultural and the manufacturing industries of France,
effacing the destructive effects of the long civil wars, and
bringing economy and order into the finances of the
overburdened nation. His useful career was ended by an
assassin in 1610.
Germany and the Thirty Years War.
The reactionary wars of religion in Germany came
half-a-century later than in France. While the latter country
was being torn by the long civil conflicts which Henry IV.
brought to an end, the former was as nearly in the enjoyment
of religious peace as the miserable contentions in the bosom
of Protestantism, between Lutherans and Calvinists (the latter
more commonly called "the Reformed"), would permit. On the
abdication of Charles V., in 1556, he had fortunately failed
to bring about the election of his son Philip to the imperial
throne. His brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and King of
Bohemia and Hungary, was chosen Emperor, and that sovereign
had too many troubles in his immediate dominions to be willing
to invite a collision with the Protestant princes of Germany
at large. The Turks had overrun Hungary and established
themselves in possession of considerable parts of the country.
Ferdinand obtained peace with the redoubtable Sultan Suleiman,
but only by payments of money which bore a strong likeness to
tribute. He succeeded, through his prudent and skilful policy,
in making both the Hungarian and the Bohemian crowns practically
hereditary in the House of Austria.
Dying in 1564, Ferdinand transmitted both those kingdoms, with
the Austrian Archduchy and the imperial office, to his son,
Maximilian II., the broadest and most liberal minded of his
race. Though educated in Spain, and in companionship with his
cousin, Philip II., Maximilian exhibited the most tolerant
spirit that appears anywhere in his age. Perhaps it was the
hatefulness of orthodox zeal as exemplified in Philip which
drove the more generous nature of Maximilian to revolt. He
adhered to the Roman communion; but he manifested so much
respect for the doctrines of the Lutheran that his father felt
called upon at one time to make apologies for him to the Pope.
Throughout his reign he held himself aloof from religious
disputes, setting an example of tolerance and spiritual
intelligence to all his subjects, Lutherans, Calvinists and
Catholics alike, which ought to have influenced them more for
their good than it did. Under the shelter of the toleration
which Maximilian gave it, Protestantism spread quickly over
Austria, where it had had no opportunity before; revived the
old Hussite reform in Bohemia; made great gains in Hungary,
and advanced in all parts of his dominions except the Tyrol.
The time permitted to it for this progress was short, since
Maximilian reigned but twelve years. He died in 1576, and his
son Rudolph, who followed him, brought evil changes upon the
country in all things. He, too, had been educated in Spain,
but with a very different result. He came back a creature of
the Jesuits; but so weakly wilful a creature that even they
could do little with him. Authority of government went to
pieces in his incompetent hands, and at last, in 1606, a
family conclave of princes of the Austrian house began
measures which aimed at dispossessing Rudolph of his various
sovereignties, so far as possible, in favor of his brother
Matthias. Rudolph resisted with some effect, and in the
contests which ensued the Protestants of Austria and Bohemia
improved their opportunity for securing an enlargement of
their rights. Matthias made the concession of complete
toleration in Austria, while Rudolph, in Bohemia, granted the
celebrated charter, called the Letter of Majesty (1609), which
gave entire religious liberty to all sects.
These concessions were offensive to two princes, the Archduke
Ferdinand of Styria, and Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, who had
already taken the lead in a vigorous movement of Catholic
reaction. Some proceedings on the part of Maximilian, which
the Emperor sanctioned, against the Protestant free city of
Donauwörth, had caused certain Protestant princes and cities,
in 1608, to form a defensive Union. But the Elector Palatine,
who attached himself to the Reformed or Calvinist Church, was
at the head of this Union, and the bigoted Lutherans,
especially the Elector of Saxony, looked with coldness upon
it. On the other hand, the Catholic states formed a
counter-organization--a Holy League--which was more compact
and effective. The two parties being thus set in array, there
rose suddenly between them a political question of the most
disturbing character. It related to the right of succession to
an important duchy, that of Juliers, Clèves, and Berg. There
were several powerful claimants, in both of the Saxon
families, and including also the Elector of Brandenburg and
the Palsgrave of Neuberg, two members of the Union. As usual,
the political question took possession of the religious issue
and used it for its own purposes. The Protestant Union opened
negotiations with Henry IV. of France, who saw an opportunity
to weaken the House of Austria and to make some gains for
France at the expense of Germany. A treaty was concluded, and
Henry began active preparations for campaigns in both Germany
and Italy, with serious intent to humble and diminish the
Austrian power. The Dutch came into the alliance, likewise,
and James I. of England promised his co-operation. The
combination was formidable, and might have changed very
extensively the course of events that awaited unhappy Germany,
if the whole plan had not been frustrated by the assassination
of Henry IV., in 1610. All the parties to the alliance drew
back after that event, and both sides waited.
