his naval and military programmes. His fleet was growing on Lake Ladoga.
In its neighbourhood was the important Swedish fortress of Niantz, which
he captured in May 1703; after which he resolved to establish the town
which became Petersburg, where the Neva flows into the Gulf of Finland;
and designed the fortifications of Cronstadt, which were to render it
impregnable. The next step was to take Narva, where he had before been
foiled. The town fell on August 20, 1704; when Peter, by his personal
exertions, checked the violence of his soldiery.
Menzikoff, a man of humble origin, was now made governor of Ingria. In
June 1705, a formidable attempt of the Swedes to destroy the rapidly
rising Petersburg and Cronstadt was completely repulsed. A Swedish
victory, under Lewenhaupt, at Gemavers, in Courland, was neutralised by
the capture of Mittau. But Poland was now torn from Augustus, and
Charles's nominee, Stanislaus, was king. Denmark had been forced into
neutrality; exaggerated reports of the defeat at Gemavers had once more
stirred up the remnants of the old Strelitz. Nevertheless, Peter, before
the end of the year, was as secure as ever.
In 1706, Augustus was reduced to a formal abdication and recognition of
Stanislaus as King of Poland; and Patkul, a Livonian, Peter's ambassador
at Dresden, was subsequently delivered to Charles and put to death, to
the just wrath of Peter. In October, the Russians, under Menzikoff, won
their first pitched battle against the Swedes, a success which did not
save Patkul.
In February 1708, Charles himself was once more in Lithuania, at the
head of an army. But his advance towards Moscow was disputed at
well-selected points, and even his victory at Hollosin was a proof that
the Russians had now learned how to fight.
When Charles reached the Dnieper, he unexpectedly marched to unite with
Mazeppa in the Ukraine, instead of continuing his advance on Moscow.
Menzikoff intercepted Lewenhaupt on the march with a great convoy to
join Charles, and that general was only able to cut his way through with
5,000 of his force. Mazeppa's own movement was crushed, and he only
joined Charles as a fugitive, not an ally. Charles's desperate
operations need not be followed. It suffices to say that in May 1709, he
had opened the siege of Pultawa, by the capture of which he counted that
the road to Moscow would lie open to him.
Here the decisive battle was fought on July 12. The dogged patience with
which Peter had turned every defeat into a lesson in the art of war met
with its reward. The Swedish army was shattered; Charles, prostrated by
a wound, was himself carried into safety across the Turkish frontier.
Peter's victory was absolutely decisive and overwhelming; and what it
meant was the civilising of a territory till then barbarian. Its effects
in other European countries, including the recovery of the Polish crown
by Augustus, are pointed out in the history of Charles XII. The year
1710 witnessed the capture of a series of Swedish provinces in the
Baltic provinces; and the Swedish forces in Pomerania were neutralised.
_IV.--The Expansion of Russia_
Now the Sultan Ahmed III. declared war on Peter; not for the sake of his
guest, Charles XII., but because of Peter's successes in Azov, his new
port of Taganrog, and his ships on the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. He
outraged international law by throwing the Russian envoy and his suite
into prison. Peter at once left his Swedish campaign to advance his
armies against Turkey.
Before leaving Moscow he announced his marriage with the Livonian
captive, Catherine, whom he had secretly made his wife in 1707. Apraksin
was sent to take the supreme command by land and sea. Cantemir, the
hospodar of Moldavia, promised support, for his own ends.
The Turkish vizier, Baltagi Mehemet, had already crossed the Danube, and
was marching up the Pruth with 100,000 men. Peter's general Sheremetof
was in danger of being completely hemmed in when Peter crossed the
Dnieper, Catherine stoutly refusing to leave the army. No help came from
Cantemir, and supplies were running short. The Tsar was too late to
prevent the passage of the Pruth by the Turks, who were now on his lines
of communication; and he found himself in a trap, without supplies, and
under the Turkish guns. When he attempted to withdraw, the Turkish force
attacked, but were brilliantly held at bay by the Russian rear-guard.
