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THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION 



VOL. n. 



THE 



PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION 



1517 TO 1648 



By LUDWIG HAUSSER 



BDITBD BV 

WILHELM ONCKEN 

PROrUSOR OF HISTORY AT THB UNIVERSITY OP OIBSSKN 

TRANSLATED BY MRS, C. STURGE 



IN TWO VOLS.— II. 







STRAHAN & CO. 

56, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 

1873 



//O. 



/■ 



3^(^ . 



LONDON: 

PRINTED BY VIRTUB AND CO. 

CITY ROAD. 



CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 



PART VL 

THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, UNTIL THE 
RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM BY HENRY IV. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

PAGE 

The last War vrith Spain and England, 1557-9.— Defeat at St. 
Quentin, 1557, and Gravelingen, 1558. — ^Taking of Calais, 
Peace of Cateau Cambrasis, 3rd Apnl, 1559. — Catharine de 
Medici and the Grovemment of the Guises. — French Protes- 
tantisjn in Conflict with the State. — The Clergy, Humanism, ' 
the Sorbonne and Parliament. — First Agitation of the New 
Doctrines. — Persecution of the Heretics after 15^2. — The 
Aristocracy and the Princes of the Blood attacked by Cal- 
vinism. — The Conspiraqi of Amboise, March, 1560.— -Crisis 
and Change after the Death of King Francis II., 5th Decem- 
ber, 1560. — Successes of Protestantism, 1559. — La R6- 
naudie*s Project. — Condi's Trial. — Catharine de Medici as 
Regent i 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

CHARLES IX., 1560-74, AND THE HUGUENOTS, UNTIL I57O. 

The First Compromise with the Reform Party. — ^The States of 
the Empire at Orleans, 1560-61. — The Discussion on Reli- 
gion at Poissy, Autumn of 1561. — The Edict of 17th January, 
1562.— The Three First Religious Wars, 1562-70.— The 
Massacre at Vassy, March, I562.^<^haracter of the Civil 
War.— The First Religious War.— BatUe of St. Dreux, De- 
cember, 1562. — Edict of Amboise, March, 1563. — The Second 
Religious War, 1567.8. — The Edict of Longjumeaux, March, 
1568.— The Third Religious War, 1569-70. — Victories of 
the Catholics at Jamac and Moncontour.— Religious Peace 
of St Germain-en-Laye, August, 1570. — Character of 
Charles rX 17 



THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION 



VOL. n. 



viii CONTENTS. 



PART IX. 



SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.— 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SWEDEN AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 

PAOK 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphos. — Eric XTV., 1560-68. — 
John III., 1568-92, and Charles of Sudermanland. — Charles 
as Regent, 1 592-1 604. — Charles IX. as King, 1 604-11. — 
Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, 161 1-30. — Position of Afiairs 
at the beginning of his Reign. — Political, Military, and Do- 
mestic Reforms. — Wars with Denmark, Russia, and Poland. 
—The Contest for the Baltic 131 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 163O-32. 

Origin and Significance of the Swedish War. — Motives, Political 
and Relisious, of Gustavus Adolphus. — Characteristics of 
him and nis Army. — ^Their Landing and First Successes, 
June — ^December, 1630. — Gustavus Adolphus in Pomerania. 
—Siege of Stettin ; Treaty with Duke Bogeslav.— Tedious 
Advance into Pomerania. — Imperial troops driven out of 
Pomerania, December, 1630. — ^Treaty of Barwald, January, 
1 63 1. — Convention of Leipzig, and Fall of Magdeburg, May, 
163 1. — ^Electoral Brandenburg and Electoral Hesse join Gus- 
tavus Adolphus, June — August. — Battle of Breitenfeld, Sep- 
tember 7, 1 63 1. — Victorious March of Gustavus Adolphus 
towards South and West Germany, October — December, 1631. 
— Plans for Restoration. — Overthrow of the Power of the 
League.— Return of Wallenstein, April, 1632.— Battle of 
Lutzen, i6th November, 1632. — Deatn of Ghistavus Adol- 
phus and its Significance 149 



CONTENTS. IX 



PART X. 



THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR.— 
RICHELIEU, OXENSTIERNA, AND BERNHARD 
VON WEIMAR. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

FRANCE AFTER THE DEATH OF HENEY IV. 

PAOB 

Louis XIII., 1610-43, ^^d Mary of Medici. — The Parliament of 
1614. — ^Murder of the Mar^al d'Ancre, April, 161 7. — ^The 
Duke of Luynes. — Cardinal Richelieu, 1624-42, and Louis 
XIII.<— Characteristics of both. — Richelieu's political method. 
— His testament. — His rule at home and abroad. — Fall of La 
Rochelle, 1628.— The affair in the Valteline and the War 
about Mantua, 1630 181 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

GERMANY FROM THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS TO WALLEN- 
STSIN'S CATASTROPHE. NOVEMBER, 1 63 2— FEBRUARY, 1634. 

Dissensions in the Swedish Camp : Oxenstiema and Bemhard of 
Weimar. — Beginning of the French Negotiations : Marquis de 
Feuanieres. — The Treaty of Heilbronn, April 23rd, 1633. — 
Wallenstein's ambiguous conduct of the war in 1633. — Nego- 
tiations with Saxony. The letter of December 26th, 1633. — 
The Bond of Pilsen, January 12th, 1634. — ^The murder at 
Eger, February 25th, 1034 204 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE WAR FROM THE BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN, 1634^ TO BERNHARD'S 
DEATH, 1639. 

Defeat of the Swedish army at Nordlingen.— Oxenstiema's fruitless 
negotiations. — The peace of Prague, 1635. — Its significance 
and results. — Baner's victories and vicissitudes, 1636-7. — Vic- 
tories and ^eath of Bemhard of Weimar, 1638-9 . .221 



CONTENTS. 



PART XL 

END OF THE WAR.— THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 
1640-48. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

3ANER*S END, MAY, 164I, AND TORSTENSON*S VICTORIES, 1642-5. 

PAOS 

Battle of Leipzig, 2nd November, 1643.— Campaign against Den- 
mark, 1643-44. — ^Victory near Tankowitz, February, 1645. — 
Simultaneous warfare of the French. — ^The Peace Negotia- 
tions and end of the War. — The Diet of Ratisbon from Sep- 
tember, 1640. — Brandenburg's Proposition of Unconditional 
Amnesty, and Restoration to the Condition of 16 18. — ^The 
Hamburg Preliminaries, December, 1641. — The Meeting of 
Deputies at Frankfort, 1642-45. — Beginning of the Peace 
Congress and end of the War,, 1 644-48 251 

CHAFl^ER XL. 

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA 262 



PART XII. 

COMPLETION OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 
CHAPTER XLI. 

THE REFORMATION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH UNDER 
EDWARD VI., 1547-53. 

The inheritance of Henry VIII. — Character of the young King^ 
The first Protector, Edward, Duke of Somerset, 1549. — The 
second Protector, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumber- 
land, 1553.— Character of the Church Reform, Bible, Cate- 
chism, Book of Common Prayer, Abolition of the Mass, 
Celibacy, &c. — ^The Catholic reaction under Mary, 1553-8. — 
Abolition of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Edward VI., and 
first acts of revenge. — Marriage with Philip II. of Spain, 
1554. — The Question of Church Property. — Parliament and 
the Laws concerning Heresy.— The Ordeal by fire of English 
Protestantism. — The untenable position of the Goyemment 
after the loss of Calais and the Breach of the Constitution . 280 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XLII. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, I558-1603. 

PAOB 

Cautious beginniDss.— The Parliament of 1559 and the Re-esta- 
blishment of me Anglican Church. — Beginning of the con- 
flict with Mary. Stuart. — The Reformation in Scotland, John 
Knox. — Mary Stuart in Scotland, 1 561-8. — Damley. — Rizzio. 
— Bothwell. — Mary Stuart in England. — ^Attitude of Rome 
and Spain against Elizabeth. — The Conspiracies. — Norfolk, 
1569-1572. — ^Elizabeth's forced enmity towards Rome and 
Spain, 1572-85. — Conspiracy of Savage and Babington. — 
Mary Stuart's Trial and Execution, 1586-7.— The Spanish 
Armada and Elizabeth's last days, 1603 .... 298 



PART XIII. 

THE REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC IN ENGLAND. 
CHAPTER XLIIL 

JAMES I., 1603-25. 

Character of the Monarch and unfavourable beginning of his Reign. 
— ^ITie Gunpowder Plot, November, 1605. — The Contests of 
162 1. — Trial of Lord Bacon of Verulam. — ^The Question of 
taking part in the Bohemian-Palatinate War. — The Difficulties 
of Parhament. — ^Address of November, 1621, and Dissolution 
of Parliament — The Spanish Marriage Scheme. Buckingham 
and the Prince of Wales. — Change in the Policy of England. 
— ^The Parliament of 1624. — DeaSi of James, April, 1625 . 335 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

Charles L, 1625-49. — His Character. — The first two Parliaments, 
1625-26.— The War with Spain and France.— The third and 
last Parliament.- The Petition of Right, 1628-9.— Charles I. 
without a Parliament. — ^The Earl of Straflbrd. — Archbishop 
Land. — ^The Star Chamber. — The High Commission. — Ship 
Money, 1634. — ^John Hampden's TVial, 1637 .... 352 

CHAPTER XLV. 

THE TURN OF EVENTS. 

The Complications in Scotland, 1637-39.— The Tumult at Edin- 
bmrgh.— The Covenant, 1638.— The General Assembly at 
Glasgow, November, 1638. — ^The Fourth Parliament, 1640. — 
Hie Long Parliament. — First Measures against the Policy 
and Representatives of Strafford's System. — Indictment, 
Tzia], auDd Execution of Strafford, May, 1 64 1 . . •371 



ErT::^ 



XU ^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XLvi. 

OPEN BREACH BETWEEN THE KING AND PARLIAMENT. 

The King in Scotland, August, 1641. — Massacre of the Protestants 
in Ireland — Return of Parliament in October, and the Sepa- 
ration of Parties into Cavaliers and Roundheads. — ^The Gmeat 
Remonstrance, November, and the unsuccessful Coup d^Etat^ 
January ^rd and 4th, 1642. — Commotions in London. — ^The 
First PamamentaiyArmy. — Departure of the King. — Return 
of Parliament, January nth, I C42 383 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE CIVIL WAR. 

Prospects of both Parties. — Victories of the Royalists, October, 
1642, to September, 1643.-!— Interposition of the Scots. — 
Presbyterians and Independents. — Defeat of the Royalists at 
Marston Moor, July, and at Newbury, October, 16114. — 
Oliver Cromwell. — The Self-denying Ordinance . . .395 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE CATASTROPHE OF CHARLES AND OF THE PARLIAMENT. 

Defeat of Charles at Naseby, June, 1645. — He takes refuge with 
the Scots, who sell him to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of the 
Army against Parliament. — Abduction of the King. — March 
to London. — First Purge of Parliament, August, 1647. — ^The 
King's Flight to the Isle of Wight.— His Trial and Execu- 
tion, 30th January, 1649 41 1 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE COMMONWEALTH, WITHOUT KING OR HOUSE OF LORDS. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. — ^Parties, Re- 
public and Monarchy. — Subjugation of Ireland and Scot- 
land, 1649-51. — War with Holland. — The Navigation Act, 
October, 1651, and the Peace of April, 1654. — ^The Consti- 
tutional Experiments. — Dismissal of the Long Parliament. — 
The Constitution of December, 1653. — ^The Parliament of 
165^-5, and the Military Government. — ^The Parliament of 
1656-7.— Proposal of a Monarchy. — The Upper House of 
January, 1658. — Cromwell's Death, 3rd September, 1658. — 
Richanl Cromwell and the end of the Republic . . .423 



PART VI. 

THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, UNTIL THE 
RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM BY HENRY IV.» 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The last War with Spain and England, 1557-9.— Defeat at St Quentin, 
1557, and Gravelingen, 1558.— Taking of Calais, Peace of Cateau 
Cambrasis, 3rd April, 1559. — Catharine de Medici and the Go- 
▼emment of the Guises. — French Protestantism in Conflict with 
the State. — The Clergy, Humanism, the Sorbonne and Parliament. 
.^ — First Agitation of the New Doctrines. — Persecution of the 
Heretics after 1552.— The Aristocracy and the Princes of the Blood 
attacked by Calvinism. — The Conspiracy of Amboise, March, 1560. 
— Crisis and Change after the Death of King Francis II., 5th Decem- 
ber, 1560. — Successes of Protestantism, 1559. — La R^naudie's 
Ph>ject— Condi's Trial.— Catharine de Medici as Regent. 

Situation of France under Henry II., 1547-59, 
AND Francis II., 1559-60. 

p[*RANCE now first experienced the throes occasioned 

by the Reformation and Revolution which all other 

States, iaor or near, had already passed through. A period 

• S. Thnani, Hist sui Temporis. London, 1733. Davila, Storia 
deUe Guerre Civili di Francia. 1644. Die Memoiren von Vieilleville, 
Castelnan, Brantome, Tavannes, Nevers, Villeroi, Momay, La Tour 
d'AuTergne Sully. Michelet, Hist de France au i6idme Siicle. 1855. 
Schmidt, Gesch. von Frankreich. Hamburg, 1839. Ranke, Franzo- 
tische Geichichte, 1852. G. Weber, Geschichtliche Darstellung des 
Cahrinisanus. 1836. Soldan, Geschichte des Protestaatismus in Frank- 
reich. 1855. Von Polenz, Geschichte des Franz. Calvinismus. 1859. 

VOL. II. B 



2 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

of forty years of great internal disorder followed, which in 
many of its features resembled the Thirty Years' War in Ger- 
many, and chiefly differs from it in its final result 

Francis I. was succeeded by his son, Henry IL, 1547- 
59, whose twelve years* reign was filled by the heritage of 
his father's foreign policy. First, there were the last wars 
against Charles V., in which, for the first time, thanks to the 
disorders in Germany, France was successful. In 1552 
France succeeded in obtaining possession of the three 
bishoprics, and Charles did not regain them in the following 
campaign ; then the less successful wars with Spain and 
Englai^d, 1557-9. But even in these, France did not go 
empty away. The battles of St. Quentin and Gravelingen 
were lost, but Calais, the last English possession on French 
soil, was conquered, and the Peace of Cateau Cambrasis, 
April, 1559, did not demand any essential sacrifices from 
France. 

In the internal policy the tendency to strengthen the 
royal supremacy continued. There was the same repression 
of all representative and corporate elements ; the same 
system of partly absorbing, partly lulling to sleep, all other 
seats of power ; the same endeavour, which fortune favoured, 
to invest the King with supreme authority as under Francis I. 
Henry did not equal his father in talent, but, although much 
under female influence, he was an active and competent 
ruler. As fate would have it, he received a wound at a 
tournament which cost him his life, and then followed the 
crisis from which it took France forty years in some mea- 
sure to recover. 

Henry left four sons — a sufficient number, as it appeared, 
to secure the succession to the house of Valois for a long 
time to come — though they were all children. Nobody 
tlien knew how frail and weakly they all were, that disease 



CATHARINE DE MEDICI. 3 

would prey upon them, nor foresaw that what was not 
eflfected by natural means would be early completed by 
mental and moral degradation. There was a singular 
fatality in the family history of this last king of the house of 
Valois. He had been married from political motives to the 
niece of Clement VII., Catharine de Medici. This ambitious 
woman came to France conscious that the marriage was a 
political one, mentally a stranger to her husband ; and such 
she always remained. This placed her from the first in a false 
position. The King was influenced by any one rather than 
by his wife ; and a by no means charming mistress, Diana of 
Poitiers, played her part by the side of and above the Queen. 

An ambitious, talented Italian, fond of power, who 
bi ought to the throne all the pride of the Medicis, and had 
sometmng of the universal political ambition of her relatives 
Leo X. and Clement VII., and who, as a true daughter of 
this house, was not only richly endowed with Italian 
cunning, but considered any means allowable if they con- 
duced to the end, deeply imbued with the unscrupulousness 
of this Italian school, she saw herself kept for years in the 
background, and deprived of all legitimate influence in 
public affairs. She could never hope to make conquests by 
her feminine charms ; her forte was craft and cunning. Such 
a character was sure to be dangerous, especially in a country 
where she was looked upon as a stranger. She played an 
ignominious part at her husband's side, and did not even 
obtain the position in her own house which, as the mother 
of the princes, was her due. 

This explains her restless, feverish ambition. Having 
been for many years restrained and irritated by contumely, 
she now broke out with all the more vehemence ; it also 
explains her feeling of strangeness, and the utter absence of 
a consciousness of responsibility for her actions. She had 



4 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

things on her conscience which it would have been madness 
in a native princess to commit. The Massacre of St Bar- 
tholomew was the crime of a womaif who forgot that she was 
thereby condemning the whole house of Valois. Her success- 
ful attempt to suffer her children to be ruined in debauchery, 
trifling, and childishness, in order to make them subservient 
to her, and her neglect to educate them to rule, were the 
acts of a princess who was a stranger upon the throne and 
in the country. 

She was the curse of the house of Valois. She gave the 
reins to her demoniacal ambition at the most critical period 
for the family, and satiated her Italian revenge upon the 
noblest of the nation. Forgetting her duty as mother of 
the kings of France, she suffered the last scions of the 
house to wither away, and she and her race came to a 
miserable end. 

Immediately after the death of her husband, in 1559, she 
greedily grasped at power. The young King, Francis II., 
was of age when he entered his fourteenth year. There 
could therefore be no legal regency, though there might be 
an actual one, for a weakly monarch of sixteen was still 
incompetent to govern. But she was thwarted in her first 
grasp at power. 

Under Francis I., a family previously unknown in French 
history had begun to play a prominent part. A successful, 
rich, distinguished nobleman had appeared in Lorraine, 
which was still looked upon by the French as a German 
territory — Claude de Guise, the son of R^n^ of Lorraine, a 
man who had distinguished himself at Marignano, and later 
against Charles V. The great men of France looked down 
with contempt upon the upstart house, which had no large 
estates, and was not thought much of even in Lorraine. 
The Bourbons and Montmorencys especially looked upon 



THE GUISES. 5 

the Guises as a race of insolent upstarts, who had come 
from a foreign country to seek at court a position which 
they did not find elsewhere, and to thrust aside the bearers 
of ancient and meritorious names. 

Whatever, however, might be thought of the Guises, it 
was certain that they were not wanting in ability. Their 
nobility was very ancient, and when they aspired to the 
French crown there was no more ancient legitimate race 
than theirs. After Francis I. had carried on four unsuc- 
cessful wars, Francis of Guise, son of the above-men- 
tioned Claude, had succeeded in occupying Lorraine, won the 
three bishoprics, and afterwards defended Metz against 
Charles V. with distinguished ability ; and the only success- 
ful feat in the last campaign against Spain and 'England, the 
taking of Calais, was performed by him. He could proudly 
say to the great lords, " Tell me what you, with yovir ancient 
nobility, have done for France. I have done more for her 
than all of you put together." One of his brothers, Charles 
of Guise, was distinguished for his spirit and boundless am- 
bition. He had entered the ecclesiastical order, and Rome 
had early recognised in him a convenient tool. The young 
Archbishop of Rheims became Cardinal of Lorraine, played 
a leading part at Trent, and was the spokesman and most 
able member of the papal party. 

The brothers succeeded in bringing about a political 
marriage which promised to throw the King, who was men- 
tally a child, entirely into their hands. 

Their sister Mary had been married to James V. of 
Scotland, whose crown was then rather an insignificant one, 
but was now beginning to gain importance. The issue of 
this marriage was a charming girl, who was destined for the 
King's wife. She was betrothed to him without his consent 
when still a child. The young Queen was Mary Stuart. 



6 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Her misfortunes, her beauty, and her connection with 
European history have made her a* historical personage, 
more conspicuous indeed for what she suffered than for 
what she did ; her real importance is not comni^nsurate 
with the position she occupies. 

This, then, was the position of the brothers Guise at 
court. The King was the husband of their niece; both 
were children in age and mind, and therefore doubly re- 
quired guidance. The brothers, Francis and Charles, had 
the government entirely in their hands ; the Duke managed 
the army, the Cardinal the finances and foreign affairs. 
Two such leaders were the mayors of the palace. The 
whole constitution of the court reminds us of the rois 
fainkints and the office of major-domo under the Carlo- 
vingians. 

Thus, just when Catharine was about to take advantage 
of a favourable moment, she saw herself once more eclipsed 
and thrust aside, and that by insolent upstarts of whom 
one thing only was certain, that they possessed unusual 
talents, and that their consciences were elastic in the choice 
of means. 

It was not only from Catharine that the supremacy of 
the Guises met with violent opposition, but also from Pro- 
testantism, the importance of which was greatly increasing 
in France. 

French Protestantism in Conflict with the State. 

France had not been unaffected by the violent storm 
which Luther's appearance had called forth, but the way in 
which the new teaching had to fight its way here was very 
different from the reception it had met with in Germany. 
The fact that the Franciscan monk, Michael Menot, who, 
in the same year and for the same reason as Luther, opposed 



THE CHURCH IN FRANCE. ^ 

the sale of indulgences, died almost unnoticed, proves that 
we are in a different world. 

The ancient Chiurch of France was not in less need of 
reform than the Church elsewhere. Impartial witnesses 
agree in stating that the clergy were fearfully demoralised. 

At the time when, in accordance with the Pragmatic 
Sanction, the ecclesiastics elected the prelates, there were 
bitter complaints of the unscnipulousness of their choice, 
and the incredible dissoluteness of the bishops elected ; and 
when, after the Concordat of 15 16, the King made the 
appointments to the hundred and six bishoprics, fourteen 
archbishoprics, and the abbacies and priories, outside ob- 
servers were struck with the shameless traffic which the 
Crown made with these places, just as if they had been 
bargains about "pepper and cinnamon," with the gifts of 
benefices to diplomatists, learned men, deserving and un- 
deserving, courtiers and soldiers, with all the inevitable 
demoralising consequences of such a distribution of the 
office of spiritual shepherd. 

It was, as is well known, the Humanists who first pointed 
out the decline of the clergy. The Humanists were no 
strangers to France. It became almost asecond home to them ; 
and it is a singular fact that the same King, Francis I., who 
in his own country pitilessly biunt heretics in slow fires, gave 
his hand to the German heretics to oppose Charles V., and 
might be justly styled by his learned protegh " The father 
of learning." 

From the beginning of his reign Francis I. had attracted 
learned men, both native and foreign, who inclined to the 
new tendencies, to his court, and attached them to his 
service by conferring on them temporal offices and spiritual 
benefices ; a great " Collie des Trois Langues," with double 
professorships for Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was to make 



8 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Paris a centre of Humanistic learning as it had once been 
of mediaeval scholasticism ; and if the scheme was not carried 
out in its original magnificence, the school of heretical lan- 
guages which was founded, and from which such men as 
Tumebus, Lambin, Du Chesne, and Petrus Ramus were to 
go forth, indicated a breach with the past, and kept up a per- 
petual irritation with the followers of the old system. 

This old system was a unity; scholasticism and the 
mediaeval Church hung together. The Sorbonne felt this, 
and looked askance at the brilliance of its Humanistic rival, 
as did also the Parliament, to the orthodox jurists of which 
the heretics appeared as political criminals. 

These two old organs of France were more consistent 
than the King in jealously guarding the rights of ancient 
usage. The learned gentlemen of the Sorbonne spoke 
of Greek and Hebrew like the German monks, who 
talked of the newly-invented language of a so-called New 
Testament, and roundly asserted that whoever learnt Hebrew 
must become a Jew. The most zealous fanatics among 
them, therefore, such as Natalis Beda, summoned the pro- 
fessors before Parliament, and demanded that they should 
not be permitted to expound the Vulgate without passing a 
theological examination, in order that no more might be 
heard of that heretical mode of speaking, "So says the 
Hebrew or Greek text ; " and the faculty acted in this spirit 
when, their opinion being asked about the Lutheran contro- 
versy, they decided that Luther's teaching must be utterly 
exterminated, his writings publicly given to the flames, and 
the author be compelled by every la\wful means solemnly to 
recant his heresies. 

The Sorbonne repeatedly and urgently demanded a strict 
and relentless conscience police for all France, but Francis I. 
was at first quite indifferent about it The appearance of a 



FRANCIS I. AND THE HERETICS. 9 

few isolated heretical preachers and authors, such as Lefevre, 
Berguin, Farel, Mazurier, Briponnet, the establishment of a 
reformed congregation at Meaux under the leadership of an 
eloquent wool-comber, Leclerc (afterwards burnt with cruel 
torments at Metz), were not circumstances which seemed to 
him to justify exceptional measiures. 

But it was different after his return from the Spanish 
imprisonment which the lost battle of Pavia, in 1525, had 
inflicted on him. 

Pope Clement VII. had taken care to explain to the humbled 
monarch that the heretics were political criminals who abo- 
lished all class distinctions, incited the lowest classes to rebel- 
lion, and would overturn royal authority itself. Parliament 
attributed his misfortunes to his lukewarmness against the 
heretics. Now, therefore, many executions followed, and in 
1535 there was a bloody persecution; in 1543 he issued, 
in two edicts from Fontainebleau, the most stringent mea- 
sures against the heretics as " disturbers of the public 
peace, rebels against the King and justice, conspirators 
against the prosperity of the State, which was specially 
dependent on the maintenance of the purity of the Catholic 
faith." This was followed by the proclamation of twenty- 
five articles of faith, drawn up by the Sorbonne, in order 
that every one of his Majesty's subjects might know what 
he was to believe and hold as true, unless he desired to 
come into contact with the avenging arm of Parliament. 

The policy which rendered an occasional flirtation with 
the German Protestants, and active interference in the 
German troubles, desirable, did not, of course, alter this 
attitude. Henry II. proceeded exactly like Francis I., and 
the Guises kept him firmly to this course. 

Henry went farther with the German Protestants than 
Francis, but the persecutions and executions of the native 



lO THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

heretics increased ; and now under Francis II., when the 
brothers Francis and Charles of Guise were all-powerful, 
France was under a system in religious matters which was 
really identical with that of Philip II. and Alba. But 
meanwhile French Protestantism, thanks to the folly of its 
persecutors, gained in the number and importance of its 
followers. The system of persecution had been submitted 
to as to inevitable destiny under Francis I. and Henry II., 
but it could not be so easily forgiven from foreign ministers, 
and the all-powerful favourites who had usurped the govern- 
ment ; from them it was felt to be a gross injustice, and the 
more so as the heresy was no longer confined to poor 
artisans at Meaux or Metz, or isolated learned sects, but 
was become a power which began to influence the best and 
most independent grades of society. 

Since Calvin had built up the citadel of French Protest- 
antism in the neighbouring Geneva, and year by year 
received his fugitive brethren in the faith, to send them 
back as well-instructed apostles, the Propaganda of the new 
teaching was organized. The strictly systematic character 
of Calvinism was well adapted to find acceptance with this 
nation. The democratic and republican tendencies also of 
this ecclesiastical commonwealth was attractive as a counter- 
poise to the all-devouring monarchical absolutism. 

Thus Protestantism had become a party which did not, 
like Lutheranism in Germany, spring up from the depths, 
had its seat and main support among the masses, and then 
rose higher ; but it numbered its chief adherents among 
the middle and upper grades of society, spread its roots 
rather among the nobles than the citizens, and among 
learned men and families of distinction rather than among 
the people. A Calvinistic school had been developed of 
strict, serious, ahnost gloomy personages, in whom the light 



FRENCH PROTESTANTISM. II 

French character seemed to be almost extinguished, whose 
conduct was irreproachable, whose views of life were full 
of priestly exclusiveness, and who formed a moral opposition 
to the licentiousness of the luxurious court life which 
Francis I. had encouraged. Men like Coligny, D'Aubign^, 
and Sully, were distinguished characters, cut as it were from 
one block — men of unimpeachable morals, great earnestness, 
and unyielding energy. 

Then there was another thing : some of the highest 
aristocracy, who were discontented, and submitted un- 
willingly to the supremacy of the Guises, had joined the 
Calvinistic opposition — some undoubtedly from policy, others 
from conviction. The Turennes, the Rohans, and Soubises, 
pure nobles, who addressed the King as "mon cousin," 
especially the Bourbons, the agnates of the royal house, 
had adopted the new faith. 

A son of St. Louis had married Beatrice, the heiress of 
the earldom of Bourbon, and the Bourbon territory had 
devolved upon him. This branch had divided into two 
smaller branches, one of which had died out with the con- 
stable, the other was represented by Antoine and Louis. 
The elder brother had married the heiress of Beam and 
Navarre, Jeanne D'Albret, an earnest, powerful, heroic 
woman, and from this marriage sprang Henry IV. The 
younger brother was of light French blood, a true French 
cavalier, with none too much of religious fervovu:. Jeanne 
was a zealous Calvinist, her husband from policy agreed with 
her, and Louis of Cond^ joined the same party, for it lent 
him a powerful weapon against the Guises. 

After France had long been ruled by kings who really 
reigned and interfered personally with effect, she now had over 
her a weakly prince, influenced by powerful families, over 
the unhappy royal house a mother like Catharine de Medici, 



12 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

and for the first time for a long period there were powerful 
religious and political parties closely intermingled in oppo- 
sition to the Throne. Protestantism united with the dis- 
contented elements among the highest nobles ; the might 
and majesty of the kingdom were greatly decreased ; vast 
debts had accumulated under the late governments ; with- 
out the States, recovery was impossible. These elements in 
some degree explain the great convulsions which followed. 

The Conspiracy of Amboise, March, 1560. — Crisis 
AND Change after the Death of the King. 

In the time of Henry II., in spite of all the edicts and 
executions. Protestantism had made great progress. The 
Parisian Parliament was no longer the Inquisition of former 
days; the chambers were divided; the great chamber passed 
sentences of death, in accordance with the royal edicts, 
while the Toumelle, as it was called, first warned, and 
then, amidst heretical discussions, only passed sentence of 
banishment at the worst. One of the ministers, Anne du 
Bourg, who afterwards paid for it with his life, zealously 
took the part of the heretics in the King's presence. He 
asked for proofs of the accusation that the heretics, in 
whose mouths the name of the King was never heard except 
to pray for and bless him, were traitors who wished to 
dethrone him, while all their guilt consisted in the courage 
with which they demanded the abolition of the crying 
abuses in the ancient Church. "Surely," he said in 
conclusion, "it is no light thing to condemn to death 
people who call upon Jesus in the midst of the flames." 

About the same period, in the spring of 1559, interdicted 
Protestantism had secretly reviewed its congregations, and 
at the first national synod drawn up a confession of faith 
and a constitution for the new Church. Preachers and 



THE CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE. 1 3 

elders had appeared from every part of France, and their 
eighty articles of 28th May, 1559, have become the code of 
laws of French Protestantism. The Calvinistic principle of 
the Congregational Church, with choice of its own minister, 
deacons, and elders ; a consistory which maintained strict 
discipline in matters of faith and morals, and in extreme 
cases inflicted excommunication — that is, exclusion from the 
sacraments — was established upon French soil, and was 
afterwards publicly accepted by the whole party. 

The more adherents this party gained in the upper circles, 
the bolder was its attitude ; there was, indeed, no end to the 
executions, or to the edicts against heresy, but a spirit of 
opposition, previously unknown, had gradually gained 
ground. Prisoners were set free, the condemned were 
rescued from the hands of the executioners on the way to 
the scaffold, and a plan was devised among the numerous 
fugitives in foreign lands for producing a turn in the course 
of events by violent means. 

La R^naudie, a reformed nobleman from Perigord, who 
had sworn vengeance on the Guises for the execution of his 
brother, had, with a number of other persons of his own 
way of thinking, formed a plan for attacking the Guises, 
carrying off the King, and placing him under the guardian- 
ship of the Bourbon agnates. If the King required a regent, 
the princes of the blood alone had a right to the office ; 
with them there would be a native Government ; the nobles 
and the new religion would obtain redress. 

The project was betrayed; the Guises succeeded in 
placing the King in security in the Castle of Amboise ; 
a number of the conspirators were seized, another troop 
overpowered and dispersed on their attack upon the castle 
on the 17th of March, 1560; some were killed, some taken 
prisoners and at once executed. 



14 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

It was then discovered, or pretended, that the youngest 
of the Bourbon princes, Louis of Cond^, was implicated in 
the conspiracy. It is not known to this day how far this 
was true, but it is certain that had the project succeeded it 
would have been very agreeable to him, and that he was 
thoughtless enough to make it not improbable. The 
Guises now ventured, in contempt of French historical tra- 
ditions, to imprison this prince of the blood, this agnate of 
the reigning house; to summon him before an arbitrary 
tribunal of partisans, and to condemn him to death, 
November, 1560. If the King had done this, if his guilt 
had been proved, it would not have been an unusual, nor, 
according to the notions of justice of that age, an illegal 
proceeding. But this was quite another thing ; his guilt was 
not proved, and the trial itself, instituted by two foreigners 
against one of the princes of the blood, was in the highest 
degree informal. 

This affair kept all France in suspense. All the nobles, 
although strongly infected with Huguenot ideas, were on 
Condi's side; even those who condemned his religious 
opinions made his cause their own. They justly thought 
that if he fell, none of them would be safe. 

In the midst of this ferment, destiny interposed. 

On the 5th of December, 1560, Francis II. died sud- 
denly, and a complete change took place. His death put an 
end to a network of intrigues, which aimed at knocking the 
rebellion, political and religious, on the head. The States 
had been convoked at Orleans, in order to relieve the 
pecuniary embarrassments of the Crown. It was intended, 
also, with the aid of a numerous military force, to extirpate 
heresy, or at least to render harmless the most influential of 
its adherents. Every member was to swear allegiance to 
the articles drawn up by the Sorbonne in 1542, and 



DEATH OF FRANCIS II. 1 5 

whoever refused was to forfeit life and property. All 
this was in progress; the most suspicious representatives 
were secured when the King died. 

During this confusion one individual had been watching 
the course of events with the eagerness of a beast ready 
to seize on its prey. Catharine of Medici was convinced 
that the time of her dominion had at length arrived. Her 
life had been ruled by one idea — that of ruling herself; 
whatever stood in her way was hateful to her, and she was 
enough of an Italian to shrink from no means to give vent 
to her hatred. She hated the Guises because they had 
taken the government out of her hands ; the Cond^s* party 
was compromised by the proceedings of Amboise and the 
trial, and between the contending parties she hoped to step 
in as the guiding power. She was thoroughly adapted to 
play the part which required an intriguing spirit, Italian 
cunning and cold blood, in the choice of means. But she 
was not equal to great political actions. 

Francis II. was scarcely dead when she seized* upon the 
person and the power of Charles IX. He was a boy of ten 
years old, not more promising than his eldest brother, 
sickly and weakly like all the sons of Henry II., more 
attached to his mother than the others, and he had been 
neglected by the Guises. 

Immediately on the death of her eldest son, the mother 
stepped forward as the guardian and regent of her second, 
though both titles were carefully avoided. The sudden 
death of Francis had overthrown the dominion of the 
Guises. 

But she would not have been able to possess herself of 
j)ower without assistance from various quarters ; she needed 
especially the support of the high aristocracy, of the princes 
of the blood, who hated the Guises, but still demanded 



i6 



THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 



that they should have a share in the government; she 
therefore came to an understanding with them, particularly 
with Antoine of Navarre, and she could not do this 
without making concessions. 

One of her first acts was to liberate Cond^ ; this was 
a decided step towards reconciliation with the Bourbons 
and the Protestants. The whole situation was all at once 
changed. The court was ruled by Catharine ; her feverish 
thirst for power was satisfied. The Guises and their ad- 
herents were, indeed, permitted to remain in their offices 
and posts of honour, in order not fatally to offend them ; 
but their supremacy was destroyed, and the new power was 
based upon the Queen's understanding with the heads of 
the Huguenot party. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

CHARLES IX., 1560-74, AND THE HUGUENOTS, 
UNTIL 1570. 

The First Compromise with the Reform Party. — The States of the 
Empire at Orleans, 156061. — The Discussion on Religion at 
Poissy, Autumn, 1561. — The Edict of 17th January, 1562.— The 
Three First Religious Wars, 1562-70. — The Massacre at Vassy, 
March, 1562. — Character of the Civil War. — The First Religious 
War. — Battle of St. Dreux, December, 1562. — Edict of Amboise, 
March, 1563.— The Second Religious War, 1567-8.— The Edict 
of Longjumeauz, March, 1568. — The Third Religious War, 
1569-70. — Victories of the Catholics at Jamac and Moncontour. — 
Religious Peace of St. Grermain-en-Laye, August, 1570. — Cha- 
racter of Charles IX. 

The First Compromise with the Reform Party. — 
The States of the Empire at Orleans, 1560-61. 
— The Discussion on Religion at Poissy, Autumn, 
1561. — ^The Edict of January, 1562. 

T 1 /"HILE this change was taking place, the States as- 
sembled at Orleans were discussing two important 
questions which had been left unsolved for the young King 
by his predecessors : the relief of the financial necessities 
of the Crown, which were so great that the Chancellor 
THopital, as he said publicly, could not speak of them 
without tears ; and the deliverance of the Church from ruin 
and schism. 

vol. il c 



EXTENT OF PROTESTANTISM. 19 

States that a fourth (the Reformers said half) of the 
whole population of the empire was estranged from the 
Church, and that this fourth consisted of nobles, learned 
men, wealthy citizens, and those among the lower classes 
who had seen the world and could bear arms. With so 
many noblemen, and old, well-disciplined troops, there was 
no lack of strength, judgment, or education — for three- 
fourths of the men of learning belonged to them ; there was 
no lack of money among the nobles and merchants ; and 
there was, besides, so much unity and determination, that 
there could be no hope of converting them by force, without 
inflicting a wound on the nation from which it would take 
it half a century to recover. Nothing, in fact, was accom- 
plished against a party who possessed this moral and ma- 
terial power by burning books and men. Either a tremen- 
dous conflict must be encountered, which would perhaps 
turn to the advantage of some foreign power, or concessions 
^. must be made. These they were now almost disposed to 

j^(i grant. 

Catherine was certainly not influenced in this by religious 
opinions. There was never the least evidence that she 
leaned to one side or the other. She was a Catholic out- 
wardly ; as a Medici, a relation of two popes, she had never 
learned to be anything else. Protestantism, with its Calvin- 
istic strictness, could be as little congenial to her frivolous 
views of life as its democratic tendencies to her ambition. 
But she knew how to wear the colours that were in vogue, 
And to change them when occasion arose. The same 
i^rson who instigated the Massacre of St Bartholomew 
iilcl issue edicts of toleration, and soon after the massacre 
m^f^tc the Protestants again. 
^ ^T"/i^ ^^^^ complaints of the Reformers were answered by 
di^t, l>y which all the imprisoned heretics were released, 



:*^^ 



20 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

but warned to mend their ways. An attempt was then 
to be made to settle the controversy by a discussion on 
reh'gion at Poissy. This took place in the autumn of 156 1. 
Calvin's most talented pupil, Theodore Beza, measured his 
strength with the Cardinal of Lorraine, Charles of Guise, 
as the representative of the French prelates. 

The brilliant eloquence of Beza, who, hke most of the 
Calvinistic preachers, was not only a theologian but a 
polished man of the world, distinguished him greatly from 
the average theologians of the day. There was nothing of 
the ordinary sectary about him; he behaved with perfect 
courtesy; he made some impression on the court. It was 
seen that these were people with whom intercourse might 
be held, though no closer approach was to be thought of. 

An edict had been issued in July, which pleased neither 
party, and gave so much dissatisfaction that it was not pro- 
claimed in a single French town except Paris, while the 
services were openly continued and the communion cele- 
brated. A moderate edict of toleration was then tried. 

On the 17th of January, 1562, the Edict of St. Germain 
was issued, by which the policy which had been pursued for 
forty years, of supporting the Protestants abroad and perse- 
cuting them at home, was given up. 

The Protestants were forbidden to possess any churches 
of their own ; they were to give up those they had, and 
neither to buy nor build others. On the other hand, they 
were permitted, until further notice, to hold their services 
outside the towns, unarmed, by day, and the police were to 
protect them. They were to observe the laws of the State 
and the festivals of the Romish Church ; were not to hold 
any consistories or synods without consent of the higher 
powers ; to make no statutes, to organize no troops either 
for offensive or defensive warfare, and to raise no taxes 



THE EDICT OF ST. GERMAIN. 21 

among themselves. All the Reformers were to take an 
oath to teach only in accordance with the Scriptures, and 
not to neglect the mass and similar institutions, &c. 

It was but a very limited amount of toleration ; still it 
was a great change when it was considered that in practice 
the edicts had not been carried out to the letter, and in very 
important respects all legal ground for persecution was 
removed. If Calvinism had made astonishing progress 
when it was proscribed, what might not be expected when 
it was permitted? "If," wrote Calvin, "the liberty pro- 
mised us in the edicts lasts, the Papacy will fall to the 
ground of itself." 

One thing was certain, that if the Reformers did not wish 
to lose everything, they must submit to the edict, even if it 
was in some respects harsh. Beza justly felt this, for he 
enjoined strict obedience on all the communities. But the 
disturbance of the peace came from the other side. 

Catharine's wish to come to some terms with the heretics, 
without breaking with the Pope and Philip II., was not 
enough to put an end to the spirit of persecution which had 
been fostered by the traditions of forty years. The posts of 
authority in most of the cities, and especially in the Parisian 
Parliament, were occupied by Catholics ; the people could 
n^t all at once accustom themselves to acknowledge as 
legal the services which they had hitherto scoffed at and 
molested, especially since it was said that the Queen was 
not in earnest, and had only made a sacrifice to policy. 

Causes of irritation and disputes arose, and the Queen 
bowed little dispos ition to interfere. 



22 THE RELIGIOUS WARS Di FRANCE. 

The Three First Religious Wars. — The Massacre at 
Vassy, March, 1562, to the Religious Peace of 
St. Germain, August, 1570. 

Meanwhile an unheard-of violation of the January Edict 
took place. On Sunday morning, ist of March, 1562, the 
brothers Guise, with a suite of two hundred armed nobles and 
soldiers, entered the little town of Vassy as the Protestants 
were assembling for worship in a bam. The preaching had 
begun, when some of the Duke's followers rushed in, dis- 
turbed the worship, and made an uproar. Of course the 
congregation tried to defend themselves. The armed men 
then attacked them in a mass, and the defenceless people 
were shot or cut down with sabres, the rest dispersed, and 
their houses plundered. 

The news of the massacre of Vassy flew through 
France. It was universally believed that it was a pre- 
meditated and most mischievous breach of the treaty, and 
there is nothing in history to refute it The Duke said, in 
self-justification, that he sent two of his people into the 
bam to reprove the heretics for their disobedience ; but this 
constituted a breach of the peace. The Guises wished for 
a conflict as a means of regaining their power, and they 
had their wish, for the massacre was the signal for the first 
civil war. 

Thus began those fearfiil wars which lasted from this time 
to the reign of Henry IV., and they comprised everything that 
can make war horrible — ^religious and political fanaticism, 
interference from abroad, wild passions of every sort, and 
that fearful hatred by which two contending parties who 
are related are generally animated. In their horrors, in the 
European sympathy they elicited, in their course, these wars 
remind us of the great German war ; only that in this case a 



THE FIRST WAR. 23 

man appeared who, supported by the monarchical inclina- 
tions of the nation, in a few years restored its ancient glory 
to the kingdom, its lost unity to the nation. But the conflict 
was terrible ; the desolation of whole neighbourhoods, the 
massacre of whole populations, has given it a horrible im- 
mortality. It seems to me that there is a certain ferocity in 
the French nation, which, when the external polish is once 
rubbed off, breaks out with a boimdless recklessness which 
is not found among other civilised nations. This was the 
case now, as well as in the great political Revolution of 
1789, Other nations have experienced the horrors of reli- 
gious and political wars, but history presents no other 
instance of the refinements of cruelty which were practised 
in France in 1793. 

Hostilities began with the petty warfare of parties in 
cities and districts; at Paris, Sens, Toulouse, Rouen, and 
other places, the Catholics fell upon their Protestant fellow- 
citizens, destroyed their houses of prayer, and murdered 
those who fell into their power. The Huguenots then threw 
themselves upon the Catholic churches, destroyed images, 
altars, and censers — in short, everything that belonged to 
Catholic worship. Thus image-breaking and bloodshed 
raged for weeks in the fairest districts of France before the 
hostile armies faced each other. When these at length — one 
under Guise, the other under Coligny — ^were set in motion, 
nothing but skirmishes and devastation of the enemy's coun- 
try took place at first ; no decisive action. But it became 
clearer and clearer that the Huguenots, who lost one town 
after another, and whose lack of money was ever increasing, 
were decidedly at a disadvantage in conflict with the grow- 
ing power of the Guises. They lost the battle of St. Dreux, 
December, 1562 ; but, on the other hand, their adversary's 
most able general, the Duke of Guise, was assassinated by 



24 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

a Huguenot nobleman, i8th of February, 1563, and with 
him the greatest obstacle to the attempts at . mediation 
which Catharine had been making was removed. 

They had been tearing each other to pieces for months; 
the Protestant minority had not been able to vanquish the 
majority, which had foreign aid, but neither had the majority 
been able to exterminate the heretics. If the fanaticism of 
the Catholics demanded the sacrifice of thousands one day, 
it was balanced by the thousands that fell a sacrifice to the re- 
venge of their adversaries the next. At length they desisted 
from this murderous work, not because they were reconciled, 
but exhausted, and saw that a truce was necessary. Precisely 
a year after the massacre of Vassy a new edict was issued 
at Amboise, which went a step farther than that of 1562. 

The Reformers were granted liberty of conscience, an 
amnesty for the past, and were promised undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of their property, honours, and offices. The celebra- 
tion of divine service was regulated as follows : to the barons 
and all the lords invested with superior jurisdiction, was 
granted the right to hold services at their chateaux for 
themselves and their retainers ; to the inferior nobles, only for 
themselves ; in every official district a town was appointed, 
in the suburbs of which Reformed service might be held ; 
Paris always excepted. 

The edict greatly favoured the superi9r nobility, but 
was very disadvantageous to the cities ; for them, through 
the limitation of permission to hold service to one town in 
a district, as Coligny said, more churches were annihilated 
by a stroke of the pen than had been destroyed by all the 
inimical powers at work for ten years before. 

It was not long before this edict was infringed, for 
neither party was disposed to abide by it ; the Catholic 
majority saw in it only a false peace concluded insincerely 



THE SECOND AND THIRD WARS. 25 

by the Crown, and the Calvinists would not give up the 
hope of some day attaining power in France. The number 
of their adherents was continually increasing, and their 
propaganda pursued its course. 

It came to a second religious war, which ended, like the 
first, without any decision in 1567-8; and, as they again 
left off fighting from exhaustion, the Edict of I^ngjumeaux 
was issued, 23rd of March, 1 568, which in essentials con- 
firmed the previous one. 

In 1569 the war began again. I will not relate the history 
of it in detail, but will confine myself to the decisive actions. 
Other things remained as they were ; the Catholics main- 
tained their supremacy, but the Protestants could not be 
exterminated. 

It was one of Coligny's merits that though often beaten 
he never quitted the field, and always managed to secure an 
honourable position for the Protestants. 

The third war, which was principally caused by the 
reaction of events in the Netherlands, and by the report 
that Alba had decided with the Queen Mother upon striking 
a blow at th'e Protestants in France, similar to the one he 
was aiming at the heretics in the Netherlands, was decided 
by the defeat of the Huguenots at Jamac, where Cond^ and 
Moncontour fell, and ended by the Peace of St Germain- 
en-Laye, August, 1570, which irrevocably confirmed the 
previous concessions, and added that in every district two 
places should be granted for the celebration of Protestant 
worship ; but they were mostly small towns, and it was only 
in the suburbs of them ; and that in all towns the Reformed 
service should remain as it had been up to the ist of 
August The Huguenots of every age were acknowledged 
as faithful subjects and servants, with a complete amnesty ; 
their rights were acknowledged as equal to those of the 



26 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Catholics, and a law of recusance was granted them, to 
defend them from the Catholic Parliament. 

The four cities of La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, La 
Charity, were granted to the Reformers as places of refuge, 
under an oath that after two years they should be restored 
to the King. 

Eight years had passed in fearful conflicts, every one of 
which increased the need of toleration, and the stability of 
the nation had been greatly shaken by it. The court, the 
nobles, the people, were split up into parties ; there was, as 
it were, a yawning chasm between the different parts of the 
nation ; in some parts of the country it had become im- 
possible for people of the two creeds to live together, so 
sharp had been the controversy, and so irreconcilably were 
men's minds divided. As may be imagined, France sufiered 
severely from this; the grea^t monarchy which had interposed 
with so much effect in European affairs, under Henry II., 
was sadly lamed. The kingdom was rent wide as the poles 
asunder. Edicts of toleration were issued in its name and 
violated, peace proclaimed and broken, cruelty practised 
and revenged. 

All this could not fail to have a fearfully demoralising 
effect upon the mind of the nation ; and, above all, on the 
character of a prince who had grown up from boyhood to 
youth amid such scenes, not gifted with, talent or self- 
control, and but a plaything between his mother, the 
Guises, and the Huguenot leaders. 

Charles IX., loaded with the curse of the Massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, was afterwards regarded in France as the 
type of a degenerate king ; and in the ninth decade of the 
last century, when the storm raged against monarchy, this 
inhuman prince was often alluded to, who himself fired at 
his fugitive subjects. Yet this picture is not precisely true. 



CHARACTER OF CHARLES IX. 2^ 

This youth, now twenty years of age, was more to be 
pitied than blamed. It was a most tragic bit of human life 
which was played out within narrow limits, but he cannot 
be made alone or even chiefly responsible for it. Weakly 
from childhood, so brought up by his mother that he could 
never be independent, his mental growth was stunted — he 
grew up more coarse, uncultivated, and ignorant than any 
nobleman's son of his time. At this most critical period he 
received not the slightest training for his calling. He was 
addicted to childish sports, sat in the workshop and made 
locks, and these trivial tastes were purposely fostered by 
his mother, for a youth whose time was thus spent was not 
likely to be dangerous to her. 

He had never had any more lofty aspirations. The 
healthy influence of a happy family life was wanting to him ; 
there was not a single bemg about him who could raise him 
morally ; the merry games of real childhood or the pleasures 
of learning in advancing youth were unknown to him ; he 
had not even the salutary influence of knowledge of some 
one subject, which would at any rate have occupied his 
mind. 

With all this, combined with a sickly body totally desti- 
tute of youthful vigour, he was not likely to feel any im- 
pulse to break these contemptible fetters and begin an 
independent life. He readily allowed himself to be seduced 
into excesses purposely placed in his way, in order that his 
remaining energies might be quenched ; he allowed himself 
to be persuaded into one act to-day, another to-morrow; 
there was no one about him calculated to give him confi- 
dence in himself or others. 

And it was upon this individual that enormous respon- 
sibility was thrown, in a situation of which a superior 
character would have found it diflicult to solve the compli- 



28 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

cations. He who takes all this into account will not be 
surprised at the result, and will be disposed to agree in my 
lenient estimate of his guilt. 

The view which stamps him as a hardened wretch, and 
makes it appear that he himself instigated the horrid deed, 
is psychologically exaggerated. So weak a creature could 
not have been so early and so deeply debased. It is im- 
possible to imagine him harbouring a consuming hatred for 
years, or possessing the unfathomable cunning and hypo- 
crisy which circumvented the enemy till the day of reckon- 
ing came. This presupposes a degree of mental power 
which he did not possess ; we ^know him only as a vacil- 
lating weakling. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 

Coligny at Court, and the War with Spain, September, 157 1— July, 
1572. — The Massacre, 24th August, 1572, and the Fourth Reli- 
gious War, 1572-3. — End of Charles IX., 30th May, 1574. 

Coligny at Court, and the War with Spain. 

A FTER the Peace of 1570, it appeared as if a complete 
change of policy was about to take place. The 
Queen pretended to be friendly with the Protestants ; her 
relations with the ambitious Guises were distant and cold, 
and the project of uniting the houses of Bourbon and 
Valois by marriage really looked as if she was in earnest. 

The most distinguished leader of the Huguenot party- 
was the Admiral Caspar de Coligny. It is quite refreshing 
at this doleful period to meet with such a character. He 
was a nobleman of the old French school and of the best 
stamp; lived upon his estates with his family, his little 
court, his retainers and subjects, in ancient patriarchal style, 
and on the best terms, and regularly went with them to 
the Protestant worship and the communion ; a man of 
unblemished morality and strict Calvinistic views of life. 
Whatever this man said or did was the result of his inmost 
convictions; his life was the impersonation of his views and 
thoughts. In the late turbulent times he had become an 



30 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

important person as leader and organizer of the Protestant 
armies. At his call, thousands of noblemen and soldiers 
took up arms, and they submitted under his command to 
very strict discipline. He could not boast of having won 
many battles, but he was famous for having kept his re- 
sources together after repeated defeats, and for rising up 
stronger than before after every lost engagement. 

At the same time, he was not too much of a Huguenot 
to regard as supreme the welfare of the whole country, as a 
Frenchman and a nobleman. When, at the beginning of 
the war, his party looked round for foreign aid, and pro- 
posed to apply to the German Protestant princes for 
succour, he replied, " Let us regard them as mediators, but 
not take any troops from them. Let us rather die than 
merit the reproach that the Huguenots were the first to 
bring foreign troops on to French soil." He always kept in 
view that both parties, when they had attained their rights, 
should submit to an honourable peace and feel themselves 
to be Frenchmen. Now that peace was made, '* why," he 
asked, "excite further dissensions for the benefit of our 
common enemies? Let us direct our undivided forces 
against the real enemy of France — against Spain, who stirs 
up intrigues in our civil wars. Let us crush this power, which 
condemns us to ignominious dependence." 

The war against Spain was Coligny's project. It was 
the idea of a good Huguenot, for it was directed against the 
most blindly fanatical and dangerous foe of the new 
doctrines ; but it was also that of a good Frenchman, for a 
victory over Spain would increase the power of France in 
the direction of Burgundy, and would round it ofi" in the 
most advantageous manner on the eastern side from 
Besan9on to Ostend. This was the germ of the subse- 
quent policy of Louis XIV. 



COLIGNY. 31 

From September, 1571, Coligny was at court On his 
first arrival he was heartily welcomed by the King, em- 
braced by Catharine, and loaded with honours and favours 
by both. I am not of opinion that this was a deeply laid 
scheme to entrap the guileless hero, the more easily to ruin 
him. Catharine's ideas did not extend so far. Still less do 
I believe that the young King was trained to play the part 
of a hypocrite, and regarded Coligny as a victim to be 
cherished until the fete day. I think, rather, that Catharine, 
in her changeableness and hatred of the Guises, was now 
really disposed to make peace with the Protestants, and that 
the young King was for the time impressed by this superior 
personage. 

No youthful mind is so degraded as to be entirely inac- 
cessible to such influence. A man commanding the respect 
due to age, but still in the vigour of life, with great moral 
dignity, yet true French bon/iomie, could not fail to make 
an irresistible impression upon youth. 

I am of opinion that Charles IX. was under this impres- 
sion. I believe that the first and only happy day in the 
life of this unfortunate monarch was when he met Coligny, 
who raised him above the degradation of vulgar life ; and I 
believe further, that this relation was the main cause of the 
massacre of Sl Bartholomew. A new influence was 
threatening to surround the King and to take deep root, 
which Catharine, her son Henry of Anjou, and the strict 
Catholic party, must do their utmost to avert ; and it was 
quite in accordance with the King's weak character to 
allow the man to be murdered whom he had just called 
" Father." * 

♦ These and the following views of these events entirely agree with 
the confessions of Henry of Anjou himself. See Soldan, II., and com- 
pare the essay on ♦• Fiankreich und die Bartholomausnacht," in 
Raumer's Hist. Taschenbuch. 1854. 



32 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Although we have but little light on the details of this 
catastrophe, we have sufficient information to form an 
opinion of the causes which led to it 

Since peace had been made, Coligny thought no more of 
a war of extermination between Catholics and Protestants, 
but — and in this he was considering the natural interests of 
the policy of France — of a national war, in which both 
parties should unite their forces against Spain. 

This did not exclude, but rather made necessary, the 
support of foreign Protestants, of the Netherlands, the 
alliance with England, and the Protestant powers of Ger- 
many. In this he betrayed the Huguenot ; still, it was not 
the only reason for his policy. In a struggle with Spain, it 
was not only liberty of conscience in and out of France 
that was at stake, the object also was to throw off an 
oppressive foreign yoke, and to get possession of the fine 
border country, which was afterwards the most valuable 
conquest of Louis XIV. The possession of the chain of 
fortresses from Luxemburg to Dunkirk was afterwards the 
chief aim of the foreign policy of France. It did not arise 
alone from blind hatred of the house of Hapsburg, it was 
a continuance of the path which Francis I. had opened up, 
and Henry II. had followed farther, and the moment had 
never been so favourable as now. Richelieu himself after- 
wards only imitated Coligny, but coldly and selfishly, — he 
was destitute of his enthusiasm. 

Was it incredible that Charles IX. should be inspired 
with it? 

What was uttered by Coligny in tones of the deepest 
conviction, reminded the prince, for the first time, of the 
treatment he had received, and of the unworthy position he 
had held with respect to the Spanish policy and its agents, 
his mother and the Guises. He was just at the age when 



WAR WITH SPAIN. 33 

the royal blood could not fail to stir in him, and we know 
that just about this time, to the horror of his mother and 
brother, he repeatedly broke out into rash expressions. 

During the first half of 1572 this turn of affairs was 
taking place. 

Alba's system was on the decline ; he had just adopted 
his final desperate measures, the stupid tax of the one 
hundredth, twentieth, and tenth pennies ; an indescribable 
fury raged in the country, which might at any moment 
come to an outbreak, and the troops of Louis of Nassau 
and William of Orange had begun their operations. The 
situation, therefore, was favourable. If the Spanish power 
were to be lamed, no better opportunity could be ex- 
pected. 

It appears that about the middle of the year, the matter 
was as good as decided. The King willingly acceded to 
Coligny*s plan. While the doubtful attitude of England, 
and the divided opinion of the Council, prevented any 
open interference, the King privately gave considerable 
sums for the support of the Flemish patriots, for the equip- 
ment of an army of four thousand men, composed of 
Catholics and Protestants, who marched towards Mons, to 
succour Louis of Nassau. When in July this army was 
beaten, and the majority of the Huguenots were in despair, 
Coligny succeeded in persuading the King to equip a fresh 
and still larger army; but the opposition then bestirred 
itself. 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 24TH, 

1572. 
The strict Catholic party had watched this turn of affairs 
with growing ill-will; they dreaded enmity with Spain, as 
the best ally of the unity of the faith, and rejected all idea 

VOL. II. D 



34 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

of peace and reconciliation with the heretics, the fatal foes 
of the good cause. The Guises found every government 
which thrust them on one side unsupportable. 

The Queen was by no means enthusiastically in favour 
of Spain, whose commanding influence she often found 
oppressive; but to venture on a war with her was quite 
another thing, and in questions which concerned her 
dominion over the King, everything else was disregarded. 

She had been absent with her married daughter in Lor- 
raine, and on her return she found everything changed ; the 
Guises without influence, herself thrust on one side. 

Under the impression of the latest events in Flanders, 
which made it likely that the war with Spain would be 
ruinous, she hastened to the King, told him with floods of 
tears that it would be his ruin ; that the Huguenots, through 
Coligny, had stolen the King's confidence, unfortunately 
for himself and the country. She made some impression 
upon him, but it did not last long, and thoughts of war 
gained the upper hand again. 

The idea now (August, 1572) must have been matured in 
Catharine's mind of venturing on a desperate step, in order 
to save her supremacy and influence, for this consideration 
was always uppermost with her. 

She had trifled with the friendship of the Huguenots, and 
now they had outwitted her ; her power over the King, the 
fruit of the toil of a life-time, had slipped through her 
fingers, and through the Huguenots, whom she had dreaded 
least of all. She had never liked them, had never forgotten 
that they had formerly been inimical to her ; all her fierce 
old hatred was stirred up when she saw her position 
threatened by these heretics. 

She was a Medici; had passed a melancholy, joyless 
youth ; had been brought as a stranger to the Court ; had 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 35 

been neglected by her husband, and thrust on one side 
under her eldest son. After a long course of humiliation, 
she had at length attained the authority she desired, as the 
adviser of her second son, and now it appeared that she 
had only brought him up for the Calvinists, and had really 
been working for them. This was too much for a Medici. 

As to ways and means in such a situation, she shared 
the views of her nation. The passionate Italians are dis- 
posed to choose the shortest and most sanguinary methods. 
Political assassination has always been judged more le- 
niently by them than by other nations ; unhappily, political 
complications, combined with the hasty temperament of the 
people, have often caused them to resort to poison or the 
dagger, while the northerners are still debating. In the six- 
teenth century this sort of political morality was in full bloom, 
had been theoretically developed by Machiavelli with artless 
objectivity, and, as a passionate woman, Catharine was 
doubly disposed to resort to such means. 

The idea ripened in her mind of getting rid of Coligny 
by assassination ; she was convinced that it would serve her 
purpose, and all other considerations were disregarded. 

Entirely of one mind with her son Henry, she turned to 
the Guises, with whom she was at enmity when they were 
in power, but friendly when they were of no more con- 
sequence than herself. They breathed vengeance against 
the Calvinists, and were ready at once to avenge the murder 
of Francis of Guise by a murderous attack upon Coligny. 

An assassin was hired, and established in a house belong- 
ing to the Guises, near Coligny's dwelling, and as he came 
out of the palace, on the 22nd of August, a shot was fired 
at him, which wounded but did not kill him. 

Had Coligny died of this wound, Catharine would have 
been content; her power would have been restored, the 



36 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Huguenots intimidated and deprived of their leader, the 
game which she played with both parties, to render each 
harmless by means of the other, could have begun again. 
But Coligny did not die; the Huguenots defiantly de- 
manded vengeance on the well-known instigator of the 
deed ; their threats reached the Queen and Prince Henry 
of Anjou, and the personal fascination which Coligny had 
exercised over King Charles appeared rather to increase 
than to diminish. 

Thus doubtless arose, during the anxious hours afler the 
failure of the assassination, die idea of an act of violence on 
a large scale, which should strike a blow at Coligny and 
his friends before they had time for revenge. It certainly 
had not been in preparation for months, not even since the 
time that Cohgny had been at Court ; it was conceived in 
the 2^ony of these hours. Not tiiat so diabolical a scheme 
was impossible in such a circle, but Catharine's character 
was not equal to it In the heat of passion she could 
venture on the most fearful deeds, but she had not sufficient 
elasticity to plan such a scheme and to allow it gradually to 
ripen. , 

The new faith had been proscribed in Paris from the 
first — all the Edicts of toleration expressly excepted it and 
the neighbourhood — and the inhabitants cherished a growing 
hatred of the Huguenots, which it was hard to restrain 
and very easy to let loose. If the King could be persuaded 
to give the signal for an attack, a horrible massacre might 
be expected. 

But the King was again in Coligny*s hands, had seriously 
entered into the investigation of the attempt upon his life, 
dismissed the Guises with hard words firom Court, sent a 
guard of fifty men to Coligny*s house, and had had it pro- 
claimed in Paris and the provinces that every part of the 



THE MASSACRE OF ST, BARTHOLOMEW. 37 

religious Peace should be conscientiously observed On the 
afternoon of the 23rd of August the Queen made a final 
attempt with the King. She told him of a vast Huguenot 
conspiracy against throne and altar, which, with thousands 
of well-armed troops, was only awaiting the right moment, 
under Colign/s command, to attack him and all his house ; 
the Catholics were asleep ; unless the King roused himself, 
and under a leader chosen by himself resisted the Huguenots, 
he would stand alone, and all would be lost.* This down- 
right lie took efiect ; orders were given for the massacre, 
and it was organized on a large scale for the following night. 
A vast number of the Huguenots had come to Paris for the 
celebration of the marriage of Henry of Navarre with the 
King's sister ; thousands had been attracted by this peaceful 
and conciliatory festival ; the plan was, at a given signal, 
to fell upon the sleeping guests. The Guises sent for the 
Prevots des Marchands and the superintendents of the 
various quarters, explained the plan to them, and gave them 
their commissions. To make sure that none of the more 
important persons shouki escape, individuals were com- 
missioned to murder particular persons, and the Duke of 
Guise took care to undertake the murder of Coligny. These 
doings have a horrible similarity to those of 1792, when the 
superintendents of the sections were sent for to have the 
plan of the prison murders explained to them. The mur- 
derous orders had to be despatched to the provinces by 
couriers. 

The horrors of the night of the 24th of August took place 

• According to the confessions of Henry of Anjou, the Queen only 
wished for the head of Coligny and those of some of his friends, but 
Charles IX. said in a tremendous rage that, if the Admiral must die, 
not a single Huguenot should remain alive to reproach him with the 
deed. This, then, was the cause of the massacre, which was not at 
first intended by Catharine and Henry. — Soldan. 



38 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

in this way. At a given signal the leaders left their posts, 
collected their comrades, fell upon the Huguenot quarter, 
and murdered the defenceless people. About 2,000 were 
met with, very few of whom escaped. Similar signals were 
despatched to all the larger places, and very few of the 
superintendents had the courage to answer that they were 
not assassins. There were but isolated instances of 
mercy and conscience ; in general the command was 
carried out as it was given, and it throws a ghastly light on 
the nation and its rulers. The King, dragged along like a 
powerless instrument, took part in these horrors, and was 
seized with the horrid ambition to assist in the project which 
was not his own invention. 

Blind revenge and passion are bad counsellors. Not a 
single project of the house of Valois, which thought it was 
contending for its Crown, or of the mother of its last King, 
whose whole soul was engrossed in ambition, was accom- 
plished by the deed. Their dynasty was ruined, but the 
Huguenots were not exterminated. 

20,000, 25,000, even 100,000 victims are spoken of — the 
smallest number is the most probable ! It was a tremendous 
blow for the party. Most of its leaders were cut off; the grey- 
headed Coligny was cut to pieces ; but, though weaker by 
20,000 men, it was strong enough to begin the war of 
revenge again. A fierce hatred had been excited in the 
remnants of the party, which perhaps was of greater value 
than the loss they had sustained. Charles IX. wrote on 
26th of August to his ambassador in the Netherlands : — 
" This fire will extend to every city of my empire, and all 
the followers of the new religion will be made harmless.' » 
This opinion also prevailed at Rome and Madrid. The 
Pope had a solemn Te jDeum celebrated, and Philip H. 
broke out into a coarse triumphal laugh at the news. 



THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 39 

But in almost every other country of Europe, even in the 
zealous Catholic States, there was but one voice of horror 
and condemnation. 

The Emperor Maximilian II. expressed the feeling of the 
world when he said that it pained him to reckon such a mur- 
derous crew among his relations, and he was father-in-law to 
Charles IX. The Pope and Philip II., however, lauded it as 
an act well pleasing to God, and one that did honour to the 
title of the " Most Christian King." Was it probable that, 
even among these fanatical assassins, such a monarchy should 
continue to exist ? Was it possible that when passion had 
cooled, and the calm voice of the nation was heard again, 
a monarchy would be forgiven whose name was stained by 
the most bloody deed that ever disgraced a royal house ? 
In the eyes of the nation, no blessing could ever again rest 
on it. Just as Catharine thought she had attained domi- 
nion for ever, she was giving the most fatal blow to her 
authority. 

Thus a fresh religious war arose. All that were not 
murdered of the Huguenot party took up arms. It was 
absolutely necessary for them to defend their rights, and it 
became evident how many remained. None of the wars 
were so feebly carried on by the royal party as this one ; it 
seemed as if an evil conscience lamed their powers. 

Among the Catholic population itself, a party split off 
from the fanatics, who were called, first in jest and then in 
earnest, " The Politicians." They condemned the war of 
extermination against religious creeds, and demanded imme- 
diate abolition of the misgovemment of the Court party, 
which was becoming more and more intolerable. Political 
opposition now assailed the helpless throne ; and if we are 
ever justified in thinking we see the Nemesis following 
close upon a guilty act, we are so in this case. The murder 



40 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

scheme had failed ; the Huguenots were not exterminated ; 
the Catholic party was split into two camps; Catharine 
had to share her power with the Guises, and was helpless 
between the two parties ; the King felt the burden of the 
night of the 24th of August press upon him more heavily 
than any one else. 

The ghosts of those who had been slain by his orders 
were ever before his eyes ; he often rose in the night, and 
rushed in despair through the dreary apartments of his 
palace, followed by bleeding forms and confused voices. He 
was not enough of a villain to get over it as others would 
have done ; he was a weak child, who had been persuaded 
to vile deeds, and was racked to death by the stings of 
conscience. 

Two years after the night of St. Bartholomew his feeble 
life came to an end ; he pined away without any particular 
disease, consumed by a dissolute life, and the remembrance 
of an act which he was weak enough to permit, and not 
strong enough to overcome. 

This was a heavy blow to Catharine ; her tool was dead, 
the throne again vacant, and that at a moment when the 
Netherlands had risen, the Huguenots were in arms, and 
the Catholic party filled with discontent and in process of 
dissolution. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

HENRY III., 1574-89, AND THE LEAGUE. 

Character of Henry. — The Edict of May, 1576, and the Holy League 
of the Guises. — Protracted Vacillation. — Death of Francis of 
Anjou, June, 1584, and Contest about the Succession. — The War 
of the Three Henrys, 1588-9. — The Barricades of Paris, May, 
I588.--The States at Blois, October, 1588, and the Murder of the 
Two Guises, 23rd and 24th December, 1588. — Flight and Murder 
of Henry III., August 2nd, 1589. 

/^ATHARINE'S third son, Henry III., now began to 
reign. It was said that he was the one most deeply 
imbued with her ideas, and that he yielded the most willingly 
to her advice. He had spent his youth among the Guises, 
adhered jealously to the strict Catholic party — ^not from 
religious sentiments, but from purely external motives. He 
had dutifully aided his mother in the arrangement of the 
Massacre of St Bartholomew, and he himself relates after 
what vicissitudes she finally attained her end in her attacks 
upon the King's relations with Coligny, and with what 
anxious suspense she listened for the murderous signal of 
the alarm bell on the night of the 24th of August. 

At this juncture a prospect had opened of providing for 
Henry, whom it was not easy to keep in France, by means 
of his election to the throne of Poland. By dint of great 
pecimiary sacrifices he had been elected King, and Poland 



42 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

thought the French kingdom would aid Polish weakness. 
Just as he ascended the throne, news came of his brother's 
death, and Henry laid aside the crown — did not even abdi- 
cate, but simply deserted the Polish throne in order to ascend 
the French one. In spite of his slender build and love of 
sensual pleasures, he was more vigorous than either of his 
brothers, produced more the impression of a French noble 
than his predecessor, and was believed to have more mental 
power. He was certainly more deeply initiated into his 
mother's political morality. What in Charles IX. was con- 
temptible weakness, was in him voluntary co-operation ; 
what in the one case was extorted by lies and intimidation 
from a demoralised nature, was in the other the acquiescence 
of detestable frivolity which agreed to anything and shrunk 
from nothing. Still, there was nothing manly in this person- 
age ; though more gifted than his brothers, and not so easily 
treated as a minor, there was nothing of the King about him, 
and he was even more repulsive than they were. 

The horrible corruption of Charles's Court, its foolery and 
frivolity, had no better representative than Henry of Anjou. 
He had gone through frightful excesses ; his youth had no- 
thing to show but dissolute feats, or even crimes. It is 
related of him that he went through the streets as a Merry- 
Andrew, or with wild beasts like a bear-leader, attired in 
such a fashion that his sex was indistinguishable ; or broke 
into the houses of the peaceful citizens by night with a crew 
of dissolute companions. Neither was he wanting in the 
bigotry of which this Court could boast. One day he might 
be seen with the notorious " mignons," or seizing the wives 
and daughters of Parisian husbands and citizens ; the next he 
went to church, joined in masses and processions to atone 
for the horrors of the previous night. As to honour, 
faith, honesty, and loyalty, he was truly worthy of his 
mother. 



HENRY III. 43 

This was the Valois upon whose shoulders the burden 
was laid of healing the woes of a distracted country. 

The religious contest was not adjusted ; the Huguenots 
were deeply embittered ; new leaders were at the head ; the 
land groaned under misgovemment, which was worse than 
ever ; the treasury was empty ; there was no money to pay 
the officials, the troops, or the household ; discontent was 
increasing among all classes; and there was a party of 
eminent men who were clamouring for political reforms. 

And now the dangers of the situation were incorporated 
in an ominous League between the Huguenots, and the 
Catholic politicians. Both renounced the idea of a unity 
of faith for all France ; gave up the endless civil wars, and 
wished for peace on the principle of reciprocal toleration, 
and directed their forces against the Crown with a united 
demand for reforms, abolition of the great abuses, and con- 
vocation of the States of the empire. 

In the presence of these complications, Henry IH. had 
not the power, was too insignificant to go to work like a 
King, to put an end to factions by reigning supreme above 
them. He chose the dishonourable path of fostering intrigues, 
and for years played a deceitful game; but so clumsily, 
that the commonest understanding could see through it. 

In May, 1576, he made peace with the politicians and 
Huguenots, revoked the policy of the massacre, put an end 
to the legal disabilities of its victims, granted the heretics, 
with the exception of Paris, unlimited religious liberty, 
equality in filling offices and dignities in every Parliament ; 
a chamber composed of an equal number of Catholics and 
Protestants, and eight fortresses, as a pledge that the treaty 
should be observed. 

The Catholics did not fail to strike a counter-blow to this 
edict. With the help of Spain, Henry of Guise collected 



44 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

together all those who held to the preservation of the unity 
of the faith, at any price and by any means, in an alliance 
called the Holy League ; it was formed in 1576, and found 
considerable support in the meeting of the States at Blois, 
in December of that year. Resistance to the utmost to the 
Huguenots, and to all who should join themselves to them, 
was the programme of this League. 

At Blois, the King showed that he was not in earnest wi^ 
his concessions to the Huguenots. The Holy League had 
not long been formed when the King joined it, and recalled 
all that he had previously granted. It came to a religious 
war. Royalty and the opposing parties once more met upon 
the battle-field, the former to play the forlorn part of being 
watched by the Catholics as partly, and by the Protestants 
as altogether a traitor. This war confirmed what had been 
granted to the Huguenots in 1576; but the seventh war, 
which quickly followed, deprived them of it again until the 
Edict of toleration was renewed at the Peace of Fleix. 
Things could not go on as they were ; royalty sunk deeper 
every day in the estimation of all parties ; alarming political 
projects were stirring, when in June, 1584, another death 
took place which hastened the crisis. 

This was the death of the fourth son of Henry II. and 
Catharine, Francis of Alen90n, who, after the accession of 
Henry III., had received the title of Duke of Anjou, and 
had been looked upon as Henry's successor. He had 
allowed himself to be made a tool of by all parties ; had at 
length appeared as a Pretender in the south of the Nether- 
lands ; had tried all sorts of schemes in order to cut a 
figure, but he had not talent enough for it. On the loth of 
June, 1584, he died, and it was in fact the most important 
thing he had ever done. 
He was the last of the Valois, and the Bourbons were 



WAR OF THE THREE HENRYS. 45 

now thought of as successors. The representative of the 
claims of this house was Henry, King of Navarre, who, 
compelled on the night of St. Bartholomew to abjure his 
feith, had afterwards escaped and placed himself at the 
head of his old party. 

Spain and Rome laboured against his right of succession, 
against the <elevation of the heretical Bourbons ; and just 
as they were beginning to look round for a Catholic 
dynasty in France, the well-known work, " Stemmata," ap- 
peared in Lorraine, in which it was shown that the Guises 
were descended from the Cariovingians, and were thus 
the legitimate house; while the French kings were all 
usurpers. They forgot in their zeal that the Carlovingians 
themselves were arrant usurpers, and that they should 
have gone back to the Merovingians. An eighth religious 
war then began about the throne, which has been called 
the War of the Three Henrys. From the end of 1585 there 
was a melancholy campaign, the issue of which neither 
party could foresee, and in which the King and his mother 
played a most pitiful part. The King at first sought to 
maintain a position in the camp of the League, but vanished 
before Henry of Guise. He then tried to take an indepen- 
dent course ; but every attempt led to more painful and 
ignominious defeats, until nothing availed but assassination, 
which overthrew the kingdom of the last of the Valois. 

There could be no doubt with the masses who was the 
lawtul King, the wretched Henry IH. or the powerful Duke 
of Guise. It required a persistent idea of legitimacy to 
remain loyal to one about whom everything was despicable 
except his legal right to the throne. Henry of Guise could 
not be looked upon as other than a usurper, but he 
displayed unquestionable superiority in playing his part. 
He was not the great general which his father was con- 



46 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

sidered to be, but in chivalrous personal bravery he equalled 
if he did not excel him. Then he was handsome, eloquent, 
winning, exercised quite a fascination over the masses, was 
without the weakness for women of Henry III., was distin- 
guished in all manly exercises, was the best rider, fencer, 
swimmer in France, and was blameless in faithfulness 
to his convictions. The party which he led was in great 
measure the creation of his family ; it was a party which 
knew no capitulation ; he stood or fell with it. However 
worthless its programme may be considered, it must be 
granted that the Guises stood by it firmly, while the King 
and his mother, broken reeds as they were, inclined now to 
this side and now to the other. 

At Rome and Madrid they were already designating the 
hero of the League as the legal Catholic King, and the 
book called the " Stemmata " was intended to mislead the 
legitimist conscience of the people. The pitiful bearing of 
the King towards the Duke of Guise was as if designed to 
make the Pretender popular, and to complete the bank- 
ruptcy of the lawful crown. The French sources relate 
with a certain humour the King's attempt in 1588 to rid 
himself of his inconvenient Mayor of the Palace, and how 
it ended in preparing a complete triumph for the latter. 

Guise had entered Paris with several hundred knights, in 
order, as he said, to justify himself to the King against 
false accusations, but in truth to wring from him entire 
submission to the commands of the League. The people 
had received the Pretender with immense rejoicings, and 
the King was so enraged, that for a moment he thought of 
having him assassinated. To defend himself, he caused a 
troop of 6,000 men to enter the city, who would, properly 
made use of, have been quite sufficient to put down the 
Duke and all his lollowers ; but the organization was so bad. 



THE STATES AT BLOIS. 47 

that Guise succeeded, under the eyes of the King*s soldiers, 
who stood like " iron pillars," in inciting the masses to rise 
and construct barricades, which put all Paris into his power, 
and compelled the King to fly. The Duke took possession 
of the city, the people did homage to him as their Lord, 
the wretched King entered into negotiations, and in July 
signed a programme which really made the Duke regent 
and supreme ruler, and reduced the King to a mere puppet. 

Henry could not forget this, and resolved to get rid of 
the Duke by a secure method. 

In October, 1588, the States were convoked at Blois, and 
it had to be shown who was master, the King or the Duke. 
Henry HI. experienced one disappointment after another. 
Even in the opening speech, he had to listen to a coarse 
attack on the ambition of the great, and then to confirm by 
oath the programme of the League. 

But the spirit by which a large portion of the assembly 
was animated, indicated a new and tremendous danger, of 
which the King had no idea. Ideas of reform in the empire 
were expressed, as bold and radical as those of 1789 ; even 
more so, for they did not adhere to the one point to which 
all parties adhered then — the entire unity of the State— but 
suggested projects of decentralisation, with privileges for the 
nobles, the States and the provinces, which did not at all 
comport with the great work of the house of Valois. A 
monarchy limited by a standing committee of the States 
was proposed, and the doctrine of the sovereignty of the 
people preached, which, in spite of its ecclesiastical dress, 
was as revolutionary as possible. All the King's legal 
power is granted him by the States ; if he surpasses it, it 
reverts to the States ; questions of war, peace, taxes, &c., 
cannot be decided without them, &c. If we consider also 
the revolutionary organization of the city of Paris, divided 



48 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

into districts exactly as in 1792, governed by secret leaders 
which had already, on the day of the barricades, the 12th of 
May, made itself a fearful lever of democratic agitation, the 
similarity between this state of things and that of the great 
Revolution becomes very striking, and the distinction dis- 
appears that on the one occasion these things were 
demanded in the name of the Catholic Church, on the other 
were based upon the rights of man. This was the alarming 
situation in which Henry III, found himself when, as he 
saw no other mode of escape, he formed the desperate reso- 
lution of murdering the captains of the League, after he had 
tried in vain to conquer them. 

The King had already discussed the plan of the murder 
with the most confidential members of his body guard, when 
Henry of Guise still felt quite secure, although he had been 
repeatedly warned. " He will not venture on it," he said, 
like Danton in a similar situation. He did not give the 
prince, whose insignificance no one knew better than himself, 
credit for power to carry out so heroic a plan. When, on 
the morning of the 23rd of December, 1588, he was going 
to the King, he was struck down in the same apartments 
where, sixteen years before, he had initiated the massacre. 
His brother Charles shared the same fate, and many of 
the most influential leaders of the party were imprisoned. 

The King thought that with the leaders he had destroyed 
the party itself: this was a mistake. Civil war raged almost 
all over France, and in Paris there was complete anarchy. 
The Ligue des Seize — so the chief lodge of a number of clubs 
spread over France was called — seized the reins of govern- 
ment, put its creatures into every post, turned out all who 
opposed them, and tried the King by Parliament. 

Helpless and forsaken, the King now fled to the camp of 
the Huguenots, sought protection from those whom he had 



MURDER OF HENRY in. 



49 



been most consistent in opposing, and among whom there 
were many who hated him as the murderer of their nearest 
relations. Henry of Navarre suppressed all these feelings — 
a great proof of his power over the army. The King was 
greeted as a ELing. At the same time it was a perpetual 
embarrassment to the Huguenots to have this empty-headed, 
weak-minded creature in their camp. The fanaticism of the 
party of the Guises delivered them from it. One of the 
priests, who had daily heard it preached at Paris that it was 
meritorious to murder a tyrant — a Dominican, Jacob 
Clement — entered the camp and gave the King a fatal stab. 
A few hours after, Henry IH. was a corpse, 2nd of August, 
1589. The murder of the King, which had long been 
preached, was now put in practice. The new political 
doctrine of the Jesuits and the Council of Trent had passed 
through every stage, from producing mere demagogues and 
rebellion up to regicide ; people knew now what might be 
expected from it. 



VOL. II. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

HENRY IV., 1589-1610. 

Character of Henry IV.— His Struggle for the Crown, 1789-93.— 
Dissolution of the Opposing Party. — Charles of Mayenne, the 
Parisian Demagogues, Plans of Philip II. — Henry's Conversion to 
Catholicism ; Motives for and Consequences of this Step. — 
Henry's Administration, 1594- 16 10. — Peace of Vervins, May, 
1598.— Edict of Nantes, 1598.— Sully's Administration.— Plan of 
a Great Protestant Alliance against Spanish Hapsburg.— Henry's 
Murder, by Ravaillac, May 14th, 16 10. 

Character of Henry IV. 

A NEW era now begins for France. According to law 
and usage, Henry of Navarre was undoubtedly king. 
The Bourbons were descended from the younger, the last of 
the Capets and the Valois from the elder sons of St. Louis ; 
but the step from legal to acknowledged and actual 
possession was a long and difficult one. 

Henry found confusion, dissolution, and civil war every- 
where. At first he only possessed the smaller portion of his 
kingdom. His inheritance, Protestant Beam, stood by him, 
as did also the Huguenot naval fortress of La Rochelle, the 
Cevennes, the faithful nobles in Dauphin^, Poitou, Saintonge, 
and the scattered Protestant communities in the south of 
France, and subsidies were granted him by the German 
Protestant princes. The country whose lawful ruler he was 



HENRY IV. 51 

had to a great extent to be conquered, and when conquered 
would have to submit to an entirely new order of things, 
which would control disorder and licence, and restore law 
and order. 

Henry IV. was the child of this wild period of civil war, 
had grown up to manhood in camp, and amidst dangers 
and disputes. 

His marriage had furnished the occasion for the massacre 
of St. Bartholomew. While his fellow-religionists were 
succumbing to the murderous accomplices of the Guises, he 
was compelled to abjure his faith in order to save his life. 
His heroic mother, Jeanne d'Albret, had died under 
suspicious circumstances ; he had taken part in numerous 
conflicts, had been hardened by many reverses. At first he 
had only been tested as a brave soldier, and more than 
this he did not appear to be. 

And yet he was the means of changing the aspect of 
France. The loyal sentiments of the nation were fixed 
upon him ; a healthy patriotism, which had perished in the 
horrors of civil war and religious animosity, warmed up at 
the sight of him ; and he was the man to bring about the 
needful change, and to give it the right direction. He was 
not one of those superior men who can call forth mighty 
creations out of chaos, and point out the course which shall 
be taken for a long time to come, and yet he was not far 
behind them. 

He possessed to the full that happy talent of attracting 
all cognate elements to himself — of nullifying all that was 
inimical, of retaining the mastery in all the situations of 
life. This was a proof of unusual personal greatness, even 
if it cannot be said that he launched new and bold ideas 
into the world. 

He was, above all things, a tliorough soldier, as after his 



52 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

past history he could not fail to be. After the close of the 
great war two hundred actions were counted, besides the great 
battles in which he had been engaged, and almost always 
without receiving any injury. He had that happy and care- 
less disregard of danger which is bred of the popular heroic 
spirit — which feels, and makes others feel, that he is under 
a propitious star. This always excites enthusiasm among 
a people so impressible as the French for military glory. 