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In 1611, Rudolph was deposed in Bohemia, and the following
year he died. Matthias, already King of Hungary, succeeded
Rudolph in Bohemia and in the Empire. But Matthias was
scarcely stronger in mind or body than his brother, and the
same family pressure which had pushed Rudolph aside now forced
Matthias to accept a coadjutor, in the person of the vigorous
Ferdinand, Archduke of Styria. For the remainder of his reign
Matthias was a cipher, and all power in the government was
exercised by Ferdinand. His bitter opposition to the tolerant
policy which had prevailed generally for half-a-century was
well understood. Hence, his rise to supremacy in the Empire
gave notice that the days of religious peace were ended. The
outbreak of civil war was not long in coming.
Beginning of the war in Bohemia.
It began in Bohemia. A violation of the Protestant rights
guaranteed by the Letter of Majesty provoked a rising under
Count Thurn. Two of the king's councilors, with their
secretary, were flung from a high window of the royal castle,
and this act of violence was followed by more revolutionary
measures. A provisional government of thirty Directors was set
up and the king's authority set wholly aside. The Protestant
Union gave prompt support to the Bohemian insurrection and
sent Count Mansfield with three thousand soldiers to its aid.
The Thirty Years War was begun (1618).
Early in these disturbances, Matthias died (1619). Ferdinand
had already made his succession secure, in Austria, Bohemia
and Hungary, and the imperial crown was presently conferred on
him. But the Bohemians repudiated his kingship and offered
their crown to Frederick, the Elector Palatine, lately married
to the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England.
The Elector, persuaded, it is said, by his ambitious young
wife, unwisely accepted the tempting bauble, and went to
Prague to receive it. But he had neither prudence nor energy
to justify his bold undertaking. Instead of strengthening
himself for his contest with Ferdinand, he began immediately
to enrage his new subjects by pressing Calvinistic forms and
doctrines upon them, and by arrogantly interfering with their
modes of worship. His reign was so brief that he is known in
Bohemian annals as "the winter king." A single battle, won by
Count Tilly, in the service of the Catholic League and of its
chief, Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, ended his sovereignty. He
lost his Electorate as well as his kingdom, and was a
wandering fugitive for the remainder of his life. Bohemia was
mercilessly dealt with by the victorious Ferdinand. Not only
was Protestantism crushed, and Catholicism established as the
exclusive religion, but the very life of the country,
intellectually and materially, was extinguished; so that
Bohemia never again stood related to the civilization of
Europe as it had stood before, when Prague was an important
center of learning and thought. To a less extent, Austria
suffered the same repression, and its Protestantism was
uprooted.
In this sketch it is unnecessary to follow the details of the
frightful Thirty Years War, which began as here described.
During the first years it was carried on mainly by the troops
of the Catholic League, under Tilly, acting against Protestant
forces which had very little coherence or unity, and which
were led by Count Mansfield, Christian of Anhalt, and other
nobles, in considerable independence of one another. In 1625
the first intervention from outside occurred. Christian IV. of
Denmark took up the cause of threatened Protestantism. As Duke
of Schleswig-Holstein, he was a prince of the Empire, and he
joined with other Protestant princes in condemning the
deposition of the Elector-Palatine, whose electorate had been
conferred on Maximilian of Bavaria. King Christian entered
into an alliance with England and Holland, which powers
promised help for the reinstatement of the Elector. But the
aid given was trifling, and slight successes which Christian
and his German allies obtained against Tilly were soon changed
to serious reverses.
Wallenstein.