Nevertheless, the situation was desperate. It was Catherine who saved
it. At her instigation, terms--accompanied by the usual gifts--were
proposed to the vizier; and, for whatever reason, the vizier was
satisfied to conclude a peace then and there. He was probably
unconscious of the extremities to which Peter was reduced. Azov was to
be retroceded, Taganrog, and other forts, dismantled; the Tsar was not
to interfere in Poland, and Charles was to be allowed a free return to
his own dominions. The hopes of Charles were destroyed, and he was
reduced to intriguing at the Ottoman court.
Peter carried out some of the conditions of the Pruth treaty. The more
important of them he successfully evaded for some time. The treaty,
however, was confirmed six months later. But the Pruth affair was a more
serious check to the Tsar than even Narva had been, for it forced him to
renounce the dominion of the Black Sea. He turned his attention to
Pomerania, though the injuries his health had suffered drove him to take
the waters at Carlsbad.
His object was to drive the Swedes out of their German territories, and
confine them to Scandinavia; and to this end he sought alliance with
Hanover, Brandenburg, and Denmark. About this time he married his son
Alexis (born to him by his first wife) to the sister of the German
Emperor; and proceeded to ratify by formal solemnities his own espousal
to Catherine.
Charles might have saved himself by coming out of Turkey, buying the
support of Brandenburg by recognising her claim on Stettin, and
accepting the sacrifice of his own claim to Poland, which Stanislaus was
ready to make for his sake. He would not. Russians, Saxons, and Danes
were now acting in concert against the Swedes in Pomerania. A Swedish
victory over the Danes and Gadebesck and the burning of Altona were of
no real avail. The victorious general not long after was forced to
surrender with his whole army. Stettin capitulated on condition of being
transferred to Prussia. Stralsund was being besieged by Russians and
Saxons; Hanover was in possession of Bremen and Verden; and Peter was
conquering Finland, when, at last, Charles suddenly reappeared at
Stralsund, in November 1715. But the brilliant naval operation by which
Peter captured the Isle of Aland had already secured Finland.
During the last three years a new figure had risen to prominence, the
ingenious, ambitious and intriguing Baron Gortz, who was now to become
the chief minister and guide of the Swedes. Under his influence,
Charles's hostility was now turned in other directions than against
Russia, and Peter was favourably inclined towards the opening of a new
chapter in his relations with Sweden, since he had made himself master
of Ingria, Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Carelia. The practical
suspension of hostilities enabled Peter to start on a second European
tour, while Charles, driven at last from Weimar and Stralsund--all that
was left him south of the Baltic--was planning the invasion of Norway.
During this tour the Tsar passed three months in Holland, his old school
in the art of naval construction; and while he was there intrigues were
on foot which threatened to revolutionise Europe. Gortz had conceived
the design of allying Russia and Sweden, restoring Stanislaus in Poland,
recovering Bremen and Verden from Hanover, and finally of rejecting the
Hanoverian Elector from his newly acquired sovereignty in Great Britain
by restoring the Stuarts. Spain, now controlled by Alberoni, was to be
the third power concerned in effecting this _bouleversement_, which
involved the overthrow of the regency of Orleans in France.
The discovery of this plot, through the interception of some letters
from Gortz, led to the arrest of Gortz in Holland, and of the Swedish
ambassador, Gyllemborg, in London. Peter declined to commit himself. His
reception when he went to Paris was eminently flattering; but an attempt
to utilise it for a reunion of the Greek and Latin Churches was a
complete failure. The Gortz plot had entirely collapsed before Peter
returned to Russia.
_V.--Peter the Great_
Peter had been married in his youth to Eudoxia Feodorovna Lapoukin. With
every national prejudice, she had stood persistently in the way of his
reforms. In 1696 he had found it necessary to divorce her, and seclude
her in a convent. Alexis, the son born of this marriage in 1690,
inherited his mother's character, and fell under the influence of the
most reactionary ecclesiastics. Politically and morally the young man
was a reactionary. He was embittered, too, by his father's second
marriage; and his own marriage, in 1711, was a hideous failure. His
wife, ill-treated, deserted, and despised, died of wretchedness in 1715.
She left a son.
Peter wrote to Alexis warning him to reform, since he would sooner
transfer the succession to one worthy of it than to his own son if
unworthy. Alexis replied by renouncing all claim to the succession.