Still he was not only a soldier. Even while pursuing the 
bloody trade of war, he had retained a nobility of nature ; 
the softer traits of a royal character had not been effaced 
by camp life. He not only knew how to plunge into' the 
tumult of battle with his comrades and soldiers, or as a 
general to measure the distances over a wide expanse : he 
was also a simple, open-hearted, chivalrous man, who 
heartily enjoyed life, and had plenty of natural dexterity in 
adapting himself to men — in detecting at a glance their 
strong and weak points. 

The stories of the amiable private life of his youth are 
well known, so different from the coarse, selfish sensuality 
and bigotry of the last of the Valois. It was told how he 
caroused, joked, and laughed with his friends ; one day gave 
himself up to love-making, the next kept up free, unrestrained 
intercourse with the people ; greeted every one with royal 
and winning grace, sympathizingly inquired after the welfare 
of the humblert, gained men*s favour more rapidly by a 
well-timed word and his ready wit than by the greatest 
victories on the battle-field. 

Besides all this, he possessed a wonderful elasticity, could 
endure privations and fast with any one. Notwithstanding 
his sensuous temperament, he could rest upon the bare 
ground, share frost, heat, hunger, and thirst with the most 
insignificant of his soldiers, and yet be the first to face the 



HENRY IV. 53 

enemy, the last to leave the field. ' He carried on the most 
various pursuits simultaneously and with equal zeal, and his 
perpetual love affairs and boundless excesses, which usually 
enfeeble the strongest, never crippled his energies. When 
he died, it was felt that a youthful, vigorous, richly-gifted 
life, teeming with health, was cut off in its midst. He knew 
nothing of weakness, illness, or those hypochondriacal fancies 
which were the curses of the last of the Valois. The only 
bitterness of which he was capable, now and then showed 
itself in transient humours, and a soldier-like contempt for 
hum^n life. It may well be said that Henry IV. was a 
Frenchman par exulUnu ; he exhibited the bright and 
dark sides of the national character completely ; the frivolity 
and tendency to excess, the taste for martial glory, the in- 
destructible light-mindedness and social virtuosity, the 
chivalry of sensuous life. It is obvious that such a person- 
age was well adapted to revive the extinct loyalty of the 
nation. 

Henry IV. also possessed grand royal traits of character. 
He may be called frivolous for being so entirely destitute 
of revenge, for forgiving and forgetting so easily, but it was 
an immense advantage to the people after a thirty years* 
civil war. How often it was suggested to him to revenge 
himself on a conquered foe, and how nobly he always 
rejected the proposal ! The zealots of his own party, who 
could not forget the butchery of St Bartholomew, and many 
other things, might think it frivolous, but it was an unspeak- 
able advantage for the restorer of the national kingdom. 
He came as the king of an ill-treated, betrayed, and fear- 
fully irritated party ; but, during his reign of twenty years 
he always appears as the king of the whole people, never 
as the successful leader of a party. The Bourbons of our 
days would have been on the throne still had they displayed 
these royal qualities. 



54 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

He was a man of strong sensuality, but his mistresses 
never had any political influence over him, and amidst his 
countless love affairs he never forgot the duties imposed 
upon him by his proud and onerous calling; he was 
sufficiently well schooled in the grave business of life to 
give a higher place to men of merit than to women 
and their favour. The harsh and obstinate Sully often 
reproached him bitterly with his frivolity, and strenu- 
ously opposed him in great measures; the contest some- 
times becomes so sharp that it would be no surprise if he 
dismissed his unamiable minister and devoted himself to 
women. But we know that no such purpose ever crossed ' 
his mind. • 

The Elevation of Henry IV. to the Throne. 

The King's position was a very difficult one. His rela- 
tions to the two parties who had been fighting for life or 
death were not yet clear. He was not a fanatic, like those 
about him. As the son of a zealous Calvinistic mother, he 
had been brought up as one of the Reformed party fi-om child- 
hood, but he had had to go through sundry metamorphoses. 
During the night of St. Bartholomew he was compelled to 
become a Catholic, and when free became again a Pro- 
testant. Thus he was able to look at things with a cooler 
head than the partisans around him. His interests were 
indeed connected with the Reformed party, but he was able 
to put its religious creed on and off like something external, 
which was afterwards of some importance to him. 

Even before the helpless Henry III. had taken refuge 
in his camp, the leader of the Huguenots had put in a 
conciliatory word amidst the war of Catholic and Protestant 
Frenchmen. 

Under date of 4th of March, 1589, he had issued an 



HENRY IV. '55 

eloquent address to the States and all his countrymen, pro- 
testing against the impatient spirit of the States at Blois, 
and he indicates peace between the creeds as the only 
method of healing the sick State. " Have pity, Frenchmen, 
on your fair country ! " he had exclaimed ; " cease to stain 
it with the blood of your own sons, to the scorn and malicious 
satisfaction of your enemies; desist from dvil war and 
return to concord. I myself will give an example of con- 
ciliation. I will take under my protection all the party and 
persons of the Catholics, even their priests ; for I know it is 
only by means of clemency, peace, and good example, 
that true piety can flourish, and distracted States can re- 
cover." 

These views did honour to the patriot and the politician ; 
but to cause them to take effect amidst fierce party spirit 
was a difficult and arduous task, as Henry experienced to 
the full. His first declaration, after the death of Henry 
III., was calculated to make both parties beholden to him. 
He declined to accept the suggestion that he should become 
a Catholic A creed for which thousands of the lower 
classes had joyfully surrendered their lives, could not be 
lightly rejected by him who would be worthy of the crown 
of France. It might be done by a scoffer, one who had no 
religion at all, but such an one they did not wish for a 
king. On the other hand, he did not think that the creed 
in which he had been bom and bred was free from errors ; 
he would not close his ears against instruction on the subject, 
when the peers and office-bearers of the realm assembled 
around him, should they find an opportunity of discussing 
the question. 

A compromise was then agreed on, according to which 
the King was to receive instruction in the Catholic religion, 
and was to protect the Catholics in their rights and dignities. 



56 THE REUGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

In thus giving the Catholics hopes that he was not in- 
accessible to capitulation, and showing the Protestants that 
he was not going hghtly to abjure his faith, he wished to 
prevent the open outbreak of schism in his camp. Had he 
not done the first, the Catholic nobles would have at once 
forsaken him, and have probably strengthened the forces of 
the League. Nevertheless, his position was in the highest 
degree difficult. The strict Catholics did not conceal their 
mistrust; and the strict Huguenots, who regarded any 
approach to the Catholics as defection or treason, were 
deeply displeased. The fascination which he exercised 
over them, the recollection of long companionship in arms, 
induced them to overlook it; but he could not prevent 
their uttering reproaches in his presence. 

Thus there was a party for him whom he did not dare to 
offend, and had to treat with the greatest consideration ; 
and another, more than half against him, who were only to 
be bought by concessions. There was at first no talk of 
royal authority, or of taxes, revenue, &c. He carried on 
the war with foreign heretical money, and strengthened his 
army with Swiss and German hirelings ; in short, in spite of 
his undoubted legal claims to the throne, he was really only 
a pretender, who had, amidst a thousand dangers, to con- 
quer his country and crown. 

The great Powers of Europe, with the exception of Eng- 
land, only now becoming great, were against him; the 
Spanish Hapsburgs were against him ; Philip II. declared 
at once that he did not acknowledge his rights ; Rome, in 
a bull of September, 1585, declared him incompetent to 
reign ; and the German Hapsburgs mostly went with their 
Spanish relations. 

Not to despair in such a situation demanded the courage 
and elasticity of a man like Henry IV. His army was 



HENRY IV. 57 

small, his means scanty; a great Power like Spain was 
opposed to him, whose most talented general, Alexander of 
Parma, was now entering France from the Netherlands ; the 
League was in possession of Paris ; only a very small part 
of the Catholic population was on his side ; the adhesion of 
the Huguenots was but doubtful It was a situation which 
no ordinary man could face without dismay. 

But during these bitter days we never hear a word of 
despair or discouragement from Henry IV. On the con- 
trary, he seems secure in the consciousness that he must 
conquer, and, in fact, so long as he reigned, his cause was 
n'bt lost. 

It was fortunate for him that his opponents were by no 
means united. Had Spain, the Guises, and the whole 
Catholic population united against him, a struggle must 
have ensued in which Henry IV. could not have been 
victorious. 

In the first place, among the party of the Guises there 
was not a man to put in Henry's stead who would have 
ventured to aspire to the crown, and thereby to give the 
Revolution — for a revolution it was — ^a distinct programme. 
The surviving brother of the Guises, Charles of Mayenne, 
was a brave soldier, but he wanted Henry's talents 
and adventurous ambition. He stood rather for the 
security of his brother's will, in order that the banner of 
the party of the League, whose bom leader he was, should 
be upheld, than had courage to carry it out to its legitimate 
consequences; he did not venture to have himself pro- 
claimed king, as his friends advised, so that king should 
stand face to face with king, but only took half measures, 
which turned to his adversary's advantage. 

The legitimate right of Henry IV. was rejected ; but as 
they wished to have an opposition king, if only a nominal one, 



58 THE REUGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

they seized upon the only Catholic Bourbon, Henry's uncle, 
a man of sixty-seven years of age, who had never troubled 
himself about the government, and, as a cardinal, was 
quite unfit to play this part He was proclaimed king as 
Charles X. The legitimacy which they wished to main 
tain was only apparent, and the hereditary right of 
the house whose next heirs were passed over was only con- 
firmed. 

The nephew took possession of the person of his uncle, 
and kept him in honourable imprisonment, but so that his 
adversaries could not get at him. The newly-proclaimed 
King was in the hands of his most dangerous rival. Then, 
within the party which had hitherto been united, divisions 
began to take place. 

The fiightful conspiracy of the Sixteen, who had now 
become all-powerful at Paris, had at first nothing in com- 
mon with the League except its enemies ; composed from 
the first of an undisciplined mob, and tending to general 
anarchy, the mobocracy, the terrorism of the demagogues, 
now prevailed to so unexampled an extent at Paris that it 
was no longer compatible with any tactics directed to great 
general ends. The Duke of Mayenne was a soldier, and 
felt the natural aversion of the camp to the wild doings of 
lawless crowds. He hated the barricading plan and the 
terrorism of the masses, and was soon of opinion, at the 
risk of incurring the deepest displeasure of the dema- 
gogues, that there was nothing for it but to hang up a few 
of the loudest of them to secure peace. Having subdued 
the mutineers in November, 1 591, he put it in practice. 

Thus in the midst of the party itself an opposition had 
arisen between the Legitimists of the camp and the Mo- 
narchists of the capital, and a variance had arisen among 
the heads of the coalition, which continually increased. 



SCHEMES OF PHILIP II. IN FRANCE. 59 

Spain, Rome, and the Guises had hitherto held together ; 
all three had expressed themselves strongly against Henry's 
right of succession ; and since the book had appeared about 
the legitimacy of the Guises, it was supposed that the 
vacated throne was meant for them ; but this appeared to 
be a mistake, so fsLT as Philip II., the most powerful of the 
allies, was concerned. 

Had it been the murdered Henry of Guise, perhaps 
Spain would have been accommodating, though she would 
not acknowledge Charles of Mayenne as king ; but it was 
becoming continually more evident that she had an inten- 
tion of reigning in France herself. Under the last of the 
Valois, Philip II. had exerted a powerful influence in French 
affairs. Spanish money and Spanish intrigues had con- 
stantly torn and kept open the wounds of the civil war. 
If France becomes Protestant, so said his spokesmen, the 
Netherlands and Spain itself will fall victims to heresy. 
Thus, after the death of Henry III., they justified increased 
interference in the internal affairs of France. Charles of 
Mayenne was advised with threats not to grasp at the 
crown. When Charles X. was proclaimed, it was said, the 
old cardinal cannot be king — let there be a regency ; and 
the most natural regent would be Philip II. At length, in 
1 593> it W21S proposed to make Philip's daughter, the Infanta 
Clara Eugenia, regent. She was to marry an Austrian arch- 
duke, and France would be made an appanage of the house 
of Hapsbiurg. 

This was with Philip the ambition of despair. He had 
failed in subduing the Netherlands ; his attack upon Eng- 
land was defeated; his last shift was the crazy idea of 
gaining a firm footing in France— perhaps thence he could 
take up the other great schemes again. 

With an almost bankrupt State, a shipwrecked fleet, and 



6o THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

a decimated army, it was a desperate undertaking to try to 
make a Spanish province of a country whose people glowed 
with national feeling. Among all the forces which played 
a part in these complications, nothing helped Henry IV. so 
much as this Spanish attempt upon the independent exist- 
ence of France. The simple consciousness that they were 
Frenchmen began to stir in the hearts of thousands, and 
overcame the dissensions of religious parties. Many an 
honest man began to suspect the League, and perceived 
that their country was standing on the edge of a precipice. 
Among these was Villeroi, who began to vacillate, and 
whom Henry afterwards chose as his minister out of the 
very camp of the League. Even Charles of Mayenne 
began to listen to these considerations. 

At Arques, 1589, and Ivry, 1590, Henry had obtained 
his first military successes over superior powers. But they 
had not helped him forward. On the 30th of August, 1590, 
he was obliged to raise the siege of Paris. The capital 
remained under the dominion of a mob, excited to madness 
by fanatical priests and unscrupulous demagogues; the 
greater part of his army, which he had with difficulty sup- 
ported, escaped from him ; the most important cities were in 
the hands of the enemy ; the country was exhausted ; and 
while the adversary received laige sums from Spain, the 
small subsidies which he had received from England, 
Holland, and the little princes of Germany, were scarcely 
sufficient for the most necessary expenditure. 

The dissensions which raged in the enemy's camp gave 
him time to breathe. 

The attitude of the raging sect of the Sixteen in Paris 
soon amounted to open treason against the country. They 
already subscribed themselves to King Philip as "his 
Majesty's obedient servants;" but their terrorism became 



SCHEMES OF PHILIP II. IN FRANCE. 6 1 

SO fearful, that Mayenne himself had, at the end of 1591, to 
interfere with his military authority. 

The King now received the first message from Mayenne, 
offering to come to terms on certain conditions. These 
could not be acceded to ; but the attempt showed that the 
last of the Guises had had enough of the reign of madness 
in Paris, and the superciliousness of Spain had begun to 
make him anxious. The more wildly the terrorists behaved, 
the bolder was Philip with his projects. Individual defec- 
tions followed; after 1 591-2 one and another nobleman 
joined the King's cause ; but with these isolated conquests 
it ended. All assured him that it had cost them great sacri- 
fices, and the rest were not strong enough to make them so 
long as the King remained a heretic. The Diet, which met 
at Paris in January, 1593, and which the national Catholic 
party under Mayenne, and the Spanish party, hoped to turn 
to good accoimt, led to nothing ; or rather, the supercilious 
attitude of Feria, the Spanish ambassador, hastened the 
breach between Mayenne and Philip, and confirmed the 
idea of entering into fi'esh negotiations. 

These negotiations, which took place in April and May 
between the royalist and national Catholic party, convinced 
Henry that without becoming a Catholic he could not be 
King of France. He therefore gave the first definite pro- 
mise on the subject. 

Meanwhile, the negotiations between the Spanish com- 
missioners and the Diet were openly carried on. Mayenne 
tried in vain to intrigue for himself; the Spaniards went 
abruptly to work at their purposes, tried to bring about the 
speedy election of a sovereign at any price, whether it were 
Philip, his daughter, or a prince of the house of Hapsburg. 
But the bolder they were, the stronger was the national 
disinclination to the Spaniards. 



62 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

In July, 1593, Henry went over to Catholicism, and this 
upset all the machinations of the enemy. 

The priests and the Papal Legate in vain declared that 
his conversion was a lie. Henry's adherents increased from 
day to day ; the defection even reached the ranks of the 
zealous Leaguists; and when, in March, 1594, Henry sur- 
prised Paris, the power of the League was broken. In the 
course of the year, one city after another opened its gates 
to him; the Catholic nobility did homage to him in a 
mass, and among them even Mayenne, Henry of Guise, 
Nevers, &c. 

It was under these circumstances that the son of Jeanne 
d*Albret took a step which she would never have forgiven 
him. 

It is not easy to excuse a man who changes his religion 
for external reasons ; he can never be regarded as a model 
of strength of character who, for the sake of a crown, 
changes his creed like a garment But it is certain that the 
crown was not to be had at any other price, that Henry had 
not the spirit of a martyr, and that his change of religion 
saved France from falling into an abyss. 

It was not a time when a monarch whose creed was that 
of a minority could rule the land. Who can say how it 
would be to-day if a Calvinist tried to govern France ! 
Few will say that it would be practicable even in our en- 
lightened days, and no one that it was so in the sixteenth 
century. A frightful fratricidal war had been raging for 
thirty )ears, in which difference of creed caused men not to 
shrink from the most cruel murders. In such a state of 
things there is no standpoint for a ruler so elevated that he 
can afford to overlook the creed of the majority, and ascend 
the throne as the representative of the minority. As a 
Huguenot, Henry could neither rule France then, nor ever. 



HENRY'S CONVERSION TO CATHOLICISM. 63 

As a Catholic, three attempts to assassinate him had failed 
— the fourth succeeded, because the Catholic fanatics, the 
Jesuits, always regarded him as a secret heretic and an out- 
law. What could he expect if he remained an avowed 
heretic ? 

There can be no doubt how a man whose convictions 
were all in all to him, ought to and would have acted; 
but such an one must not hanker after earthly crowns : 
he must remain >vithin his sanctuary until his last breath. 
But Henry was not made for a martyr to his religious con- 
victions ; the lightness with which he regarded such things 
was connected with some noble qualities in which most 
of the uncompromising Huguenots were wanting. The 
magnanimous toleration which a monarch in such circum- 
stances must consider as one of his most sacred duties, 
and which Henry IV. really did practise, belonged to them 
as little as to their adversaries. Even though it may be 
looked upon as frivolity, it will not be disputed that it was an 
unspeakable benefit to France, and saved her from an igno- 
minious foreign rule and endless sanguinary convulsions. 

There was no other means of securing to France the 
peace which she so urgently needed, if she was not to be 
torn in pieces ; and this Henry clearly saw. It was not 
mere idle ambition — not the idea that, clothed in the purple, 
he could dispense with religion — but the consciousness of 
his mission to give the peace to France which all his pre- 
decessors had denied her. This appeared to him as his 
vocation. Before fortune had smiled upon him, he declared 
it to be his best title ; and the reasonable critic must take 
this into account. 

Thus, in the summer of 1593, as the Catholic party were 
unyielding, he resolved to take the step which he had 
hitherto declined. 



64 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

His motives were certainly entirely political ; and those 
who attempted his life were not altogether wrong in saying 
that he was secretly a heretic. Only priestly absurdity 
could expect him to give up affection for his old party, and 
devotion to their cause. But if steps like these are judged 
by their results, no greater triumph than this can be 
imagined. 

When he went over to Catholicism, the opposing party 
was broken up — France was conquered. It was now not 
only isolated renegade Catholic noblemen who came to 
him, not concealing how difficult the step was, but the 
whole nation : the cities, the leaders of the native aristo- 
cracy came also, and in a frame of mind which showed how 
joyfully they submitted to a king who was not the mortal 
enemy of their Church. During the following spring the 
capital was occupied almost in sport ; Paris submitted to 
him almost without a blow. 

How was it now with the Huguenots ? They were his 
army and his party. Now that he had forsaken them, did 
they not also forsake him ? 

It is a striking testimony to the commanding character of 
the man, and his power of attracting men to himself, that 
this was not the case. There was indeed some vacillation ; 
the party was discontented, and complained openly and 
secretly that the cause for which so much blood had been 
shed was lost. But none of them deserted him ; he was 
still their Henry of Navarre, who had fought with them for 
twenty years ; it was among them that he had grown up 
into a knight without fear and without reproach; he had 
shared with them distress, privation, danger, and victory ; 
they could trust him as they could trust themselves when 
he said that he would be a King for Catholics and Protest- 
ants alike. 



HENRY IV. 65 

Government of Henry IV., 1594-1610. 

The kingdom which Henry IV. now entered upon was in 
a state which it is difficult to describe ; the task of closing 
the chasm which had been yawning in this country for a 
generation demanded unusual powers. 

The diminution of population was reckoned, even in 
1 580, at 700,000 men, and since that time at double that 
number ; the loss was of those in the prime of life, and was 
only equalled in the Napoleon wars. There was no longer 
anything like order, moraHty, or security ; there was poverty 
and devastation everywhere, and most of all in the country ; 
there was no longer any trace of taxation, law, order, or 
government ; a wild banditti life, the scourge of such times, 
flourished for years upon every highway ; and what sort of 
seed had been sown in the minds of the educated classes, 
by the civil war, was shown by the attempts to assassinate 
the King, which were avowedly the result of Jesuitical 
intrigues. The efficiency of the new government was 
shown by a variety of rapid results ; if the civil war was 
calculated to dissolve all the elements of political life, its 
bleeding wounds were now healed in an incredibly short 
time. 

The first thing was to restore peace with foreign powers, 
and to settle accounts with Spain. 

War was declared with her in January, 1595. It was 
inevitable, partly for honour's sake, partly because Spain 
still occupied large portions of the country, and the contu- 
macious nobles were supported by the Spanish troops. 
When the superiority of Spain as a military power is con- 
sidered, and the exhaustion of France, it must be allowed 
that Henry, who depended upon aid from England and the 
Netherlands, carried on the war pretty successfully. It was 

VOL. II. F 



66 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Philip's last war, and the result was the same as in all the 
others — he had to renounce all of which he thought himself 
secure, and, after enormous sacrifices, to acknowledge that 
his enemy was victor. The Peace, after he had been beaten 
at all points, put the seal upon Philip's reign ; he had lived 
in vain. 

The Peace of Vervins, 2nd of May, 1598, confirmed that 
of Cateau Cambrasis : both parties gave up their conquests, 
and France regained those made by the Duke of Savoy. 
Peace was also made with the Pope. 

Rome had, not without some shame, to retrace all the 
disgraceful steps which she had publicly taken. Any fiirther 
explanation than that the King had returned to the Catholic 
Church was refused ; he could not even be prevented from 
promising to acknowledge both religions. 

No French king had ever yet settled matters with Rome 
like the converted heretic whom Rome had repeatedly 
declared to be for ever disqualified from reigning. 

France was at length freed from the foreign troops and 
foreign intrigues by which she had been tormented ever 
since 1562 ; the foundations were laid of an orderly internal 
administration. 

The most important step in this direction was the Edict 
of Nantes, by which Henry made peace with the Hugue- 
nots. This law granted greater toleration than any other 
in the sixteenth century. It conceded too much rather than 
too little, not of religious liberty, but of political privilege. 
Not that the Huguenots abused it, but it was a reproach to 
them ; it gave a handle to the assertion that they formed a 
State within the State, were an obstacle to complete national 
unity ; and it was this point in the Edict which was after* 
wards attacked. 

During the last few years, the Reformers, who could not 



THE EDICT OF NANTES. 67 

forget the King's defection, and thought that all their 
sacrifices were repaid with ingratitude, had been perpetually 
pl3dng him with their grievances ; various negotiations were 
entered into, until at last, on 13th of April, 1598, the cele- 
brated Edict was signed at Nantes, in the secret articles of 
which, as well as in the Brevets, their religious and civil 
position was defined.* 

In religion, liberty of conscience was granted them. All 
nobles possessing superior jurisdiction were allowed to 
teach Calvinism, and every one might share their teaching. 
Nobles without this jurisdiction were granted the same 
privilege, and might admit a number of persons to their 
services, unless they lived in places where the jurisdicnon 
belonged to Catholic nobles. In all towns and villages 
where Calvinistic service had been held up to August, 1797, 
it was permitted to be continued or restored. For all those 
whose dwellings were scattered, a place was appointed in 
a suburb or village where service might be held. Paris 
and a number of other cities were excepted; no Re- 
formed service was allowed in them. In other places they 
were permitted to possess church bells, schools, &c., but 
the Catholic religion was supreme ; the Reformers had to 
observe the fete days, and pay tithes to the Catholic clergy. 
But they might levy a church tax upon themselves to defray 
their own expenses, and receive an annual stipend of 45,000 
dollars. 

As to civil rights, the obligations and privileges of the 
Protestants were the same as those of the Catholics, and 
they had equal claims to imperial offices and dignities. 
There was a Court of Justice in Paris (Chambre de TEdit), 
for Normandy and Brittany ; at Castres, for the district of 
Toulouse ; at Bordeaux and Grenoble, Chambres mi-parties, 
• Weber, Gcbchichtc de^ Cal\-inismus. 



68 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

before which Protestants from Provence and Burgundy 
were summoned. There was also an inferior tribunal for 
recusancy ; the previous unjust sentences were reversed, the 
exiles recalled. They were to retain for eight years all the 
fortresses which had belonged to them before 1597, with all 
their military stores. They either had their own governors 
and administration like La Rochelle, Montauban, and 
Nismes, or were garrisoned, and the governors appointed by 
the Reformers. 

This was a well-meant provision ; for eight years at least 
the Huguenots were secure against reverses. If the King 
was murdered, there was a pledge that they would still be 
tolerated. But this state of things continued beyond the 
appointed time ; it was, in fact, recognised as a perpetual 
right, and whatever may be thought of the principle, it was 
in the highest degree inimical to the tendency of the French 
nation to absolute unity and uniformity. 

Richelieu afterwards reaped the consequences of this 
danger. With all this, a wise and energetic administration 
went hand in hand, the soul of which was Sully, Maximi- 
lian de Bethune, Marquis de Rosny. 

A Huguenot nobleman, knocked about and hardened 
from his youth upwards in the wars of religion ; a genuine 
Calvinist, harsh, unapproachable, incorruptible, stiff and 
obstinate ; hke Henry himself, a brave cavalier, but unlike 
him in his conscientiousness, and the puritanical strictness 
of his character, he was a type of the Genevan school, as it 
was found among the best of the French nobility. 

His relations with the State and the King were those of 
a proud landed noble, who regarded himself as the ruler of 
his own domain. According to his ideas he conferred an 
honour on the State by serving it, and he did not serve it 
for gain. When he was once guilty of a breach of dis- 



SULLY'S ADMINISTRATION. 69 

cipline, he defiantly addressed the King with the words, 
" I am neither your subject nor your vassal ;" and he wrote 
to Mary of Medici, that he did not court office ; France 
might be proud to have him for minister. 

Distinguished as a soldier, statesman, and financier, he 
knew how to rule the State as well as his own house. He 
undertook the office of Minister of the Interior, of Justice, 
War, and Finance. 

France has had administrations which were as able as that 
of Sully, but none so independent and irreproachable. 

It was necessary to undertake a reorganization on a large 
scale ; a new administration, from the lowest step upwards. 
It was for this reason that he kept a number of ministerial 
offices in his own hands ; with the exception of foreign 
affairs, he was chief of all the departments. From the laying 
out of new roads, and establishing security of intercourse in 
town and country, to the highest questions of administra- 
tion and finance, the State had to be reconstructed and 
reformed, and Sully accomplished it all with the strict 
conscientiousness and untiring energy which were peculiar 
to him. 

There were really no revenues. Enormous taxes, which 
were an oppressive burden almost up to the time of the re- 
volution, were already the scourge of France ; they were 
ruinous, yet brought no money to the State, for it was all 
swallowed up in bad administration. All that the State 
had power over, had gone to ruin ; the crown lands were 
recklessly given away, or sold for ridiculous prices ; patents 
of nobility were already sold, immunity from taxes and 
other important privileges were connected with them, 
though they were sold so cheap. By this means the 
number of taxpayers was so decreased as to bring France 
to the verge of bankruptcy. 



70 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

The finances were in indescribable confusion. The debt 
of France was enormous ; Sully reckoned it at 345,000,000 
livres, which, taking into account the relative value of money 
and the revenues of the State, was more than it has ever been 
since. It did not appear how even the interest of this sum 
was to be obtained. The administration was as reckless as 
it was possible for it to be. The names of those to whom 
no crown lands could be given were inscribed in the great 
debtors' book of France ; they became the creditors of the 
State, the State their debtors. 

It was impossible to help France but by severe measures, 
which were inimical to many personal interests. These 
could only be adopted by a man, the purity of whose 
character disarmed calumny, who had never been suspected 
of enriching himself at the expense of the State and its 
usufructuaries. 

Sully could venture to plunge into the chaos of these 
finances, to lessen the burden of debt by searching into the 
legal claims of the creditors and mercilessly setting aside 
all that were illegal. He put a stop to the squandering of 
crown, lands, demanded the restoration of those that had 
been illegally appropriated, revised the patents of nobility 
and partially abolished them, and reformed the worst abuses 
of the system of tax-farming. . 

Many individuals suffered severely, but, on the whole, 
what was necessary was also just Nine possessors of crown 
lands out of ten had no right to them ; nine out of ten had 
long ago been compensated for the price paid for their 
patents of nobility, and were now in the comfortable 
enjoyment of rich, undeserved revenues. 

In this manner Sully again created a treasury by regain- 
ing the crown lands; he diminished the debts and privileges 
to a surprising extent, and restored things to the state 



SULLY'S ADMINISTRATION. ?! 

in which they were before the time of the last of the 
Valois. 

A frightful abuse had crept into the Government itself. 
Francis I. had foolishly increased the evil which prevailed 
during the ancient monarchy, of causing a rapid accession 
of income by the sale of public offices ; the evil was great 
enough of itself, and, as it was now carried on, it made a 
reasonable and just administration simply impossible. 
Offices became private property, the tenure of them a bene- 
fice, the officials themselves a caste with whom no one could 
interfere, and over whom there was no control. New places 
were always being created, because money was raised by it, 
so that a superfluity of offices arose which became a per- 
manent burden on the people, and diminished the pros- 
perity of the nation to two or three times the extent of the 
advantage. 

Sully abolished a number of these places ; it was a severe 
blow to many, but, on the whole, nothing was lost by it but 
the enjo)rment of a great abuse. 

All this occupied but a decade. It would only have 
been possible to a man like Sully, who could daily remind 
the King and country, in his proud, harsh manner, that it 
was he who was making the greatest sacrifices for the State, 
and that if he laid down his office that very day, the State 
would have more to complain of than he. When he after- 
wards found difficulties under the regency, he really did 
throw his portfolio at the feet of the Queen. 

An administration like this is rare anywhere, but espe- 
cially in France, where the idea early arose of looking 
upon the State as a provision for the nobles, clergy, and 
officials. 

Henry's relation with Sully is one of the great traits of 
his character. He quite agreed in the leading ideas of 



72 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

Sull/s poliqr ; even adopted the rigid economy urged by 
his minister, which was so little in accordance with his 
taste, and he must often have heard himself blamed as 
miserly. Differences, however, were often apparent enough 
in the carrying out of his projects. Henry would not 
always yield to the rigid moralist, and we now and then see 
an attempt by the court to thwart his purposes, but when it 
came to a contest, Sully always prevailed. 

France now began to flourish greatly. 

Sully was not only the "Minister of Agriculture," 
whose only idea was the cultivation of the soil, he con- 
sidered this branch of industry in its connection with the 
State, and was the first who expressed the idea that if 
agriculture was to have its rights, of which it was deprived 
till the revolution, and only obtained by its means, the 
notorious land tax must be abolished. The first rational 
encouragement of trade also dates from his labours, and 
of those branches of industry, such as silk culture, which 
afterwards flourished for centuries in France. When the 
time for the great progress of commerce and navigation 
came, the man also appeared who built upon the founda- 
tions so successfully laid by Sully. 

The State now again possessed the elements necessary to 
internal and external prosperity : funds, a regular income, 
crown lands, law and justice, trade, commerce, work, and 
intercourse. The condition of the masses was better than it 
had been since the times of Francis L Civil war had ceased ; 
lasting peace was secured between the creeds; peace 
was made with Spain and Rome on honourable terms; 
every branch of peaceful industry flourished with an energy 
proportionate to the time during which it had been de- 
prived of protection and security. 

Such a government, continued from ten to twenty years, 



SULLY'S ADMINISTRATION. 73 

would have created a power for France such as she after- 
wards attained under Louis XIV., for even now no other 
ancient monarchy of the Continent, not even Spain nor 
Austria, could compete with her. But fate had decreed 
otherwise. Henry IV. and Sully were called away before 
their time; the former in the prime of manhood, the 
latter not long after him. Instead of a vigorous pursuance 
of the paths that had been entered upon, came all the 
weaknesses of a feminine regency; still, the previous 
government was not without result. 

The threads of it were taken up by Richelieu, and he 
carried the formation of the absolute monarchy, begun by 
Sully, to the acme of its greatness. 

As a Calvinist, Sully was not an adherent of this form of 
government, but circumstances made such a dictatorship 
inevitable. At first, notables and commissions were as- 
sembled, but such a chaos arose that it was a decided 
advantage when the dictatorship prevailed without taking 
account of individual opinion. Under Henry IV., States 
and notables gradually disappear. 

The tendency of Henry's foreign policy was sharply 
defined. Various elements and opinions were found among 
his ministry. Besides Sully, there was Villeroi, who 
struggled for the party of the League to the last, and, with 
the rest of his party, maintained the opinion that France 
must enter into a Catholic alliance with Spain and Rome to 
ward off innovations. Henry and Sully, on the contrary, 
were decidedly for a great Protestant League, not because, 
as the Jesuits said, he was still a Huguenot at heart, but 
because he felt himself so completely the King of France. 
Shortly before his fall, Coligny had advised Charles IX. 
to reconcile parties, and, with the united power of both, to 
inaugurate a national policy against Spain and the Haps- 



t*'r 



74 THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE. 

burgs. It was with this idea that the Huguenot had 
entered upon the inheritance of Francis I. It certainly 
was a national policy, and was followed up by Richelieu 
and Louis XIV., the Revolution and Napoleon I. The 
realisation of the "Christian European Republic** of 
Henry IV. would have made France, consolidated within 
her natural boundaries, the centre of European politics. 

Richelieu did afterwards realise this, and he was not a 
converted Huguenot, but a cardinal of the Romish Church. 
He used the Protestant alliance as a lever to extend the 
boundaries of France, and this was precisely what was 
intended by Henry IV. when he entered into alliance with 
England and the Netherlands, the sworn enemies of 
Spain. These were allies who would not oppose him if he 
seized upon the duchy of Lorraine, and other valuable 
border lands. It appears to me that this was as truly a 
French policy as any other, and yet nothing excited so 
much enmity against him as this. 

The negotiations and good understanding with the Re- 
formers in the Palatinate, Hesse, England, and the 
Netherlands, the obvious scheme of isolating and then 
destroying the house of Hapsburg, the stronghold of the 
ancient faith, appeared to the Catholic zealots to be a con- 
vincing proof that Henry was still secretly a heretic; 
although he went to mass, and performed other external 
acts, still he must be at heart the enemy of their faith, for 
he was the enemy of both its bulwarks, Spain and Austria. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, things had 
taken such a course in Germany that a most favourable 
opportunity presented itself for an energetic policy, with 
command of men and money, for making conquests on the 
eastern frontier of France. 

The intestine quarrels which were raging there were very 



ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. 75 

favourable to foreign interference. The dispute about the 
succession in Juliers-Cleves furnished an excellent pretext 
for it, and Henry intended to take advantage of it to pro- 
tect the right in Germany and to oppose the supremacy of 
the Hapsburgs. As things were, in 1609-10 the great con- 
flagration seemed to be smouldering which aflerwards broke 
out Henry was preparing to crush the power of Spain and 
the Hapsburgs, when, just as he was about to join the 
army, he was struck by Ravaillac's fatal blow, on the 14th 
of May, 1 610. 

So far as we know, the assassin was an isolated fanatic, 
who, like many others, believed that Henry was still a 
heretic. 

Much has been brought forward to prove that a.deeply- 
laid plot existed ; and it is remarkable that a report had 
been spread abroad in the world that Henry would die a 
violent death. 

That they triumphed over the heretic's death at Rome 
and Madrid, only proves how low the political conscience 
there had sunk, not that they were in league with the 
assassin. The immediate consequences of the murder 
were most disastrous. It threw France back into con- 
fusion and convulsions for fifteen years, and lamed the arm 
of her foreign policy for half a lifetime, and until Richelieu 
gained a firm footing. But when this was over, the begin- 
ning made by Henry IV. was continued and completed. 
The murder effected nothing but delay. 



'¥r^\ 



PART VII. 

THE GERMAN EMPIRE, FROM THE PEACE OF AUGS- 
BURG TO THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1555-1618. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

GENERAL SITUATION OF GERMANY* AFTER 1555. 

Impotence of the Empire. — Continuance of the Contest of the Creeds. 

/^ERMANY, of all the nations of the Continent, had 
passed through, most thoroughly, from its very begin- 
ning, that great mental, moral, vital process which we call 
the Reformation. 

The breach with the ancient Church, in other lands the 
work of mona]:chical ambition and political calculation, was 
in Germany the act of the nation itself^ and an act so 
decisive that even some of its adversaries were carried 
along with it, and Charles V. had to strike sail before it 
The great political calculator learnt what he did not know 
before — the power in history of the moral idea, which is 

^ Besides the before-mentioned literature : Londorp, Continuatio 
Sleidani. Francof. 16 19. Schard, Epitome rer-gest. in dessen op. 
hist Buchholz, Geschichte Ferdinands I. Vienna, 1835. Anton, 
Geschichte der Concordienformel. 1779. Hurter, Ferd. II., 1854-59. 
Hammer V. KlesePs Leben. 1 851. Kluckhon, Briefwechsel des KOrifurs- 
ten Friedrichs III. des Frommen, von der Pfalz. I. 1559-66-67. 



EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION. 77 

shown by the fact that even the greatest minds cannot set it 
at defiance. A far greater than he made the experiment 
once again, and was crushed in the attempt. The weakest 
man in the ranks of a party, for whose cause he is ready to 
die, has more weight than all these realistic great ones, who 
accomplish nothing, because they believe in nothing. 

The Reformation did not deprive Germany of its unity. 
We had, even then, none to lose ; but that an opportunity 
was lost, never to recur, of securing national unity with the 
reform of the Church, was the fault of those who perhaps 
might have secured it, but did not comprehend the situa- 
tion, and wearied themselves in fruitless struggles against 
the spirit of the age. 

With the deep rent which took place in the nation, in 
consequence of the imperial attitude, a time of increasing 
national misery begins ; but it was also a time of quiet pre- 
paration for those soaring mental flights upon which the 
pride of our modern culture rests, and which could not be 
attained at a lower price. 

The nations which have not passed through this process 
of inward renovation, or which have been brought through 
it by force, have to lament it to this day ; it almost seems 
as if some were for ever lamed by it. 

The religious Peace of 1555 had at length given German 
Lutheranism a legal existence, but it had not created a 
lasting peace ; indeed, it gave rise to almost as many new 
feuds as it healed old ones. The victory of the princi- 
palities over the imperial power was far more decisive, for, 
after Charles's last unsuccessful onslaught, it was completely 
subdued. The empire was more than ever destitute of an 
uniting centre, which was all the more unfortunate because, 
though it could not be said that things were much changed 
in Germany, they were all the more changed abroad. 



78 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1555 TO 1618. 

The constitution of the German empire, or rather the 
union of States in Germany, whose relations it controlled, 
had long before, in fact, lost its monarchical unity, and yet 
the imperial territory had not experienced great or im- 
portant losses in the course of the last century, for the 
neighbouring States were not in a position to extend them- 
selves at its expense. It was this circumstance which saved 
Germany from great losses during the dismal period of the 
interregnum, and from Rudolph I. to Maximilian I., other- 
wise I know not what there was under Wenceslaus or 
Frederic III. to prevent the neighbours from plundering 
Germany. 

But now all this was changed. If up to the time of the 
Reformation Germany had been surrounded by weak nations, 
now several powerful States were on her frontiers. A strong 
monarchical power had arisen in the Scandinavian States ; 
the same had begun to arise in France under Francis I., and, 
after thirty years of confusion, was completed under Henry 
IV. On the north and west the situation of Germany was 
different from what it had been for centuries. No one had 
before imagined that Denmark or Sweden could be dan- 
gerous to the German countries on the Baltic, or that 
France might possess herself of the Western provinces. 
But all these dangers were now at hand, and the neighbours' 
temptation was great in proportion as Germany's power of 
resistance was small. 

It was now that the first great losses of German territory 
occurred. Much of the kingdom of Arelate had been lost 
before ; but these were possessions which it was difficult to 
maintain. Now, however, important territories, Curland, 
Livonia, and Esthonia, were first lost, and the Burgundian 
provinces estranged. When Spain began the war against 
the religious and political liberties of the Netherlands, the 



THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG. 79 

empire was not in a position to enforce its old claims. 
How often did the Netherlands pray that the ancient 
imperial power might be asserted ! how earnestly did the 
Orange party pray for protection against Spain ! But the 
German Hapsburgs approved the policy of their Spanish 
relatives, and the German empire was thinking of nothing 
but the conversion of the heretics. All great political 
questions were obscured by those relating to religious 
creeds ; the loss of the countries on the Baltic, of the 
Netherlands, even of the three bishoprics of Lorraine, 
occupied very little of the attention of the Diet. The dis- 
putes about the interpretation of the Peace of Augsburg, 
and the ecclesiastical reserves, took up nearly the whole of 
its time. 

To these symptoms of increasing external weakness 
were added numerous causes of endless internal disputes 
which immediately conduced to the catastrophe. 

The Peace of 1555 was incomplete. It contained dubious 
and obscure clauses enough ; and had there been fewer, 
that peaceable, conciliatory spirit was wanting on both sides 
without which no union could be eflfectual. The Peace 
granted toleration to the adherents of the Augsburg Confes- 
sion only, not to the other Reformers ; and yet the number 
of them was considerable. It gave rulers, but not subjects, 
a claim to toleration, which was the occasion of great diffi- 
culties, and the great question about benefices and dignities, 
and the subjects of converted ecclesiastics, was treated in a 
clause of secondary legal authority. 

During the time when both parties should have been 
accommodating themselves to this imperfect Peace, occurred 
the restoration of the Catholic Church, the Council of 
Trent, the establishment of the order of Jesuits, the restora- 
tion of the Inquisition, and the censorship of the press. 



8o THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1555 TO 1618. 

The party which was defeated at Passau and Augsburg saw 
a powerful support growing up for it on the other side of the 
Alps, and thus that which might have made the situation 
tolerable, the honest desire to agree as well as might be, 
was wanting. Neither party had given up the idea of 
upsetting the peace : the Protestants, of throwing overboard 
the ecclesiastical restrictions and the principle of exclusion ; 
the Catholics, of tearing up the whole treaty, in order to 
bring about a complete restoration. 

During the third and fourth decades there had been no 
idea of any such schemes ; but now courage for them was 
restored. Popes like Paul IV., kings like Philip II., openly 
said that heresy must be extirpated from the face of the 
earth, and the unity of the Church in the old mediaeval 
sense restored. Very little more is required to stir up a reli- 
gious war than the fact that both parties chafe against union ; 
all that is wanted is a spark to ignite the flame. This idea 
gave rise to the singular proposition of 1648, that both 
parties were bound not to regard the peace with disfavour, 
lest they should experience another fearful civil war. 
It was the fault of both parties that the peace did not 
last. 

An undisturbed peace was hardly to be looked for ; the 
odious conflict was still too fresh in the remembrance of 
both parties ; the idea of toleration, of the peaceful exist- 
ence of diflering creeds side by side, was essentially foreign 
to the age ; it did not even exist among the new sects for 
each other ; the passions evoked by the long strife were too 
fierce ; each side was too firmly convinced that it was its 
mission to convert the other ; the Catholics were too much 
engrossed with the idea of the supremacy of their Church, 
the adherents of the new doctrines too much possessed 
with that zeal for conversion which belongs to young creeds, 



CONTEST OF THE CREEDS. 8 1 

for any opinion to gain ground that it was better to have an 
imperfect peace than open war. 

Thus both parties vied with each other in preventing 
men's minds from settling down, partly because the irritation 
of the barely reconciled dissensions was still too great, 
partly because actual interests suffered in this perpetual state 
of warfare, and the provisions of the treaty were not suffi- 
cient to solve complicated questions. The Protestants, 
split up into diflferent churches and sects, could not pro- 
claim this with so much emphasis as Roman Catholicism, 
as it was restored at Trent, whose apostles, the Jesuits, 
openly preached a crusade against the heretics ; but the 
Protestants had as little conciliatory resignation as their 
adversaries. 

Wars of religion were blazing up around Germany, and 
sparks flew over and ignited the smouldering flame. In 
France the conflict was raging between the Guises and the 
Huguenots ; in the Netherlands the Protestants were strug- 
gling with Alba and his successors. German princes were 
in connection with both camps. Similar events afterwards 
took place in England ; a reaction on the position of both 
parties in Germany was inevitable. 

To add to this, it happened that during the sixth and 
seventh decades of the century the conflict of the two great 
floods. Reformation and Restoration, the Confession of 
Augsburg and the dogmas of Trent, found a theatre upon 
German soil. Until then Protestantism was in the ascen- 
dant, inasmuch as it had done what the Catholic Church 
had so long neglected to do : it had, with surprising success, 
possessed itself of the whole of intellectual life, of litera- 
ture, of the modem Humanistic culture, and of education. 
The most distinguished names in every branch of learning 
and authorship were Protestant in greatly preponderating 

VOL. II. G 



82 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1555 TO 1618. 

numbers, and their public was almost the whole intellectual 
aristocracy of the nation. 

After the sixth and seventh decades a sort of reaction 
took place. Jesuitism, in accordance with its principles, 
began to employ modem weapons in a manner totally 
different from the monastic orders, who at last were ignorant 
of the world and of learning. 

Jesuitism was not wanting in talent, learning, or skilful 
dialectics, and, thus equipped, it appeared upon the arena 
to defeat the adversary with its own weapons. 

This contest was the prelude to the Thirty Years* War. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

PROTESTANTISM IN AUSTRIA. 

Ferdinand I., 1558-64. — Maximilian IL, 1564-76.-— Rudolph II., 
1576-1612. — The Bohemian Royal Charter (Majestatsbrief). 
1609.— Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Imperial City of 
Donauworth, 1606-7. — The Protestant Union, 1608, and the 
Catholic League, 1609.— Matthias, 161 2-19. 

Ferdinand L, 1558-64. — Maximilian II., 1564-76. — 
Rudolph II., 1576-1612. 

]V/r EANWHILE a country had been attacked by Pro- 
testantism which had hitherto been free from it — the 
hereditary Austrian dominions — and within a short period 
it was embraced by a great majority of the inhabitants. 

It came to pass in this way : — Since the time of Ferdi- 
nand I., the determined and energetic opposition to Protest- 
antism had been discontinued. Deeply affected, as may 
be imagined, by the fate of his brother, Ferdinand began to 
entertain doubts of the wisdom of the attitude he had 
hitherto assumed. Formerly one of the hotspurs in perse- 
cuting the heretics, he had now almost broken with Rome, 
and expressed himself more emphatically than any of the 
German princes against the introduction of the decrees of 
the Council of Trent The misunderstanding with Rome 
made him more lenient towards the heretics, the decided 



iTf^' 



84 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

exclusion of the new doctrines from the country ceased, and 
so Protestantism began to make its way into Austria, and 
to unite itself with all the elements, national and political, 
of this diversified empire. 

He was succeeded in 1564 by Maximilian II., elected 
King of Rome in 1562, who, in fact, was above party spirit, 
disapproved of the abuses of the ancient Church, and con- 
sidered the divisions of the Protestants about trifles highly 
absurd. He equally disapproved of the intolerance of both 
parties, and was therefore looked upon by the Protestants 
as a Jesuit, by the Catholics as a secret heretic 

It was unfortunate for him that he lived at a time when 
there was no appreciation of his tolerant spirit and lofty 
views. His proceedings in Austria showed that he earnestly 
desired toleration ; he allowed the landowning nobility to 
permit the preaching of both the new and old doctrines on 
their estates. 

This was the first breach with the old system in Austria, 
a tolerarion of both forms. The Emperor's idea seemed to 
be. Fight out your quarrel with each other; both shall 
have light and space. For the planting of Protestantism it 
was really a great step. Between 1564 and 1576 the new 
doctrines spread over nearly the whole of Austria, not only 
in the great cities, but also in the country. Catholicism 
was renounced by the peasantry, and the German nobles, 
almost without exception, had embraced Protestantism. 
We know, from his own expressions, that in St>Tia Ferdinand 
II. celebrated the communion according to Catholic usage 
with but few others, and that in Gratz and the neighbour- 
hood Protestantism was quite in the majority. In Bohemia 
it was based on old Hussite memories. Bohemian his- 
torians have told us how all forms of non-Catholicism were 
spread in Bohemia and Moravia. The Tyrol alone re- 



RUDOLPH II. 85 

mained the unassailed fortress of Catholicism ; the small 
number of towns, the want of contact with the outer world, 
the predominating peasant character of the population, with 
but few nobles or superior clergy, its being surrounded with 
ecclesiastical principahties, caused the Tyrol to remain 
almost exclusively true to the old faith, 

Rudolph IL* was entirely unlike the previous Hapsburgs. 
Brought up in Spain, and endowed with a strong tendency 
to the Spanish melancholy, which from this time ran in the 
blood of a part of the house of Hapsburg, and in his case, 
after 1600, led to attacks of real mental disease, he became 
the tool of women and Jesuits. His character was an 
unhappy mixture of self-will, passion, weakness, sensuality, 
and, when his rage was spent, abject subjection to others. 
He was incapable of doing any lasting good, and was just 
the man to occasion unspeakable confusion. 

Under him, the Jesuits, who had hitherto been only 
tolerated, came into power. They got possession of his 
ear and conscience, were his confessors, directors, and 
ministers. 

During the greater part of his life Rudolph lived in retire- 
ment at Prague, mostly occupied with learned fancies. Now 
and then breaking out into unbridled excesses, then repent- 
ing like a child, and submitting to his Jesuit confessors ; 
' one day interfering with tyrannical temper, the next broken- 
spirited, dejected, and apathetic ; his was a character well 
adapted to set a ferment going which should shake the 
empire to its depths. At first Protestantism made all the 
more progress during these contradictory tactics. 

The Emperor's incompetence to rule soon led to real 
difficulties, which the States could only get over by formally 

* Gindely, Rudolph II. Also his Greschichte des Bohmischen Majes- 
tatsbriefes.*' 1858. 



fc */ * ' . 



86 THE GER3IAX EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

entrusting the guidance of business to Matthias, Rudolph's 
brother, in April, 1606. To secure some support against the 
Emperor's revenge, the Regent felt himself obliged to make 
great concessions to the Austrian Protestants, and especially 
to grant liberty of religious worship to the burgher class. 

This example spread. Even under the clement Maxi- 
milian the Bohemians had only enjoyed limited religious 
liberty. They now extorted from the weak Emperor the most 
liberal religious edict issued in the seventeenth century. 
This was the Bohemian Royal Charter (Majestatsbrief) of 
nth July, 1609, which contained the following regula- 
tions : — 

All adherents, without exception, of the Confession de- 
livered to the Emperor Maximilian in 1575, the associated 
States, lords, nobles, the city of Prague, the mining and 
other towns, are granted complete liberty in the exercise of 
their religion in every place; they will not be interfered 
with in their faith, religion, priesthood, or Church order, 
until there is an entirely uniform religion in the Holy 
Empire. The government of the Protestant churches is to 
be in the hands of a special consistory at Prague ; they are 
to be protected by their own advocates, to be nominated by 
the Protestants, as are also the officers in the universities ; 
the appointments are merely to be confirmed by the Em- 
peror, but no instructions are to be received from him. The 
erection of new churches and schools is freely permitted to 
every Protestant community in town and country, as well as 
to every one in the States. No one, not even the Emperor, 
has any right to interfere with these liberties ; any proceed- 
ings against them are null and void. Disputes are to be 
adjusted by a court of umpires, composed of parties from 
both sides, not of imperial officials. 

In the following month a similar charter was granted to 



THE ROYAL CHARTER. 87 

the Silesians, only that it was still more expressly stated 
that all and every inhabitant of the country, whether the 
subjects of temporal or spiritual rulers, should have free 
permission to enjoy their own religious worship. 

The efifect produced by the religious strife in a diversified 
imperial body was different from what it would have been 
in the simple relations of a national State. There was very 
little feeling of a united Austrian existence in the separate 
dependencies ; the misgovemment of Rudolph II. was not 
calculated to produce it, and the religious discord re- 
awakened the slumbering national and political differences. 
In Bohemia the idea was never far distant of again electing 
a sovereign for itself; in Moravia and Silesia tendencies 
to separation were becoming evident. Hungary also was 
uneasy; even in the German hereditary dominions the 
Hapsburg dynasty never enjoyed so little popularity as 
during the last quarter of a century ; the monarchy was 
altogether out of joint, and was threatened with dissolution. 

Meanwhile parties had become more sharply opposed to 
each other. The race of the more clement German princes 
had died out ; the sectarian spirit in both camps had greatly 
increased and had inflamed men's passions. The Jesuits 
had made two great conquests in Ferdinand of Styria and 
Maximilian of Bavaria, and this hastened the crisis. 

But little more than the existing hatred and discontent 
was required to bring about a sanguinary conflict, and 
during the early years of the seventeenth century the cause 
was to arise in Germany as well as in the Austrian here- 
ditary States. 



88 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 



Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and the Imperial Citv 

OF DONAUWORTH,* 1606-7. — THE UnION, 1608, AND THE 

League, 1609. — Death of Rudolph II. — Matthias, 
1612-19. 

Among the numerous infringements of the Peace of 
Augsburg, the most dangerous and malicious was that which 
occurred in the imperial city of Donauworth in 1606-7. 

Donauworth was a Lutheran imperial city, in which, after 
the end of the sixteenth century, no Roman Catholic was 
admitted as a citizen. It had a Catholic monastery, which 
was tolerated on the express condition that no procession 
with banners should be allowed within the city. 

The abbot and his monks found this inconvenient, and 
disobeyed the order several times. The council warned 
them in vain, and when, in April, 1606, a solemn procession 
with banners again proceeded through the city, the rabble 
fell upon them with dubs and drove them back into the 
monastery. 

Many scenes of this sort had happened in the empire, 
and some more glaring than this, but they resulted»'in 
nothing but a vast amount of scribbling, quarrelling, and 
complaining. But this time it was otherwise. 

Duke Maximilian of Bavaria interfered in the matter, 
first on his own account, and then armed with an imperial 
execution. He was a fanatical pupil of the Jesuits, who at 
the beginning of his reign had taken vigorous proceedings 
against the heretics, and the Lutheran city had long been a 
thorn in his side. As his first interference produced no 

^ Lossen, Die Reichstadt Donauworth und Herzog Maximilian. 
Munich, 1866. Cornelius, Zur Geschichte der Crrundung der Liga. 
K Jahrbuch, 1865. Ritter, Geschichte der Union, 1868. 



TAKING OF DONAUWORTH. 89 

effect, he turned to the imperial court of Prague, where, 
according to credible testimony, everything was to be done 
with money ; even the tardy imperial justice overcome. 

With astonishing rapidity, in August, 1607, an imperial 
mandate of execution appeared, which Duke Maximilian 
was empowered to enforce. 

With an army outnumbering the population of the city by 
two thousand, he feared intervention from the Protestant 
States, especially from the Elector Palatine — he advanced 
to the city, took it without a blow, and began, with those 
means so dear to religious reaction, to convert it to Catho- 
licism. At first all that they desired was a place where the 
Catholic officials and soldiers might attend service ; then to 
possess half the churches, then all of them, and when that 
was refused they quartered soldiers on the faithful inhabit- 
ants until they should be convinced of the truth of the 
Romish faith* 

The blow struck by the Duke against the imperial 
Swabian city in the midst of peace, made an immense 
sensation. It was illegal to proceed with the execution of 
the imperial ban, for the electors had not been consulted ; 
and it was an open ofifence to the Protestant States to com- 
mit it to a prince who did not belong to Swabia, to say 
nothing of the military importance of the city as a pass of 
the Danube and a frontier town between Swabia, Bavaria, 
and Franconia. 

The Protestant States of South Germany, the Electoral 
Palatinate, Wiirtemburg and Neuburg at their head, agreed 
to maintain a united attitude at the next Diet. There it 
came to a violent dispute and complete division. Duke 
Maximilian revealed continually more openly that he cared 
less about the aflfair at Donauworth as a victory of the good 
cause, than as a conquest of the country and people. The 



QO THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

violent acts of Ferdinand against the Protestants in Styria 
did all they could to increase the excitement ; so on May 
4th, 1608, a union of a number of Protestant princes took 
place for mutual protection against further infringements of 
the constitution. 

The first to sign it were Frederic, Elector of the Palati- 
nate ; Philip Louis, Count Palatine of Neuburg ; the Mar- 
graves Christian of Culmbach, Joachim of Anspach, John 
Frederic of Baden-Durlach, and John Frederic, Duke of 
Wiirtemburg. Only a part of the Protestant princes joined 
in it, and therein lay a foolish and fatal error. Not that 
grounds of complaint or incitements to opposition measures 
were wanting; but they should have thought twice whether 
it would not further the breach of the peace if their camp 
were openly divided into two parties, and they should not 
have formed a league which was, as it were, still-bom — for so 
it was, since all Protestants did not join in it. Because the 
Electoral Palatinate was at the head. Saxony held aloof 
and stirred up enmity against it ; even those who did join 
in it were not all agreed. 

The answer to this was the Catholic League of July 10, 
1609, formed by Duke Max, the Archduke Leopold of 
Austria, the Bishops of Wiirzburg, Ratisbon, Augsburg, 
Constance, Strasburg, Passau, and several abbots, for 
the protection of the imperial laws, but also — there was no 
mention of religion in the documents of the Union— for 
the protection of the Catholic religion and its adherents. 

The League was a union only in name ; it was in reality 
the creation and tool of an energetic and resolute prince, 
who knew how to make the ecclesiastical princes of South 
Germany understand that the question for them was to be 
or not to be, and that therefore they must put their hands 
in their pockets. Duke Max created an excellent army out 



THE UNION AND THE LEAGUE. 9 1 

of the means of the League, of Bavarians commanded by 
Bavarian leaders. He had some tolerably extensive projects 
in view ; we have memoirs from which it appears that he 
tried to obtain the co-operation of Spain and the Pope. It 
is noteworthy, on the contrary, that he systematically aimed 
to form the League without the help of Austria. He pro- 
jected, as has been remarked even on the Catholic side, a 
little Catholic Germany under Bavarian hegemony, as a 
closer league in alliance with Austria. 

The League had some significance. It had a head, and 
an army which could take up arms at the first moment of 
alann. The Union had neither, and would probably fall to 
the ground from internal weakness. 

Any accident might furnish the pretext for a tremendous 
war. This was the opportunity sagaciously chosen by 
Henry IV. to interfere in German affairs. His death post- 
poned the struggle. 

Meanwhile disorder was increasing in the hereditary 
Hapsburg dominions. Opposition to attempts at forcible 
conversions grew to open revolts. Rudolph was quite in- 
competent to allay the storm. His relatives met together, 
and in consequence of his " weakness of mind " — so it was 
said in a treaty with Hungary — appointed his brother 
Matthias his guardian. He was a man without character, 
pushed forward by vain ambition, who always succeeded in 
fomenting discontent, never in allaying it 

He played with fire, incited the people against his 
brother, entered into conspiracy with the malcontents in 
Hungary, Moravia, and German Austria against the 
Emperor, deprived him of his lands and crown, and yet 
was too weak to quell the revolt of the States. 

Thus it was that the events took place which seemed to 
make the dissolution of the Imperial States probable. In 



92 THE GERMAN EMPIRE FROM 1 555 TO 1618. 

the hereditary dominions Rudolph was deposed in Hungary. 
He had to delegate the administration to Matthias. He 
tried to keep a hold on the Bohemians by means of the 
Royal .Charter, but even they revolted, and threw themselves 
into the arms of the leaders of the opposition, who pro- 
mised them still more. On the 20th January, 161 2, he 
died, a landless prince, worn out by madness and disease, 
deprived of all his crowns. 

The seven years* reign of the Emperor Matthias (1612-19) 
was the bitterest chastisement for himself. He had to learn 
that it is an easier task to ruin a weak ruler, amidst general 
revolt, than to master the spirits that he has called up. 
Rudolph just escaped from the crisis without bloodshed, 
but the flames of civil war were to close round the head of 
his successor. He also shared Rudolph's fate. The Arch- 
dukes appointed a guardian for him in the person of Ferdi- 
nand of Styria, and when he died Bohemia and Austria 
were in open rebellion. 

Ferdinand began his government in Bohemia with a 
crying infringement of the Charter, by closing the churches 
at Braunau, and destroying those at Klostergrab. In May, 
16 1 8, the insurrection broke out at Prague. The hated 
imperial ministers, Martinitz and Slavata, were thrown out 
of window, " according to good old Bohemian custom," as 
was said by one of the nobles present ; a sort of provisional 
government was established, and an army taken into pay. 

This was the beginning of the Thirty Years* War, and on 
the same heights where an end was put to the winter 
kingdom, tlie contending parties afterwards exchanged 
their last shots. 



PART VIIL 

FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR.— THE 
BOHEMIAN, PALATINATE, AND DANISH WARS, 
1620-29. 



CHAPTER XXXII.* 

First Acts of Ferdinand II., from March, 16 19. — His Character and 
Education. — Beginning of his Reign in Revolutionary Austria. — 
Election of Emperor, August, 1619. — ^The Winter Kingdom of 
Frederick V., and the War in Bohemia. — The Battle of Weissen- 
berg, near Prague, 8th November, 1620. — The Catholic Reaction 
in Bohemia and the Palatinate, 1621. 

First Acts of Ferdinand II. — Character and Edu- 
cation. — Beginning of his Reign in Revolutionary 
Austria. — Election of Emperor, August, 16 19. 

"P VER since the beginning of the seventeenth century, 

all those differences — national, political, and religious 

— had been stirred up in Austria on the suppression of 

• General literature. Besides that before mentioned, Khevenhiller's 
Annales Ferdinandei. Leipzig, 17 16. Theatrum Europaeum. Frank- 
fort, 1632. Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato, Historia di Ferdinando III. T. I. 
Londorp, Acta publica. Menzel. Leon. Pappus ep. rer. germ, ed 
Arndts. 1856. Senkenberg's Fortsetzung von Ha'^eilin's Reichs- 
geschichte. Mailath, Geschichte dcs Osterreich. Kaiserstaats, 1837. 
Mebold, <ler drei&igjahrige Krieg. 1840. Solll, der Religionskritg 
in Deutscbland. Hamburg, 1839. — Up to 1830, Wolf, Geschichte der 
Kuifursteu Maximilian Ilcr<iu.>^. \oii Brc>er, 1807. Von Aretin, 



94 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

which the ingenious construction of the empire depended. 
This unusual situation required unusual measures. In order 
to render Rudolph's weakness innocuous, the family council 
of the Archdukes met together and appointed Matthias 
regent ; and as he also proved incompetent, similar measures 
were adopted in his case. 

In going through the ranks of the Archdukes, Ferdinand 
of Styria was the most distinguished. He was the son of 
Duke Charles of Styria, and cousin to Matthias. He cer- 
tainly had not the first claim ; but of those who stood before 
him several were ecclesiastics, others childless, so that the 
family agreed to depute him as the most suitable to take 
upon himself the cares of empire. 

Ferdinand was one of the first pupils of the Jesuits 
among the German princes, and grew up a thorough disciple 
of the society in his ideas and aims, was adapted rather for 
the pulpit or the confessional than the throne, and early 
bound by fanatical vows the fulfilment of which probably 
gave him more trouble than he anticipated. He had early 
vowed to use all possible means to exterminate heresy, and 
was resolved rather to reign over a desert than over a here- 
tical country. 

This was fearfully fulfilled, for he did indeed leave a 
desert behind him, in which, nevertheless, heresy was not 
quite extirpated. 

He was one of those characters who in the hands of the 
priests are capable of terrible things ; he was destitute of 

Geschichte Maximilians, Passati. 1842. The same: Baiem*s Aus- 
wartige Verbaltnisse, Passau. 1839. Von Rommel, Geschichte von 
Hessen. HEausser, Geschichte der Pfalz. Miiller, K. A. f unf Bucher 
vom Bohmischen Kriege. Leipzig, 1 841. Peschek, Geschichte der 
Gegen Reformation in Bohmen. Leipzig, 1844. V. d. Decken Geo. v. 
Braunschweig und Luneburj». Viilermont, Comte dc Tilly, 1859, 
Erdmannsdorlcr, C. E. v. Savoyen. 1861. 



FERDINAND II. 95 

bold and original ideas, but was one of those quiet souls 
who hold to the creed of their adoption at the peril of their 
lives, and are ready to sacrifice for it all that has hitherto 
been dear to them. He was more fit for the pupil of a 
college of priests, than for the task of ruling this great crisis 
in a conciliatory spirit, and of closing the abyss of civil war. 

Almost the whole of the empire was a prey to heresy 
and revolt When in 1596 he began to reign in Styria, 
Carinthia, and Camiola, it was with the determination to 
subjugate all enemies of the true faith and absolutism, and 
his country was the only monarchy where this plan suc- 
ceeded. He declared that he would rather beg, or be cut 
in pieces, than submit to heresy any longer. Catholic 
priests were sent to the Protestant peasantry, and when 
they rebelled they were brought to submission by force. 
He who was not converted within a certain time was 
obliged to emigrate; schools and churches were razed to 
the ground ; many thousands of Bibles and books of ser- 
mons were burnt ; the rebellious people were treated with 
banishment, dragoonades, and the gallows ; and when the 
unhappy creatures appealed to the ordinances of Maximilian 
II., they were told that rulers were not bound by pernicious 
charters. 

In his private life Ferdinand appears to have led a 
simple, strictly moral life. His character, though narrow 
and rigid, was not cruel — at least not from brutal lust of 
power.* As to what is adduced by his defenders, that he 

* From a manuscript of 800 pages, in the Bibl. Royale (Mss. fr. N. 
964, St. Victor), containing notes by the Papal Nuncio of an eight years' 
sojourn in Germany, Hausser quotes the following passage about Fer- 
dinand : — "Ferdinand II., en dge dc cinquante et un an, de mediocre 
stature, de forte complexion, de poil tirant sur le roux, d'agr^able pre- 
sence, affable et civil envers tout le monde. II boit peu, ne dort encore 
moins, ayant accoustum^ de se couchcr A dix heurcs et de se lever ^ 
quatre et quelquefois devant. Quant si sa pi^i^ envers notre religion 



96 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

shed tears at the execution of the cruelties he ordained, I 
believe that he considered these victims to be demanded by 
his faith — that he was a genuine fanatic, who would have 
given his life could he have reclaimed all heretics with one 
blow. 

The broad views of a ruler who is above all parties, and 
gives every one his due in his own sphere, were in those 
days the privilege of a few superior men, like William of 
Orange and Henry IV. Ferdinand was utterly destitute of 
them, and his education had taught him to look upon all 
toleration of this sort as an attack upon religion. 

The previous policy, therefore, first of toleration, and 
afterwards of weakness, was regarded by him as the greatest 
evil ; and the close connection which then existed in 
Austria between heresy and all tendencies to political 
liberty and national disintegration conduced to confirm the 
view that, as guardian of the unity of the empire, he must 
place himself in an attitude of defence against a dangerous 
revolt.* 

The first person, therefore, to be deprived of all influence 
was Cardinal Klesel, in whom Ferdinand saw weakness and 
half measures personified. 

Klesel was a parvenu of the lowest kind, with all the 

worst characteristics of such persons. He was a fawning 

courtier, yet had a strong inclination for absolute power; 

possessed more pliant talent than strongly marked character, 

on n'en saurait rien dire qui ne soil au dessous de la vdrit^. Toutes les 
fetes solennelles ct principalement celle des douze apotres, il fr^quente 
dans sa chapelle les ceremonies de confession et de communion. Le 
jeudi saint il recoil la communion avec rimp6ratrice son 6pouse et avec 
les princes ses fils, de la main du nonce de St. Si^ge, pour apprendre i\ 
ses sujets par son exemple k satisfaire d ce commandement de l*Eglisc/ ' 
&c.— Ed. 

♦ See the declaration made to the Court of Spain in Khevenhiller 
and the letter to Philip III., 7th September, i6oy— lUumcr, Vol. III. 



.FERDINAND II. 97 

and was therefore well adapted to serve a man like Matthias 
as adviser and tool He maintained a policy of studied 
clemency and conciliation ; advised every country to yield 
as much as possible, as this was in accordance with the 
views of Matthias, and appeared to be the only practicable 
plan. Then came the revolution in the palace ; Klesel was 
carried off one morning as a state criminal and thrown into 
prison, because he had pursued a policy at his Emperor's 
side which was abhorrent to the archdukes. 

After Klesel's disgrace, Ferdinand became the leading 
man, and on the death of Matthias, 20th of March, 161 9, 
he was indisputably the next heir to the throne. 

He came to Vienna and found things just as they had 
once been in Styria ; the whole country filled with Protest- 
antism; the citizens, the nobles, and peasants in the 
country, almost all openly addicted to heresy. Not far 
from Vienna was Count Thum with his Bohemian soldiers. 
Bethlen Gabor was advancing from Hungary, and a large 
party in the capital were resolved to make common cause 
with them. The Emperor's life was scarcely secure ; com- 
motions took place like those at Prague; armed citizens 
forced an entry into the palace to demand religious liberty. 
The leaders shook him by the doublet, exclaiming : " Nandel, 
give in ; thou must sign." It nearly came to establishing a 
provisional government over him, and had the rebels been 
daring enough they might have seized his person. 

In these times of distress, Ferdinand comported himself 
like a man ; a storm had to be braved before which many 
would have quailed. He did brave it, and, Hke many other 
people in history, he found it easier to bear misfortune than 
success. 

A happy chance — the timely arrival of a regiment of 
cuirassiers — saved the Emperor from his rebellious people. 

VOL. II. H 



98 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Now there was a great question to solve, on which de- 
pended the immediate future of the house of Hapsburg — the 
election of Emperor. 

The imperial dignity no longer conferred absolute power ; 
it brought neither an army nor a treasury. If, therefore, 
Ferdinand reckoned upon defeating the rebels in Prague 
and Vienna with the power of the German imperial cro^Ti, 
he was mistaken. 

It did nevertheless possess some significance. There are 
many things in life which seem worthless when we have 
them, but which it is an immense disadvantage to lose. 
This was the case with the imperial dignity. The loss of it 
at this juncture would have been a verdict pronounced upon 
the house of Hapsburg by the German empire. The Czecks, 
Magyars, Moravians, Silesians, the inhabitants of Vienna 
themselves, were shaking the tottering house, especially 
Ferdinand's authority. Germany was the last straw, the 
plank to which the sinking hopes of the Hapsburgs were 
clinging. Vienna was doubtful, Bohemia in open revolt, 
Moravia, Silesia, and Hungary not far from it. The Tyrol 
and Styria were not sufficient to support the throne; if 
Germany forsook it, it was lost. 

If the Electors chose the Archduke, he would have 
something to hold by ; the German empire at any rate would 
have shown that it did not renounce the Hapsbui^ 
Never, therefore, were they more desirous that the election 
should fall on their house. If it did not, the house must 
sink into the abyss of revolution. 

For the German empire the situation was different 
The interests of the two sides were at variance. If Ferdi- 
nand were elected, the empire must be engulfed in the 
whirlpool of revolution in South and East Germany. It 
would inherit a civil war which would suffice to ignite all 



FERDINAND II. 99 

the inflammable materials in Germany. The state of 
parties in the empire was just such as to give rise to fears 
of a dangerous outbreak ; how would it be if the uncom- 
promising fanatic of the extreme restoration were called to 
the head of affairs ? 

Undoubtedly had there been at that time a prince in 
Germany worthy of the dignity, and sufficiently unbiassed 
in religious matters to give both parties their due, his elec- 
tion would have been most desuable, and might perhaps 
have spared Germany the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. 
But there was not, and Germany was engulfed in a most 
fearful struggle. 

Ferdinand's election was disputed from the first, for the 
Bohemians no longer acknowledged him; but this was of 
little use if they had no other candidate. The impotence 
of the Union came to light ; the Protestants were divided 
within and without: they abhorred the idea of a Jesuit 
Emperor, but had only empty ranks and impracticable 
proposals to oppose to him. In the meddling Palatinate, the 
candidateship to the imperial dignity was, as it were, hawked 
about the streets, and yet there were no bidders. 

Scarcely escaped from the attack of the Bohemians, 
Ferdinand came to Frankfort through the enemy's country, 
to the election. 

After six months of angry negotiation and correspond- 
ence, they had not even agreed in the Protestant camp 
upon a protest against Ferdinand as a candidate, though he 
had been declared to be disqualified by the Bohemians, so 
that when the day of election came, his victory was as good 
as decided. It was the first step out of the crisis by which 
Austria had so long been convulsed. 

Had it been previously known that just when the elec- 
»rs were announcing Ferdinand's election, the Bohemians 



lOO FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

had gone a step further, had deposed King Ferdinand and 
proclaimed a new election^ they would perhaps have recon- 
sidered the subject, or at any rate have put oflf the election. 
But it was now too late ; the electors had to submit to the 
logic of facts which they had themselves helped to bring to 
pass. 

The Winter Kingdom and the War in Bohemia, 
1619-22. — Battle of Prague, 8th November, 1620. 

The choice of the Bohemians during the same dajrs of 
August fell upon the head of the Union, the Elector Pala- 
tine Frederic V., because, so it was stated, " he is a very 
discreet gentleman, possessing great qualities, and is ac- 
quainted with divers languages," because " he has a power- 
ful and well-trained people, and is in alliance with great 
foreign powers, England, Holland, and Switzerland." In 
Bohemia, they knew neither the internal weakness of the 
Union nor the untrustworthiness of its foreign allies ; they 
believed in it, and looked for help from it which it could 
never afford. 

Frederic V. was married to Elizabeth Stuart, a daughter 
of James V. The marriage had been hailed with joy in 
England, as a family alliance between the still suspicious 
English king and the leader of German Protestantism, and 
Parliament was afterwards always ready to send subsidies to 
the Elector. This connection with England had great 
weight with the Bohemians. 

The Elector vacillated a long time; and when he did 
arrive at a decision, it was not, as has been long supposed, 
the result of his wife's influence, but of other things. He 
was personally a very insignificant ruler — ^amiable in pri- 
vate life, a patron of artists and learned men, but wholly 
incompetent for grave political business, to say nothing of 



THE WINTER KINGDOM. 10 1 

undertaking a great venture ; he was always dependent on 
the advice of others, and was not a man who, in critical 
moments, would resolve to stake everything, as was neces- 
sary in such a situation. He was influenced by ambition 
not to give up the leadership which had been for a genera- 
tion in his family, by the hope of aid from England, and in 
great part by the help of a number of people who then 
ruled the policy of the Palatinate — ^landless princes, younger 
sons of younger brothers. Such an one among others who 
eagerly advised him to accept the crown was Christian of 
Anhalt; then came the suggestions of the clever but mis- 
guided Ludwig Camerarius, and the Calvinist confessor 
Scultetus.* 

Thus it came to pass that at the end of October, 1619, 
** the Palatinate went to Bohemia." 

Frederic V. hoped to find strength in Bohemia, and the 
Bohemians hoped for strength from him. But he found 
only a Sclavonian revolution, uncontrollable nobles, and a 
state in process of dissolution, over which the aristocracy 
wanted to rule themselves. Everybody was relying upon 
somebody else, and everybody was deserted. 

Bohemia wisis chiefly ruled by the Sclavonic party, at the 
head of which were a number of ambitious nobles, and the 
majority of the people revelled with them in the recollection 
of the national monarchy of the fifteenth century. The new 
King at once ruined his cause with both parties : with the 
nobles, because he would not listen to their claims to take 
part in the government, and only followed the advice of 
Anhalt and Camerarius ; with the people, by his singular 
way of life and Calvinistic narrowness. An antiquated and 
somewhat pedantic mode of life prevailed in Bohemia, and 
there were deeply-rooted prejudices against the licentious 
* Upon this section see Hansser, Geschichte der Pfalz. — Eo. 



I02 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

courts of those days ; but the young Elector Palatine and 
his whole court were infected with French frivolity to a 
degree which could not but offend the strict views of the 
Bohemians. Frederic's demure Calvinism was a curious 
contrast to the gallantry of the men and women of the court ; 
he belonged to the Reformed party, while the Bohemians 
were Lutherans. He had, indeed, acknowledged uncon- 
ditional religious liberty in Bohemia; but the zealots about 
him, Scultetus at their head, would not rest until, in the 
principal church at Prague, all images, pictures, and relics 
were cleared away, and the beautiful church converted into 
a Calvinistic meeting-house. The irritation produced by 
differences of creed increased, and contributed more than 
anytliing else to estrange the people from their king. They 
were at variance in language, nationality, manners, and creed. 
It would have been a miracle had prosperity ensued. 

Ferdinand had not the power to subject Bohemia by force 
of arms. He had acquired moral importance as Emperor, 
but the dignity did not provide him with money or troops/ 
H^ w^ therefore compelled to throw himself into the arms 
^j^-dfw^ague. The League was something different from 
_. t hc ^ Ub ipn ; it was not an alliance in which every member 
laid claim to many rights, and owned but few duties, but a 
united organization in the hands of an energeticTiartial 
prince, whose allies, so called, had only to provide funds. 

The League now became, and remained for several years, 
the leading power in Germany. 

On the 8th of October, 1619, Ferdinand concluded a 
treaty with his relative and the friend of his youth, Max of 
Bavaria, in which the latter took good care of himself. 

It provided that the Duke should undertake the uncon- 
ditional and exclusive command of the whole proceedings 
against the rebellious heretics in Austria, Bohemia, and 



THE WAR IN BOHEMIA. 103 

Upper Austria ; this last, indeed, had first to be taken as 
security for indemnification for the expenses of the war. In 
return, Max collected all his forces to assist the deserted 
Emperor. 

In 1620 the war began.* 

The war might not be lost if only it were rationally carried 
on in Bohemia. Money, indeed, was wanting, and so were 
efficient troops; but neither had Max any superfluity of 
means, and would be lost unless he speedily gained a de- 
cisive battle. In the Bohemian camp, therefore, it was 
necessary to keep strictly to the defensive. In those days, 
if a general had not the means to pay his troops, there was 
nothing else to keep them together — neither oath nor devo- 
tion to any person nor cause. This was one cause of the 
weakness of the army of the League, and it suffered also 
firom sickness, in consequence of the bad weather. The 
army must have been dissolved if, on the Bohemian side, 
they had known how to avoid a battle and to starve the 
enemy by a tedious defensive war. 

• In March of the new year the " Winter King " had addressed a 
letter to Louis XIU. of France, asking for help, which Hausser found 
and made extracts from, among the MSS. of theBiblioth^ue Royale, 
entitled ** Memoires pour THistoire d'Allemagne depuis 1619 jusqu*a 
1638." It is dated 24th March, 1620, and tries to prove that the 
threatened war was entirely political and by no means religious in its 
character; see, for example, the following passage: — *'Mes actions 
aussy bien que mes d^larations monstrent assez que je n'ay eu la pens^^e, 
moins encore la volont6 de faire ou permettre estre fait aucun desplaisir 
1 mes subjects de la religion cathoKque romaine & cause de la dite 
religion, qu'au contraire j*ay et auray toujours en soin, particulier de 
Ics prot^ger ^galement avec les autres sans distinction." Should the 
war really break out, he calls to mind the ancient alliance between the 
Palatinate and Louis's father, and begs respectfully ** qu'il vous plaise 
me tendre la main de vostre bonne assistance fonde^ sur la confiance 
que j'ay de vostre dicte bienveUlance, et sur les voeux que j'ay fait de 
conserver inviolablement Taffection h6r6ditaire que je porte au bien de 
Tostre couronne." — £0. 



I04 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But just the contrary course was taken. With a corps of 
officers who caroused in camp instead of doing their duty, 
and ill-disciplined troops, they faced a well-trained army one- 
third greater in numbers. On the 5th of October, Christian 
of Anhalt took up his position on the Weissenberg, near 
Prague, and three days afterwards, notwithstanding his 
personal bravery, sustained an ignominious defeat, which 
decided the fate of the winter kingdom in an hour. 

The rebels in Bohemia and Moravia immediately sub- 
mitted ; Mansfeld only carried on a hopeless banditti warfare 
for months on his own account. Frederic fled to Silesia ; at 
Breslau appealed to the Union for help, and tried to incite 
the Protestant States of the country to oppose the reaction 
which, as he truly foretold, would take place against the 
whole of Protestantism. Put it was in vain ; here also they 
submitted to the victorious Duke; that one battle had 
ruined the cause. Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia 
again belonged to the prince whom they had deposed a 
year before. The Protestant princes watched with malicious 
satisfaction the flight of the helpless Winter King, who, even 
among his own relations, scarcely found even the refuge he 
needed, to say nothing of succour. 

The revolution in Bohemia had not been quelled by 
Ferdinand, but by the League; yet the victorious cause was 
common to both, — it was the cause of ecclesiastical restora- 
tion, of conversion by means of Jesuits and soldiers. 

No foreign intervention was to be feared ; the hopes of 
the Winter King, of help from abroad, melted like spray before 
the wind ; his own inheritance soon became a prey to the 
enemy ; the distribution of the spoils of victory could begin. 
Upon the way in which this was done, it depended whether 
the war, which had hitherto scarcely been a German, far less 
a European one, should develope into one of world-wide 
mportance. 



ECCLESIASTICAL REACTION. 105 

The Ecclesustical Reaction in Bohemia and the 
Palatinate. 

The dreaded crisis which had been hanging over Ger- 
many for decades had taken place. The supremacy of the 
Emperor was decisively pronounced. One of the leaders 
of German Protestantism was pitifuUy defeated ; it was a 
blow which could not but be severely felt by all German 
princes ; still, it was far yet from being a religious war. 

If Ferdinand now zealously carried out the Restoration 
in Bohemia, and declared that the charter was forfeited 
because it had been infringed by the country itself, it was 
no more than could be expected. It was but revenge for 
the imprudent policy of 1619-20, which was seen through 
at once by every one except Frederic V. — that of taking the 
course they did without the necessary means. 

But it was another thing to show Bohemia who was 
master by openly proclaiming the system of forced con- 
version, and carrying it out with sanguinary strictness. This 
was the way to let loose the religious war, and to give occa- 
sion for foreign intervention. 

With but a little moderation, Ferdinand and the League 

might have obtained an easy victory in his own country, 

md yet have disarmed suspicion at home and abroad. But 

his they could not do. Whether the fault was in the 

mes or in their personal passions, they went to work 

shly and inconsiderately, and the war ceased to be a 

ihemian or German, and became a European one. 

The Protestant Union was already entirely out of joint. 

en, in the summer of 1620, Spinola advanced up the 

ne with Spanish soldiers, the Union had nothing to 

)se to them but an absurd reference to the imperial law 

h forbade the presence of foreign troops in Germany. 



I06 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.* 

This was before the catastrophe to their brother in the feith. 
When afterwards Ferdinand appeared with the defiance of a 
victor, the Union was dissolved, submitted ignominiously, 
and the empire again resounded with jeers and malicious 
joy. 

On the 29th of January, 1621, Ferdinand had pronounced 
the unhappy Frederic imder the ban of the empire, and 
appointed the Duke of Bavaria to execute the sentence. 
Of all the forms prescribed by the constitution, even in 
cases of proved guilt, not one was observed ; the aggrieved 
person, accuser and judge, was one and the same individual. 
After this beginning, little clemency could be looked for 
from the Emperor. 

In June, 1621, a fearful reign of terror began in Bohemia,* 
with the execution of twenty-seven of the most distinguished 
heretics. For years the imhappy people bled under it; 
thousands were banished, and yet Protestantism was not 
fully exterminated. The charter was cut into shreds by the 
Emperor himself; there could be no forbearance towards 
" such acknowledged rebels." As a matter of course, the 
Lutheran preaching was forbidden under the heaviest 
penalties ; heretical works. Bibles especially, were taken 
away in heaps. Jesuit colleges, churches, and schools came 
into power ; but this was not aU. 

A large number of distinguished Protestant families were 
deprived of their property, and, as if that were not enough, 
it was decreed that no non-Catholic could be a citizen, nor 
carry on a trade, enter into marriage, nor make a will ; any 
one who harboured a Protestant preacher forfeited his pro- 
perty ; whoever permitted Protestant instruction to be given 
was to be fined, and whipped out of the town ; the Protestant 

* See Reuss, La Destruction du Protestantisme en Bohime. Stras- 
burg, 1867. 



CATHOLIC REACTION IN BOHEMIA. 107 

poor who were not converted were to be driven out of the 
hospitals, and to be replaced by Catholic poor; he who 
gave free expression to his opinions about religion was to 
be executed. In 1624 an order was issued to all preachers 
and teachers to leave the country within eight days, under 
pain of death ; and finally, it was ordained that whoever 
had not become Catholic by Easter, 1626, must emigrate. 
Light and air, the simplest rights of man in a state, were 
denied to the Protestants. But the real conversions were 
few ; thousands quietly remained true to their faith ; other 
thousands wandered as beggars into foreign lands ; more 
than thirty thousand Bohemian families, and among them 
five hundred belonging to the aristocracy, went into banish- 
ment. Exiled Bohemians were to be found in every 
country of Europe, and were not wanting in any of the 
armies that fought against Austria. 

Those who could not or would not emigrate, held to their 
faith in secret. Against them dragoonades were employed. 
Detachments of soldiers were sent into the various districts 
to torment the heretics till they were converted. The 
" Converters " (Seligmacher) went thus throughout all Bo- 
hemia, plundering and murdering. There were sanguinary 
revolts ; in some places they fortified and defended them- 
selves to the uttermost No succour reached the unfortu- 
nate people; but neither did the victors attain their end. 
Protestantism and the Hussite memories could not be slain, 
and only outward submission was extorted. Striking proof 
of this appeared when Joseph II. published his Edict of 
Toleration ; and a respectable Protestant party exists to 
this day in Bohemia and Moravia. But a desert was 
created; the land was crushed for a generation. Before 
the war Bohemia had 4,000,000 inhabitants, and in 1648 
there were but 700,000 or 800,000. 