For the first time during the war, the Emperor now brought
into the field an army acting in his own name, and not in that
of the League. It was done in a singular manner--by contract,
so to speak, with a great soldier and wealthy nobleman, the
famous Wallenstein. Wallenstein offered to the Emperor the
services of an army of 50,000 men, which he would raise and
equip at his own expense, and which should be maintained
without public cost--that is, by plunder. His proposal was
accepted, and the formidable body of trained and powerfully
handled brigands was launched upon Germany, for the torture
and destruction of every region in which it moved. It was the
last appearance in European warfare of the "condottiere" of
the Middle Ages. Wallenstein and Tilly swept all before them.
The former failed only before the stubborn town of Stralsund,
which defied his siege. Mansfield and Christian of Anhalt both
died in 1627. Peace was forced upon the Danish king. The
Protestant cause was prostrate, and the Emperor despised its
weakness so far that he issued an "Edict of Restitution,"
commanding the surrender of certain bishoprics and
ecclesiastical estates which had fallen into Protestant hands
since the Treaty of Passau. At the same time, he yielded to
the jealousy which Wallenstein's power had excited, by
dismissing that commander from his service.
Gustavus Adolphus.
The time was an unfavorable one for such an experiment. A new
and redoubtable champion of Protestantism had just appeared on
the scene and was about to revive the war. This was Gustavus
Adolphus, King of Sweden, who had ambitions, grievances and
religious sympathies, all urging him to rescue the Protestant
states of Germany from the Austrian-Catholic despotism which
seemed to be impending over them. His interference was
jealously resented at first by the greater Protestant princes.
The Elector of Brandenburg submitted to an alliance with him
only under compulsion. The Elector of Saxony did not join the
Swedish king until (1631) Tilly had ravaged his territories
with ferocity, burning 200 villages. When Gustavus had made
his footing in the country secure, he quickly proved himself
the greatest soldier of his age. Tilly was overwhelmed in a
battle fought on the Breitenfeld, at Leipsic. The following
spring he was again beaten, on the Lech, in Bavaria, and died
of wounds received in the battle. Meantime, the greater part
of Germany was at the feet of the Swedish king; and a sincere
co-operation between him and the German princes would probably
have ended the war. But small confidence existed between these
allies, and Richelieu, the shrewd Cardinal who was ruling
France, had begun intrigues which made the Thirty Years War
profitable in the end to France. The victories of Gustavus
seemed to bear little fruit. Wallenstein was summoned once
more to save the Emperor's cause, and reappeared in the field
with 40,000 men. The heroic Swede fought him at Lützen, on the
16th of November, 1632, and routed him, but fell in the battle
among the slain.
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With the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the possibility of a
satisfactory conclusion of the war vanished. The Swedish army
remained in Germany, under the military command of Duke
Bernhard of Saxe Weimar and General Horn, but under the
political direction of Axel Oxenstiern, the able Swedish
Chancellor. On the Imperial side, Wallenstein again incurred
distrust and suspicion. His power was so formidable that his
enemies were afraid to let him live. They plotted his death by
assassination, and he was murdered on the 25th of February,
1634. The Emperor's son Ferdinand now took the command of the
Imperial forces, and, a few months later, having received
reinforcements from Spain, he had the good fortune to defeat
the Swedes at Nördlingen.
The French in the War.
The Elector of Saxony, and other Protestant princes, then made
peace with the Emperor, and the war was only prolonged by the
intrigues of Richelieu and for the aggrandizement of France.
In this final stage of it, when the original elements of
contention, and most of the original contestants, had
disappeared, it lasted for yet fourteen years. Ferdinand II.
died in 1637, and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand III. Duke
Bernhard died in 1639. In the later years of the war,
Piccolomini on the Imperial side, Baner, Torstenson and
Wrangel at the head of the Swedes, and Turenne and Condé in
command of the French, were the soldiers who made great names.
Destructiveness of the War.