Renunciation, Peter answered, was useless. Alexis must either reform, or
give the renunciation reality by becoming a monk. Alexis promised; but
when Peter left Russia, he betook himself to his brother-in-law's court
at Vienna, and then to Naples, which at the time belonged to Austria.
Peter ordered him to return; if he did, he should not be punished; if
not, the Tsar would assuredly find means.
Alexis obeyed, returned, threw himself at his father's feet. A
reconciliation was reported. But next day Peter arraigned his son before
a council, and struck him out of the succession in favour of Catherine's
infant son Peter. Alexis was then subjected to a series of incredible
interrogations as to what he would or would not have done under
circumstances which had never arisen.
At the strange trial, prolonged over many months, the 144 judges
unanimously pronounced sentence of death. Catherine herself is said by
Peter to have pleaded for the stepson, whose accession would certainly
have meant her own destruction. Nevertheless, the unhappy prince was
executed. That Peter slew him with his own hand, and that Catherine
poisoned him, are both fables. The real source of the tragedy is to be
found in the monks who perverted the mind of the prince.
This same year, 1718, witnessed the greatest benefits to Peter's
subjects--in general improvements, in the establishment and perfecting
of manufactures, in the construction of canals, and in the development
of commerce. An extensive commerce was established with China through
Siberia, and with Persia through Astrakan. The new city of Petersburg
replaced Archangel as the seat of maritime intercourse with Europe.
Peter was now the arbiter of Northern Europe. In May 1724, he had
Catherine crowned and anointed as empress. But he was suffering from a
mental disease, and of this he died, in Catherine's arms, in the
following January, without having definitely nominated a successor.
Whether or not it was his intention, it was upon his wife Catherine that
the throne devolved.
* * * * *
W.H. PRESCOTT
The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella
William Hickling Prescott was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on
May 4, 1796. His first great historical work, "The History of
the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella," published in 1838, was
compiled under circumstances of extraordinary difficulty.
During most of the time of its composition the author was
deprived of sight, and was dependent on having all documents
read to him. Before it was completed he recovered the use of
his eyes, and was able to correct and verify. Nevertheless,
the changes required were few. The "Conquest of Mexico" and
"Conquest of Peru" (see _ante_) followed at intervals of five
and four years, and ten years later the uncompleted "Philip
II." He died in New York on January 28, 1859. The subjects of
this work, Ferdinand and Isabella, were the monarchs who
united the Spanish kingdoms into one nation, ended the Moorish
dominion in Europe, and annexed the New World to Spain, which
during the ensuing century threatened to dominate the states
of Christendom.
_I.--Castile and Aragon_
After the great Saracen invasion, at the beginning of the eighth
century, Spain was broken up into a number of small but independent
states. At the close of the fifteenth century, these were blended into
one great nation. Before this, the numbers had been reduced to
four--Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and the Moorish kingdom of Granada.
The civil feuds of Castile in the fourteenth century were as fatal to
the nobility as were the English Wars of the Roses. At the close, the
power of the commons was at its zenith. In the long reign of John II.,
the king abandoned the government to the control of favourites. The
constable, Alvaro de Luna, sought to appropriate taxing and legislative
powers to the crown. Representation in the cortes was withdrawn from all
but eighteen privileged cities. Politically disastrous, the reign was
conspicuous for John's encouragement of literature, the general
intellectual movement, and the birth of Isabella, three years before
John's death.
The immediate heir to the throne was Isabella's elder half-brother
Henry. Her mother was the Princess of Portugal, so that on both sides
she was descended from John of Gaunt, the father of our Lancastrian
line. Both her childhood and that of Ferdinand of Aragon, a year her
junior, were passed amidst tumultuous scenes of civil war. Henry,
good-natured, incompetent, and debauched, yielded himself to favourites,
hence he was more than once almost rejected from his throne. Old King
John II. of Aragon was similarly engaged in a long civil war, mainly
owing to his tyrannous treatment of his eldest son, Carlos.