I08 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

These figures appear preposterous, but they are certified 
by Bohemian historians. In some parts of the country the 
population has not attained the standard of 1620 to this day. 

As early as the summer of 1622, the imperial policy 
made way for itself into the inheritance of the "Winter 
King " by an unparalleled piece of villainy. 

A certain degree of unity and spirit had been introduced 
into the planless banditti warfare which the adventurer 
Mansfeld and the chivalrous Colonel Obertraut had been 
carrying on in the Upper and Lower Palatinate against 
Spain and Bavaria since the summer of 162 1, when in April, 
1622, the outlawed Elector Frederic suddenly appeared 
among his ^thful subjects in the Palatinate. 

The brave Margrave, George Frederic of Baden, joined 
Mansfeld with a splendid troop, and obtained a brilliant 
victory over the Bavarians under Tilly at Wiesloch. In 
spite of the defeat of the Margrave at Wimpfen in May, and 
of the wild Christian of Brunswick, near Hochst, in June, 
Frederic V. had in Alsace a strong and valiant army, when, 
from his love of peace and confidence in his father-in-law, 
James I., who was himself deceived, the unwary youth 
allowed himself to be ensnared by perfidious negotiations — 
first, to suspend hostilities, and then to dismiss his army, 
in order, as the diplomatic deceiver said, that peace might 
be made. 

Now that the Palatinate was laid open, and the Elector 
disarmed, Tilly, who, at the first news of Frederic's arrival, 
had given up the siege of the Dilsberg, could complete the 
subjugation of the Palatinate in peace. Nevertheless, it 
was only with great difficulty that Heidelberg was taken in 
September, and Mannheim in November, while the garrison 
of Frankenthal defended themselves successfully against 
him. With the Bavarian soldiers, who here, as everywhere, 



CATHOLIC REACTION IN THE PALATINATE. 109 

behaved with great barbarity, came the Jesuits to destroy 
this nest of Calvmism. The Reformed ministers were 
driven away, and were replaced by priests and monks ; the 
flourishing university was closed, and the treasures of its 
world-renowned library dragged in fifty waggons to Rome. 
The conversion of this out-and-out Protestant people was 
begun with a certain moderation, but afterwards carried on 
with more vigour. The Lutherans, who were at first spared, 
had an opportunity here, as in Bohemia, of watching the ill- 
treatment of the Reformed party with malicious satisfaction. 
But their turn came next. 

At the meeting of princes summoned by Ferdinand in 
November, instead of a Diet, at Ratisbon, the dignity of 
Elector Palatine was solemnly conferred on the victorious 
Duke of Bavaria. The new Government at once distin- 
guished itself by a passionate zeal for conversion. While 
the dissolute conduct of the " Converters" (Seligmacher) in 
Upper Austria was driving the obscure peasants to a des- 
perate revolt, the Bavarians began to make the good old 
Protestant country Catholic. It was more easily accom- 
plished than in Bohemia and Upper Austria. The Papal 
Nuncio, Caraffa, who was met there by almost unconquer- 
able defiance, considered that the inhabitants of the Pala- 
tinate had passed through their second birth far more 
painlessly than their brethren in the faith in Austria and 
Bohemia. The witnesses of it were the many thousands of 
the inhabitants who left their fair country, and became 
proverbial in Europe as refiigees from South Germany. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE DANISH WAR, 1625— 29, AND ALBRECHT OF 
WALLENSTEIN. 

Change of Sentiment. — The Protestant League : England, Holland. 
Denmark, 1625. — Christian IV. of Denmark. — ^Albrecht vonWal- 
lenstein.— His Character.— The War of 1626-8. — ^Defeat of Mans- 
feld at Dessau, April, 1626. — ^Defeat of Christian IV. at Lutter, 
on the Barenberg, August, 1626. — Wallenstein and Tilly in Nortl 
Germany, Mecklenburg, Stralsund, 1628. — Peace of Lubeck, May, 
1629. — The Edict of Restitution, March, 1629, and its Signifi< 
cance. — Machinations of the League against Wallenstein. — Th< 
Meeting of Princes at Ratisbon.— Dismissal of Wallenstein, June, 
1630. 

Change of Sentiment.— The Protestant League be 
TWEEN England, Holland, and Denmark, 1625.— 
Christian IV. of Denmark. 

nPHE aflfairs of 1622-3 in Bohemia, Upper Austria, and 
the Palatinate had a terribly irritating efifect in and 
beyond Germany. 

When the Winter King hastened through Germany, fugi- 
tive and defenceless, after the lost battle, denied by his own 
relations as a criminal, and avoided like a leper, not a 
\ single voice was heard in his favour ; and when he warned 

L them in a public appeal that his cause was the cause of 

f Protestantism, that his defeat would result in the esta- 

L blishment of Spanish absolutism in Germany, he was met 



FEAR OF CATHOLIC REACTION. Ill 

with jeers by the Lutherans; and Saxony advised the 
Silesian States not to be seduced by the rebels, or just that 
which they wished to avert would happen. Frederic's 
father-in law, James L of England, did not find it advisable, 
from reasons affecting the legitimacy of rulers, to give a bad 
example, by supporting a revolution ; and, besides this, he 
had promised Spain not to take any part but that of a 
neutral mediator. 

But these sentiments were changed when the conse- 
quences of such an attitude appeared. 

The beginning of the brutal Catholic reaction, first in 
Bohemia, then in Austria, showed what was meant by the 
victory of the League. Then came the perfidious abuse of 
James's mediation against his son-in-law, the deposition of 
the Elector, and the forced conversion of the Protestant 
Palatinate. All this, in spite of the fair speeches, for which 
popular wit invented the name of " Spanish sleeping-cup," 
pointed to a Catholic reaction, in face of which no one was 
secure against a system of compulsion which would overthrow 
all law and usage. 

At the meeting at Ratisbon, which was intended to give 
an appearance of legality to the proceedings against the 
Elector, there were warnings of opposition. Pliant 
Saxony spoke against his deposition, and even withdrew 
her previous recognition of the ban ; Brandenburg warmly 
took the part of the Elector, whom she had hitherto con- 
temptuously neglected. 

In Lower Saxony ideas of armed resistance were already 
rife, for the foreign soldiery was almost ruining the country, 
when a change took place in England which opened up a 
prospect of a great European coalition against Spain and 
Hapsburg. 

James I. and Buckingham, embittered by Spain's jesuiti- 



112 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

cal intrigues, proposed it to Parliament in February, 1624. 
Parliament received it with joy, and with the assurance that 
it was ready to defend the true religion and the rights of 
the royal children with body and soul. When Mansfeld 
arrived in London he was greeted with acclamation by the 
whole population, up to the aristocracy, as the hero of 
religious liberty. 

From the well-known vacillation of the Government of 
James I. and Buckingham, no persistent military interposi- 
tion could be reckoned on ; more energy was thrown into it 
under his successor, Charles I., after March, 1625, and the 
Protestant League was at length an accomplished fact A 
treaty was entered into on 9th December, 1625, at the Hague, 
between England, Holland, and Denmark, the object of 
which was a great expedition to the Continent, to oppose 
the Hapsburgs and reinstate the Elector. 

Negotiations had previously been entered into with 
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but they had not been able 
to agree on the conditions, and the cautious Swedish policy 
had rejected the project as rash and too extensive. 

England was not in a position to carry on the war in 
Germany on her own account ; Holland was in the same 
situation ; they were both obliged to depend on subsidies 
from the warlike rulers of the Continent, and the help of 
their fleets on the coasts. 

King Christian of Denmark declared himself ready for 
intervention. As Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, he was a 
prince of the German Empire, and had been appointed 
chief of the district by the district of Lower Saxony ; be- 
sides the hope of enriching himself in North Germany, it 
was greatly to his interest that Catholic restoration should 
be checked. The kingdom of Denmark had become what 
it was solely through the Reformation and its results, poli- 



CHRISTIAN IV. OF DENMARK. II3 

tical and ecclesiastical Frederic I. and Christian III. had 
caused the Reformation to be brought to their kingdom 
proper from Schleswig, Holstein, and Jutland ; their crown 
first attained power and dignity through the destruction of 
the temporal and ecclesiastical feudal system ; so that for 
this kingdom a religious restoration meant a return to the 
ancient yoke under which it, in common with the burgher 
and peasant class, had so long suffered. 

Frederic II., 1559-88, and Christian IV. had diligently 
aided in building up the new State and in giving it a healthy 
domestic foundation. 

The downfall of the mighty ecclesiastical system had 
indeed only been effected by means of an alliance of the 
crown with the nobles, in which the latter had contrived 
to secure the lion's share for themselves ; they took care to 
have their privileges, their power in the senate, their legal 
jurisdiction and immunity from taxes, secured to them by 
the bond as clearly as possible. Still, there was scope 
enough left for the government to take quietly in hand the 
emancipation of the middle classes, by means of a con- 
scientious, economical government ; by the lenient adminis- 
tration of laws in themselves severe; by having regard at 
the same time to the finances of the State and the prosperity 
of the people, by increasing their earnings, by rational 
encouragement of trade and manufactures, by turning to 
account the natural inclinations of this insular people for 
navigation and colonial enterprise — thus making the cause 
of the monarchy the cause of the working population, who 
now first began to lead a life worthy of men. Frederic II. 
and Christian IV. accomplished this with skill and assi- 
duity. 

Up to the time of the war in Germany, Christian was a 
beloved and successful monarch. A man possessing rare 

VOL. II. I 



1 14 FIRST PHASE OF THE THHITY YEARS' WAR. 

gifts, a great variety of knowledge, and broad views, he laid 
during his long reign the foundations of the material 
prosperity which Denmark enjoyed until the last century. 

He was at once the first military organizer of Denmark, 
and the founder of its domestic and commercial policy, thus 
exhibiting qualifications not often combined. The founda- 
tion of the commercial cities of Christiania and Gliickstadt, 
the exchange in Copenhagen, the introduction of uniform 
weights and measures, the colonies in Iceland and Green- 
land, regular postal intercourse, the attempt to check 
the commercial supremacy of the Hansa, and the forma- 
tion of a standing army not composed of foreign hirelings, 
but of native peasants led by Danish officers, all date from 
his time. 

At the head of an efficient army, this monarch was a 
power not to be despised, especially if the aid of England 
and Holland were as trustworthy as it was readily promised. 

As wearer of a crown to which the success of the Catholic 
restoration would be a fatal danger — as a prince of the 
German Empire, enjoying great influence in North Germany, 
Christian IV. could not look on with apathy at the war in 
Germany, besides which he might have an idea of rounding 
off the possession of Holstein in Lower Saxony. So he 
accepted the offer of England and Holland, and began the 
war in North Germany, supported by some of the North 
German princes who were influenced by similar considera- 
tions. 

The war was not successful ; at the very beginning of it 
the army of the League occupied North Germany, and when 
it came to a battle Christian was driven from the field, and the 
Danish army pursued by Wallenstein back to its own country. 
But the significance of this war hes elsewhere. About this 
time Ferdinand II. succeeded in detaching himself from the 



WALLENSTEIN. II5 

guardianship of the League, and in carrying on the war 
with his own resources. The formation and triumphs of 
this new army are connected with Albrecht von Wallen- 
stein. 

Albrecht von Waldstein, or Wallenstein. 

Wallenstein belonged to the nobility, but not to the high 
Bohemian aristocracy. His parents and grandparents, and 
his family, with few exceptions, were Protestants, but by a 
singular dispensation, the young Albrecht, bom 15th Sep- 
tember, 1583, and early left an orphan, was adopted by an 
uncle, one of the few of the family who had remained faith- 
ful to Catholicism, and he brought him back to the old 
faith. He grew up as a pupil of the Jesuits. A Catholic 
nobleman was a rarity in Bohemia. He was introduced by 
his uncle into the service of the Hapsburgs, and early dis- 
tinguished himself. He performed a great service to the 
Archduke Ferdinand, in Styria, in his war against the 
Venetians, in 161 7 ; when the fortress of Gradiska was 
besieged by the Venetians and closely pressed, he contrived 
to convey rich stores of provisions to it through the ranks 
of the besiegers ; and, still more important than this, he 
equipped a regiment from his own resources, whose officers 
and troops adored him, and whose appearance was the 
pride of the whole army. A talented young soldier, who 
was- at once a Catholic and an adherent of the house of 
Hapsburg, was a real treasure in those days of general 
defection. When the revolt broke out in Bohemia, and all 
his relations were on the Protestant side, he distinguished 
himself by his strongly marked imperialism ; he helped with 
his cuirassiers to decide the engagement against Count 
Mansfeld at Teyn, and he covered Bouguo/s retreat with 
great dexterity against the hosts of Bethlen Gabor. 



Il6 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Wallenstein had early rendered himself independent by 
a rich marriage. He shunned no sacrifice to secure the 
favour of the Hapsburgs at the time of their great diffi- 
culties, and he had the knack of keeping up an appearance 
of great expenditure, while he was a good manager; he 
never lost a favourable opportunity, and even when he gave 
liberally was only casting the net for greater gain. 

As nearly all the aristocracy were upon the rebel side in 
the Bohemian revolution, his faithfulness was doubly valu- 
able, and, when the great confiscation of property took 
place, the time came for him to reap his harvest. 

By the year 1622, Ferdinand had confiscated no less than 
642 lordships and estates of Bohemian noblemen ; and, as 
he was in great want of money, the spoil was sold at ridi- 
culous prices. The market was flooded with estates; he 
who had ready money to spend could quickly acquire im- 
mense wealth. Wallenstein was a millionaire, and spent 
seven millions and one-third of florins in buying some of 
these estates, mostly at absurd prices ; and, in addition to 
the sixty properties thus acquired, he received from the 
Emperor, for the advances made in his service, the im- 
portant territory of Friedland, with the little town of Rei- 
chenberg, for the price of 150,000 florins.* 

Besides having this good fortune, Wallenstein was an 
unusually talented man, not so much as a general, as in his 
great skill in organizing, exercising, disciplining, and pro- 
viding for an army. 

The military system of Europe was then in a transition 
state from old forms to new, or rather the old forms had 
disappeared and the new ones had not been discovered. 
The last relics of feudal service had vanished, and the 
modem system of a levy of the inhabitants for a standing 
♦ Foister, Wallenstein als Feldherr und Landesfurst. 1834. 



WALLENSTEIN. I17 

army had not become general ; the armies were neither the 
one thing nor the other ; the men were neither bound to 
their leaders as faithful vassals, nor bound together as belong- 
ing to the same nation. War was a trade which motives of 
gain were the only inducement to engage in ; a moral bond 
of common sentiments and higher duties was unknown. The 
troops were hired from all countries. Wherever circum- 
stances were unhappy or oppressive, thousands were ready 
to seek their fortunes in war ; whoever, for less honourable 
reasons, was expelled from society, followed the drum, and 
gained his livelihood under any colours he pleased. The 
Bohemian exiles were found in thousands in all the armies 
which fought against Austria. The Irish were as numerous in 
those of their opponents; it was the same with the Walloons, 
&c The Germans were pretty equally distributed on both 
sides. 

It was Wallenstein's forte to form an army out of such 
elements ; and, when every other bond of union failed, to 
make himself their centre. 

In this respect no army was equal to his ; no one suc- 
ceeded as he did in casting the whole in one mould, in 
inspiring the native soldiers with an esprit de corpSy and in 
naking himself the centre of the hirelings, and of the army as 
whole. For the rest, he was one of those characters who 
56 up in times like these — ^an upstart, who, from a modest 
>sition, had become a magnate, with principalities under 
n ; yet he was coarse by nature, never knew any other mo- 
» than thirst for power. Even people who are on the conser- 
ve side share the revolutionary characteristics of the age. 
e had no more respect for tradition, usage, or legal 
s, than a successful soldier is likely to have ; he had 
so many of the great fall, he had taken so many sue- 
I steps over other people's heads, that he entertained the 



Il8 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

idea that his own iron fist might attain for him what the 
mere accidents of birth had cast into the laps of others. 
He therefore thoroughly despised the ancient German 
character, and had a profound contempt for the motives 
which actuate little men. He was a man like Napoleon's 
marshals, and held the opinion that it was not too rash to 
aspire to higher things than he possessed, and which in the 
opinions of other mortals might possess. 

He was disposed to follow the phantasies of an extrava- 
gant ambition, and to form all sorts of hazardous projects 
beyond his means. He liked to play at hazard, to stake all 
on one card, and to follow dark paths with a certain super- 
stition. He was fond of reservations and equivocations; 
called it lofty wisdom; and what others called cunning 
only appeared to him as diplomatic skill No con- 
siderations, either religious, national, or personal, interfered 
with his ambition. He served the house of Hapsburg 
because it was with them that his star had risen, but it 
cost him nothing to engage in projects which had nothing 
in common with the duties of a loyal imperialist. He 
fought for the Catholic cause, but without the fanaticism of 
his master or Tilly's zeal for conversion. He was praised 
for his toleration, but it arose from indifference. 

This personage, with immense resources, princely wealth, 
unusual political and military virtuosoship, aspiring ambi- 
tion, and a thorough contempt for tradition, appeared at 
the Emperor's side, and almost eclipsed him. • 

The Emperor was oppressed with the idea that a foreign 
army, that of the League, should obtain his victories and 
re-conquer his territories. Wallenstein created an army 
for him which rendered him independent of Bavaria, and 
was large enough to maintain itself and conquer whole 
countries. He said that he would provide, not 20,000, but 



DEFEAT OF MANSFELD. II9 

50,000 men, and he knew that such a force would, like an 
emigrant nation, be able to live from war itself and put any 
enemy to flight 

The War of 1626-8. 

Wallenstein took the field openly, with the purpose of 
carrying on the war on his own responsibility, and for his 
own fame, and therefore of altogether ignoring, or, if possible, 
of eclipsing the army of the League under Tilly, which, to 
the great terror of the inhabitants, had been encamping for 
months in Lower Saxony. 

From the autumn of 1625 Wallenstein encamped with 
his hosts between Magdeburg, Halberstadt, and Dessa\i, 
well provided with money, provisions, and every necessary, 
and for months worked at the erection of a secure tiU du 
pant and gigantic fortifications; while Tilly, in already 
exhausted districts, pressed by Christian IV., wandered 
about in despair, his army near dissolution firom sickness^ 
want, and desertion, and he looked in vain for help either 
firom home or fix)m Wallenstein. 

To Wallenstein belonged the fame of the first military 
achievement of the year. In April, Ernest of Mansfeld 
arrived at the Elbe with the most splendid army he had 
ever commanded — 20,000 men, with thirty pieces of heavy 
artillery— and began to storm the tite dupont at Dessau. A 
fearful conflict lasted for several days; the imperial general, 
Aldringen, held out with heroic perseverance, and enabled 
Wallenstein, by a final attack with the cavahry in the rear, 
to decide the engagement. On April 25th, 1626, Mansfeld 
was signally defeated, and pursued through Frankfort into 
Silesia. It was his last campaign. On his journey through 
Bosnia he fell ill, and died as he had lived. When he felt 
death approaching he put on his best unifomii and awaited 



120 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the end standing upright, supported by two of his com- 
panions in arms.* 

A few months after him died that other fierce general and 
sharer of his views, Christian of Brunswick, 

These two losses almost decided the fate of the Danish 
campaign. As long as these two heroes were active, and 
Tilly's army was scarcely in a situation to stand a united 
attack. Christian IV. had hesitated ; but now Tilly began 
to revive, Munden and Gottingen were taken with horrible 
slaughter. There were still favourable moments, in which, 
had they been taken advantage of, much might have been 
recovered; but Christian neglected them, and on 27th 
August suffered a complete defeat at Lutter and Barenberg, 
and was compelled to retreat to Holstein. The army of 
the League was now master in Brunswick and Hanover. 

Wallenstein and Tilly found no further opposition in North 
Germany. All Silesia with its fortresses fell into the Duke's 
hands, and the Emperor granted him the Duchy of Sagan and 
the lordship of Priebus as hereditary possessions. Thence he 
made preparations on a large scale for a campaign against 
Christian of Denmark on his own territory; in Wallenstein's 
Duchy of Friedland, forges, powder mills, and manufactories 
of arms, were at work day and night for the equipment of 
his army, and his own mint coined the ready money for the 
payment of the troops. 

When, in the autumn of 1627, he advanced by rapid 
marches towards the north, the two Dukes of Mecklenburg 
at once submitted to him, all the fortresses were garrisoned 
by Wallenstein, and, in conjunction with Tilly, he began 
operations against Holstein and Schleswig. 

« A warm apology forMansfeld has lately appeared : Ernest Grafzu 
Mansfeld, 1580 — 1626, vom Grafen Uetterodtzu Scharfifenberg. Gotha, 
1867. 



WALLENSTEIN'S PROJECTS. 121 

His schemes now, as appears from his correspondence, 
were gigantic to a fantastic degree. 

At the end of the year he took leave of absence for 
three months. His representative, Colonel Amim, was 
commissioned to occupy and fortify all the harbours of 
Pomerania, to take all the ships he could, and to arm those 
fit for it ; " for, you see, we shall now betake ourselves to 
.the sea." He was to watch Sweden carefully, " for Gus- 
tavus Adolphus is a dangerous visitor, of whom one must 
beware ; " he was to bum his ships when it was possible ; 
meanwhile he was to negotiate with the Danish States, to 
induce them to depose their Christian, and to elect the 
Emperor Ferdinand king. If they consented, he promised 
that all their privileges, even the Reformation, should be 
held sacred ; but if not, they should become his vassals. 
Meanwhile he was trying to induce the Emperor to secure 
Mecklenburg to him, and seeking a pretext for suspending 
an imperial ban over the dukes. 

Now, however, the long-concealed rancour of the Duke 
of Bavaria and his party broke out. Wallenstein cared 
nothing for priests; and instead of joining with Tilly in making 
North Germany Catholic, his sole concern was to found a 
powerful principality for himself, which delayed the schemes 
this party had in view. He had also let fall some ominous 
expressions, from which it appeared that it was his inten- 
tion, if possible, that all the German princes, with their 
" German liberty," should share the fate of the Mecklen- 
burgers. Let the palaces of the princes, he had said, be 
pulled down ; they would no longer be wanted ; there was 
but one king in France and Spain, and there should be but 
one Emperor in Germany. The Electors, in particular, 
he must teach morals, and show them that the Emperor 
was not dependent on them, but they on the Emperor, &c. 



122 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Such counsels did not prevail, though it was thought that 
there were signs that the Emperor himself was of opinion 
**that the power of the Electors must be somewhat re- 
stricted," for he felt the burden of a personal dependence 
on the Elector Max, who still kept possession of Upper 
Austria as a pledge. 

Wallenstein obtained the promise of Mecklenburg, first 
as a pledge and then as a principality, and the Dukes were 
declared to have forfeited their country. At the same time 
the Emperor Ferdinand released himself from the guardian- 
ship of the League. In March, 1628, the Elector Max 
received the Upper Palatinate instead of Upper Austria, 
and the Lower Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine, 
as indemnity for the expenses and sacrifices of the Bo- 
hemian war. Ferdinand was thus again in possession of 
his inheritance ; Max had deprived his own relation of his 
country, and the war, which could only be put an end to 
by bringing back the banished Count Palatine, seemed 
likely to go on for ever. 

In the spring, Wallenstein, "the Admiral of the North and 
Baltic Seas," as he was now called, began to take possession 
of the shores of the Baltic. He had cast his eyes especially 
on two points — Riigen and Stralsund. The first was taken; 
the second resisted, being assisted by Denmark and Sweden 
with money, munitions, provisions, and troops. Wallen- 
stein was determined to have the city, ** even if it were 
attached by chains to heaven." But it was all in vain : all 
his attacks were repulsed, his proposals rejected; his troops 
suffered enormous losses from the enemy's fire, want, sick- 
ness, and bad weather, and after a six months' assault they 
were obliged, in August, 1628, to beat an ignominious 
retreat. 

Wallenstein's military successes, and his splendid dream 



DEFEAT AT STRALSUND. 1 23 

of dominion over the seas, were put an end to by the 
ramparts of Stralsund, and the heroic endurance of its 
Protestant population. He was now the first to counsel 
peace ; the ground burnt under his feet. Tired of a hope- 
less contest with maritime powers, against which he was 
defenceless, he was eager speedily to come to terms with 
Denmark. The Treaty of Lubeck was entered into in 
May, 1629 j both parties renounced compensation, and all 
his cities and provinces were restored to the vanquished 
King Christian, as if he had been the victor. 

Meanwhile the party of the League had obtained a great 
success. They had extorted an edict from the Emperor, 
to issue which he could only have been advised by his 
bitterest enemy ; this was the Edict of Restitution of 6th 
March, 1629. 

The Edict of Restitution, 1629, and Dismissal of 
Wallenstein, 1630. 

Among the conditions imposed by the Elector Max of 
Bavaria, when he gave up the territory north of the Ens to 
the Emperor, there were two secret ones — the banishment 
of the Calvinists and the restitution of CathoHc Church 
property. After long delay and consultation with ecclesias- 
tics and laymen, the Emperor decided to accede to these 
demands. This was eflfected by the Edict of Restitution, 
by which it was ordained that "all bishoprics, monas- 
teries, and other Church property not held directly imder 
the Crown (mittelbar), confiscated since the Treaty of 
Passau, shall be restored to the Catholics; all the bishoprics 
held directly under the Crown (unmittelbar), which, con- 
trary to the ecclesiastic reservation, had come into the 
bands of the Protestants, shall again be occupied by 
Catholic prelates. The Catholic States are empowered to 



124 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

compel their subjects to adopt their religion, and in case of 
refusal, they are to leave the country on receiving an ade- 
quate sum of money ; further, the religious peace only con- 
cerned the Catholics and the adherents of the unaltered 
Confession of Augsburg. No other sects, Calvinists or 
Zwinglians, were to be tolerated in the empire." 

This edict had, in part, strict legality on its side ; but put 
in practice it involved a great revolution, which would be 
absolute annihilation to the property and churches of the 
Protestant States, and indeed to German Protestantism 
itself. The bishoprics not held directly under the Crown, 
but under some local ruler, had been confiscated in great 
numbers by Protestant and Catholic princes. In 1552-5, 
when the Protestants were in the ascendancy, and had 
nothing to fear from the Emperor, the number of seculari- 
sations by Protestants had greatly increased ; and when, in 
'SSS> ^c question was discussed, no clause could be 
carried which enjoined restitution. The status quo was 
quietly recognised ; but this was now more than seventy 
years ago, and was all to be changed by a stroke of 
the pen. 

The ecclesiastical reservation proviso, if King Ferdi- 
nand's clause, so called, was still to be considered in force, 
had certainly been infringed. 

Several Protestant princes had taken advantage of the 
occasion, and contrived that their sons or brothers should 
be made bishops, and afterwards, on their conversion, had 
changed the bishoprics into secular Protestant territories. 

In now demanding that things should be restored as 
they were before the infringement of the reservation, they 
were formally right. But then they ought not in the next 
article to have granted to the Catholic States the right of 
converting or banishing their Protestant subjects, for that 



THE EDICT OF RESTITUTION. 1 25 

was contrary to another proviso still in force, by which 
religious liberty was expressly granted to the Protestant 
subjects of ecclesiastical rulers. 

If one was law, so was the other. 

Then, after the religious peace, large territories belonged 
to the adherents of the Reformed faith : the Electoral Pala- 
tinate, Hesse Cassel, Zweibriicken, Cleve, Berg, and the 
electoral line of the house of Hohenzollem. These terri- 
tories were deprived of their legal existence by the last 
article, and sacrificed to the unlimited power of the Catholic 
reaction. 

Besides, in standing upon formal legal rights, they were 
taking a step, the consequences of which might be incalcu- 
lable, and which could only be considered practicable by a 
blind camarilla elate with victory. There could no longer 
be any peace under such a system. 

Even Saxony and Brandenburg, who were surprisingly 
passive so long as religion only was in danger, became very 
uneasy as soon as Church property was at stake ; it drove 
them into the enemy's camp. The bishoprics held directly 
under the Crown, which were to be restored, formed together 
a little kingdom. They were the archbishoprics of Magde- 
burg and Bremen, the bishoprics of Minden, Verden, Hal- 
berstadt, Liibeck, Ratzeburg, Meissen, Merseburg, Naum- 
burg, Brandenburg, Havelberg, Lebus, Camin. The Resti- 
tution also aflfected numberless abbeys. 

If such an edict were enforced, it would be to challenge 
the dynasties and people to a struggle for life and death. 
But this was not taken into consideration, although there 
was a nine years' war about trifles to look back upon. 

The Protestants were often afterwards reproached with 
having forgotten country, honour, and everything in their 
hatred of the Hapsburgs, and with having served under 



126 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

foreign colours, Danish, Swedish, and even French, and this 
cannot be gainsaid, nor the fearful confusion which resulted 
from it amongst our people. 

But the guilt of the originators of this mischief must not 
be forgotten. What could they do but accept any help that 
was offered them, when hundreds of thousands of them 
were deprived of their rights, religion, and property, and 
driven from their country by a stroke of the pen ? The 
German Protestants were brought to the same point as the 
Irish Catholics, who in blind revenge opposed everything 
Protestant 

The result proved the impracticability of the edict. After 
six years of bloodshed, the Emperor was compelled to grant 
the abolition of it to Saxony and Brandenburg, and, after 
thirteen years more of fearful warfare, to all the other 
Protestants and Reformers; so that all that was effected 
by a nine years' contest was that the edict was torn to 
shreds. 

And if the restoration of Church property had been 
honestly intended — that is, if it meant the restoration of it 
to its previous owners — this was by^no -means what was 
generally understood by it. If its confiscation was called 
robbery, it could not be made good by fresh plunder. 

Most of the bishoprics belonged to religious orders in 
whose days the Jesuits did not exist, especially the nume- 
rous Benedictine abbeys. When these demanded the resti- 
tution of their property, it was already occupied by the 
Jesuits. 

And it was just the same with the appointments to the 
archbishoprics and bishoprics. Instead of allowing the 
prelates to be elected as was prescribed by ancient regu- 
lations, archdukes and magnates of the house of Austria 
were always ready to take the places of the old owners. 



THE EDICT OF RESTITUTION. 1 27 

The E^mperor's blunder was soon punished, and in a way 
he did not anticipate. 

The least that he expected to attain when he yielded to 
the entreaties of the Jesuits and the League, was the satis- 
faction of their increasingly inconvenient demands. But 
in this he was mistaken. When he now requested the 
League to withdraw or dismiss its armies for the relief 
of Franconia and Swabia, the Elector Max summoned a 
meeting of the League at Heidelberg ; and, after dismiss- 
ing a few troops in its name for the sake of appearance, 
demanded that the Emperor himself should disarm — that is, 
dismiss Wallenstein and dissolve his army, or at least sum- 
mon a meeting of Electors to establish a speedy and secure 
peace. 

The Edict of Restitution had induced the tamest members 
of the Protestant aristocracy to take up arms against the 
Emperor; all that was now wanting was to deprive him of the 
man who had set him upon his legs, to hurl him from 
the giddy heights to which he had climbed. And this was 
now to be accomplished. 

There were numerous complaints against Wallenstein. 
His whole military system, his plan of making the countries 
in which his armies were encamped provide for them, was 
a fearful one. When they came into a district, not only 
the interest of capital, but capital itself was devoured. 
If his troops did not behave worse than others, the horrors 
occasioned by the dissolute bands of fierce soldiers were 
bad enough. The fire and destruction, the outrages upon 
women, the relentless cruelty towards every living thing, 
were not more horrible among his soldiers than among others, 
but generals looked with envy upon a camp which never 
lacked necessaries, because a regular system of plunder and 
torture prevailed, while they who would have been ready 



128 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

enough to follow his example could never succeed in pro- 
viding comfortably for the soldier. 

The rulers had great reason to complain of him. He 
had ofifended them all by his scornful tone ; some of them 
he had driven from their countries, had made himself 
their ruler, and openly pursued a policy intended to exter- 
minate all ruling princes, and to set up an aristocracy of 
successful soldiers under an imperial military dictatorship.* 
All classes were agreed in their hatred of Wallenstein ; the 
priests could not forgive him because he cared nothing for 
their conversions, and he sometimes exclaimed, " The devil 
and hell-fire take the priests." There was scarcely one of 
the Protestant party whose country he had not ruined, who 
had not had to famish while his head-quarters were rolling 
in luxury, and the League desired to avenge his treatment 
of Tilly, his open intention of thrusting it on one side, 
and, if possible, of utterly destroying it. 

Thus a great storm was gathering around the " Dictator 
of Germany," as Max of Bavaria called the Duke of Fried- 
land. 

In June, 1630, the meeting of princes took place at 
Ratisbon — there were no Diets until 1640 — ^and a long 
accusation was laid before it against Wallenstein, who was 
the cause of " all the trouble, disgrace, and scandal, of all the 
horrible and unheard-of military oppression." It demanded 
the dismissal of the imperial infantry and its leader. Among 
the most zealous of this party were the French embassy, who 
were present in consequence of an Italian business. 

While the Emperor was considering whether he would 
enter into a contest with the ruling aristocracy and their 
allies, France, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, 

* For his plans with Tilly and Pappenheim, see Gfrorer's Gustav 
Adolf. 



WALLENSTEIN'S DISMISSAL. I2g 

or give up his only support, Wallenstein had coolly taken 
measures for giving the law upon the battle-field in the first 
case. 

He had divided his men, between 50,000 and 60,000, into 
two parts, and caused them to occupy highly suspicious 
posts in Alsace and Swabia, in order that at a given sign 
one division might attack Bavaria, the other France. 

But it was not to come to this. Ferdinand, as the patron 
of a man like Wallenstein, did not venture on an enterprise 
which he might perhaps have undertaken as the commander 
of his own army. He granted his dismissal, and Wallen- 
stein submitted without question. 

It was a most critical decision. Just when the Edict of 
Restitution had ignited a fearful conflagration, when Gus- 
tavus Adolphus had ahready landed in Germany, the Emperor 
allowed himself to be compelled by his States to dismiss 
his general > and in this case it meant much more than the 
ordinary dismissal of a general — it deprived all his military 
force of their head. The army was the creation of Wallen- 
stein. No longer kept together and paid by him, it would 
be dispersed, and this was abundantly proved in the suc- 
ceeding period ; in this case the Emperor would, as before, 
be dependent on the League, when he had been obliged to 
pledge his heritage to the Elector. 

Seldom have great historical events followed in such 
close connection as in this case. During the same days of 
June when the Emperor was guilty of the imprudence of 
sacrificing Wallenstein to the League, Gustavus Adolphus 
landed on the shores of the Baltic, in order to summon the 
threatened Protestant elements under his banner. 

Khevenhiller attributes these events to an intrigue of 
Richelieu, who, in order to bring to nought the growing 
power of the Hapsburgs, zealously advocated two measures 

VOL. II. K 



I30 FIRST PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

— an edict for the restitution of all church property confis- 
cated after the Treaty of Passau, and the dismissal of Wallen- 
stein. The one was fatally to estrange fi-om Ferdinand all the 
Protestant states, and thereby to cause perpetual schism in 
the empire ; the other, to deprive him of his most powerful 
weapon, and to render him defenceless against both foreign 
and domestic foes. 

One thing is certain, that these results did take place, 
and the warning of the Elector of Saxony in 1629, that the 
Edict of Restitution would please no one but adverse 
foreign powers, was strikingly fulfilled. 



PART IX. 

SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.- 
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SWEDEN AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.* 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphus. — Erich XIV., 1560-68.— John IH., 
1568-92, and Charles of Sudermanland. — Charles as Regent, 
1 592- 1 604. — Charles IX. as King, 1 604-11. — Gustavus Adolphus 
in Sweden, 161 1-30. — Position of Affairs at the beginning of his 
Reign. — Political, Military, and Domestic Reforms. — Wars with 
Denmark, Russia, and Poland. — ^The Contest for the Baltic. 

Sweden before Gustavus Adolphus, 1560-1611. 

/^USTAVUS VASA had risen from being a rebel and 
conspirator to be regent and king, and with wonder- 
ful ability had succeeded in two things — in founding a here- 
ditary monarchy, and in providing the means for its stability 
by taking possession of the mediaeval church property and 
incorporating it with the crown lands. 

* Besides the literature mentioned in Chap. xii. : Pufendorf, De rebus 
succ. 1686. Geijer, Geschichte Schwedens. III. Bd. Gfrorer, Gustav 
Adolf. 1845. Helbig, Gustav Adolf und der Kurfiirst v. Sachsen, 
1854. 2 aufl. Bensen, Das Verhangniss Magdeburgs. Also Droysen's 
Aufsatze: I. Ueber MagdeburgsZcrstorung. 1631. 2. Die Schlacht 
von Liitzen in Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte HI. and V., 
and O. V. Guericke, Belagerung Magdeburgs, i860. 



132 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The poorest of countries became by these means one of 
the most wealthy; its trade, navigation, harbours, army, 
and fleet began to prosper ; and the Swedes are right in re- 
garding Gustavus Vasa as the founder of their greatness, 
though in his lifetime he never had the satisfaction of living 
on peaceful and happy terms with his people. 

He left four sons, Eric, John, Magnus, and Charles — the 
last a child, the others youths — and so deeply rooted were 
the ancient Germanic views of inheritance in the mind of 
this mighty ruler, that, though he had spent a long life in 
the arduous task of founding a sole monarchy, at the close 
of his life he proceeded to the division of his work. 

The eldest son, Eric, for whom he expressly intended the 
crown, did not appear to him adapted for the arduous task 
of governing ; he therefore ordained that his brothers should 
assist him, and conferred power on them which, while it 
would not make them independent, would, he thought, 
impose a wholesome restraint on the power of their 
brother. 

The result was as unsuccessful as possible. Gustavus 
Adolphus afterwards said, " My grandfather made a mis- 
take : the King's brothers were too great for subjects — they 
were sure to strive to be masters." 

A melancholy reign of eight years now began. 

Eric XIV., though he possessed mind, talent, and acquire- 
ment, had something of that wild and stormy passion, break- 
ing out into unaccountable actions, which was peculiar to 
some branches of this family, and which in some cases re- 
sulted in insanity ; not only Eric, but Magnus also, died 
insane, and personages like Gustavus IV. and Charles XII. 
show how long such traits may remain in a family. 

This did not at first appear plainly in Eric, but it was 
indicated by an impulsive feverish activity. Scarcely any 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 1 33 

Other monarch wrote and administered so much as he did. 
But his hasty, ill-considered acts appear like those of a 
morbidly excitable man, who throws himself into business 
to escape from his own humours. 

Then a tendency appeared to a dangerous sort of extra- 
vagance, and after a few years of wretched government all 
the mischievous traits of his character gradually unfolded 
themselves. He surrounded himself with all sorts of un- 
scrupulous persons, who assisted him in his passionate 
deeds. 

Next, he took one and another for a conspirator; his 
suspicions especially rested upon his brother John, who was 
an agreeable, popular man ; he imprisoned him, treated him 
like a criminal, but suddenly drew back from proceeding to 
extremities. Fear of conspiracy tormented him like an 
evil conscience, and there were only too many people 
ready to make sport of this unhappy tendency. His favourite, 
Pehrson, made quite a trade of it, and the King so far forgot 
himself as to commit reckless crimes. 

He stabbed one of the Stures in prison, and had his 
distinguished fellow-prisoners slaughtered. Then anguish 
of mind drove him into the open air ; he wandered through 
the fields and woods in the garb of a peasant, knocked 
down his old tutor who accosted him, and then did penance 
by giving up his favourite to justice. 

In a country which had only lately seen the establish- 
ment of royal authority, such a government could not be 
tolerated. In 1567 a ferment began to take place ; a con- 
spiracy, which had been haunting men's minds, was actually 
formed ; the brothers, backed by the nobles, raised a revolt ; 
the burgher class, too, were weary of the King's mad acts. 

In September, 1568, Eric was seized, and for nine years 
was dragged from prison to prison — the best method, of 



134 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

course, of producing complete insanity ; still, he was never 
looked upon as harmless. This murder by the State, of a 
man who was clearly not responsible, is unexampled in 
history. Seven years after his dethronement, the bishops 
and ministers declared that if the King did not cease to 
threaten the Government, and to furnish a pretext for revolt 
and disturbances, it would be the duty of his keepers 
to put him out of the way. In February, 1577, he died 
under circumstances which left no doubt that this hint was 
taken. 

John then began to reign, together with his brother, Duke 
Charles of Siidermanland. 

John was, on the whole, lenient and well-meaning, but 
had very superficial views of his position and vocation. 
Charles, on the contrary, was cold, firm, severe, and re- 
served j quite destitute of the winning characteristics of his 
father, which were, to a certain extent, inherited by John ; 
though in mind and political principles Charles most resem- 
bled him. As a youth of eighteen he came forward to help 
to dethrone his brother, and his whole character was 
stamped with determined ambition. 

In 1688 this singular joint reign began, of two rulers 
who were constantly opposed to each other : and through 
their contradictions the inheritance of Gustavus Vasa seemed 
likely to be ruined. 

By this division of the empire the most essential condi- 
tion of a strong monarchical power was impaired ; it only 
remained for the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs, with 
which Gustavus Vasa had taken so much pains, to be called 
in question, and this was done by King John. 

He was but little acquainted with this question, so vital 
for the young Swedish kingdom, and vacillated between 
Catholic and Protestant opinions. He had, however, read 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 135 

a good deal on the subject superficially, and conceived an 
ambition similar to that of Henry VIII. He had a project 
for combining the two parties, then a particularly difficult 
task. 

He felt the hierarchical system of the Catholic Church, and 
the majesty of her worship, to be imposing, and those about 
him flavoured these sentiments. He had early married, 
against the will of his brother Eric, a Polish princess, who 
was a strict Catholic, had great influence over him, and 
did all she could to bring him over to her faith. Jesuits in 
disguise, who appeared to be good Lutherans, were daily 
about him, and at Rome his speedy conversion was confi- 
dently looked for. We have the instructions which were 
sent to the Jesuits to advance the work ; they were always to 
talk of faith, not of works, and to show that the Catholic 
Church really enjoined nothing different from the Protestant. 

But Protestantism in Sweden was not merely a matter of 
opinion, which might be adjusted one way or the other 
according to individual needs ; it was a political fact of the 
greatest significance. The empire itself was based upon 
it ; and, even if the King was sincere in his schemes of media- 
tion, he could not but get into a false position in being cool 
to a party with which the existence of the country was bound 
up; and in coquetting with the other, which had no ad- 
herents in the country except his wife. 

He made all sorts of futile efibrts to efifect a recon- 
ciliation which did not satisfy either party. He had 
Catholic changes introduced into public worship ; and in 
1576 a new Liturgy appeared, which was based upon the 
new Mass book of the Council of Trent Great opposition 
was made to this ''Red book," as it was called by the 
people. He had hoped by its means to eflect a recon- 
ciliation between the churches, but all the Swedish clergy 



136 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

declared against it, and yet it did not go half far enough to 
please the strict Catholics. 

This retrograde tendency appeared more and more openly, 
and it made the King's position in the country all the 
more difficult. The people said, " The King is secretly a 
Jesuit, and wants to make us all Catholics ; " and the grow- 
ing boldness of the Jesuit preachers, the abolition of the 
Lutheran Catechism, and the ostentation with which the 
Queen adhered to their faith, seemed to confirm the sus- 
picion. 

When the Queen died, in 1583, the Protestant bishop, 
with a courage which would dp honour to any Court 
theologian of to-day, showed so little tact as to laud her 
as a staunch Catholic. Though the King now suddenly 
turned round, and expelled the Jesuits from the country, 
yet he obstinately held fast to the " Red book.*' 

In another important point John was untrue to the tradi- 
tions of his father. In the struggle with the Church, 
Gustavus Vasa had not been able to dispense with the 
aid of the secular nobles, and had therefore been obliged 
to give them a share of the spoil of the Church property. 
But it was to be a final concession, and no further inter- 
ference firom them with the rights of the Crown or the 
country were to be tolerated. But on this point John's 
conduct was at least ambiguous. He favoiu-ed the privileges 
of the nobles, allowed them to divert public justice to the 
advantage of their class, lightened their obligations to the 
Crown, and the service of their vassals, thereby increasing the 
burdens of the burgher class and free peasants, who dreaded a 
new government by the aristocracy ; and, though this nuuie 
the sentiments of all more in favour of a monarchy, it 
none the less estranged them from the monarch himself. 
From these two mistakes in the internal administration 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 1 37 

arose a still more serious complication in the foreign 
policy. 

King John, who had once been himself attracted by the 
worthless crown of Poland, conceived the idea, after it had 
escaped his hands, of making his son, Sigismund, King of 
Poland — that is, of transplanting him into a country where 
Catholicism and government by the nobles prevailed un- 
hindered, and where the state of things was quite different 
from that of Sweden. 

The republic of Poland was already on the road to ruin ; 
the crown was not worth having. The first principles of a 
real political administration would have to be settled ; the 
arbitrariness of the nobles and disruption of parties was 
beyond all bounds, and a foreign king would be betrayed 
and sold. 

It was inconceivable that a man in his senses should 
entertain the idea of combining with the difficult position 
in Sweden the still more difficult one in Poland. The result 
would certainly be that the Swedish crown would be lost, 
and the Polish one not gained. 

Poland was then a decidedly Catholic State — at any rate 
its ruling elements were Catholic ; the King must, there- 
fore, be so too ; and so the heir of a thoroughly Protestant 
country, who could scarcely tolerate the lukewarm Pro- 
testantism of its king, took, in 1587, the ominous step 
of going over to Catholicism in order to be King of Poland. 

There was one man who knew how to take advantage 
of these embarrassments which the King created for him- 
self; but it was also for the advantage of Sweden and the 
work of Gustavus Vasa ; this was Charles of Siidermanland, 
the youngest son of Gustavus, a cool, clever, moderate 
statesman, who opposed every one of his brother's mistakes. 

John introduced the " Red book : " Charles forbade its use. 



138 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR- 

John tried to unite the two churches: Charles adhered 
strictly to Lutheranism, and granted hospitality to all victims 
of persecution. John favoured the nobles : Charles checked 
them. In short, Charles was the decided and persevering 
representative of the traditions of Gustavus Vasa, which 
were ignored by John ; and was, therefore, the spokesman 
of all those who were displeased with John's behaviour, 
especially of the peasant and burgher class — of all the 
pa,triots to whose hearts modem Sweden was dear, and 
whose existence or non-existence was in fact at stake. 

When Sigismund was made King of Poland, or rather 
protector of the Polish aristocracy and their so-called con- 
stitution, the Swedish nobles held up their heads. It was 
well known what would be granted by the Polish King to 
those who elected him, and they tried to obtain the same in 
Sweden. Just as the King of Poland was about to embark, 
a plan was handed to him, the object of which was nothing 
less than the establishment of a Polish-Swedish constitution, 
which simply set aside the monarchy of Gustavus Vasa. 
They intended to gain over King John by accepting his 
favourite Liturgy; and to secure the joint government of the 
nobles, they proposed the establishment of a Parliament in 
which seven of the chief of them should take it in turn, for 
from two to five years, partly to exercise some of the most 
important prerogatives of the Crown, partly to guard them. 
John and Sigismund were weak enough to approve the 
scheme. It was justiy characterized by Gustavus Adolphus 
when he said that "they wanted to stab King John and 
Duke Charles with one spear, and thus to get rid of them 
both." 

John left behind him, in 1592, a distracted kingdom. 
His son was away ; the people and the nobles split up into 
factions ; ever}rthing insecure. 



SWEDEN BEFORE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 1 39 

In this time of perplexity, Charles's activity began ; ambi- 
tion persuaded him that his path to the throne was open, 
and that he alone was walking in the steps of his father. 
He thrust aside the clamorous nobles, with their proposed 
Senate. Parliament might advise according to Swedish law, 
but the duty of ruling belonged to the sovereign, and in his 
absence it became his own duty to fill the post. When the 
King was for a short time in the country, he made him take 
an oath to protect its religion and laws, and, in accordance 
with the wishes of the States, the laws against the Catholics 
were made more stringent. From 1 592-1 604, one diffi- 
culty follows closely on another. The King could not carry 
on the government of two countries; he was compelled 
to appoint a regent, but his resolute and ambitious uncle 
was made governor of the land, not the Senate of seven 
nobles. 

With the aid of the peasantry, he systematically opposed 
the nobles ; and with the aid of Protestantism, the King and 
Court. At a solemn assembly of the Diet, at Upsala, 
February, 1593, attended by a great number of ecclesiastics, 
the irrevocable determination of the people was expressed 
to abide by pure Lutheran teaching, and everything was 
abolished which had tended to question the supremacy of 
the Reformation during the reign of King John. Anger- 
mann, the vehement opponent of the " Red book," was 
made archbishop ; all Catholic innovations were abolished, 
and the Lutheran Catechism reinstated. 

This was clearly a manifesto against the Catholic Sigis- 
mund, but a still plainer one was to be issued. The King 
in Poland did all he could to embarrass his uncle, and a 
party of defiant noblemen who lusted for Polish freedom 
held to him, while Duke Charles openly joined the great 
party of his fiather, that of the burghers and peasants. In 



I40 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

die Senate he addressed them, not the nobles; and with 
their countenance he upset the obnoxious project. 

All the instigations of the Catholic camarilla and of the 
ambitious nobles were met by the Swedish peasants with 
the simple answer, One was master in the country, and he 
was ruling in the spirit of Gustavus Vasa ! Once more the 
courageous Dalecarlians were the chief support of the 
monarchy. It came at last to a sanguinary collision. 

The battle of Stangebro, September, 1598, went entirely 
against Sigismund, and his flight left his followers to the 
Regent's revenge. The Diet of 1604 conferred on him the 
crown of Sweden. Charles IX. reigned after this for seven 
stormy years. 

Since 1560, Sweden had had no real king who could 
keep down faction and foster the interests of the country. 
All that had been accomplished by Gustavus Vasa — the 
establishment of regal power, careful administration of the 
laws, and a military force — had had a severe shock ; even the 
religious revolution had been endangered. Charles had all 
this to restore, while he was kept in suspense by three wars. 
The perpetual difficulties with Sigismund took him to 
Livonia, where he was compelled to break off* the contest, in 
which he was at first successful, by attacks from Russia and 
Denmark. He was a broken-down old man, who had 
almost lost the power of speech, when Christian IV. in- 
vaded the country with a great force ; and when Charles 
died, in October, 161 1, not one of the recent difficulties was 
adjusted. 

Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, 161 1-30. 

He was succeeded by his son Gustavus Adolphus, who 
was called upon in his seventeenth year to undertake a 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 141 

most difficult task. It was not his lot to be greeted by the 
unanimous acclamations of a happy and contented people ; 
he was the heir of irreconcilable hatred and numerous com- 
plications. His father had had many enemies, and had 
increased their number by his conflicts with Sigismund and 
the aristocracy ; all the Catholic party hated him and his 
house ; the resources of the country were low ; his right to 
the throne disputed; the kingdom involved in wars with 
Poland, Russia, and Denmark. Yet, in the course of 
twenty years, Gustavus Adolphus had triumphed over all 
his foes, and established a sovereign power which was in 
a position to take a decisive part in the great contest of the 
age, and which it required much misfortune and stupidity 
to overthrow. 

He was bom on the 19th of December, 1594, in the 
midst of his father's struggle for the crown, and he took 
pains to accustom his son to these rough and stormy times. 
When he was eleven years old, he took him with him to 
the sittings of the Senate, and allowed him to attend and 
even speak at his audiences. An interest in military life 
was early awakened in him. There was ample opportunity 
to cultivate this taste at his father's Court, which was visited 
by officers from almost all the European Courts, and the 
campaigns in which he took part completed the course of 
instruction. At the same time, his father took care that his 
successor should receive a careful mental training and 
learned education, such as, in the variety of subjects it 
embraced, no other northern monarch had yet enjoyed. 
While still quite young, he spoke Latin, German, Dutch, 
French, and Italian fluently, amused himself with Xeno- 
phon, and diligently studied Hugo Grotius. With all this 
early familiarity with politics, war, and learning, physical 
training was not neglected. 



142 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

In short, the old king* might regard his successor with 
pride ; he was leaving behind him a second Gustavus Vasa. 

The young king's first task was to heal the disorders of 
fifty years, which existed in every department of the State. 

The most difficult task was the restoration of healthy 
relations with the nobles. His father had sent many a 
seditious nobleman to the scaffold, which had sown the 
seeds of fearful hatred, and was not the path to successful 
reoiganization. 

Gustavus Adolphus took the kingdom upon himself 
"with two empty hands," as it was said in his funeral 
sermon. With three wars on hand, he had neither money 
nor trustworthy troops. Both had to be raised, and it could 
only be done by a reorganization of his relations with the 
nobles. With their large landed property, their vassals, 
and legal and administrative privileges, they were practi- 
cally exempt fi-om taxation, and, though thoroughly warlike, 
they were entirely unaccustomed to military service as 
followers of the King. It was necessary that this state of 
things should cease, and that it should be accomplished, 
not by violence, but by agreement and treaty, if the 
citizens and peasants were not to succumb to the burden of 
taxation, and the State itself to be divided up into a number 
of aristocratic courts under " provincial kings." 

The war with Denmark, which came to an end in 1613, 
was so unsuccessful mainly because the nobles furnished 
the King neither with men nor money. The King re- 
minded them, in an address which he made to them clad in 
armoiu-, that they only received their privileges in return for 
" equestrian service," and that he, who, instead of doing his 

♦ From the admonitions, written and spoken, which he addressed to 
his son, it appears what a high-minded spirit this rough, harsh ruler 
possessed. 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 1 43 

duty in the field, had preferred to stay by the stuff, had, 
according to Swedish law, forfeited his privileges. 

After various negotiations, often interrupted, he at length 
succeeded in establishing permanent, well-regulated rela- 
tions, which both parties found to be to their advantage. 

The King, in the main, permitted the nobles to retain 
their traditional privileges, and even granted them a new 
one, by the establishment of an Upper House ; but he was 
in earnest in compelling them to join the army, and effected 
that they should not be behind the other classes in money 
contributions. 

The Swedish nobles had always been a warlike race; 
every nobleman was a soldier, and the greatest lords always 
came to attend the meetings of Parliament with hundreds 
of horses. But the sovereign had hitherto only experienced 
the dark side of this feature of Swedish chivalry — defiant 
demands, and unpatriotic self-sufficiency. Under Gustavus 
Adolphus all this was changed within certain limits. The 
nobles found themselves an acknowledged p6wer, and on 
good terms with the Crown ; their warlike ambition was no 
longer in contradiction to their class feelings and privileges ; 
they soon considered it an honour to serve this chivalrous 
King, as leader of the nation's forces ; and the King, as the 
representative of the army as well as of the people, ap- 
peared even in the Senate in armour. In 1627 the relations 
between them had become so cordial that the nobles, who 
already took a share of most of the taxes, took upon them- 
selves to furnish recruits for the general levy from their estates. 

This was the result of the prudent and personally winning 
manner in which Gustavus Adolphus went to work. It had 
never been thus in Sweden before, and has never been so 
since. All his successors have split upon this rock. 

With these weapons Gustavus Adolphus fought his way 



144 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEAJIS' WAR. 

through two great wars, by the end of which Sweden was 
the first great power m the north, and was competent to 
take her place as arbiter in Europe. 

While these things were being slowly matured, Gustavus 
had undertaken energetic creative reforms in other spheres. 
The administration and the whole legal system had under- 
gone a thorough revolution ; the former was committed to 
carefully chosen officials, under proper control; for the 
latter, new rules and new municipal laws were introduced, 
as a completion of the common law of Charles IX. Two 
courts of appeal were also established against the sentences 
of the district courts and the patrimonial judges. In legal 
matters the sentiments of Gustavus Adolphus were those of 
a really great ruler. In a dispute which was tried between 
him and a nobleman, he said to the judges, " Forget that I 
am King; but do not forget that you are the highest judges 
in the land, and let your consciences pass sentence." And 
as they decided against him, he asked for the documents, 
convinced hifaiself that he had been in the wrong, and com- 
mended the judges for their conscientiousness. In a pro- 
tocol of the Supreme Court of 5th November, 161 8, are the 
words : " His Majesty admonishes the royal courts of 
justice not to take the side of any party. If any one of 
the judges should turn aside the law in favour of the King 
or of any one else, let him know that it is his Majesty's in- 
tention to have him scalped, his head nailed to the seat 
of judgment, and his ears to the pillory." 

The administration of public justice also underwent a 
change little in accordance with modem liberalism, but all 
the more in unison with the strictly military monarchy of 
the Sweden of that day. 

By a new regulation of the Diet, which was accepted by 
the States assembled at Oerobro in January, 161 7, the right 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 145 

of initiative was conferred exclusively on the Crown. The 
Crown only could bring forward motions, and no other 
subjects were discussed. Each estate deliberated by itself, 
and the King pronounced the decision. The Diet was 
no longer the scene of the intrigues which had occasioned 
so many difficulties to Charles IX. ; its power had, in fact, 
vanished, and this, as well as the new legal system, formed a 
counterpoise to the privileges of the nobles. 

Together with this organization, untiring efforts were 
made to advance the prosperity of the oppressed people. 

Ruined cities, such as Gothenburg, were rebuilt ; sixteen 
new ones founded, and their prosperity secured by good 
constitutions and mercantile privileges; navigation, com- 
merce, and the export of the products of the country — 
timber, copper, iron, pitch, and tar— were encouraged ; 
restrictions imposed on the introduction of foreign manu- 
factures ; Swedish products were introduced into the great 
markets by means of commercial treaties; so that in 1614 
Sweden maintained active intercourse with Holland, and 
after 1624 Swedish merchants conveyed pitch, iron, planks, 
and rye in their own ships as far as Spain. Skilful foreigners 
were attracted to the country ; one of these found means to 
raise the mines of Sweden to a high state of prosperity ; and 
the King established a manufactory of arms and military 
requisites on a large scale. All this brought the fact to 
light that a people who had hitherto been supposed to be 
exclusively adapted for war, agriculture, and fishing, under 
judicious guidance could develope a capacity for industrial 
pursuits of every kind. 

The dark background of this active creative life is formed 
by the three sanguinary wars which Gustavus Adolphus 
inherited from his father, in which he, his state, and army, 
had to stand a fiery ordeal. 

VOL. II. L 



146 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

These wars, as well as the war in Germany, were espe- 
cially aimed at the acquisition of dominion over the Baltic; 
it was Gustavus Adolphus who projected this as a leading 
idea of Swedish policy, and he pursued it with remarkable 
success. 

When he entered upon this project all the south of Sweden 
was still in the hands of the Danes, together with the keys 
of the Baltic and the North Sea, Calmar and Elfsborg. 
Sweden was quite shut out from the sea. In this situation 
every attack of the Danes threatened the existence of the 
whole country, and this explains the obstinate war into 
which the young King was compelled to enter at the very 
beginning of his reign, in which neither party was victo- 
rious, though it caused unspeakable desolation in Sweden. 
By the Treaty of Knarod, January, 1613, both parties had 
to give up what they had taken from the other. Sweden 
received, under the form of a purchase, for one million 
dollars, the highly important points of Calmar, Oeland, 
Elfsborg, and the surrounding country. This was the first 
step towards the creation of the Swedish naval power. 

The war with Russia was more successful. 

With the revolt of Michael Romanow, in 161 3, Russia 
began to free herself from the troubles occasioned by pre- 
tenders to the throne, foreign interference, and the immigra- 
tion of foreign nations. Still it was but the beginning of 
a normal political life ; no power existed sufficient to 
oppose Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedes were everywhere 
victorious, and peace was bought at a very high price. 
By the Treaty of Stolbowa, February, 161 7, Sweden received 
Carelia, Ingermanland, and Livonia ; that is, Russia lost 
the Baltic 

This was an immense success. With just pride Gustavus 
Adolphus could say to his Parliament, in the spring of 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN SWEDEN. 147 

1 61 7, "Not the least of the benefits which God has 
granted Sweden is that Russia must for ever give up the 
robbers* den from which she has so often molested us. 
She is a dangerous neighbour ; her frontiers extend along 
the North and the Caspian Sea and approach the Black 
Sea ; she has a powerful aristocracy, a superfluity of pea- 
sants, populous cities, and can send large armies into the 
field. But she cannot send any vessel into the Baltic Sea 
without our leave. We are separated from her by the great 
Lakes of Ladoga and Peipus, thirty miles of marsh and 
strong fortresses. Russia is shut out from the Baltic, and I 
hope to God that the Muscovite will henceforth find it 
difficult to leap over this brook." 

Sweden then possessed all those points to which the 
Russian Empire afterwards extended itself, the main part 
of the territory which Peter the Great acquired for Russia 
for ever. Sweden made good her claims upon Livonia, 
seized parts of Courland and Esthonia, conquered one 
Polish and Prussian harbour after another, and finally 
received, at the Peace of Westphalia, the mouths of the 
Oder, the Weser, and the Elbe, Pomerania, Bremen, and 
Verden — in short, " the whole bastion of the Crown of 
Sweden," as Axel Oxenstierna expressed it It was an im- 
mense district on the Baltic coasts, in the power of a State 
hitherto the poorest of all in coast territory. 

The third and last war with Poland lasted till 1629. The 
enmity between Poland and Sweden was vastly increased by 
the contest about the right to the throne of the two lines of 
Vasa. In Poland the King of Sweden was called a 
usurper. Sigismund*s Catholic followers joined cause with 
all the foes of Gustavus Adolphus, and the Polish coast of 
the Baltic was quite enough to become an apple of discord. 
The last war was also the most successful for Sweden. 



148 SECOND PHASE OF THE THmXY YEARS' WAR. 

By the truce which ended it in 1629, Sweden received 
Elbing, Braunsberg, Pillau, Memel, and her claims were 
recognised to the Baltic territory. 

During this warlike period of eighteen years, not only 
had a vast empire been conquered, a school of generals 
and warriors had been trained such as had not been seen 
in Europe since the decline of the Spanish school. Yet, 
singularly enough, when the news came to Vienna of the 
landing of Gustavus Adolphus, they looked in the State 
Almanack to see where the country of the little Gothic king 
was situated. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS IN GERMANY, 1630-32. 

Origin and Significance of the Swedish War. — Motives, Political and 
Religious, of Gustavus Adolphus. — Characteristics of him and his 
Army. — Their Landing and First Successes, June — December, 
1630. — Gustavus Adolphus in Pomerania. — Siege of Stettin; 
Treaty with Duke Bogeslav. — ^Tedious Advance into Pomerania. — 
Imperial troops driven out of Pomerania, December, 1630. — 
Treaty of Barwalde, January, 1 63 1. — Convention of Leipzig, and 
Fall of Magdeburg, May, 1 631. — Electoral Brandenburg and 
Electoral Hesse join Gustavus Adolphus, June — ^August. — Battie 
of Breitenfcld, September 7, 1631. — ^Victorious March of Gustavus 
Adolphus towards South and West Germany, October — December, 
1 63 1. —Plans for Restoration.— Overthrow of the Power of the 
League. — Return of Wallenstein, April, 1632. — Battie of Liitzen, 
1 6th November, 1632. — Death of Gustavus Adolphus and its 
Significance. 

Origin and Signihcance of the War. 

'X'HE invasion of Germany by Gustavus Adolphus was a 
result of the protection he had afforded to Stralsund 
against Wallenstein, and this protection was a result of his 
relations with the Baltic and with the Reformation. He could 
never hope to rule the Baltic so long as Mecklenburg and 
Pomerania were in the hands of the imperial party, and the 
opposition Polish king had a support in the Hapsburgs — in- 
deed his own kingdom would be endangered if the Catholic 
Restoration were not energetically opposed. 
The same controversy about which the world-wide war 



150 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

in Germany had broken out, was raging in Sweden ; it was 
only the iron grasp of Charles IX. which had kept the 
monarchy of Gustavus Vasa above water ; and the country 
on the other side of the Baltic was the seat of perpetual 
intrigues to undo his work. If this were allowed to go on, 
a time would come when his own kingdom would be in 
the same danger as the little states of North Germany. 

And this was no idle dream. Since Wallenstein's suc- 
cesses, the wings of the reaction had almost overshadowed 
the Scandinavian States. 

The Emperor Ferdinand and his brother-in-law, Sigis- 
mund, had been eagerly discussing how Sweden could be 
made Catholic ; at what point the attempt at conversion 
which King John had been compelled to give up, had best 
be taken up again ; and they had great hopes of attaining 
their end. The truce which had cost Poland so many losses 
on the Baltic, lasted piuposely until Sigismund, with the 
aid of the Emperor, had recruited his strength, and for years 
the latter had openly taken part in Poland against Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

There were also pressing Swedish interests which impelled 
Gustavus to join in the contest, and to overlook these would 
be to misunderstand the position of affairs. But these were 
not his only points of view. 

In one respect Gustavus Adolphus was a unique person- 
age in this century ; he was animated by the fresh, unbroken 
youthful spirit of the early days of the Reformation, like 
that which characterized such men as Frederic of Saxony 
and Philip of Hesse. If it can be said of any ruler in the 
first half of the seventeenth century, that he was filled with 
Protestant zeal and sincere enthusiasm for the greatness of 
his cause, it may be said of him, and of him alone. To a 
world fill! of mean artifices, miserable intrigues, and narrow- 



CHARACTER OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 151 

minded men, he exhibited once more the qualities and 
characteristics of a trae hero. 

This explains why he called forth enthusiasm where it had 
been for many decades unknown — why he succeeded in 
kindling men's minds for ideas which had been engulfed in 
the miseries of the times. Sacred things were no idle sport 
with him. Because he was himself in earnest with his 
prayers and religion, the divine worship which was held, the 
spiritual songs and psalms that were sung in his camp, had 
power to restrain the terrible brute strength of his army ; 
but it was he alone who succeeded in it, not one of his 
successors could do so. 

His mind was also large enough in a fearfully demoralised 
age to go back to the origin of the peaceful relations which 
had existed between the adherents of the different creeds 
for more than half a century. He alone proclaimed the 
principle that the object was not mutual destruction, but the 
restoration of the law as it existed before the war ; he alone 
restored their rights to the Protestants without encroaching 
on those of the Catholics. This was something in a con- 
test in which both parties had become so fearfully embittered 
He could justly say to the princes and nobles at Nurem- 
berg, " For shame, that I, the foreigner, must teach you 
your natural duty ! " 

It was this that gave importance to the following war. 
During the whole period Gustavus was the only person to 
whom men could look up, who could inspire them with 
enthusiasm. The Catholic party did not produce any indi- 
vidual of equal greatness to confront him. This gave to 
Protestantism, in the days of its deepest dejecrion, an 
unaccustomed impetus, and the part played by this one 
man is shown by the retrogression which took place only 
too quickly after his death. 



152 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

There is another point on which this episode is of impor- 
tance. It was not only that the weight of a great and 
powerful personage was thrown into the scale, that of a king 
and a general to whom no one, and least of all Ferdinand 11. , 
could be compared ; Gustavus Adolphus commanded the 
only army in this war which either did not soon get beyond 
discipline and control, or at any rate throw off its distinc- 
tive creed. Who could call the armies around him, or after 
him, either Catholic or Protestant? In the imperial armies 
there were masses of Protestant hirelings, especially in 
those of Wallenstein, and as many Catholics among the 
troops of their opponents. The most deplorable thing in 
this war was, that, especially after the fourth decade, those 
who were carrying it on had entirely forgotten its origin — 
that everything had been engulfed in passion and tumult, 
and that religion had only become a blasphemous pretext 
for horrible devastation and plunder. 

All this was quite otherwise in the army of Gustavus 
Adolphus. Even after his death it continued to be brave 
and well commanded, though there was no one capable of 
keeping up its spirit, its inner life, as he had done. 

The armies of his adversaries consisted of collections of 
rabble without country or conscience. His army was a 
national Swedish one; his soldiers were Sweden's brave 
peasants, led by their chivalrous nobles. All the national 
enthusiasm of the people and the aristocracy lived in these 
hosts, and this was a most important factor against the 
hireling troops, who looked for nothing in war but plunder, 
debauchery, and excess. 

The Swedish army was also religious. It was Lutheran, 
like its King, and every feature indicated that it was so. The 
neglected levers of the sixteenth century were still in use. 
" Ein* feste Burg ist unser Gott," " A mighty castle is our God," 



QUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND HIS ARMY* 1 53 

was sung, understood, and sympathized with. What a fear- 
ful contrast were the lawless bands who, in the name of the 
one true faith, tore our unhappy country to pieces ! 

This gave a consecration to this war. Gustavus Adolphus 
managed to control the wild lawless masses by higher 
motives ; sentiments of nationality and religion had some 
weight with them. All this was changed by his death* 
After this, when a battle was lost, some of the Swedes took 
service under the Emperor, and they were in no way behind 
the other soldiers in barbarity towards defenceless citizens 
and peasants. 

It was this which conferred on the war of 1630 a peculiar 
greatness, notwithstanding its short duration, and caused it 
soon to lose the character of a mere invasion. Gustavus 
Adolphus became a leading personage, Sweden a command- 
ing power in Europe. This arose from his personal charac- 
ter, the character of his army, and the moral power of both 
over Catholics and Protestants. Even the Pope did homage 
to the hero, and said, on hearing of his death, " A hero, a 
perfect man, who wanted nothing for perfection but the true 
faith." 

There was nothing of this spirit to be found anywhere 
else. Who would venture to call a Wallenstein, a Tilly, or 
a Pappenheim, a Catholic hero ? 

Landing and First Successes, June — December, 1630. 

The situation of affairs in which Gustavus Adolphus now 
began to take part has been characterized by our previous 
remarks. 

The power of the League had been for two years on the 
decline, and the Emperor had done all that was in his 
power to weaken it. He had created for himself the 
embarrassment occasioned by the Edict of Restitution^ and 



154 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

thereby driven the Protestant states into the enemy's camp, 
and now he had dismissed Wallenstein into the bargain. 

In 90 far, then, the situation was more favourable than 
ever. Had Gustavus come three years earlier, when Wal- 
lenstein was victorious on the Baltic, the Edict not yet 
issued, and the League still strong in the field, the struggle 
would have been a desperate one. 

It was by no means a slight one as it was, and there was 
something so adventurous in the commencement of the 
undertaking, that any less courageous person must have 
shrunk from it. In Sweden, except the King and his im- 
patient officers, there was not a man for the war. The 
country was recovering itself, after the sacrifices and suf- 
ferings of eighteen years of warfare, and was now to be 
involved in another great war, the end of which no one 
could foresee. Parliament would not be convinced that 
instead of adhering to a watchful defensive policy towards 
the Emperor, it was necessary to adopt an offensive attitude 
exposed to a thousand dangers. The States declared that 
there was no money, and tormented the King with their 
blunt refusals until immediately before his departure. 

After the hated King's back was turned, Denmark seemed 
disposed to attack the country ; and, until there was some 
result to show, nothing but smooth words came from 
France, England, and Holland ; and nothing whatever was 
to be expected fix)m the German princes whom it was in- 
tended to aid. 

The Duke of Pomerania, to whom Gustavus Adolphus 
hoped to appear in the light of a liberator, sent an embassy 
to him just as be was about to embark, urgently to entreat 
him to stay at home, or, at all events, not to land in 
Pomerania, for the country was already nearly ruined, and 
could not stand the passage of troops again. 



FIRST LANDING IN GERMANY^ 1 55 

On 24th June, 1630, exactly one hundred years after the 
presentation of the Confession of Augsburg, Gustavus 
Adolphus appeared before the island of Usedom, and at 
once began to disembark his troops and artillery. 

He was preceded by a manifesto, which set forth all his 
causes of complaint against the Emperor Ferdinand, and 
explained that the King came to protect liberty in general, 
which was threatened by Hapsburg, and in particular that 
of the German Electors, who had just presented their ulti- 
matum to the Emperor at Ratisbon. 

The project was certainly well enough conceived, but 
still it produced no immediate result. 

Germany was invaded by a splendid force of 20,000 or 
30,000 men, but the German empire remained to be conquered. 
Suppose the feeling should be. Away with the foreigner, who 
could find fault with it ? Suppose the Germans, who had 
been tearing each other's eyes out, should now make peace 
to avoid the disgrace of foreign intervention, who could 
regard it as anything but an act of reasonable self-defence ? 
Such sentiments did here and there arise. It was asked, 
" What will become of us if strangers insinuate themselves 
amongst us and meddle in our affairs ? " But these feeHngs 
were not strong enough to unite parties, or to oppose a 
compact front to the foreigner. 

Still, he was regarded with suspicion and distrust ; only if 
it came to the worst would the Protestants side with him. 
The attitude of Saxony and Brandenburg towards the 
Emperor, or rather their want of a decided attitude, was 
the result of mere weakness, and fear withheld them from 
risking anything for Sweden. The other Protestant elements 
were isolated. The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel was a long 
way off, and could not render any help, for he wanted help 
himself. The imperial cities of South Germany looked 



156 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

eagerly towards Gustavus Adolphus, but could do nothing 
at so great a distance: their adherence would only be 
possible if great victories brought him to South Germany. 

The King was therefore in utter isolation on German 
soil ; and not only so, his line of retreat was quite insecure. 
His great distance from home, the watchful enmity of Den- 
mark and Poland, who were only awaiting a favourable 
moment for attack, could but lead to a fatal catastrophe 
if he met with a decided repulse half way. 

Under such circumstances, it required a bold, adventurous 
spirit to undertake the invasion, and much prudence and 
foresight not to make shipwreck at the very outset. 

Gustavus Adolphus was quite equal to the task. He 
proceeded like a man who accurately weighs every consi- 
deration and the means at his disposal, and, knowing that he 
cannot retrace his path, advances only step by step, and 
sometimes by circuitous paths. 

The imperial army under Conti, which opposed him in 
Pomerania and Mecklenburg, might be equal, if not superior, 
to his in numbers. It was in possession of all the places 
which it had won during the successful warfare of several 
years, but it was deprived of the great leader who had 
created and kept it together. It suffered from hunger, 
desertion, and discouragement, was widely scattered, in part 
given up by its leaders, and therefore it melted away day 
by day, and was ill adapted to repulse a resolute, well- 
conducted attack, though it made any advance into the 
country very difficult 

The first success of Gustavus worth naming, afler taking 
the islands of Riigen and Wollin by surprise, was the occu- 
pation of Stettin in July, 

It took place imder circumstances which were striking 
enough. The Protestant population trembled at the horrors 



OCCUPATION OF STETTIN. 1 57 

which had been connected with every occupation by foreign 
troops, whether Catholic or Protestant. Bogeslav feared 
the Emperor's reprisals if a change should take place, and 
threatened hostilities if the Swedes did not keep themselves 
at a respectful distance. But Gustavus would not be re- 
pulsed, rejected every proposal of neutrality, and so pressed 
the anxious Duke that with a heavy heart he at length 
granted them entrance. The Swedes behaved admirably ; 
they were not, like other troops, quartered on the citizens, 
but lived in tents, went peacefully with the inhabitants to 
church, and, with great energy, in four days constructed a 
s)rstem of fortifications round the town which might have 
served for a model, not for that period only. 

At the same time a treaty was concluded between Swe- 
den and Pomerania, which not only established a perpetual 
alliance, but dexterously provided that in the event of Duke 
Bogeslav's death Pomerania should fall to Sweden, which 
afterwards took place. 

This was the beginning of the tedious warfare by means 
of which Gustavus Adolphus spread his forces over Pome- 
rania, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg. Napoleon consi- 
dered him to be the greatest general of all times, chiefly be- 
cause, during a dangerous and tedious campaign, from June, 
1630, to the autumn of 163 1, he advanced slowly, but surely, 
towards the centre of Germany without suffering any repulse 
worth mentioning. It was upon these tactics that the whole 
fate of his undertaking depended ; not a single false step must 
be made. And this solves the much-disputed question why 
he did not relieve Magdeburg while it was still possible to 
do so. 

Magdeburg was certainly an important place as the capital 
of North Germany, and the most prosperous seat of Pro- 
testantism. But important as he must have considered its 



158 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

fete, he could not sacrifice his existence, the results of three 
great wars, the army which it had taken him nineteen years 
to create, by placing himself between two fires, and involving 
himself in a catastrophe which the authorities of the city 
had brought upon themselves by culpable imprudence. 

Nothing occurred during the summer of 1630 but an 
advance step by step into North Germany. It took months 
to get the whole of Pomerania into his hands, and to 
conquer every town, and months more before he had gained 
a firm footing in Brandenburg. 

So difficult was the situation that his own brother-in-law, 
in Brandenburg, afterwards only allowed a few fortresses to 
be taken fi-om him by force. 

On 24th December a decisive blow was struck at the 
flower of the imperial troops, who, tortured by cold and 
hunger, were lying between Greifenhagen and Garz. The 
whole of Pomerania, with the exception of Colberg and 
Greifswaldy and part of Neumark, was now in his power ; 
but his only allies were Francis of Saxe Lauenburg, the 
exiled Dukes of Mecklenburg, the Administrator Christian 
William of Magdeburg, and Bogeslav of Pomerania; with the 
exception of the latter, princes without land. 

The most laborious part of the campaign was now over, 
and it had become obvious to every one that the Swedish 
war was no repetition of the unhappy Danish one, which 
had been conducted without the least skill or success. In 
the present instance resolute determination and prudent 
foresight were singularly combined. 



RICHELIEU ANI> GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 159 

Treaty of Barwalde, January, 1631. — Convention of 
Leipzig and Fall of Magdeburg, May, 1631. — Vic- 
tory OF Breitenfeld, September, 1631. 

With the beginning of the new year a new ally appeared, 
who was not without value — Cardinal Richelieu. He could 
do pretty much what he pleased in France, and was in a 
position to entertain the idea of renewing the foreign policy 
of Henry IV^ Henry U., and Francis I. France had 
neither finances nor army for independent intervention. If 
she desired, therefore, to take a part in European afiFairs, 
she must ally herself with some foreign military ruler, and 
Gustavus Adolphus appeared to be the man. 

He was in want of money^ for his resources were still 
very limited, and as a foreigner he seemed adapted to sup- 
port the acquisitive schemes in which France indulged in 
the name of "German liberty." He might perhaps be 
employed as a battering ram for the French policy. Riche- 
lieu gave Gustavus credit for being what Bemhard of 
Weimar was afterwards to be, and what the Swedes at last 
actually became ; and there did not now seem to be much 
cause to anticipate failure on his part. 

But Richelieu found his master in Gustavus Adolphus. 
France had hitherto known nothing of a " King " of Sweden, 
for the rulers of that country did not wear their crowns by 
the grace of God, only by the election of the States and 
people. Gustavus declared at once that only as King would 
he negotiate, and Richelieu was obliged to yield. 

And, what was of more importance, he was also obliged 
to make important concessions. His endeavour to obtain 
an influence over the conduct of affairs was futile. All that 
he could obtain was a promise from Gustavus that he 
would nowhere attack the Catholic Church as such, and 



l60 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

would otherwise restore everything to its previous con- 
dition of peace. Even the cession of a slice of Germany on 
the French frontier, which Richelieu desired to have for the 
protection of German liberty, was refused. " Not a village 
shall the French have," said Gustavus Adolphus. 

Thus he. had fully accomplished his object. France 
granted him subsidies in the name of their common inte- 
rests; but the political and military leadership belonged 
solely to Sweden. The Treaty of Barwalde (January, 1631) 
was therefore a great diplomatic victory for Gustavus 
Adolphus. It provided him with the means of carrying on 
the war, while he fully maintained his independence. 

Meanwhile the contest about the fortresses continued. 
By the spring the King had made two important conquests 
— that of Colberg in March, and of Frankfort-on-the-Oder 
in April. 

Consciousness began to dawn upon the Protestant States 
which had not yet joined either side, that the time was 
come for them to take an independent course. The 
Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, as the chief repre- 
sentatives of German Protestantism, and yet not favourable 
to Sweden, both severely menaced by the Edict of Restitu- 
tion, were now compelled to adopt a decisive policy. The 
Protestant States of South Germany were in the same posi- 
tion ; they had everything to fear from Catholic restoration, 
and little to hope for from Sweden. For both these groups 
there was a common programme prescribed by the nature 
of the case— armed neutrality, for the protection of Pro- 
testantism against the Emperor, of the German nation 
against the foreigner. Since the dismissal of Wallenstein 
the imperial arms had been everywhere at a disadvantage. 
The League, or rather the Elector of Bavaria, maintained a 
poUcy of delay which displayed little zeal for the Emperor. 



THE CONVENTION AT LEIPZIG. l6l 

If the King of Sweden had to halt before Saxony and 
Brandenburg, he would be left in the lurch. If these 
adversaries united to form a compact mass, and said to the 
Emperor, " We will keep to the religious peace, and have 
nothing to do with the foreigner," there would be a pro- 
spect of a peace which would satisfy both the religious and 
national demands of Germany. Armed mediation is cer- 
tainly often the most thankless policy ; but under some cir- 
cumstances it alone can turn the scale. The means of 
those upon whom it depended were quite sufficient ; but then 
there must be no delay in collecting and using them ; and, 
above all things, it must not be imagined that the end 
would be attained by boastful speeches and endless scrib- 
bling. This simple and obvious policy was pursued with 
great firmness by a man who has been much censured and 
misunderstood. Count Amim von Boytzenburg.* 

In February a convention took place at Leipzig, at which 
there was a brilliant assemblage of Protestant States, and 
they discussed the subject of a common programihe till May. 

Neither of the military parties took part in it — neither 
the League nor Gustavus Adolphus. The Jesuits jeered, 
and published mocking fugitive pieces,! because they per- 
ceived the danger of success, and Gustavus Adolphus 

• Until 1629 he was in Wallenstein*s army, after 163 1 an Electoral 
Field-Marshal. Upon his continued relations with Wallenstein, see 
Gftorer, who seems to overlook the fact that in the existing position 
of affairs, il was quite a different thing to be in connection with Wal- 
lenstein and with the Court of Vienna. 

t For instance : — 

" The poor little Lutheran princes 

Are holding a litdc convention at Leipzig. 

Who is there ? A princeling and a half. 

A\Tiat are they going to do ? Make a little war. 

Who's going to lead it ? The little King of Sweden. 

Who'll find the money ? Tipsy George of Saxony. [Whom 

VOL. II. M 



1 62 SECOND PHASE OF THE THmXY YEARS' WAR. 

set his Chemnitz to negotiate, because he foresaw that if 
their end were obtained, all that he had attained would be 
lost. 

But the helpless indecision of the princes and their 
ministers took good care that the one thing should not 
happen which could have given Germany peace by German 
means. After discussions which lasted for months, great 
festivities and carousals, the assembly broke up without the 
smallest result. The decision with which they finally con- 
soled themselves was simply ridiculous. They had intended 
to form a league, but instead of that they reckoned up what 
number of troops each party could bring in case they 
should form a league some other time. 

A religious discussion also took place. Of course no 
agreement was come to ; but a praiseworthy promise was 
given to treat each other better in future than they had 
hitherto done. The Convention of Leipzig is best described 
by one who took part in it : " For four weeks we feasted 
and caroused like excellent Christians, and can say, like 
the bishop who cut his finger, * Quantum patimur pro Jesu 
Christo.* " 

Meanwhile the League had roused itself up. Tilly had 
joined Pappenheim, who was besieging Magdeburg, and 
before Gustavus Adolphus arrived the city was taken, 

Whom will it please ? Little Palatine Fritz. 
What's it all about ? His little nest at Heidelberg." 

— Raumer, Vol. III. 
** Die armen luthenschen Fiirstclein 
Halten zu Leipzig ein Conventelein. 
Wer ist dabei ? Anderthalb Fiirstelein. 
Was sollen sie anfahen? Ein klein KQcgelein. 
Wer soli's fiihren ? Das schwedisch Koniglein. 
Wer wird's geld geben ? Das siichsisch Bicigorglcin. 
Wer wird sich dessen frcuen ? Das pftilzisch I^itzlcin. 
Waium ist's zu thun ? Um scin hcidclbergisch Nestclcin." 



FALL OF MAGDEBURG. 163 

devastated, burnt, and the inhabitants butchered with 
unparalleled barbarity.* 

This stirred up the hatred of the Protestants afresh 
against the Emperor, and brought the behaviour of the 
Swedes during the war into a favourable light. They were 
everywhere in an enemy's country, yet they could not be 
reproached with anything like the outrages of the imperial 
troops in the empire itself. In March, Gustavus Adolphus 
had issued strict regulations to protect those who had sol- 
diers quartered upon them from exorbitant demands from 
the officers and troops ;t and this gave him more adherents 
among the people than victorious battles would have 
done. 

Meanwhile the intermediate party was quite broken up. 
There was no neutrality ; on one side was Tilly, on the 
other Gustavus, Both coveted accessions, and sought 
to gain them, now by persuasions, now by threats. The 
Elector of Brandenburg had only consented with great 
reluctance, and under all sorts of conditions, to surrender 
Spandau and Kiistrin to the Swedes. After the fall of 
Magdeburg he demanded Spandau back again, and as he 
would not listen to the King's friendly remonstrances, the 
latter advanced with his artillery to Berlin, and while it 
was directed against the castle, he compelled the Elector, 
to sign the treaty with Sweden. The neutrality of electoral 
Saxony was soon also at an end. 

The indecision of this court was so great, that until both 
parties were in the country and demanded its adherence, 

• Droysen considers it probable, though not certain, that the storm- 
ing from May io-20th was begun on receiving a U-eacherous sign from 
the city itself. By whom given cannot now be ascertained. The 
city was set fire to by Pappenheim's orders, but whether he intended 
its entire destruction it is impossible to say. 

t Gfrorer. 