In 1648, the long suffering of Germany was eased by the Peace
of Westphalia. Years of quiet, and of order fairly restored,
would be needed to heal the bleeding wounds of the country and
revive its strength. From end to end, it had been trampled
upon for a generation by armies which plundered and destroyed
as they passed. There is nothing more sickening in the annals
of war than the descriptions which eye-witnesses have left of
the misery, the horror, the desolation of that frightful
period in German history. "Especially in the south and west,
Germany was a wilderness of ruins; places that were formerly
the seats of prosperity were the haunts of wolves and robbers
for many a long year. It is estimated that the population was
diminished by twenty, by some even by fifty, per cent. The
population of Augsburg was reduced from 80,000 to 18,000; of
Frankenthal, from 18,000 to 324 inhabitants. In Würtemberg, in
1641, of 400,000 inhabitants, 48,000 remained; in the
Palatinate, in 1636, there were 201 peasant farmers; and in
1648, but a fiftieth part of the population remained"
(Häusser).
The Peace of Westphalia.
By the treaties of Westphalia, the religious question was
settled with finality. Catholics, Lutherans, and the Reformed
(Calvinists), were put on an equal footing of religious
liberty. Politically, the effects of the Peace were radical
and lasting in their injury to the German people. The few
bonds of Germanic unity which had survived the reign of
feudalism were dissolved. The last vestige of authority in the
Empire was destroyed. "From this time Germany long remained a
mere lax confederation of petty despotisms and oligarchies
with hardly any national feeling. Its boundaries too were cut
short in various ways. The independence of the two free
Confederations at the two ends of the Empire, those of
Switzerland and the United Provinces, which had long been
practically cut off from the Empire, was now formally
acknowledged. And, what was far more important, the two
foreign kingdoms which had had the chief share in the war,
France and Sweden, obtained possessions within the Empire, and
moreover, as guarantors or sureties of the peace, they
obtained a general right of meddling in its affairs." "The
right of France to the 'Three Lotharingian Bishoprics,' which
had been seized nearly a hundred years before, was now
formally acknowledged, and, besides this, the possessions and
rights of the House of Austria in Elsass, the German land
between the Rhine and the Vosges, called in France Alsace,
were given to France. The free city of Strasburg and other
places in Elsass still remained independent, but the whole of
South Germany now lay open to France. This was the greatest
advance that France had yet made at the expense of the Empire.
Within Germany itself the Elector of Brandenburg also received
a large increase of territory" (Freeman).
Among the treaties which made up the Peace of Westphalia was
one signed by Spain, acknowledging the independence of the
United Provinces, and renouncing all claims to them.
France under Richelieu.
The great gains of France from the Thirty Years War were part
of the fruit of bold and cunning statesmanship which Richelieu
had ripened and plucked for that now rising nation. For a time
after the death of Henry IV., chaos had seemed likely to
return again in France. His son, Louis XIII., was but nine
years old. The mother, Marie de' Medici, who secured the
regency, was a foolish woman, ruled by Italian favorites, who
made themselves odious to the French people. As soon as the
young king approached manhood, he put himself in opposition to
his mother and her favorites, under the influence of a set of
rivals no more worthy, and France was carried to the verge of
civil war by their puerile hostilities. Happily there was
something in the weak character of Louis XIII. which bent him
under the influence of a really great mind when circumstances
had brought him within its reach. Richelieu entered the King's
council in 1624. The king was soon an instrument in his hands,
and he ruled France, as though the scepter was his own, for
eighteen years. He was as pitiless a despot as ever set heel
on a nation's neck; but the power which he grasped with what
seemed to be a miserly and commonplace greed, was all gathered
for the aggrandizement of the monarchy that he served. He
believed that the nation needed to have one master, sole and
unquestioned in his sovereignty. That he enjoyed being that
one master, in reality, while he lived, is hardly doubtful;
but his whole ambition is not so explained. He wrought
according to his belief for France, and the king, in his eyes,
was the embodiment of France. He erected the pedestal on which
"the grand monarch" of the next generation posed with
theatrical effect.
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Three things Richelieu did;
1. He enforced the royal authority, with inexorable rigor,
against the great families and personages, who had not
learned, even under Henry IV., that they were subjects in the
absolute sense.
2. He struck the Huguenots, not as a religious sect, but as a
political party, and peremptorily stopped their growth of
strength in that character, which had clearly become
threatening to the state.
3. He organized hostility in Europe to the overbearing and
dangerous Austro-Spanish power, put France at the head of it,
and took for her the lion's share of the conquests by which
the Hapsburgs were reduced.
Mazarin and the Fronde.