But by 1468 Isabella and Ferdinand were respectively recognised as the
heirs of Castile and Aragon. In spite of her brother, Isabella made
contract of marriage with the heir of Aragon, the instrument securing
her own sovereign rights in Castile, though Henry thereupon nominated
another successor in her place. The marriage was effected under romantic
conditions in October 1469, one circumstance being that the bull of
dispensation permitting the union of cousins within the forbidden
degrees was a forgery, though the fact was unknown at the time to
Isabella. The reason of the forgery was the hostility of the then pope;
a dispensation was afterwards obtained from Sixtus IV. The death of
Henry, in December 1474, placed Isabella and Ferdinand on the throne of
Castile.
_II.--Overthrow of the Moorish Dominion_
Isabella's claim to Castile rested on her recognition by the Cortes; the
rival claimant was a daughter of the deceased king, or at any rate, of
his wife, a Portuguese princess. Alfonso of Portugal supported his niece
Joanna's claim. In March 1476 Ferdinand won the decisive victory of
Toro; but the war of the succession was not definitely terminated by
treaty till 1479, some months after Ferdinand had succeeded John on the
throne of Aragon.
Isabella was already engaged in reorganising the administration of
Castile; first, in respect of justice, and codification of the law;
secondly, by depressing the nobles. A sort of military police, known as
the _hermandad_, was established. These reforms were carried out with
excellent effect; instead of birth, merit became the primary
qualification for honourable offices. Papal usurpations on
ecclesiastical rights were resisted, trade was regulated, and the
standard of coinage restored. The whole result was to strengthen the
crown in a consolidated constitution.
Restrained by her natural benevolence and magnanimity, urged forward by
her strong piety and the influence of the Dominican Torquemada, Isabella
assented to the introduction of the Inquisition--aimed primarily at the
Jews--with its corollary of the _Auto da fé_, of which the actual
meaning is "Act of Faith." Probably 10,220 persons were burnt at the
stake during the eighteen years of Torquemada's ministry.
Now, however, we come to the great war for the ejection of the Moorish
rule in southern Spain. The Saracen power of Granada was magnificent;
the population was industrious, sober, and had far exceeded the
Christian powers in culture, in research, and in scientific and
philosophical inquiry.
So soon as Ferdinand and Isabella had established their government in
their joint dominion, they turned to the project of destroying the
Saracen power and conquering its territory. But the attack came from
Muley Abul Hacen, the ruler of Granada, in 1481. Zahara, on the
frontier, was captured and its population carried into slavery. A
Spanish force replied by surprising Alhama. The Moors besieged it in
force; it was relieved, but the siege was renewed. In an unsuccessful
attack on Loja, Ferdinand displayed extreme coolness and courage. A
palace intrigue led to the expulsion from Granada of Abdul Hacen, in
favour of his son, Abu Abdallah, or Boabdil. The war continued with
numerous picturesque episodes. A rout of the Spaniards in the Axarquia
was followed by the capture of Boabdil in a rout of the Moors; he was
ransomed, accepting an ignominious treaty, while the war was maintained
against Abdul Hacen.
In the summer of 1487, Malaja fell, after a siege in which signal
heroism was displayed by the Moorish defenders. Since they had refused
the first offers, they now had to surrender at discretion. The entire
population, male and female, were made slaves. The capture of Baza, in
December, after a long and stubborn resistance, was followed by the
surrender of Almeria and the whole province appertaining to it.
It was not till 1491 that Granada itself was besieged; at the close of
the year it surrendered, on liberal terms. The treaty promised the Moors
liberty to exercise their own religion, customs, and laws, as subjects
of the Spanish monarchy. The Mohammedan power in Western Europe was
extinguished.
Already Christopher Columbus had been unsuccessfully seeking support for
his great enterprise. At last, in 1492, Isabella was won over. In
August, the expedition sailed--a few months after the cruel edict for
the expulsion of the Jews. In the spring of 1493 came news of his
discovery. In May the bull of Alexander VI. divided the New World and
all new lands between Spain and Portugal.
_III.--The Italian Wars_
In the foreign policy, the relations with Europe, which now becomes
prominent, Ferdinand is the moving figure, as Isabella had been within
Spain. In Spain, Portugal, France, and England, the monarchy had now
dominated the old feudalism. Consolidated states had emerged. Italy was
a congeries of principalities and republics. In 1494 Charles VIII. of
France crossed the Alps to assert his title to Naples, where a branch of
the royal family of Aragon ruled. His successor raised up against him
the League of Venice, of which Ferdinand was a member. Charles withdrew,
leaving a viceroy, in 1495. Ferdinand forthwith invaded Calabria.