1 64 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

nobody knew who was its friend or foe. The country was 
purely Protestant ; the imperial troops behaved as they did 
everywhere, while the Protestant Swedes spared both 
people and country. This decided the question. 

At the end of August, Saxony went over to Gustavus 
Adolphus, and this gave an impetus to other accessions in 
central and southern Germany. In the beginning of 
September, the Saxon and Swedish armies met at Diiben, 
and advanced into the plains of Leipzig, to give the Im- 
perialists battle. Tilly had united all the imperial forces 
that were at hand, but did not intend to give battle. 
Pappenheim, on the contrary, and the officers, who were 
weary of perpetually moving hither and thither, were eager 
for it, and when the Swedes came in sight rushed away 
with their cavahy from the main army to begin the contest. 
The attack was a failure, and now Tilly himself was obliged 
to give battle. 

They fought from the 7 th to the 17 th of September, on 
the Breitenfeld. The Swedes fought mainly by themselves, 
for the Saxons only kept their posts for a short time, and 
the Elector, who a few days before had declared, that if 
Gustavus Adolphus did not at once advance to battle he 
would attack Tilly alone, fled miles away from the battle- 
field. The Swedes fought against 34,000 imperial troops, 
with 13,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry. The material of 
the former was not bad, and their leader was a hitherto 
unvanquished general. 

Tilly*s plan was to outflank the enemy's line of battle by 
means of his superior number of cavalry, and then to sur- 
round them. But the plan was frustrated by the skilful 
tactics of the Swedish infantry and cavalry together. 
After the conflict had begun by a fierce cannonade, the 
masses of cavahy rushed at each other, and after each 



BATTLE OF BREITENFELD. 1 65 

attack, the Swedish cavalry parted to the right and left, 
thus leaving space for the fearful firing of the musketeers, 
and the light cannons behind them. Thus the divisions 
of infantry and cavalry continually relieved each other; 
the excellent discipline of the Swedes, the regular inter- 
change of weapons, the skill of their leaders, and the 
unusual agility of the separate divisions, finally gained the 
day. The valour of the imperial troops was worthy of their 
ancient fame. They stood the enemy's fire like walls, but 
could not match his tactics. The approach of night put an 
end to the contest, which had lasted for five hours. Tilly's 
army was almost annihilated, and he narrowly escaped 
death himself. 

Victorious March of Gustavus Adolphus towards 
South Germany, October, i6yi. — His Plans of 
Restoration. 

Immense results followed this victory. AU that had been 
accomplished by the imperial arms since 1620, in North 
Germany, was undone. The fruits of the victories of 
Wallenstein and Tilly, by which North German Pro- 
testantism was lamed, were destroyed, and firom the manner 
of the retreat of Tilly's army, it was doubtful whether it 
would confront the enemy again. The greater part of 
Germany would probably now be open to the Swede ; 
perhaps he would head a triumphal march to the Rhine 
and the Maine. The King at first advanced cautiously 
towards the south, as yet unconscious of the great results of 
his victory ; he reached the Maine and Wiirzburg without 
striking a blow, and when Tilly opposed him, he was 
victorious over him again. 

It has often been asked, why, after the victory of Breiten- 
feld, Gustavus Adolphus did not at once advance to 



1 66 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Bohemia, march to Vienna, and before the Emperor could 
assemble an army, decide the contest before the walls of 
the capital. Why, instead of doing this, he left the attack 
on the Austrian hereditary dominions, to the Elector of 
Saxony, and himself advanced to the Rhine and the Maine, 
where there was no hostile army of any importance. 
Eminent men about the King regretted afterwards that he 
took this course, and eighteen years after his death, Oxen- 
stiema was of opinion that the King made a great blunder, 
contrary to the advice of his best friends. 

Many reasons may be imagined which determined the 
King not to take the former otherwise obvious course. 

In the first place, he had not then that idea of the import- 
ance of his victory, in the plains of Leipzig, which he after- 
wards derived from its actual results, and it was on these 
results that the opinions of the generals were mainly based. 
It could not then be precisely known how completely the 
power of the League was destroyed. 

Then the very loose alliance with the Elector required 
peculiar caution. The Elector maintained that he was still 
the independent leader of his troops. If this were con- 
ceded to him, his command must be of a kind that, how- 
ever exercised, could hurt no one but himself. Gustavus 
Adolphus sent him to Bohemia, because he thought it more 
prudent to set his doubtful ally to harry the Austrian 
territory than to send him to the Maine and the Rhine, 
where, as the succourer of the Protestants, he would have 
appropriated to himself all the results of the Swedish 
victories; would have taken up his old alliances more 
injuriously than ever, and have been changed from a luke- 
warm ally into an open enemy. 

By going himself to the south, he made the Elector 
innocuous, and created a pennanent power for himself by 



VICTORIOUS MARCH TO SOUTH GERMANY. 1 67 

the adherence of the Protestant princes and imperial cities 
of the west and south. He was not mistaken in the value 
of these allies. The South Germans remained the longest 
faithful to the Swedes, and allied themselves so closely with 
them that there was no fear of their defection. 

It was here that Gustavus Adolphus had his most gracious 
task to perform, and he really seemed like a saviour to 
the oppressed Protestant States. In Bohemia and Upper 
Austria, Protestantism had been completely crushed, and 
could not be revived simply by the entrance of Protestant 
troops ; but in the favoured provinces of the Maine and the 
Rhine there were millions of Protestants who, since 1622, 
had been groaning under the oppression of their fanatical 
** converters," and were anxiously awaiting their liberation. 
This was expressed in the invitation to Gustavus Adolphus 
to lend them a hand against Hapsburg, which was addressed 
to him by a number of states assembled at Frankfort He 
came to assert the rights of Protestantism ; if he did not 
redeem his word, he would lose not only his prestige, but 
the substantial support of his whole policy. 

Hesse Cassel, Darmstadt, the Palatinate, and its col- 
lateral lines, Wiirtemberg, and all the imperial cities from 
Frankfort to Ulm and Augsburg, formed together a great 
power in Germany. The time was come for wresting them 
from the Hapsburg power, and restoring the ascendancy of 
the Protestants. 

After taking Erfurt with one blow, in the beginning of 
October, he passed through Thuringia to Franconia without 
meeting with any resistance ; and now began the period of 
his triumphs, and a time of prosperity for his troops such 
as they had never known. Konigshofen, Wiirzburg, Hanau, 
Frankfort, and Hochst fell quickly one after another into 
his hands. The States of the Franconian district did 



1 68 SECOXD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

homage to him as the Duke of Franconia, and his famished 
troops revelled in the luxuriance of the great " priests' row " 
(pfaflfengasse), as the line of ecclesiastical states from the 
Maine to the Rhine was then called. 

At Wiirzburg there was again a sanguinary passage of 
arms with Tilly, which ended in his retreat. After this, 
Gustavus could peacefully take possession of the country 
from Franconia to the Rhine. His position was as brilliant 
as that of any one who had taken part in this war. From 
the coast of Pomerania he had advanced to the line of 
the Maine; there he appeared only as an adventurous 
general. Here, in the heart of the empire, he received 
the Protestant States like a German Emp)eror of the 
olden time. 

Still, his position was not without difficulties. His 
alliance with the German princes was always insecure ; the 
faithfulness of the imperial cities was no security against 
their defection; a single feiilure would drive Saxony and 
Brandenburg into the enemy's camp. Those only were 
true to him who had much to receive and little to give. 
The exiled princes who expected him to re-instate them — 
those who were landless, who looked for a rich booty, the 
distressed South German princes — such as the Prince of 
Hesse Cassel — who hoped for protection against the foreign 
rule of the Spaniards and Jesuits. But none of these con- 
ferred any power; they were ox^y proteges whom it was often 
hard to please. That Saxony and Brandenburg regarded 
the King with distrust and aversion, was not merely a 
suspicion ; it was a fact. Both had only been frightened 
into alliance with him by threats. If now or later, they 
found any loophole which would enable them to come to 
terms with the Emperor, they would avail themselves of it. 
Gustavus was not in the least deceived by them. 



PROBABLE PROJECTS OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 1 69 

Among the princes of Central Germany there was a fear 
lest all this should end in merely exchanging a Hapsburg 
master for a Swedish one, and this could but be strength- 
ened as the King's plans were developed by the growing 
success of his arms. 

At any rate, the victorious march towards the south and 
west had essentially changed his plans. 

The Swedes had hitherto found a scanty subsistence in 
the most sterile and exhausted parts of Germany ; but now 
they were in countries which rejoiced their hearts. They 
have themselves given us naive descriptions of their sur- 
prise. They seem to say, It is good to be here ; let us 
make tabernacles — whereas this had never entered their 
heads in the camp at Werben or on the sandy plains of 
Brandenburg. That Gustavus Adolphus also may have 
now entertained ideas of permanent conquest and settle- 
ment, which did not occur to him on the Pomeranian coast 
and in the Mark, is quite intelligible. Was he not revered 
as if he had been Emperor? Were not his meetings of 
princes held with all the old imperial pomp ? Was he not 
regarded with enthusiastic affection by the people ? 

Nuremberg, the most German of the imperial cities, and 
the proudest of the republics, told him expressly that if there 
were an election of a new head of the empire, " they knew 
of no one whose choice would be more suitable and happy 
than that of his Majesty himself." 

When Gustavus Adolphus was advancing from Pome- 
rania to Brandenburg, the Elector sent an embassy to him, 
to ask what recompense he should demand as a material 
indemnity in Germany. The King replied that if the 
exiles were restored, religious liberty granted to the States, 
and he were assured that he need not fear any attack from 
the Hapsburgs in his own country, he should be satisfied. 



170 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

But by this assurance he meant a pledge which should at 
once indemnify him, and protect him against attack. He 
intended probably some slip of the Baltic coast, like that 
which afterwards fell to Sweden on the mouth of the Oder 
in Pomerania. 

But now that he was at Mayence the case was different 
He was now justified in demanding what would then have 
been premature. When the Catholic party made overtures 
of peace, he made the following stipulations : — 

1. The Edict of Restitution shall be null and void. 

2. -Both the Catholic and Protestant religion shall be 
tolerated in town and country. 

3. Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia shall be restored to 
their previous condition ; all the exiles shall return to their 
estates. 

4. The Elector Palatine Frederic V. shall be restored to 
his country. 

5. The Bavarian Electorate shall cease ; the electoral 
vote shall be restored to the Palatinate. 

6. The practice of the evangelical religion and all civic 
privileges shall be restored to Augsburg. 

7. All Jesuits, as disturbers of the public peace and 
authors of the present difficulties, shall be banished from 
the empire. 

8. Protestants, as well as Catholics, shall be admitted 
into every institution. 

9. The monasteries in the Duchy of Wurtemberg which 
have been illegally taken possession of by the Catholics 
shall be restored. 

10. Out of gratitude for the salvation of the German 
empire, your Majesty the King of Sweden shall be elected 
King of Rome. 

11. All expenses incurred in the imperial cities and in 



CONDITIONS OF PEACE. 171 

the Duchy of Wurtemberg by the Edict of Restitution shall 
be repaid. 

12. There shall be as many Lutheran as Catholic canons 
appointed to the cathedrals. 

We have two accounts of these conditions, one by Khe- 
venhiller (vol. xii.), the other in Richelieu's memoirs 
(vol. vii.). They agree, except on one point ; the clause 
about the election of Gustavus Adolphus as King of Rome 
is wanting in Richelieu. This important point is not well 
authenticated. There is very important testimony of 
another kind against that of Khevenhiller.* ^ 

About the same time Gustavus Adolphus told the people 
of Nuremberg t that " from his friends he required nothing 
but gratitude. What he had taken from his foes he intended 
to keep. The Protestant League must separate itself from 
the Catholics, and provide itself with a suitable leader, 
especially for the war. He could not be satisfied with pay 
for a few months, like a military adventurer. He might 
demand territory * ex iure gentium^ according to Grotius, 
although he had enough of his own. He could not give up 
Pomerania, on account of the sea ; and if he gave anything 
back, he might at the same time demand the rights of 
supremacy which the Emperor had hitherto enjoyed. The 
old imperial constitution was good for nothing ; it was like 
an ancient ruin, good enough for rats and mice, but not 
habitable for men." 

A resolution of the Swedish Parliament now proposed 
religious liberty, abolition of the Inquisition for ever, and 
restitution to the Protestants ; compensation for Sweden's 
war expenses, and security for the payment of them ; a 

♦ Would the difference between being acknowledged Protector of a 
Protestant league and king of Rome be really so great ? — £d. 
t Geijcr. 



172 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

league between the Protestants and the King of Sweden, 
with the directoriutn hdli^ which was his due, in all the wars 
with the Emperor and other potentates ; the cession of 
Pomerania and Wismar to Sweden, in compensation for 
which Brandenburg was to have Silesia ; Saxony, Lusatia, 
and the Landgrave of Hesse, the Dukes of Weimar, and 
others, were to be endowed at the expense of Austria. 

This programme was quite in accordance with the wishes 
of the Protestant imperial cities ; but the rulers did not 
approve of it, and were all the more suspicious of it 
bedfcise the details of it were unknown, and because it was 
clear that its ultimate objects were purposely left obscure. 
In the circles where politics were enshrouded in the mists 
of petty sovereignty, they foreboded the worst. They 
abready beheld the Swede as Emperor, and German liberty 
destroyed by Sweden instead of by Spain. Saxony espe- 
cially was filled with alarm, and even among those who 
were dependent on the King's favour great discontent was 
spreading, since it had appeared that he would not hear of 
the reinstatement of the exiled princes in the now partly 
vanquished countries before the end of the war. 

In short his relations with the princes, with lands and 
without, became less friendly week by week, while with the 
people and the inhabitants of the imperial cities they 
became closer and closer. He reproached the princes with 
the un-German attitude of their armies and policy, while he 
gained the hearts of the people by amiable words. Like 
his grandfather, he was a great orator, and was wonderfully 
skilful in adopting the popular confidential tone which works 
upon the masses, and every speech of his to such audiences 
was a triumph. 



0\^RTHROW OF THE LEAGUE. 1 73 

Overthrow of the Power of the League. — Return 
OF VVallenstein.* — Battle of LDtzen, November 
t6th, 1632. 

Thus passed the winter of 163 1-2. In the middle of Fe- 
bruary the King advanced into the parts of South Germany 
which he had not before entered, in order to attack the 
League in Bavaria, the chief seat of its power. On the 
Lech, Tilly encountered him once more ; and in a hot and 
final conflict, thanks to the execution done by the Swedish 
artillery, the remains of the forces of the League were 
defeated, and the Lech was crossed in April. .Tilly died of 
his wounds a few days afterwards, and Gustavus Adolphus 
made his entr)' into Munich, which was quite unprotected. 
'I'he whole of Bavaria up to the last fortress fell into the 
hands of the Swedes. The conquest of Germany up to the 
Austrian hereditary dominions was accomplished. 

This had been foreseen at Vienna, and since the winter of 
1631, vast efforts had been made to insure the defence of 
the countr}' against the Swedes, in case the power of the 
League should be shattered. But the coffers were empty, 
and men were wanting for the re-organization of the degene- 
rate army. 

The extremity to which they were reduced at Vienna is 
proved by the assiduity with which Wallenstein was again 
approached. He had been living meanwhile like a prince 
on his estates in Bohemia, and endeavouring to throw even 
the Emperor into the shade by his unparalleled magnifi- 
cence. No monarch of those days kept such a court as he 
did. He had taken his dismissal with affected coolness, yet 
those who knew him were convinced that no mortal could 
feel being degraded from the highest position more keenly. 

• Hurler, Wallcnbtein's vicr letzte Lebensjohre. Vienna, 1862. 



176 SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

the Empire ; neither the Aulic Council, nor the Imperial 
Chamber at Spires, were to interfere in it. 

Pardons also were to be granted only in accordance with 
his will. If the Emperor granted safe conduct to any one, 
or any other favour, it was only to affect his person and 
honour, not his property. Unconditional pardon or repeal 
of confiscation could be granted only by the Duke of Fried- 
land, " For," he added to this extraordinary condition, 
"the Emperor is far too lenient, and grants pardons to 
every one at Court This diminishes the necessary means 
for rewarding the superior and inferior officers, and for 
keeping the soldiers in good humour." 

This treaty was Wallenstein's first sin against the Emperor, 
and it was an immense mistake ; it was impracticable and 
contradictory. Either Wallenstein must be practically 
Emperor, and Ferdinand must abdicate, or the house of 
Hapsburg must keep its power and Wallenstein must perish ; 
in either case a catastrophe must ensue. As he could not 
be deposed, the only probable course would be to murder 
him. All that followed therefore, first dalliance with treason, 
then actual treason, and Wallenstein's murder lay hidden in 
the bud in this treaty. 

But he had preserved the skill with which he could create 
an army out of homeless soldiers of every nation, rabble, 
and vagabonds of all sorts, and handle it like a tool. 

He had quietly looked on at the misfortunes of his old 
friend Max, of Bavaria, and had withstood all his entreaties 
for help with revengeful satisfaction. His plan was at first to 
carry on a defensive warfare, which he could sustain better 
than the foreigner, and his troops had to be accustomed to 
war. 

Wallenstein's first operations were successful. Early in 
May he fell upon Prague unawares, and compelled the 



BATTLE OF LUTZEN. 177 

troops of Electoral Saxony to make a hasty retreat. By 
the end of June the Elector of Bavaria joined him with the 
remnant of his troops, and their united forces advanced to 
Franconia. Near Nuremberg, Gustavus Adolphus had 
erected a fortified camp ; Wallenstein established himself 
in like manner opposite to him. He did not obtain a 
victory, but the assaults of the Swedes on his redoubts were 
fruitless. 

In the middle of September, Gustavus Adolphus divided 
his army, and returned with one division to Bavaria, when 
news came that Wallenstein had invaded Saxony. He had 
in fact just begun to act on the defensive, and had attacked 
the weakest part of the Swedish line of communication. 
An invasion of Saxony was doubtless the best means of 
compelling Gustavus Adolphus to return northwards ; and, 
besides this, owing to the untrustworthiness of the Elector, 
the greatest political consequence might ensue from it. 

Gustavus Adolphus advanced by forced marches to 
Saxony, in order to arrive before the Elector should have 
gone over to Wallenstein. When he appeared in Thuringia 
and Saxony, where Wallenstein*s troops had behaved atro- 
ciously, the people received him with acclamations. From 
November 6-16 he encountered Wallenstein in the same 
plains where he had fought his first battle, near Liitzen. 

The battle which took place here was one of the most 
severe and sanguinary of the whole war. Command was at 
first difficult, for a thick fog lay upon the plain, which did 
not clear off till ten o'clock. The morning passed without 
a decision. The Swedes sprang over the trenches and broke 
one of the imperial squares, but were forced to retreat 
again. Both sides fought with the greatest valour, but the 
combat still remained undecided. The King had for a long 
time disused armour, on account of liis corpulence, and wore 

VOL. II. N 



»78 SECOXD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

a light leather jerkin. His idea was, God is -with us, and 
if it is His will to protect us He can do so without 
armour. He was near-sighted, and, as ever in the thickest 
of the fray, he rode forward with but few companions, and 
got among a host of hostile cuirassiers. A shot struck his 
horse as he was dismounting ; a second shot struck his 
arm. His companions were quickly dispersed j his ti^o 
pages found it difficult to help him from his horse, when 
a third shot struck him, which seems to have been fatal. 
The page who was last at his side, related that while he 
was helping the King to dismount, hostile cuirassiers came 
up and asked who the wounded man was ; that he would 
not say ; but that the King made himself known, and then 
some one shot him through the head. The page himself 
was fatally wounded, and died a few hours afterwards. 

It was not until his horse sprang riderless over the plain 
that the news spread among the Swedes, "The King is 
dead." His body was afterwards found stripped. With 
fearful rage the Swedes now threw themselves upon the 
enemy, and during the evening hours the imperial army 
was totally defeated. The victory was won, but at what a 
price ! 

But the cause for which Gustavus Adolphus fought did 
not die with him. The course of events preser\'ed the 
stamp which he had impressed upon them. The effects 
of what he accomplished in two years were felt during 
the whole war; and when peace was concluded, sixteen 
years afterwards, the essential features of his plan were 
realised. It was not therefore as affecting this that the im- 
portance of his death lay. At the time of his death, too, 
he had attained that height of personal dignity which could 
scarcely have been surpassed, but from which he might 
have had to descend. For the splendour of his name he 



RESULTS OF THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS. 1 79 

died at the right time. In proportion as the hitherto ideal 
forms of his political plans became more clearly defined, 
his relations with those around him in Germany would 
have been clouded, and this had already taken place to an 
extent which foreboded no good. Gustavus Adolphus died 
in the very height of his fame, and therefore the moral 
influence of his character was undiminished. 

But for the immediate conduct of the war, and for his 
policy, it was an irreparable loss. 

There was no one at hand so competent to command on 
the field of battle as he had been. Wrangel, Baner, 
Torstenson, Bemhard von Weimar, were the most distin- 
guished generals of the age, and all were trained solely in 
his school ; but in the main points, the organization and 
the discipline of the army, none of them were equal to 
him. The Swedish army was broken up into wild bands, 
which were in no way superior to those of the enemy, and 
Swedish bestiality was soon as notorious as that of the 
imperial Croats. 

Politically also it made a vast difference, whether a king 
such as he was, was at the head of affairs, or generals and 
diplomatists. He alone had been at the head of everything ; 
neither France nor the German princes had been allowed 
to interfere, and this was a great blessing to Germany itself, 
for their only idea was to share the rags and tatters of the 
country between them. It was his mental superiority, the 
loftiness of his aims, his whole character in short, which 
enabled him to do this. Even his ambition was of a noble 
stamp. 

He was fighting for himself, his family, his monarchy, and 
for Protestantism, and this was something totally different 
from the struggles of his successors for rich booty or a 
German principality. The objects of the ambition of these 



l8o SECOND PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

men were narrower and therefore coarser. He might have 
entertained the idea of setting up a Swedish empire in Pro- 
testant Germany ; but an Oxenstiema was not capable of it, 
nor any of the others. They behaved in Germany like 
robbers and incendiaries ; and the trophies from our churches 
and castles, which are preserved to this day by their pos- 
terity in their palaces, are but the memorials of a lawless 
adventurous war. 

The death of Gustavus therefore was a great misfortune 
for Germany. It was an exchange of one great and eminent 
man for a number of military generals, who tore Germany 
to pieces and drenched her with tears and blood ; it was 
nothing to them if the French scuffled with them on this 
vast theatre of war, and they had no other idea than to drag 
on the war for. ever without object or aim. Gustavus 
Adolphus had a distinct and definite aim in view ; not so 
his generals. When they returned to Sweden, they would 
be nothing but Swedish subjects; in Germany they were 
playing the part of generals ; the war was to them a lucrative 
trade — their living. 

When, therefore, the war was dragged on for sixteen 
years longer, and for ten of them without any good reason, 
it was because there was no longer any power to give it a 
political aim or end, and because there were many who 
were interested in perpetuating the conflict and in bringing 
the unhappy empire to utter ruin. 



PART X. 

THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
RICHELIEU, OXENSTIERNA, AND BERNHARD 
VON WEIMAR. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

FRANCE AFTER THE DEATH OF HENRY IV.* 

Louis XIII., 1610-43 *"<^ Mary of Medici. — ^The Parliament of 1614.— 
Murder of the Marshal d'Ancre, April, 161 7. — ^The Duke of 
Luynes. — Cardinal Richelieu, 1624-42, and Louis XIII. — 
Characteristics of both. — Richelieu's political method. — His testa- 
ment. — His rule at home and abroad. — Fall of La Rochelle, 1628. 
— ^The affair in the Valteline and the War about Mantua, 163a 

Louis XIII., 1610-1643, and Mary of Medio. — ^The 
Parliament of 16 14, — Death of the Marshal 
D'Ancre. 

T T has already been expressly mentioned that by the treaty 
of Barwalde, Gustavus Adolphus provided that he 
should receive French subsidies, but would not agree to 
any cession of German territory nor to any interference with 
the conduct of the war nor his policy, thus forming a striking 

* Besides the literature before mentioned — Le Vassor, Histoire de 
Louis XIII. 18 bde. Michelet, Hist, de France au I7^me Si^e. 
1857, Vols, xi., xii. (the memoirs of this period). M^moires de 
Richelieu in the M^m. r6lati& k Thistoire de France, 1833, vii., viii. 
Testament politique du Cardinal de Richelieu, 1764, 2 bde. Journal du 
Cardinal Richelieu, 1664, 2 bde. Aubery, M^m. pour Thist. du 
Cardinal, 1660. Leclerc, Vie du Card, de Richelieu, 1753. Lettres, 
instructions, &c., du Cardinal de Richelieu, par Avend ; Paris, 1853. 



1 82 TfflRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

contrast to Maurice of Saxony, who by the treaty of Cham- 
bord ceded the three bishoprics to France. 

This lasted so long as Gustavus lived. His death was 
a most desirable turn of affairs for France. He had been 
ostensibly the ally of Richelieu's policy, but had in fact 
curbed it, and when he was out of the way it had freer 
scope than it ever otherwise would have had. 

Henry IV. had died just as he was about to interfere in 
German difficulties, and to re-assert the old French policy of 
opposition to Hapsburg and the extension of France towards 
the east His death was a crisis for France, which lamed 
her for ten years ; but this will surprise no one who con- 
siders the condition in which he found the country, and 
that a reign of twenty years was not sufficient to overcome 
the effects of the religious civil wars. It is not in the least 
to be wondered at that all the elements which he had set at 
rest were in a ferment again. The surprise rather is to what 
an extent he had controlled them. 

A repetition now occurred of the period of the Valois, 
only with this great difference, that the transition was not 
marked by a long civil war, and the genius of a priestly 
statesman sufficed to establish the monarchy of Henry IV. 
on a firmer basis than he had found it. 

Louis XIII. was still a child, and a regency was therefore 
inevitable. Under any circumstances this is an anxious 
thing, and it was doubly so in this case, because great diffi- 
culties had but just been overcome, and the Regent was a 
foreigner who had not the smallest vocation for government. 
Mary of Medici was not in the least like Catharine. She 
was neither so intriguing, so malicious, nor so filled with 
JDassionate ambition ; she was rather a pleasure-loving Italian, 
neither deep nor dangerous, but entirely without the serious- 
ness required for her task. 



MARY OF MEDICI. 1 83 

The traditions of Henry IV. were incompatible with such 
a government. Sully, who had hitherto had the chief con- 
duct of affairs, could not control the unhealthy influences 
which now came into play, and as he was not the man to 
belie his convictions for the sake of keeping his portfolio, 
he resigned; he did not choose to be responsible for a 
system which he did not approve. Under these circum- 
stances it was the only dignified course for a statesman to 
pursue, but it was a rare example, and especially so in 
France. 

The most reckless extravagance ensued ; offices, dignities, 
favours and pensions were lavishly squandered, just what 
might be expected from a woman's government, confronted 
by an ambitious and exacting aristocracy. When the great 
lords asked for important places they were given to them, 
to insure their allegiance, but, instead of having this effect, 
it only gave rise to new demands which robbed the crown 
of its resources. 

The finances, which had only just been extricated from 
the difficulties of twenty years, were soon so exhausted and 
the Crown so impoverished that it was compelled to have 
recourse to those means which Sully had studiously avoided, 
and whicli had been quietly allowed to fall into disuse under 
Henry IV., the States-General and assemblies of notables. 

Forms were thus reinstated which had been laid aside 
for twenty years. In October, 16 14, the States met at 
Paris. It was the last meeting of the States-General of 
old France, for those of 1789 were no longer the same. 
Had these States adhered to the historical traditions of 
certain defined liberties, had they wisely co-operated in the 
administration and in the enaction of laws, this assembly of 
1 614 might have been a most important historical event 

But these conditions were entirely wanting. The States- 



1 84 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YeARS' WAR. 

General seemed to be already defunct ; all their acts related 
to separate class interests ; the nobles and the clergy treated 
the third estate with sovereign contempt. Whatever was 
desired by one party was sure to be frustrated by another, 
and no common legal ground was recognised. How dif- 
ferent in England ! Ten years later, the Stuarts were in a 
situation similar to that of the regency in France. There 
we see the nation, supported by the traditions of the past 
and a never obsolete constitutional law, skilfully availing 
itself of new situations, and guided by courageous and 
talented men, it enters upon a new order of things. Where 
was the third estate in France which could aspire to take a 
part in the government, where the lower house that could 
say, *• We are three times as rich as your house of Lords," 
where the independent men who could lead the attack upon 
the monarchy ! 

This meeting of the States-General sufficed to bury their 
rights for ever. 

It will be interesting to devote a little attention to this 
last assembly of the States of old France, for its transactions 
are characteristic of the period, and of the relations between 
them and the crown ; it is also not without importance for 
a comprehension of the situation of the people. The 
mission of the Assembly, as it was defined by the King, in 
a short opening speech, was to bring the grievances of the 
different States before the crown. Each estate held sepa- 
rate sittings to draw up statements of such grievances, and 
each informed the others by message, of what it considered 
of sufficient importance to be brought forward. 

A great diversity of demands and interests at once came 
to light. 

The nobles and clergy, desired the abolition of the sale 
of places, which involved exclusion of the burgher class 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1614. 1 85 

from official posts, but the representatives of the third 
estate, who almost all held such offices, were against it, 
until the annuities and gratuities granted to the great nobles 
should also be abolished. The discussion of this gave rise 
to bitter accusations of one class against another. The 
third estate stated, in the king's presence, that the nobles 
plundered the State, and that by the enormous expenses to 
which they had compelled the government, things were 
brought to such a pass that the people were obliged to go 
into the fields and eat grass like oxen. The nobles then 
defended themselves ; some thought these expressions slan- 
derous, others considered the citizen class so far beneath 
the nobles that the accusations were beneath contempt. 
But no agreement was come to on the main question. 

It was just the same with the second point. The clergy 
demanded the proclamation of the decrees of the Council 
of Trent ; though with a reservation of all the liberties of 
the Gallican Church, but the third estate was decidedly 
opposed to it, fearing the condemnation of the heretics and 
the introduction of the Jesuits. 

There was another sharp discussion about the Jesuits in 
the assembly. The third estate legally opposed the here- 
tical political doctrine of the Jesuits as to the insecurity of 
all temporal political power, and the right of the masses to 
revolt. It demanded that it should be declared by an in- 
violable and fundamental law, that as the King was acknow- 
ledged as sovereign ruler in his own country and derived 
his crown from God, no power on earth, temporal or 
spiritual, had any right to his kingdom, neither to deprive 
iiis sacred person of it, nor to release his subjects from their 
fealty under any pretext whatsoever. 

Behind these differences lurked the religious controversy ; 
it would have been a hard task to settle it, even to a strong 



1 86 THIKD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

government, and a weak one could in no wise adjust the 
differences. While Cond^, Bouillon, Rohan, Soubise, and 
Sully, seemed ready to take up arms against the govern- 
ment, allied as it was with Spain, attention was excited by 
the detennination with which Armand du Plessis de Riche- 
lieu, Bishop of Lugon, asserted the right of the Catholic 
clergy to a share in the government, and demanded the 
proclamation of the decrees of Trent. Clearly and firmly 
he developed his ideas of church and state, and the 
emphasis with which he spoke, bore witness to the self- 
reliance of this dignitary of the Church. 

The government became more pitiful and helpless every 
day ; it was obliged to make all sorts of concessions ; all 
parties, and each with louder threats than the last, made 
demands upon the crown, and the government was so inti- 
midated that it consented to contradictory things. 

The chief influence at Court had fallen into hands which 
no party could tolerate, and which reminded the nation that 
France was governed by a foreign regency. 

The Queen, Mary of Medici, had brought with her from 
Florence, a waiting maid, Eleonora Galigai, a cautious, 
reserved Italian ; she dressed the Queen's hair, and at the 
same time gained possession of her ear. She was married 
to a certain Concino Concini, a Florentine of obscure birth 
and in decayed circumstances, who had made her acquaint- 
ance on the voyage from France. The attitude of this 
couple was a model of that Italian virtuosoship which can 
accommodate itself to all circumstances ; can be at first con- 
tent with a little, and when it has gained a footing assumes 
the policy of the parvenu. 

The Concinis made themselves indispensable to the 
Queen, had a finger in all the court intrigues, were now in 
league with this coterie, now with that, and preyed upon 



MURDER OF THE MARSHAL D'ANCRE. 1 87 

them all. She collected treasures, he acquired offices and dig- 
nities, rose step by step, was adorned with all sorts of titles, 
and finally created Marquis d' Ancre, and Marshal of France. 

This favouritism was a thorn in the sides of all, and of 
course all the faults of the government were ascribed to it. 

The Queen adopted a policy more and more opposed to 
that recurrence to ancient traditional policy, which was 
inaugurated by Henry IV. ; she leagued herself with Spain, 
by treaties and marriage contracts, and the lukewarmness 
that she evinced in all government transactions deprived 
her of the confidence of all parties. 

The discontent which was most loudly expressed by the 
princes and the eminent Huguenots, fermented for a long 
time and became deeper and deeper. 

In 1614-15, a blow could be foreseen, which would put 
an end to this misgovernment. Meanwhile, the King had 
reached the age of sixteen ; he also had his advisers and 
courtiers, and thus a remarkable schism took place. The 
Court of the Queen did just what it pleased, and another 
party assembled around the King and devised the fall of 
the favourite. 

The recollection of a fearful time was still fresh in men's 
minds, when assassination was quite in vogue, and the idea 
presented itself to some of Concini's foes that he must be 
murdered. The Marshal was summoned to the King, and, 
as he was crossing the bridge to the Louvre, in April, 161 7, 
he was struck by a fatal shot. 

It was a singular coincidence that the beginning of the 
King's independent reign should be marked by a political 
murder. 

When he heard that Concini had fallen, he exclaimed, 
" Now I am king," But he was mistaken ; it soon appeared 
that he had only exchanged his Mayor of the Palace. 



igo THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

two contending parties at Court, then as the leading man 
who ruled everything. 

He had been trained in a remarkable political school. 

When the States-General met in 1 6 14 he was under thirty 
years of age, but had excited general surprise by his gift of 
eloquence. He early betrayed the qualifications of a bom 
statesman, whom chance only had clothed in the ecclesias- 
tical garb; indeed he afterwards displayed more skill in 
everything than in the affairs of the Church. The Roman 
purple was to him but an outward garment, though a wel- 
come aid on account of the authority it conferred. 

In the seventeenth century the ecclesiastical power had 
still weight enough to accomplish more than the secular 
arm, and it is certain that Richelieu could not have ven- 
tured on many of the things which he did without the 
palladium of the clerical garb. His most intimate confidant 
in his foreign policy was a Capuchin monk, a man belong- 
ing to the old French nobility, and inspired with the cor- 
responding ambition. He and his alter-ego. Pater Joseph, 
established a state which more than any other assumed a 
development opposed to the Romish ecclesiastical power, 
and sought to make the hierarchy of the Church a hierarchy 
of the State. 

The family from which Richelieu sprang belonged to the 
old French nobility. Men of the race of Du Plessis, who 
had distinguished themselves, could be mentioned even in 
early times. He had nothing, therefore, of the unequal 
birth of the parvenu who has laboured hard to attain his 
position, and then displays audacity on the one hand and 
cowardice on the other. Richelieu had the stately gait of 
a well-born man, who rules the nobles, not as a plebeian, 
but as the representative of a political idea, who can 
venture to oppose his equals. His path brings him into 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 191 

contact with the highest personages in the State, and he 
pursues it without faltering. 

He found circumstances, as they were sure to be after 
thirteen years of misgovemment, without principles or 
power. The State was in the utmost confusion ; there was 
neither orderly administration nor regular income, nor a 
healthy financial condition. No obedience was rendered 
to the Government : the officials either did what they 
pleased, or were under the command of the great nobles or 
powerful governors, whose favour was of more importance 
than that of the King and his ministers. All the popular 
advantages of a good government were also sacrificed ; uni- 
formity of the law, security of person and property in town 
and country. The advantages of Sully's administration 
were sorely missed, and France no longer maintained the 
distinguished position in foreign affairs to which she had 
been raised by Henry IV. This great monarchy exercised 
scarcely any influence upon the fate of Europe. If Spain 
took her in tow, she might, with the help of her Hapsburg 
relations, help France to regain her lost possessions. 

All this had to be changed ; internally the use of its 
natural powers must be restored to the State; it must 
regain the influence abroad which was its due. 

Richelieu was resolved to recur to the home and foreign 
policy of Henry IV., and especially to sever the bond with 
Spain. His plan was to take part in the great war which was 
just begun, and to round off France at the expense of the 
German empire. 

But before this could be seriously thought of, the internal 
administration must be readjusted; before he could send 
his armies to take part in the German war, France must 
have a government which could secure the service of her 
subjects and the use of the country's wealth ; the monarchy 



192 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

must regain popularity, factions must be humbled, and the 
trustworthiness of officials restored. 

The first ten years of Richelieu's reign were devoted to 
this task of renovatmg the French state, and it was the part 
of his labours most worthy of admiration. 

Richelieu never could tell in the morning whether he 
should be at the helm in the evening. Countermines were 
continually at work against him, instigated by the King's 
mother and brother, the nobles, the clergy, and the Pro- 
testants ; he had to be perpetually on the watch to frustrate 
these intrigues, yet never to interrupt the course of business. 
He succeeded perfectly. He pursues undaunted the path 
he had marked out for himself, and his daily struggle to 
maintain his power is never apparent, neither does the 
admirable and persevering energy come to light with which 
he overcomes all sorts of hindrances, the dexterity which 
enables him to anticipate all the devices of the enemy, or 
the boldness with which he makes all around him feel the 
power of a great master. He has identified himself with 
the State ; whoever opposes him opposes the State ; in the 
name of the common weal he banishes the King's mother 
and brother, sends many of his opponents to the scaffold, 
and does not spare the highest. 

It may be imagined that it was not an amiable rule. 
Authontative measures, espionage, interception of corre- 
spondence, executions and imprisonments, were indis- 
pensable to it But in all this his personal interests always 
coincided with the demands of the common weal ; he was 
the State ; his ambition was the greatness of France ; all 
that was French was his interest ; all that was opposed to 
him was opposed to France. He did not pursue his per- 
sonal enemies as such — he mostly despised them — but woe 
to those who brought family interests or factions to bear 



CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 1 93 

against him; on these he inflicted the most severe chas 
tisement.* 

A nation does not easily submit to such a rule ; but the 
French do so more readily than any other. They willingly 
sacrifice peace and comfort for splendour, surrender liberty 
to a strong government which secures fame and martial 
glory. Richelieu conferred outward splendour on France, 
and created internal order ; but religious and political 
liberty had to be confined within the narrowest limits. His 
rule was violent and unrelenting ; but even his enemies did 
not deny that it was able, and therefore it was a turning- 
point in history, not only for France but for Europe. 

Richelieu's Political Method. 

All Europe took to imitating his system, and Louis XIV. 
was not the originator, but only the inheritor, of those ideas 
of political power and sagacity which, under him, made the 
round of European governments. 

The principles of, and precepts for, his method of govern- 
ment are laid down in the observations comprised in the 
political testament, so called, of Cardinal Richelieu,t and 
which were written either by himself or from his dictation. 

The following are some of the most important points. 
The most necessary thing for a government to secure is the 
unconditional obedience of all — " the most secure founda- 
tion of the submissiveness which is indispensable to the 
existence of states." In order to this it is necessary for the 
government itself to possess a resolute will to accomplish 
what, after due consideration, it considers to be right, that 
it should never falter in its course, and severely punish the 
contumacious. The government of the country demands 

* For Richelieu's characterii-tics see Ranke, II. 531. 
t Schmidt, III. 464. 

VOL. II. O 



194 TmRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

manly vigour and unswerving firmness, the opposite of that 
yielding weakness which exposes the country to danger and 
infuses courage into the enemy. Most of the great schemes 
of France have failed, because she has been deterred by the 
first difficulty from prosecuting them. Unswerving con- 
sistency, secrecy, and despatch are the best methods of 
insuring success. Further, political objects must always, and 
in every case, be supreme over every other consideration. 

Public interests must be the sole object of the ruler and 
his ministers ; it is a great evil for the State when private 
are preferred to public interests. The majority of the 
misfortunes that have happened to France have been 
caused by the devotion of many organs in the administra- 
tion to their own interests, to the detriment of those of the 
State, and by the fact that compassion and favour have 
prevented the carrying out of good resolutions. 

Punishments and rewards must be adjusted, so as to 
keep their end in view. The latter are not to be despised ; 
but the former are more often necessary, for they are less 
easily forgotten. Not to punish an important error, which 
might open wide the doors to license, is criminal neglect, 
and there is no greater injury to the public good than to be 
indulgent towards those who endanger it. 

This indulgence has produced an anarchy in France 
which has only served the cause of the numerous parties, 
and has greatly injured the royal authority. In the case 
of political crimes pity must be set aside, and the com- 
plaints of the accused, as well as the babble of the ignorant 
masses, disregarded ; for they often find fault with what is 
most salutary for them, and absolutely necessary. It is a 
Christian duty to forget personal offences; but to forget 
offences against the State, to let them go unpunished, is 
not to foigive them, it is to commit them anew. In ordinary 



RICHELIEU'S POLITICAL TESTAMENT. 1 95 

matters justice requires full proof of guilt ; but not so in 
the case of political crimes ; then conjecture, derived from 
strong probability, must often suffice, because the formation 
of parties against the public good is generally conducted 
with so much cunning and secrecy that proof is only possible 
when it is too late to punish. 

The motto, therefore, is. All for^ but nothing by the 
people. 

The Cardinal asserts the rights of the State in relation 
to the Church. 

It is the duty of rulers in spiritual matters to be subject to 
the Popes as the successors of St. Peter and the vicegerents 
of Christ ; but they are not to suffer any interference from 
them in temporal affairs. In making appointments to 
bishoprics, abbacies, and smaller benefices, the king should 
consider merit, an exemplary life, and uprightness of cha- 
racter. Persons of loose morals should be excluded, and 
those who offend must be punished, so as to make examples 
of them. 

The position of the nobility, one of the main sinews of 
the State, requires reform. The nobles must be protected 
against the large number of officials who have been raised 
up to their disadvantage; but they must be restrained in 
their acts of violence towards the people. They must be 
protected in the possession of their estates, and the acquisi- 
tion of new ones must be made easy, that they may regain 
their former dignity, and not be incapacitated for serving 
the State in war. This last is the main thing ; a nobility 
which is not ready to render military service to the State is 
a luxury, even a burden, to it, and does not deserve the privi- 
leges and dignities which distinguish it from the burgher 
class. 

The judges in the i)arliaments shall pronounce sentence 



196 THIRD PHASE OF THE THmTY YEARS' WAR. 

on the subjects, for that is the purpose for which they are 
appointed ; but they shall not assume to do more. They 
are not to be permitted to interfere in the jurisdiction of the 
Church, nor in the enaction of laws. It would be the ruin 
of the royal authority if the officials were allowed to have 
a voice in political questions, for which they have neither 
the necessary knowledge nor power of comprehension. 

The people must be kept in a state of subjection. The 
taxes serve to hinder them from becoming too prosperous, 
and from surpassing the limits of their duty. 

The burdens which remind the people of their subjection 
should not be too heavy; they should be in proportion 
to their ability to pay, and it is the duty of rulers not to 
exact more than is absolutely necessary. In extraordinary 
cases they should lay claim to the superfluity of the rich 
before bleeding the poor to an extraordinary degree. 

In the matter of instruction and learning great caution is 
needful A knowledge of the sciences is indeed a great 
ornament to the State, and cannot be dispensed with ; but 
it is equally certain that it cannot be imparted to every one 
without distinction. As a body having eyes in every part 
would be a monster, so would a State possessing only 
learned subjects, who would exhibit pride and assumption, 
but would not render obedience. 

Learning would ruin trade, which enriches the State, and 
agriculture, which is the true nourisher of the people • it 
would in a short time depopulate the nursery-ground of 
soldiers, who flourish far better in ignorance than amidst 
the refinements of learning. Learning itself would be 
desecrated by being communicated to all alike ; there 
would soon be more people to raise doubts than to solve 
them, to oppose truth than to defend it. Too large a 
number of colleges and classes is an evil 



RICHELIEU'S POLICY. 197 

It will be sufficient in towns which are not capital 
cities if the colleges are limited to two or three classes, 
which are enough to raise the youth out of too great 
ignorance; those who are capable of more must be sent 
to the large cities. 

It will be seen that this is not so much a new system as 
a new method, which aims to effect the absolutism of the 
power of the State, while it never loses sight of the interests 
of the populace. There is as yet nothing of the Sultanism 
to which it degenerated under Louis XIV. ; nothing of that 
boundless increase of the burdens of the State, the absorption 
of the State in the Court, nothing of the blind despotism 
which is destructive of the roots of its own existence. 

This centralisation of the political power in one hand, 
the limitation of the mediaeval corporations, estates, and 
privileges; this simplification of the machinery of State, 
this provision for equal rights and rational administration, 
for sparing and furthering the material prosperity of the 
people ; this is the absolutism of the seventeenth century, 
which we now see exhibited by its first able representative, 
and it was a policy which was to be nobly pursued by 
Frederic William, the great Elector. 

A new sort of administration was now introduced by 
means of paid officials, who gradu^Jly displaced the rule of 
the nobles and the power of provincial governors ; that sort 
of centralisation, in short, which, since De Tocqueville's time, 
has not been looked upon as a product of 1789, but as a 
creation of the ancient regime. People of the buigher 
class, without family interests, and entirely dependent on 
the Government, became the organs of the State. The 
masses felt this to be a great advantage, having learnt that 
under the rule of the nobles there was no security of life 
or property. For the same reason Richelieu was able to 



198 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

put an end to the great corporations, or to let them decay 
and die out. He was backed by the people, who rejoiced 
to see him restrain and punish the arrogance of the great. 
What was it to them if now and then one of the highest 
nobles was thrown over night into the Bastille or was brought 
to the scaffold? 

Richelieu's Administration at Home and Abroad. 

His relations with Rome and the Huguenots were peculiar 
and thoroughly statesmanlike. He made both parties feel 
equally the power of the law and the national interests of 
France. 

As to his relations with Rome, he was in fact a secular 
politician rather than a spiritual ruler, and outwardly he 
allied himself with the heretics and took the field against 
the Catholics. This was painftilly felt at Rome ; but the 
man was too powerful for them to venture to do anything 
against the minister of the most Christian king, though a 
half-suppressed sigh might escape them. 

Henry IV. had given the Huguenots too much, not 
religious, but political liberty, fortresses garrisoned by them- 
selves and great civic privileges. In the recent revolts it 
had repeatedly happened that discontented nobles had 
appeared at the head of the Protestants, and had turned 
the possession of fortresses, like La Rochelle, to good 
advantage against the Crown. This was an abuse which 
could only be dangerous to Protestantism. Then this re- 
! public of a self-governing religious party within a monarchy, 

■I this State within the State, was not to be put up with. 

! Richelieu did not attempt to abolish the toleration of 

r different creeds, though it could not fail to suffer if the 

surest pledges of it were done away; but this political 
" isolation which so easily led to open rebellion must cease. 



RICHELIEU'S POLICY. 199 

Fanatical zeal for conversion was not his forte, but it was 
quite in accordance with his principles to deprive the Pro- 
testants of their fortresses, garrisons, and self-government ; 
and the skill with which he prevailed over them is peculiar 
to him. At first he weakened the position of the Huguenots 
in alliance with England, the natural ally of Protestantism, 
and employed English ships against La Rochelle ; but when 
England saw her mistake, and came with a great fleet to 
the help of the Protestants, he was strong enough in spite 
of this, late in the autumn of 1628, to overthrow La 
Rochelle. The fall of this great fortress was a catastrophe 
for the privileged position of the Reform party, but it did 
not result in any powerful reaction against their creed. 

There was now neither man nor party in a position to set 
Richeheu at defiance. The King was completely under his 
influence; the aristocracy were partly intimidated, partly 
made harmless; the clergy obeyed him; the Huguenots, 
who a few years before shared the King's power, were now 
only a sect, no longer a political party. 

For an effective foreign policy two things were wanting ; 
well-ordered finances — always his weak point — and an 
efficient army. Neither could be obtained quickly, especially 
the latter, with limited means. He therefore proceeded at 
first with caution, contented himself with moderate results ; 
but he was continually negotiating, and ever alert to let 
no favourable opportunity slip, and to keep everything in 
his power. The chess moves of his foreign policy may be 
counted on the fingers. No alliance with Spain, but oppo- 
sition to the whole house of Hapsburg, for where France 
abutted on its Spanish and German possessions, France had 
an ancient hankering for the acquisition of territory. In 
league with Spain she would have the approval of the 
papal party, but that would be all ; in conflict with her 



200 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

there was a prospect of rich booty. The Pyrenees were not 
then the real boundary of France; Spain still possessed 
Burgundy, and some parts of the South of France, and the 
chain of fortresses from the Ardennes to Ostende, by the 
possession of which France first became what she now is. 

After the course the great German war had taken during 
the second decade, the danger did not seem so distant that 
Ferdinand and the Spanish Hapsburgs might regain their 
ixjsition. Since the victories of the League, the decline of 
the Union, the progress of Tilly, the subjugation of the 
revolution in Bohemia and Upper Austria, and the restora- 
tion in Central and North Germany, Ferdinand had acquired 
a position in and beyond his hereditary dominions, such as 
had never been attained by Charles V., and in the ancient 
Hapsburg territory between France and Germany, an effec- 
tive Spanish army had appeared under Spinola, which was 
renewing the war in the Netherlands, and advancing up the 
German Rhine ; in short fresh courage and ambition seemed 
to have been infused into the power which, at the close of 
the sixteenth century, had appeared to be approaching 
dissolution, and its increasing success could not be in- 
different to a watchful French statesman. 

If the genuine French idea were once conceived of keep- 
ing down the old Hapsburgian rival, alliances would follow as 
a matter of course. England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, 
the German Protestants, all the heretics in the world were 
desirable allies to help to oppose Spain. 

It had cost Henry IV. his life that he had been a Hugue- 
not, and as a Catholic king pursued a heretical foreign 
policy. It was thought that this betrayed the fact that at 
heart he was a heretic still. This was a reproach which 
could not be cast on a cardinal of the Romish Church, who 
kept outwardly within her bounds and had destroyed the 



MASSACRE IN THE VALTELINE. 201 

power of the Protestants at home. People did not regard 
his religious but only his political motives, and these were 
forgiven when there was no help for it. 

Richelieu began to make the voice of France heard in 
smaller questions, such as in the Valteline and Mantua. 

The Valteline was the key between the old Duchy of 
Milan, now Lombardy, and the Tyrol, the mountain fortress 
of the German Hapsburg territory. The country was of 
the greatest strategical importance, and rich in all the 
products of a fruitful soil ; it was then dependent neither 
on Spain nor Hapsburg. During the time of the fierce 
persecution of the Protestants in Italy, after the middle of 
the sixteenth century, the Grisons had become a refuge for 
the exiled Italians, and on this Roman soil a very strict 
form of Calvinism had been established. The Engadine 
is still more rigidly Calvinistic than any other country in 
the world. The country was dependent on Rhaetia, but 
was protected in its creed. In July, 1620, at the instiga- 
tion of various persons, something like the Sicilian vespers 
took place among the Protestants. Horrible deeds were per- 
l^etrated ; on the northern slopes of the Lake of Como the 
castles may still be seen from which the Spaniards attempted 
the invasion, and Bibles may still be found in the villages 
in which the grandfather inscribed the names of some of the 
murdered. After this the Spaniards occupied all the for- 
tresses, and the German Hapsburgs were well content to 
have their Spanish cousins for neighbours. 

It was under Richelieu that French policy assumed an 
attitude in this question, at first purely a local one, that 
gave it importance. Richelieu interfered, sent an army into 
the Valteline, drove out the foreign troops, and thus pre- 
vented the Hapsburg power from possessing itself of this 
important Alpine pass. 



202 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



f 



1 



f 



Jet 



^Hgrvr 



7 



A similar case occurred in Mantua. There the Spanish 
claims were contested by those of a French noble, the Duke 
of Nevers. This gave Richelieu the desired pretext foi 
securing a footing in the neighbourhood of Lombardy. 
Himself in armour, he came at the head of an army, drove 
the Spaniards before him, and conquered Pignerol and 
Chambery — indeed almost the whole of Saxony . By the 
treaty of Chierasco, April, 163 1, the French pretendei 
received Mantua. 

These were small matters. He had still to forego great 
enterprises, because he had neither fleet nor army. ITieu 
Gustavus Adolphus appeared as an ally ; he hoped to find 
a client in him who would allow him to pursue his French 
policy in Germany. But in this he was altogether mis- 
taken, for he was, in fact, only permitted to share expenses, 
not to advise with him, nor to act conjointly. But with the 
death of the Swedish king, this embarrassment was at ar 
end. The traditions of the past might still have some 
influence with the Swedish generals and statesmen; but 
this was an obstacle which could scarcely exist very lon^ 
or be insiumountable.* 

• For the histoiy of the beginning of French interference in tht 
Grerman war, the unpublished reports of the embassy supply somi 
particulars which Hausser extracted in Paris (B. R. MSS. Fran^ais 
No. 2249, suppl.). At the conclusion of a paper on the progress o 
the German and Spanish Hapsburgs in 1620 this passage occurs : « I 
seems to be more than enjoined upon us *de se reveiller d*une s 
profonde et fatalle l^thargie en laquelle la France est tomb^ par 1 
disastreuse mort de notre grand roi Henry.' If now Spain were ti 
take it into der head to seek a quarrel with us, and to attack us in th< 
rear, as at the time of the League, all paths would be closed to us, an< 
we should have neither troops nor money from Germany, Switzerland 
or Italy, such as the late king could prociu-e in his necessity, — interna 
peace and unity among all Frenchmen, and dutiful obedience to on 
just and good king, and the skilful conduct of affairs by a minister wh< 
would * reprendre les sages le9ons et magnanimes du feu roi et les erre 
d*une boime intelligence avec les plus sinc^res am>'s et andens aUi< 



RICHELIEU AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 203 

de cette couronne ' would be the only means of averting the evil." A 
dispatch of 1620 severely blames the rapacity of Austria, advises an 
alliance with the Protestants, and says it is a calumny to call the war a 
religious war, the object of which on the Protestant side vras to crush 
the Catholics. It is said in a report of 1626 that the war will not come 
to an end until Holland, France, and England are conquered by Spain 
and Hapsburg. On December 24th, 1619, BouiUon (fol. 183) advises 
the king at least to mediate. A letter from the Emperor to Qustavus 
Adolphus, ' traduit de Tallemand en fran9ais,' dated from Ratisbon, 
August 1 8th, 1630, is also there, in which the Emperor expresses surprise 
at the hostile attitude of Sweden, and demands either a formal declara- 
tion of war or a peaceful understanding. Gustavus Adolphus answers 
from Stralsund, October 30th, 1630, and expressly reminds him of 
his fonner conduct and his many hostile acts. — "Ed. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

GERMANY FROM THE DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS TO 
WALLENSTEIN'S catastrophe. NOVEMBER, 1 63 2 — 
FEBRUARY, 1 634.* 

(Dissensions in the Swedish Camp : Oxenstiema and Bemhard oi 
Weimar. — Beginning of the French Negotiations : Marquis de 
i Feuquieres. — The Treaty of Heilbronn, April 23rd, 1633.— 

1 Wallenstein's ambiguous conduct of the war in 1633. — Negotiation 

I with Saxony. The letter of December 26th, 1633.— The Bond oi 

Pilsen, January 12th, 1634, — ^The murder at Eger, February 2Sth, 
I 1634. 

I OXENSTIERNA, BeRNHARD OF WeIMAR, FeUQUIERES, ANE 

» THE Treaty of Heilbronn. April, 1633. 

: /^USTAVUS ADOLPHUS was general and diplomatis 

* in one person. In this the greatness of his charactei 

'* consisted ; and it gave a unity and emphasis to his far 

seeing and thoughtful policy, of which his opponents, witl 
I, their far simpler tasks, could not boast. 

A • Forster, F., Wallenstein's Briefe; Berlin, 1628. The same 

[' Wallenstein als Feldherr u. Staatsman. The same, WaUenstein' 

Prozess; Leipzig, 1844. Von Aretin, Wallenstein; Regensburg 
i 1848. Dudik, Forschungen, 1853. The same, Wallenslein vo: 

\ seiner Enthebung bis zur Uebemahme des Commando's, 1858. Helbif 

I Wallenstein und Amim, 1850. The same. Kaiser Ferdinand n dc 

•^ Herzog von Friedland, 1852. The same, Gustav Adolf and dc 

Kurfurst von Sachsen, 1854. Hurter, zur Geschichte Wallensteim 
1855. The same, WaUenstein's vier letzte Lebensjahre, 1862. Ros< 
I Herzog Bemhard ; Weimar, 1828. Barthold, F. W., Geschichte dc 

V grossen deutschen Krieges ; Stuttgart, 1802. Droysen, Pireuss. Politil 



OXENSTIERNA. 205 

On his death this unity between warfare and policy was 
at an end. There were two parties in the Swedish camp, 
one represented by the Chancellor Oxel Oxenstieraa, the 
other comprised the greater number of the superior officers 
and a host of adventurers, more or less distinguished, 
who had attached themselves to the victorious head- 
quarters. 

. Oxenstiema was the statesman who, always keeping in 
view the political objects of the war, urged as speedy a 
decision as possible; then an acceptable peace might be 
concluded, and he had no interest in advancing the 
supremacy of the generals by an aimless continuance of the 
war. 

. They, on the contrary, wished to continue it precisely on 
the grounds which made Oxenstiema wish for peace. They 
had no wish to lay down their arms, until every one of 
them had secured a splendid booty ; they were the mag- 
nates of the camp, and thought it a singular piece of 
assumption to dictate their course to them with the pen. 
Among the generals there was but one on Oxenstiema's side ; 
this was Gustavus Horn, who was related to him, and 
was one of the most distinguished pupils of Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

Besides these, there were in the camp a multitude of 
German princes and rulers whom the war had driven from 
their countries and subjects, and who hoped to make their 
fortunes in soldier fashion, so long as there was a chance 
of it. Many of them had been so ill-used by the house of 
Hapsburg that they longed to revenge themselves with the 
sword. These younger sons of younger brothers, as Shak- 
speare says, were continually fomenting war; they had 
everything to gain and nothing to lose ; for them the war 
would still have an aim, until every one of them had 



I 



206 TmRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

found a peaceful home again beneath the shadow of some 
principality. 
J Bemhard of Weimar, who was far superior to the others 

in abilities, and might be called the leader of the German 
war party, was one of these emigrants. The youngest of 
seven brothers all living, bom August, 1604, he was left an 
orphan at thirteen, and brought up by his eldest brother, John, 
to the profession of arms, he had grown up as a thorough 
soldier of this martial age. Temperate, free from the 
vices of the age, not highly cultivated, but a sincere Pro- 
testant, and an amiable, excellent man, he was indisputably 
one of the best elements in this circle. He had early 

» shown talent and aspiring ambition ; was the impersonation 

of hatred of the House of Hapsburg and the Albertines, 
(and, when the war broke out, he and several of his brothers 
took up arms as a matter of course. With his brother 
^ William he entered the service of the chivalrous Margrave 

f of Baden, in the spring of 1622, and took part in the 

f campaign in the Palatinate and the unfortunate battle of 

! Wimpfen. After various vicissitudes he made the acquaint- 

'"■ ance of Gustavus Adolphus, the great leading spirit of the 

war, joined him in the campaign in Franconia, on the Rhine 
and in the south, in which he greatly distinguished himself^ 
I and to him especially belonged the fame of following up the 

J victory to the upper Lech and the Tyrolean passes. By 

^ the time of the imhappy day of Liitzen he was already a 

t well-known and distinguished general. 

,' He possessed the art of attaching the soldiers to his 

I person, and had occasionally ventured to oppose Gustavus 

I Adolphus. The discontent in the German element in the 

I camp often found a spokesman in him, and this had given 

I rise to his playing a certain independent part. 

After his troops — 4,000 cavalry and 8,000 infantry — had 



r 



\ 



BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 20? 

unanimously chosen him as leader, he openly demanded a 
German principality — such as a duchy in Franconia, con- 
sisting of the bishoprics of Wiirzburg, Bamberg, &c. ; he 
also thought that he should be able to provide for himself 
in Alsace and on the Upper Rhine ; at all events, he had 
very concrete aims in view in his warfare and policy, and 
made no secret of them. 

This discord explains the fact, that after the victory of 
Liitzen, which was decisive in a military point of view, 
and perceptibly weakened the Emperor for a long time, 
nothing of importance was done by the victors. The strife 
between the generals and Oxenstiema was to blame for it. 

No agreement of any importance had been arrived at 
when France began her negotiations. Richelieu sent his 
commissioner, Feuquieres to Germany to see what was to 
be done now that the little Gothic King was out of the way. 
According to his instructions he was to offer the chief com- 
mand touSaxony, so as to induce it to unite itself with the 
Catholic States against the Emperor, to consult with Oxen- 
stiema, not to conclude any peace without France, and to 
maintain the conditions of the Treaty of Barwalde as re- 
garded the Catholics. Brandenburg and other states of 
the empire were to be treated with, the Swedes were to be 
won over, the Chancellor especially was to be enticed by 
the prospect of the marriage of his son with the yoimg 
Queen Christina, and, above all, his consent was to be 
obtained to the cession of the most important fortresses on 
the left shore of the Rhine to France. Various other agents 
were at the same time paving the way for French interests 
in Germany. 

But Oxenstiema was not idle either. Even before autho- 
rity came from Sweden, nominating him legate of the Crown 
in the Roman empire, and with all the armies, he had pro- 



2o8 XraRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 

ceeded to Central and North Germany to promote his 
objects — the alliance of the Protestant States with Sweden, 
and indemnification for the latter. At Dresden and Berlin 
he found the old hesitation and want of decision ; he 
hoped to find more readiness among the little, states of 
Upper Germany, whom he summoned to Heilbronn at the 
beginning of the year. 

Feuquieres came also, after convincing himself that 
nothing would come of giving the command to Saxony. 
The object now was to prevent Sweden from taking every- 
thing in hand alone. He had already received a repulse 
from Oxenstiema about the Rhenish fortresses ; perhaps he 
might be more successful now at Heilbronn, especially as 
Saxony and Brandenburg would be opposed to the Swedish 
supremacy. In fact, the Protestant States of Upper Ger- 
many were not disposed to enter into the close alliance 
under the leadership of Sweden which Oxenstiema desired, 
and this offered an opportunity for the French commissioner 
to step in as a mediator. 

So, on the 23rd April, 1633, the alliance of the Crown 
of Sweden with the four upper circles of the empire was 
formed by the Treaty of Heilbronn. It was not precisely 
in accordance with Richelieu's wishes, for more weight was 
conceded to Sweden than he liked; but neither did it 
altogether satisfy the Chancellor, for a consilium formatum 
was placed at his side, in which ten representatives of the 
States of the empire were to watch the Swedish conduct of 
the war. Before this a treaty with France had been re- 
newed, essentially on the basis of the Treaty of Barwalde. 
By this the French subsidies were secured, while Sweden 
still maintained the leadership, and it was only with him, 
not with France direct, that the Upper German States had 
entered into alliance. 



BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 20g 

Meanwhile, Bemhard of Weimar, who had taken the com- 
mand of the army of Gustavus Adolphus, had, by the end 
of January, advanced into Franconia from Thuringia, oc- 
cupied the bishopric of Bamberg, and proceeded south- 
wards tQ join Horn in Upper Swabia. In spite of the 
marauding expeditions of John of Werth, the meeting was 
effected at Donauworth in April. But here all advance 
was at an end, for a mutiny broke out in the army, which 
was with difficulty quelled. 

Meanwhile, Bemhard caused the princes of the confede- 
ration assembled at Heidelberg to grant the Duchy of 
Franconia to him, and a month later he received the oath 
of allegiance. The chief command of the federal armies 
was, however, refused him by Oxenstiema, although, as the 
event proved, his nomination would have been the most 
suitable. Horn, whose superior he felt himself to be, was 
placed over him as field-marshal, and the army was only 
pacified by granting its most urgent demands and the 
promise of better days. 

The military events during this crisis were not of great 
importance, and the war only lost its dilatory character at 
the end of the year. 

Part of the conquests on the Danube had been lost again 
by the rash acts of John of Werth. Bemhard now ad- 
vanced, crossed the Danube near Neuburg, and suddenly 
appeared at Ratisbon, which capitulated in November. 
After several months of inactivity, Wallenstein had eva- 
cuated Silesia, threatened Brandenburg, and tumed again 
towards Bohemia, when Bemhard advanced towards the 
Austrian territory without opposition from any considerable 
foe. 



VOL. II. 



210 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Wallenstein*s Catastrophe ; the Ambiguous Campaign 
OF 1633; Negotiations and Treachery; the Bond 

OF PiLSEN ; THE ASSASSINAIION, FEBRUARY, 1 634. 

As things had been for months in the Swedish camp, it* 
would have required but little skill and energy on the 
Imperial side sorely to punish the enemy for its unprotected 
State. But things were no better in the Imperial army ; if 
the Swedes did little, Wallenstein did nothing. If the 
relations between Bemhard and Oxenstierna were cool, 
those between the Imperial generals and the Court of 
Vienna were still cooler. And this was mainly the reason 
that the war did not take an unfortunate turn for Sweden 
in 1633. 

After the battle of Liitzen, Wallenstein had returned to 
Bohemia, and had lain quiet the whole winter. It was 
obvious that his army must have suffered severely, and 
therefore that the first thing to be done was to re-constitute 
it. He also considered that he had reason to be dissatisfied 
with his generals, as is proved by the severe sentences of 
the court-martials. As to the necessity of a still longer 
period of rest for the re-organization of the army, Wallen- 
stein must have been a better judge tlian they were at 
Vienna, who knew nothing of war. Besides this tarriance 
in Bohemia, this " natural bastion," although it might occa- 
sion some losses in other places, was easily to be justified 
on strategic grounds.* But that spring should pass over and 
nothing be done, after the winter had been passed in idle- 
ness, might well occasion anxiety. 

While the population of the hereditary dominions was 
almost ruined by the taxes required for the support of Wal- 
lenstein's army, — every official, from the judge to the town- 
♦ Droysen. 



WALLENSTEIN'S tactics. 211 

clerk, had to pay ten per cent., there was a tax of loo 
florins on every doctor's degree, every patent of nobility, 
every carriage, sledge, or handsomely harnessed horse — the 
Swedes advanced southwards to Ratisbon, and northwards to 
Hameln ; still nothing was heard of Wallenstein but com- 
plaints of arrears of pay, nothing of his army but complaints 
of their treatment of the peaceful inhabitants. The general 
had shut himself up in unapproachable seclusion at Prague, 
and admitted no one but his own confidants to his presence 
for weeks. 

At length, with the beginning of June, he advanced 
against Amim, who was in Silesia, with a Saxon army at 
least equal to his ; but instead of a battle taking place, for 
which both were prepared, an armistice was concluded. 
When this had expired, Amim drove Wallenstein back 
from Schweidnitz, when he again relapsed into inactivity 
for weeks. Meanwhile, in July, the imperial troops and 
those of the League under Gronsfeld were together defeated 
in the north, near Oldendorp, in Hesse ; Hameln was taken, 
and in August in the south-west a faithful partizan of the 
P2mperor, the Duke of Lorraine, was overpowered by the 
Swedes at Pfaffenhofen and taken prisoner. 

Great uneasiness now began to be felt at Vienna; at 
Munich they had been uneasy for a long time. At the 
former the disastrous results of the treaty of Znaym were 
recognised, at the latter they felt the revenge of mortal 
enmity. It is clear that Wallenstein was glad of any pre- 
text for sacrificing the Elector to the enemy. When Wal- 
lenstein's only crime was that he had raised an army for 
the Emperor which thrust aside the League, and restored 
Austria to him. Max of Bavaria had incited the Emperor 
against him till he was deposed. This the Duke never 
forgave him. Then there were political differences. Wal- 



212 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

lenstein represented the Emperor's militaiy power, Max the 
principalities; Wallenstein hated the priests and their 
restoration to power, Max saw no other object in the war 
than their victory. Wallenstein beheld the Elector's diffi- 
culties with malicious satisfaction, and when through the 
Emperor he earnestly begged Wallenstein for help, instead 
of giving it he concluded a fresh armistice with Amim, by 
which it was expressly forbidden to give any support on the 
Danube, and on every remonstrance he appealed to his 
right to make war, conclude truces, and negotiate peace 
according to his pleasure. 

When the end of the year came, Wallenstein's only 
military achievement was that with 20,000 men he bad 
compelled 5,000 Swedes, who had ensconced themselves at 
Thum, in Steinau, to capitulate, thereby freeing Silesia from 
the enemy. 

But this enigmatical mode of warfare was no longer 
Wallenstein's only fault. During the course of the spring 
and summer of 1633 he had caused negotiations to be 
entered into, second and third hand, the object of which 
could scarcely have only been to divide and deceive the 
enemy. Discontented Bohemian noblemen, such as Counts 
Terzky and Kin sky, crafty commissioners like Resina, had, 
though disclaiming Wallenstein's responsibility, undertaken 
various correspondence, in which he must have had 
some participation, for the acts and omissions of his inex- 
plicable plan of warfare are entirely in accordance with 
it ; and in spite of Forster's attempt (in three volumes) 
to clear the Duke of suspicion, few persons will conclude 
that he was not implicated in these things. 

The negotiations themselves certainly admit of a harm- 
less explanation. Wallenstein was aware of the discontent 
between Saxony and Sweden. If, therefore, he first put 



SUSPICIONS OF WALLENSTEIX. 213 

himself into communication with Saxony, there was nothing 
treacherous in that; his object might be to divide the 
enemy. Besides, the right of negotiating had undoubtedly 
been granted him. 

The policy of the Edict of Restitution was not his affair ; 
he wished for an acceptable peace based on a reconciliation 
between the creeds, as did Saxony also, and therefore he 
might well enter into an agreement with Amim. It was 
also as much the interest of the Imperialists as of Saxony, 
to expel the Swedes by one means or another from German 
soil* 

Thus these thmgs may be looked at without prejudice to 
him on the principle, Quilibet prsesumitur bonus. 

But Wallenstein was not the man to establish an honour- 
able peace which would have served the good cause. 

He was not given to truth and openness ; he was fond of 
mysterious intrigues for their own sake, apart from their 
purpose, and he always had the lofty schemes of persona* 
ambition in view which his astrological researches pointed 
out to him as ends to be easily attained. £ven had the 
peace which he was projecting been an honourable one, 
which would better have served the great German cause, for 
Max of Bavaria and the Jesuits of the Court of Vienna it 
was treason to everything that they held sacred. 

These transactions did not long remain secret The 
universal dissatisfaction with his mode of carrying on the 
war, or rather not carrying it on, gave reason enough for 
putting the worst construction upon the rumours that were 
flying about, and foes were not wanting at Vienna and 
Munich who zealously fomented discontent with him, and 
late in the summer of 1633 an outbreak could be foreseen. 

• Compare the expressions attributed to him by Chemnitz, II. 135, 
and Khevenhilkr, XIL 578, on the occasion of the armistice of July. 



214 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Wallenstein, therefore, began to consider his plan of retreat 
before it should take place. But the negotiations were 
dragging slowly on ; Sweden and France had been sounded ; 
no agreement had been come to with Saxony, for the 
imfathomable cunning of the Friedlander excited distrust 

By the end of 1633 the situation of affairs was such that 
it was no longer possible to think of honourable negotia- 
tions or the danger of probable complications ; the compli- 
cations were at hand, the danger was present, and the 
breach could be calculated on beforehand. 

When the idea of real treason or open revolt began to 
take possession of Wallenstein's mind, it is impossible to 
decide, in spite of all the materials collected and published 
by FoTster, Aretin, Dudik, and Helbig. That he did not to 
the last entertain any such idea, as Forster thinks, is con- 
sistent only with a very ingenious interpretation of the 
documents. 

It is probable, however, that after November and Decem- 
ber, 1633, Wallenstein was more and more convinced- that 
his position was untenable, saw that his influence at Vienna 
was coming to an end, and that his enemies there would 
again succeed in compassing his fall. He did not choose 
to be surprised by it ; it could but cast him down lower than 
before, for he stood higher than even the Emperor himself, 
and he would probably not be in a position to retire as a 
misunderstood magnate to his estates. 

He therefore preferred to come to some agreement with 
Sweden, Saxony, and France, which should compel the 
Emperor, on the basis of the religious peace and the 
amnesty, to lay down his arms, and to acknowledge him 
as King of Bohemia, and which should at the same time 
enable him to slake his revenge on the Elector of Bavaria. 
It was in this spirit that Terzky and Kinsky negotiated, 



NEGOTIATIONS. 2 1 5 

and during the last few weeks of the year in such a manner 
as to frustrate any attempts at justification. 

The Elector of Saxony felt the approach of the crisis, 
and began to treat more seriously than before, but was 
desirous of discovering whether he could trust Wallenstein. 

Various negotiations went on in December, which were 
intended to clear the ground. There is a letter of Count 
Terrky to Kinsky, under date of December 26th, in which 
he says, " that he is to send passes to the Duke Francis 
Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg — who was going to and fro 
bet\^'een the camps — to enable him to go to Bohemia, that 
they may make terms with him — he was treating in the 
name of Saxony — ' for the Duke is resolved to enter into an 
agreement not only with the Electors of Saxony and Bran- 
denburg, but also with Sweden and France. We shall not 
need the French army, but we shall need their money. The 
master will therefore soon come. We are preparing to unite 
our armies in fourteen days, and to lay aside the mask.' " 

About this time also the Elector of Saxony sent over his 
personal friend, Colonel Schlieffen, that the above-men- 
tioned agreement might be discussed. The despatches 
among the Dresden archives have been made known. The 
contents bear the most obvious marks of internal proba- 
bility. Wallenstein says, among other things, "Spain is 
trying to establish a world-wide dominion : that he would 
not permit. Neither was the King of France to be per- 
mitted to cross the Rhine. The Palatinate must be 
restored, and France settled with somehow. He would 
himself drive the Spaniards from Flanders and Artois. 
There would be no great difficulty with Sweden, if she were 
indemnified on the North Sea. The Electors and bishops 
must have their bishoprics again. To the Duke of Weimar 
something in Alsace may be given, or in Bavaria, the 



2l6 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

'Elector of which,* remarks the ambassador, 'the Duke 
intends entirely to annihilate.* ** 

A few days afterwards the Elector sent another ambassa- 
dor, and Wallenstein declared that he had nothing to add 
to what had been stated to Colonel Schlieffen. 

Wallenstein wished, in possession of all the forces of the 
defenceless Emperor, to extort a peace which would em- 
power him to settle with France and Sweden, to annihilate 
Bavaria, and to effect a reconcilation with the Protestants. 
There is nothing in the despatch as to what he proposed 
for himself. Bohemia is not mentioned, but it is highly 
probable that he had no intention of " leaving this country 
to the empire,** like the Tyrol, but that he had selected it 
as his own price for the peace. But, of course, he would 
not say so to the Saxon ambassador. 

The object, therefore, was, in defiance of the League and 
the Edict of Restitution, to conclude a peace with the 
Emperor, which, to a certain extent, coincided with Riche- 
lieu's plans, and which might reckcHi on popularity in 
Germany itself. 

The distracted nation was thoroughly tired of the war, 
which had nearly lost all significance, and this peace would 
have a reasonable basis in the restoration of the exiles and 
the toleration of Protestantism, which would give Wallea- 
stein the support of hundreds of thousands of Germans. 
He certainly would have all the Protestants on his side, 
and probably all the Catholics, who were convinced of the 
impossibility of carrying out the Edict of Restitution. 

But it was decidedly not an imperial pohcy, and it was 
obvious that the Court of Vienna would endeavour to wrest 
the army which should protect Austria from such hands. 

But this was no easy matter. The army was so com* 
pletely in Wallenstein*s power that it was doubtful whether 



THE BOND OF PILSEX. 2l^ 

he could be got rid of without inciting it to rebellion. Still, 
he had offended many of the generals, and made irrecon- 
cilable enemies of them. He was fond of boasting that he 
had thrust aside the Spaniards, Italians, and Walloons in 
favour of the Germans, so they would soonest fall away. A 
number of duels afterwards took place between them and 
the Germans, and the Germans have never been persuaded 
that the Italians were not his assassins.* 

It is some mitigation of the guilt of the horrible deed, 
that at Vienna, — itself in the greatest peril, — there was 
really no power after the Treaty of Znaym to separate 
the man from his army. The only thing that could be 
done was to divide the army, and then employ some sub- 
ordinate instrument. 

About the middle of January, 1634, Wallenstein took a 
step at Pilsen which proved to the Emperor that the 
moment for action was come. The Emperor had desired 
him to set apart 6,000 men for the support of the Cardinal 
Infanto of Spain, who was coming to the aid of Hapsburg, 
and to set out to re-conquer Ratisbon. Wallenstein would 
do neither the one nor the other, and secured the like dis- 
obedience from the officers. On the nth of January they 
were summoned to Pilsen. Wallenstein communicated to 
them through his confidants, that under such circum- 
stances he should be compelled to lay down the command, 
and asked what they, who were enlisted on his credit, 
thought of it. The officers begged him to retain it as a 
personal favour to them. Twice he declined, but finally 
informed them through Illo, that on one condition he would 

• Hurter in Wallenstein's letzen Lebensjahre, p. 377i calls attention 
to the fact that his bitterest enemies, Aldringen, Maradas, Suys, 
Hatzfeld, CoUoredo, Wangler, were not Italians, and that the most 
distinguished among the Italians, Grallas and Piccolomini, remained 
faithful to him the longesL 



2l8 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

alter his resolution, namely, that they should swear to hold 
by him, and not swerve from their allegiance. To this they 
all consented, and then Illo produced the well-known Bond, 
in which the following was the chief clause : * — " Seeing 
what distress, misery, and ruin would result to them and 
their poor soldiers from the Duke's retirement, they earnestly 
entreated his highness not to allow any weight to the mo- 
tives for it ; not to forsake the army without their know- 
ledge and consent, in consideration of which they take an 
oath to stand faithfully by your highness; not to forsake 
you, to do all that tends to the preservation of yourself and 
the army ; to shed our last drop of blood for this cause ; 
to regard every one who acts inimically to it as a faithless 
and perjured person, on whose possessions, person, and 
life we are bound to take revenge." Whether the limitation 
clause, " without prejudice to allegiance to the Emperor,'* 
was used in reading it, we do not know ; it is certain that 
it was not inserted in the document presented for signature. 
It was signed by forty-two persons, and the new oath was 
celebrated by a great banquet on the 12th of January. 

Wallenstein continued to write the most affectionate 
letters to the Emperor, and received the most affectionate 
letters from Vienna. Each tries to deceive the other, for 
each feels that the time was come for decisive action. 
Information now came from Vienna to the foreign elements 
of the army that well-founded suspicions were entertained 
against Wallenstein ; it was their duty to keep the army for 
the Emperor. Gallas came with an imperial patent, which 
released "all honourable officers, cavaliers, and soldiers 
from obedience to Wallenstein and his creatures Illo and 
Terzky, and placed them under the command of Gallas. 
The document was first of all circulated confidentially, and, 
♦ Authenticated by Aretin. Urkunde, 31. 



ASSASSINATION OF WALLENSTEIN. 2ig 

when most of the regiments were secured, publicly pro- 
claimed on the 22nd of February with beating of drums at 
Prague. 

Wallenstein had been losing precious time in astrology 
and scribbling. When the mysterious messages became 
more and more urgent and more and more gloomy, he 
issued his commands, but they were little or not at all 
obeyed, and on the 23rd of February he left Pilsen, On 
the evening of the 24th he met the remnant of his faithful 
followers, from five to six thousand men, at Eger. In the 
evening there was a noisy banquet ; when the wine had had 
its effect, Butler's dragoons fell upon Kinsky and Terzky, 
and cut them down amidst cries of ** I^ng live Ferdinand ! " 
Soon afterwards, Wallenstein himself, who had just been 
again reading the stars with his astrologer, was struck down 
in his bedchamber. 

No definite orders had been given at Vienna; the 
instructions had only been to secure the Duke, dead or 
alive. It appears that the accomplishment of the rightly 
interpreted command was intrusted to subordinates, foreign 
adventurers, such as Butler and Deveroux. It will never be 
known whose hand struck the blow.* 

The horrible manner in which Wallenstein was slaugh- 
tered makes the impression of an execution of the victim 
of an abominable intrigue. This was the opinion of 
the contemporary world, who compared the tragic end of 
the man with his former greatness, and the Court of Vienna 
did all it could to support this view, for the murderers 
afterwards became inconvenient to it at Vienna. They 

♦ In one of the archives of the war at Vienna, in a petition to the 
King of Hungary, Deveroux is said to have confessed to having been 
the man who conducted the halberdiers to Wallenstein*s chamber. — 
Hurter, p. 437. 



220 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



were rewarded, and then a justification of the murder was 
drawn up, as the most convenient mode of getting rid of 
the traitor. The Duke was murdered " because the dead 
cannot bite," and the Emperor allowed it all to be put down 
to his account. He even afterwards had a sort of official 
justification published, entitled, '' Perduellionis chaos,'' in 
which the proofs adduced are so insufficient and so badly 
put together that it is impossible to help thinking that the 
Court really had no conclusive reasons for it. 

That they had no documentary proof against Wallenstein 
at Vienna does not prove his innocence; and time has 
brought evidence of his guilt to lights and proved that the 
Court of Vienna was justified if it was morally convinced 
that Wallenstein was in its sense a traitor. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE WAR FROM THE BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN, 1634, TO 
BERNHARD*S DEATH, 1 639. 

Defeat of the Swedish anny at NOrdlingen.—Oxenstiema's frnitless 
negotiations. — ^The peace of Prague, 1635. — Its significance and 
results. — Baner*s victories and vicissitudes, 1636-7. — Victories and 
death of Bemhard of Weimar, 1638-9. 

The Battle of Nordlingen ; Defeat of the Swedish 
Army. 

'X*HESE events explain the inactivity with which the war 
dragged on in 1633 and the first half of 1634. The 
Swedes were lamed by want of unity amongst their leaders, 
the Imperialists by Wallenstein's treachery and catastrophe. 
But the second half of 1634 brought a change. The 
Imperial leaders, chiefly by the help of the divisions in the 
Swedish camp, gained a decisive victory in September, which 
caused the misfortunes of 1631 and 1632 to be forgotten ; 
and now Richelieu secured the command which for four 
years had been persistently refused him. The affairs of 
Sweden and Germany are henceforth indissolubly connected 
with French policy. 

The first half of the new year brought with it no decisive 
military events ; a certain confusion, which is quite intelli- 
gible, had crept into the imperial camp, and that the enemy 
did not take better advantage of this was caused by their 



\ 



222 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



own want of unity, particularly by dissensions betwee 
Bemhard and Horn, Oxenstiema's son-in-law. The Imp 
rialists gained some isolated victories in Bavaria, but i 
lower Germany they lost Hildesheim ; in the south, Philippi 
buig was obliged to capitulate, and the army of Lorrain 
suffered a fresh defeat, which resulted in the expulsion c 
the house. The French had not only gained a firm footin 
A here, but also on the Rhine, and had taken possession c 

' some fortresses in Alsace which Andre had conquered. Th 

French had obviously gained in territory. 

Oxenstiema had meanwhile been extremely active. Fu 

of anxiety on account of Bemhard's efforts to assert hi 

independence, the growing assumption of the French, an 

the ambiguous conduct of the Saxons, on the 6th of Februar 

he convened a meeting of the representatives of the district 

of lower and central Germany, and sought to gain acce 

sions for the League of Heilbronn. His endeavours wer 

fruitless, and at Frankfort, where the representatives c 

^ Upper and Lower Germany met in April, it was no bettei 

Feuquieres had gained adherents in the south partly b 

means of money. The votes were not in favour of th 

; Swedish command. Brandenburg, though not against th 

L League in itself, became excited when there was a talk c 

* indemnifying Sweden by Pomerania, which was quite inte! 
ligible ; and Saxony openly opposed the League of Hei 

* bronn. So there was no prospect of success for the Swedis 
L proposition ; but neither did France attain her wishei 
I She demanded that Philippsburg should be given up undc 
I a solemn promise to restore it without any other " rewar 

or indemnity," " que Thonneur de vous avoir assist^ avec 1 

sinc^rit^ et genereuse conduite qui accompagnent toutc 

t les actions royales." The states of Upper Germany wer 

I disposed to accede, but Saxony put a veto on it, and ther 



wallenstein's army. 223 

it ended. Thus the meeting was fruitless, and presented 
the unedifying spectacle of selfish action without unity, or 
any more lofty views. It was unmistakable that the 
interests of Swedish and French command were in almost 
open hostility. Meanwhile the imperial army, 25,000 
strong, had reached the upper Palatinate. 

It is a proof of the excellence of the organization of 
Wallenstein's army, that although intended for totally dif- 
ferent political objects, it now permitted itself to be employed 
in accordance with the Emperor's views, and that it was so 
efficient under far inferior leaders. Those who replaced 
Wallenstein were not likely to cause his loss to be forgotten. 
Neither Gallas nor Ferdinand's son, the King of Rome, an 
inexperienced youth, were likely to do so ; yet by the end 
of six months the army was not only in an efficient state, 
but for the first time since 1630 gained a decisive victory, 
which not only completely changed the aspect of the 
military situation, but produced perceptible political results 
during the rest of the war. 

After the end of May the imperial army directed its 
steps from the Upper Palatinate towards Ratisbon. The 
Swedish troops, diminished as they were, were divided into 
two armies. Horn was on the Lake of Constance, to pre- 
vent the advance of the Cardinal Infanto, who was coming 
by tedious marches from Lombardy, and Bernhard was try- 
ing to protect Ratisbon. They were on very bad terms ; 
each cast reproaches on the other, and they did not unite 
their troops till the 12th of July. By this time they had 
22,000 men assembled near Augsburg ; it was too late. They 
did indeed take Landshut by storm on the 22nd of July, but 
when they slowly advanced thence, Ratisbon had already 
fallen, after a brave resistance, on the 26th, and they had to 
retreat to Augsburg. At the same time Baner and the 



224 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 

Saxons in Bohemia were advancing successfully, Hildes- 
heim in nether Saxony had £sdlen, but the great danger was 
that the Cardinal Infanto would join the Imperial army, and 
then all South Germany would be lost 

Bemhard and Horn had at first separated, then united 
again near Giinzberg; but their armies, consisting of 
scarcely 10,000 efficient men, exhausted and famished, 
were in a pitiful condition. Bemhard wrote to Oxenstiema 
that " as the enemy gave him no rest to recover himself, 
the chancellor must find another army to meet the enemy." 

Meanwhile the imperial army, before the arrival of the 
Spaniards, after taking Donauworth, had turned towards 
Nordlingen. In order to save Wiirtemberg, Bemhard and 
Hom crossed the Danube near Leipheim and Giinzberg, 
encamped themselves securely near Bopfingen, and sent 
reinforcements to Nordlingen ; but they could not prevent 
the enemy's cavalry from devastating Franconia and Swabia. 
The situation of the Swedes appeared so hopeless that, on 
the 26th of August, Oxenstiema signed a treaty with Feu- 
quieres by which Philippsbuig was given over to the French, 
to be garrisoned by French and German troops as a pledge 
to be restored in time of peace. Even with the promised 
French help, there was but small prospect of success, for 
the Cardinal Infanto had brought from twelve to fifteen 
thousand men to his cousin, and the imperial army, con- 
sisting of Spaniards, Italians, Germans, &c., was standing 
thirty thousand strong before Nordlingen. 

The troops of Bemhard and Hom did not amount to 
more than 24,000 men. Bemhard advised to give battle, 
Hom to wait for the reinforcements. On the 5th of Sep- 
tember they approached the town, and by a successful 
surprise of the enemy obtained a good position; but all 
attempts on the 6th to drive the enemy from theirs were in 



BATTLE OF NORDLINGEN. 225 

vain. The loss was so great and the prospect of success so 
small, that about noon Bemhard advised to discontinue the 
battle ; but the enemy divined their purpose, and pursued 
them so hotly that the retreat became a desperate flight. 
Bemhard escaped with difficulty in the tumult, and Horn 
was taken- prisoner. The loss was reckoned at 12,000 
dead and 6,000 prisoners. The might of the army of 
Gustavus Adolphus was destroyed. Swabia was now 
defenceless ; the Duke of Wurtemberg and his troops fled ; 
Bemhard attempted to dam the stream, but it was no longer 
possible. By the middle of September the wild hordes of 
cavalry mshed on, took Goppingen and Heilbronn, and 
made sad havoc in Waiblingen, the vale of Weinsberg, and 
all unprotected places. Thus the supremacy of the Imperial 
arms was established for three years and a half, and an 
ardent desire of Richelieu fulfilled. 

Sweden's political position experienced the same fate as 
her military force. The meeting at Frankfort broke up 
abruptly. Oxenstiema tried in vain to infuse some courage 
into the leaders, and to induce them to collect their scattered 
forces and to unite with the troops from Bohemia. 

The troops sent from the north to join the remnant of 
Bemhard's army at Frankfort were an undisciplined set, a 
scourge to the population, a torment to the officers, and 
little adapted to promote success. Baner, however, in 
Bohemia, did not go southwards but northwards, in order at 
all events to maintain that part of Germany. Even Oxen- 
stiema now urgently solicited French help. In October, two 
commissioners, Loffler and Streiflf, were sent to Paris, in 
order to settle with France, even, as their instructions ex- 
pressly stated, at the price of the cession of Alsace. 

Meanwhile, before the end of the year, nearly all Fran- 
conia was occupied by the Imperialists, and all the country as 

VOL. II. Q 



22f6 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS^ WAR. 

feir as Swabia and the Upper Rhine was the scene of horrible 
barbarities. Calw, in Wiirtemberg, was almost annihilated. 
On the 7th of October Philippsburg was given up to the 
French, and a few days later the d3ring Count Otto Ludwig 
ceded to them the fortresses in Upper Alsace. 

Meanwhile, Loffler and Streiff arrived at Paris. Richelieu 
was well pleased to make considerable conquests without 
sacrifice or war, and was not disposed to leave this pleasant 
path without occasion. The offers of the German ambas- 
sadors had meanwhile been forestalled by the course of 
events, and this they were disdainfully made to feel at 
Paris. There was no inclination to give either pecuniary or 
military aid; so on the ist of November they were com- 
pelled to agree to an ignominious treaty which only gave 
conditional promise of French help, but definitely ceded 
important pledges to France. In return for a place in the 
sittings of the Confederation, participation in the conduct 
of the war, the fortresses and Alsace, nothing was granted 
but an engagement to support 12,000 men, either Germans 
or troops of some other nation, to be commanded by a 
prince belonging to the German Confederation, and a 
payment once (qr all of 500,000 livres. 

At Worms, where a number of the States of the Empire 
had assembled around Oxenstiema, they were willing to 
agree to it, being utteriy powerless, and having nothing more 
to lose* But Oxenstiema would not sign, and sent Hugo 
Grotius to Paris to negotiate on some other basis. Mean- 
while Heidelberg, which had been so repeatedly threatened, 
was relieved with the aid of the Frencli troops who were 
summoned across the Rhine, and thus for the first time 
French arms were openly employed against the Emperor. 
Up to this time a secret game had been played ; France had 
been carrying on war without declaring it. 



THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. 21^ 

The Peace of Prague, 30TH of May, 1635. 

The defeat at Nordlingen had thrust down the Swedish 
army and poUcy from the commanding position which 
Gustavus Adolphus had acquired for them ; the army, not 
only because it had for the first time lost a great battle after 
being considered, and having really been for four years 
invincible, but still more because the original character of 
the army, already greatly changed, was now entirely lost. 
Some gaps had been made in the old Swedish army with 
its national and religious stamp, even under Gustavus 
Adolphus, but they were well filled up with material which, 
though serviceable in a military point of view, had con- 
siderably changed the character of the arriiy. After this 
great defeat they could not afford to be nice in the choice 
of material, and had to put up with a homeless rabble of 
fugitives and deserters, whose lawlessness soon made the 
Swedish army equal to, if not worse, than others in wicked- 
ness. Even the first corps which Oxenstierna collected at 
Frankfort in order, in case of need, to oppose the advancing 
Imperialists, showed what miserable creatures they were 
getting together. To keep them from open mutiny he had 
to extort 100,000 florins from the free city, and, to rid it of 
their wild doings, Bemhard was obliged to lead them across 
the Rhine, their track being everywhere marked by bound- 
less excesses. 

The Swedish policy in the German war did not recover 
from the defeat at NordHngen. Sweden immediately lost 
her most important allies in the camp of the German 
princes. At a rime of great distress, when both enemies 
were already in the country. Saxony had been pressed into 
alliance with Sweden ; but the Saxon court, full of mistrust 
of Gustavus Adolphus, had constantly chafed against the 



228 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR* 

alliance, and only joined in the war by halves for the saiktoi 
appearances. When his military saccesses were at their 
height, Gustavus Adolphus had left the march through 
Bohemia to Vienna to the Saxons, because he wished to 
compel them to open enmity with the Emperor, and feared, 
in case of non-success on his part, to see them immediately 
rejoin the Hapsburg party. If this was the position of 
atl'airs when the Swedish arms were at the height of their 
fame and under the impression of the victory of Breiten- 
feld, it was clear that now, after the defeat of Nordlingen, 
nothing would outweigh the imperial influence in Saxony. 
The 6th of September was the signal for a treaty between 
the Saxon Court and the Emperor. It also involved a 
change in the relations between Sweden and France. 

Richelieu had laboured imceasingly to gain an influence 
in the German difficulties ; Gustavus Adolphus had accepted 
his subsidies, but absolutely forbidden any interference with 
his plans. After the King's death, Oxenstiema had hoped 
to keep the French coK)peration within the same limits, and 
to a certain extent he succeeded. But after the defeat of 
Nordlingen all this was changed. Richelieu was no longer 
a burdensome interloper to be outwitted, but a desired ally 
for a little help from whom, great sacrifices must be made. 

In short, the battle destroyed the Swedish army, ripened 
the long-cherished ideas of the two North German Electors 
of entering into separate treaties with the Emperor, and 
brought about a closer approach between Sweden and 
France, in tha,t they now assumed the conduct of the 
German war on terms of equality. 

Meanwhile, the military events of the first part of 1635 
showed the superiority of the imperial and the inefficiency 
of the Swedish-French arms. In January the Imperialists 
took Philippsbuig firom the French by a successful surprise ; 



THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. 229 

John of Werth also succeeded in surprising Spire ; and in 
March the Spaniards took Treves, and carried off the Elector 
as a prisoner. 

These misfortunes, however, only disturbed Richelieu's 
diplomacy on the surface ; he quietly pursued his way. It 
was his perpetual aim to deprive the Swedes of the com- 
mand, to form a French party among the German princes, 
and by means of subsidies to attach the Duke of Weimar to 
his interests. The progress of Spain finally led in this case 
also, to a breach in this unnatural alliance. 

On the 8th of February, Richelieu had concluded a 
treaty with Holland against Spain, and in May followed the 
declaration of war. 

A few days after, the Peace of Prague * between Saxony 
and the Emperor was signed; the conditions had been 
previously discussed on the 24th of November at Pima. 

The affair did not do much honour to the diplomacy of 
Electoral Saxony. At first the Elector made large demands, 
and then allowed hhnself to be miserably intimidated at 
Pima. He then held fast to the Puna preliminaries in a 
lump, and disregarded all the remonstrances of the Pro- 
testants ; but when the Imperialists proposed a number of 
alterations he immediately agreed to them. 

From the narrow-minded Lutheranism which prevailed 
at this court, no religious peace could be expected which 
would include the Reformed party. The opinions held 
here were those of the court theologian, Hohenegg, who 
said, ''For it is as plain as that the sun shines at mid- 
day, that the Calvinistic doctrine is full of firightful blas- 
phemy, horrible error and mischief, and is diametrically 
opposed to God's holy revealed word. To take up arms 

• Helbig, dor Prager Friede. Compare with Rommel, Gesch. v. 
Hessen, viii. 366. Droysen, iiL 132, with Barthold. 



230 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

for the Cahrinists is nothing else than to serve under the 
originator of Calvinism — the devil. We ought, indeed, to 
give our lives for our brethren ; but the Calvinists are not 
our brethren in Christ ; to support them would be to oflfer 
ourselves and our children to Moloch. We ought to love 
our enemies, but the Calvinists are not our enemies, but 
God's.'' 

The Treaty of Passau and the religious peace of Augs- 
burg were, in a general way, confirmed ; but all who did 
not accept the treaty were excluded, and the subjects of 
Austria, the inhabitants of the Palatinate, and the members 
of the council of the confederation, were excepted from 
the amnesty. The amnesty itself, like everything that 
concerned ecclesiastical affairs and the fate of the bishop- 
rics, was full of side-doors and purposely designed loop- 
holes, so that a Jesuit of Cologne could write to a fellow of 
his order who was uneasy about it, "The Elector will 
lose his reputation by the treaty, and the allies will be 
divided by taking the bait ; everything will be well guarded 
by clauses, and the concessions will only be apparent 
(* Latet ubique anguis in herba, nihil concessum, nihil con- 
clusum, quod a nostris non fuerit ponderatum et in recessu 
aliquid habeat') " 

A subversion of the imperial constitution, also, was in- 
volved in the Treaty of Prague. All unions and alliances 
were by it declared to be at an end, except the electoral 
union, the hereditary unions of the house of Austria and 
the hereditary fraternity between Saxony, Hesse, and Bran- 
denburg; the ancient right, therefore, of the princes to 
conclude treaties was abolished. To this was added the 
regulation, that for the future there should be only one 
army in the empire, to be headed by the Emperor, not only 
as the chief, but sole commander. Finally, it was decreed 



THE PEACE OF PRAGUE. 23 1 

that the Duke of Lorraine should be re-instated, which 
meant that Saxony, who desired peace at the sacrifice of all 
her allies, should be involved in a war with France, and 
that in the interests of Austria. 

Brandenburg, which, after long vacillation, finally sub- 
mitted to the Emperor, soon experienced what was meant 
by the imperial military supremacy. The Elector was no 
longer master of his own country ; his own officers, under 
oath to the Emperor as well as to himself, established aa 
anarchical military rule of the worst kind. 

One thing, however, was noteworthy in this peace. The 
Emperor, Ferdinand II., in all essentia) points, with 
very little exception, gave up the Edict of Restitution for 
Saxony and Brandenburg. Not that this was brought 
about by the treaty, but it was the first evidence that the 
Emperor no longer expected to carry out this ordinance. 
It required thirteen years more of fearfiil warfare to prove 
that it must be given up for the other German states also. 

The idea of putting an end, in one way or another, to 
this unholy war must certainly have been attractive at this 
doleful period. But the Treaty of Prague held out no 
prospect of it either to the empire or for the states, who 
thought they had at least taken good care of themselves. 
A time of fearful suffering now began for Saxony and 
Brandenburg ; both countries were the victims of a re- 
fined brutality; the Imperialists treated them like hostile 
countries, and the Swedes with the nudicious vengeance 
which is the portion of renegades. The condition into 
which the countries of North Germany were brought by the 
peace was a fearful satire upon it. 



232 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

Weimar in French Pay. — Baner's Victories and 
ViassiTUDES. 1636-7. 

Before the end of 1635 a favourable turn took place for 
the Swedish arms. 

In the western seat of war Duke Bemhard was fighting 
with decided ill success. The Imperialists were making 
unhindered progress on the Rhine and in Alsace, when at 
length the French appeared in the field with a second 
army. It consisted of 15,000 men, commanded by the 
Cardinal de la Valette, youngest son of the Duke of Eper- 
non, and it comprised the flower of the French nobility. 
That military training now began for them which afterwards 
produced heroes. Turenne, Guiche, Guebriant, were in 
this army. But Bemhard had sufficiently painful expe- 
rience that this corps had not got beyond the very elements 
of military training. La Valette's delays sent him nearly 
out of his mind, and, before he came, KaisersEutem was 
lost, and the Imperialists gained a firm footing on the left 
shore of the Rhine. They met at last, and again advanced 
through the Palatinate, and occupied Kreuznach. While 
the Cardinal besieged Bingen, Mayence was relieved, but 
in August, Frankfort was lost. Bemhard now urged La 
Valette to cross to the right bank of the Rhine, and he was 
willing to do so, but the Swiss and the French cavaliers 
in the army opposed it. They were only silenced by 
threats that the mutineers would be cut down, and by the 
assurance that William of Hesse was on the other side. So 
they crossed ; but the Landgrave did not come, and both 
armies were in a very critical situation. The French, who 
lay before Hochstein, suffered from want and sickness, and 
mutiny was rife in Bemhard's German regiments. Hard 
pressed by the enemy, amidst some feats of arms, but on 



WEIMAR AND FRANCE. 233 

the whole with great losses, Bemhard made the brilliant 
retreat to the Saar which won admiration even from the 
enemy. The Cardinal would not cross the Rhine again, 
but extolled the excellent military discipline they had 
passed through, and the warlike merits of the Germans. 
His soldiers sang a satirical song about him, with the 
refrain — 

' Oii est le due de Vimarr' 

which the Cardinal had always been exclaiming when in 
difficulties. 

In the north, Oxenstiema, who had not been able to 
accomplish anything at Paris, tried to gather the scattered 
elements together, but could not succeed in keeping the 
Duke of Liineburg on his side, nor in coming to any terms 
with Saxony. Bauer's army consisted of 26,000 men, and 
was in good condition ; but as they were almost all Ger- 
mans, the Swedes did not altogether rely upon them. The 
Elector of Saxony was continually trying to induce the 
colonels to make peace with the Emperor, and rudely 
broke off the negotiations with Oxenstierna, by saying he 
would send his decision to him at Stralsund. 

Half in despau:, Oxenstiema retreated to Wismar, and 
left it to Baner, who was in perpetual difficulties, from the 
defections of the German princes and of his own troops, to 
hold the middle and lower Elbe imtil he should succeed in 
bringing reinforcements to the seat of war, and in forming a 
new army on the sea-coast 

Meanwhile the Saxons set out to divide the Swedish 
troops on the Elbe. They proceeded down the river ; and 
the vanguard of the Swedes, which was weak, yielded ; but 
on the ist of November an engagement took place at Domitz, 
in which the Saxons were beaten. This was the beginning 



234 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

of returning success to the Swedes ; it infused courage into 
their depressed allies; the hard-pressed Landgrave of Hesse, 
especially, gained breathing time, since the imperial army 
was compelled by this defeat to move towards the north. 

Before this an important diplomatic event had taken 
place, which had a decisive influence on the course of 
events — the peace negotiations with Poland. It was per- 
fectly clear that war could not be carried on in Germany 
and in Poland at the same time. But which was to be 
given up? There was a strong feeling in Sweden for the 
war with Poland, while Richelieu made every effort to put 
an end to it, that the Swedes might be at liberty for the 
war in Germany. With this object. Count d*Avaux was 
sent to Poland. On the other hand, it was the policy of 
the Pope and of the Hapsbuigs to keep on the war in 
Poland. At the end of May the negotiations began at 
Ruhmsdorf, near Marienburg. After much vicissitude and 
vacillation, and having been more than once threatened by 
fresh conflicts, they were successfully terminated on the 
1 2th of September, chiefly through D*Avaux*s diplomatic 
energy and virtuosoship. The treaty was honourable and 
advantageous to the Swedes, and set their armies under 
Wrangel and Torstenson at liberty for Germany. 

The results soon appeared. Baner, united with Tors- 
tenson in Mecklenburg, gained several decided advantages. 
From the 7th to the 17th of September Torstenson de- 
feated the Saxons near Kiritz, and after having boasted 
that they would drive the Swedes across the sea, they sued 
ignominiously for a truce. This produced a reaction in the 
south-west ; William of Hesse again stood fhmly by the 
Swedes. 

Towards the end of November, Gallas had to conunenoe 
a disastrous retreat from Lorraine, and to confine himsdf 



RICHELIEU AND BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 235 

to petty warfare. Nevertheless, in November, Mayence, 
after having been held for four years by the Swedes, was 
ceded again by capittdation. The Rhine district was then 
invaded by wild foreign visitors, the Cossacks and Hussars, 
and the distress in the whole western part of the empire 
fearfully increased. 

Richelieu, who had gained an important diplomatic 
victory by means of D'Avaux, was not satisfied with the 
way in which the war was carried on. This is shown by the 
severe punishments which he ordained, and still more plainly 
by the decided connection into which he now entered with 
Bemhard of Weimar. In the summer, on discussing the 
subject with La Valette and other French generals, he had 
convinced himself that nothing was to be done without the 
Duke. In July he had conjured La Valette to neglect 
nothing which was calculated to secure the Duke for the 
interests of France. If Alsace failed, he should be pro- 
vided for in Lorraine ; should that fail too, France would 
take care of him. 

On the 27th of October a formal treaty was entered 
into at St. Germain between France and Weimar.* He 
was to maintain an army of 18,000 Germans for an 
annual grant of 4,000,000 livres, of which 200,000 were 
to be allotted for the Duke's income. Besides this, 
the Landgraviate of Alsace and the prefecture of Hagenau, 
with all the rights of the House of Austria, were to be 
made over to him, with one condition only, that the 
Catholic religion should be upheld. For this territory com- 
pensation was to be made in time of peace. The Duke 
was to place his army under the King of France, and to 
promise to lead it wherever he should desire. 

The Duke did not conceal from himself the importance 
* Rose, ti. 467-469, 479. 



236 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

of this treaty, and took special care not to disturb the 
opinion of his troops that he was in the field only as an 
independent ally of France ; but he wanted the French, and 
trusted that he should be able to abide by the treaty without 
forfeiting his independence. He went through various pain- 
ful experiences on his way to Paris, but maintained a 
princely bearing at the Court, where they tried to allure him 
by banquets and beautiful women. In the subsequent con- 
duct of the war he successfully imitated his model, Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, and was in fact much more independent than 
might have been expected from the conditions of the treaty. 
He was his own master, but carried on the war with French 
money. 

The time had now arrived when the remnant of the 
Swedish army regained its importance. Saxony and Bran- 
denburg were once more drawn into the war, and were fear- 
fully chastised for the separate treaties they had made. 

The most able man whom Sweden now possessed was 
Baner. He was a thorough soldier, steeled and hardened 
in all weathers, and exhibited a certain blustering indifference 
to death and danger. He was an active and skilful general, 
and was the first of the successors of Gustavus under whom 
the Swedish arms achieved victory again ; but he was also 
a complete representative of this later period of the war, 
for he carried it on without any lofty aims, solely as a 
business which brought with it gain, enjoyment, and revelry. 
He gave himself up to pleasure and excess like the soldiers 
under his command, was a wild, lawless fellow, a creature of 
the army and the age ; but he possessed the military ability 
of a generation who knew peace only by name, and who 
had grown up amidst the rough gales of fearful conflicts. 

But the war had assumed a character at which even 
Baner sometimes shuddered. He once said of his own 



JOHN OF WERTH. 237 

soldiers that it would be no marvel if the earth opened and 
swallowed up such shameless wantons. 

It was he who brought the scourge of this war into un- 
fortunate electoral Saxony. He had first invaded the 
country in January and February, 1636, but not being strong 
enough to advance further, he had retreated to a post of 
observation in a camp near Werben. While he was lying 
still here, and, as far as it was possible in his painful pecu- 
niary embarrassments, obtaining reinforcements with French 
money, the imperial troops under Peter Gotz were devas- 
tating Ix)wer Hesse and part of Westphalia. Eighteen 
towns and three hundred villages were ruined, forty-seven 
castles burnt, and one third of the population disappeared, 
and John of Werth, with his hordes of cavalry, was terrify- 
ing the neighbourhood of Paris. " Jean de Werth " threw 
the capital of France into a panic of fear, and the people 
were preparing for the horrors of a visit firom these dreaded 
horsemen. Richelieu alone, on whose head imprecations 
were called down, maintained a manly attitude, and with 
imposing calmness faced the furious mob. It was shown 
once more what the French were as a nation ; they readily 
furnished money and troops when necessity required. When 
a large army was equipped the panic subsided, and the 
enemy would not have been able long to remain on French 
soil if want of skill in the command, dissensions, and 
political intrigues had not lamed the defensive efforts of the 
people. 

They were, however, at length relieved by the first great 
victory which Baner meanwhile had gained in the north. 

At the end of September he had again advanced against 
the Saxons, and overtaken the Elector and Hatzfeld near 
Wittstock. On the 4th of October a sanguinary and long- 
doubtful struggle took place, which, however, ended in the 



V 



238 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' ^ 

retreat of the Saxotis and Imperialists, Six thausaiK 
and the baggage and artiUery of the Elector were left 
field of battle. The resultSj if not to be compare 
those of the victory of Nordlingen, were sufficient 
portant. They inspired fresh hopes into Austria's eni 
Saxoo/s defection recoiled inith a heavy weight up 
instigators of it ; France was relieved ; Denmark ret 
qtiiet ; and those who had lately gone over^ such as K 
of Liineburg, were placed in a most painful situation. 

In November, Baner proceeded southwards t^ 
Saxony and Thuringia, and made inroads as far as 
These nnfortunate countries suffered fearful deva; 
from both friends and foes. In December, he again 
towards electoral Saxony, subdued Erfurtj and then adi 
by way of Naumburg to Meissen, in order to interc* 
meeting of John George of Saxony with the tro 
Brandenburg, 

At this time, the 32nd of December^ 1636, the son 
Emperor Ferdinand II, was elected King of Rom 
had been attempted unsuccessfully before, and w 
now accomplished without opposition — the Elec 
Treves was in prison, of the Palatinate in exile, the 1 
of Bavaria noi generally acknowledged — but just then 
an important success for the imperial cause. On th' 
of February of the following year Ferdinand II, died 

The year 1637 brought increasing success to the 
lialists, so that they were able to project the cxj 
of the Swedes from German soil. But then they 
not have displaced competent leaders like John of 
and' have put a man like G alias at their head, whc 
forgot his duty in the pleasures of a luxurious camp-li 

Electoral Brandenburg now zealously took part 
war, Geoi^e William entered into a treaty wi 



BAKER'S TA.CTICS. 239 

Emperor at Prague, in which he agreed to raise an army 
of 7,000 men in Brandenburg and Pomerania, which was to 
swear fealty both to the Elector and the Emperor. 

Meanwhile, Baner had been shut in at Torgau by a force 
at least double his own, and he was obliged to be on the 
alert lest he and his troops should be lost. He resolved to 
retire to the coast and maintain his position in Pomerania. 
There was a dexterous rumour that he would appear before 
Erfurt, and a detachment of the imperial army was therefore 
kept on the left shore. Baner then crossed the Elster near 
Herzberg, and, proceeding by way of Luckau and Lubben, 
reached the Oder near Fiirstenberg, and crossed it in shallow 
places. But as he was proceeding to Landsberg on the 
Warthe, he was pursued by the Imperialists by way of 
Jiiterbogk, Baruth, and Kustrin, and on the 4th of July 
they were before Landsberg, while Wrangel, who was to 
advance from Pomerania to meet Baner, had only reached 
Schwedt. Once again Baner deceived the enemy. Pretend- 
ing that he was going through Poland, he returned to the 
Oder, waded through the shallow stream opposite Goritz, 
and on the 13th of July joined WrangeFs vanguard. The 
forces of both then retreated to Stettin. 

Victories and Death of Bernhard of Weimar. 
1638-9. 

Neither the armies nor the generals who had been carry- 
ing on the war in Germany for the last four years showed a 
trace of its original object, either in their character or pro- 
ceedings ; on all sides there was the same degeneracy, the 
same lawless doings of homeless soldiers, who only cared 
to live through a few merry years amidst the universal 
misery. Among the common soldiers this was indicated by 
incredible bestiality ; by their leaders in the same manner, 



240 THIRD PHASE OF THE TFORTY YEARS* ^ 

though in a less degree. Eveiy sendmeot of pan 
&ith, justice^ and morality had utterly perished i 
vortex of unbridled passions, Richelieu^s tenacioui 
macy and Austria's blind zeal for conversion are 
the only remaining symptoms of a conscious purpose 

Under such circumstances Bemhard of Weimar a 
a renown which would not otherwise have been his p 

He was the most gifted of all the princely advei 
who were hoping to gain a principality in this g: 
chance — the only one among the generals w^ho h, 
degenerated into a homeless hireling. In German 
forgot that he was a French field -marshal, for he no 
in spite of the Treaty of St Germain, had mainta 
certain independence towards the French^ but ra 
German army to make himself indet>endeDt both 
French and the Swedes- He took advantage of the 
between the Germans, the Swedes, and the Frenc 
appeared everjnvhere as the champion of Protestai 
many. To add to this now, there were his brilliant i 
achievements, which put even those of Baner in 
shade, and seemed to bring back the days of Gi 
Adolphus, Up to this time the jealousy of the I 
had not allowed him to develop his talents to the f 
had always been placed in the second rank, but n 
acted independently, and with a skill like that of A 
stein ^ he created an army of his own, and it could 
denied that it bore that decided stamp which German 
German officers, and German mihtary skill conferred 
army. In a surprisingly short time he had a splendi 
in the field, and after the beginning of 1638 accom; 
feats which placed him among the ranks of the first g 
of his time* 

The Treaty of St, Germain had not been fully cani 



BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 24 1 

by the French. Months had passed in vexatious negotia- 
tions about the bare performance of their engagements. At 
length, in April, 1637, an agreement had been come to. 
Bemhard only received two million and a half of livres, 
and only 10,000 men, instead of the 20,000 he had hoped 
for. Then, to please Richelieu, he was obliged to agree 
to defend Lorraine, and several weeks passed before 
pressing pecuniary difficulties permitted the expedition to 
begin. Nothing decisive could take place in that year, 
and it was with difficulty that Bemhard obtained leave, 
after some progress had been made, to cross the Rhine, and 
come to Bauer's relief. 

The Rhine was crossed at the end of July ; the first 
attacks of John of Werth were successfully repulsed, but it 
was not possible to maintain the right bank without rein- 
forcements, in face of the increasing forces of the enemy. 
In October, Bemhard commenced a retreat, and spent the 
ranter months in the bishopric of Basle, continually nego- 
tiating with the Court at Paris, who at length agreed, in 
February, to pay the arrears of 2,400,000 livres for the new 
year; but instead of the 8,000 men whom Bemhard de- 
manded, he only received an indefinite promise of a con- 
siderable force on the left shore of the Rhine. 

But before Bemhard received this intelligence he had 
taken decisive action on his own account. Relying upon 
the Imperialists being dispersed in their winter quarters, 
and the discord among the generals, on the 27th of January 
he set out in profound secrecy from near Delsberg ; on the 
29th suddenly invaded the Frickthal ; on the 30th crossed 
the Rhine in fishing-boats, surprised Sackingen and Laufen- 
burg, destroyed a hostile regiment ; on the ist of February 
took Beuggen and Waldshut, and the next day appeared 
before Rheinfelden, and besieged it with great vigour. 

VOL. II. R 



242 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The Imperialists, in their scattered cantonments, now 
began to bestir themselves ; the peasants of Schwarzwald 
were called upon, and, just when Rheinfelden was reduced 
to extremity, Savelli and Werth came to the relief of the 
country round Beuggen. An engagement took place near 
Rheinfelden, where the Imperialists, after a hot and disas- 
trous combat on both sides, succeeded in getting help and 
provisions into the town, and compelled Bemhard to raise 
the siege. 

But owing to the want of system in the imperial army and 
the dissensions and confusion at head-quarters, this success 
was not turned to advantage, and Bernhard formed the bold 
resolution of at once attacking the careless enemy. In the 
early morning of the 3rd of March he again appeared before 
Beuggen. The Imperialists now suffered a complete defeat ; 
the army was dispersed in wild disorder, and the surviving 
generals, among them John of Werth, were taken prisoners. 

A few days afterwards a treaty was signed between France 
and Sweden at Hamburg, by which they made common 
cause ; subsidies from France were stipulated for, for the past 
and the future, and it was agreed that peace negotiations 
should only be undertaken in common. 

As a result of the victory of Rheinfelden, the town, the 
neighbouring fortresses, and soon Freiburg, also fell into 
Bernhard's hands, and his troops extended themselves over 
Swabia ; only Breifach offered an obstacle on the Upper 
Rhine. 

Meanwhile the Imperialists sent reinforcements- to the 
new commander, Gotz ; but their warfare was wanting in 
unity and spirit. After sundry skirmishes, Bemhard attacked 
them at th'e beginning of August in the Ortenau. He ad- 
vanced by way of Kenzingen, Mahlberg, and Lahr, towards 
Schuttern, and secured the bridges near Dinglingen and 



BERNHARD OF WEIAIAR. 243 

Friesenheinu Gotz took up a good position near. When, 
on the morning of the 9th of August, the vanguard set out 
for Breifach, Bemhard began his attack. Although taken 
by surprise, the Imperialists and Bavarians, near Witten- 
weyer, fought with great obstinaqr, and were only beaten 
'after a long and changeful contest. Three thousand men, 
artillery, trophies, and the provisions intended for Breifach, 
as well as camp and baggage, fell into the hands of the 
victors. By the middle of August Bemhard again stood 
before Breifach. 

This change in the south reacted upon the northern 
theatre of war, for the imperial forces there were diminished. 
Baner once more gained ground in Pomerania, and the 
change was felt in Hesse. But Bemhard's victory would 
have been followed by greater results if the French had 
given him substantial help, instead of fair speeches only. 
He complained bitterly of the non-fulfilment of their 
promises, and predicted the loss of the advantages gained, 
and his own defeat. Nevertheless, the repeated attempts 
of the imperial party to gain him over were entirely un- 
heeded. 

The siege of Breifach was now begun in earnest ; but the 
promised help from France either did not come at all or 
was ineffective when it did. 

From a sick-bed at Colmar, Bemhard did all that it was 
possible for man to do to fmstrate all attempts to make 
peace until he should receive succour and supplies. On 
the 15th of October the Duke of Lorraine was beaten at 
Tann. On the 24th there was a long and doubtful contest 
in the lines about Breifach ; but Bemhard, who was still ill, 
was carried out of his tent, and was this time powerfully aided 
by Guebriant and Turenne, finally carried the day, after his 
assaults had been seven times repulsed 



244 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

On the I St of November, Lorraine was a second time 
defeated, and the last outworks of the fortress were lost, 
though everything was done on the imperial side to save 
them. Gotz was recalled, doubts having arisen about his 
loyalty, and he was subjected to a tedious trial ; but his 
successor was not able to do more than lead his exhausted 
troops back through the Schwarzwald ; and how different 
even then might have been the result if Bemhard had been 
efficiently supported by the French, instead of having to 
spend weeks and months in begging for every two or three 
thousand men. 

Reduced to extremities, and without hope of succour, 
on the 1 7th of December, Breifach capitulated. The Duke 
at once established himself comfortably in this fresh acqui- 
sition, and filled his French allies with alarm about the 
formation of this new principality. A glance at the French 
mode of warfare, as compared with the annihilating blows 
dealt by Weimar, must have relieved as well as shamed 
them. Richelieu was right in exclaiming, on receiving the 
latest news of victory, " We have no Duke of Weimar ! " 

In the north and east, also, the Imperialists had lost 
their favourable position ; Baner was again master in Pome- 
rania and Mecklenburg, and could entertain the idea of 
joining Bemhard's operations. 

Bernhard's feats had a wonderfully inspiriting effect in 
Protestant Germany. In the course of a few months he 
had been victorious in a number of engagements, taken 
fortresses thought to be impregnable, sometimes on the first 
assault, and within one half year he had restored the supre- 
macy of the Protestant arms in South-west Germany — even 
in districts which, since 1634, had been sacrificed to jealous 
reaction. He now restored to the oppressed Protestants an 
independent existence, drove the Imperialists back to 



BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 245 

Bavaria, and achieved moral successes which had been 
granted to no one since Gustavus Adolphus. 

It was this that gave the Duke of Weimar so peculiar a 
position at this period. The archives do not exhibit him 
in the most favourable light, but his deeds were dazzling ; 
Richelieu was practically nobody in comparison with him. 
The army recognised no one but him, and his victories were 
the greatest exploits of the last six or eight years. 

But those short episodes were brilliant meteors, speedily 
to be extinguished; and it indicates the hopeless state of 
German affairs, that the day came when the death of Bern- 
hard, the French field-marshal, was a sort of national mis- 
fortune. He was the last who, as it were, in French garb 
and with French money, fought for other than French 
interests. When he was out of the way the inexhaustible 
patience of French diplomacy had overcome all obstacles, 
and Richelieu's endeavours were crowned with success. 

Early in the summer of 1639 this change took place. In 
the spring, Baner had set out for Central Germany ; had 
invaded Saxony, and, encouraged by a victory at Chemnitz, 
attempted to invade Bohemia. But this turned out most 
unfortunately. His hopes of a rising among the people were 
not fulfilled ; he was too weak to take Prague, and in June, 
amidst fearful devastation, he commenced a retreat. 

In Paris they vacillated between satisfaction over Bern- 
hard's latest victories and anxiety as to his designs. It had 
become clear, when he sounded them on the subject in 
1638, that they were not disposed to leave him in possession 
of Breifach. But the affair dragged on. Richelieu reckoned 
that Bemhard would yield, and had already selected 
Guebriant as governor. Bemhard remained quiet, and his 
commissioner referred the subject to communications which 
he would make personally. 



246 XraRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR' 

Meanwhile, in January, 1639, without consulting any 
one, Bemhard suddenly set out from Breifach, took the 
castle of Landskron, and advanced towards Lorraine. The 
Spaniards and the Duke of Lorraine were surprised. Port- 
arlier and Joux fell, and nearly all this rich country lay open 
to him. 

Even this, satisfactory as it seemed in itself, was a source 
of fresh anxieties at Paris, and the Duke was still silent 
about Brei£3ich. All that could be learnt about it was that 
he would arrange the matter personally at Paris. But 
warned by the other side, he gave up the journey to Paris, 
in spite of the most flattering invitations, and tried to 
subdue the CardinaPs ill-humour by friendly letters. 

But it was plain that he wais scheming to form a powerful 
principality out of Alsace, parts of Lorraine, the free earl- 
dom, and other Upper Rhenish districts, while the utmost 
intentions of France were to grant them to him for his life- 
time. It was the interest of both to avoid a breach. Bem- 
hard therefore tried to find a solution of the difficulty, and 
in April sent his commissioner to Paris. He was to repre- 
sent that the surrender of Breifach would give rise to a 
suspicion that the empire was overpowered by France, 
which would displease both the German princes and the 
Swedes. The Cardinal was ready to pay the promised sub- 
sidies, and even some extra supplies ; but then the Duke 
must engage to hold Breifach and the conquered fortresses 
under his Majesty the King, not to surrender them to any 
other person, and to give up the disposition of his conquests. 

Whether Bemhard would agree to this was very doubt- 
ful ; but his commissioner accepted an annuity of 20,000 
livres, and engaged to guard Breifach for Richelieu, now, 
and in the event of Bemhard's death, and to furnish Riche- 
lieu with private information respecting the Duke. 



DEATH OF BERNHARD OF WEIMAR. 2;? 

Meanwhile, Bemhard exercised sovereign rule in the 
conquered territories, averted the interference of French 
officials, fostered agriculture, and did what he could to 
render his rule acceptable to the people. His relations 
with France were on the verge of an open breach. In 
July he had discussions with Guebriant at Pontarlier, which 
nearly led to it. He demanded Alsace and the most 
important fortresses as a possession, declined to make any 
concessions of his former or future conquests to France, 
and demanded larger subsidies. 

He left Pontarlier, and arrived on the 14th of July at 
Hiiningen ; there he fell ill, and on the i8th sank under his 
sufferings. 

There were suspicions of poison, for there were spots on 
his body after his death, for which the medical art of that 
day could not account ; but this proves nothing, for nothing 
can be more absurd than the medical reports of those days 
of the facts and symptoms of an illness. On this and 
other occasions the impression conveyed is that the fatal 
result of the malady must be mainly ascribed to the 
doctor's art. 

Still, it is worthy of note that the idea of violence was 
spread far and wide— allusions were even made to it in the 
preacher's funeral discourse at the grave — and all agreed 
in pointing to Richelieu, his ally, in whose service he was 
fighting, as the author of it. There was an instinct which 
prompted this improbable notion, for the people had 
thought : — they are at variance ; the Cardinal takes no 
pleasure in the Duke's victories ; he wants to get rid of 
him, that he may put a real French field-marshal in the 
place of the ostensible one.* 

• Rose, ii. 328, shows how entirely unexpected Bernhard*s death 
was to the French. 



248 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

In fact, if ever a man's death was welcome to any one, 
Bemhard's was to Richelieu. Twice had his purposes 
been thrust into the background, and he had to play the 
part of a discontented ally, who had to find the money, but 
was not permitted to have any voice in the management ; 
now he would be able to get the best army in the world 
into his own hands, and to pursue his policy with a prospect 
of success. The French command could no longer be set 
aside. 

As we have seen, Richelieu found it very difficult to 
create an army commensurate with his aims, and equal to 
that of the enemy. The French military S3rstem was then 
unusually bad. The feats of the French army were spoken 
of in that warlike age with the greatest contempt, and the 
performances of La Valette's army were not calculated to 
dispel it. The French had fallen into the background, 
though no one will deny the miUtaiy efficiency of the nation 
in itself. 

The Duke left a will, in which he bequeathed the com- 
mand to one of his brothers, and ordained, besides, "As 
to the conquered countries, and they are very considerable 
countries and fortresses, we wish them to be preserved to 
the German empire, and we therefore bequeath and devise 
them to whichever of our dear brothers shall desire to 
accept them, and can and will best serve your Majesty and 
the crown of Sweden, that your Majesties (Ihre Liebden)* 
may be the better supported in the aforesaid countries." 

If neither of the brothers would take them, France was 
to have the preference ; but when peace was made she was 
to restore themto the empire. 

This did not suffice to protect the interest of Germany in 
the great commotion that arose about the inheritance. 
* A title given by sovereign princes to each other. — T&. 



BERNHARD'S WILL. 249 

Sweden still looked upon the army as a branch of her own ; 
Bemhard*s brothers took steps to gain it for themselves; 
even the Emperor had a scheme for gaining possession of 
it ; but Richelieu was more on the alert than any of them. 
On the 23th of July, D'Oissonville appeared at Breifach 
with a handsome sum of money, to bribe the leaders and 
gain over the fortresses. Longueville was selected as the 
Duke*s successor. Erlach and Guebriant were natiurally 
zealous in the interests of France; the masses were helpless, 
the leaders cheap. 

It was, of course, but a small matter for Richelieu to 
put aside this inconvenient will; still, it was not until 
October that the business was concluded. Under pretence 
of maintaining previous agreements intact, new ones were 
entered into. The army was kept together as a whole ; in 
return for some considerable rewards, and other immediate 
advantages, for the engagement to supply provisions and 
the necessaries of war, and to carry out gifts of land by the 
deceased, the commanders and officers of the whole army 
promised allegiance to the King, engaged to serve against 
any one, to be ready for any enterprise on behalf of the 
restoration of public liberties and the oppressed classes, as 
the King might see fit, should it be in France, Burgundy, 
Lorraine, or the Netherlands. The conquered fortresses 
should at once, " in accordance with the Duke's will "(!) be 
made over to the King, Breifach and Freiburg should be 
garrisoned with half French and half German troops, and 
commanded according to the King's pleasure. 

This was immediately carried out, and the negotiators 
were handsomely rewarded. The Count Palatine Louis, 
who too late appeared as a candidate, was detained in 
France; Bernhard's brothers were duped, and even de- 
prived of their personal legacies. 



250 THIRD PHASE OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 

The army was now French ; a Frenchman was at its head. 
Some French regiments were placed by the side of the 
German ones, that they might take lessons from them. 
The army was but moderately commanded for a long time, 
and suffered a number of defeats ; but it was the school in 
which Turenne and other great generals were trained, who 
were to raise France to the position of the greatest military 
power in Europe. 

It was a great thing for Richelieu, who had hitherto only 
exercised a secondary influence by means of money, and 
had only attained to a partial co-operation with great diffi- 
culty, that he was now all at once relieved from these 
restraints, and had an army pledged to his service, and 
entirely supported by him. 

These events were the turning-point in the Thirty Years' 
War, towards which things had been tending ever since the 
death of Gustavus Adolphus. The twofold interference of 
France and Sweden determined the last act of the war, and 
the supremacy of France in Europe is connected with the 
enlargement of the country by the Peace of Westphalia. 



PART XL 



END OF THE WAR. THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 
1640-48. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

baker's end, may, 1641, AND TORSTENSON'S VICTORIES,* 
1642-5. 

Battle of Leipzig, 2nd November, 1643.— Campaign against Denmark, 
1643-44. — Victory near Jankowitz, February, 1645. — Simultaneous 
warfare of the French. — ^The Peace Negotiations and end of the 
War. — The Diet of Ratisbon from September, 1640. — Branden- 
burg's Proposition of Unconditional Amnesty, and Restoration to 
the Condition of 16 18. — The Hamburg Preliminaries, December, 
1641. — The Meeting of Deputies at Frankfort, 1642-45. — Begin- 
ning of the Peace Congress and end of the War, 1644-48. 

Baner's End, and Torstenson's Victories. 

'X*HE war still went on for eight years, but the only 

influence that it exerted upon the subsequent Peace was 

that it overcame the last doubts of the Imperial court as to 

the indispensable principles of the Peace. The indemnifi- 

* Besides the before-mentioned literature, Chemnitz, Geschichte des 
Schw. Krieges, new ed., Stockholm, 1857. Keller, Drangsale des 
Nass. Volks im dreissigjahrigen Krieg. Gotha, 1854. Der Abentheuer- 
liche Simplicissimus. Neue Ausgabe, Stuttgard, 1854, 2 Bde. Bou- 
geant, hist, du Traits de Westphalie, 2 Bde. Meiem, Acta pads West- 
phalicae, 1734, 6 Bde. Riitter, Geist des Westphal. Friedens, 1795. — 
Hippolithus Lapide, de ratione status in Imperio R. Grermanico, 1647. 



2S2 END OF THE WAR. 

cation schemes of the governments which had interfered in 
the conflict were not altered, but until the fourth decade 
they could not accustom themselves at Vienna to the idea 
of the amnesty and the restoration of the old treaties of 
peace. The last few years of the war decidedly conduced 
to this end. 

The first event of importance on the theatre of war after 
Bemhard's death was Baner's attempt to join the army of 
Weimar in central Germany. Not in a condition to pass 
the winter in Bohemia, and threatened in Saxony and 
Silesia, he did the only thing which rendered the longer 
tarriance of a Swedish army possible — ^he resolved to cross 
the Erzegebirge into Thuringia, to compel the vacillating 
Hessians and Liineburgers to help, and to join the French- 
Weimar army. In March, 1640, he commenced a retreat 
amidst fearful devastations, crossed the Elbe at Leitmeritx, 
and arrived April 3rd at Zwickau. He succeeded in join- 
ing with the mercenaries of Weimar and the troops of 
Liineburg and Hesse at Saalfeld, but want of unity in the 
command, discord among the princes, the privations that 
had to be endured in these exhausted countries, and 
mutiny among the Weimar troops, prevented any joint 
action. They had to commence a retreat, and to confine 
themselves to a watchful defensive action. Until December, 
the war on both sides consisted of marches hither and 
thither, accompanied with horrible devastation ; but nothing 
decisive occurred. 

In September the Diet met at Ratisbon. While weari- 
some attempts were being made to bend the obstinacy of 
Austria, Baner resolved to compel her to yield by a bold 
stroke, to invade the Upper Palatinate, to surprise Ratisbon, 
and to put an end to the Diet and Emperor together. At 
the beginning of September he set out Not without difr 



BANER'S DEATH. 253 

culty Guebriant was induced to follow, and to join Baner 
at Erfurt. At the beginning of January they advanced 
together towards Baireuth and Bamberg. It was only on 
January 2nd, when the fugitive country people began to 
arrive, that the Imperial troops were aware of their advance. 
But the surprise of Ratisbon was a failure. The Emperor 
declared that he should remain, and thereby restored the 
composure of the Diet Troops were summoned from all 
sides. Baner and Guebriant did indeed advance as far as 
Hof, and threw some balls into the town ; but the enter- 
prise was a failure, and a longer tarriance was undesirable. 

The armies now separated again. Baner exhausted his 
powers of persuasion in vain to induce Guebriant to go with 
him. The French went westward. Hard pressed himself, 
Baner proceeded by forced marches towards Bohemia, and 
by the end of March reached Zwickau, where he met Gue- 
briant again, and they had a sharp conflict with the Impe- 
rialists on the Saal. There Baner died, on the 21st of 
May, 1641, leaving his army in a most critical condition. 

The warfare of the Swedish-French arms was come to a 
standstill. Both armies were near dissolution, when, in 
November, Torstenson, the last of the Gustavus Adolphus 
school of generals, and the one who most nearly equalled 
the master, appeared with the Swedish army, and by a few 
vigorous strokes, which followed each other with unexam- 
pled rapidity, restored the supremacy of its arms. These 
feats were the more remarkable, as Torstenson was so ill 
^^-ith the gout that he could not mount a horse, and had to 
be carried everywhere in a litter. 

After three months of rest, which he mainly devoted to 
the reorganization and payment of his army, by the middle 
of January he had advanced towards the Elbe and the 
Altmark ; and as the Imperial forces were weakened by 



254 END OF THE WAR. 

sending troops to the Rhine, he formed the great project of 
proceeding through Silesia to the Austrian hereditary domi- 
nions. On April 3rd he crossed the Elbe at Werben, be- 
tween the Imperial troops, increased his army to 20,000 
men, stormed Glogau on May 4th, stood before Schweid- 
nitz on the 30th, and defeated Francis Albert of Lauenburg ; 
Schweidnitz, Neisse,,and Oppeln fell into his hands. 

Meanwhile Guebriant, afler subduing the defiant and 
mutinous spirit of his troops by means of money and pro- 
mises, had, on January 17 th, defeated the Imperialists near 
Kempen, not far from Crefeld, for which he was honoured 
with the dignity of marshal 

But this was a shortlived gleam of light, and was soon 
followed by dark days, occasioned by want of money and 
discontent in the camp. An attempt to recruit the army 
with the country people of Brittany was a failure,* and, 
more from necessity than from any Yiope of success, he had 
turned eastward from the Rhine to seek quarters for his 
murmuring troops in nether Germany, when Torstenson 
eflfected a decision in Saxony. 

After relieving Glogau, and having in vain tried to enter 
Bohemia, he had joined the detachments of Konigsmark 
and Wrangel, and on October 30th he appeared before 
Leipzig. 

On November 2nd there was a battle near Breitenfeld, 
which ended in a disastrous defeat of the Imperialists. In 
spite of all the advantages which Torstenson gained for 
himself, it never came to a united action with the French ; 
and the first victory won by the French in the Netherlands, 
in May, 1643, did not alter this state of things. 

Torstenson was in the way to obtain successes like those 
of Gustavus Adolphus eleven years before, when he was 
• Barthold. 



CAMPAIGN AGAINST DENMARK. 255 

suddenly called to a remote scene of war in the north. 
King Christian IV. of Denmark had been persuaded, by 
means of the old Danish jealousy of Sweden, to take up 
arms for the Emperor. He declared war just as Torstenson 
was proceeding to Austria. Vienna was now saved ; but 
so much the worse for Denmark. In forced marches, which 
were justly admired, Torstenson set out from Silesia towards 
Denmark at the end of October, conducted a masterly 
campaign against the Danes, beat them wherever he met 
with them, conquered Holstein and Schleswig, pushed on 
to Jutl^id, then, while Wrangel and Horn carried on the 
war (till the peace of Bromsebro, August, 1645) he returned, 
and again took up the war against the Imperialists, every- 
where an unvanquished general. 

The Imperialists under the incompetent Gallas intended 
to give Denmark breathing-time by creating a diversion ; 
but it did not save Denmark, and brought another defeat 
upon themselves. Gallas did not bring back more than 
two thousand men from Magdeburg to Bohemia, and they 
were in a very disorganized state. He was pursued by 
Torstenson, while Ragoczy threatened Hungary. The 
Emperor hastily collected what forces he could command, 
and resolved to give battle. 

Torstenson had advanced as far as Glattau in February, 
and on March 6th, 1645, a battle was fought near Janko- 
witz, three miles from Tabor. It was the most brilliant 
victory ever gained by the Swedes. The Imperial army 
was cut to pieces ; several of its leaders imprisoned or 
killed. In a few weeks Torstenson conquered Moravia 
and Austria as far as the Danube. Not far from the capital 
itself he took possession of the Wolfsbriicke. As in 161 8, 
Vienna was in great danger. 

Things might have taken a turn as disastrous for the 



256 END OF THE WAR. 

Emperor as they were in the da)rs of Gustavus Adolphns, 
had the French been able to keep pace with this mode of 
warfare. But their ill success always counterbalanced the 
Swedes' advantages. Either they were beaten just as the 
Swedes were victorious, or could not turn a victory to 
account So it was during this year. 

The west frontier of the empire was guarded on the im- 
perial side by Mercy, together with John of Werth, after he 
was liberated from prison. On 26th March, Turenne crossed 
the Rhine, and advanced towards Franconia. There he 
encamped near Mergentheim and Rosenberg. On 5th May 
a battle near Mergentheim ended with the entire defeat of 
the French, and Turenne escaped with the greatest difficulty 
by way of Hammelburg, towards Fulda, The victors pushed 
on to the Rhine. 

To avenge this defeat, Enghien was sent from Paris, and, 
at the beginning of July, arrived at Spires, with 12,000 men. 
His forces, together with Konigsmark's, the remnant of 
Turenne's and the Hessians, amounted to 30,000 men. At 
first Mercy dexterously avoided a battle under unfavourable 
circumstances, but on August 3rd the contest was inevitable. 
A bloody battle was fought between Nordlingen and 
Donauworth near Allerheim, which was long doubtful, but, 
after tremendous losses, resulted in the victory of the 
French. Mercy's fall, Werth's imprudent advance, and a 
final brave assault of the Hessians, decided the day. But 
the victors were so weakened, that they could not fully take 
advantage of it. Condd was ill ; and in the autumn Turenne 
was compelled, not without perceptible damage to the 
cause, to retreat with his army to the Neckar and the 
Rhine. 

Neither had Torstenson been able to maintain his posi- 
tion in Austria. He had been obliged to raise the siege of 



RETIREMENT OF TORSTENSON. 257 

Brunn, and learnt at the same time that Ragoczy had just 
made peace with the Emperor. Obliged to retire to 
Bohemia, he found his forces considerably diminished. 

Meanwhile, Konigsmark had won an important advantage. 
While Torstenson was in Austria he gained a firm footing 
in Saxony. Then came the news of Allerheim, and of the 
peace of Bromsebro. Except Dresden and Konigstem, all 
the important points were in the hands of the Swedes ; so, * 
on the 6th of September, the Elector John George concluded 
a treaty of neutrality for six months. Besides money and 
supplies, the Swedes received Leipzig, Toigau, and the 
right of passage through the country. 

Meanwhile, Torstenson had retreated into the north-east 
of Bohemia, and severe physical sufferings compelled him 
to give up the command. He was succeeded by Charles 
Gustavus Wrangel. 

Beginning of Negotiations, and end of the War. 

It is singular that during the whole time, from 1640 to 
the last exchange of shots at Prague, peace negotiations 
were going on. 

They were set on foot just as Richelieu began to possess 
himself of the Weimar army. Singularly enough, it was 
Denmark, then neutral, a foreign power among the imperial 
states, that first made the proposal. At a meeting of the 
Electors at Nuremberg an amnesty was proposed, and the 
convocation of a Diet, which had not met since 16 19. 

The Diet was opened in September at Ratisboa The Em- 
peror consented to grant safe conducts to the foreign ambas- 
sadors, and to admit Hesse Cassel and Brunswick- Liineberg 
among the Protestant States. Brandenburg openly and 
decidedly advocated the only just programme, and that 
which, after eight bloody years, was carried out, release 

VOL. II. s 



258 END OF THE WAR. 

from the peace of Prague, and proclamation of a general 
unconditional amnesty. " If/' says a Brandenbuig report 
of January, 1641,* " the amnesty universalUer fiure ei absque 
ulla conditione is not conceded, and their rights nolplautrie 
restored to the States, and the Treaty of Prague and the 
Imperial Religious Edict fully set aside — if ever}rthing is not 
restored to the state of things that existed in 161 8 before the 
war, all treaties of peace will be in vain, confidence will 
never exist between the head and the members, or between 
the members themselves, but distrust and dissensions will be 
increased, and everything will be in confusion, dissolution 
and dismemberment, totius Imperii, which, however, may 
the good God graciously avert" 

In fact, the mischievous results of the Treaty of Prague 
could not have been more strikingly pointed out than they 
were by the Brandenburg commissioners ; instead of union, 
discord had been produced ; instead of peace, a war of in- 
calculable length ; instead of keeping foreigners away, it 
had brought them into the heart of the empire. But Bran- 
denburg did not succeed with its proposals of a general, 
unconditional amnesty. Electoral Saxony not only shame- 
fully left it in the lurch, after characterizing the Treaty of 
Prague as lapidem offensiofiiSy but, with Bavaria and Cologne, 
went over openly to the Emperor's side. 

The Emperor only consented to an empty amnesty, speci- 
ally excepting his own dominions. It was also decreed 
that the Peace Congress should take place at Miinster and 
Osnabriick, that the mutual grievances of the States should 
be heard at a meeting of deputies at Frankfort, and that 
afterwards the former actions against the Protestants should 
be again introduced. 

The second act of these preparations was played at Ham- 

♦ Urkunden und Aktenstucke zur Geschichte Friedrich Wilhelms. 



BEGINNING OF NEGOTIATIONS. 259 

burg, where, in December, 1641, the Emperor's ambassa- 
dors, and those of France and Sweden, met to settle the 
preliminaries : the place of the Congress, its neutrality, and 
separate negotiations with Sweden and- France. It was not 
until September, 1642, that the Emperor ratified the pro- 
ceedings. He had been keeping his eyes on the seat of 
war ; every success of his arms, every disadvantage ex- 
perienced by the enemy, was a welcome pretext for refusing 
concessions, and delaying those promised, while the enemy 
boasted none the less of every victory of the Swedes, in 
order to hasten a conclusion. Thus the \'ictory of the 
Swedes at Leipzig was required, to bring about the meeting 
of deputies at Frankfort which the Emperor had been in no 
hurry to set about. It was not under the Emperor's thumb, 
like the Diet at Ratisbon. There was vehement expression 
of dislike to this " endless Spanish war." Even Electoral 
Mayence and Wiirzburg were very bitter against Spain and 
Bavaria ; the former advocated the restoration of the Pala- 
tinate, that Spain might at length be compelled to give up 
her posts on the Rhine ; the latter declared in private that 
the "religious war" which the Emperor and the Elector of 
Bavaria were always talking about had turned out to be a 
war for their " sole private interests, in which they had been 
obliged to take part and be ruined," and demanded a general 
amnesty, "because they had practical experience that 
nothing was to be done with the Protestants by force." 

In the face of these proposals, the recall of Torstenson 
to Holstein was very welcome to the Emperor. Saxony 
said again that the time was come " for getting rid of the 
Swedes." Nobody had any longer any faith in treaties ; 
Mayence was of opinion that it would have been well if the 
useless meeting of deputies had not been called, "and 
money not thrown away.'* Amidst tedious discussions as to 



260 END OF THE WAR. 

whether it should be dissolved, or adjourned to another 
place, it dragged on till the spring of 1645, ^nd then broke 
up, scarcely any result having been obtained. 

Meanwhile, the Congress had begun to assemble (1643- 
44). The French insisted that ambassadors from the Ger- 
man States should attend. The Emperor tried to prevent 
it, and wished to represent the Empire as a whole, so that 
he alone might treat with foreign powers, and the princes 
only through him. Sweden joined in the demand of France, 
and both finally demanded that the transactions should not 
begin until all the States were assembled. The Emperor 
was obliged to give way, and the States accepted the 
invitation. 

The Emperor's sentiments were mainly dependent on the 
position of his arms. In June, 1645, Sweden and France 
enunciated the principles of their demand. These were : 
Unlimited amnesty even in the Austrian dominions, in the 
Palatinate, Baden, and Wiirteraberg, according to the 
normal conditions of 16 18; settlement of the Imperial 
constitution, abolition of the election of a king of Rome ; 
acknowledgment of the right of the States to form foreign 
alliances ; indemnification for France and Sweden. Hesse 
and Ragoczy were to give up intervention in the quarrel 
between France and Spain. The Emperor declined to 
accede ; for meanwhile, after the battle of AUerheim, the 
French had disappeared from Bavaria, Torstenson had gone 
northwards, and, as the war in 1646 was carried on feebly, 
and without any decisive result — though Bavaria did, in its 
distress, come to terms with France and Sweden — the 
Emperor would give no binding promises. After the death 
of Gallas, the imperial army was commanded by Holzapfel, 
the Protestant Hessian. So far had the religious war 
deviated from its purpose. 



END OF THE WAR. • 26 1 

In the year 1648 the imperial anns were so persistently 
pursued by misfortune, that delay was no longer possible. 

In the spring of the year, Bavaria and Bohemia were 
overrun by the enemy. In May, Holzapfel was beaten, and 
fatally wounded, near Zussmarshausen ; every attempt to 
hold the Lech for the Bavarians and Imperialists had been 
fruitless ; Konigsmark had entered the country, and in July 
had taken possession of part of Prague; then came the 
victory of Condd over the Imperialists, in the Netherlands, 
near Lens, in August* 

With great difficulty, John of Werth had just arrived, to 
endeavour to regain some ground in Bavaria, and especially 
to liberate Munich, when the news of peace came. 

The Emperor had at length conceded, as the basis of the 
religious peace, the amnesty, and the restoration of the 
exiles, reserving the exceptions in favour of his hereditary 
dominions. His father, Ferdinand II., would scarcely have 
agreed to it even then. In order to extirpate heresy, he 
had made Germany and the Hapsburg countries a desert ; 
yet heresy was not extirpated. He had died in February, 
1637, just before Bemhard of Weimar began his triumphant 
course, and, following in his footsteps, French co-operation 
thrust itself upon Cxermany in fiill view of the general con- 
flagration which Ferdinand's fanaticism had ignited. Now, 
even as in 1637, he would have opposed every attempt at 
reconciliation, but, happily for Germany, he was dead. 
His son had grown up during the troublous times of war, 
was personally less rigid in his ideas than his father, and 
now, when the course of the Thirty Years* War was nearly 
run out, he consented to that which, had it been honestly 
conceded thirty years before, would have kept the peace. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

T^HE general course of the transactions and the alterna- 
tions of the parties, are best seen in the provisions of 
the treaty itself. 

On all purely political questions, Sweden and France 
kept faithfully together. Whenever the object was to limit 
the power of the Hapsburgs, to strengthen that of the 
principalities, to represent the rights of the exiled princes, 
but also to treat the empire as an indemnification for them- 
selves, they were like hand and glove. Until the seventh 
decade of the seventeenth century, Sweden and France 
were closely allied in these endeavours, greatly to the dis- 
advantage of Germany. 

But in religious matters it was otherwise. Sweden and 
France were the leaders of opposite parties. Sweden was 
the mouthpiece of the Protestants and of every Protestant 
interest. There is no doubt that we owe many beneficial 
regulations to the attitude taken by Sweden. France was, 
of course, on the other side. It was for her interest that the 
Protestant princes of Germany should not be annihilated, for 
they were the natural enemies of Spain and the Hapsbuigs; 
but it was by no means her interest to allow Protestantism so 
to increase that it might become dangerous to the creed of 



THE PEACE CONGRESS. 263 

France. Though she did not, therefore, ally herself with 
the Emperor, she did with Bavaria, and it was now that 
those relations were first entered into with this state which 
have repeatedly earned for it the honourable title in France 
of " our oldest ally in Germany." Maximilian of Bavaria 
was the first German prince who proposed the cession of 
Alsace to France. 

This was the curiously disjointed way in which the most 
important parties at the congress were grouped. Sweden 
secured the adhesion of all Protestant, France of all 
Catholic elements; but the Emperor, both on religious 
and political questions, had all parties against him, or, at any 
rate, none for him. His plenipotentiary, therefore, could 
not assume the position which was strictly his master's due, 
and all the foreign powers with whom he had mediately or 
immediately to transact business met him as the representa- 
tive of a foreign power, and by reason of their adherents 
in Germany, they were greatly his superiors. His con- 
duct, therefore, betrays the insecure position of an isolated 
party. 

The peace congress at Miinster and Osnabriick gradu- 
ally became a European one. The powers which had not 
taken part in the war were either present or represented, 
and thus no European matter was left undiscussed, though 
the archives of the Peace do not contain decisions about 
them all. 

The Netherlands tried to obtain the recognition of their 
independence by the German empire, as did Switzerland 
also. The representatives of the policy of the restoration 
of ancient Catholicism, from which even the Emperor 
gradually withdrew, came to the congress to prevent and 
alter the treaty as much as they could. Neither Spain nor 
Rome was in a position to hinder it ; but they protested 



264 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

against its validity, which gave rise to the express declara- 
tion in the documents of the Peace, that no protest or 
mterference was valid, let it come whence it would. 

The negotiations continued till the autumn of 1648. 
The last shots were being exchanged at Prague when a 
messenger brought news of the conclusion of peace, on the 
24th of October, 1648. France had treated with the 
Emperor at Miinster, Sweden at Osnabriick, and come to 
terms. On all essential points the treaties were in unison, 
except on those questions on which the territorial interests 
of France and Sweden diverged. 

How the Peace changed the face of Europe, how the 
fundamental principle of these peace transactions, in which 
all the European powers took part, completed the emanci- 
pation of the western world from the traditions of the 
Middle Ages, and introduced the new era of Eiux>pean 
balance of power, we shall afterwards see. We will first 
consider the contents of the treaty. 

The points of divergence and agreement in both treaties 
may be thus grouped: — Part of the provisions of both 
relates to temporal affairs, cessions, indenmities, restorations. 

A second part, and, in extent, the most important, re- 
lates to religious and ecclesiastical questions, especially for 
Germany, to the gist therefore of the whole war. 

A third part relates to the imperial constitution of Ger- 
many, to the settlement of regulations which were intended 
to determine, and did determine, the political life of the 
German empire for more than a centiuy. A constitution 
was formed for Cxermany which issued in the Confederation 
of the Rhine, and the dissolution of the '^ Holy Roman 
Empire of the German nation." 



TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS. 265 

Territorial Questions, 

By the Treaty of Osnabriick, Sweden received the whole 
of Upper Pomerania with the island of Riigen, of Lower 
Pomerania, Stettin, Gartz, Damm, Golnau, Wollin, the 
mouth of the Oder and the Frische Haff, as a hereditary 
fief, with all the rights of a State of the German empire ; 
also Gamin and Wismar, and the whole of the arch- 
bishopric of Bremen and the bishopric of Verden, with 
the exception of the city of Bremen, which was to remain 
free. 

As Duke of Bremen, Verden, and Pomerania, governor 
of Riigen, and lord of Wismar, the King of Sweden had a 
vote among the temporal princes in the Diet, a legal posi< 
tion in the district directory and the meetings of deputies, 
and the ^^ priinlegium de turn appeUando et supremum tribunal 
amstiiumdV^ belonging to princes of the empire. 

This was pretty much what Gustavus Adolphus had in 
view at the beginning of the war in Germany, only that 
now a piece of the North Sea was added to indemnity on 
the Baltic, and dominion over the Elbe and the Weser to 
that over the mouth of the Oder, 

The national character which, in spite of its loose consti- 
tution, the German empire had up to this time tolerably 
well mantained, was now lost, and replaced by a European 
one. Until the end of the eighteenth centuiy no less than 
six European princes were members of the empire ; at last 
all the European powers were represented in it, except 
France, Russia, and Turkey, and it was not the fault of the 
empire that these were not in it also. The merit of having 
proposed the reception of the Sultan belongs to a German 
politician. Peter the Great once had a project of becoming 
a member of it, and it was suggested to France at the 



266 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

congress ; but she did not desire it. Louis XIV. did after- 
wards wish it at one time, that he might hold his reimions 
still more conveniently, but consoled himself with the idea 
that it was better as it was. If he were in the empire the 
incorporation of Alsace would only be more difficult ; it 
was not easy to detach it from its fealty to the empire; 
being outside it, he could simply ignore the decrees of the 
Diet, and do as he pleased. 

When the question arose about admitting France, the 
Protestants, for the first and last time, were at one with the 
Emperor ; they joined in opposing it. 

The European character of the empire caused the rotten 
body to hold together longer than might have been ex- 
pected from its constitution. In the wars with Louis XIV. 
England especially, repeatedly stood up for the old German 
empire ; and the fact that a revolution of this wonderful 
structure, within and without, was a European question, 
caused its vegetative existence to be spared by all conserva- 
tive powers as much as possible. But it could not be a 
healthy existence that required to be so ingeniously kept 
together. 

The following were the terms agreed upon at Miinster 
with France : — 

The district of Burgundy shall be, as before, a country 
of the German empire, after the settlement of the disputes 
between France and Spain. But should disputes arise in 
future between these two powers, they shall not affect the 
treaty between the King of France and the German empire 
as such ; but the individual states shall be free to help one 
side or the other, *^ extra imperii limitesy^ though only in 
accordance with the imperial constitution i^^ secundum im- 
perii constitutionem "). 

The empire therefore lost the right of interfering for 



TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS. 267 

Burgundy as a member of the empire ; but the individual 
States were, in a given case, to be permitted to unite with 
the enemies of the empire, " beyond the boundaries, but 
within the constitution of the empire." The anarchy esta- 
blished by treaty, of the new constitution cannot be more 
strikingly portrayed than in these words. A time came 
when all Western Cxermany was on the side of France, and 
helped to protect her in her conquests. This was a com- 
mentary on this article. 

The supreme authority **supremum dominium iura 
superioritatis aliaque omniai^ over the bishoprics of Metz, 
Toul, and Verdun, was to be conferred on the French 
Crown, and they were to be incorporated with it for ever — 
^^ eique incorporari debeant in perpetuumP Up to this 
time the possessions of these bishoprics had been only an 
actual one, not legally acknowledged ; the Peace of West- 
phalia made the robbery legal. Pignerol was ceded. 
Emperor and empire renounced all their rights and those of 
the House of Austria over Breifach, the Landgraviate of 
Upper and Lower Alsace, the Sundgau, the prefectmres of 
the ten imperial cities (Hagenau, Colmar, Schlettstadt, 
Weissenburg, Landau, &c) in favour of France, but with a 
reservation of all the rights and privileges which these 
places had previously received from Austria. France was 
to have the right of garrisoning Philippsburg ; the rest of 
the imperial cities were to retain the immediate connection 
with the Holy Roman empire which they have hitherto 
enjoyed, "iVf ea libertate et passessiane immedietatis erga 
imperium ramanum^ qua hactenus gavisi suni^^ the German 
fortresses on the right and left of the Rhine to be demo- 
lished. 

The boundaries of France, therefore, were advanced to 
the Rhme, the defence of the German frontier as frur as 



268 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

Philippsbuig, which served the French as sl iife du pimi^ 
destroyed. 

The mode of cession was purposely fiill of contradic- 
tions. 

The constituent parts of the empire ceded to France, 
— that is, the ecclesiastical rulers, who still partly resided 
here, the imperial nobles, and ten imperial cities, were not 
to suffer any diminution of their rights and privileges under 
French rule, were to retain their direct connection with the 
empire, were to be subject to the imperial courts ; in short, 
they were still to be members of the empire, but with the 
reservation that it should he without prejudice to the rights of 
France (" ita tamen ut prcesenti hoc dedaratione nihil de- 
tradum intelligatur de eo supremi Dominii, iure^ quod supra 
concessum est "). 

In the veiy nature of things, such ambiguous r^ulations 
were sure to give rise to all sorts of disputes. The German 
empire appealed to its expressly reserved rights, France to 
the clauses by which her sovereignty was secured. The power 
of France finally decided the matter. Actual incorporation 
with France was, doubtless, intended to be averted by these 
articles ; but their meaning was not defined sharply enough, 
and it required more power to enforce its claims than the 
German empire possessed. 

Louis XIV. preferred not to be a member of the empire, 
because had he been so he must have submitted to its 
decrees, and would have been hampered in his schemes. 
He had only to put his own construction on the articles as a 
foreign power, and practically to complete the incorporation. 
During the following wars and treaties of peace these ques- 
tions were always coming under discussion, and it was in 
the very nature of things that they were always decided to 
the disadvantage of the empire. 



TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS. 269 

The many-headed empire, with its tedious transactions, 
was confronted by a power that never for one moment lost 
sight of its aims, never let a favourable opportunity slip, 
and was always the stronger party. 

The internal conformation of Germany was settled on 
the basis of the general amnesty, to which Hapsburg, after 
long resistance, had agreed. 

" All hostilities," says the document, " that have taken 
place from the beginning of the late disturbances, in 
any place, of whatever kind, by one side or the other, shall 
be forgotten and forgiven ; so that neither party shall cherish 
enmity or hatred against, nor molest nor injure the other for 
any cause whatsoever," &c. 

From this followed the unconditional re-instatement in 
their previous position of all who had been driven from 
their country and subjects, or deprived of offices or digni- 
ties, house or home, during the war. 

Bavaria retained the Electorate and the Upper Palatinate, 
but had to renounce its claim of thirteen millions. The 
Palatinate received an eighth Electorate and the Rhenish 
Palatinate back again. The official posts in the Bergstrasse 
were restored to Electoral Mayence. The line of Simmem 
was re-instated. Wiirtemberg, with Mompelgard, Baden- 
Durlach, Nassau, Solms, Isenburg Sayn, Waldeck, Hohen- 
lohe, Erbach, and many others, were restored. 

The restitution extended also to all persons in civil and 
military service : " a summo ad infimum, ab infimo ad 
summum,'* as it is stated in the documents. This was one 
of the disputed points, and the Emperor took care that it 
should not be carried out without exception. It might do 
in Germany ; but in the Austrian hereditary dominions the 
case was different. 

Bohemia was almost depopulated, as a result of the re- 



2JO THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

action. Instead of four million inhabitants, there was now 
scarcely one million, and some of the best subjects of 
Catholic Hapsburg had taken possession of the estates of 
the banished Protestants. 

To have ordained unconditional restoration to the pre- 
vious state of things in this case would have been to make 
the existing government of Austria, the d3aiasty itself, im- 
possible. To have restored to its property and rights the 
party which had been doomed to destruction, and which for 
thirty years past had been fighting under various colours 
against Austria, would have been fatal to the House of 
Austria and its newly-founded dominion. 

In the German empire the restitution simply meant the 
restoration of Protestant lands to Protestant masters ; but 
in Austria the whole state of things introduced by the 
Restoration, which had lasted for nearly thirty years, would 
be upset, and all the hostile elements would be in the 
ascendant again. 

The " amnestia perpetuay^ therefore, was construed in a 
very limited sense in the Austrian dominions. As Austrian 
subjects, the Protestants were permitted to return, without 
damage to "person, life, reputation, or honour;" but they 
forfeited the ancient privileges of which they had boasted 
as a party. Estates which they had lost before going over 
to the hostile party were to remain in the hands of their 
present owners ; but those that were lost later, through the 
act of joining the Swedes or French, were to be restored. 

In every country of Germany there are traces of the 
exile of the Bohemian aristocracy in the Thirty Years' War. 
In going through the names of the noble families, Bohemian 
names may be found even in the furthest north. Those of 
Boyen and Gneisenau are among them. 



REUGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS. 27 1 

Religious and Ecclesiastical Questions. 

The basis of the religious peace, and the principle of 
equality between the creeds, were more unconditionally and 
distinctly defined than in 1 552-5, The treaties of that period 
were confirmed, and an interpretation put upon them which 
was to be of unquestionable validity, against which neither 
protest firom nor interference by the imperial or ecclesiastical . 
power was to avail anything — *^non attenta cuiusvis seu 
Ecdesiastid seu Politid, intra vel extra Imperium quocunque 
tempore interposita coniradictume vel protestatione qua amnes 
inanes declaranturP This was aimed at the protests to 
be expected firom Spam and Rome, accustomed as they 
were to protest against everything connected with religious 
toleration. 

In all religious questions complete equality was to exist 
between electors, princes, states, and individuals (" cequal- 
itas exacta mutuaque^^), each is to allow what seems right 
to the other (" ut quod uni parti iustum est^ alteri quoque sit 
iustum "X and every kind of violence is for ever forbidden 
between the parties. 

This principle, honestly carried out, was worth making 
great sacrifices for, and it was more comprehensive than 
before ; for it included not only Catholics and Lutherans 
but also the Reformed party, to whom liberty and equality 
was now expressly granted. Toleration was also expressly 
promised to those who should hereisifter change their 
religion. 

It was more difficult to calculate on the results of this 
principle as applied to ecclesiastical restitution. The con- 
sistent thing would have been, and it was demanded by all 
the Protestants, to recur to the state of things before the 
war: but that would affect the Austrian dominions as 



272 THE PEACE OF WESTPHAUA. 

deeply as the amnesty; it would involve restoring Bohemia^ 
Moravia, Upper and Lower Austria, to the condition of 
1618. The Emperor, therefore, was as determined against 
restitution in this sense as against the amnesty, and all that 
was attained was that Silesia should remain as it was. 

The question, therefore, was to find a normal year for the 
restitution which should satisfy both parties. The Pro- 
testants demanded 16 18; but the Catholics rejected it 
For them it would have been to put all the results of the 
religious war in doubt again, and they demanded 1630, 
which was the year most favourable to them, as it was after 
the Edict of Restitution, and before Gustavus Adolphus had 
gained any victory of importance. But this was strongly 
opposed by the Swedes and Protestants, and after a long 
dispute they came to a ffudius terminus^ for which there 
was nothing to be said, either on logical or historical 
grounds; they divided the twelve years, thus arriving at 
1624. The Protestants could content themselves with 
this, if it obliged the Austrian hereditary dominions to be 
given up. 

So it was decided that for ecclesiastical possessions and 
rights, as a whole and in detail, the ist of January, 1624, 
should be the criterion. What was at that time a Protestant 
or Catholic institution should remain such in future. Eccle- 
siastics who change their religion shall give up their offices, 
but " honore famaque illibatis'' 

The ecclesiastical right of election shall remain unlimited, 
and the prcces primaria of the Emperor, annats and pall 
money in Protestant bishoprics shall be abolished. The 
archbishops, bishops, and prelates elected by the adherents 
of the Confession of Augsburg shall be immediately installed 
by the Emperor. • 

The mediate ecclesiastical possessions, without exception, 



REUGIOUS AND ECCLESIASTICAL QUESTIONS. 273 

shall remain to the Protestants, as on the ist of January, 
1624. 

Knights of the empire and imperial cities shall have the 
same privileges as the superior states of the empire, and 
for them, also, the ist of January, 1624, shall be the criterion 
of restitution. 

The mediate states of the empire shall be protected in 
their creed, and the intolerant principle, " cuius regio eius re- 
^^^>'' given up ; but at the same time the sovereign rights of 
the immediate states in religious matters were granted with 
a regulation calculated to occasion some anxiety (" nulli 
statui immcdiato ins quod ipsi ratione territorii et mpetioritatis 
in negotiis religionis competit, impediri oportere'^). Still, it 
was expressly stated that the Protestant subjects of Catholic 
states, who, in 1624, "whether by treaty, privilege, long 
usage, or only by observance," shall have been in the habit 
of using the Confession of Augsburg, shall retain it, together 
with its "appurtenances;" that is, the institution of con- 
sistories, ministers, schoolmasters, right of patronage, &c. 

Those who have been molested shall be reinstated — of 
course reciprocally. The Catholic subjects of Protestant 
States shall receive the same privileges. 

During the war, as the armies moved hither and thither, 
new congregations had been formed in various places of 
adherents of one creed or the other, with whom the year 
1624 had as little to do as with those who should hereafter 
change their creed. It was settled that " their rulers of a 
different creed shall tolerate them patiently, that they shall 
be at liberty to have domestic worship without molestation, 
to attend the public services of their persuasion in the 
neighbourhood whenever they like, and to send their 
children to foreign schools of their profession." Had this 
article been honestly kept to, we should have had little 

VOL. II. T 



274 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

more persecution to complain of on account of differences 
of religion. 

The treaty goes on to say, " No one of any party shall 
look askance at any one on account of his creed ; nor shaU 
any one be excluded from the communes, guilds, corpora- 
tions, inheritance, legacies, hospitals, or the distribution of 
alms, nor be deprived of honourable burial." 

But this was more easily said than done. If any one wishes 
to emigrate, or is induced to do so by his ruler, he may 
do so without molestation, and without prejudice to his 
property ; he may either alienate it, retain it, or have it 
managed by another. This was specially intended for the 
Austrian and Silesian Protestants. The Emperor's subjects 
in Silesia, and the counts, barons, and nobles in Lower 
Austria were not to be compelled to emigrate. They had 
not been able to agree, it was added, upon further con- 
cessions, "on account of the opposition of the imperial 
plenipotentiaries." Sweden and the Protestant States re- 
served to themselves the right of interceding with the 
Emperor on the subject at the next Diet. 

No one shall in any wise dispute the treaty (" concionando 
doccfido^ dispufarido, scribendo^ consuletido "), nor meddle with 
the treaties of 1552 and 1555. Disputes shall be referred 
to the Diet. 

At the ordinary meetings of the deputies of the empire 
the number of deputies of each religion shall be equal. In 
extraordinary commissions for the settlement of disputes, 
Catholics or Protestants, or both, shall be represented 
according to the religion of the disputants. Religious 
questions shall not be decided by majority of votes. 

An early Diet shall regulate the affairs of the Court of 
Judicature ; besides the judges and four presidents, two of 
whom were to be Protestants, the assessors were to be 



POLITICAL REGULATIONS. 275 

increased to fifty, of whom the Catholics were to appoint 
twenty-six, the Protestants twenty-four. 

To the article which declares the equality of the Reformed 
party is added, " But except the above-mentioned religions, 
no other shall be admitted or tolerated in the holy Roman 
empire." 

In the eighteenth century this clause was enforced against 
the Pietists. 

. Political Regulations. 

The important political changes which resulted, first from 
the European and then from the religious character of the 
empire, have already been partially noticed. The aristo- 
cracy of the rulers and cities, which forms the essential 
feature of the future constitution of Germany, is already 
stamped upon it. 

Article 8 contains the transfer of the sovereignty of the 
empire to the States and their sovereign pleasure. They enjoy, 
so it runs, the right of voting in all transactions relating to 
the affairs of the empire, especially the enactment of laws, 
(questions of war, peace, treaties, taxation, levies of soldiers, 
&c. ; and without their consent no important business can 
be decided. To every, even the smallest regulation the 
consent of the three Courts is required. The right of form- 
ing alliances with foreign powers, for its own support and 
safety, is expressly granted to every individual state, so 
long as they are not entered into against the Emperor, the 
empire, and the public peace, but consistently with the 
oath which every one has taken to the Emperor and the 
empire (**//« tamen ne eiusmodi fadera sint contra Impera- 
torem et Impcrium, pacemque eius publicatn vel hanc imprimis 
transactionem^ fiantque salvo per omnia iuramento quo quisque 
Imperatori et Imperio obstrictus est ";. 



276 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

The last vestige of sovereignty which had been preserved 
in the rickety German constitution was destroyed, and all 
that appertains to the essential character of a State dis- 
tributed among the members of the republic of the States. 

This completely deprived the empire, as such, of its 
power. It was almost impossible with this constitution to 
decide great and urgent questions. The empire might be 
ruined while the three Courts of the Diet were coming to an 
agreement on a complicated question. The article by 
which the right of forming alliances was conferred on every 
State contained within itself the dissolution of the empire. 
All subsequent separate alliances were entered into "for 
the sake of German liberties," and with a reservation of 
loyalty to the Emperor and empire ; even the confederation 
of the Rhine maintained that it was formed from great 
regard for, and boundless loyalty to the German empire. 

And this hampering organization was inflicted on a cor- 
porate empire which had suffered considerable losses both 
in the north and south — besides Alsace, Pomerania, &c., 
Poland was sacrificed, Belgium loosened, Switzerland with- 
drawn from the imperial jurisdiction — and it was sur- 
rounded on two sides by powerful neighbours. 

This was the end of the great revolution which had been 
raging in Germany during the Thirty Years' War. That it 
put the finishing-stroke to the already rotten constitution 
was the least of the evil ; a blow was struck by it at the 
nation itself, its prosperity, and the foundations of its 
existence, from which it took generations to recover. The 
descriptions of the misery inflicted by this war everywhere 
in Germany are heartrending. The conduct of the soldiers 
towards the defenceless citizens and peasants, their wives 
and children, was so horribly barbarous that it seemed to 
be their object literally to destroy the whole population. 



POLITICAL REGULATIONS. 277 

The power of the armed over the unarmed was exercised 
with bestial ferocity. It is said of the ImperiaHsts that 
they baked the poor people in ovens, roasted them before 
the fires, put out their eyes, cut strips from their backs, cut 
off arms, legs, ears, noses, breasts, and set pitch on fire on 
their living bodies. Just the same things are reported of 
the Swedes after their degeneracy after the battle of Nord- 
lingen. The " Swedish drink,** manure-water, poured down 
the throats of the poor wretches, was their invention. 

The depopulation and devastation of the country was 
fearful. 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 fi^om 80,000 to 
18,000; of Frankenthal, from 18,000 to 324 inhabitants. 
In Wiirtemberg, in 1 641, of 400,000 inhabitants 48,000 
remained ; in the Palatinate, in 1636, there were but 201 
peasant-farmers; and in 1648, but a fiftieth part of the 
population remained. In Hesse, 17 towns, 47 castles, and 
400 villages were burnt; in Bavaria alone, in 1646, more 
than 100 villages were ruined ; and in Wiirtemberg 8 cities, 
45 villages, and 36,000 houses. 

The measures which were necessary to bring the wilder- 
ness into cultivation again are indicated by the decrees of 
the Palatinate of that period.* Whoever repaired old houses, 
was exempt from taxes for two years ; whoever built new 
ones, for three; whoever brought waste lands, devastated 
places and vineyards into cultivation again, for one, three, 
six years. 

Here, as everywhere, the most extraordinary exertions 
* Hiiusser, Geschichte der rhein. Pfalz, ii. 585. 



278 THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 

were necessary to restore order and civilisation after the 
devastations of the war. But it was not the mission of the 
empire ; that was condemned to inaction ; but of the in- 
dividual states who now entirely freed themselves from 
their loose connection with it, and whose independent 
efficiency was now severely tested. 

In reviewing the situation of Germany as a whole, the 
best criticism of the new circumstances is contained in a 
pamphlet published in Brandenburg in 1658.* " Our noble 
country has been fearfully spoiled in the name of religion 
and liberty ; we have sacrificed our blood, our honour, and 
our names ; and all that we have attained for it is, that we 
have made ourselves the servants of foreign nations, and 
made masters of those whose names were almost unknown 
to us. What are the Rhine, the Weser, the Elbe, and the 
Oder, but the captives of foreign nations ? What are our 
liberties and our religion but things for others to play 
with?'' 