The Spanish commander was Gonsalvo de Cordova; who, after a reverse in
his first conflict, for which he was not responsible, never lost a
battle. He had learnt his art in the Moorish war, and the French were
demoralised by his novel tactics. In a year he had earned the title of
"The Great Captain." Calabria submitted in the summer of 1496. The
French being expelled from Naples, a truce was signed early in 1498,
which ripened into a definitive treaty.
On the death of Cardinal Mendoza, for twenty years the monarchs' chief
minister, his place was taken by Ximenes, whose character presented a
rare combination of talent and virtue; who proceeded to energetic and
much-needed reforms in church discipline.
Not with the same approbation can we view the zeal with which he devoted
himself to the extermination of heresy. The conversion of the Moors to
Christianity under the régime of the virtuous Archbishop of Granada was
not rapid enough. Ximenes, in 1500, began with great success a
propaganda fortified by liberal presents. Next he made a holocaust of
Arabian MSS. The alarm and excitement caused by measures in clear
violation of treaty produced insurrection; which was calmed down, but
was followed by the virtually compulsory conversion of some fifty
thousand Moors.
This stirred to revolt the Moors of the Alpuxarras hill-country; crushed
with no little difficulty, but great severity, the insurrection broke
out anew on the west of Granada. This time the struggle was savage. When
it was ended the rebels were allowed the alternative of baptism or
exile.
Columbus had returned to the New World in 1493 with great powers; but
administrative skill was not his strong point, and the first batch of
colonists were without discipline. He returned and went out again, this
time with a number of convicts. Matters became worse. A very incompetent
special commissioner, Bobadilla, was sent with extraordinary powers to
set matters right, and he sent Columbus home in chains, to the
indignation of the king and queen. The management of affairs was then
entrusted to Ovando, Columbus following later. It must be observed that
the economic results of the great discovery were not immediately
remarkable; but the moral effect on Europe at large was incalculable.
On succeeding to the French throne, Louis XII. was prompt to revive the
French claims in Italy (1498); but he agreed with Ferdinand on a
partition of the kingdom of Naples, a remarkable project of robbery. The
Great Captain was despatched to Sicily, and was soon engaged in
conquering Calabria. It was not long, however, before France and Aragon
were quarrelling over the division of the spoil. In July 1502 war was
declared between them in Italy. The war was varied by set combats in the
lists between champions of the opposed nations.
In 1503 a treaty was negotiated by Ferdinand's son-in-law, the Archduke
Philip. Gonsalvo, however, not recognising instructions received from
Philip, gave battle to the French at Cerignola, and won a brilliant
victory. A few days earlier another victory had been won by a second
column; and Gonsalvo marched on Naples, which welcomed him. The two
French fortresses commanding it were reduced. Since Ferdinand refused to
ratify Philip's treaty, a French force entered Roussillon; but retired
on Ferdinand's approach. The practical effect of the invasion was a
demonstration of the new unity of the Spanish kingdom.
In Italy, Louis threw fresh energy into the war; and Gonsalvo found his
own forces greatly out-numbered. In the late autumn there was a sharp
but indecisive contest at the Garigliano Bridge. Gonsalvo held to his
position, despite the destitution of his troops, until he received
reinforcements. Then, on December 28, he suddenly and unexpectedly
crossed the river; the French retired rapidly, gallantly covered by the
rear-guard, hotly attacked by the Spanish advance guard. The retreat
being checked at a bridge, the Spanish rear was enabled to come up, and
the French were driven in route. Gaeta surrendered on January 4; no
further resistance was offered. South Italy was in the hands of
Gonsalvo.
_IV.--After Isabella_
Throughout 1503 and 1504 Queen Isabella's strength was failing. In
November 1504 she died, leaving the succession to the Castilian crown to
her daughter Joanna, and naming Ferdinand regent. Magnanimity,
unselfishness, openness, piety had been her most marked moral traits;
justice, loyalty, practical good sense her political characteristics--a
most rare and virtuous lady.