The part of the German Empire, both at home and 
abroad, was played out. At home it was superseded by 
the acknowledged sovereignty of the ruling princes, the 
nobles, and the cities ; abroad it was thrust aside by the 
new position of two ambitious powers who had begun to 
lay the foundations of their greatness at its expense. The 
Swedish power was established, as projected by Gustavus 
Adolphus, as an empire surrounding the Baltic and even 
ruling a portion of the North Sea. It was a power which 
it needed much hostile talent, and still more stupidity on 
its own part to ruin. 

France had acquired a similar position in the west : dur- 
ing the war, by the skill and rigid consistency of her 
diplomacy, she had made her way out of great internal 
* Droysen, iii. 



POLITICAL REGULATIONS. 



279 



difficulties, and with but little sacrifice she had secured a 
rich booty, which oflfered a prospect of still greater gain ; 
her army also had experienced a discipline which was not 
lost in ensuing times. 

But the power which the German and Spanish Haps- 
burgs had wielded since the times of Charles V. and 
Philip II., and for which they contended for the last time 
during this war, was now thrown entirely into the back- 
ground by their two more fortunate rivals. Spain was 
thoroughly disabled, and the authority of the Emperor in 
the empire reduced to a shadow. The essence of that 
which had been desired by Chemnitz* a year before the 
peace — that Austria might be constitutionally thrust out of 
the empire — ^was accomplished. 

The mediaval order of the European world was over; 
the union which once more took place between Imperialism 
and the Papacy to oppose church reform was for ever at an 
end. An era begins of national consolidated governments, 
with a new policy both foreign and domestic. For both 
these tendencies France became the standard in the spirit 
inaugurated by Richelieu. 

* Hippolithus a Lapide, de ratione status in Imperio Grermanico. 
1647. 



PART XII. 

COMPLETION OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLL 

THE REFORMATION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH UNDER 
EDWARD VL, 1547-53- 

The inheritance of Henry VIII.— Character of the young King. — The 
first Protector, Edward, Duke of Somerset, 1549. — The second 
Protector, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland, 1553. — 
Character of the Church Reform, Bible, Catechism, Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, Abolition of the Mass, Celibacy, &c.— The Catholic 
reaction under Mary, 1553-8. — Abolition of the Ecclesiastical 
I^ws of Edward VI., and first acts of revenge. — Marriage with 
Philip II. of Spain, 1554. — The question of Church Property. — 
Parliament and the Laws concerning Heresy. — The Ordeal by fire 
of English Protestantism. — ^The untenable position of the Grovem- 
ment after the loss of Calais and the breach of the Constitution.* 

The Reformation under Edward VI. 

"11 7 HAT was attempted by Henry VIII. was not in any- 
wise a Reformation, but a wanton experiment of 
autocratic absolutism. 

♦ Camden, Annales rer. Angl. regn. Elisabetha, 1675, fol. Collec- 
tion of State Papers, left by Cecil Lord Burleigh, 1740. Letters of 
negoc. of F. Walsingham, 1655, fol. Forbes, Public Transactions. 
Townshend, Proceedings of the four last Parliaments of Elizabeth, 
1680. Birch, Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754. Lucy 
Aikin, Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth, 18 18. Turner, History of 
the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, 1829. Neal, History 



CONFUSION BEQUEATHED BY HENRY VIH. 28 1 

From motives of a very various character he had reduced 
the ancient Church to ruins, united the monarchy and the 
Papacy in one person, but retained the worship, the 
doctrines, and the hierarchy of the Romish Church. Al- 
though the most determined opponent of the Curia, he was 
no less, from first to last, the declared enemy of Luther ; 
but what his subjects were to be, if they wished to escape 
being hanged as rebels or burnt as heretics, it was not easy 
to say. If a man was a Catholic, he was sent to the 
scaffold because he refused to take the oath of supremacy ; 
if a good Lutheran, he was burnt because he would have 
nothing to do with the mass, celibacy of the clergy, &c. 

The untenableness of the new position lay in the fact 
that it was not based on any fixed principles, but depended 
on the will of a relentless despot ; it could not therefore be 
permanent. It was easy to foresee that at his death the 
structure of Church order raised by this monarch would 
fall, for the arm would be wanting that held it together. 

It was long doubtful whether England would be Pro- 
testant or Catholic ; but that the present state of things 
would not last, and did not deserve to last, was obvious to 
every one. It was also evident that this distraction of men's 
consciences must at length become insupportable. People 
were called Catholic, and then again heretical Protestants ; 
and were in fact neither the one nor the other. 

To add to all the other confusion bequeathed by 
Henry VIIL, the succession to the throne was entirely 
doubtful. 

At the time of the King's death there was no doubt that 

of the Paritans, 1723. M*Crie, Life of John Knox, 1839; Whitaker, 
Mary Stuart Vindicated, 1787. Benger, Memoirs of Mary, 1823. 
Rauroer, Elisabeth und Maria Stuart, 1836. Mignet, Histoire de 
Marie Stuart, 1850. Ranke, Englische Geschichte, vol. i.-Yii., 1859-68. 
Weber, Geschichte der akatholischen Kirchen Englands. 



282 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

bis only son was his lawful successor ; but if he should die 
early, as soon afterwards happened, the question was not so 
simple. 

By his first wife, the unfortunate Catharine of Aragon, 
Henry had one daughter, Mary ; and in the opinion of all 
unprejudiced persons she was the King's legitimate child. 
But her mother's marriage with the King had been officially 
declared illegal. 

The second marriage with Anne Boleyn did not last long, 
and the only issue was another daughter, Elizabeth. On 
doubtful testimony her mother was accused of all sorts of 
unchasdty, and condemned by the same corrupt votes 
which served the King in all these odious transactions. 
She died upon the scaffold ; her offspring therefore could 
not be considered legitimate. 

The third marriage was with Jane Seymour, the only wife 
who was not made wretched by her union with Heniy, for 
she died in childbed, and had not to drink the cup of his 
humours to the dregs. 

The fourth marriage with Anne of Cleves scarcely deserves 
the name, so short-lived and fugitive was the connection. 
The fifth wife, Catharine Howard, seems really to have 
been guilty of adultery. The sixth, Catharine Parr, the 
widow of a nobleman, maintained a tolerable understand- 
ing with the King; but as she had suspicious leanings 
towards Protestantism, it is probable that she would have 
been got rid of on account of theological scruples had the 
King lived much longer. 

Out of this femily history arose most of the convulsions 
by which England was torn during the second half of the 
century, especially the conflict between the two queens — 
Mary Stuart and Elizabeth, the Catholic and the Protestant 

The Seymour family, from whom on the maternal side 



EDWARD VI. AND THE PROTECTORATE. 283 

the young King Edward VI. was descended, gathered 
round him in order to reign in his name, for he was only 
ten years old. From all that we know of the King it 
appears that he displayed a good-natured character, without 
any of the Tudor haughtiness or despotic tendencies ; but 
he early showed great weakness and delicacy of constitu- 
tion. Thus there came to be a government of guardians, 
not by princes of the royal family, but by nobles, who there- 
fore had all the other nobles who were excluded from 
power against them. At first, the King's maternal uncle, 
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was Protector, a vain 
ambitious man, but not without good qualities, which 
endeared him to the people. His own brother, Thomas, 
conspired against him, was subdued, and executed (1549) ; 
then another party was formed against him under Dudley 
Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland, who succeeded 
in compassing the Protector's fall, and in sending him to the 
scaffold (1552). 

Taken altogether, the first Protectorate was the best. It 
was not over-efficient, its projects were often much more 
daring than its performances; but it was lenient, well- 
meaning, and popular. The Duke of Somerset had the 
prosperity of the state, and the good of the lower classes 
sincerely at heart; he neither enriched himself nor mis- 
used his power by aggrandising his relatives at the 
expense of the country. 

With the second Protectorate came all the evils which 
cannot be laid to the charge of the first — barefaced nepotism ; 
the public money was shamefully squandered on favourites, 
and there was an attempt to secure the crown itself to the 
family of the Protector. 

The most important question, however, was what the 
attitude of the government would be towards the Reforma- 



284 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

tion, and the untenable policy of Henry VIII. And on 
this point the new government was stamped with a sharply- 
defined character. 

The young King had been won over to Protestantism by 
Cranraer, and notwithstanding his youth showed a warm 
enthusiasm for and premature comprehension of the new 
doctrines. He had the noble ambition to make his country 
the vanguard of the Reformation, and to offer a refuge to 
the fugitive professors of the new creed in his free island. 

The Seymours also favoiu-ed a thorough reformation from 
conviction. The leading powers in England therefore 
were Protestant, and Cranmer was allowed to give the 
supremacy to those doctrines to which he had long been 
devoted in secret ; he could now openly express in dogma 
that approach to Lutheranism which he had been obliged 
to conceal within his ov^ti breast A great number of the 
nobles were with him, the King and Protector eagerly took 
his part, Parliament was easily gained over, and thus, with 
comparatively little opposition, the traditions of Henry VIII. 
were set aside, the Church system adapted to the conti- 
nental Reformation, the Anglican Church made Protestant 
by authority. 

The English Reformation could not be productive and 
original. In the constitution of the Church the royal 
supremacy could not be set aside ; in the doctrines there 
was nothing original to oppose to Lutheranism. It was 
still a monarchical-aristocratic structure, an episcopal hier- 
archy which, except that it had a temporal head, was 
Catholic ; in the forms of divme worship Catholic and 
Protestant elements were mingled with a preponderance of 
the former ; but the doctrines of the Church were thoroughly 
Protestant. 

These changes were made with prudence and tact; 



THE REFORMS IN THE CHURCH. 285 

and, first, the policy of compulsion as it existed under 
Henry VIII. was discontinued. While the government 
appeared to be walking in the steps of the late King, they 
entirely renounced the essential features of his attitude ; 
while they seemed religiously to be abiding by usage, on 
the most important points it was entirely changed. 

The Six Articles were withdrawn by act of Parliament ; 
as to practices, to the omission of which heavy penalties 
had been attached, such as oral confession, full liberty was 
introduced. Regular teaching of the congregation from 
the English Bible, and of the youth from a purified cate- 
chism, a new liturgy by the Book of Common Prayer, the 
administration of the communion in both kinds, abolition of 
the mass and of the celibacy of the clergy, restrictions upon 
processions, abolition of the worship of images, and invoca- 
tion of saints — with strict injunctions against image-break- 
ing — were the most important of the religious innovations. 
The ruling powers were as firm in their Church policy as 
they were weak in the secular government. 

These changes did not arise, as in Germany and Switzer- 
land, from pressure from the people, but were ordained by 
authority. Although there was but little opposition, the 
consent of the masses was by no means certain; they un- 
doubtedly liked the reforms much better than the terrorism 
of Henry VIII., still it was not clear that they would not 
some day doff the new garments as easily as they had put 
them on, whether a future sovereign might not succeed in 
undoing the work of Edward VI. 

No reformation which had been effected in this official 
way had hitherto been strong enough to set a reaction at 
defiance. 

To add to these anxieties which lay in the nature of 
the case, the second Protector had jealously to guard the 



286 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

mfluence of his family. Since the King's health awakened 
fears of an early death, he busied himself, in opposition to 
the mandates of Henry VIII., in planning a succession to 
the crown, which should on the one hand prevent a 
Catholic reaction under Mary, and on the other secure the 
crown for his family. 

The daughters of Henry VIII. were, he considered, both 
incapable of succeeding, the marriages of their mothers 
having been pronounced invalid. Recourse must therefore 
be had to the legitimate posterity of Henry VII., of which 
there was one princess whose claims bore precedence. Lady 
Jane Grey, the great grandchild of the first Tudor, and 
daughter-in-law of the Protector. She was to be proclaimed 
Queen, with the declaration that her accession would be a 
guarantee of the modem Church reform, while the Catholic 
reign of Mary would upset it. 

The King consented to this, excluded his sisters fix)m 
the throne and disregarded his father's injunctions, for the 
safety of the Protestant doctrines outweighed everything 
with him; and he gave their adherents credit for power 
to maintain the good cause in any struggle that might 
ensue. • 

On the 6th of July, 1553, Edward died suddenly, and 
it now remained to be seen which party had the stronger 
sympathies among the nobles and the people. 

The Catholics, of course, were for Mary, and would have 
been so had her rights been much more doubtful than they 
were. All the powerful enemies whom Warwick had made 
by his supercilious rule were against Lady Jane Grey, and 
the majority of the Protestants were at least doubtful 
whether, for the state of their creed and at the risk of civil 
war, they should help to upset a legitimate succession. 

The coup d'etat must have been very skilfully planned to 



LADY JANE GREY. 287 

succeed against such sentiments, and it was not so; the 
attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, a learned 
young lady, who was never more surprised than at the news 
that she was Queen, was from the first miserably frustrated. 
Mary had only to show herself, some courageous adherents 
had only to proclaim her Queen, and the opposing party 
fell to pieces ; Warwick himself was eclipsed by the herald 
who proclaimed her. 

Catholic Mary, 1553-58; born 1516. 

This was a most important turn in the course of events. 
The question whether the Reformation ordained by autho- 
rity would stand, was still awaiting solution. A princess 
now succeeded to the throne who undoubtedly had decided 
opinions on religious matters. Whatever her sentiments 
might be on other subjects, in religion she was a strict 
Catholic. 

A government ensued which, perhaps without or even 
against her consent, began to tread the path of Catholic 
reaction, which first tested the vital power of Protestantism. 

Mary's portrait, as drawn by English historians, those 
only excepted who favour strict Roman Catholic views, is 
not a very flattering one. The greater number of them 
speak of her only as " Bloody Mary.'* It is perfectly intelli- 
gible that the feelings of the nation, outraged by the Spanish 
terrorism under this Queen, should revenge themselves by 
such a title; and Mary cannot be absolved from enor- 
mous blood-guiltiness. Still it is not fair to yield altogether 
to this impression. On unprejudiced psychological obser- 
vation of her, we find the weakness of a woman which 
deserves rather to be pitied than condemned, instead of the 
wild fanaticism of a bloodthirsty character. 

Mary Tudor was now no longer young, and had an un- 



288 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

happy childhood and youth to look back upon. She had 
seen her innocent mother separated from her father by a 
party tribunal, banished like an intruder from the court, 
supplanted on the throne by a more fortunate rival ; she 
herself had been thrust into the background, threatcfhed, 
neglected, ill-used. Such things might have left fainter 
traces on a sprightly and vigorous character, but they were 
inflicted on a person who had an early bias to melancholy 
and bigotry. 

The remembrance of her lot was still further embittered 
by the idea that her mother had been persecuted for her 
faith, and that she herself had been condemned to obscurity 
for the same reason. Her mother's misfortunes and her 
own had begun with the day when the king broke faith 
with the ancient church ; and the victory of the rival was 
at the same time, in her eyes, a victory of modern unbelief. 
It was not so, but so it appeared to her. All the bitterest 
experiences of her life were connected with the position of 
affairs on religious questions. Protestantism was not only 
a new doctrine which was opposed to her faith, but a hostile 
principle which had brought wretchedness to her and her 
mother. 

She therefore hated the new creed, and felt herself a 
stranger among the people. She was more Spanish than 
English, regarded the English as accomplices in the out- 
rages against her mother and her faith, and worshipped 
everything Spanish. This was another cause of estrange- 
ment. 

Then she was weakly and sickly, and had something of 
the sour misanthropy of an old maid. This all conspired 
to drive her to fearlul deeds, for which an explanation must 
be sought in all the circumstances of her life before they are 
roundly condemned. 



QUEEN MARY. 289 

It was not that she came to the throne with her head full 
of evil intentions. Many things were rather brought about 
by the course of events than ordained by her despotic 
will. 

On her accession she made a declaration that the Pro- 
testants should not be molested in the profession and prac- 
tice of their religion, nor should compulsion be used in 
matters of faith ; but she forbade the use of the offensive 
names, " Papist " and " heretic." 

Perhaps this was only done to allay the fears of the 
Protestants, and to deprive the enemy of its latest adher- 
ents, for she was no doubt resolved at heart to restore 
Catholicism. The first acts of the new government were 
acts of revenge. Northumberland, whose behaviour now 
was as cowardly and craven as it had before been insolent 
and ambitious, was sent with five accomplices to the scaf- 
fold ; and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were closely 
imprisoned. 

Then followed the measures for Catholic restoration, and 
the supremacy which Henry VIII. had connected with the 
regal power came to her aid, and still more so the subser- 
vience to which he had trained Parliament and the judges. 
She filled all offices in accordance with her views ; those 
who had suffered for their Catholic opinions under Edward 
VI. were re-instated in their posts ; Bishop Gardiner 
stepped out of prison into the office of chancellor, and a 
number of eminent bishops, who were the pillars of Pro- 
testantism, were dismissed. The ministry was formed in a 
Catholic spirit, and in a few months the state of official 
England was thoroughly reversed. 

Edward VI. had only just made Protestantism the basis 
of the government, and now pure Catholicism was lifting 
up its head again. This arose from the nature of the Refor- 

VOL, II. u 



290 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

mation ; Henry VIII. had systematically deprived it of the 
people's sympathy, and during the short reign of Edward 
VI. it had not been able to take deep root. 

The counter reformation was taking its course when the 
elections for the new Parliament took place. If any defence 
could be looked for in England against the arbitrary govern- 
ment, it could only be from Parliament. It had hitherto 
been fickle, and had had no will of its own. Still it held a 
weapon in its hand which might some day be effectually 
used. The retrograde step made itself felt in the elections, 
for the restoration of Catholicism was represented in them ; 
and it can scarcely be supposed that the new Parliament 
was such as it was solely from government influence. 

The first duty of Parliament was to abolish the edict 
which had pronounced the marriage of Mary's mother in- 
valid. After the Queen's succession was an accomplished 
fact, the edict had lost its significance, and it was passed 
without opposition. 

But it was different with the next proposal, to abolish the 
religious innovations of Edward VI. and the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer. This, however, was also carried, though not 
without a sharp contest. Public worship again became 
Catholic. The doctrines of the Church were placed upon 
their old footing, and a wide breach made in the work of 
the Reformation. 

To go further than this did not seem practicable to the 
Queen's prudent advisers, among whom was the Emperor 
Charles V. So the mass was introduced once more, the 
Catholic liturgy restored ; but the temporal headship of the 
hierarchy, the royal supremacy, remained, though the Queen 
A^ould have preferred at once to restore the supremacy to 
the Pope. 

After a long alienation from Rome, a sort of reconcilia- 



CATHOLIC REACTION. 29 1 

tion took place, but it is remarkable that while grateful for 
the restoration, they thought it best at Rome to moderate 
the Queen's zeal. They did not venture to appoint a Papal 
legate immediately. Among the chief of those who had 
strenuously opposed Henry's innovations was Cardinal Pole, 
who had escaped death by flight . He was looked upon as 
the representative of exiled Catholic England, and was 
treated at Rome with great favour and distinction. Pope 
Julius III. appointed him his plenipotentiary in England, 
but it was long before the people were supposed to be ready 
for his reception, and when he returned, after thirty years of 
exile, he belonged to the moderate party (a rare case with 
a refugee), and was soon in despair at Mary's want of 
moderation. 

The consequences of turning into the paths of Catholic 
reaction soon developed themselves. The first Parliament 
might have laid claim to some indulgence for its compliant 
spirit, but the Queen thought it presumptuous for proposing 
her marriage with an Englishman, so she dissolved it, and 
interfered arbitrarily with its decrees. The performance of 
divine service in the EngHsh language was forbidden ; 
many thousand married clergymen were driven with their 
wives and children from their offices, and reduced to beg- 
gary. Soon afterwards a marriage scheme was formed in 
the background of which a fearful ecclesiastical counter 
revolution was justly foreseen. 

That at her age the Queen should still entertain the 
thought of marriage appeared natural to every one. It was 
wished in England that she should marry an Englishman, 
and in the highest circles and in Parliament the young Earl 
of Devonshire was thought of as a candidate for her hand. 
But the daughter of a princess of Aragon would not hear 
of an Englishman. She had never had any personal 



292 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

attachment ; it was not difficult to believe her when she 
told the imperial ambassador that she did not know what 
love was, but that it had always been the secret wish of her 
heart to form a marriage with the best Catholic house, that 
of Spain. The hand of Philip 11. was just then set free 
by the death of his second wife, and Mary had turned her 
eyes towards him. They were already diplomatically cast- 
ing about for a wife for him, and had been negotiating with 
Portugal, when it was learnt that he would meet with the 
most cordial reception in England. 

The Emperor was most agreeably surprised by Mary's 
communication. Father and son had just suffered a great 
defeat m Germany ; the connection with England seemed 
to offer compensation. The marriage treaty was concluded ; 
Mary secretly consented to it in October, 1553; but the 
mere report of it sufficed to set all England in a commo- 
tion. Spanish absolutism and the Spanish inquisition were 
already beheld transplanted to England. 

For the first time all parties were united in their fears. 
Parliament spoke against the marriage, and was dissolved. 
It then came to open rebellion. The nobles, who saw their 
possession of Church property rather than their faith en- 
dangered, were in a mutinous frame of mind ; outbreaks 
took place in Kent and Cornwall. It was difficult to say 
whether the voices of the Protestants or of the English 
nation itself prevailed. 

The revolts of Wyatt and Carew failed ignominiously, 
and the results followed which almost always ensue from 
unsuccessful revolts. The Queen went still more recklessly 
forwards. She was not cruel by nature, but after being 
threatened with insurrection in her own capital, she was 
resolved upon the worst. 

In February, 1554, fifty people were hung, and the un- 



MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH PHTLIP H. 293 

fortunate Lady Jane Grey, an amiable, inoffensive person, 
entirely innocent of any share in recent events, was brought 
to the scaffold as a possible accomplice, together with her 
husband and the Duke of Suffolk. Elizabeth was also 
imprisoned in the Tower, but as nothing could be proved 
against her, she was soon set at liberty. 

The marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain took place in 
July, 1554. The new Parliament, worked upon and mtimi- 
dated, had approved the marriage treaty, but it did not 
seem at all disposed to set its seal to the completion of the 
Catholic restoration, and was therefore immediately dis- 
missed. King Philip was as amiable and afiable as his 
Spanish haughtiness permitted, and acquired numerous 
friends among the aristocracy by showering pensions and 
favours around him. 

The Queen, meanwhile, impatiently urged a complete 
return under the authority of the Pope. Her ecclesiastical 
title, the leniency towards the heretics, to which she had 
been compelled, the spoil of Church property which had 
been begun, lay heavily upon her conscience as sins for 
which she was personally responsible. However impolitic 
this might be as far as the English crown was concerned, it 
so much the more proved the sincerity of her fanaticism. 
The Church property had been unmercifully cut up ; a large 
portion of it had been seized by the Crown itself, and, 
fortunately for England, sold again at prices so moderate 
that the well-to-do middle class gained immense wealth by 
it. The question, how to right this wrong without commit- 
ting another, was a very complicated one. As it is not 
seldom the case that men find it harder to surrender a 
portion of their worldly goods than to abjure their faith, it 
might be expected that the great majority would sooner put 
up with a return to the mass, the papal supremacy, and 



294 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

even to the laws against heresy than to a demand for the 
restoration of Church property. 

It does honour to the Queen's faithfulness to her con- 
victions, if not to her political insight, that this was not her 
feeling — that she would have liked to restore her own 
estates which had fallen to the Crown, together with the 
others ; but in this view she was entirely Alone. 

No decisive progress could be made in England without 
a dispensation to secure the forty, thousand heads of families 
in the possession of the Church property they had purchased, 
but with it everything might be attained. 

In fact, the new Parliament declared itself ready to abjure 
its Protestantism, and to regulate the Church and her 
doctrine in accordance with the Pope's pleasure if no one 
would interfere with the distribution of Church property, 
and when a pledge to this effect was given, it consented to 
render obedience to the Pope and to renew the edicts against 
heretics.* 

Thus the counter revolution was legalised, and the trials 
for heresy could begin. All the more eminent foes of 
Catholicism, among them the first names in the nation, and 
the stars of English learning, were summoned before the 
inquisition, condemned, and executed, not for any guilty 
deeds, attempts at insurrection, or for disturbing Catholic 
worship, but solely for theoretical views on religious ques- 
tions which differed from those of Gardiner, Bonner, and 
the rest of the strict Catholics. The intellectual aristocracy 
of the land was brought to the scaffold, and most of the 
victims met their fate in a manner worthy of their moral 
rank. During the three years before Mary's death it was 
reckoned that two hundred and seventy heretics were burnt, 
among whom were fifty-five women and four children. One 
• Ranke, E. G., u 267. 



PERSECUTIONS UNDER MARY. 295 

of the first victims was old Archbishop Cranmer, who had 
hitherto managed to pass muster, but was now thrown into 
prison by his mortal enemy, Gardiner. By a disgraceful 
transaction he was induced to try to save his little span of 
life by a recantation, and yet he was burnt. An odious 
game was played with the old man, which outrages every 
feeling of humanity. 

For Protestant England these days of persecution, in 
which the best blood of the nation was spilt, was a time of 
awakening and revival. Up to this time it had been the 
custom to adhere in the main to traditional views of religion, 
but to change their outward garb with the changes of the 
government. 

Mary no longer allowed any freedom of choice. She did 
her best to separate the chaff from the wheat To set 
against the thousands who bowed down before each succes- 
sive government, there were hundreds who preferred death 
to giving up an iota of their faith. Indeed, under the 
impression of the sublime contempt of death with which 
most of them mounted the scaffold, all the Protestant part 
of the nation gradually became inspired with sentiments of 
emulative self-sacrifice; death lost his sting, the leaders 
drew the multitudes along with them, and faithfulness unto 
death, which had hitherto been wanting to English Protest- 
antism, was given to it by its bitterest enemy. 

If Protestantism stood this fiery trial, it could not fail to 
become more than it had hitherto been. No longer some- 
thing officially commanded or tolerated, it would be strong 
enough to stand alone. 

All that was now wanting was that the government in its 
foreign policy should take an anti-national course, and thus 
make the sufferings of a party coincident with the shame 
and enthralment of a whole nation. 



2g6 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

This was effected by the foolish part which Mary in her 
infatuation was induced to take in the Spanish-French war. 
The defender of Metz, Francis of Guise, took Calais from 
England, January, 1558 — the last proud reminiscence of the 
time when England ruled as far as the Loire was lost, 
because the Queen sided with Spain, and a dangerous mis- 
understanding had arisen at home. 

Pope Paul IV., the Pope of the most rigid and relentless 
restoration, had reversed the decision of his predecessor on 
the subject of Church property, and demanded at least the 
devolution of the Church property in possession of the 
Crown. Mary, with whom this was a matter of conscience, 
appeared herself in Parliament to urge this act of justice, 
and succeeded in carrying it by a very small majority, 
December, 1555 j but the suspicions of the aristocracy who 
had Church property in their private possession could no 
longer be subdued. To add to this was the unhappy war. 
Parliament would not grant any further supplies ; the Govern- 
ment imposed arbitrary taxes, and proceeded with violence 
against the courts which sided with those who refused to pay 
the taxes. The Government, which persecuted the Pro- 
testants as if they had been criminals, with fire and sword, 
trod also the laws of the land underfoot, and sacrificed the 
national honour. Thus the idea arose that Protestantism 
and English nationality were identical, and the Government 
had reached that point which Charles V. and Cardinal Pole 
warned them to avoid if they did not wish that the country 
should be made Protestant by force. 

General and increasing discontent prevailed. If a revo- 
lution broke out, no legitimacy could protect the Queen ; it 
would be sure to succeed. Just when suspense had reached 
its height, on the 17th of November, 1558, Mary died. 
She was quite forsaken in her latter days ; even Cardinal 



MARY'S DEATH. 



297 



Pole no longer possessed her confidence ; she had only the 
fanatical Bonner now, as ever, on her side. She died just 
in time to escape being the victim of a revolution. 

There was no doubt in the minds of the people as to her 
successor. Mary had never regarded her sister Elizabeth 
with affection, and it was not to be expected of her ; but 
the Protestant Elizabeth had, with great prudence and no 
small success, avoided everything which would have 
rendered her suspicious in the eyes of her sister. Had she 
not done so, it would have been easy for Mary to have had 
her executed as a heretic, and thereby to have smoothed the 
path of Mary Stuart to the throne. But Elizabeth had 
happily outlived the time of persecution, and was now led 
forth from the Tower to be seated on the throne. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH, 1558-1603. 

Cautious beginnings. — The Parliament of 1559 and the Re-establish- 
ment of the Anglican Church. — Beginning of the conflict with 
Mary Stuart. — The Reformation in Scotland, John Knox.— Mary 
Stuart in Scotland, 1561-8. — Damley. — Rizzio.— Bothwell. — Mary 
Stuart in England. — Attitude of Rome and Spain against Eliza- 
beth. — The Conspiracies. — Norfolk, 1 569- 1572. — Elizabeth's 
forced enmity towards Rome and Spain, 1572-85.— Conspiracy of 
Savage and Babington. — Mary Stuart's Trial and Execution, 
1586-7. — The Spanish Armada and Elizabeth's last days, 1603. 

Cautious beginnings. The Parliament of 1559, and 
THE Re-establishment of Anglicanism. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH had preserved a sound mind 
during years of suffering and oppression. During the 
five years of Mary's reign she was watched by spies belong- 
ing to the ruling party, whose whole endeavours were 
directed to surprising her in some false step, so that she 
might be put to death as a conspirator. She avoided all 
their snares with great dexterity, and so escaped the fate of 
Lady Jane Grey.* Her lot had been pretty much the 
same as that in which Mary imbibed her gloomy misan- 
thropy, but her character was totally different ; she had 
the youthful sprightliness, the light French blood of her 
mother, just the qualities which had captivated Henry VIII., 
* For the part taken Va \}bx& millet by Philip II. see Ranke, i. 393. 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 299 

though she had not her mother's beauty. Her sufferings 
had not crushed her spirit, nor disturbed her love of and 
confidence in the world. As triumphant as if she had had 
a happy life to look back upon, she stepped from her prison 
to the throne, resolved to remember no longer that her life 
had been schemed against, to reign as if she had always 
been treated as the future Queen. She could associate 
without constraint, and as if nothing had happened between 
them, with men who had conspired against her life. It 
was not ever}'body who could have done this, and after a 
period of bitter and bloody party conflicts, had it been for 
this reason only, this reign would have been a blessing to 
the country. 

Although mortally hated by the Catholics, Elizabeth did 
not hate them. On the contrary, it often appeared as if 
she was too lenient towards them. With all her weak- 
nesses and bitternesses, hers was a character which people 
could not help liking in spite of all her calumniators. She 
was just what she appeared to be; with her feminine 
sensitiveness, her often ludicrous vanity, and her love of 
homage and flattery, great and regal qualities were united ; 
her whole life was a manly struggle to uphold the power of 
the State and the national idea, and when she had to choose 
between her personal tastes and fancies, and the great re- 
quirements of the State, she never failed to choose the 
latter. The Englishman is right in holding his " Queen 
Bess ** in grateful remembrance. She gave her country fifty 
years of domestic peace, security, and order, and laid the 
foundation of England's greatness ; not that she did it all 
herself, but nothing was done in which she did not take a 
decided part. 

She did not, when she began to reign in 1558, seem 
likely to become the Elizabeth she afterwards proved Ivec- 



300 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

self to be — the pillar of Protestantism, the opponent of 
Spain and Rome. 

At first she had neither inclination nor occasion to take 
this part Though not romantic, she was easily interested 
in such ideas; she was cool, quiet, and reasonable, not 
without a trace of cunning which often became falseness ; 
it was her intention to keep peace with all parties, and 
Europe was chiefly to blame for the fact that she afterwards 
diverged from this path. She had at first no other idea 
than to leave Catholicism alone, though she intended to 
grant the legal protection to Protestantism, which it had 
to dispense with under Mary. Her first act therefore was 
to put a stop to the bloody edicts against heresy, and to 
abolish the courts for trying it ; but there was nothing else 
that bore any special Protestant stamp, no declaration was 
made that Catholicism was no longer the dominant religion 
in the State, and at this the Protestants who had been per- 
secuted and oppressed took offence. 

This did not arise altogether fi-om the feminine tendency 
to mediate, where men had quarrelled ; there was another 
reason for it Elizabeth did not hate Catholicism ; she was 
a Tudor, and every one who bore that name placed a high 
value upon authority, and in the eyes of many the Catholic 
hierarchy was authority personified; then the outward 
pomp and consecrated splendour of the Romish worship 
was imposing to her womanish character. 

Thus her first ecclesiastical acts might be called syncre- 
tistic. She went to mass because she thought she owed it 
to her Catholic subjects ; she even forbade the preaching 
because of the disputes about the pulpits that began to 
arise, but in the rest of the service she permitted the use of 
the English language which had been forbidden by Mary ; 
she took care, however, not arbitrarily to undo what Mary 



RE-ESTABUSHMENT OF ANGUCANISM. 301 

had done. She did not wish that it should appear that 
she was giving things a one-sided Protestant colouring. It 
was her desire to be at peace with Spain, Rome, and 
France, with all the world, in fact, as well as with her own 
country. 

Her first proceedings in religious matters are connected 
with the dissolution of the old Parliament and the election 
of a new one. 

It was quite intelligible that, in 1553, the popular voice, 
excited and irritated as the nation was, should be sincerely 
in favour of the Catholic party, and that it should therefore 
have the majority at the elections ; but it was equally in- 
telligible that, after five years of bloody persecution, an 
entire change should have taken place, and that not a 
single Catholic candidate was even nommated. There was 
no need for Elizabeth to speak, the people spoke for 
themselves. 

All that Mary's government had achieved for Catholicism 
was the defection of the nation. Government and Parlia- 
ment now went hand in hand, to restore the most important 
things which had been abolished under Mary, and they 
succeeded with comparatively little resistance. 

The completion of the national Church of England, of 
which the foundations had been laid under Edward VI., 
was now taken in hand ; and in all essential points it re- 
mains to this day as it was then built up. The mass was 
abolished, the liturgy of Edward VI., and the royal supre- 
macy in ecclesiastical matters restored. The new organiza- 
tion overcame all opposition, and excluded every element 
which, tending either to Catholicism or Calvinism, held 
opinions differing from its own. The new Church un- 
doubtedly comprised the greater part of the nation ; but on 
the one hand there were the Catholics who were excluded 



302 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

from the government, on the other the strict Reformers of 
the Genevan school, who accepted the breach with Rome 
and the Papacy as a matter of course, but did not like the 
English hierarchy. Perhaps, if votes were taken now, the 
majority of the nation would belong to the opponents of 
the Anglican Church, but the structure raised by Queen 
Elizabeth is still practically of great importance; it is 
based upon a well organized and internally coherent ecclesi- 
astical hierarchy; it possesses very considerable power 
through its Church property, which though then diminished 
has since greatly increased, a number of seats in the lower 
house are at its disposal.* Through the bishops it occu- 
pies a number of seats in the upper house, and is there- 
by an essential support of the aristocratic constitution of 
England. 

It is possible to have a great aversion to a State Church, 
and yet to be compelled to admit that at that time, after 
the confusion and transitions of the last thirty years, it was 
necessary to establish an organization which should brave 
all future storms. This the English Church has done ; 
she has survived two revolutions and remains to this day, 
no longer, indeed, exercising the same spiritual authority, 
but holding the same political position as she did then. 

Elizabeth did not bring this project with her ready made 
to the throne ; but when with a true instinct she perceived 
the need of it, she allowed the voice of the people to be 
heard, and gave her sanction to what was for their interest. 

On these points she allowed herself to be borne on by 
the voices and movements of the people, and her relations 
with the different parties were by no means so sharply 
defined as we commonly suppose. We think of her as the 
mortal foe of King Philip and the Papal Curia, as the. 
♦ On this point Professor Hausser has evidently been misinfonned. — Tr. 



RIVALRY WITH MARY STUART. 303 

protector of the Netherlands and the Huguenots ; we shall 
see her afterwards playing these parts, but she did not 
begin to play them at once. She still wTote to Madrid and 
Rome in a tone of affection, and it was only when she 
ceased to do so, that it was remarked that she was not a 
legitimate daughter of Henry VIII., that she had no right 
to the throne, and that the voice of Parliament, which was 
more decidedly on her side than it had been on Mary's, 
was null and void. 

The opposition to her right to the throne by all the foes 
of English Protestantism and English liberties, gradually 
compelled her to take up a position of decided partisanship, 
which was rendered doubly bitter by the fact that it was 
coloured by personal intrigues and interests. The person- 
age who was opposed to her as the Pretender to the throne 
by the Catholic powers, who disputed her honourable birth 
and her claim to the throne, was her neighbour in Scot- 
land, Mary Stuart, who entered into the contest with all a 
woman's passion. 

These two women quarrelled after the fashion of their 
sex ; the one was a frivolous coquet who knew nothing of 
self-control, the other did exercise it, though also a sensu- 
ous woman; the one possessed all the virtues and vices 
belonging to such a character, the other, though not free 
from affected prudery, was sustained by a certain masculine 
ambition and political greatness wholly wanting in the 
other. They were complete contrasts in most of their 
characteristics, and they could not live together in peace 
when politics brought them in contact. Elizabeth must 
either subject herself to the Queen of Scotland — that is, 
renounce her throne and honour, or carry on a struggle 
with her for life and death ; there was no third course. 

When Elizabeth first came to the throne no oi^^?»\\\^X!^ 



304 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

was offered by the powers which afterwards opposed her ;* 
it was only after the ecclesiastical proceedings that the 
legitimacy was called in question ; at first in whispers, and 
then openly declared against The same confusion of 
ideas prevailed which had been employed against Mary on 
the other side. 

Those who considered her mother's adultery as proved, 
might pronounce Elizabeth illegitimate. Her sister Mary 
had always treated her as her father's legitimate daughter. 

Mary Stuart's right was indisputable, but it woul4 only 
come into force after the death of Elizabeth and her 
heirs. 

Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VH., first of the 
Tudors, made a Scotch marriage, and as wife of James IV. 
(1513), became the mother of James V. He married Mary 
of Guise, a sister of the Victor of Calais and the spokes- 
man of Trent Of this union was bom Mary Stuart, as 
she was called, to distinguish her from the other Marys 
who played a part in her history. When very young she 
was married in France to Francis II., who began to reign 
in 1559 and died in 1560. It may have been partly this 
circumstance which prevented the Catholic opponents of 
Elizabeth from earlier thinking of setting up Mary Stuart 
as a pretender to the throne. It was only really as Queen 
that success for the scheme could be looked for ; before 
she was Queen, and when she was so shortly Queen no 
longer, there was no prospect of it. 

Mary Stuart was a widow at eighteen. There was no 
lack of proposals of a second marriage, for her youth and 
beauty and the possession of the crown of Scotland made 
her a desirable match. Philip II. knocked at her door as 

♦ Hausser appears not to regard the Pope's protest (Ranke, i. 301), 
as it had no immediate consequences. — Ed, 



THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND. 305 

he did at Elizabeth's. She did not, however, then form any 
second marriage, but followed the advice of her uncle, to 
cross over to Scotland and take possession of her throne. 
Up to this time the government had been carried on by her 
mother, Mary of Guise. 

With Mary's reign in Scotland the contest between the 
two Queens began. 

Mary assumed the rights of a crown which were of them- 
selves difficult to defend, and they had just met with a 
strong counterpoise in the Reformation. 

The Reformation in Scotland. 

The monarchy in Scotland had always been a limited one, 
partly from the power of the landed nobles, partly from 
the defiant and independent spirit of the people. Revolt 
against the royal authority was an everyday affair. The re- 
solve to rush into the king's presence with pikes and guns 
was accompanied by no more hesitation or pricks of con- 
science than it was anywhere else in the Middle Ages. 

If any of the nobles were dissatisfied with the Crown, 
they stirred up a quarrel, and followers were seldom want- 
ing among their vassals and the people. To reign 
amidst difficulties so great required a tact which tlie Stuarts 
by no means possessed. Their arrogance, their exaggerated 
idea of the sacredness of their authority, their severity, 
capricious obstinacy and unyielding defiance, their pro- 
verbial vacillation between despondency and presumption, 
totally unfitted them to be rulers of Scotland. 

King James V. died on the 14th of September, 1542, and 
Mary was bom only a few days before his death. There 
was therefore no king in Scotland ; the heiress to the throne 
was a new-bom babe, and her guardian was a Guise. This 
happened, too, at a time when that great crisis was takin 

VOL. II. X 



306 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

place in the North of Europe, in which everybody was either 
engulphed in the reform movement or resolutely opposed it 

Scotland was also affected by it, but 'differently from 
England. The Reformation there took a course of its own. 
In this case it was not the conflict of theological opinions 
or national aversion to interference from Rome, but the 
degenerate lives of the clergy which gave the impulse to it. 
It was not the whim of the sovereign, or the shrewd calcu- 
lations and political ambition of a ruler which gave rise to 
the breach, but the moral exasperation and love of liberty 
of the best spirits in the nation. 

Calvinistic Geneva was the school of Scotch Protestant- 
ism ; and inasmuch as Calvinism was one of the most 
remarkable figures of the age, Scotland, its favourite 
daughter, claims a special interest. 

John Knox (born 1505) takes the foremost place in this 
movement. With the fiery zeal, the rigid strictness, the 
gloomy theocratic sentiments of Calvin, he united the 
unyielding love of liberty, the stormy spirit of opposition, 
which belong to his nation. A Calvinist than whom, 
Calvin himself excepted, there never was a more rigid one ; 
a man of blameless purity of life, a preacher like his master, 
and filled with the theocratic zeal of an Old Testament 
prophet, he possessed the unconciliatory radicalism of these 
revolutionary tendencies. In his ideal of Church and 
State there was neither royal nor priestly supremacy. The 
priesthood and the clergy were to be abolished, the Romish 
worship expunged from the earth, the ruler or nobleman 
who made an ill use of his rank should be outlawed, uncon- 
ditional church reform was the sacred duty of the commu- 
nity, if the rulers neglected it, and no pains must be spared 
in the execution of this duty. 

Under the regency of Mary of Guise he had been com- 



JOHN KNOX. 307 

pelled to leave Scotland. At first he was a convict in the 
galleys in France ; then he went to Geneva, and sat at the 
feet of Calvin. 

On his return, at the end of 1555, he began to preach 
Calvinism with all its exclusiveness, but also with all its 
energy and greatness of character. He began by quietly 
forming congregations, to whom he administered the Lord's 
Supper according to Protestant forms. The common bond 
was — no communion with Romish " idolatry," and adher- 
ence to the word of God unto death. In this propaganda 
the example of the mother Church at Geneva was first car- 
ried out on a larger scale ; the principle of self-government 
by self-elected elders and mmisters was introduced, and the 
rigid simplicity and plainness of the Calvinistic worship 
carried to a fanatical point. Knox went further than Calvin, 
because he was surrounded by a Catholic State Church 
which violently opposed every innovation ; and amidst the 
irritation occasioned by this Scotch Calvinism assumed an 
exaggerated degree of rigidity and austerity. 

It was the peculiarity of Calvinism that it was more than 
any other phase of Protestantism the implacable enemy of 
the Roman Catholic Church and worship, and that it was re- 
presented by characters who personified it, firom its greatest 
features to the minutest detail, with inimitable onesidedness. 

John Knox was one of these men; half prophet, half 
tribune, dictator to the Church, pulpit orator, and popular 
agitator, he carried his countrymen along with him as no 
one else could. Contrast this gloomy personage, full of 
pith and marrow, with the bright Mary Stuart, who was 
just opening to the pleasures of life, brought up in the 
elegant, immoral atmosphere of the French court, and you 
will have some idea of the incongruous elements which 
were soon to produce an explosion. 



308 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

There was a powerful nobility in Scotland^ who had 
always looked upon the Stuarts merely as their equals, and 
in the violence of the government and clergy against the 
heretical doctrines they saw a menacing assertion of the 
royal authority. A great many of the nobles adopted the 
new doctrines, which were a pledge alike of religious and 
political liberty. One of their most zealous partisans was 
one of the Stuarts themselves. James V. had seduced a 
noble lady, and a son was bom who bore his fia.ther's name, 
and whom Mary herself afterwards created Earl of Moray. 
The father's sin was to be revenged on him. He was a 
gifted and passionate man, attached by conviction to the 
new doctrines, and he was in the foremost ranks of its 
adherents. 

In March, 1559, the Protestant nobles demanded of the 
Regent that the bishops should be chosen by the nobles of 
the diocese, the ministers by the congregation, and that 
divine service should be performed in the native tongue. 
Instead of granting it, the clergy persuaded the Regent to 
let the courts take proceedings against the heretics. In 
May, therefore, stormy scenes took place. 

John Knox, who had just returned to Scotland, preached 
fiery sermons against the idolatry of the mass and the 
worship of saints, and but a slight impulse was wanting to 
incite the masses to violence. In Perth an attack began 
upon images, altars, monasteries, and abbeys, which in a 
few days spread over a great part of the land, and was fol- 
lowed by a tumultuous victory for the Protestant worship. 
A number of churches were dismantled, about two hundred 
monasteries destroyed, the mass abolished, and the lituxgy 
of Edward VI. introduced. 

By means of promises, intended to be broken on the first 
opportunity, the Regent tried to quell these disturbances ; 



THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND. 309 

but when French troops arrived in the country it came to 
open revolt. In October, 1559, the Presbyterian party 
met as the " nobles and commonalty of the Scotch Church," 
and declared that the Regent had forfeited her office by her 
infringement of the constitution. 

The unity of religious and political revolution had 
become a fact, and the preachers justified these proceedings 
from the Bible. 

It was therefore political as well as religious considera- 
tions which helped to procure victory for the revolution. 

Elizabeth was not enough of a heroine of the faith, 
and too much of a Tudor, to lend a hand to the rebels 
against a legal government.* Philip II. must have re- 
garded the proceedings of the Scotch Presbyterians as an 
unpardonable crime against all that he held sacred as a 
ruler and a Catholic, and yet even he advised that the 
Scotch should be supported against the Regent; for an 
union of the crowns of France and Scotland appeared more 
dangerous to him than even the Calvinistic heresy, and this 
consideration at length prevailed with Elizabeth. 

Through the aid of England a treaty was concluded at 
Edinburgh in 1560, according to which the French troops 
were to withdraw. With this, the last obstacle to the com- 
plete victory of the Presbyterians disappeared, and Parlia- 
ment could make the Protestant faith, the abolition of 
episcopacy and the mass the law of the land without 
opposition. 

This was the position of affairs in Scotland when, in the 
summer of 1561, Queen Mary, who had been a widow since 
December, 1560, arrived in Scotland. 

♦ Compare the characteristic letter to Mary Tudor of 1556.— 
Raumer. 



3IO THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Mary Stuart in Scotland. — 1561-68. 

The Stuarts are one of the most unfortunate royal {ami- 
lies in history. James I. and III. were murdered, James II. 
was killed by the bursting of a gun, James IV. fell in battle, 
and James V. had to submit to the aristocracy. He died 
i^-ith the most gloomy forebodings. When, on his deathbed, 
the birth ot his daughter, Mary Stuart, was announced to 
him, he said, "The kingdom cam' wi* a lass *' (the daughter 
of Robert Bruce), " an' it wuU gae wi' a lass.** From the 
circumstances under which Mary came to the throne, it 
could scarcely be hoped that this family misfortune would 
yield to a better fate. 

The country was ruled by an austere fanatical Protestant- 
ism ; the Queen was a zealous Catholic ; a tone of gloomy 
severity of morals reigned in the new Church. Mary was a 
young, pleasure-loving woman, in the heyday of life, and 
came from a luxurious and frivolous court, which was 
regarded by the Calvinists with horror ; the country had 
ridden itself of the French by force, and Mary was ac- 
companied by French courtiers, jesters, and confessors, who 
daily reminded the people that their Queen was a foreigner. 

The days of her reception were the happiest that Mary 
spent in Scotland. The Scotch have themselves described 
how the beautiful young Queen was greeted by the rejoic- 
ings of the people. She was a real ruler, after there had 
been a regency for nearly twenty years ; but in the solenm 
processions which went forth to meet her there were many 
things in the devices and songs which breathed the Calvin- 
istic hatred of Papal idolatry. 

Mary was soon to feel this more keenly. Zealous 
Catholic as she was, she would have liked to make her 
creed once more that of the whole country ; but as it was 



MARY STUART. 311 

impossible even to attempt this, she desired at least to be 
unmolested in her Catholic domestic worship and the private 
'service in her chapel. But the fanaticism of the all-powerful 
John Knox would not permit it He and his party preached 
openly against the heresies of the unconverted Queen. 
Knox allowed himself to say in his prayers in the church — 
" Purify, O Lord, the heart of the Queen from the poison 
of idolatry, release her from the bondage of Satan in which 
she was brought up, and in which, from want of true 
teaching, she still remains." And when mass was read in 
all privacy before the Queen, tumults took place in which 
several priests and persons about her had their heads 
broken and their ears cut off.* 

Queen Elizabeth watched these events with the interest 
of a person whom they concerned more nearly than any 
one else. From the time when Mary first set her foot upon 
Scotch soil, she found herself in opposition to Elizabeth. 
Elizabeth demanded the recognition of the Treaty of 
Edinburgh, which Mary absolutely refused. It may easily 
be imagined, therefore, with what feelings she watched the 
fate of the Queen of Scotland. 

She took pleasure in her rival's self-made difficulties, for 
they lamed her, and while her possession of the Scotch 
crown was in the balance, she could scarcely think of 
grasping at the English one. She supported the Scotch 
nobles in their opposition, and the Calvinists in their 
defiance, while in England she kept both these parties 
within very circumscribed limits. Mary had not given up 
any of her projects against Elizabeth and Protestant fanati- 
cism ; but she took care not to increase her isolation by 
giving any challenge to England. 

* Even as early as September 8th, 1861, a few da3rs after her arrival. 
— Raumer. 



312 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

For a time the two Queens thought it well to write the 
most amicable and peaceable letters to each other; but, 
politically, they were entirely at variance. 

Meanwhile, Scotland was in a state bordering on anarchy, 
in which Mary could with difficulty maintain her position. 
The barons and the Calvinists attempted to overthrow her 
Government with one blow ; but this revolt was quelled in 

1653. 

This convinced Mary that if she took advantage of her 
enemies' mistakes she should be able to maintain her 
power, but that in the present excitable state of the people 
she must not expose herself to attack. 

The life she led was certainly not adapted to inspire the 
Scots with respect for a crown, the value of which depended 
on the personal excellence of the wearer. 

In her intercourse with men, she was frivolous to a degree 
which it did not require Puritanical strictness to think 
repulsive. In the case of such characters, report often 
exceeds anything that admits of proof; and if more is laid 
to Mary Stuart's charge than holds good under strict inves- 
tigation, there is so much that is historical that there is no 
need to add to it. 

To avoid scandal, and to have a support in some man 
against the nobles, she resolved upon a second marriage. 

There were many distinguished Scotchmen — for a Scotch- 
man it was to be — who might be proposed to her as hus- 
bands, and among them were some worthy and excellent 
men. But she selected amongst her suitors the handsomest 
and most empty headed, her cousin, the Earl of Damley, 
who, as Dahlmann says, " was nothing but that repulsive 
object called a beautiful man.'* Like her, he was vain 
superficial, frivolous, and a flirt, and as cowardly and 
devoid of character as a man could be. He had previously 



MARY'S MARRIAGE WITH DARNLEY. 313 

conspired against her, and now joined her in proceeding 
against the conspirators. She was not guided in her choice 
by any idea of duty or pohtical interest, but by a fugitive 
sensual fancy. 

Elizabeth was not inaccessible to such feelings. She had 
her preferences, and many a man was pleasing to her ; but 
when she seriously entertained the idea of sharing her 
throne with any foreign prince, she began to consider 
whether it would comport with her national policy ; and 
when an English nobleman was in question, she did not 
forget what was implied in raising a subject to the throne. 
She flirted and coquetted with Leicester and others ; but 
would not permit any one of them to become her master. 

Mary celebrated her marriage with Darnley in July, 1565. 
It may be imagined how it turned out. 

After the first fleeting pleasure was over, they went their 
separate ways. The King, who took no pleasure in any- 
thing but coarse excesses, soon joined a set of lawless 
comrades, and they played all sorts of pranks, which would 
have been unpardonable in any one, and were totally 
unworthy of a King. The Queen did not conceal her 
contempt for her husband, and they soon ceased to meet. 
The only result of this marriage was the birth of a suc- 
cessor to the throne ; but, before the future King was bom, 
the relations of the conjugal pair were disclosed to all the 
world by a frightful catastrophe. 

Mary's favourite at that time was an Italian, David Rizzio, 
who beguiled her lonely hours with his musical talents ; the 
King, probably quite unjustly, called him her paramour — 
not that Mary was incapable of unfaithfulness ; but there is 
no proof whatever except her husband's accusations, and 
the relation admits of an innocent explanation : she found 
a companion and confidant in the skilful Italian, and in 



314 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

many respects he compensated for what she lacked in her 
husband. 

He sang well, and she was fond of music ; he was a skil- 
ful correspondent, and she wanted one ; otherwise, he was 
not particularly likely to have been the lover of the Queen. 
It appears to me that he was nothing more to Mary than 
the secretary who carried on her private correspondence 
with Rome and Madrid, and this was why John Knox and 
his party were so furious against him. To them he was not 
the Queen's paramour ; but the Papist in the service of the 
Catholic with her plans of restoration. 

This relation — ^unwise, imprudent, but not culpable — in- 
flamed the King's wrath and the thirst for revenge of his 
wild companions. A horrible project was formed of mur- 
dering the Italian, who during the evening was generally to 
be found with the Queen in the ladies* apartments. One 
evenmg, in March, 1566, the conspirators entered the 
Queen's apartment, some Scotch lords, and among them the 
King, not courageous enough to strike the blow himself, but 
base enough to cause it to be done by others.* Rizzio 
threw himself at the Queen's feet, weeping like a child. 
He was dragged into an adjoining room, and dispatched 
with fifly-six blows. 

It would have required more than human self-control 
in the Queen to forget that it was the man whom she had 
raised to the throne who had committed this shameful deed, 
unexampled in history, before her eyes. 

It was intended to appear to the world as a punishment 
for adultery; thus, while Rizzio was pierced by one 
dagger, another was aimed at the Queen. She was then 
pregnant with the prince, who was bom three months after- 

• According to the French ambassador's report (Raumer) he, 
Damlcy, struck \iie ferel\Ao>ii.— Ed, 



MARY AND BOTHWELL. 3^5 

wards ; and it is worthy of remark, that this weakly creature 
came into the world at this tragical time. It was ascribed 
to his mother's excitement at the time of the murder that 
James I. could not see a naked sword without shud- 
dering. 

The Queen naturally entertained only thoughts of revenge 
towards her unworthy husband; but there is a long step 
from these feelings of hatred to that which really took place. 
In public opinion, Damley had nothing more to lose, but 
the Queen had not gained anything. The public feeling 
was less favourable to her than before this catastrophe, and 
the Calvinistic preachers raved against her as an adulteress. 

Among the men distinguished by the Queen's favour, 
there was one remarkable for his rash daring, and, as it 
appears, for his seductive talents, the Earl of Bothwell, a 
man who stood on the boundary line between a hero and a 
captain of banditti, and it was in the latter capacity that he 
ended his career. It was his belief that no woman could 
withstand him, and his conquest of the Queen seems to 
justify the idea; he also held that the end justifies the 
means. He was a person whom no one liked, but neither, 
before the Queen favoured him, did any one hate him. 
His past life and the history of his marriage gave rise to 
great calumny, and he was held to be capable of the 
darkest crimes. 

With this creature the Queen entered into friendly rela- 
tions ; and, in spite of all the efforts of her defenders, it is still 
unproved that the love letters to him are not genuine, that 
the scented French verses to Bothwell were not by her 
hand.* So far could the sensuality of this woman lead her 
astray, that, in order to get rid of Damley, she fled into 
the arms of his murderer. 

* Even Ranke considers them genuine in the main. 



3l6 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

The year 1556 was coming to an end. Darnley and the 
Queen had not met for months. Darnley then fell dan- 
gerously ill, and there were all sorts of scandals as to the 
cause and nature of his malady, when it was reported that 
Mary was reconciled to Rizzio's murderer, had visited him 
at Glasgow, had him brought near to her palace at Edin- 
burgh in a litter, and nursed him devotedly night and day. 
All this was true. But on the 9th of February, 1567, Mary 
was at a court ball, and two hours after midnight Edinburgh 
was awakened out of sleep by a terrible explosion. The 
house in which the sick Darnley was lying was blown up 
while he was in it ; his body was found in a neighbouring 
garden.* 

In all Scotland there was but one opinion : that this deed 
was done by Bothwell. Some suspected the Queen of being 
directly or indirectly an accomplice, and her conduct before 
and after showed that, at any rate, she approved of the act, 
though perhaps she did not help to originate it. 

A storm of exasperation burst over the country. Both- 
well was openly accused of the murder by handbills in the 
streets, and punishment was demanded for him and his 
accomplices. The Queen gave a reward to one of the ser- 
vants who was openly accused of being one ; and, instead 
of bringing Bothwell to trial, she made him commandant of 
Edinburgh. In possession of this dignity, and still a mem- 
ber of the privy council, he conducted his own trial, appeared 
before the court with his accomplices armed, and persuaded 
the judges, who were all his followers, to acquit him. The 
judges, so called, dared to say, among other things, that the 
indictment was null, for it described the murder on the 
9th of February, whereas it took place at two in the morn- 
ing of the loth. A number of members of Parliament, at 
* And strangled, so that he had sunrived the explosion.^Raumer. 



MARRIAGE WITH BOTHWELL. 317 

a jovial supper given by Bothwell, even went so far as to 
recommend him, a married man, as a husband for the 
Queen. 

Scotland had scarcely recovered from the excitement of 
the murder and this disgraceful trial, when it was surprised 
by some news which surpassed everything. 

It was reported that Bothwell had, with her consent, car- 
ried off the Queen to his castle, and a few days afterwards, 
that she had married the murderer of her husband, scarcely 
cold in his grave. 

Nothing can be more disgusting than the lying part which 
the Queen played in this affair ; she allowed herself to be 
abducted, acted the part of a prisoner, and then declared 
that she had been carried off by force, but that Bothwell had 
behaved so well to her, that she had resolved to marry him. 
For a woman of five-and-twenty to be ready to give her 
hand to her husband's murderer, however guilty he might 
be, was to be sunk low indeed. 

The revolt now broke out which overturned Mary's 
throne, and drove her, as a helpless fugitive, into the arms 
of her rival. Elizabeth possessed neither magnanimity nor 
insight enough to let her alone, now that she was no longer 
dangerous. She did what was neither noble nor prudent : 
gave her a friendly invitation, and then let her languish in 
prison, which only made her dangerous ; for it caused her 
crimes to be forgotten. 

Mary Stuart in England. — Rome and Spain turn 
AGAINST Elizabeth. — The Conspiracies — Norfolk, 
1569-72. 

It was a strange resolve of Mary's to fly to England. 
Elizabeth had been pronounced illegitimate by the Pope, 
and therefore incapable of reigning ; the negotiations be- 



3l8 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

tween her and Mary as to the succession in England had 
not led to any result ; the Queen looked upon Mary as an 
inconvenient rival, the nation as its bitterest enemy. Her 
history and reputation made it unlikely that a rebellion of 
the Catholics would be excited in her favour against Eliza- 
beth. Mary's resolution, therefore, could only have been 
formed in a moment of excitement, and was not based upon 
any sound political considerations. 

She was soon bitterly punished for it. She had stormed 
Elizabeth with letters ; she had sent her complaints against 
the Scotch nobles, urgent entreaties for help, assurances of 
devotion, and descriptions of her pitiful condition, as if she 
thought that Elizabeth could have no other idea than to 
relieve her in her distress, to defeat her enemies, and replace 
her on the throne with English arms. 

Elizabeth was too much of a Tudor not to disapprove the 
revolt of the barons under Moray ; her opinions on the 
sovereignty of rulers were almost as strict as those of the 
Stuarts ; but there was a long way from these sentiments to 
undertaking the restoration of Mary. 

The fugitive Queen was not received in an unfriendly 
manner. Elizabeth allowed her to be greeted on the 
frontier with the honours pertaining to her rank, and accom- 
panied to Carlisle ; but there she was imprisoned, and the 
series of Elizabeth's errors begins. 

Mary was kept in a state of mild, but well-watched im- 
prisonment, which she felt all the more keenly, because it 
was pretended that she was only watched. Elizabeth had 
chosen a course which was half legal, but which could 
neither conciliate Mary, nor make her harmless ; indeed, it 
was just this mode of imprisonment which made her dan- 
gerous, for, for eighteen years, she was the soul of a series of 
conspiracies which only increased the painfulness of her lot 



ELIZABETH'S TREATMENT OF MARY. 319 

It was a spot on Elizabeth's character that she betrayed the 
confidence of an unhappy woman who sought her help, and 
placed her enemy in an attitude of self-defence. Either 
that which it was afterwards thought necessary to do 
should have been done at once, or the world's reproach 
should have been averted by conciliation and magnanimity, 
which would at the same time have rendered Mary 
harmless. 

Womanlike, Elizabeth chose a middle course, which, 
instead of having the advantages she desired, had precisely 
the disadvantages she wished to avoid. 

Mary was enough under restraint to learn to hate Elizabeth 
as her mortal enemy, but enough at liberty to set conspira- 
cies on foot against her. 

Elizabeth had no intention of re-instating Mary upon 
the throne of Scotland, but declared herself ready to do 
so if the conflicting parties would submit to her arbitration, 
and Mary should be pronounced innocent of Damley's 
murder; but she absolutely refused her the desired per- 
mission to go free to France or Scotland. 

After this Mary knew where she was. She wrote a proud 
and queenly letter to Elizabeth, reminding her that she came 
to find a helper in her, not a judge. Then she turned to 
the kings of Spain and France for help against the Queen 
of England ; but this step brought no succour. Philip II. 
was prevented by the Moriscoes, Charles IX. by the 
Huguenots, and the only efifect of it was to cause Elizabeth 
to remove the prisoner further fi^om the frontier to Bolton 
Castle for greater security. 

A fruitless attempt at arbitration was followed by the long 
series of plots and projects, the last and greatest of which led 
to Mary's execution. This contest of eighteen years with her 
rival and her adherents, and the necessity at last of gettmg 



320 THE REFORMATION IX EXGLAXD. 

lid of her, was the consequence of Elizabeth's first fidse 
step. 

The first consinracy proceeded from the House of Nor- 
folk and others of the highest Englbh nobles. The House 
of Norfolk had distinguished itself, partly at the head of 
afiiaurs, and partly in the opposition, ever since the time of 
Henry VII L, and one of the members of it had played 
such a part as no other English magnate has done. A 
project was now formed by his grandson which would 
have united all the elements hostile to Elizabeth under one 
banner. 

The Duke of Norfolk had numerous adherents among 
the Catholics of England, although himself, as he declared 
upon the scaflfold, a Protestant ; there were advocates of his 
cause in the Queen's council, Spain and France were in his 
favour, and he had a project for securing the crown of 
Scodand for his family, and, after Elizabeth's death, that of 
England also, by gaining the hand of Mary Stuart He 
was possessed of brilliant talents, was skilful in gaining 
adherents to his cause, and the past history of his house, as 
well as the number of his supporters among the highest 
aristocracy-, justified him in aspiring to these projects. In 
reality, indeed, all this was but a web of self-deception. The 
Scotch scornfully rejected his advances at the first men- 
tion of them ; it was as great a folly to reckon upon Eliza- 
beth's consent as upon help from France and Spain ; all 
that was certain was, that Mary wrote him the tenderest 
letters, and that some of the English aristocracy were ready 
to take up arms in his favour. 

This was Mary's first plan of rescue. It coincided with 
a crisis in England's foreign policy. Elizabeth had detained 
Spanish ships which had taken refuge in English harbours 
from the Sea-Beggars, and seized the money which the Duke 



NORFOLK'S CONSPIRACY. 32 1 

of Alba was eagerly expecting. In revenge, Spain had 
made reprisals, both conntries had declared war, and a 
Spanish invasion was expected. If it came to an irrepar- 
able breach, Mary and all her adherents would stand 
between two fires. In order to avert this, the conspirators, 
especially the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel, 
laboured to compass the fall of Cecil, who was the soul of 
all measures in favour of Protestantism, and against the 
Catholic powers. They succeeded not only in this, but in 
inducing the Queen to enter into n^otiations for a recon- 
ciliation with Spain and Mary ; but during these negotia- 
tions the conspiracy was betrayed. 

Elizabeth was beside herself when she learnt what had 
happened, and was intended to happen among her most 
intimate advisers. So long as anything was hanging in the 
balance, she vacillated, and tried to find resources in half 
measures, not without a certain duplicity ; but at critical 
moments her masculine and resolute presence of mind 
never failed her, and did not fail her now. 

Mary was immediately placed in stricter confinement at 
Coventry, and in order to be prepared against any attack by 
sea, the coast was guarded by seven of the largest ships of 
war, the land forces were summoned, and everything placed 
in readiness. 

The Duke of Norfolk, seized with sudden faint-hearted- 
ness, came to London on a summons from the Queen, and 
was thrown into the Tower. Meanwhile the Duke of 
Northumberland and the Earl of Westmoreland effected a 
rising in the north of England ; the Catholics among the 
nobility and people of England joined them, and, preceded 
by a figure of Christ crucified, they swarmed over the 
country, rushed into the churches, burnt the Bibles and 
Prayer-Books, and again introduced the mass. The 

VOL. II. Y 



322 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

Catholic arms had just been victorious over the Huguenots 
in France : it seemed as if there was to be a similar reac- 
tion in the north of England, which, might perhaps turn to 
the advantage of Alba in the Netherlands. But the Queen's 
general, Thomas RatclifFe, confronted the rebels and routed 
them without difficulty. The revolt was entirely quelled 
and the leaders had fled, when Pius V. hurled his ban at 
the heretical Queen and absolved her subjects from their 
oaths and fealty. 

Queen Elizabeth answered this assault by a unanimous 
vote of Parliament, which declared every attack upon the 
legitimacy of the sovereign to be high treason, every assault 
On the Anglican Church a crime against the State. 

Meanwhile, Norfolk, on a solemn promise to renounce all 
thoughts of marriage with Mary, was placed in less strict 
imprisonment; but the conspiracy went on and assumed 
a very serious character. Besides the correspondence with 
Mary, there were negotiations with Spain and Rome 
carried on by a Florentine banker, Ridolfi, which were 
countenanced by a large number of the nobles. Norfolk 
promised to go over to Catholicism ; to place himself at the 
head of a Catholic conspiracy to liberate Mary and dethrone 
Elizabeth ; Spain promised a considerable number of troops. 
Alba was of opinion, that unless Elizabeth's person were 
secured, the revolt would share the fate of the last, and 
that it was not advisable for Spain to interfere until that 
was done. 

In Spain it was greatly feared that the scheme for Eliza- 
beth's marriage with the Duke of Anjou might succeed, and 
thus both empires would be united against Spain* It was 
therefore necessary before all things to capture or -murder 
Elizabeth, and in July, 1 571, Philip II. was discussing the 
subject with his council, when in England the whole plot 



ATTITUDE TOWARDS SPAIN AND ROME. 323 

was discovered ; Norfolk was again in the Tower, and this 
time to leave it only for the scaffold, in June, 1572. 

This was a death-blow to the aristocratic party ; similar 
attempts were made during the following years, Rome and 
Spain did not relax their efforts, but they did not find suffi- 
cient followers in England ; by degrees Elizabeth was forced 
into the camp of the irreconcilable enemies of Catholicism. 

Elizabeth's forced Enmity towards Spain and Rome* 
1572-85. 

The next few years passed in perpetual irritation with the 
Catholic powers, conspiracies and attempts in favour of 
Mary, and vigorous measures of self-defence on the part of 
Elizabeth, 

The contest between the two Queens assumed more and 
more a character of personal hostility, and Elizabeth became 
more and more convinced that she and Mary represented 
two great principles entirely opposed to each other. The 
designs of Spain and Rome allowed her to entertain no 
doubt of it, and the continuance of the plots compelled her 
to defend herself from foes where she had hitherto sought 
friends, and to look for support in quarters where she had 
hitherto met with refusals or an attitude of indiflference. 

Shortly after the Spanish-Roman scheme of getting rid of 
Elizabeth, and English Protestantism was frustrated by the 
execution of Norfolk, came the news of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew, France had been suing for the friendship of 
England, a marriage scheme had been zealously advocated, 
and now came the news of this terrible massacre, A cry of 
rage and horror was raised throughout England and Scot- 
land ; the aged Knox^ who had one foot in the grave, again 
ascended the pulpit to testify against the horrid deed. 
Elizabeth and her council received the French Ambassador 



324 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

in mourning ; she told him that France had betrayed her, 
and that she could but fear that those who had made the 
King of France the assassin of his own subjects, woiild 
make no difficulty of sacrificing her — a foreign Queen.* 

After this experience, it seemed to be a necessary policy 
of self-defence for Elizabeth to assist the Beggars in the 
Netherlands, and the Huguenots in France to the utmost 
of her power ; their enemies were hers also, and reconcilia- 
tion was no longer possible. 

All this re-acted on Mary's fate. Soon after the discovery 
of the Norfolk plot, it had been openly said, that the axe 
must be laid to the root of the tree, that she who was the 
plotter of all this mischief must be put out of the way. 
Protestant theologians proved from the Bible that Mary 
had forfeited her life; the lawyers referred to the laws 
against treason and revolt, and both houses of parliament 
desired that a bill of attainder should be brought in against 
the prisoner. Elizabeth rejected all these demands, but it 
was doubtful how long she would be able to do so. 

Mary's situation had already become so hopeless that her 
imprisonment appeared like a sort of protection against the 
passionate revenge of the English people, while her over- 
zealous friends were always adding to her misfortunes. 
The year 1576, again brought to light a great plan for a 
rescue. The hero of Lepanto, the chivalrous Don John of 
Austria, had early conceived an entiiusiastic desire to 
liberate the martyr of the Catholic faith from the hands of 
the heretics. Rome gave him her blessing on a project so 
pleasing to God. Catholic Ireland hoped for a Spanish 
King. Mary offered him her hand, and was ready to de- 
prive her son of his right to the throne, if he were not a 

♦ Mignet, ii. 85, according to the correspondence of the French 
ambas>ador, La Mothe. — Fenelon, v. 122. 



BREACH WITH SPAIN. 325 

strict Catholic. Things were more favourable to Mary in 
Scotland than ever, since her most dangerous enemies, 
Moray and Lennox, were out of the way ; in short, if the 
new Stadtholder of the Netherlands could reckon upon his 
brother Philip II., if he threw all his power into the scale in 
favour of the plan, there would be a prospect of an immense 
change throughout the north. But Philip II. hesitated and 
the favourable moment passed by. 

This state of secret warfare continued for years. There 
was no end to the conspiracies and schemes of invasion j 
the Spanish Ambassador, Mendoza, in London, held the 
threads of them all ; there was increasing prospect of their 
success from the increasing excitement in Scotland, the 
successes of the Guises in France, the conquests of 
Alexander Famese, won partly by the sword and partly by 
diplomacy; everything pointed to an open breach with 
Spain, which at length took place. Elizabeth dismissed the 
Spanish ambassador, concluded a treaty with the Nether- 
lands, and dispatched Leicester with English troops to 
Vliessingen, and Francis Drake to the West Indies, 1585-6. 
England's part in the great conflict of the age was irrevoc- 
ably decided on, and sentence passed upon Mary Stuart. 

Trial and Execution of Mary Stuart, 1586-7. 

These acts of Elizabeth gave tardy expression to the 
prevailing feeling of the whole of Protestant England. 
Amidst continued threats of the disturbance of the public 
peace, the fanaticism of the age, the desire for religious 
persecution was again awakened ; the people trembled for 
the Queen's life, for it was the security of all Protestants 
against Spanish tyranny, rejoiced at the execution of the 
traitors, and were always urging more decisive measures. 
Parliament was the organ of these sentiments, and reqixired 



326 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

rather the curb than the spur ; Elizabeth had much trouble 
in restraining its zeal. 

But the situation, especially alter the banning of the 
eighth decade, had become so gloomy that it would have 
been intolerable for long. 

The threads of some conspiracy were discovered almost 
every year, always originating with the same parties and 
having the same end in view — the Uberation of Mary, 
the assassination of Elizabeth, and the restoration of Catho- 
licism in England. 

No end to all this could b^ foreseen, for since 1570 
there had been seminaries in Rheims and Rome established 
by emigrant English Catholics in the interests of the con* 
spirades against the Protestant Queen ; they bound them- 
selves by oath against her, and every year sent a number of 
fanatical apostles over to the country. Parliament issued 
stringent decrees, the courts passed sentences without 
mercy, but they could not uproot the evil. In 1585, Parlia- 
ment threatened that if another conspiracy were formed, 
the nation would be justified in striking a blow at the chief 
author of the mischief, when the last plot was discovered, 
which made Mary's catastrophe inevitable. 

Philip II. and the Duke of Guise were of opinion that 
the time was come for gravely entertaining the long-pro- 
jected, but oft-delayed, scheme of invading England and 
effecting a revolution in Scotland; but they agreed that 
there was no hope of success while Elizabeth was living. 
The murder of the heretical Queen must precede every 
invasion of the country. 

In the circles of the rejected priests and the Catholic 
nobility, they had long been familiar with the idea, and 
relied on the support from abroad which Spain and Rome 
seemed likely to o&t. 



PLOT OF SAVAGE AND BABINGTON. 327 

John Savage, formerly an officer who had fought under 
Parma in the Netherlands, and had afterwards been per- 
suaded in the seminary at Rheims that the murder of 
Elizabeth would be a work more pleasing to God and man 
than any other, and Anthony Babington, an influential 
gentleman, undertook the conduct of the plot The latter 
took a considerable number of persons of the same way of 
thinking into his confidence, and Mary Stuart, now under 
the care of a harsh Puritan named Paulet, was initiated into 
the scheme. It has been proved that she was not only 
acquainted with the details of the project for her own 
rescue, but with the scheme for Elizabeth's assassination, 
and that she had no more objection to the one than the 
other. It is singular that the conspirators, who must have 
known how much they were risking, were deceived as to 
the trustworthiness of their confidential agents. Those 
who were intrusted with the most secret commissions were 
in the pay of Walsingham, the most shrewd and wily of 
Elizabeth's ministers ; not a despatch was written by Babing- 
ton or Mary, which was not at once handed over to him 
and deciphered by one of his agents. Walsingham was 
earlier and better instructed in all the details than the 
conspirators themselves, and it would have been easy for 
him to stifle the plot in the bud ; but his plan was to let it 
go on until there were written proofs of unpardonable com- 
plicity against all, and especially against Mary, and then to 
step in.* It may be said that under his fostering care the 
conspiracy assumed larger proportions, the audacity of the 
authors of it increased, and all was so arranged that 
nothing was wanting but the attack and the thrust of a 
dagger, to put an end to Elizabeth's life, when Walsingham 
appeared before her with irrefragable proofs, and urged 
* Mignet, iL 157. 



328 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

those in power to take extreme measures to avert the 
catastrophe. 

The heads of the conspiracy fell unsuspectingly into the 
hands of his myrmidons, and, overpowered by the proofs of 
their guilt, they confessed, and in September, 1586, were 
one and all executed. 

On the 14th of October the trial of Mary Stuart began. 
The act of Parliament of 1585 was taken as the basis of 
the proceedings whereby persons in whose favour a rebel- 
lion was attempted, by whom any attempt was made on 
the life of the Queen should be deprived of their rights, 
and if they had personally taken part in it should forfeit 
their lives. This already pronounced sentence of death on 
Mary ; and if it had depended on the nation alone, it would 
have been confirmed by an overwhelming majority. 

The popular conception of the case was simply this : 
England had enjoyed years of peace and quiet under a 
happy and prosperous reign ; then a band of assassins and 
conspirators, equal to any wickedness, had invaded the 
country, seeking to overthrow the government, to place a 
guilty woman on the throne, and to give England up to the 
Spaniards and Jesuits. For eighteen years war had been 
waged with these rebels ; proofs of their guilt were now in 
hand and the leaders secured ; the heads of the instni- 
ments had been struck off, as a matter of course the 
instigator must share the same fate. 

When the catastrophe was inevitable, Mary behaved 
with more coolness and composure than she had ever done 
before ; and this explains the fact that so many dark spots 
have been overlooked in the life of this unhappy woman. 
She rejected a trial, did not at first defend herself at all, 
insisted upon her rank as Queen, with the emphasis of a 
Stuart, and played with great dignity the part of an inno- 



EXECUTION OF MARY STUART. 329 

cent person dying for her faith and her right to the crown. 
The proceedings were informal, and showed that it was less 
a case of a legal sentence than an act of political necessity. 

It was, in fact, as Robespierre said of the trial of 
Louis XVI., " une mesure de salut pubHc k prendre." 

Elizabeth was not indifferent as to what the world would 
say of her conduct; and would have fain appeared as 
the magnanimous person who would have given anything 
to save Mary, but was compelled by the nation to let the 
law take its course. But she could not keep up this appear- 
ance, if she gave her consent to the execution of the 
sentence. It would have been a great relief to her if Mary 
had been secretly put out of the way ; it would have de- 
livered her from her rival without loading her with the 
world's hatred. There is no doubt that she expressed her- 
self cautiously and in a double-tongued way about the 
execution of the sentence, thereby betraying how gladly 
she would have shifted the responsibility to another. The 
secretary, Davison, was selected for this part, and he was 
not a virtuous hero. Elizabeth signed the warrant, but he 
had to affix the great seal. This done, on the 8th of 
February, 15S7, the Council had the sentence executed. 
Because Elizabeth had not been again consulted about it 
just at the last, as was customary, she thought herself 
justified in punishing the obedient Davison as the guilty 
person. He was thrown into prison, and paid the penalty 
for the double-tonguedness of his Queen by years of 
captivity. 

The Spanish Armada, 1588, and Elizabeth's Last 

Days. 
The violent agitation of the Queen on receiving intelli- 
gence of the execution of the sentence may be taken for 



330 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

genuine, consistently with the supposition that after this 
transient emotion there would be a permanent feeling oi 
relief that the mountain of anxiety which had weighed upon 
herself and her country for twenty years was removed. 

After February, 1587, no conspiracy was formed worth 
mentioning; the instigator of the plots was gone, and ii 
ever an act was justified by its results, it was so in this 
instance. The people of England, with the exception of a 
few Catholic noblemen, were in favour of Queen Mary's 
death ; the news of it was received with general rejoicings, 
and whatever of bitter feeling there might be, was soon 
swallowed up in the terrors of the period which immedi- 
ately followed. It was a piece of rare good fortune for 
Elizabeth that an event which had long been threatened 
now took place, and justified the extreme measures which 
had caused her so much anguish ; a great attack upon the 
island was preparing by Spain, which would have cut a 
different figure had Mary been still living. 

Spain was equipping an immense fleet which was to 
repeat the feat of William the Conqueror, to extinguish the 
independence of England and its Protestantism, and at the 
same time carry out Mary's will. Elizabeth appeared so great, 
so superior, so equal to the people's expectations in this con- 
test, that, in their eyes, all that was connected with Maiy 
fell into the shade, and Elizabeth's character appeared in 
the brightest colours ; the time of her historical greatness 
begins in this conflict with Philip II., " the shield of the 
Christian republic," as the Jesuits called him. 

In a masterly manner Elizabeth took advantage of those 
national sentiments, before which even religious differences 
vanished. The English nation, with all that it held dear, 
was threatened with a fearful irruption of foreign barbarism ; 
Elizabeth felt herself to be one with the people, and couM 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 33 1 

therefore reckon upon its best powers and most noble 
passions. 

Pope Sixtus V. had excommunicated her, and commis- 
sioned Philip II. to execute the sentence : a hundred and 
fifty great ships of war, with 2,620 guns, 8,000 seamen, and 
20,000 troops were embarking from Lisbon, and Alexander 
of Parma was preparing for a diversion in the Netherlands. 
The Pope had contributed half a • million, and a number of 
priests and monks who were at once to begin the task of 
converting the heretics. 

Elizabeth was never greater than at the time of this 
terrible danger, and in the eyes of the world it relieved her 
from the obloquy of the deed of 1587. She was now the 
Queen whom England wanted, and for whom she had hoped. 
She showed that she had, as she told the Spanish ambassador, 
the body of a woman, but the heart of a man. 

In the circles of the Protestant zealots, a scheme had 
been formed of replying to the declaration of war of the 
foreign Catholic Powers, by a bloody execution of the native 
Catholics ; but Elizabeth refused to listen to it. She appealed 
to the patriotism of the whole nation, irrespective of diflference 
of creed, and she was not disappointed. The expectation 
of the allies of the co-operation of Scotland prdved false. 
The young King James had, indeed, bitterly felt the death 
of his unfortunate mother, but he regarded Elizabeth as a 
protection against Spain, and therefore joined her cause. 

France remained inactive, and Alexander of Parma was 
not ready, so that the prospects of the great enterprise were 
less favourable from the first than had been anticipated. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth called her people to arms. It was 
the first attempt by a government to rely on the defensive 
powers of its own people and to await the attack of a 
great military power without trained soldiers. It succeeded 



332 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

beyond all expectation. The country people rivalled the 
great towns, with London at their head. 

In a short time two hundred ships were manned by 15,700 
sailors, and in the counties, the nobles, both Protestant and 
Catholic, with their tenants and vassals, took up arms in 
accordance with ancient usage; 76,000 infantry, and 3,000 
horsemen were soon ready for the conflict. The coasts were 
fortified, voluntary contributions flowed in from all sides. 
The people did all they could for the national cause, with 
the Queen at their head. 

It was a proud moment, one which a nation only lives 
through once in its history, when Elizabeth, an Amazon in 
armour, appeared, in the camp at Tilbury, and thus addressed 
the soldiers as they stood in rank and file : — " Let tyrants 
fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under Go4 
I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the 
loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects, and therefore I 
am come amongst you, as you see by this time, not for mj 
own recreation or disport, but being resolved in the midsl 
and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all ; to la; 
down for my God and for my kingdoms, and for my people 
my honour and my blood, even in the dust I know ] 
have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I haw 
the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of Englanc 
too ; and think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prina 
of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm 
to which, rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, 1 
myself will take up arms ; I myself will be your general 
•judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.' 

The dreaded conflict on English soil did not take place 
Destiny interposed, but the events and impressions of thi 
time formed an epoch for England. The enthusiasm callec 
forth by them was not easily forgotten. 



THE SPANISH ARMADA. 333 

The Spanish ships were colossal and unwieldy. They had 
not the lightness of the little English vessels, nor the sailors 
the naval training of those of England. The fleet which 
embarked from Lisbon on May 30th, 1588, encountered 
storms on the way, and was involved in a number of minor 
engagements in the Channel, which, though not equal to 
a single real naval battle, sorely pressed the already damaged 
fleet, so that a retreat had to be contemplated instead of 
a landing. Storms did the rest, and before Parma could 
set out, the Armada was in such a condition that the remnant 
of it could scarcely reach the Spanish harbours. 

The fate of this invincible Armada was an event of world- 
wide interest. The remains of Spanish power and pros- 
perity sank with it in the waves, and in England, now 
the victorious bulwark of religious liberty, a new develop- 
ment began. England had found her element, soon to rule 
in it as a great power. 

Now began the great maritime development of this 
country. The time of voyages of conquest and discovery, 
when Drake, Raleigh, Howard, and Frobisher gave impor- 
tance to the English naval power, and colonial possessions 
were acquired in the East Indies and America. The 
foundations were laid of the greatness which was to de- 
velop itself during the next two centuries. Commercial 
enterprise, protected by a powerful fleet and fostered by 
wealthy colonies in the east and west, was greatly extendeil. 
It is, therefore, perfectly intelligible that Elizabeth's reign, 
and especially the latter part of it, should be regarded by 
Englishmen as the most prosperous period of their history, 
fruitless laurels, and severe internal crises had been the 
results of the French conquests of Edward III., while the 
naval wars of Elizabeth introduced England into her own 
element, and opened up the natural sources of her power. 



334 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 

so that her internal prosperity and external importance were 
developed simultaneously. 

For this reason the English are accustomed to associate 
the rise of their greatness with this victory of Protestantism, 
and it explains the Protestant hue which the English nation 
has assumed since the sixteenth century. 

Seldom has a reign closed so peacefully after long storms 
as that of Elizabeth (April, 1603), and when we compare 
the succeeding period, we cannot fail to be struck with the 
skill with which she adjusted those differences between 
regal and popular rights by which the country was so con- 
vulsed in the following decades. 

This was partly the result of the gravity of a situation 
before which all minor differences vanished. Still, Elizabeth 
had a large share in it Her government was very econo- 
mical and well administered. Seldom had a ruler undei 
difficult circumstances contrived so skilfully to avoid impos- 
ing unusual burdens on the people. Then she was prudent 
and dexterous in her way of going to work. 

She held those sentiments of absolutism and regal powei 
which belonged to all the Tudors, but she never challenged 
opposition to them by boasting, and took good care nevei 
to agitate the momentous question of the limits of mo 
narchical and parliamentary rights. She well knew thai 
their relations were ill-defined, and thought it prudent 
never to let them become matter of dispute. 

But all this was changed immediately after her death 
During the next reign there was not a trace of greatness ii 
the government. Blunders, mishaps, and violent dispute 
about the rights of Parliament and the crown were the ordc 
of the day. 



PART XIII. 

THE REVOLUTION AND REPUBLIC IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLIIL 

JAMES L, 1 603-2 5»* 

Character of the Monarch and unfavourable beginning of his reign.— 
The Gunpowder Plot, November, 1605. — ^The Contests of 162 1. — 
Trial of Lord Bacon of Verulam. — The Question of taking part in 
the Bohemian-Palatinate War. — The Difficulties of Parliament. — 
Address of November, 1 62 1, and Dissolution of Parliaments — The 
Spanish Marriage Scheme. Buckingham and the Prince of 
Wales. — Change in the Policy of England. — The Parliament of 
1624. — Death of James, April, 1625. 

Character of James I., and unfavourable Beginning 
OF HIS Reign. 

TT was universally admitted that Mary's son would be 
Elizabeth's successor before her death. Mary's right was 
indisputably estabHshed through him. 

• Besides the before-mentioned literature : — Annals of King James I. 
and Charles I., 168 1. Wilson's History of Great Britain, 1653. Sidney, 
Letters and Memorials, 1 746. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 
1702. Memorials of Whitelock, 1732. Clarendon State Paprrs. 
Rushworlh, London, 1682 ; Thurloe, 1742, and the Parliamentary 
Debates. Compare Guizot, Collection dcs M6moircs relatives ^ THis- 
toire de la Revolution d*Angleterre, Paris, 1823, 28jVols.; Guizot, 
Histoire de Charles J., 6th ed. 1856; On Cromwell; besides the bio- 
graphies of Leti, 1692; Villemain, 1819; and Merle d*Aubign^. 



336 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

James VI. of Scotland and I. of England was the issui 
of the stormy marriage of Mary and Damley, and he waj 
l)om not long after the murder of Rizzio. He was tm 
years old when his mother escaped to England, and thei 
had for years been tossed hither and thither between th( 
leaders of the Scotch nobility. He had not given an; 
evidence of ability as ruler of Scotland. Awkward an< 
unkingly in person, manners, and tastes, he had with dif£ 
culty maintained his position among the parties which wer 
tearing Scotland in pieces, and the main inheritance of thi 
l)Lriod of perpetual warfare was an irritability about hi 
royal rights, occasioned by the systematic attacks of tk 
rigid Presbyterians. He had not attempted any interfercnc 
abroad; he had even allowed his mother to die withoi 
any vigorous effort to avert her fate. It was mainly owit 
to his inaction and indifference that her hopes that Scotlan 
would take up her cause were not fulfilled. The successic 
to the English crown was nearer to his heart than h 
mother's execution.* 

When, in July, 1603, he proceeded amidst the rejoicin 
of the people from Edinburgh to London, he entered up< 
an inheritance greater in extent than had been possessed 1 
any king before him. England, Ireland, and Scotlai 
were, for the first time, united under one sceptre ; ai 
though it was not an amalgamation of the three empire 
their union considerably increased the power of th< 
common ruler. 

In this respect, the power which Elizabeth had inherif 
was thrown into the shade ; but his character made it by 

Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 1845-57. Guu 
Histoire de la R^publique d'Angletene, 1854. The same Histoiie 
l^iutcctorat de Richard Cromwell, 1855. For a critique on the soar 
see Ranke*s EngL Geschichtc, vol. vii. 
* Mignet. 



JAMES I. 337 

means likely that he would eclipse the brilliance of her 
reign. While Elizabeth frequently displayed masculine 
powers, it is often difficult to remember in James's case that 
we are in the presence of a man, the impression he made 
was so thoroughly effeminate. 

He was not wanting in acquirements and cultivation; 
indeed, he might almost be called learned. He had taken 
part in the theological controversies then agitated in Scot- 
land, and had now and then appeared as an author. He 
brought to the throne the petty literary vanity of a pedant ; 
and this, as we have seen in the case of Henry VIII., is 
always a misfortune. 

There was nothing in his character to inspire confidence 
or respect. His want of manliness, timorousness, and 
supineness in great things and small, his awkward shifdess- 
ness, the plebeian vulgarity of his manners and mode of 
life, his occupation with trifles and childish whims, all con- 
tributed to give the impression of a person whom no one 
could esteem or had any cause to fear. 

And with all this obvious weakness of mind and body 
were united prejudices about regal sovereignty which almost 
amounted to insanity. From these unkingly lips were heard 
sayings about absolute power and the unlimited rights of 
the crown which would scarcely have beseemed personages 
like Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and in his case they were 
simply ridiculous. 

James I. was a fanatical doctrinaire of absolute mon- 
archy ; he had adopted as an article of faith the doctrine 
that the king was a second Providence upon earth, that all 
popular privileges were only favours granted by the throne, 
a doctrine which may have the most mischievous results to 
a weak head. His political wisdom consisted in boasting of 
these ideas. 

VOL. II. z 



: 33^ THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

In spite of their Magna Charta and their Parliamenty 
the English were not accustomed to overmuch liberty : the 

; Tudors had taught them to obey in a way which showed 

what a strong will might accomplish even with constitu- 
tional forms. Even Elizabeth had governed exactly as she 

.' pleased, though her manner of doing so was less severe ; 

' but she had never established as a doctrine, what the nation 

had submitted to in fact, nor attempted to settle the contro- 

f versy as to their respective powers. 

^ The rejoicings with which the beginning of James's reign 

(was greeted soon gave place to general discontent. Undci 
Elizabeth the people had been used to an economical, con- 
Iscientious government ; but now a careless and eas> 
method of management was introduced, which was very 
expensive, and soon brought the finances into confusion 
The people were exasperated by a swarm of Scotch place 
*, hunters and assuming royal favourites. Elizabeth had had 

her favourites also, but they had not been expensive to the 
f State ; while those who helped King James to while awaj 

his time, consumed large sums of money, and were a dis 
grace to the crown. 

The complaints about the rapacity of the Scotch, wh< 
, " eat up the country like canker worms," were soon » 

loud, that the worst results might be anticipated. 

Then his position with respect to the ecclesiastical ques 
tion was doubtful, though this was less his fault than th 
result of the whole situation. 

He was the son of a zealous Catholic, whose death hai 
been regarded as a courageous martyrdom for her faith ; h 
hated the Presbyterians, who wanted to set up an indepei 
dent ecclesiastical community in opposition to him. Th 
English Catholics therefore hoped that he would honour hi 
mother's memory, and grant them more liberty. He ha 



THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 339 

even given them secret promises to this effect ; but his sub- 
sequent actions were not in accordance with them. He 
had a certain liking for the Roman Catholic Church, and 
was awed by episcopal authority ; but then it must be for 
his benefit, not that of his subjects. He had not the least 
idea of making greater concessions to the Catholics ; on the 
contrary, he made their position more painful, for which 
they recompensed him with mortal hatred. 

The remnants of the party of the old conspirators, united 
with other persons, irritated by real or imaginary neglect, in 
forming a plan of horrible revenge. 

They resolved to fill the cellars under the Houses of Par- 
liament with gunpowder, and on the day of the opening of 
Parliament to blow up the whole of official England by one 
stroke, the royal family, the ministers, and the Upper and 
Lower House. It was an evidence of what deeds the party 
which had lost its leader in Mary was capable. 

The scheme was ready for execution, when a Catholic 
lord, who had a brother-in-law among the accomplices, 
received a warning letter, in which it was said, among other 
things, " Though there be no appearance of any stir, yet 
I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and 
yet they shall not see who hurts them.** 

The letter was communicated to the King, who was in 
perpetual fear of attempts on his life, and always appeared 
in a panoply of thick clothes, and he at once suspected 
gunpowder. The day before the opening of Parliament the 
cellars were searched, and one of the conspirators was 
found amongst the barrels employed in making the final 
preparations, and with a cheerful countenance he avowed 
his Christian project. 

It need not be said that this affair made an immense sen- 
sation, and stirred up all the ecclesiastical hatred which had 



340 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

been raging in the country for more than half a century. 
Parliament, composed of members elected more freely than 
formerly^ gave expression to it in severe laws against the 
Catholics. King James, on the whole, maintained a posi* 
tion between the two parties. He was more severe to the 
Puritans than Elizabeth, and the Dissenters called him a 
secret Catholic ; for in all cases of dispute he betrayed fer 
more liking for the Catholic hierarchy than for the indepen- 
dent and rebellious spirit of the Protestants in and out of 
England. Still, he would have liked to get rid of the Pope 
and his connection with the Catholic powers. 

James was not the man to talk of the divine right of 
kings ; a monarch who was afraid of his Parliament should 
not have defied and threatened it, for he was always wanting 
money, and could not dispense with its aid. Yet what 
language did he not venture to use ! 

In the King's speech from the throne, in 1609, were the 
memorable words, '* God hath power to create or destroy, 
to make or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or to send 
death ; and to God both body and soul are due. And the 
like power have kings : they make and unmake their sub- 
jects ; they have power of raising and casting down, of life 
and of death — ^judges over all their subjects, and in all 
causes, and yet accountable to none but God only. They 
have power to exalt low things, and abase high things, and 
make their subjects like men of chess : a pawn to take a 
bishop or a knight, and to cry up or down any of their sub- 
jects as they do their money.** 

fiven to doubt the correctness of this doctrine he con- 
sidered to be blasphemy and revolution ; and all this from 
a man who could not see a sword without shuddering. 

There could not have been a better method of bringing 
the deUcate question of the relations between the King and 



THE POWER OF PARLIAMENT. 34 1 

people to an issue, and of compelling the people's represen- 
tatives to settle what was in their power, and what in the 
King's, than by these blasphemous speeches. 

And nowhere was this question more eagerly discussed 
than on English soil. If there were chartered, and what is 
more, exercised popular rights, it was in England. The 
mode in which they were exercised had undoubtedly always 
taken the colour of the age, and there was a certain oscilla- 
tion according as the character of the sovereign or the force 
of circumstances turned the scale. What had not Henry 
VIII. and Elizabeth succeeded in accomplishing without 
Parliament, and on the other hand how the kings had to 
submit to it during the civil wars ! Nevertheless under the 
Tudors, three principles were acknowledged to be in force — 
that new laws could not be enacted, nor new taxes imposed 
without the consent of Parliament, and that the responsible 
advisers of the crown might be called to account by Par- 
liament. These rules were thoroughly established in 
the sixteenth century. Henry VIII. had promulgated all 
ecclesiastical laws through Parliament, and Edward VI. and 
Elizabeth had done the same. The Crown had often 
thrown the responsibility of its acts upon the ministers, in 
order to get rid of the odium attaching to them, and so 
culpable ministers and corrupt counsellors were continually 
summoned before Parliament. Even the principle of the 
consent of Parliament to taxation had never been a subject 
of dispute. 

In short, to a certain extent royal and popular rights had 
comported well together, but this good understanding had 
mainly depended on the dexterity of the leading personages^ 
But that an extravagant government like James's, which 
wounded the susceptibilities of the great parties, and with a 
most corrupt financial system, proclaimed its intention of 



342 THE RE\'OLUTIOX IX EKGIAKD. 

upsening the usages of public law, wonld soon pat an end 
to the \oyalxy of Parliament was as dear as oonld be^ 
es^/ecially as it was irritated by the peixietnal A^wmi^ of 
the Crown for money. 

A circumstance not in itself important, bat momentoos 
in its results, gave rise to the conflict 

The Conflict of 1621. 

In order to raise money the Crown resorted to all soits 
of devices, not exactly illegal, but sordid and oompt 
Besides a shameless trade in patents of nobility, which were 
a disgrace both to the government and the aristociaqr, n 
abuse respecting monopolies had sprung ap which wis 
a decided injury to the prosperity of the nation. The 
Crown — e\en Elizabeth did not disdain to do it — sold the 
sole right to trade in certain articles to companies or indivi- 
duals. As is well known, this system is condemned bodi 
by reason and experience ; but it was never carried on moie 
recklessly than under James I., who in money matten, 
o[)enly avowed himself to be a sick man urgently needing 
medical aid. This abuse had frequently been discussed in 
Parliament, but complaints against it had always been in 
\'ain ; now, however, a new and worse abuse suddenly came 
to light 

The Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Bacon, one of 
the foremost thinkers of all times, sold not only monopolies 
but judicial sentences, thus making a prostitute of justice 
The evidence against him was so conclusive, that he gave 
up all attempt at defence and confessed his guilt in abject 
terms. It cuts one to the heart to read the letter addressed 
to Parliament in April, 1620, by a man of sixty years of 
age, the first minister of the Crown and a European cefc- 
briiy. It begins with the words : — 



TRIAL OF LORD BACON. 343 

" Upon advised consideration of the charge, descending 
into my own conscience, and calling my memory to account 
as far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess 
that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all de- 
fence and put myself on the grace and mercy of your 
lordships." 

He then reckons up twenty-three cases in which, contrary 
to his oath and duty, he had received from parties for mono- 
polies, sums of jCs^t £^00, ;£200, ;£400, &C.* 

This business was of the greatest importance to England. 
The disgraceful acts of the Lord Chancellor were only 
symptomatic of a whole system of corruption. This trial of 
the first minister of the Crown, which was gone into with 
great minuteness in Parliament, affected the crown as well 
as the accused, the sentence against him was a condemna- 
tion of the government ; the people began to suspect that 
the whole administration was corrupt It was a great 
success for Parliament to have deprived the arrogant King 
of his minister. 

Another event now took place, which put the finishing 
stroke to the embitterment of the nation. 

On the 24th of March, 1613, James's daughter, Elizabeth, 
had married the Elector Frederick of the Palatinate, amidst 
the rejoicings of the people. Frederick was greeted as the 
head of the German Union, and the marriage as the con- 
nection of England with German Protestantism. Then 
came his election as King of Poland, the defeat of Prague, 
the downfall of the winter-kingdom ; and James I. left his 
son-in-law, now wandering homeless about Germany, in the 
lurch, and made no appeal to Parliament for money, while 
there was yet time. Instead of helping the unhappy Count 
Palatine and his daughter, he scolded the rebels and the 
• Cobbctt, Parliamentary History. 



344 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Usurper, and formed the project of marrying the Prince of 
Wales to the Spanish Infanta, 

A commercial nation is never disposed to go to war for 
remote considerations, but this war lay near the hearts of 
the English; it was a struggle against the restoration of 
Catholicism which was achieving great successes, it was a 
question of the support of the cause for which England 
herself had sustained severe trials ; this temperate peace- 
ful nation was more eager for war than ever before. But 
James held back, not from weakness alone, but partly from 
legitimist scruples. His son-in-law was rebelling against 
the divine authority of the Emperor Ferdinand with whose 
Spanish relations he was just negotiating a marriage, and 
not with much success. 

For the usurped Crown of Bohemia, therefore, James 
would on no account do anything ; but for the Palatinate, on 
the contrary, he declared with great emphasis that he would 
do all in his power. 

When in January, 1621, he asked Parliament for money 
to protect the rights of his grandchildren in the Palatinate, 
and to help the good cause of liberty of conscience, he 
found a readiness which he had never met with before, but 
complaints of the great domestic grievances were now first 
seriously urged. Parliament was still sitting, and Bacon's 
impeachment keeping every one in suspense, when news 
came of the progress of Catholic restoration in Bohemia 
and Austria ; the new dangers of the Huguenots in France, 
and the Protestants in the Netherlands, but notwithstanding 
the supplies granted by Parliament, James did nothing but 
make feeble declarations and diplomatic protests. 

To the discontent with the failings of the administration, 
was now added irritation, occasioned by the weakness of 
the foreign policy of the government. The Lower House, 



THE CONFLICT OF 1 62 1. 345 

took upon itself for the first time to discuss foreign affairs : 
the war on the Continent and the errors of the government 
on a great European question. It was as yet a long way 
from revolution, but it was the first step towards it. 

The King accused Parliament of going beyond its privi- 
leges, and prorogued it. Previous usage certainly justified 
this course, but the nation could not be blamed for making 
itself heard on so vital a question. For forty years and 
more it had had a bitter feud with Spain, Hapsburg, and 
Rome. All the plots against Elizabeth — the war during 
the eighth decade; the invincible Armada; the gun- 
powder plot — had a common source ; the nation's eagerness 
for war arose from a justifiable anxiety as to the effect 
which a victory of their mortal enemy on the Continent 
might have upon the liberties, political and religious, of their 
island empire. 

When Parliament re-assembled in November, 1621, these 
sentiments were still more strongly expressed. The impor- 
tant question whether Parliament had a right to arraign the 
foreign policy of the government, pressed for a decision. 
The King again asked for money, not really to make war, 
but to continue the demonstrations which had made him the 
laughing-stock of Europe. Parliament would only grant it 
on condition that the King would give up the Spanish mar- 
riage ; break up his alliances irrevocably with the Catholic 
powers; proceed with severity against the Catholics, and 
finally draw the sword in the Protestant cause. 

These proposals were made to the King in an address, 
at that time of an unprecedented kind. A special com- 
plaint was added about the arrest of members of Parliament. 

The King replied in a defiant letter to the Speaker, re- 
proaching the House for meddling with things above their 
reach and capacity, forbade them to interfere with his 



346 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

government or in deep matters of state, and especially in 
the marriage of his son with the Infanta of Spain ; and he 
finally declared that in cases of impropriety of conduct of 
members of Parliament, either in the House or out of it, he 
must reserve the right of punishing them.* 

This letter was intended to intimidate the Commons, but 
it rather acted as a challenge. One of the members ex- 
pressed the feeling of the House when he said, "Our 
liberties are our freehold, and the fairest flower that groweth 
in the garden of the Commons, and if they be once nipped 
they will never grow again." f 

The house insisted on liberty of speech as an andent 
and inviolable right, and the King sent them another letter 
on the 1 6th of December, in which he said that he would 
not hear of rights and inherited claims, the House enjoyed 
certain privileges by the grace and favour of the King and 
his predecessors, not by inheritance but toleration. 

It is never the true interest of a government to agitate 
the question of existing and recognised rights. It is always 
a delicate one and was particularly so in England. Four 
hundred years had elapsed since Magna Chaitawas granted, 
and it did not contain everything that was now English law; 
but the Englishman was accustomed to connect his ri^ts 
with this treaty, and to talk to him of favours and conces- 
sions that might be withdrawn, was to put the peopled 
notions of right to a severe test. To maintain that no 
rights exist except such as are conferred by the &voQr of 
the Crown is never conducive to the true dignity of royalty. 
It is not willingly borne from a powerful ruler ; Louis XIV. 
and greater men than he, were never forgiven for saying 

♦ Cobbett Immunity from arrest was granted, " eando, sedendo, 
redeundo." 
t Cobbett. 



PROTEST OF PARLIAMENT. 347 

that the ruler was the state and vice versa, and a feeble 
and effeminate King should never have adopted such 
language. 

Parliament did not long keep him waiting for an answer. 
On the 1 8th of December, the royal declaration was followed 
by a declaration of Parliament, which stated that "the 
liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of Parlia- 
ment are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inherit- 
ance of the subjects of England, and the making and 
maintenance of laws, and redress of mischiefs and griev- 
ances, which daily happen within this realm, are proper 
subjects and matter of counsel and debate in Parliament, 
and that in the handling and proceedmg of those businesses, 
every member of the House hath, and of right ought to 
have, freedom of Speech to propound, treat, reason, and 
bring to conclusion the same : that the Commons in Parli- 
ment have like liberty and freedom to propound, treat, 
reason, and bring to conclusion the same: that the 
Conunons in Parliament have like liberty and freedom to 
treat of these matters in such order as in their judgments 
shall seem fittest, and that every such member of the said 
House hath like freedom from all unpeachment, imprison- 
ment, and molestation (other than by the censure of thp 
House itself), for or concerning any bill, speaking, reasoning, 
or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parlia- 
ment or Parliament business; and that if any of the said 
members be complamed of, and questioned for anything 
said or done in Parliament, the same is to be showed to 
the King, by the advice and assent of all the Commons 
assembled in Parliament, before the King give credence to 
any private information." * 

The first collision between absolute and constitutional 
• Cobbett, i. 1362. 



348 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

monarchy had taken place at a time when the first only 
seemed to have any prospect of existence. Unlimited 
royal power had everywhere gained the ascendancy, partly 
in connection with, partly in opposition to the Reformation. 
In Spain, Italy, and Austria, the Inquisition had helped to 
establish ecclesiastical and temporal absolutism, in die 
Protestant German states, and the Scandinavian countries, 
on the contrary, the fiUl of a powerful state Church had 
raised a powerless monarchy to dignity and importance; in 
France, the first strong government which extricated the 
country from the confiision of the religious wars, allowed the 
ancient States-General to fall quietly into oblivion ; nowhere 
were voices raised like those in England. 

The conflict which arose in England in 1621, was in 
itself an anomaly in the universal tendencies of the age ; 
but the protest of Parliament was the announcement of a 
spirit diametrically opposed to traditionary usage. 

King James was furious. He immediately went to London, 
went down to the House with his privy councillor, summoned 
the secretary with the journal book, with his own hand tore 
out the protest, and had his own motion inserted in its place. 
The House was then dissolved, the chief leaders of the oppo- 
sition committed to prison ; others, like John Savill, taken 
into the King's service. 

This mode of action laid bare the weakness of a King who 
imagined he could annihilate with a leaf out of the journal 
book what could not be erased fi-om history, nor fi^m the 
hearts of the people. 

A contest had begun which was not to end till the throne 
of the Stuarts was in ruins. 



THE SPANISH MARRIAGE. 349 

The Spanish Marriage. — Buckingham and the Prince 
OF Wales. — Change of English Policy. — Death 
OF James, 1625. 

Meanwhile, the King was overwhehned with complica- 
tions on the Continent. He had asked Parliament for 
money to save at least the Count-Palatine*s hereditary 
possessions, but by failing to fulfil his promises he had 
caused the unfortunate Elector to lose even them. The 
Emperor had dethroned him and made over the vacant dignity 
to Bavaria. The English nation was deeply affected by 
this blow. The King had acted throughout the whole trans- 
action with incredible weakness and want of character, and 
as we now see by the despatches, had also been disgracefully 
deceived, together with the English nation, who regarded 
the cause of the Palatinate as their own. 

James's weakness in this business was connected with a 
favourite scheme, which he did not give up till he had 
drunk the cup of ignominy to the dregs. His reverence 
for the family politics of the Hapsburgs, their method of 
governing, and their conception of sovereign dignity, led to 
an eager desire to unite his d)masty with theirs'by a marriage, 
and in the success of this project, which after the events of 
1 587-8 was quite unlikely to be fulfilled, he saw, curiously 
enough, a solution of all the difficulties which encompassed 
him. He hoped for weighty support in Spain against his 
obstreperous Parliament. Spain was to spare him from draw- 
ing the sword by helping him in the Palatinate, and the 
price, without which it appeared as if the alliance was not 
to be had, toleration of the Catholics ; and abolition of the 
strict parliamentary laws would have furnished him with a 
check upon the Puritans. 

The negotiations dragged on for years. James would 



4 



350 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

'' not bind himself without distinct promises from Spain, ar 

Spain, with a clearer conception of the divergence betwec 
the two states, wished, at all events, to assure her« 
of the one advantage that England should not take a 
active part in the war. So the business came to a stan( 
« still. 

The King and his favourite, Buckingham, then devise 

what they thought a most ingenious plan of breaking throu^ 

the meshes of diplomacy. The King had himself, in h 

(f youthful days, carried off his bride under difficulties, wl; 

should not his son do the same, in true chivalrous fashion 

In the deepest secrecy the Prince of Wales and the Dul 

h of Buckingham set sail for Spain, and appeared at Madri 

on 7th March, 1623. 

1 During this singular wooing, which, according to the stri< 
forms of Spanish etiquette could only be carried on at a di 
tance, the negotiations as to the conditions of an agreemei 

2 assumed a more serious character. In order to gain Spa 

* over, King James allowed a liberty to the Catholics in En 

* land which filled the Protestants with alarm ; but Spain wi 
sjiything but complaisant, and would not agree to tt 
restoration of the Elector Palatine, which with James wj 
the main point. Besides this, Buckingham had a person; 

» quarrel with the representative of this policy, Coui 

I Olivarez, and so he persuaded the Prince to a sudde 

departure. 

I Buckingham had conducted the whole business with tt 

' I frivolity of a vain courtier : the report which he now ga\ 

1 1 of it was made up of lies which found no credence, an 

truths which proved nothing. It was not then known i 

J London how far Spain had decided to go with the Germa 

Hapsburgs, and the future attitude of England towarc 

* Spain was very doubtful. It depended on the decision ( 

/ 



DEATH OF JAMES I. 35 1 

the King, or the effects of the report of the irritated Buck- 
ingham. 

But the Parliament of 1624 consented with undisguised 
pleasure to the communications, which showed that the 
government was at length giving up this unnatural plan. 
It agreed to all that Buckingham proposed against Spain ; 
and as the King gave way on several old subjects of dispute, 
an understanding now took place between the Crown and 
Parliament which three years before would have seemed 
impossible. 

The King's policy underwent an entire revolution. Instead 
of a Spanish Infanta, he now desired a French Princess as 
a daughter-in-law. Instead of an alliance with the Haps- 
burgs, he now sought to ally himself with their opponents ; 
instead of repulsing Parliament with Stuart haughtiness, he 
now made advances to it, and agreed with it on all questions, 
foreign and domestic. 

In December, 1624, the marriage treaty was agreed upon 
between his son and the Princess Henrietta Maria of France. 
James now entered into the war for the restoration of the 
Elector Palatine with an unlooked-for zeal, and was pre- 
paring for decisive action, when, on the 27th of March, 1625, 
he died. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

Charles I., 1625-49.— His Character.— The first two Parliaments, 
1625-26.— The War with Spain and France. — The third and last 
Parliament.— The Petition of Right, 1628-9. — Charles I. with- 
out a Parliament. — ^The Earl of Straffoid. — Archbishop Laud.— 
The Star Chamber. — ^The High Commission. — Ship Money, 1634. 
— ^John Hampden's Trial, 1637. 

Character of Charles I. — ^The First Two Parua- 
MENTS. — The War with Spain and France. 

JAMES I. was succeeded by his son Charles I., bom 
1600. His entrance into public life had not been \ery 
promising. He had allowed himself to be made a tool 
of in the Spanish marriage affair, and had covered the un- 
truths of Buckingham's report with the shield of his name. 
He was, however, a different man from his father. He pos- 
sessed considerable ability, was well educated, had a talent 
for shrewd observation, and indisputable adroitness in ma- 
naging men and things. His characteristics were of that 
distinguished, winning, yet dignified kind which we con- 
sider to belong to a bom prince. His appearance was 
kingly and commanding, and he had nothing of the studied 
haughtiness of his father, which contrasted so strangely with 
his slovenly exterior and plebeian habits. Even his enemies 
allowed that Charles was no common man in the days of 
his greatest misfortunes. 



CHARLES I. 353 

Without his father's bravado, he was much more daring 
in action. What to the one was but a flattering theory, was 
to the other the principle of his life. He was capable of 
staking his throne and his life on his principles. His father, 
with all his fine speeches, generally beat a retreat when 
things began to look serious. Not so his son ; he staked 
everything till his crown and life were lost. 

But he was less sincere and honest than his father, whose 
heart was on his tongue, and when his words and actions 
did not agree it was rather from weakness than insincerity. 
Charles knew how to control himself, weighed every word, 
concealed his thoughts, and was fond of tortuous paths. 
When he was most flattering and amiable it was necessary 
to be most on your guard against him. He held insincerity 
and faithlessness to be allowable in politics, but his home 
life was exemplary and amiable. A man with this courage 
and talent, these commanding, and at the same time seduc- 
tive qualities, was a very different opponent from King 
James. 

The King's first step was to summon a new Parliament, 
as was customary at the beginning of a reign. The 
themes of the congratulatory speeches were naturally the 
inheritance of the late King, the energetic prosecution of the 
Palatinate war, and the voting of the necessary subsidies. 
With this exception nothing can be more peaceable than 
these addresses and replies. Charles speaks with a winning 
openness and warmth which are quite inspiring. He ex- ^ 
presses full confidence that Parliament will support the 
honour of its sovereign and his subjects, and assures them 
in writing that the maintenance of the faith of his fathers 
always has been, and always will be, sacred to him. Parlia- 
ment replied in the same spirit. On June 22nd a motion 
was made for a good understanding between King and 

VOL. II. A A 



354 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Parliament, when Rudyard said that ''the late distastes 
between the late King and Parliament were the chief cause 
of all the miseries of the kingdom, the first turn of which 
towards a reconciliation was given by the now King, then 
prince ; by which accrued more benefit to the subject than 
in any Parliament these many hundred years. What may we 
then expect from him being King, and having power in his 
own hands? His good natural disposition, his freedom 
from vice; his travels abroad; his being bred in Parlia- 
ments, promised greatly. Therefore he moved to take such 
course now to sweeten all things between King and people 
that they may never afterwards disagree." * 

But this fi-ame of mind did not last long. When these 
ceremonials were over, it was plain to every one that there 
were questions on which the views of the two parties were 
by no means agreed, that the King wanted money, and 
when it was voted would dismiss Parliament in as fiiendly 
a manner as he had greeted it, and Parliament would by 
no means consent to be used simply for this purpose. 

The Commons frustrated the King*s tactics, which in 
themselves were unskilful. It was a more brilliant assembly 
than any that England had ever seen. The eminent men who 
afterwards appeared on one side or the other were all in 
this Parliament. It was one of unusual power, for it had 
been formed in the period of prosperity and independence, 
which was the result of Elizabeth's happy reign. The 
members were mostly wealthy landowners of independent 
position, and they had very little moral counterpoise in 
the House of Lords, because James and Charles had 
committed the great error of making it compliant, but 
despicable, by making peers of a whole batch of courtiers. 

The Commons demanded, before proceeding to vote sub- 
* Cobbett. 



THE FIRST PARLIAMENT^ 355 

sidies, that certain grievances should be put an end to, par- 
ticularly that a pledge should be given that the strict laws 
against the Catholics, who were supported by the Queen, 
should be enforced. A certain royal chaplain, Dr. Montague, 
had distinguished himself by attacks upon the Puritans, who 
were numerously represented in Parliament, and the Catho- 
lics were the zealous advocates of the Stuart doctrines of 
absolute royal power and the grace of God, which were 
abhorrent to the Puritans. It was on this subject that the 
first dififerences arose. 

The religious fanaticism of the Puritans drove Charles, 
who was burning with impatience to begin the war, almost 
to despair. Instead of voting the needful subsidies, the 
Commons passed a law about the strict observance of the 
Sabbath, thundered against the Papacy, and petitioned 
for suspended Puritan preachers. Yet Parliament had con- 
sented to the war, and the King was loaded with the debts 
which his father had been compelled to incur on account 
of it. The doubtful manner in which Buckingham had 
employed the English ships had brought the enterprise 
into disrepute, and greatly increased the number of his 
personal enemies. The subsidies which Parliament at 
length granted were so small that the motion was looked 
upon as a vote of want of confidence, as was also the 
resolution to vote tonnage and poundage, the most lucra- 
tive source of the income of the Crown — it almost amounted 
to half— for one year only, instead of as formerly for the 
whole reign. 

Parliament was prorogued, ostensibly because the plague 
rendered residence in London impossible, and convened 
again at Oxford, a loyal city ; but the sentiments of the 
Lower House did not improve, although the King had 
several times urgently begged for speedy grants, in the 



356 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

name of honour, security, and necessity. On the 25tii of 
August, Parliament was dissolved, after a motion had with 
difficulty been passed in the Upper House voting tonnage 
and poundage for the whole reign. 

In February, 1626, another Parliament was summoned. 
It met under the impression of an imfortunate expedition 
to Cadiz, which once more showed that, although the 
government was eager for war, it had no efficient soldiers. 
Former scenes were repeated, only increased bitterness was 
manifested on both sides. The keeper of the great seal, in 
his opening speech, spoke of the immeasurable distance 
between the sublime dignity and majesty of a mighty 
monarch, and the subjection and humility of loyal sub- 
jects, called the throne the source of all rights, and the laws 
the streams and rivulets by which they were conducted to 
subjects, &a It seemed to the House as if they were 
listening to James I. again, only it was more serious, for the 
son was in earnest with what was mere nonsense with his 
father. Parliament was ready to grant higher, but still not 
sufficiept subsidies, and not before the abolition of a long 
list of grievances which were a severe criticism on the 
whole administration. The Duke of Buckingham was even 
formally impeached; but with obvious defiance the King 
contrived that he should be appointed to the office of 
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, just vacated. 
Parliament was ordered to give up the impeachment, and 
to grant the money at once on pain of being dissolved. 
He even threatened them with "new counsels." The 
threat was soon followed by execution, for Digges and 
Elliot, the chief accusers of the Duke, were thrown into 
prison ; but Parliament interfered, and nothing being proved 
against them, the King was obliged to release them. In- 
stead of intimidating the Commons, he had only produced 



WAR WITH SPAIN AND FRANCE. 357 

irritation and bitter feeling. In June, Parliament was dis- 
solved, like the first, after it had solemnly protested against 
the illegal exaction of tonnage and poundage, and de- 
manded the removal of the hated Buckingham. 

The system of force now appeared openly from under 
the veil of half-friendly demands and threats, not so plainly 
as would doubtless have been the case had the King had 
an army to rely on, but still plainly enough. 

Money it was necessary for the King to have at any 
price ; so, as Parliament refused it, he had recourse to a 
forced loan. 

A Commission was instituted with full powers to raise 
it ; the Catholic party advised obedience from their pulpits 
and in printed sermons ; but the Puritans, who were the 
great majority of the nation, eagerly opposed it ; and in 
many places the loan was openly refused, with an appeal to 
ancient national laws. Those who refused were arrested, 
and the judges who would not pass sentence on them dis- 
missed. The troops who had returned from the unfortunate 
expedition to Cadiz, were quartered on the contumacious to 
make them submit ; the support of the lawless soldiery was 
a new and heavy burden to the whole country. The war, 
too, which was to justify all these acts of violence, just now 
took an unfortunate turn. 

On the occasion of suing for the hand of the Princess 
Henrietta Maria for his master, the frivolous Buckingham 
had dared to enter into an intrigue with the young Queen of 
France. This excited the anxiety of Richelieu, and when, 
through Louis XIIL, he informed Buckingham that he 
must not show himself in France again, Buckingham vowed 
revenge, and persuaded his master to declare war against 
France, though they were still at war with Spain. With 
one hundred ships and seven thousand men, Buckingham 



358 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

went to the help of the Huguenots, in La Rochelle, but 
conducted the enterprise with so absurd a want of skill, 
that after the loss of two-thirds of his troops he had to 
retiun without accomplishing his purpose, covered with 
shame and disgrace. October, 1627, La Rochelle was lost ; 
English commerce suffered severely in the war; British 
ships were seized; the foolish enterprise was cursed in 
every home; and deep and general discontent prevailed 
throughout the country. 

The Third and the Last Parliament, 1628-^9 — .Thk 
Petition of Right. 

Since the dissolution of the last Parliament, the Crown 
had been getting on as badly as possible. The war, which 
the King repeatedly, and from conviction, declared to be a 
matter of honour for himself and his people, had brought 
nothing but loss arid disgrace ; and the forced loan had 
sown deep hatred amongst the people, without removing 
his embarrassments. The scanty results of the forced loan 
were drained to the dregs, and it was needful once more to 
look about for a Parliament. Parliament had not been 
very complaisant even at the beginning of Charles's reign, 
before he had done anything illegal ; what could be ex- 
pected from it now after all that had taken place ? 

The representatives who assembled in March, 1 528, had 
some of them been themselves imprisoned, almost all had 
suffered from the loan and the quartering of the troops, 
and their constituents were deeply embittered by the doings 
of the govemment at home and abroad. 

The tone in which the King addressed the assembly fore- 
boded no good. As usual, he contented himself with few 
words, and desired the Commons to do the same, "for tedious 
consultations at this time are as hurtful as ill resolutions. 



THIRD AND LAST PARLIAMENT. 359 

.... Every man must now do according to his con- 
science ; wherefore, if you (which God forbid) should not 
do your duties in contributing what the State at this time 
needs, I must, in discharge of my conscience, use those 
other means which God hath put into my hands to save 
that which the follies of some particular men may otherwise 
hazard to lose. Take not this as a threatening, for I scorn 
to threaten any but my equals." 

The keeper of the great seal then added that the King 
had had recourse to Parliament not from necessity, but as 
a favour. * 

The bitterest complaints of the first two Parliaments had 
related to the King's lukewarmness about the Papists ; but 
these were now thrown into the shade by grievances of 
another kind : taxation without consent of Parliament, the 
forced loan, arrest of members and private persons for 
refusal to pay unconstitutional imposts, and the quartering 
of foreign soldiery. There was now an almost revolutionary 
tone in the speeches. The same Rudyard who three years 
before, in a speech before the King, had spoken of his dis- 
tinguished qualities as auguring good for the country, now 
broke out with the words, " This is the crisis of Parlia- 
ments; by this we shall know whether Parliaments shall 
live or die ; besides, the eyes of Christendom are upon us 
— the King and the kingdom will be valued and disvalued 
both by enemies and friends, according to the success of 
this Parliament. The cause why we are called hither is to 
save ourselves. We are not now upon beru esse^ we are upon 
the very esse of it, ' whether we shall be a kingdom or no.* " 

A very sharp speech was also made by Thomas Went- 
worth, afterwards Earl Strafford, who had himself been im- 
prisoned for refusing a loan ; but — and this points to his 
secret designs— he makes a great distinction between the 



36o THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

King and the guilty advisers by whom he has been misled. 
Of these he spoke with the greatest bitterness. 

In accordance with these sentiments, the first resolution 
of Parliament was a unanimous protest against arbitrary 
punishments and forced loans. Then, to conciliate the 
King, five subsidies were granted him, to his great satisfac- 
tion ; but before this vote was formally passed, a solemn 
petition was granted against all grievances with an appeal 
to the ancient laws of the land. The King did all in his 
power to frustrate the discussion of this Petition of Right ; 
he threatened to dissolve the House if it was not ready with 
the grants of money within a certain time. He then gave 
a solemn promise not to infringe any of the ancient statutes ; 
it was therefore needless to insist on the petition. But it 
was all in vain. The bill was brought in, and passed both 
Houses. 

The petition professes to be a corroboration and explana- 
tion of the ancient constitution of the kingdom ; and after 
reciting various statutes recognising the rights contended 
for, prays " that no man be compelled to make or yield 
any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without 
common consent by Act of Parliament ; that none be called 
upon to make answer for refusal to do so ; that freemen be 
imprisoned or detained only by the law of the land, or by 
due process of law, and not by the King's special com- 
mand, without any charge ; that persons be not compelled 
to receive soldiers and mariners into their houses against the 
laws and customs of the realm ; that commissions for pro- 
ceeding by martial law be revoked." 

The petition left the King the choice either of breaking 
with Parliament, or of declaring, by accepting it, that he 
had broken the laws of the country^ and now consented to 
their re-instatement 



THE PETITION OF RIGHT. 36 1 

After many attempts to escape, he took the latter course. 
By the royal sanction, the Petition of Right became an 
authorised interpretation of Magna Charta. In the long 
contest as to what was the law, the nation had gained the 
victory. 

Nevertheless, there was much discord in this Parliament. 
The Commons did not desist from making violent attacks 
on Buckingham, and the contest was continued about ton- 
nage and poundage, since the Eling would not give it up, 
and Parliament would not give up control over it. In June, 
therefore. Parliament was prorogued till January, 1629. 

Before it re-assembled an assassination took place, which 
was regarded by the nation with the same satisfaction as 
the execution of Mary Stuart. The Duke of Buckingham 
was murdered by a certain Felton as he was about to em- 
bark on another expedition to La Rochelle. 

When Parliament met, in 1629, both parties were 
resolved, unless an agreement could be come to, to declare 
open war. 

In the Commons a protest was at once made against 
Popery and tonnage and poundage. When the Speaker, in 
compliance with the royal command, was about to conclude 
the sitting, in order to prevent the motion from being put 
to the vote, he was held fast in his seat by some of the 
zealous Puritans, while other members in vain attempted to 
liberate him. 

Amidst great confusion the protest was carried. A royal 
official, who was sent down to Parliament on receipt of the 
news of those proceedings, found the door closed; and 
when the furious King sent his guard there was nothing to 
be done, for the sitting was at an end. Charles immediately 
dissolved Parliament, and in the House of Lords spoke in 
a very ungracious tone '' of some vipers who had deluded 



362 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGrLAND, 

many in the Lower House, but had not yet poisoned them." 
The guilty should not escape punishment. 

A royal manifesto declared that all forbeanuice having 
been frustrated by the obstinacy of some evil-disposed per^ 
sons who wanted to set the nation in flames, the King 
would now be compelled, until it should please liim to do 
otherwise, to reign without a Parliament. 

Immediately afterwards ten members of the Lower House 
were arrested, and condemned to pay fines varying from 
;f 500 to ;^2,ooo, and to be imprisoned during the King's 
pleasure. Some of them died in prison, among them 
Eliot, whose petition for some relaxation of his imprison- 
ment was refused because it was not sufficiently humble. 

Thus began the eleven years' reign without a Parliament, 
and the foundations were laid of the great convulsion in 
which the throne of the Stuarts was overturned. 

Charles I. without a Parliament. — The Earl or 
Strafford and Archbishop Laud. 

It was Charles's scheme to transplant to England the 
system which was at that time bearing such brilliant fruits 
in France; to set aside, as had been done there, the 
interests of the States, represented by Parliament, and bur 
densome legal usages, and by an energetic exercise of the 
royal authority in unison with the sentiments of the masses, 
to make himself as popular as Richelieu was in France. 

The place vacated by Buckingham's death was now filled 
by a greater man. 

Among the members of Parliament in the second decade, 
together with Pym, Hampden, and Eliot, one of the most 
gifted speakers was Thomas Wentworth. He represented 
the extreme opposition, and seemed ready to stake his life 
for the cause. He entered the Parliament of i6a8 as one 



THE EARL OF STRAFFORD. 363 

of those who had been imprisoned for refusing a loan. The 
vehemence of his demeanour in this assembly was what 
might be expected from such an experience ; but, behold I 
Charies now gained this man for his minister. 

Wentworth was a reckless and energetic party man, but 
did not possess the faithfulness to conviction which he was 
given credit for. His pathos was the studied warmth of an 
advocate, who well knew how to bring out the telling points 
of his case ; but it did not come from his heart. His mind 
was engrossed with ideas of power and dignity ; he had 
sought them in the paths of opposition ; he found them as 
a minister. The opposition could not have had a more for- 
midable adversary. 

He was thoroughly versed in the weaknesses of Parliament- 
ary parties and the arts of debate ; he wasin every respect well 
matched with his adversaries, and hated them with the im- 
placability which the renegade feels for his former partizans. 

Then, besides his oratorical powers, he possessed the 
talents of a really great statesman. He was bom to com- 
mand; in whatever he undertook his talents for organi- 
zation were displayed, and he possessed more courage than 
most men. 

He entirely broke with his past history, and as undaunted 
as if no ideas were connected with his name, he appeared 
as the minister of a system which he had himself con- 
demned, resolved to look all the consequences in the face, 
and if need were, to stake his life. His system must be 
condemned, but it must be admitted that he represented it 
in an imposing style. 

His plan was to invest the British monarchy with the same 
absolute power which the crown possessed in France. A well- 
organized administration, composed of dependent officials, 
protected by dependent judges and an efficient standing 



364 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

army, was to supersede the joint government of the States, 
put down all resistance, but also render needless the inter- 
ference of Parliament by judicious care for the welfeie of 
the people. An able, well-meaning absolutism was what he 
aimed at, such as Richelieu had established ; but there was 
this diflference: in France the States-General had been 
overthrown in the confusion of a forty years' dvil war, 
while the parliamentary power in England had not only 
always been closely in unison with the views of the people, 
but had acquired fresh strength during recent reigns. 

By the side of the Earl of Strafford, stood another man 
who guided the ecclesiastical re-action of the next ten 
years. Archbishop Laud was a learned ecclesiastic of strict 
morals and personally honourable character; he had not 
the severity and consuming ambition which distinguished 
Strafford, but he was filled with a peculiar ecclesiastical iisiia- 
ticism, which was as completely hostile to the sentiments of 
the strongest religious party in the country as was the un- 
parliamentary government to old English law. 

The element of ancient Catholicism which the Anglican 
Church had retained, and which the Puritans wished to 
efface, had obtained the ascendant in his weak head. He 
was possessed with ceremonial whims and theological 
absurdities, and tried to smuggle a number of hierarchical 
fancies into Anglicanism. 

In Laud's narrow mind an episcopal ambition was con- 
cealed, which, not content with the consecration of new 
ceremonies and such comparatively innocent whims, was 
continually reminding the people that in the Church as wdl 
as the State, they had to obey an absolute will which plainly 
leaned towards a gradual Catholic restoration. The best 
hopes were entertained at Rome ; the Jesuits held up tbcir 
heads ; and the court lady who went over to Catholicism at 



THE STAR CHAMBER. 365 

once, because she did not wish to disappear " in the great 
crowd " of those who would follow, Laud at their head, 
hit, with all her frivolity, upon just the right expression for 
the sentiments of the great majority of the nation, if not 
exactly for the actual state of things, for Laud could scarcely 
be called a Papist 

This twofold* re-action was too much for England It 
is possible that Straflford's system might have achieved a 
certam success, but the people would not bear this perpe- 
tual challenge to their national sentiments by religious and 
ecclesiastical chicanery. The favoured clergy were playing 
a hazardous game. They had completely adopted the part 
of trainbearers to the novel absolutism ; they advocated 
this breach of the constitutional law in sermons and pam- 
phlets, they had a justification ready for every arbitrary act, 
and openly proclaimed that an episcopal canon was of more 
weight than all parliamentary laws, and that any ecclesiasti- 
cal decree was sufficient to overthrow them. 

This ecclesiastical and secular re-action had in its power, 
two tribunals, the Star Chamber and the High Commission, 
and fearful weapons they were. 

The first was an extraordinary tribunal, which had existed 
from ancient times, and had been set up in periods of dis- 
tress occasioned by internal party struggles. Under Henry 
Vn. it had been recognised by Act of Parliament, but it 
was opposed to the spirit of Magna Charta, because govern- 
ment officials, not judges, had seats in it. 

The Star Chamber was the powerful organ of an adminis- 
trative justice, which was only to be called into use in 
exceptional cases, but it had power to decide questions 
relating to the property, liberty, and hfe of any Englishman 
without responsibility or right of appeal It could be 
proved that this court had constantly exercised its func- 



366 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

tions, especially under Elizabeth, but it now assumed a 
state of activity such as had never been known before. It 
was not defined by any law what was or was not under the 
jurisdiction of this court, and English legal historians are 
not themselves agreed about it It was generally under- 
stood that forgery, perjury, riot, maintenance, fraud, libel, 
and conspiracy * were amenable to it. These were just the 
crimes connected with politics. 

The Star Chamber had been borne with, because it had 
been employed, especially by Elizabeth, with moderation, 
and in times when revolt and conspiracies of the most 
dangerous kind were common ; a Government which had 
the great majority of the nation on its side, did not lose 
popularity by summary proceedings against a conmaon foe. 

The difference between the practice of Elizabeth and 
Charles I. was this, that under Charles the jurisdiction of 
this court was increased to such an extent, that the 
Englishman's chartered right not to be deprived of his 
natural judges became almost illusory, and that the people 
saw innocent persecuted patriots, and not criminals in the 
opponents of this government. 

The proceedings of the Star Chamber were all the more 
detested as their obvious design was to enrich the Kingfs 
treasury in a discreditable manner. For trifling offences, 
besides imprisonment, and the loss of both ears, a fine of 
several thousand pounds was inflicted, half of which fell to 
the King, even when he was in no way personally con* 
cemed. Those especially who opposed the many arbitrary 
imposts were brought before the Star Chamber. Thus, in 
1632, a wine tax was in favour, and when the wine mer- 
chants refused it, the sale of the necessaries of life to them 
was forbidden by the Star Chamber until they agreed 
♦ Hallam, ii. 105. 



THE mGH COMMISSION. 3^7 

to lend the King ;£6,ooo, and there were many similar 
cases. 

What the Star Chamber was for Strafford, the High 
Commission was for Laud ; neither was this a new thing, 
but had existed under Elizabeth, as an ecclesiastical court 
for the punishment of those who were considered heretics 
by the State Church. 

Under Elizabeth, Papists and Independents,, the heretics 
to the right and left of Anglicanism had been cited before 
it, and the latter especially, on account of their political con- 
tumacy, had received severe punishments. This was now 
carried further and further. The enigmatical position of 
Laud between Catholicism and Protestantism occasioned 
the same uncertainty as to what was the true and the false 
faith as had existed under Henry YIII. ; trivial expressions 
by persons in private life sufficed to incur severe punish- 
ment. This part of the system also had a hateful fiscal 
character ; fines were heavy and frequent, and the court 
even allowed its severity to be bought off. While indepen- 
dents and even lukewarm Anglicans were laid under con- 
tribution with the greatest severity, the Catholics bought 
their greater freedom by heavy payments. 

Apart from Laud's whimsical perversities, there was a 
strict unity of purpose in Strafford's unparliamentary govern- 
ment. The government was better administered than it 
had been for a long time, the court was a pattern of citizen- 
like simplicity, and only hated by the Puritans because it 
had not renounced all gaiety ; on the whole, intelligent care 
was exercised for the interests of the country and the pros- 
perity of the masses ; the taxes imposed had not received 
the consent of Parliament, but the Puritans who ruled Par- 
liament had enemies enough, and the Catholics, of whom 
there were not a few, fared better than in previous reigns. 



368 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

The resistance of the courts became more feeble ; individuals 
did indeed protest, but they paid in the end, and among 
the officials and ecclesiastics a school had arisen who wil- 
lingly consented to the royal absolutism. In short, Strafford's 
determined but consistent energy had effected that things 
were borne which a few years before wQuld scarcely have 
been thought credible. 

To crown this edifice one thing was wanting, a standii% 
army. The ship money was to serve to create this. 

Ship money was a tax imposed for the equipment of 
ships which in ancient times were required to protect the 
coasts. It had always been an extraordinary war tax, 
mainly devoted to the maintenance of the fleet, and had 
been chiefly raised from the inhabitants of the maritime 
to^ivns. But it was now to be changed into a general stand- 
ing tax, not only to maintain the fleet, but also a standing 
army, and all this without consent of Parliament. 

In spite of the submissive spirit which had been shown, 
it was feared that a time might come when the people's 
patience might suddenly come to an end, and in this 
case the Government would be quite defenceless without a 
standing army. Even the Conthiental states, which had 
never known anything like the English Parliament or Magna 
Charta, could not dispense with this safeguard of abso- 
lutism, how much less the English imitation of it, which 
had had but so short-lived an existence! The standing 
army was to be the key-stone of the new monarchy. Even 
under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth no one had ventured to 
deny that such a tax could not be imposed without consent 
of Parliament. That it was ventured upon now shows how 
far things had already gone. 

The ship money was raised, and borne, though not with- 
out murmurs. Strafford thought he had conquered ; only a 



JOHN HAIklPDEX. 369 

few years of peace, he wrote from Ireland, and the nation 
would become accustomed to the Government, and the 
King would be a more powerful ruler than any of his fore- 
fathers. He thought the people would forget what they 
had once called their rights, and become accustomed to be 
ruled like the other nations of Europe. There certainly 
was a danger of this; and that it might not. become over- 
whelming, a courageous man determined to give an example. 

The English revere the memory of John Hampden, who, 
at a time of discouragement and hoplessness, ventured to 
stand up for the infringed laws of Parliament. 

To forestall all opposition, the King had procured a sort 
of formal confirmation of his rights. He had laid before 
the judges whether he was not justified in imposing this 
tax in case of necessity, for the protection of the empire, 
and whether it was not for him alone to decide the question 
of necessity, and the judges, like faithful echoes, had answered 
him as he wished. It was high time, in this state of 
universal subjection, that the voice of an independent man 
should interpose. 

John Hampden was not a man of brilliant talent like 
Strafford. He had but seldom spoken during the many 
years that he had sat in the House of Commons ; but he 
was known there as a man of inviolable faithfulness to his 
convictions. They might be erroneous ; but he was ready 
to seal them with his death. But he was by no means a 
revolutionary agitator, nor yet a Puritan zealot. He refused 
to pay the pittance of 20s. for ship money that was allotted 
to him, and appealed to the ancient laws of the country. 
He was put on his trial, which was just what he wished. It 
he lost his cause for himself, it would not be lost for 
his country ; the public conscience would at last be roused^ 
and this would be a great gain. 

VOL. II. B B 



370 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Hampden's trial (1637) excited great attention. The 
judges of the Star Chamber were uneasy — even their con- 
sciences pricked them; the majority by which he was 
finally convicted was very small, and it was not doubtful 
which side was the gainer in public opinion. Men began to 
talk once more^ and with fresh excitement, of the foigotten 
rights of old England, called to mind all their conflicts with 
the arrogance of the Stuarts; morally, the Government had 
already forfeited all the results of its exertions. 

This was all, however, that was attained. The Govem- 
raent continued to raise the tax and to make military pre- 
parations. With many, the conviction of Hampden was a 
reason for renouncing all idea of resistance, seeing that in 
his case it had failed. 

Even Hampden is said at this time to have given up all 
hope that things would mend. In fact, if he thought that 
his trial would be a signal for general resistance, he was en- 
tirely mistaken. It is said that he had resolved to seek a 
home beyond the sea with his then unknown relative, 
Thomas Cromwell, but that the Government was guilty of 
the unwise cruelty of refusing them permission. If such 
men were thinking of turning their backs upon their 
country in despair, their cause must have seemed hope- 
less indeed. 

A year afterwards an important change had taken place 
in the situation. Complications arose which rendered the 
realisation of hopes which had seemed totally improbable 
more likely, and once more it was the unfortunate en- 
deavour to bring about a reaction in minor ecclesiastical 
matters which occasioned the storm. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

THE TURN OF EVENTS. 

The Complications in Scotland, 1637-39. — The Tumult at Edinburgh. 
— The Covenant, 1638. — The General Assembly at Glasgow, 
November, 1638.— The Fourth Parliament, 1640.— The Long 
Parliament. — First Measures against the Policy and Repre- 
sentatives of Strafford's System. — Indictment, Trial, and Execu- 
tion of Strafford, May, 1641. 

Complications in Scotland. — ^Tumult at Edinburgh. 
— The Covenant, the General Assembly, the Re- 
treat OF Charles, and the Fourth Parllament. 
April, 1640. 

OEFORE Charles I. learnt to make Scotland a counter- 
poise to England, and to keep one nation in check by 
means of the other, he had regarded Scotland as an English 
province which would submit to regulations common to the 
two countries with a better grace than England. This arose 
from a great misunderstanding of their relations ^lath each 
other. 

The Scotch nobles, with their extensive possessions, and 
great power over submissive vassals, could much more 
easily than the English resolve upon armed resistance to 
the crown ; and during the minority of James they had be- 
come very unruly. Together with this overbearing aris- 
tocracy there was a clergy, who since the time of Knox had 
been filled with almost republican ideas of self-government. 



372 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

The hvo foes, therefore, of the king's autocracy in England 
were even more powerful and more dangerous in Scotland. 

What course did Charles take in order to control them ? 
He attempted to put the country into the power of a highly 
imvileged state church, to intrust the highest offices in the 
state to a numbeir of prelates, who were to keep the nobles 
and the Presbyterians in check by the same means and on 
the same principles as those employed by Laud and his 
party in England. One archbishop was made Chancellor, 
nine bishops composed the privy council, prelates were in the 
treasury and in the highest courts. This gave great offence 
to the ambitious nobles, and occasioned great excitement 
among the inferior clergy who ruled the masses. 

Instead of liberty of preaching, which was the usage, 
strict episcopal jurisdiction was introduced ; instead of 
synods, presbyteries, and all sorts of other civic and eccle- 
siastical liberties, prelatical despotism was to be the order 
of the day ; the exbting state of things had prevailed for 
thirty years ; the system which was now to replace it, and 
had partially replaced it under James I., implied a complete 
revolution, the worst of which was still unknown, and all 
this was the work of " Popery," the very sound of which 
made the Presbyterian blood boil. 

Ever since 1^35, when the canons respecting the judicial 
authority of the bishops were proclaimed, an ominous un- 
easiness was observable ; but when the catholicising lituigy 
was introduced, which had given so much offence in Eng- 
land, the outbreak took place. 

When divine service was performed for the first time in 
July, 1637, in the Cathedral of Edinburgh, according to the 
hated method, a noisy mob rushed in, exclaiming, " A pope, 
a pope ! Antichrist, stone him ! " they threw chairs at the 
bishop, insulted the clergy, and, after being with difficulty 



THE COVENANT. 373 

turned out, they filled the whole city with scenes of tumult, and 
the bishops scarcely escaped being stoned on their way home. 

There was no European country where the masses were 
so ruled by Calvinism as in Scotland, but the indignation 
which showed itself in these stormy scenes surprised both 
friends and foes. The whole nation made the cause of the 
mob its own. Balaam's ass, as it was said in every pulpit, 
was otherwise a stupid beast, but, to the astonishment of 
everybody, the Lord loosed his tongue. 

Charles remained firm to his purpose in spite of all repre- 
sentation; he proclaimed an amnesty, but declared at the 
same time that he hoped for ready submission to the liturgy, 
and so that took place which was now inevitable. Representa- 
tives of the greater and lesser nobles, the clergy, and the 
towns, met together and formed a provisional government, 
which found willing obedience throughout the country, and 
signed a covenant against any religious innovations, " To the 
greater glory of God and the salvation of their King and 
country." The whole nation joined in it without distinction 
of age, rank, or sex ; even the highest nobles did not hold 
back, for they feared that they should be left in complete 
isolation if they did not follow the stream. This was the 
famous Covenant of the ist of March, 1638. 

The King was compelled to give way, for he stood without 
an army, between two nations — one of which was in a state 
of discontent, the other in open rebellion. The way in 
which he retreated, step by step, firom the growing demands 
of the Scotch, showed that he was only succumbing to 
necessity and betrayed his real weakness. Of all the modes 
of settlement proposed by Charles, the only one accepted 
was a General Assembly, which he hoped to be able to turn 
to his own purposes, but at its first meeting it almost openly 
proclaimed revolution. 



374 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Amidst a vast concourse, the General Assembly was opened 
at Glasgow, on November 21st, 1638. After the pievioos 
experience of the Royal Commissioner, Hamilton, the spirit 
of the proceedings might easily have been foreseen. The 
first act of the assembly was to bring an accusation against 
all the bishops, of heresy, simony, bribeiy, perjury, deceit, 
bloodshed, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, gaming, sab- 
bath-breaking, &C. When the bishops protested, the Rajtl 
Commissioner dissolved the assembly for going beyond its 
province ; it met again, and declared the episcopal power, 
the high commissioners, the canons, the liturgy, everytfaiog, 
in short, which the last two Stuarts had re-introduced into * 
the Scotch Church, null and void. 

The King now seemed to intend to resort to arms. A fine 
army of 20,000 foot, 6,000 horse, supported by a fleet 
manned by 3,000 men, was raised, and was to summon Ae 
rebels into the field again, when Charles suddenly changed 
his mind. The fear of a revolt in his rear, the conviction that 
he was not strong enough to subdue two nations^ one only of 
which was at least a match for his troops, caused him to 
turn round. He yielded to the Scots, conceded all that the 
General Assembly had demanded, and was disposed again 
to try an English Parliament, which should grant him the 
means for a war with Scotland, a fatal step, for if it failed it 
was sure to result in just what he wished to avoid. It was 
certain that the Scots would remain under arms, and pro- 
bable that the English would begin to defend themselves. 

For ten years the laws of the land had been set at defiance. 
It was only the difficulty with Scotland which had caused 
them to be respected again. The cause of Scotland was 
also the cause of the English oppositioiL What could be 
expected firom a Parliament assembled under such ciraun- 
stances ? 



CHARLES'S FOURTH PARLIAMENT. 375 

The fourth Parliament of the reign of Charles L was opened 
on the 13th of April 

The King had generally been in a great hurry to ask for 
money, and this time he could not brook the least delay. 
" Never," he said " has a king had more serious and urgent 
need to appeal to his people than I at this moment." On 
account of a letter having been intercepted from some Scotch 
lords to the King of France, the Lord Keeper, Finch, de- 
manded the means for a campaign against the Scotch traitors, 
which was to take place during the summer of the same year, 
but the urgency of these appeals contrasted strangely with 
the inevitable assurance that the Parliament owed the honour 
of being called together solely to the paternal favour of the 
most just, most religious, and most gracious of princes. 
With this exception, the speech was as gracious as the 
former ones, and contained besides, the assurance that the 
grievances should be redressed — if the subsidies were first 
granted. 

Parliament was not taken in by this. It now comprised 
members who especially condemned the system of Strafford 
and Laud. Even those who, compared with the Puritans, 
might be called Royalists, were now in the opposition. 
They afterwards separated, but at that time there was but 
one party in the assembly, and it abhorred the existing 
regime. 

It is highly interesting to watch the proceedings of this 
short Parliament, to observe how ijidignation at the abuses 
of the last eleven years now found expression. Even had 
the House been disposed to suppress these sentiments, the 
petitions that poured in from the counties would not have 
permitted them to be silent 

The first words uttered in the House were an evidence 
of the state of feeling. A Mr. Grimstone declared that the 



376 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Scotch business was an evil without, while there was another 
within their own House which deeply affected them all 
The commonweal was shamefully trodden underfoot, their 
property and liberties attacked, the Church divided, the 
Gospel and its followers persecuted, and the countiy 
swarmed with greedy caterpillars, the worst of all Egyptian 
plagues, &c. 

Pym then rose : he was one of the most eminent speakers 
of the opposition ; a Puritan in his religious opinions, and 
now beginning to adopt their political principles. In a 
speech of three hours he described the distressed state of 
the nation. He divided the sins of the Government into 
three groups. In the first, he included the infringements of 
the liberties and privileges of Parliament during the last 
eleven years ; in the second, the reh'gious innovations ; in 
the third, the charges on property. But in all three it was 
his wish to maintain the great prerogative of the Crown, that 
" the King can do no wrong." In a pregnant and compre- 
hensive speech, everything that had occurred was reviewed, 
from the treatment of the last Parliament to the latest acts 
of violence. It formed a complete bill of indictment 
against the system of the past eleven years ; nothing was 
omitted. 

The House next moved for a report of the proceedings 
against certain members of Parliament, and appointed a 
committee upon the infringement of the privil^es of Par- 
liament, and all other grievances collectively. 

The King urged that the subsidies should be granted 
first, and the grievances discussed afterwards. Flattering 
assurances were given about the ship-money, tonnage and 
poundage, &c., but it was resolved that the grievances 
should have the precedence. Pym's classification was 
adopted, and they were conmiunicated to the Lords. They . 



DISSOLUTION OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT. 377 

wefe for granting the subsidies first, but the Commons 
adhered to their resolution, and after being repeatedly urged 
in vain to depart from it by the King, both Houses were 
dissolved. 

It was the fourth Parliament which Charles had dissolved, 
and it was the last The next was to put an end to his 
reign. 

Parliament had revealed the helpless isolation of the King. 
By that speech of Pym*s the whole character of the system 
was laid bare to the country. Every individual had, in«- 
deed, had complaints to make, but with the then, scanty 
press they had been individual grievances. It was Pym who 
had first given an exhaustive description of the state of 
things from these abundant materials, and a fearful bill of 
indictment it was which was now circulated through the 
country in newspapers, pamphlets, and speeches. 

Compelled by events in Scotland once more to summon 
a Parliament, the King had now committed the gravest 
error. He had inspired the hopeless with courage, fatally 
embittered the irritated, and given them by his own acts a 
handle for a fearful agitation. 

The Long Parliament. — First Measures against the 
Policy and Representatives of Strafford's System. 
— November, 1640, to September, 1641. 

The King's resources were now on the decline. By a 
final effort the courtiers and Catholic priests whom the King 
had enriched at the expense of the country were compelled 
to submit to a loan, and the campaign against the Scots 
was begun. They were already on the firontier when the 
Royalists advanced. Amidst perpetual assurances of loyalty 
— they only came to lay their wishes personally at the King's 
feet — ^their splendid army crossed the Tweed, and routed 



378 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

the vanguard of the Royalists on the first attack, so that the 
whole army fell into a panic. The money was soon ex- 
hausted, the soldiers mutinied, and the King lost courage. 
Strafford tried in vain to inspirit him and to persuade him 
to a rapid advance which should decide evetything. He 
was already thinking of negotiating, and a last attempt to 
help himself by a House of submissive peers having failed, 
he again summoned Parliament. 

This was the remarkable assembly called the Long Par 
liament It survived the kingdom of the Stuarts, resisted 
another powerful government, was several times condemned 
to death and called together again ; its history is insepa- 
rable firom the general course of English politics to the 
Restoration. It was incontestably the most important 
representation that the people had ever had. Not that 
there were no weak elements in it — ^vacillation and indeci- 
sion were not wanting ia its attitude ; but it carried on the 
contest with absolutism with great energy at a time when 
it was triumphing in the whole of Europe, without excep* 
tion, and it afterwards gave Cromwell plenty to do. It was 
now in its prime ; it ruled England for several years, was 
dispersed by Charles, but rose up again over his grave. 
In its debates we do not find a single voice raised for his 
system; all the men were in it who led the subsequent 
movement. 

At the time of its assembling the whole situation already 
bore a revolutionary character, not of the wild and noisf 
sort that prevailed in France — it never came to a mobo- 
cracy — partly because the middle class enjoyed more confi- 
dence, and had retained more independence, partly because 
the Revolution was early under military control, and a 
Cromwell, statesman and soldier in one person, was utterly 
wanting in France ; but excited passions, stormy meetings. 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 379 

stirring sermons were not wanting in England any more 
than in France, there was even a spice of terrorism. Woe 
would have been to him who ventured openly to oppose Par- 
liament and its adherents. The press worked upon the 
masses by means of sermons, pamphlets, and speeches, and 
London, now a powerful city, headed the movement 

The Long Parliament was ready with a decisive and 
systematic attack, not only od the system and its abuses, 
but also on the representatives of the policy of the last 
eleven years. It was stormed with petitions and com- 
plaints against the numberless abuses of the administration, 
and again Pym passed them systematically under review ; 
but it was dearly seen that nothing could be accomplished 
without the severest measures against the originators of all 
this evil Laud, Secretary Windebank, Finch, keeper of 
the great seal, and inventor of the ship money, were 
accused of high treason, and were ordered to be arrested, 
as well as the judges who had been subservient to them, 
and the lords were powerless to prevent it Finch and 
Windebank escaped, Strafford was in Ireland, Laud could 
do nothing ; the King found himself already forsaken by 
his advisers. In this helpless situation, he was obliged to 
give his sanction to a bill which limited his power of arbi- 
trarily summoning and dismissing Parliament This was 
the Triennial Act. Up to this time there had been no defi- 
nite regulation on the subject. It was now settled that a 
new Parliament must be called every three years, and that 
no Parliament could be dissolved without its own consent 
before the fiftieth day. 

As a matter of course, this put an end to the old con- 
tests about tonnage and poundage, forest-right, &c. The 
abolition of the Star Chamber and the High Commission 
was also the natural result of the general tendencies of 



38o THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Parliament They even went further, and proposed to 
decimate the representation of bishops in the Upper House, 
and to reconstitute it altogether, and thus to rob the King 
of his last support. 

Trial of Strafford, May, 1641. 

Amidst these agitated debates occurred the trial of Straf- 
ford. While the storm was brewing in Parliament against 
I^aud, Finch, and Windebank, the most dangerous and 
guilty of all the King's advisers was lord-deputy of Ireland, 
where he was trying to save what might yet be saved. His 
idea was to hold his position in Ireland as long as possible, 
and thence, aided by the national hatred of the Catholic 
Irish against the Anglicans, to prepare a favourable and 
perhaps decisive diversion for the monarchy. He therefore 
advised the King not to recall him, and, at all events, not 
to summon him to London. I am not of opinion that it 
was care for his personal safety which induced him to give 
this advice, but rather that, if there was still any way of 
escape, these were the right tactics for the King, hedged in 
as he was by two rebellious kingdoms to endeavour to secure 
the support of the third, and to make it the seat of a 
counter movement. It was soon to be shown that to 
summon Straflford to London was the very worst thing he 
could da 

Very early dining the session an indictment against him 
was carried by a committee of both Houses, and the King 
commanded his presence in London. In Ireland, with the 
army, he might still have served the King ; but before Par- 
liament the cause of both would be lost. But the King 
insisted. He promised that not a hair of Straffoird's head 
should be hurt, though he could no longer insure his own 
safety. It was a fatal mistake to expose his faithfid minister 



TRIAL OF STRAFFORD. 381 

to the fury of Parliament, and Strafford's last words 
expressed the suspicion that the King intended to sacrifice 
him. I do not say this ; but it was in the highest degree 
imprudent to sacrifice the only firiend he had in the three 
kingdoms. 

Strafford had scarcely arrived in London when the storm 
broke over him. Pym made a long speech, to show that in 
the abuses of the previous eleven years there had been a 
systematic attempt to destroy the ancient rights of the 
country, and to exchange its chartered liberties for a 
modern despotism. And who was the originator of the 
scheme? The King? By* no means. With a certain 
irony he still held to the dogma, that the King can do no 
DVTong. He then went on to say that though, doubtless, 
many evil counsellors had worked together, one could be 
mentioned who took the foremost place in guilt among the 
betrayers of the country. This was the Earl of Strafford. 

Then follows a long list of sins, in which, according to 
the fashions of the time, the blemishes of private life by no 
means occupy the lowest place. 

• Strafford arrived too late to occupy his seat in the House 
of Lords, and to prevent the passing of the Bill. When he 
appeared it had already passed, and he had to listen to the 
indictment on his knees, and then to go as a State prisoner 
to the Tower. Not a voice was raised in his favour. Falk- 
land only, his personal enemy, gave a warning against hasty 
and irregular proceedings. 

The trial before the House of Lords did not begin till 
March, 1641. The accusation of high treason was more 
easily made than proved. . There was no doubt as to what 
constituted high treason according to English law ; but the 
ordinary conception of it did not agree with the accusa- 
tions against Strafford. According to a statute of Edward 



382 THE l^EVOLUTION IN ENGLAND* 

III., high treason was an injury to the King, his person, 
fiamily, or authority ; but there was nothing about an attempt 
to upset the fundamental laws of the country. The other 
accusations against him were of a number of separate 
crimes which could not be construed into high treason 
against the country. 

It was upon diis weakness of the indictment that his mas- 
terly defence was based. 

He spoke not only with the power of an orator of the 
first rank, he exhibited the repose and confidence of a dear 
conscience : he conducted his case as if not he, but his 
accusers, were guil^ of distorting and wishing to overthrow 
the laws of the land, and he also struck those chords which 
touch the feelings. It was only for the sake of his chil- 
dren whom he held by the hand, he said in conclusion, 
that he had so long claimed their lordships' attention. He 
awaited a just sentence, and commended his soul to heaven. 
The effect of this speech was so powerful, as is testified 
even by his opponents, that the Commons doubted whether 
the Lords would find him guilty. They immediately 
resolved upon an exceptional measure. If there was a gsqp 
in the laws. Parliament had power to fill it up. This was 
done by bringing in a Bill of Attainder, which was carried 
by a large majority. A Bill 6[ Attainder declared him 
who was aJQfected by it to be beyond the law. It had often 
been adopted under Henry VIII., but only as a weapon of 
despotism and lawless power. By such a law Strafford was 
condemned, and suffered death on the nth of May. 

He met death with the composure and resolution of a 
martyr in a holy cause. Without bitterness he requested 
the King to ratify the sentence, and only when it was done 
he exclaimed, " Put not your trust in princes, nor in the 
sons of men, for in them there is no salvation." 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

OPEN BREACH BETWEEN THE KING AND 
PARXIAMENT.* 

The King in Scotland, August, 1641. — Massacre of the Protestants in 
Ireland.— Return of Parliament in October, and the Separation of 
Parties into Cavaliers and Roundheads.— The Great Remonstrance, 
November, and the unsuccessful Coup d*£tat,]sinvLaiy^ and 4, 1642. 
— Commotions in London. — The First Parliamentary Anny. — De- 
parture of the King.— Return of Parliament, January 11, 1642. 

The King in Scotland ; the Massacre in Ireland. — 
Return of Parliament. — Cavaliers and Round- 
heads. 

"DOBBED of his last weapons of defence, the King 
hoped to break the force of the storm , by prudent 
temporising, to subjugate his adversaries by causing divi- 
sions among them, and, having secured breathing time in 
one place, to make himself master of another. 

While the Commons, elated by their late success, were 
proceeding to effect radical changes in Church and State, to 
overthrow the episcopal constitution in the one, and to 
limit the royal power in the other, so as to render it com- 

• Forster, Debates of the Great Remonstrance, November and 
December, 1641 ; London, i860. The same, Arrest of the Five 
Members by Charles I. History of the Rebellion, by Werth, from 
authentic materials, chiefly from Clarendon. Review of it by Forques 
" Revue des deux Mondes;" April, 1861, and February, 1862. (The 
following representation is mainly based upon this.) 



384 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

pletely impotent, Charles had a grand scheme for ridding 
himself of all his oppressors. 

He informed Parliament that he should go in person to 
Scotland, to bring about a reconciliation between the two 
countries. His idea was to effect a separation between the 
causes of the two countries, to re-establish in the north the 
royal authority, of which he was so destitute in the south, 
to gain a strong party among the discontented, and espe- 
cially the royalist nobles of the army just dismissed, and to 
collect proofs of high treason against his enemies. 

At his desire. Parliament prorogued itself till his return, 
but amidst circumstances which plainly indicated great dis- 
content. Before separating, both Houses formed a com- 
mittee, of which Pym was president. Another committee 
was to accompany the King to Scotland. 

In the middle of August, Charles appeared in Scotland. 
Men's minds were taken by storm. No native king had 
ever been so popular as was this same Charles, against 
whom they had just taken the field. 

Peace was soon made ; but, at what a price ! Charles 
relinquished nearly all the crown rights that he had yet to 
lose. It was not surprising that the Scots should demand 
the Triennial Bill, since it had received the King's sanction 
in England, but the right was also granted to the Scotch 
Parliament at the end of every session to determine when 
and where the next should be held. It was also to nomi- 
nate all the King's ministers, judges, and officers of State, 
and he had at once to submit to see his adherents super- 
seded in the public offices by his opponents. He even 
loaded with honours and pensions the Presbyterian ministers 
whom he could never hope to gain for his cause, and felt 
himself rewarded when the leaders promised never to inter- 
fere in the ecclesiastical affairs of England. 



MASSACRE OF PROTESTANTS IN IRELAND, 385 

While this reconciliation was going on a fearful revolt 
broke out in Ireland, which showed what Strafford had been 
doing there. 

One of the most serious accusations against Strafford had 
been his despotism as governor of Ireland. It was sup- 
posed, therefore, that as a matter of course, with his fall 
the harsh government by which he had coerced the country, 
and made its resources and troops available to England, 
would cease. Ireland claimed the same rights that had 
been granted to England and Scotland, but, as things were, 
this would have produced absolute anarchy, and this was 
taken advantage of by the old Catholic party for waging a 
cruel war of revenge against the English Protestants in 
Ireland. 

The Catholic Irish formed five-sixths of the population, 
the other sixth being English colonists, and under Strafford's 
iron rule, the former had enjoyed a certain toleration of their 
faith, and might have expected the same from Charles and his 
Catholicising system. But they could not look for it from 
the nearly all-powerful Puritans ; from them they could but 
expect the oft-threatened extermination of " Popery." To 
add to this, there was the ancient national hatred, and the 
memory of the revenge on the Ulster rebels, whose enor- 
mous possessions had, under James I., been conferred on 
thousands of English and Scotch immigrants. A horrible 
massacre of the Protestants now took place by the fanatical 
Catholics. The project had been formed in the deepest 
secrecy, and many thousands of the unsuspecting English 
were murdered almost in their sleep. The barbarous cruelties 
by which this massacre was accompanied, and which were 
inflicted by men, women, and even children, are enough to 
make one's hair stand on end. The lowest figure at which 
the number of victims is reckoned is forty thousand. 

VOL. II. c c 



386 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

The Irish rebels declared that they were fighting for throne 
and altar, Pope and King. Even apart from these dedara- 
tions, Charles's enemies gave him credit for having instigated 
the revolt. It was known that he wished to have employed 
the Scots against Parliament ; it was known that he made 
all manner of attempts to draw the Royalists in Parliament 
over to his cause, to destroy the leaders of the opposition — 
why should he disdain to bring the Irish into the field 
against them also ? 

We can say almost to a certainty that this supposition 
was false. For a conspiracy of this sort projected by the 
King himself, a more favourable moment would certainly 
have been chosen; and if support from this quarter had 
been looked for, the conduct of the conspiracy would have 
been committed to such a man as Strafiford, not to such 
persons as Phelim O'Neale or Roger More, whose loyalty 
could by no means be relied on. 

P)rm, the watchfiil president of the committee, had taken 
care to guard Parliament against Royalist mtrigues. In 
spite of Qiarles's great caution, Pym was informed by 
Hampden of all his proceedings, and the report which he 
made to Parliament when it reassembled, on October 20th, 
was so serious, that it was resolved at once to place London 
in a state of siege, and to guard both Houses by train-bands 
night and day. This was an obvious interference with the 
prerogative of the crown; but this was dexterously dis- 
guised, by devolving the command on the popular Earl of 
Essex, who had been intrusted by the King with this office 
during his absence. A member, then unknown, but who 
excited attention by his vehemence, Oliver Cromwell, pro- 
posed to call out all the militia of the kingdom for the de- 
fence of the coimtry — the germ of the Parliamentary anny, 
which he was afterwards to lead. 



CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS. 387 

A further step was taken. The King was petitioned to 
dismiss his evil counsellors ; otherwise Parliament, in spite 
of its loyalty, would be compelled to take measures for its 
own security and that of Ireland. By his evil counsellors 
were meant Hyde, Colepepper, Falkland, and others, who 
had formerly led the attack against Strafford's system, but 
were now on the King's side. 

This throws a strong light upon the party divisions which 
during the six weeks' prorogation had taken place in the 
previously compact mass. Against the Star Chamber, the 
High Commission, tonnage and poundage. Parliament had 
stood together like one man. There had also been an 
overwhelming majority in favour of the security and increase 
of the privileges of Parliament ; and even amongst the mem- 
bers, about sixt}', who had voted against the Bill of 
Attainder against Strafford, those who were now to show 
that the race of StraJQford was by no means extinct, were not 
found. 

But now two hostile parties confronted each other, and on 
all decisive questions there was but a small majority and a 
very strong minority; these were the Cavaliers and Round- 
heads. 

The one party consisted mainly of all the Catholics in the 
country, who sought in the regal power a support against 
the radicalism of the Puritans — the superior clergy, and 
the royalist majority of the aristocracy ; the other consisted 
of the rigid Protestants in town and country, to whom 
religious and political liberty was one and the same thing. 
The one party wished to quell the agitation, so soon as the 
most necessary concessions were obtained ; the other would 
not be satisfied so long as the King and popery retained the 
least power to infringe the laws of the land, or to restrict 
religious liberty. 



388 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

There was as yet no Cromwell at the head of the latter 
party, but moderate men such as Hampden, Holies, and 
Pym. Pym's standpoint on the Church question is shown 
by his confession of faith in the short Parliament in April, 
1640. He said, " I desire not to have any new laws made 
against them (the Catholics), nor a strict execution of tiie 
old ones, but only so far forth as tends to the safety of his 
Majesty. There can be no security from Papists but in thdr 
disability. Laws will not restrain them, oaths will not ; the 
Pope dispenseth with both, and his command acts them 
against the realm, in spirituals and in temporals, ad spiri- 
tualiar 

His opinions about the royal authority were precisely the 
same. After all their bitter experience it was needful to 
erect strong defences against the abuse of it, in spite of 
Magna Charta and the Petition of Right. 

The Great Remonstrance and the Unsuccessful 
Coup d'Etat; November, 1641, to January, 1642. 

These parties were most strongly opposed to each other, 
when it was proposed by Pym and his adherents that a 
great remonstrance should be addressed to the King, but it 
was in reality intended to be an appeal from Pym to the 
people. 

In a lengthy and systematic document, of not less than 
206 paragraphs, Pym drew up a list of all the grievances 
under the rule of Charles I. ; and on the other hand detailed 
the exertions of Parliament on behalf of English liberties, 
so that the country should be in the possession of docu- 
ments which should enable it to judge between the King 
and the people's representatives. It is noteworthy that 
Pym now seems to have renounced the principle that 
the King can do no wrong, and had adopted the idea 



THE GREAT REMONSTRANCE. 389 

of his personal responsibility. The tactics of the Royalists, 
and especially of their recent accessions, were to make this 
question the battle-ground of debate, and to measure the 
strength of parties ; every inch of groimd was sharply con- 
tested, single propositions, single words even, were warmly 
debated for hours, every pretext for delay of the motion was 
eagerly seized upon, as if it were possible to starve the enemy 
by endless debates. This struggle lasted from the 9th to the 
2oth of November. Men's passions were naturally heated red 
hot. When the arrest of members of Parliament came to be 
discussed, Pym exclaimed, " Eliot's blood still cries for re- 
venge," and the Commons rose and repeated, '^ His blood 
cries for revenge." 

As the Remonstrance could neither be suppressed nor 
weakened, the royalists tried to effect that the King only 
should receive it, and not the public, and therefore de- 
manded that it should not be printed : but Pym replied that 
the very object was that England might imderstand the 
situation of afiairs, and take the side of those who defended 
her cause. On November 22nd, after a last passionate 
debate, the bill was passed by 159 votes against 148. The 
publication of the address was also voted after being vehe- 
mently opposed by Hyde and Falkland. After it was passed, 
Cromwell remarked to Falkland, ** Had the remonstrance 
been rejected, I would to-morrow have sold everything I 
possess, and never have seen England more, and I know 
many other honest men of the same resolution." A bold 
attempt by one of the minority to divide the House by a pro- 
test by his party failed. Palmer who had moved it was sent 
to the Tower. 

Charles just then returned from Scotland, and met with a 
brilliant reception by the citizens of London; he enter- 
tained great hopes, and assumed a tone of confidence in 



390 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

all that he said and did. The royalist heroes of the recent 
debates, Falkland, Hyde, and Colepepper, became his con- 
fidential advisers, and soon afterwards officially entered his 
service; theguard of the Houses of Parliament were dismissed; 
and the party of the Remonstrance, when they called attention 
to the insecurity of the Palace of Westminster, were told that 
so long as it required no guard Parliament did not require 
one either. 

After the Remonstrance, both parties felt that a crisis was 
approaching. Each reproached the other with entertaining 
treacherous projects, and by d^ees the populace of 
London was in a commotion. About the end of December 
there were several bloody skirmishes between the royal 
troops, joined by the students of the Inns of Court, and the 
apprentices and Thames watermen on the other side. The 
year ended amidst the most gloomy indications, and on 
January 3rd, 1642, the storm burst. The Commons were 
just discussing a scornful message from the King, who, to 
their repeated requests for a guard, replied that he himself 
was their protector against every danger — when in the 
Upper House, another royal message was delivered, accus- 
ing Lord Kimbolton and five of the Commons of hi^ 
treason on seven counts. While the discussion was going 
on in the Commons, Pym and Hollis were called out 
They shortly returned, and Pym reported that his own, 
Hollis's, and Hampden's dwellings had been entered and 
their desks and chests sealed. The House declared this 
proceeding to be a crying abuse of their privileges, and 
asserted that violence against any member of the House must 
be met by violence. Just then the Royal Sergeant appeared, 
and demanded in the name of the Kling that the five members, 
Hollis, Haslerig, Pym, Hampden, and Strode, should be 
given up on a charge of high treason. The House received 



ARREST OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 39 1 

the message in gloomy silence ; no one laid hands on the five 
members ; and it was resolved to inform the King, by a depu- 
tation, that the House would take the King's demand into 
serious consideration, and that the members would be ready 
to answer any legal accusation. This first attack was there- 
fore warded off, but the second followed the next morning. 
After a violent scene with the Queen, who is reported to 
have said, " Go, coward, and pull these rogues out by the 
ears, or never see me more," the King set out to accomplish 
what his sergeant had failed to do. At the beginnmg of 
the sitting, after the accused had vehemently protested 
against the " scandalous document," as they called the indict- 
ment, and had received permission to withdraw, the King 
appeared at the head of one hundred armed men before the 
doors of the House. Accompanied by his nephew, Charles 
of the Palatinate, brother of Rupert, he entered the House, 
advanced with a friendly greeting to the Speaker, and begged 
him to relinquish his place to him for a short time. Em- 
barrassed and hesitating, he delivered a short speech, which 
has been preserved to us verbatim. Amidst assurances 
that the privileges of the House had not lain nearer to the 
heart of any monarch than to his, he declared with strong 
emphasis that in cases of high treason there could be no 
question of privilege ; he had, therefore, expected obedience, 
and not a message in reply to his yesterda/s summons. 
He then looked round for the well-known faces of his worst 
foes, and not seeing them, asked where they were. No one 
answered. Then he turned with the same question to the 
Speaker, who, being a timid man, fell on his knees, and said 
that in that place he had neither eyes to see nor ears to hear 
otherwise than as the House directed. " Well,*' said Charles, 
" since the birds are flown, I do expect that you will send 
them to me as soon as they return hither/' otherwise he must 



392 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

resort to other means to find them. " Their treason is homblei 
and is of that kind that you will all thank me for discovering." 
Amidst loud murmurs, he left the House. 

The King had proceeded to extremities, and had failed. 
He had not secured the leaders, and had exposed himsdf 
in an unexampled manner. Up to this time, he had kept 
up an appearance of wishing to keep the peace with his 
Parliament ; but the scene of the 4th of January tore aside the 
mask. He was the old Charles of Strafford's time, the policy 
of the last eleven years was still uppermost. 

The Commotion in the Capital. — The First Parua- 

MENTARY ArMY. — DEPARTURE OF THE KiNG. 

The fate of the five members depended mainly on the 
attitude which might be taken by the City of London in the 
difference between King and Parliament Both parties 
hoped for its sympathies. The excitement about the events 
of the 4th of January was indescribable. At the first news 
of it the shops were closed, business was at a stand-still, and 
the idle populace poured into the streets. 

The King did not believe that this excitement was unfavour- 
able to him. Had he not met with a warm reception in his 
capital only a few weeks before ? On the morning of the 
5th of January, he proceeded, without any military escort, 
to the Guildhall, to encourage his friends and intimidate his 
adversaries ; but he was assailed with curses and threats, 
rebellious voices were heard in the Guildhall itself, and on 
his return the people shouted after him " Privil^e, privi- 
lege!'* 

While he was making this excursion, the Commons were 
declaring his proceedings against the five members, and 
his armed visit to Parliament to be an attack on the rights 
of the House, and adjourned for several days, appointing a 



THE FIRST PARLIAMENTARY ARMY. 393 

committee to transact the current business. This committee 
placed itself in communication with the five members, who 
were concealed in the neighbourhood of Westminster, and 
now came the time when " king " Pym guided from his 
hiding-place the very movement which was to have been 
stopped by his arrest. 

Meanwhile the London militia took up arms. A dis- 
turbance during the night of the 6th-7th of January, a re- 
port that the King had sent out armed men to take the five 
members, brought 40,000 armed citizens to their feet in the 
course of an hour. To the 100,000 of the proletariat, who, 
since the Christmas of the preceding year, had occasionally 
dealt blows to the cavaliers with their halberds and sabres, 
were now joined the well-to^io citizens. The attitude of 
the metropolis in the strife was decided on. 

The committee of Parliament now instituted a formal 
indictment against the King. Witnesses were called about 
the proceedings of the 4th of January, the warrant for the 
arrest of the five members which had been issued by the 
King alone was demanded firom the two sheriffs of London, 
and finally, in open defiance of the King, it was resolved 
that the five members had the right to join the sittings of 
the committee ; this they did, though a royal mandate had 
gone forth that no citizen of London was to receive them, 
nor furnish them with a ship to emigrate,^d a firesh man- 
date had been issued to all officials to seize them wherever 
found. 

The committee went further and fiirther. The measures 
taken by the city for the protection of Parliament were 
pronounced to be meritorious, and every one who opposed 
them was denounced as the enemy of his country ; a com- 
mander was appointed to guard the fortress and city, and 
for the I ith of January, the day of the re^assembling of Par- 



394 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

liament, all the citizens who could bear arms were called 
out. The trained bands of the city received their orders ; 
they were joined by 4,000 farmers from Buckinghamshire, 
countrymen of Hampden, who declared that they would 
die at the feet of Parliament if need were. The proletariats 
of the workshops, the Thames watermen, the militia of 
Southwark, offered themselves as a guard to Parliament, 
and the committee was in a position to organize an impos- 
ing Parliamentary army for the ceremony of the nth of 
January. The resolution to do this already amounted to 
revolution. 

Parliament appointed a leader for the troops raised in 
the city. All the officers and men had to sign the Parlia- 
mentary protest against the royal attempt. It was declared 
to be their duty to obey the House in spite of any other 
orders or counter orders, and their mission to repel any 
attack, come whence it might. And all this was for the 
protection of the " King, the kingdom, and Parliament" 

The King had received regular intelligence of all Ais; 
with impotent rage he had seen one piece of his prerogative 
go after the other. But this was too much. He could not 
and would not witness the entry of Parliament, the solemn 
return of the ** traitors," whose death he had sworn. On 
the evening of the loth of January he set out with his wifs 
and children for (Hampton Court. 

The next morning, amidst indescribable rejoicings, the 
five members made their entry into the city, which was 
festively adorned. The banks of the Thames were occupied 
by companies of the militia, with copies of the protest on 
their pikes. The river was covered with boats and ships, 
from which salutes quickly followed each other. The per- 
secuted members were received on the threshold of Ac 
palace by the whole House. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 



Prospects of both Parties.— Victories of the Royalists, October, 1642, 
to September, 1643.— Interposition of the Scots. — Presbyterians 
and Lidependents. — Defeat of the RoyaUsts at Marston Moor, 
July, and at Newbury, October, 1644. — Oliver Cromwell. — ^The 
Self-denying Ordinance. 

The Civil War; Prospects of both Parties. — ^Vic- 
tories OF THE ROYAUSTS, OCTOBER, 1 642 ; SEPTEMBER, 
1643. 

/^HARLES did not anticipate when he left London that 
he would enter it again as a prisoner of state. It was 
his hope rather, and many things justified him in it, to 
make his entry into the capital at no very distant period as 
victor over all his enemies. The tide of revolution which 
had risen so high in the metropolis had not extended much 
beyond, and not at all to the Northern counties. The loyal 
members of the aristocracy, whose voices were drowned in 
London by the fury of the populace and the passions of the 
majority in Parliament, had more scope elsewhere ; and if 
they had a legitimate centre, they might, with their in- 
fluence upon the rural population, become a powerful instru- 
ment of royalist reaction. 

At York, where the King fixed his temporary residence, 
he found himself in the midst of a daily increasing retinue 



396 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

from the highest circles of the aristocracy. Almost the 
whole Upper House, and a strong minority in the Com- 
monSy joined his cause. Since Parliament had deprived 
the bishops of their votes, and seemed disposed to over- 
throw the whole episcopal constitution, the temporal nobles 
saw that their own position in the State was threatened, as 
well as the monarchy ; the Hotspurs among the Royalists, 
who, in London, had been condemned to silence by the 
terrorism of parties, now regained speech and courage ; tiie 
moderate party, also, who had formerly opposed the absolut- 
ism of the ministers and the crown, saw, in the now harm- 
less King, the last defence against the ascendancy of a 
party whose aims appeared to extend beyond the monarchy 
itself. Parliament was undeniably in the path of complete 
usurpation. It might be excused as only the exercise of 
the right and duty of defence ; but it was nevertheless a 
fact, though all that was decreed and done against the King, 
was, in accordance with the constitutional fiction, done in 
his name. In the name of the King, Parliament had 
nominated governors of all the counties, with the command 
of all the forces, the garrisons, and fortresses of the king- 
dom, though the King had naturally rejected the bill with 
indignation, for it gave all the defences of the country into 
the hands of Parliament to use against him. The further 
this was carried, the more decided would be the variance 
between elements whose relations had hitherto been un- 
defined, so much the larger would be the number of the 
King's followers. 

Both sides made preparations and carried on n^otia- 
tions for months. At length, in 1642, Parliament stated 
its ultimatum in nineteen demands. Nothing less was 
demanded than the supremacy of Parliament over the whole 
State, the King included. The ELing was to choose his 



THE ULTIMATUM OF PARLIAMENT. 397 

advisers according to the pleasure of the House, and with- 
out their consent no act of his was to be valid. All ofRcials 
and the superior judges were to be appointed with the con- 
currence of Parliament, and were to be irremovable. No 
member of the royal family could contract marriage with- 
out the consent of Parliament. The laws against the 
Catholics were to be enforced, and divine worship and 
Church government reformed in accordance with the resolu- 
tions of Parliament. The militia laws were to be under 
Parliament ; its jurisdiction was to extend to all sorts of 
crimes ; a general amnesty was to be granted, with excep- 
tions which Parliament was to determine; fortresses and 
castles could only be disposed of in accordance with its 
will; and no peer could be created without consent of 
both Houses. 

These demands could not be accepted by Charles. 

" These being passed," he replied, " we may be waited on 
bareheaded, we may have our hand kissed, the style of 
Majesty continued to us, and the King's authority declared 
by both Houses of Parliament, may be still the style of 
your commands ; we may have 5words and maces carried 
before us, and please ourselves with the sight of a crown 
and sceptre (yet even these twigs would not long flourish 
when the stock upon which they grew was dead) ; but as 
to true and real power, we should remain but the outside, 
but the picture, but the sign of a King." ♦ 

This was the last peaceful exchange of opinions between 
the contending parties ; from this time it was a question of 
arms. In reviewing the forces of both, there was a mani- 
fest disproportion between them. 

Deprived of his prerogative, without the fortresses, ships, 
troops, arras, or money of the kingdom at his disposal, 
• Rushworth. 



398 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND, 

when the King raised his standard at York he was like an 
adventurous pretender aiming, to overthrow the Intimate 
government, with a retinue of noble retainers and a rushing 
stream of excited public opinion against him. Parliament 
had all that the King lacked, all the munitions of war in 
abundance, and as the money in hand was not sufficient to 
support the army, a loan was issued ; within ten days the 
treasury was filled with plate contributed by the families of 
the favourable party, to be coined into money. 

The levy of troops amidst the general enthusiasm was 
most successful 

Under the impression of these things, the opinion mi^ 
well be entertamed in Parliament that, if the King did not 
prefer to submit without drawing the sword, the war would 
be ended by a single blow. But the event was vciy 
different. 

The first engagement, on October 23rd, at Edge Hill, 
did not yield a decisive victory to either party; but it 
showed that the Parliamentary army had nothing equal to 
the well-drilled cavalry of the brave cavaliers. Prince 
Rupert put the enemy's left wing to flight on the first 
assault, the right wing was repulsed, and, had it not been 
for the too vehement pursuit of the royal reserve, by whidi 
the infantry was subjected to a fierce attack by the Parlia- 
mentary army, the day would have been lost to the latter. 
After the confidence with which the army of the Earl of 
Essex had set out from London, it made the impression, 
and produced the results, of an actual defeat. The King 
pushed on towards London ; Parliament anxiously b^an 
to negotiate, and was not pacified till the Earl of Essex 
was on the spot, and, strengthened by 24,000 of the 
London militia, arrested the King's progress. 

The King established his w'nter quarters at Oxfoid, the 



ROYALIST SUCCESSES. 399 

only city really true to him, and made vigorous preparations 
for the spring campaign. 

The year 1643 brought one success after another to the 
Royalist arms. The Earl of Newcastle succeeded in sub- 
jecting all the northern counties to the King, a political 
progress against which some military failures did not weigh 
heavily in the scale. The result was the same in the west. 
In Cornwall the Royalist nobles rose against the rebellion, 
offered their vassals to the King, drove two Parliamentary 
armies, at Stratton and Lansdown, from the field, and after 
Prince Maurice had beaten Waller, the best of the Parlia- 
mentary generals, at Roundway Down, they joined the 
royal army at Oxford. Prince Rupert had previously fallen 
upon and routed part of Essex's army, on which occasion 
Hampden received a fatal wound ; and soon after Rupert 
stormed Bristol, the second city in the kingdom. 

On September 20th, a battle took place at Newbury, in 
which Falkland fell, and which ended for the Earl of Essex 
with an honourable retreat to London. In the main, the 
advantage was on the Royalist side, and the partial successes 
won by Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell in the north did 
not effect a decision, as, soon after the victory of Wakefield, 
Fairfax's army was completely routed at Atherton Moor. 

All the energy of the Parliamentary committee, of which 
Pym was one, was required to keep down the discontent 
which never fails to take possession of a party obstinately 
pursued by misfortune. 

The most rigid measures were therefore taken against 
every tendency to cry for peace, or to give but a lukewarm 
support to the war. Compulsory taxes were levied, multi- 
tudes of Royalists imprisoned and robbed of their property, 
and when a conspiracy was traced, the leaders were hung 
before their own doors. 



400 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Interference of the Scotch. — Presbyterians and 
Independents. — ^The Campaign of 1644-5,— Defeat 
OF THE Royalists at Marstqn Moor and Newbury. 

The situation of the Parliamentary party had taken a 
most unfavourable turn. The war which they had hoped to 
decide by a few powerful strokes had brought them nothing 
but misfortune. Their ill-disciplined recruits were almost 
everywhere beaten, and were deeply discouraged; the 
generals were at variance, and had lost confidence in their 
party ; the means for the support of the army were only to 
be obtained by the greatest exertions ; unpopular financial 
measures, such as the excise devised by Pym, had become 
necessary, and mutinous voices were heard among the 
party. 

In these difficulties, Pym, who was never at a loss for 
resources, entered into an understanding with the ScX)tch 
that they should make an unexpected diversion in the King's 
rear, just where he had been most successfiil during the past 
year. 

On the other side of the Tweed the Royalist victories had 
been watched with almost as great anxiety as in London, 
where an attack might at any moment be looked for. 

The concessions which Charles had made in his distress, 
in order to separate the interests of the two kingdoms, were 
so entirely opposed to his personal inclinations and past 
policy, that no one could suppose that, once victorious over 
the English Parliament, he would be willing to be merely 
the shadow of a King in Scotland. 

Out of the common danger rose the alliance, offensive 
and defensive, between the Scotch and £nglish Parliament, 
formally entered into on the 17 th of September, 1643. 

According to the words of this treaty, the object of the 



PRESBYTERIANS AND INDEPENDENTS. 401 

alliance was not only to maintain the rights of both Parlia- 
ments against the Royalists, but to extirpate Popery, episco- 
pacy, and the episcopal form of church government, and to 
substitute a new and reformed one in the three kingdoms. 
By this the Scots intended the Presbyterian form ; but the 
English had been cautious enough to express their inten- 
tions in terms so general, that the question may be con- 
sidered an open one : " Reform of the Church in England 
and Ireland according to the Word of God and the example 
of the purest churches." 

In fact, on this point Parliament by no means agreed 
with the Scots. By the side of a minority of Anglicans, 
who secretly held to the episcopal constitution and the 
semi-Catholic fonn of worship, was the Presbyterian party, 
who favoured moderate Calvinistic views, mortally hated 
Popery, but would have been well content with the con- 
tinuance of episcopal authority if deprived of its political 
privileges, and on this subject, as on politics, wished to avert 
radical innovations. Then there were the Independents, 
whose influence was increasing. They were the extreme 
left of the Puritan party, and wished for a formal revolution 
in Church and State. 

The Independents had constructed a religious, ecclesias- 
tical, and political creed of their own, based on the princi- 
ples of extreme Calvinism. It was a curious mixture of 
Old Testament reminiscences, Calvinistic dogmas, and 
political radicalism. They had become a sect of strong 
mystical hue ; the preaching of the millennial kingdom, then 
speaking with tongues and religious ecstasies, distinguished 
their worship from all previous services ; their taste for Old 
Testament names, a special garb, their gloomy strictness 
and boast of monastic contempt for the world, made them 
outwardly peculiar. They hated not only the Romish 

VOL, II. D D 



402 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Church, and all that the Anglican Church had retained of 
its usages : they wished to have no priests, and held that 
every believer was a priest. No congr^ation of the 
" Godly," as they styled themselves, would tolerate any man 
above it ; the strictest democratic equality was demanded for 
it as a whole, though it might be composed of the dregs oi 
the people, as well as for every individual ; — ^was not the 
Redeemer a carpenter's son ? was not his teaching addressed 
to the weary and heavy laden ? 

They were a singular race of mortals. He who thinks 
to dispose of them as hypocrites, spares himself the trouble 
of characterizing them ; but he does not account for their 
great significance. Hypocrisy is not capable of ruling the 
masses as they ruled them, nor of dying for their cause as 
they died. They were undoubtedly fanatics of the wildest 
sort, and some of their sayings almost bear the stamp of 
religious insanity ; but many of them are deeply thought 
out, and produced a most powerful effect Cromwell's 
speeches, with all the Puritanical flourishes which belong 
to the fashion of the age, display an earnestness and 
depth, an eloquence and striking delineations of the 
situation, which rise far above any other memorials of this 
period. 

This sect was profoundly in earnest with its creed ; to 
others it might appear like madness, but its members were 
resolved to die for it. They had imbibed with their 
mothers* milk the rigid relentless energy of a struggling 
church, and had maintained it in many a conflict. It was 
thus that they achieved extraordinary success. A party, 
which numbered scarcely one-tenth of the nation among 
its followers, ruled the three kingdoms with more effect 
than ever an absolute government or an assembly has ruled 
France; and Cromwell, though he knew that almost the 



THE INDEPENDENTS. 403 

whole kingdom was against him, not only ruled the country 
for ten years, but dictated laws to Europe. 

The consequences of the civil war between Charles I. 
and Parliament, after it had been waged with decided ill 
success by the latter, inspired no party with such cool deter- 
mination as the Independents. 

The fiction of a war in " the name" of him against whom 
it was waged, was at once thrown overboard. The idea of 
the restoration of a constitution, which, just because it was 
impossible with this monarch had led to war, was now simply 
laid aside — the possibility of a reconciliation with Charles I. 
was no longer thought of. The result was that this party 
alone waged war with thorough energy and determination ; 
while the Presbyterians, the Earl of Essex at their head, 
could not but be accused of a certain half-heartedness. They 
wished for the restoration of ancient rights, forgetting how 
far they had already got beyond them. 

In the following campaign this contrast was to be fully 
brought out, and the participation of the Scotch, however 
much their help might be desired, could but help the pro- 
cess, for their Presbyterian Church government was almost 
as hateful to the Independents as the Anglican itself. 

The first decisive conflict of 1644 related to the possession 
of the northern counties, and their centre, York. 

Reinforced by the Scotch, who had been advancing sine*" 
February, and by the army of the Earl of Manchester, in 
which Cromwell served, Fairfax had in the summer collected 
a force strong enough to undertake the assault of York with 
a prospect of success. The siege had begun when Prince 
Rupert arrived with 20,000 men, and contrived by a dex- 
terous operation to throw his whole force into the city. 
Contrary to the advice of the Earl of Newcastle, he gave 
battle on the open field. The greatest passage of arms 



404 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

which the war had hitherto seen took place on July 2nd at 
Marston Moor. A bloody contest went on for hours, but 
Cromwell's distinguished generalship at length decided the 
day, and the Royalists suffered a fearful defeat. York, the 
King's most trustworthy support in the northern counties, 
was lost. 

Meanwhile, two armies, under Essex and Waller, had 
undertaken a combined attack upon the Royal camp at 
Oxford, but with these generals' usual want of success. On 
June 29th, Waller was signally defeated at Copraby bridge ; 
and on September ist, Essex's army was involved in a great 
defeat, and he himself only escaped in a boat. 

But now Parliament put considerable reinforcements at 
their disposal, and commanded Manchester and Cromwell 
to join them. With these forces, the King was again 
attacked, on October 27th, at Newbury, and, after an 
obstinate defence, driven back to Oxford. Cromwell urged 
taking speedy advantage of the victory, so that the war might 
be ended by a great stroke; but this was opposed by 
Manchester, which gave rise to fatal dissensions between 
these generals. Charles owed it to these quarrels alone that 
he occupied his winter quarters without molestation. Dur- 
ing this winter the dispute between the Presbyterians and 
Independents ended in an open breach, and the man who 
was henceforth to influence so largely the fate of England 
and of Europe, come into the foreground 

Oliver Cromwell,* 

Oliver Cromwell was bom amidst limited circumstances, 
on April 25 th, 1599, at Huntingdon. On his mother's side 
he was related to the Stuarts, on his father's to that Crom- 

♦ Oliver Cromwell (after Carlyle's description) in Raomers Tas- 
chenbuch. 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 405 

well who was for a time minister to Henry VIIL, and re- 
ceived the name of Malleus Monachonim. 

He grew up in a moderately prosperous household, in 
which Puritan piety and strictness of morals were old tradi- 
tions. The stories of his having passed through a wild and 
passionate youth have been contradicted. However bitterly 
his enemies might hate him, they were compelled to allow 
that his private and domestic life was exemplary. Piety, dis- 
cipline, and purity in family life never celebrated a more 
beautiful triumph than in his family. 

Though not unversed in learning, Cromwell was designed 
for a farmer. At the time when the conflict between the 
Crown and the Parliament began, he was still a quiet, mono- 
syllabic countryman, simply and honestly pursuing his rural 
occupations. He formed a respectable middle-class marriage, 
founded a domestic hearth, and all his ways and doings 
were those of a contented English farmer. Decided, charac- 
teristic religious tendencies began, however, to show them- 
selves. He diligently attended the prayer-meetings of his 
fellow-professors, devoted his savings to the Puritan travel- 
ling preachers, zealously took part in their missions, and 
occasionally undertook a proselytizing journey himself. No 
less significant was his connection with the eminent patriots 
of those times. John Hampden was his cousin, and he may 
have received his first political interests from him. 

He first appeared as a poUtician in the memorable Parlia- 
ment of 1628. His maiden speech consisted of but a few 
words, but they were on a subject which was, with him, a 
matter of conscience. He spoke of Popish intrigues which 
a preacher in his neighbourhood had been carrying on, and 
for which he had been rewarded by his bishop with a bene- 
fice. Such occurrences were then frequent ** If these," said 
Cromwell, '' are the means of rising in the Church, what can 



406 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

we expect ? " Then came the eleven years of absolutism. 
Cromwell was now simply the farmer again, and a patriarch 
in his little congregation. He occupied himself with prayer- 
meetings and preaching journeys, went about among the 
" quiet in the land," who might be relied on in case of need, 
and he became one of the most influential persons in his 
community. 

In the Parliament of 1640, he was in his place agaia 
Once he spoke for the ill-used secretary of the fanatical 
Prynne, at another time for the rights of poor peasants and 
for the Scotch. He was an oflfence to the Cavaliers, with 
his large frame, harsh voice, plain coat, and fervid eloquence. 
When Hampden was asked " who that sloven was," he said, 
" That sloven whom you see before you hath no ornament 
in his speech ; that sloven, I say, if we should ever come to 
a breach with the King (which God forbid), in such a case, 
I say, that sloven will be the greatest man in England." 

Then came the breach ; and among the first who made 
sacrifices for the Parliamentary cause, was Cromwell 

Now forty-three years of age, and the father of six children, 
he contributed first three and then five hundred pounds of his 
property. With his eldest son, a hopeful youth, he joined the 
Parliamentary volunteers, thus staking his family, his happi- 
ness, and his property. He kept up communication with 
Cambridge, and contrived that two companies of volunteers 
should be established there, and the treasures of the Univer- 
sity saved for Parliament. No one could then say whether 
the path in which he was boldly leading the way might not 
lead to the scaffold, and he was like a voluntary victim 
breaking down the bridge behind him. Unlike the Presby- 
terians, then the great majority in the nation and in Parlia- 
ment, who thought it possible to fight against the KLing in 
the King's name, Cromwell took up the war from the first 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 407 

in terrrible earnestness. "He who draws the sword 
against the King," he used to say " must throw the sheath 
into the fire ; " and he told his company that his commission 
was indeed to fight for King and Parliament, but he hated 
ambiguity; let each man ask himself if he, like himself, 
Qould make up his mind, in case he came upon the King 
in a firay, to shoot him down like any other man ; let not 
him who could not do so serve under him. 

When the first victories of the Royalists took place, he 
told Hampden that it did not surprise him ; they could not 
hope with hirelings, serving men, and day labourers, to 
make head against noblemen with honour, courage, and 
resolution in their hearts. They must get men of spirit, who 
would be as ready to go into the fire as the nobles, or they 
would always be beaten ; and he acted in accordance with 
his advice. He had a wonderful talent for military organi- 
zation ; though not brought up to it, he had th&true instinct. 

Instead of the mob of discharged soldiers and deserters 
of which the Parliamentary army was composed, he tried 
to attract the best of the middle classes into it, and to create 
a genuine citizen army. This ideal army was to be a political 
body, filled with the same spirit, and modelled after the 
fashion of the company he had formed of his countrymen. 
He therefore created a few squadrons of Puritans, soon 
amounting to fourteen, which should serve as a pattern 
for the new army. 

In these, as it was said, half in jest, half in earnest, his 
" saints" were represented ; the quiet companions of his 
prayer-meetings, the singular fanatics of the conventicles, 
square-shouldered citizens and peasants, with gloomy looks 
and coarse attire. It was like a fraternity of psalm-singers 
and devotees in arms. Cursing, swearing, feasting, was 
not found here as in other camps ; prayer was offered and 



408 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

services were held ; laymen appeared as preachers, just 
as the illumination came to them, as was customary in 
their peaceful services at home. The Puritan congregation 
was transferred to the camp, with all their singularities, but 
also with their religious enthusiasm, their discipline, fear 
of God, and devotion to their cause* It was totally dif* 
ferent in the other army, in which the lawless behaviour of 
the troops, and the discontent of their distinguished leaders 
spoiled everything. 

It was of stuff like this that the squadrons were composed 
who first opposed the onslaught of the dreaded Cavaliers, 
and were soon to drive them out of the field. 

At Marston Moor, Cromwell and his Puritan horsemen 
first gained a decisive victory. The hitherto unvanquished 
Cavaliers of Prince Rupert had, as Cromwell said, been cut 
down like stubble by their swords ; he had projected a . 
similar blow for the tnain part of the royal army after the 
victory of Newbury, but he had met with unlooked-for oppo- 
sition, not of a personal character, but based on a difference 
of principle. His general, the Earl of Msmchester, was a 
skilful soldier, but on the subject of the aims and merits of 
the war, his opinions were those of all the Parliamentary 
leaders, especially the Earl of Essex, who, belonging to the 
highest nobility, and having only torn himself away fix)m his 
equals after severe mental struggles, had no idea of anni- 
hilating the King, or even of introducing a new consti- 
tution. 

For this party the war was only a means — a heroic means, 
indeed — of compelling the King to constitutionalism, to 
which he would not be brought by friendly measures, A 
complete victory, therefore, over him, which would at the 
same time annihilate the monarchy, was considered by 
them to be a misuse of their arms, and a great evil 



OLIVER CROMWELL. 409 

At Newbury this had come plainly to light. Cromwell 
asked leave to attack the royal army in the rear with his 
cavalry brigade, proposing that, the Earl, if he preferred it, 
should remain with the rest of the troops in inaction ; but 
the Earl absolutely refused, giving no other reasons than 
that if beaten there would be an end of their demands, 
and that they would be at once executed as rebels and 
traitors. 

Even if this answer expressed the whole truth, there was 
an idea of reconciliation and return at the bottom of it 
which Cromwell had long ago given up. Cromwell was 
resolved to put an end to these half measures. While 
amongst his enemies, the remote possibility of an indict- 
ment against him as a radical incendiary was under con- 
sideration; he was actmg with so much skill, that his 
adversaries first learnt what his intentions were from the 
result. 

On December 9th, 1644, the situation was discussed in 
Parliament, Cromwell rose, to give expression to the 
general discontent. The war had now been going on for 
two years; they had suffered many defeats, and gained but 
few victories ; enormous sacrifices had been demanded in 
money, men, and property, yet as good as nothing was 
attained, for what was gained one day was lost the next ; in 
winter they began to think how much blood had been shed 
in vain, how much money spent, and how much land 
devastated. The suffering people ascribed the blame to 
Parliament; and if it did not find a remedy all confidence 
in it would be lost. The people thought the great gentle- 
men in Parliament had no interest in bringing the war to a 
close ; for so long as it lasted they were in power, and held 
important posts, but when it was over their glory would be 
at an end. 



4IO THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

This talk, with which he did not agree, must be met 
The war must be carried on in a different manner ; the army 
must be put on a fresh footing ; and, to render this possible, 
an act of self-denial was necessary for all those who were 
taking the lead, and, as true patriots, this would not appear 
to them as too great a sacrifice. 

Before this, one of the ** Saints," Henry Vane, had in- 
formed the House that all the preachers at the late festival 
had, by a wonderful concurrence, spoken from their pulpits 
against the members of Parliament remaining in their lucra- 
tive offices. This was the finger of God ; this was the 
work of the Holy Spirit; Parliament should give an 
example of self renunciation ; besides, by the removal of 
so many members, the numbers in the House were im- 
paired. Before the war he had himself held a lucrative 
office in the Treasury ; but he voluntarily resigned it, and 
he wished that others would do the same. 

These were the prelimmaries to the Self-denying Ordi- 
nance, which was passed after a vehement contest It 
excluded all the members of both Houses from all civil and 
military offices. Before it was passed, Cromwell had attained 
his object. The Presbyterian generals, Essex, Warwick, 
Manchester, Denbigh, Waller, and others, had resigned. 
A stratagem was required to except Cromwell, who was 
both an officer and member of the Commons. During the 
discussions, Fairfax had him sent for to the army, and before 
long no one said any more on the subject 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE CATASTROPHE OF CHARLES AND OF THE PARLIAMENT. 

Defeat of Charles at Naseby, June, 1645. — He takes refuge with the 
Scots, who sell him to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of the Army 
against Parliament. — Abduction of the King. — March to London. 
—First Purge of Parliament, August, 1647.— The King's Flight to 
the Isle of Wight. — ^His Trial and Execution, January 30th, 1649. 

Defeat at Naseby. — The King's Refuge with the 
Scotch. — Sold to the Presbyterians. — Mutiny of 
the Army against Parliament. — Abduction of the 
King, and entry into London. 

"PROM this time the war and the military system of Par- 
liament bear a totally different aspect. What had 
been begun by Cromwell on a small scale was carried on 
on a larger one. The whole army was inspired by the 
spirit of the Saints ; the officers were intrusted with the 
duties of priests ; preaching and psalm-singing were intro- 
duced into the camp, the wild doings of which a great part 
of the Parliamentary army had been guilty, in common 
with the Royalists, ceased ; and, since Cromwell and 
Fairfax had held the command, it had been free from its 
previous lukewarmness. 

With this strictly-disciplined army, in which a trust in 
God prevailed bordering on Mohammedan fatalism, Crom- 
well, to whom Fairfax was in fact subordinate, defeated the 



412 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Royalists at Naseby, on June 14th, 1645. After this day 
good fortune entirely forsook the King; one city and 
county was lost after another. Cromwell not only knew 
how to conquer, but to take advantage of his victories. He 
was always at the heels of the Royalists, and did not rest 
till the party was annihilated. 

One prospect still opened before the unhappy King. 
The Scotch had become uneasy at the victories of the 
Independents. The fanatical Presbyterians feared the 
supremacy of the radical enthusiasts, and would have 
nothing to do either with their creed or their church consti- 
tution. The King was not in a position to retract any of 
his concessions to them; from the Independents, on the 
contrary, they had nothing to hope. Out of these elements 
the French ambassador combined a tempting picture, 
which the King was the less able to withstand, as since 
the spring of 1646, at Oxford, he had been daily expecting 
a blow from the hands of the enemy. Thus arose his reso- 
lution to take refuge with the remnant of his faithful followers 
in the Scotch camp. 

On May 5th he appeared before Newark, followed by a 
Parliamentary decree, threatening any one with death who 
should harbour the fugitive King. 

Agreeably surprised by this unexpected proof of royal 
confidence, the Scotch persuaded the King to give up his 
last weapons ; they made him order all the royal garrisons 
which had hitherto held out against Fairfax and Cromwell 
to surrender to Parliament. This done, they negotiated 
with Parliament about a ransom for their royal captive. 
The cunning and worldly wisdom of the Scotch is prover- 
bial ; this act was even more than Scotch. 

The war which they had undertaken, in order to make 
England Presb}terian, and to place the covenant on firm 



THE KING SOLD BY THE SCOTCH. 413 

ground, had, according to their reckoning, cost two millions, 
and the possession of the King furnished them with a 
means of indemnifying themselves. After long chaffering, 
they agreed to liberate the King for ;£4oo,ooo, half to be 
paid immediately, the rest in two instalments. 

At first, even the Scotch Parliament felt the business to 
be so disgraceful that a resolution was passed that the King 
should be protected and his liberation insisted on ; but it 
was informed by the General Assembly that as the King 
had opposed the Covenant, his fate no longer concerned 
the " Saints," and so the transaction was completed. 

Upon his journey from Scotch to English imprisonment, 
the King once more experienced the royalist sympathies of 
the masses. Sympathetic tears and exclamations accom- 
panied him to Holdenby, where rough treatment awaited 
him, which only gave place to better, when English parties 
began to disagree about his fate. 

It is difficult to say exactly what the Presbyterians in* 
tended to do with the King when he was in their power. 
The commissioners who had taken possession of him at 
Newark reverently kissed his hand ; but at Holdenby he 
was treated like an arrested criminal. His suite was dis- 
missed, all intercourse with the outer world was cut off ; he 
was even deprived of his chaplains because they had not 
signed the covenant. One thing alone was certain amidst 
all these contradictions, that the Presbyterians who had the 
majority, both in and out of Parliament, did not desire a 
republic or abolition of monarchy, and therefore regarded 
the spirit of the Independent army as its worst foe. 

They intended, therefore, before any further steps should 
be taken, in some way or other to get rid of this army. 

In Parliament it was now said, " The war is over ; there is 
no longer a hostile army ; the treasury is exhausted ; why 



414 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

keep a large army in the field for nothing, when there are 
no means to support it ? " It was proposed to send some of 
the troops to Ireland, to dismiss others, and to keep only 
a small reserve in case of need Once rid of the hosts of 
the Saints, the rest would arrange itself, and Parliament 
could discuss at ease what to do with the King and 
country. 

But they were mistaken in thinking that they could so 
easily get rid of those who had won the victory, and had in 
the long struggle lost reverence, not for the King only. 

Scarcely had the news of the plans of the majority reached 
the camp, through the Independents in Parliament, than the 
army began to move. Besides their large arrears of pay, 
the troops demanded not to be treated as Janissaries or hire- 
lings, to be disposed of at pleasure without being consulted. 
The demands of the Saints were put together in a definite 
form in a petition to Fairfax, and as Parliament only met 
it with threats, open mutiny broke out The camp became 
an opposition Parliament ; the. officers met as the Upper, 
the men as the Lower House, and passed independent 
resolutions in defence of their rights against the interference 
of the London Parliament And when Parliament com- 
manded that the troops who would not go to Ireland should 
be forthwith dismissed, the army not only refused obedience, 
but despatched a division of five hundred horse to Hol- 
denby, seized' the King in prjesence of the astonished 
parliamentary commissioner, and soon after Cromwell re- 
moved the whole army to St. Alban's. 

With his hand on his sword, Cromwell demanded the 
dismissal and arrest of eleven members of Parliament who 
had been guilty of high treason — HoUis, Waller, and other 
leaders of the Presbyterian party were among them. Pariia- 
ment demurred; but the eleven thought it best to with- 



MUTINY OF THE ARMY AGAINST PARLIAMENT. 415 

draw, and the army was so far pacified as to remain at 
St Alban's. 

It was, indeed, only a short delay of the catastrophe. 
Cromwell wished to avoid open violence, and proposed a 
circuitous path which, while making less commotion, would 
as surely lead to the goal. 

During the panic of the last few days, when the news of 
the King's abduction had been quickly followed by that of 
the approach of the enraged Saints, and the Londoners 
expected to be given up to the fury of the soldiery, Parlia- 
ment had one support — the city militia, who, from the 
first, had been true to the Presb)rterians. It was to be 
deprived of this last weapon before the army set its foot 
upon its neck. 

The array demanded that a change should be made with 
the militia, and especially that the Presbyterian commander 
should be dismissed. Parliament conceded this unheard- 
of demand; but the masses rose up, the apprentices and 
watermen of 1642 opposed these measures, and insisted 
that the resolution should be rescinded. It was now plain 
to the army, who were only waiting for such a pretext, that 
Parliament was not its own master, and that their advance 
must be eagerly desired ; and when the speakers of both 
Houses, accompanied by eight peers and sixty of the Com- 
mons came and begged for help, there was no longer any 
delay. 

Twenty thousand gloomy-looking Independents marched 
into the city and came to the rescue of Parliament on the 
6th of August, 1647. There was no want of discipline in 
their conduct, but there was an end to the liberty of Parlia- 
ment. All its recent acts were declared null and void ; the 
militia were given over to the Independents, and some 
opponents who were specially compromised were arrested 



4l6 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

and imprisoned. This was the first mutilation of this re- 
markable assembly. Professedly it was but a blow struck 
against the previous majority, but in reality parliamentaryism 
itself had received a fatal stroke. What was left of it 
existed only by favour of the army and its leaders. 

The King also felt the effects of this event. Up to this 
time his imprisonment in camp had been less severe and 
more honourable than with the Presbyterians, Up to within 
a short time before his abduction he had been negotiating 
with them, and terms appeared likely to be made. He had 
been so well treated in the Independent camp that he 
thought himself courted by both parties, derived courage 
from the idea that they could not settle matters without him, 
and imagined that he should again be able to employ one 
against the other. He was shrewd enough to perceive that 
Cromwell belonged to the future, and tried to make advances 
to him ; offered him the command of the army, to make 
him a peer, a duke, &c. What Cromwell thought of all 
this we do not know. He probably did what he had great 
dexterity in doing — escaped these snares under the plea of 
rustic awkwardness, for he knew the King's cunning. One 
thing is certain, that continued intimacy with the King 
would have deprived him of his influence with the army, 
and that an intercepted despatch from the King to the 
Queen would have undeceived a man less shrewd than he 
was. In this the King said that it was his wish to unite not 
with the English army, but with the Scotch, the mortal 
enemies of the Independents. He should know how to 
rise against these fellows when the right time came. Instead 
of the garter — which he had promised to Cromwell, — there 
would be a hempen cord for them. 



FLIGHT OF THE KING. 4^7 

FUGHT OF THE KiNG TO THE ISLE OF WiGHT. — ^ThE SeCOND 

Civil War (July — September, 1648). — ^The Second 
Purge of Parliament, December, 1648. — ^Trial and 
Execution of the King, 30TH of January, 1649. 

After Cromwell withdrew from the King, the Indepen- 
deat preachers raised an alarm against him ; a threatening 
agitation arose, which increased daily. Forsaken by all, 
and in fear for his personal safety, during the night of 
the nth of November the King escaped to the Isle of 
Wight. 

This was highly imprudent. He did not thereby escape 
from his gaolers ; for the governor of the island was Hamp- 
den's son-in-law, and Cromwell's most trusted ally, and he 
cut himself oflf from communication with his friends, thus 
proving anew that there was no reliance to be placed on 
bis, promises, that negotiation with him was vain. He 
might be recaptured at any moment, and would then be in 
the hands of doubly embittered enemies. 

It had now become impossible for Charles to remain 
King of England. It would be to frustrate the whole sig- 
nificance and aim of the civil war to replace him upon the . 
throne. But the great question was what should replace 
him, and the answer had not become any clearer 

There had, indeed, been a project for establishing a sort 
of interregnum — for persuading the King to abdicate, and 
of setting up a parliamentary regency in the name of the 
Prince of Wales. This plan also put the restoration of 
Charles out of the question, but it had long fallen into the 
background with the Independents as not going far enough. 
For them there no longer was a King. 

On the 3rd of January, the motion was carried that no 
further message from the King need be received, and that he 

vol. il £ £ 



41 8 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

no longer had any voice m the reorganization of the State. 
On this occasion Cromwell said that while the King was 
solemnly talking to them of peace, he was negotiating with 
the Scots in order to involve them in a fresh war. 

It was not long before this fresh war really broke out. 
Fourteen thousand Scots attacked the country to fight for 
the King. The native Royalists held up their heads ; dis- 
turbances broke out in the navy, and there were inflam- 
mable materials enough in the country to occasion a general 
conflagration. Even against the resolution in Parliament 
declaring the Scots to be enemies, there were ninety 
courageous votes. 

In London all was quiet, but scarcely had the Indepen- 
dents advanced to meet the Royalists, when Parliament 
threw off* the terrorism which had held it in check. The 
Presbyterians assumed the leadership again, recalled the 
eleven dismissed members, reversed the resolution of the 
3rd of January, and renewed negotiations with the King in 
the Isle of Wight. With great difficulty, after long negotia- 
tions, a project of a treaty was formed, but by the time it 
was submitted to Parliament the situation of parties without 
was entirely changed. 

All the revolts had in turn been quelled, and with 
8,000 men Cromwell had attacked ai^d cut in pieces the 
30,000 Scots and Royalists, 

The result was a peace, which put an end to the alliance 
for the King, and confirmed anew the union of the two 
kingdoms, 26th of September, 1648. The camp parlia- 
ment of the Independents now resolved on their own 
account that the King should make amends for the blood 
that had been spilt, and that the Parliament had forfeited 
its right to existence by its treaty with Charles. But in 
spite of this, Parliament voted for the treaty with the King 



PRIDE'S PURGE. 419 

by a hundred and twenty-nine against eighty-three, so 
there was a fresh " purge." 

Early in the morning of the 6th of December, 1648, 
Westminster was surrounded by two regiments under the 
command of Colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, and they 
carried off forty-one Presbyterians. One hundred and sixty 
members more were excluded, and in the Parliament thus 
purged there were now but from fifty to sixty fanatics of the 
Independent sect. 

It was now necessary to come to some decision about the 
King. Immediately after the resolution of the military 
Parliament, he had been brought from Newport and placed 
in more secure imprisonment. The question was what to 
do with him. To liberate him, especially after recent events, 
appeared to the Independents impossible. The King had 
made himself a terror to them by everything that makes 
a monarch dangerous. His unfathomable cunning, his oft- 
proved treachery, his talent for recovering himself after every 
defeat and setting one party against another ; his impur- 
turbable obstinacy on all questions connected with the royal 
authority, and the episcopal constitution ; and finally the 
S3rmpathies of the most powerful classes make it perfectly 
intelligible that the party which had won all the victories 
of the civil war, and could but look for fearful retribution 
on a restoration of the monarchy, had adopted the resolu- 
tion, " Either he or we I " 

The fate of England was in the hands of an army not 
composed of hirelings but of glowing patriots. They looked 
upon the King as the enemy of the country imprisoned 
with his weapon in his hand, and they asked themselves. 
"Which shall win?" 

What Cromwell thought of this question we learn from a 
letter which he wrote at this time to his friend Governor 



420 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

Hammond, in the Isle of Wight, ander date of the 25th of 
November, 1648, in which he says among other things : — 

'' You say, ' God hath appointed authorities among the 
nations, to whom active or passive obedience is to be 
yielded. This resides in England in the Parliament. There- 
fore active or passive resistance,' &c. 

^* Authorities and powers are the ordinances of God ; but 
I do not, therefore, think the authorities may do anything, 
and yet such obedience be due. All agree that there are 
cases in which it is lawful to resist The query is, whether 
ours be such a case. 

" To this I shall say nothing, but only desire thee to see 
that thou findest in thy own heart to two or three plain 
considerations. First, whether Solus Populi be a sound 
position, or if (secondly) the whole fruit of the war is not like 
to be frustrated, and all most like to turn to what it was, 
and worse ? and this contrary to engagements, explicit cove- 
nants, with those who ventured their lives upon those 
covenants and engagements. Thirdly, whether this army 
be not a lawful power called by God to oppose and 
fight against the King upon some stated grounds. Let us 
look into providences ; surely they mean somewhat They 
hang so together, have been so constant, so clear, unclouded. 
Malice, swoln malice against God's people, now called 
" Saints," to root out their name ; and yet they — * these 
poor Saints' — getting arms, and therein blessed with defence, 
and more I If the Lord have in any measure persuaded his 
people, as generally he hath, of the lawfiihiess, nay of the 
duty — this persuasion prevailing upon the heart is faith, and 
the acting thereupon is acting in faith ; and the more the 
difficulties are the more the faith."* 
Cromwell had, as we know without this testimony, accus- 
* Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches. 



TRIAL OF THE KING. 42 1 

tomed himself, without any self-deception, to the idea that 
it was not a case for a judicial sentence, but of measures of 
defence, and for the public good. It was in this light that 
it was looked at by him and his army, and he laid no claim 
to any other law. This dangerous man must be rendered 
harmless, and that he would not be so long as he lived. 

It was not a trial that was begun during the last few da3rs 
of the old year and the beginning of the new, but a court 
martial held by the army on a traitor imprisoned sword in 
hand. 

The attempt to carry on the proceedings in a constitu- 
tional manner failed. The accusations made by the Rump 
Parliament, January ist, 1649 — ^high treason, by overthrow- 
ing the laws of the land and instigation of civil war — was 
indignantly rejected by the Lords. The Speaker, who was 
to have been one of the judges, declared that he would 
rather be torn in pieces than take part in so reckless a pro- 
ceeding. 

There was, therefore, nothing left for the Commons but to 
proclaim a new revolutionary law, which was done January 
4th. It declared that under God, the people are the 
source of legitimate power, that the power of the Commons 
in Parliament assembled is supreme, that the people are 
bound to obey whatever is declared to be law by them, even 
without the consent of the King or the Peers. 

On January 20th, Charles Stuart, as he was now called, 
appeared before the tribunal, under the accusation of being 
a tyrant, a murderer, a traitor, and the enemy of his country. 
Since he had been brought to London, he had vacillated 
between fear of assassination and the hope of being set free 
at the last moment through the disputes of parties among 
themselves, but for what now happened he was not pre- 
pared. He had thought that it would not go so far as a 



422 THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 

legal trial, were it but the shadow of it, before all the world. 
But he soon controlled himself, and adopted the only right 
course. He behaved like a King who is in the right, who 
can be put to death, but not humbled. " I die as a martyr," 
he used to say, and to the last he behaved like a witness to 
monarchical constitutional law, as opposed to the victorious 
revolution. 

He did not defend himself, for he was not before judges. 
Every word that he uttered was a protest against the pro- 
ceedings to which he was subjected. He interrupted the 
secretary who read the words that the legal power was in- 
trusted to him, by saying that he was King by hereditary 
right, and asked him what right had he before whom he 
was brought, to try him. This was on the first day of the 
trial On the second day, when he was about to answer in 
the same style, he was not allowed to speak, and nothing 
was left for him but to write down in prison what he wished 
to say. In these observations he distinctly said that he 
could easily have refuted every word of the accusation, 
but that that would have been to acknowledge the tribunal, 
and to deny the ancient principle of constitutional law, 
according to which " the King can do no wrong." 

Sentence of death was passed on the 2Sth of January, and 
the execution followed on the 30th, 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

TOE COMMONWEALTH, WITHOUT KING OR HOUSE OF 
LORDS. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. — Parties, RepuUic 
and Monarchy. — Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland, 1649-51. — 
War with Holland.— The Navigation Act, October, 1651, and the 
Peace of April, 1654. — The Constitutional Experiments. — Dis- 
missal of the Long Parliament. — ^The Constitution of December, 
1653. — The Parliament of 1654-5 and the Military Government. — 
The Parliament of 1656-7. — Proposal of a Monarchy. — ^The 
Upper House of January, 1658. — Cromwell's Death, September 
3rd, 1658. — Richard Cromwell and the end of the Republic. 

Cromwell's Position after the Death of Charles I. 
— State of Parties, Republic and Monarchy. 

'X'HE whole history of CromwelFs reign shows how little 
the King's death was adapted to free the new Govern- 
ment from embarrassment The difficulties which it was 
supposed were got rid of, were not got rid of ; and the King's 
death advanced the cause of his adherents more than that 
of the Independents. 

It is not, however, a parallel case with the murder of 
Louis XVI. In the one case, the King wanted to annihilate 
the ancient constitutions of the country, in the other, the 
Kmg had voluntarily resigned his formerly absolute power; 
in the one case a man was put to death who deserved pity 
rather than fear or hatred, whilst Charles I, was a foe almost 



424 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

more dangerous from his virtues than his faults. Louis was 
a helpless prisoner, slaughtered like a victim ; Charles might 
be considered to have challenged his foes to fight againsthim. 
The differences of the times must also be taken into account. 
ITie seventeenth century was far less sensitive, even about 
the lives of princely personages than the philosophical age 
humanity. 

But murder was still murder. Even Cromwell did not 
deceive himself as to the fact that he had no right to judge 
the King. It was an exceptipnal measure, which did not 
annihilate the monarchy. On the contrary, the murder of 
1649 awoke it to new life. England was, far more than 
the France of 1790, a monarchical country. Even after the 
removal of the King, a great deal remained which made 
the monarchy indestructible. Its existence for centuries, the 
growth of the country with it, its many pillars in the Up- 
per House, and in the hierarchy, and among the land-owning 
nobility. The head of it might be abolished, and tailors 
and shoemakers made into peers, but the old preponderance 
of the large estates was not thereby got rid of. The State 
Church might be deprived of its temporal and ecclesiastical 
privileges, yet it would still be one of the mightiest factors 
in the country, which could only be done away with by a 
massacre, and for all these elements the King's death was 
a day of excitement and encouragement. The great majority 
of the English nobles now formed a passive opposition, 
which would not lightly endanger themselves by violent 
measures, but bided their time, and gradually left Cromwell 
in isolation. It was the same with the English State Churdi, 
a power that might be repressed, but not crushed. The 
masses were never gained over to oppose her. I am, diere- 
fore, of opinion that if by the death of the King, Cromwell 
thought to give a fatal blow to the monarchy, he utterly 



CROMWELL'S POSITION. 4^5 

failed of his purpose ; he only conferred on it the glory of 
martyrdom, which caused its sins and mistakes to be for- 
gotten, and prepared for it a glorious restoration in the future. 
I do not imagine that the return of the Stuarts would have 
been greeted with such feverish enthusiasm had not the 
nation been burdened with the consciousness that there 
was a fearful deed between them, that they had to atone 
for the murder of a King. Just so I think that had it not 
been for the death of Louis XVI. the Bourbons would 
never have been restored in- France. 

A republican constitution was introduced, but it had no 
foundation in the condition and sentiments of the people. 
Cromwell had to rule with the minority of the nation, as 
represented by the fifty thousand Saints. It was the result 
of this &lse position that he projected schemes the impos- 
sibility of which he best knew himself. It is noteworthy 
that he gradually withdrew from his own party as he more 
and more plainly saw its untenable position. 

But just then he was the only man who knew how to 
govern England. No other party had a more competent 
man, and no opponent had a party which could be com- 
pared to his. And the remarkable thing is how rapidly he 
adapted himself to his high position — how firmly the 
Huntingdonshire fiairmer maintained himself at the head 
of three kingdoms amidst perpetual struggles for existence. 

Above all, he restrained the excrescences which had 
appeared in this, as in every revolution. Even among this 
calm and sober people there were fanatics, and they were 
dangerous to Cromwell because they had in some measure 
infected the army. The stragglers in every great revolution 
— people who preached the abolition of marriage, property, 
and all social distinctions — appeared here also, but with 
this difference, that the crimes which generally go hand-in- 



426 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

hand with this nonsense did not prevaiL The teaching of 
the Levellers* was nothing more than programme and 
attempt when Cromwell interfered. He had himself risen 
out of the revolution, held his authority as a fief from it, 
and yet he restrained it. This was the first test of his 
genius as a ruler, and in his situation it was more difficult 
than in the France of 1793. 

This S3rmptom of beginning dissolution of his own party 
demanded all the more speedy interference, as the Royalist 
party was essentially strengthened since the death of Charles. 
Since the 30th of January, 1649, it had withdrawn in deep 
embitterment, but there were many indications that it was 
quietly gathering up its strength, and that when a favour- 
able opportunity occurred, it would not shun an open 
breach with Cromwell. It had been joined more and more 
by the Presbyterian party. It was the Presbyterians who 
had begun the contest with absolute monarchy, and carried 
it on for years ; but they had no more idea of putting an 
end to monarchy itself than of putting the King to death, 
and openly expressed their abhorrence of the act. Crom- 
well had never had much support in the provinces ; not a 
single county could be named in which the Independents 
ruled supreme. That independent spirit which had often 
made itself heard against the King, without intending to 
impugn the monarchy itself, was sure now to be directed 
against Cromwell, and the more so as the new form of 
government was opposed to all the traditions of the country. 

Thus Cromwell could only rely for support upon the 
army of 50,000 men, and this was a two-edged weapon. 
With all its military discipline, this army was but an 
armed body of men who had their own views upon 
questions of Church and State, had maintained them in 
• See Ranke, ill. 328. , 



CROMWELL'S POSITION. 427 

many a fearful trial, and probably intended to stand up for 
them in th^ future with equal fanaticism. Cromwell might 
dictate laws to Europe, but still he was bound to his 
50,000 Saints; and he knew perfectly well that they 
were no cheaply-bought soldiery, who would have been just 
as ready to have obeyed their successful leader as king, but 
a republican party under arms, full of the wildest fanaticism. 
A time came when it was expected abroad, by the Stuarts, 
and even by the Royalists, that Cromwell would have 
accepted the Crown offered, him by Parliament, but the 
50,000 Saints would not suffer it. They stood in the fore- 
ground, confronted him with the spectre of the beheaded 
King, and the old democratic banner — he declined the crown. 
More prudent than many others in a similar situation, he 
calculated his means, and took care not to go beyond them. 

He wished to establish a permanent civil administration, 
but his only support was a military force which did not 
comport with it ; he wished, in fact, to form an English 
constitution which should reconcile the old aristocratic 
structure with the new democratic doctrines; but all his 
attempts were frustrated by his antecedents. He was him- 
self the man to shake off the narrow limits of his party, 
but they could not be persuaded to any compromise. The 
elements for a republic were wanting in the nation, and he 
was not the man for the monarchy. 

But amidst these vast difficulties he went his way with 
astonishing firmness, as if no care or cloud hung over him ; 
and we must continually recur to his modest origin to esti- 
mate rightly his extraordinary talents. To add to the 
internal difficulties of his position, Ireland was imsubdued, 
Scotland in open rebellion. The three kingdoms, therefore, 
were thoroughly at variance. In Scotland, the King's death 
had been the signal for the revolt of the Royalist party, and 



428 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

Cromwell had to wage two fearful wars before he could 
think of establishing a civil administration. He succeeded 
in doing what the Stuarts had never done ; he subjugated 
all three kingdoms, and ruled them as no King had done 
before him. 

Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland. — ^Warwith 
Holland. 

During the last four years, Ireland had been the scene of 
various widely-diflfering projects. In 1645, a Papal nuncio, 
Rinuccini, had arrived, who labotured with much success to 
promote a Catholic restoration and reparation from Eng- 
land ; but after the death of the King, a Presbyterian, Lord- 
Lieutenant Ormond, had succeeded in bringing about a 
Royalist coalition between Catholics and Protestants, Eng- 
lish and Irish, to revenge themselves on the Independents 
for the death of Charles I. This coalition ruled the whole 
island, and was in possession of all the fortresses. 

In 1649, Cromwell set out to oppose them with a select 
troop of his veterans^ — ^as usual, after spiritual preparation 
for the enterprise. In this case, as against the Scots, his 
virtuosoship consisted in inflaming the religious enthu»asm 
of his Saints, and their hatred of royal tyranny to such a 
degree, that their feelings may be compared to the fatalistic 
valour of the Islam armies in their prime. 

The campaign against the Green Isle, which was begun 
in the middle of August, was a brilliant one. Three of the 
most important fortresses were taken on tiie first assault, 
and merciless sentence passed upon the vanquished enemy. 
Cromwell reports with pride how thousands of Irish wexe 
cut down for the greater glory of God. It seemed as if it 
was intended, not only to annihilate the enemy, but the 
whole population. Cromwell was summoned to Scotland 



SUBJUGATION OF IRELAND AND SCOTLAND. 429 

before he could complete tbe subjection of the island ; it 
was left to his successor, Ireton. 

This much was immediately attained, Ormond's coalition 
was destroyed The English went over in masses to the 
camp of the Independents, while the Irish alone were sub- 
jected to this war of extermination. Ireton behaved if 
possible more relentlessly than Cromwell ; and out of the 
victories of these two men arose the new administration of 
Ireland^ that military dictatorship which distributed its 
fruitful lands among the Saints of the English army, and 
left nothing to the inhabitants but emigration or beggary. 

The ruling party of the Presbyterians in Scotland had 
replied to the news* of the beheading of Charles I. by the 
proclamation of Charles II. as King of Great Britain, and 
at once entered into negotiations with him at the court of 
his brother-in-law, William II., in Holland. He responded 
to the appeal, but with mixed feelings, for the proffered 
crown was not to be had for nothing. He was to sign the 
Covenant, and renounce all those prerogatives for which his 
father had contended up to the time when he laid his head 
on the scaffold. In temporal matters he was to be subject 
to Parliament; in ecclesiastical ones to the General As- 
sembly. The one was as much opposed to his convictions 
as the other; but the Scots spared him no humiliations 
when he sought evasions. He had to sign a declaration, 
in which he condemned his parents for the idolatry which 
had called down the wrath of God upon their family. If 
he refused, he would be given up to the Independents, as 
his father had been. 

The Scotch now created an army, which was as purely 
Presbyterian as that of their enemies was Independent; and 
in the summer of 1650 the war began. 

On his invasion of Scotland, Cromwell found himself at 



430 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

first in a situation similar to that of the army of the 
League in Bohemia, in 1620. He longed for a speedy de- 
cision; his army was suffering from sickness and famine, and 
the enemy was encamped behind fortified walls, without, at 
first, allowing himself to be seen in the open field. 

At the beginning of September, after a fruitless march to 
Edinburgh, he arrived with his famished, demoralised troops 
near Dunbar. On the heights near, lay the Scots, fisu: superior 
in numbers. Their leader, Leslie, was justly of opinion that 
victory might be gained without a battle by gradually 
manoeuvring the Independents, who were not in possession 
of a single secure position, out of the country. But the 
General Assembly, in its short-sighted zeal, was of a dif- 
ferent opinion. It had made the discovery around the green 
table that the enemy was caught in the trap, and that to let 
him escape would be to deprive God's cause of its laurels. 

Sq they gave Cromwell the satisfaction of offering battle. 
As they advanced, he exclaimed, " They are coming down ; 
HeaVen has given them into our hands ! " 

The conflict began early in the morning of the 3rd of 
September. Before sunrise, Cromwell threw himself with 
an irresistible bound upon the right wing of the enemy, 
while the left wing was held fast by a cannonade, and he 
gained a complete victory early in the day. 

The Scotch army was almost annihilated, and several 
towns — Edinburgh among them — ^fell into the hands of the 
victors. Cromwell was in the way to conquer the whole 
country ; he was already at Perth, in the heart of Scotland, 
when Charles II. formed the bold project of advancing with 
his army, which he had with difficulty re-assembled, to Eng- 
land, to threaten the enemy in the very seat of his power. 

On the ist of August, 1651, he appeared with about 
11,000 men on the other side of the English boundaiy, 



VICTORY AT WORCESTER. 431 

expecting a general revolt of the discontented counties and 
their royalist aristocracy. But he was mistaken. Some 
isolated revolts did, indeed, take place, and he reached 
Worcester without meeting with any opposition; the city 
even welcomed him; but the masses did not stir, and 
whenever there were any symptoms of it they were imme- 
diately put down by the Independents. 

Charles's cause was lost before Cromwell arrived. Crom- 
well again defeated him at Worcester, and the Royalist 
revolt was at an end. Scotland was quiet for a long time, 
though not really pacified. 

It is an honourable testimony to the steadfast character 
of the English people, that opposition did not cease to a 
system whose representative they admired, but the prin- 
ciples of which they condemned, in spite of all the suc- 
cesses of the Independents. Perhaps Cromwell's manifest 
inclination to elate the people by brilliant foreign enter- 
prises arose partly from this fact, for that had been the 
weak point with the Stuarts. His idea might be to divert 
the nation from its unsatisfactory domestic politics. 

This did not prevent his being daily threatened with 
attempts at assassination, so that he had to carry loaded 
pistols about him. But his foreign policy was of that 
nature, that even the sworn enemies of his system, if they 
had a spark of national pride, could not fail to be carried 
away with it, and to acknowledge that the great Puritan 
had accomplished what no legitimate monarch had done 
before him. After his arms had subjugated the three king- 
doms, he began to contend for the dominion of the seas. 
His brother in the faith, Robert Blake,* transferred the 
spirit of Puritan warfare to the navy, drove the royalist 

* Robert Blake, Admiral and General-at-Sea : based on family and 
State papers. By Hepworth Dixon, 1858. 



432 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

corsairs, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, before him, 
hiunbled Portugal, and, after a long struggle, conquered 
Holland — ^the great maritime state of the age. England 
entered into the northern coalition, joined France in an 
alliance against Spain, and soon there was no complica- 
tion in Europe, great or small, in which Cromwell did not 
take part. He made himself the guardian of definite in- 
terests on the Continent Protestantism had a strong sup- 
port in him. He even interposed at Turin, to gain more 
liberty for some Waldensian communities in Savoy. Even 
Louis XIV. did not refuse his homage. It went against him 
to address the murderer of his uncle as "Mon cousin;" 
but he said to his minister, " And even if you had to call 
him * Mon pfere,' you would be obliged to do it, for he is 
the most powerful man in Europe." 

The diplomatic representatives of the young republic had 
not met with a friendly reception anywhere abroad ; but at 
the Hague and Madrid they had been received with open 
enmity. Scotch emigrants at the former had assassinated 
the English ambassador, Doreslaus, in May, 1649 ^ ^^d in 
the following year, at Madrid, an agent of Parliament had 
also been murdered by Englishmen as he sat with loaded 
pistols at table, and in both places public opinion had sided 
with the murderers. From the connection between the 
house of Orange and the Stuarts it was not to be expected, 
if the former retained any influence, that it would fall into 
the scale of the republic. While the Spanish GovemmeDt 
interposed with some severity about the murder of the 
ambassador, the court of Orange became the centre of all 
sorts of intrigues against the republic, and permitted the 
new ambassador, St. John, to be pubUcly ill used. Although 
they had themselves risen out of revolution, the Orange 
family behaved as if they had been the oldest legitimate 



THE NAVIGATION ACT, 433 

power in Europe. Cromwell had least of all expected this 
firom Holland. He had projected an alliance, offensive 
and defensive, between the two republics, a common policy 
of their Protestant and republican interests against the 
encroaching system of absolute Catholic monarchy. 

But there was no inclination for this in Holland ; they 
only beheld in Cromwell the dangerous rival on the seas^ 
whose supremacy would only have been strengthened b' 
such a league. 

The little naval war with Holland was ah^ady going on, 
when a step was taken by England of the utmost funda- 
mental and practical importance. 

The Navigation Act of 1651, without mentionmg Hol- 
land by name, struck a mortal blow at her commerce. It 
consisted, with very little exception, of the exchange of 
wares produced not at home but in foreign countries. The 
Navigation Act now ruled that all wares from abroad could 
only be carried in English ships, under pain of confiscation 
of the ship and cargo ; all goods from the Continent only in 
English ships, or in those of the country producing them. 

The Dutch colonial and transit trade was by this measure 
entirely cut off by the English market This was the occa- 
sion of the following war; and so useful a measure was it 
for England, that it was only a few years ago that she dis- 
pensed with this crutch. There was no better means of 
establishing England's supremacy — maritime and com- 
mercial — ^and it did, in fact, lay the foundation of England's 
greatness. The Dutch still had the first fleet in the world, 
'the best ships of war, the greatest naval heroes of the age ; 
and yet fate would have it that the admired admirals — Van 
Tromp, De Ruyter, De Witt — had to strike their sails before 
a hitherto unknown sailor, Robert Blake. 

The war began with the seizure of Dutch merchant 

VOL. II. F F 



434 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

ships, soon reaching the number of a thousand, and was 
decided by a number of naval engagements, greater or less, 
in the course of which the Dutch Armada was nearly an- 
nihilated. The three days' engagement between Portland 
and La Hogue, February, 1653, and that of two daijs near 
Dunkirk, June, 1653, showed that the supremacy of the 
oung English fleet was indisputable. The Peace of April, 

54, was dictated by Cromwell. Holland had to submit 
to the Navigation Act, to renounce the favour of the Stuarts, 
and attach itself to Cromwell's policy. 

These were feats which not only won transitory fame, 
they were lasting achievements ; from this naval war dates 
the position of the English fleet ; from this Peace the un- 
disputed sovereignty of England over the seas. 

Cromwell had formed a just estimate of the importance 
of this policy to his domestic system. He had no need to 
enter into many considerations by which legitimate powers 
were hampered, but he must not expose himself to discredit : 
his reputation was his sole title-deed ; it must be kept clear 
as the day. 

In all these difficult complications, by a singular com- 
bination of skill and good fortune, he was successful, with 
one exception, in the establishment of a permanent civil 
domestic administration. 

Cromwell's Constitutional Experiments. — Dismissal 
OF THE Long Parliament. — ^The Constitution of 
X)ecemb£r, 1653. 

The " Commonwealth without King or Lords," as the 
Republic was officially styled, was at first governed by a 
Council of Slate composed of forty-one members, the 
majority of whom were in Parliament, and this ruled in 
accordance with the regulations of the Rump, the remnant 



COMPLAINTS AGAINST PARLIAMENT. 435 

of the Long Parliament The Council of State was entirely 
in Cromweirs hands ; but the Rump Parliament chose to 
have a will of its own, and was a source of perpetual 
embarrassment to him. As long as the war had lasted 
against the Royalists in Scotland and Ireland, no great dis- 
cord had come to light. In February, 1652, both parties 
had joined in an amnesty, but soon decided differences 
arose out of various small discontents ; war broke out 
more and more between the army and Parliament. Parlia- 
ment wished to get rid of the inconvenient and now 
superfluous Saints, the army was tire;d of the everlasting 
speech-makers, and was disposed to disperse them by force, 
as they had done twice before. 

Parliament no longer enjoyed any credit either with the 
army or the nation. Even at the time when the Purge 
took place by means of the army, the doings of the 
assembly were universally hated, and the army's coup d'ktat 
had been very popular. 

There were still fifty or sixty members of the old Parlia- 
ment left, and their harsh and self-seeking administration 
remained just as it was. A number of petitions poured in, 
general discontent made itself heard about the way in which 
members of Parliament managed the confiscated estates for 
their own benefit or that of their relations, the number of 
unworthy officials sent by Parliament into the provinces to 
look after the interests of their own relations, the injustice 
of the Presbyterians, &c. 

The army took up all these grievances, and, in stormy ad- 
dresses, demanded tlie dismissal of these wrong-headed repre- 
sentatives of the country. Cromwell permitted these senti- 
ments to increase till the question was ripe for interference. 

At first he tried in Parliament itself, with the help of the 
votes in his favour, to carry motions adapted to get rid of 



436 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

this mconvenient Assembly. On the 13th of November, 1652, 
he succeeded in this by a motion which set a definite limit 
to the existence of this everlasting Parliament But they 
could not come to any agreement as to the laws by which 
the future House was to be constituted. 

The Assembly wished to insure the re-election of its 
members into the new Parliament, the army and Cromwell 
wished for an entirely new House. They were involved 
in a dbpute ostensibly upon this point or that ; but really 
about the executive power and their own existence. 

The discussion of the election laws took a course which 
the army could but consider very unfavourable ; it began to 
consider that it was itself the only true Parliament, and 
had more than once decidedly interfered as such. 

In April, 1653, the breach took place. 

On receiving intelligence that the decisive question was to 
be discussed on the morning of the 20th of April, Cromwell 
entered Parliament; and had the approaches to the House 
occupied by the military. During the debate, he rose and 
gave the assembly a catalogue of its sins, and finally in- 
formed them that they were no longer a Parliament ; that 
they had proved themselves unworthy of the name, and 
must immediately leave the room. The doors then opened, 
the musketeers entered and dispersed the assembly. 

Cromwell now summoned an assembly of notables, as it 
would have been called in France, from amongst his own 
party. This was the Short, or Bare-bone Parliament, so called, 
which met at Whitehall, 144 in number, in July, 1653. 

The flower of the Independent sect had seats in it, and 

their doings were in unison with the spirit of this party. 

The Short Parliament does not deserve the sport which is 

made of it by nearly all parties in England.* Its attempts 

^ For a just estimate of it, see Ranke, iii. 417. 



CROMWELL AS LORD PROTECTOR, 437 

at reform were radical and thorough, and, though only 
partially successful, they were meant in earnest, and struck 
at all the real existing grievances in England. The attacks 
upon the chaos of English law and criminal proceedings, 
regulations about debtors, the establishment of the principle 
of civil marriage, the attack upon ecclesiastical tithes— all 
this proves a praiseworthy zeal to advance the interests of 
the nation. 

But these projects occasioned fearful embitterment 
amongst all classes of the people, and Cromwell saw that 
by changes so radical he would lose his last support in the 
nation ; but a programme was put forth for future times which 
was not in vain. 

Discord broke out in the assembly, and Cromwell's 
musketeers were again of service. A project for a consti- 
tution was put forth by a minority, of the notables, who, 
however, had the army on its side, by which the assembly 
placed the supreme power in the hands of a Lord Protector 
of the Republic, and conferred this dignity on Cromwell 

The constitution of December, 1653, bears less the 
stamp of a revolutionary period than might have been 
expected. Circumstances like those which then existed are 
not generally adapted for the formation of good constitu- 
tions, but this one, considering the way in which it arose, 
was a very commendable work, and contains much that the 
Whigs to this day look upon as progress. 

The Lord Protectorate was a constitutional office, limited 
by the army and Parliament, and was specially distinguished 
from the monarchical dignity by the fact that it was not 
hereditary. 

Law and justice were to be administered in the name 
of the Lord Protector. He distributed offices and dignities, 
had the right of pardon, except for murder and high treason. 



43^ THE COMMONWEALTH. 

and all confiscated property fell to him. In all other cases 
he was bound to the Council and Parliament. 

The Council of State consisted of twenty-five members, 
and was chiefly composed of military men. The Protector 
could neither nominate nor dismiss any member of it at his 
own pleasure. When vacancies occurred he had to choose 
in accordance with the im>posals of the Coimcil. It was 
only in unison with the Coimcil that he could decide on 
questions of war and peace, or form aUiances, dispose of 
the army, or proclaim regulations as provisional laws. They 
also nominated the Lord Protector's successor. 

The power of making laws belonged exclusively to Par- 
liament, against the statutes of which the Protector's veto 
only had a delaying power; all bills were to receive his 
sanction, but if it was not given within twenty days, they 
became law without it. 

The standing army was to consist of 20,000 foot and 
10,000 horse. The Protector had an absolute veto upon 
the diminution of the means once voted for their support. 

Parliament was to meet regularly eveiy three years. 
Should the Protector not keep to this rule, the Council was 
to summon it, and, in case they also neglected to do 
so, the sherififs of the counties, under pain of high treason. 
During the first five months of its meeting an ordinary Par- 
liament could only be prorogued or dissolved with its own 
consent ; an extraordinary one, after three months. 

Parliament was to number four hundred members for 
England, thirty for Scotland, thirty for Ireland. The 
election laws secured, as fiir as possible, an equal repre- 
sentation of the classes possessing property ; every one had 
a vote, and was eligible for election who possessed ^200 
of movable or immovable property, except Catholics and 
rebels, who had fought against Parliament. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF 1653. 439 

Rotten boroughs were disfranchised. The counties had 
261 seats in Parliament, and were more uniformly repre- 
sented than has been the case before or since. The fault 
of this constitution was not that it was too liberal. The 
Whigs have often said, in relation to it, that their ideal also 
was a State without a House of Lords, or a State Church, 
based upon universal suffrage. No; the mistake was 
that, according to this constitution, Cromwell governed only 
with a democratic minority, while the powerful aristocratic 
factoids of the previous Upper House and the offended State 
'Church remained in the background. It was a question 
whether these elements were not strong enough,-^^ without 
takbg part in Parliament, to render the whole system 
untenable by passive resistance. 

It was evidently a relief to Cromwell when the Constitu- 
tion was solemnly inaugurated. On the i6th of December, 
as holder of the new dignity, he received the homage of the 
heads of the State amidst great pomp, took the oath to the 
Constitution, and had the sword and great seal delivered to 
him. The ceremony was much like an enthronement : he 
was lord of the three kingdoms, as no king had been before 
him ; the title only was' wanting to make him the equal of 
sovereigns. 

Then followed the glorious year 1654 : the brilliant peace 
with Holland, the humiliation of Portugal, the treaties with 
Sweden and Denmark, by which a projected coalition 
against England was frustrated ; in short, the beginning of 
a commanding position on the Continent. 

Cromwell now summoned his first constitutional Parlia- 
ment for the 3rcl of September, the anniversary of the victories 
at Dunbar and Worcester. 

The elections were perfectly free ; there was no limitation 
imposed, or even allowable influence used by the Govern- 



440 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

ment; and as the Royalists, either from shyness or timidity, 
kept in the backgroimd, the votes were given to purely 
democratic elements. 

The Parliament of 1654-5 and the MiLrrARv 
Government. 

On September 3rd, 1654, Parliament met. Cromwell 
delivered a proud speech. None of his utterances of this 
kind axe of the stiff and formal character of modem times ; 
they were the effusions of a man, not of the schools, but 
of deeds, who, as he himself once said, considered it to be 
his mission to *' speak things." He often lost himself in 
misty reflections, or in edifying exposition of passages of 
Scripture ; but on all decisive questions, the sound sense of 
this wonderfully-gifted man was conspicuous. It was espe- 
cially the case with this speech. 

Cromwell spoke of the errors of the last Parliament, of 
the desires of the Levellers, who wanted to turn things 
upside down, and who therefore could not be allowed to 
continue in power. 

He said : — " As to the authority in the nation — to the 
ranks and orders of men, whereby England halh been 
known for hundreds of years — the 'natural' magistracj 
of the nation, was it not almost trampled underfoot bj 
men of levelling principles ? I beseech you, did not that 
levelling principle tend to the reducing of all to an equality? 
which I think, if obtained, would not have lasted \(mg\ 
And that the thing did and might well extend &r is mani- 
fest, because it was a pleasing voice to all poor men, and 
truly not unwelcome to all bad men. .... Such consideF 
ations and pretensions to ' liberty of conscience,' what aie 
they leading us toward ? Liberty of conscience and liberty 
of the subject, — two as glorious things to be contended for 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1 654-5. 44 1 

as any that God hath given us ; yet both these abused for 
the patronising of villanies ! Insomuch, that it hath been 
an ordinary thing to affirm, 'that the restraining of 
such pernicious notions was not in the magistrate's power.' 
.... So, likewise, the axe was laid to the root of the 
ministry. ' It was Antichristian ; it was Babylonish,' said 
they. • . . The former extremity we suffered under was, 
that no man, though he had never so good a testimony, 
though he had* received gifts from Christ, might preach 
unless ordained. So now, I think, we are at the other 
extremity, when many affirm that he who is ordained hath 
a nullity, so that he ought not to preach, or not be 
heard."* 

Against these and other ruinous excrescences a remedy 
had been found in the Constitution which might speak for 
itself, but which must not be interfered with. 

He then glanced at the foreign relations of the Republic, 
mentioned the honourable treaties which had been con- 
cluded with Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Portugal, 
while a similar one with France was in prospect. " And," 
he said, ** 1 daresay there is not a nation in Europe but is 
very willing to ask a good imderstanding with you." He 
concluded, among other things, with the words, " As I said 
before, a door of hope is open. And I may say this to 
you : If the Lord's blessing and his presence go along with 
the management of affairs at this meeting, you will be 
enabled to put the top-stone to the work, and make this 
nation happy." t 

At first Cromwell's hearers were affected by his lofty 
modesty; but then the democratic spirit of the majority 
felt repulsed by the advice to abide by what had been 

• CromwelTs Letters and Speeches, voL iii. p. 2i, &c. (abridged), 
t Ibid., p. 35. 



440 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

ment; and as the Royalists, either from shyness or timidity, 
kept in the background, the votes were given to purely 
democratic elements. 

The Parliament of 1654-5 and the Military 
Government. 

On September 3rd, 1654, Parliament met. Cromwell 
delivered a proud speech. None of his utterances of this 
kind Bie of the stiff and formal character of modem times ; 
they were the effusions of a man, not of the schools, but 
of deeds, who, as he himself once said, considered it to be 
his mission to *' speak things.** He often lost himself in 
misty reflections, or in edif3dng exposition of passages of 
Scripture ; but on all decisive questions, the sound sense of 
this wonderfully-gifted man was conspicuous. It was espe- 
cially the case with this speech. 

Cromwell spoke of the errors of the last Parliament, of 
the desires of the Levellers, who wanted to turn things 
upside down, and who therefore could not be allowed to 
continue in power. 

He said : — " As to the authority in the nation — to the 
ranks and orders of men, whereby England hath been 
known for hundreds of years — the 'natural' magistracy 
of the nation, was it not almost trampled underfoot by 
men of levelling principles ? I beseech you, did not that 
levelling principle tend to the reducing of all to an equality? 
which I think, if obtained, would not have lasted long ! 
And that the thing did and might well extend far is mani- 
fest, because it was a pleasing voice to all poor men, and 

truly not unwelcome to all bad men Such conside^ 

ations and pretensions to ' liberty of conscience,' what are 
they leading us toward ? Liberty of conscience and liberty 
of the subject, — two as glorious things to be contended for 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1 654-5. 44 1 

as any that God hath given us ; yet both these abused for 
the patronising of villanies ! Insomuch, that it hath been 
an ordinary thing to affirm, 'that the restraining of 
such pernicious notions was not in the magistrate's power.' 
.... So, likewise, the axe was laid to the root of the 
ministry. * It was Antichristian ; it was Babylonish,' said 
they. • . . The former extremity we suffered under was, 
that no man, though he had never so good a testimony, 
though he had received gifts from Christ, might preach 
unless ordained. So now, I think, we are at the other 
extremity, when many affirm that he who is ordained hath 
a nullity, so that he ought not to preach, or not be 
heard."* 

Against these and other ruinous excrescences a remedy 
had been found in the Constitution which might speak for 
itself, but which must not be interfered with. 

He then glanced at the foreign relations of the Republic, 
mentioned tlie honourable treaties which had been con- 
cluded with Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Portugal, 
while a similar one with France was in prospect. " And," 
he said, ** 1 daresay there is not a nation in Europe but is 
very willing to ask a good imderstanding with you." He 
concluded, among other things, with the words, " As I said 
before, a door of hope is open. And I may say this to 
you : If the Lord's blessing and his presence go along with 
the management of affairs at this meeting, you will be 
enabled to put the top-stone to the work, and make this 
nation happy." t 

At first Cromwell's hearers were affected by his lofty 
modesty; but then the democratic spirit of the majority 
felt repulsed by the advice to abide by what had been 

* Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, voL iii. p. 2i, &c. (abridged), 
t Ibid., p. 35. 



444 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

I say, die enemies of the peace of these nations abroad and 
at home, the discontented hwnours throughout these 
nations, by which products I think no man will grudge to 
call by that name, of briers and thorns, — ^they have nourished 
themselves under your shadow! They have taken their 
opportunities from your sitting to conclude that there would 
be no settlement ? " * 

Aiter a long and severe lecture in this tone he dissolved 
the Parliament 

The Royalists looked on with no little satisfaction. To 
see the great Independent at variance with his own party, 
the new order of things overturned at the very outset, was 
more than they had hoped for. They thought that the 
harvest was ripe. Conspiracies were set on foot, a great 
revolt was prepared, when Cromwell interposed with his 
usual energy and usual success. The democrats also began 
to stir; an adventurer preached in the streets of London 
that the traitor should be got rid of, and a pamphlet came 
out called " Killing no Murder." 

But Cromwell was a match for his enemies, and it is 
interesting to observe how he proceeds. The Royalist 
leaders were treated with all the severity of the law ; they 
were executed, and their misguided accomplices were 
treated with comparative leniency; precisely the way in 
which a ruler in such circumstances should act Against 
his old democratic foes he could not restrain a certain 
amount of irritation ; they were tried, imprisoned, and after- 
wards privately released. 

A more strict domestic administration was introduced. 
The country was divided into thirteen districts, each under 
the conmiand of a Major-general, who was intrusted with 
extensive authority. 

* Letters and Speedies, p. 76. 



THE MILITARY GOVERNMENT. 445 

In each of these thirteen districts a militia was levied 
under command of the Major-general, and supported by an 
income-tax of a tenth imposed upon the Royalists. This 
militia maintained order and security in town and country, 
and put a strict moral discipline in force after the fashion of 
Calvinistic Geneva. Themselves subjected to a relentless 
discipline, they saw that the laws against drunkenness, 
cursing, and swearing were strictly carried out. All public- 
houses not absolutely indispensable were suppressed, horse- 
racing, cock-fighting, and plays forbidden. 

Each district thus had its own independent militia, and a 
trustworthy general as governor ; such a government could 
not be surprised by any coup d'etat from the right or the 
left. 

To Cromwell's honour it must be said that, under the 
form of military despotism, he ruled as liberally as possible, 
and that the warfare which he was obliged to wage to the 
end did not make him hardened or gloomy. 

Above all things, under him the nation enjoyed a liberty 
of conscience which was before unknown ; this raises him 
high above all parties. 

In 1656, he could say to Parliament, " Our practice since 
the last Parliament hath been to let all this nation see that 
whatever pretensions to religion would continue quiet, 
peaceable, they should enjoy conscience and liberty to 
themselves ; and not to make religion a pretence for arms 
and blood. If men will profess, — be they those under 
Baptism^ be they those of the Independent judgment 
simply, or of the Presbyterian judgment, — in the name of 
God encourage them, countenance them ; so long as they 
do plamly continue to be thankful to God, and to make use 
of the liberty given them to enjoy their own consciences ! 
Men who believe in Jesus Christ, and walking in a profes- 



446 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

sion answerable to that faith, who live upon the grace of 
God — they are the members of Jesus Christ, and are to Him 
the apple of his eye. Whoever hath this Faith, let his form 
be what it will, he walking peaceably, without prejudice to 
others imder other forms ; it is a debt due to God and 
Christ If a man of one form will be trampling upon the 
heels of another form ; if an Independent, for example, will 
despise him who is under Baptism, I will not suffer it in 
him. If, on the other side, those of the Anabaptist judgment 
shall be censuring the Godly ministers of the nation who 
profess under that of Independency, or if those that profess 
under Presbytery shall be reproaching, traducing, and cen- 
suring of them as I would not be willing to see the day 
when England shall be in the power of the Presb)rtery, to 
impose upon the consciences of others — so I will not 
endure any reproach to them. But God give us hearts and 
spirits to keep things equal, I have had some boxes on 
the ear and rebukes — on the one hand and the other ; some 
censuring me for Presbytery; others as an inletter to all 
the sects and heresies of the nation. I have borne my 
reproach ; but I have, through God's mercy, not been un- 
happy in hindering any one religion to impose upon 
another." * * 

Cromwell did not abolish the strict laws against the 
Catholics, because as a party backed by the Jesuits they 
could but be alwa)rs the enemies of his system ; but he 
administered them lenientiy, or did not enforce them when 
the Catholics fulfilled the duties of good citizens. Jews, 
also, and Quakers, enjoyed his clemency, which was quite 
in contrast to the general practice of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. 

It also appeared to be his wish to show, by the liberty of 
♦ Letters and Speeches, vol. iii. p. i8i. 



EFFECT OF SUCCESS ON CROMWELL. 447 

the press and the election laws, that in spite of his usurped 
power, and the severe forms under which it was. often 
exercised, England enjoyed more liberty under him than 
under many a government before him and around him. 
He often used to say to the Democrats, " Patience ; when 
I am no more you will see what sort of liberty the Stuarts 
will give you." 

Characters like his, amidst such bitter experience, often 
become harsh, defiant, and misanthropic; but Cromwell 
seemed to be softened rather than embittered by it ; and it 
is one of the great features in the character of the man, 
that, rising to European greatness from a modest position, he 
proved himself no less able to bear success than misfortune 
and trial. 

All that is great and glorious in a gifted nation found in 
him a zealous protector ; learning floiuished under him, and 
the great poet and thinker, John Milton, was among his 
most intimate friends. 

Parliament of 1656-7. — Proposal of a Monarchy. — 
Cromwell's Death, September 3RD, 1658. 

A new Parliament became necessary to provide means 
for the war which Cromwell had undertaken, in conjunction 
with France, against Spain. He had caused Penn to set sail 
for America, and Blake to the Spanish waters, with despotic 
powers. The Spaniards had laid an embargo on the Eng- 
lish ships, and thereby inflicted great injury on the com- 
merce of England before any compensating advantage 
had accrued ; for the immense sacrifices demanded by the 
war, neither the ordinary resources, nor the tax upon the 
Royalists, sufficed. He therefore resolved to summon a 
new Parliament. 

He hoped that having taken a lesson from the fate of its 



448 THE COMMONWEALTH, 

predecessor, it would take a view of things mor^ favourable 
to him. The elections did in fiswrt turn out better, and even 
the Royalists began to be more reconciled both to him and 
his system. 

Parliament was opened on the 17th of September, 1656. 
It was of importance for the money question that just then 
Blake and Montague had the good fortune to capture a 
fleet of Spanish ships in Portuguese waters, laden with 
silver, which yielded a booty of a million sterling. 

The house was divided into two very decided parties — a 
republican-military and a constitutional one ; which last, in 
order to put an end to uncertainty, perpetual conspiracies and 
outrages, projected the establishment of a new monarchy. 

At the beginning of the year 1657, the proposal was 
made that the Lord Protector should conform to the an- 
cient monarchical constitution, and exchange the title of a 
republican official for that of King, The proposal came 
from Cromwell's friends ; and in spite of the loud murmurs 
of the majors-general, the motion was carried for a change 
in the constitution towards a monarchical form. 

A monarchy could not be created on the basis of the 
democratic constitution of 1653. It was necessary to go 
further — to restore the Upper House, to try to attract once 
more the aristocratic elements in the country ; and when 
the great landowning interest was again represented in the 
government, it might be hoped that the monarchy itself 
would take root. This was also Cromwell's idea. He had 
succeeded in much in which previous governments had 
failed. If he could now succeed also in giving fresh sup- 
port to his work by restoring their rights to the old conser- 
vative elements— the nobles and the] State Church, thereby 
reconciling them to himself and his system, he might hope 
that it was founded for future times. 



PROPOSAL OF A MONARCHY. 449 

Let it not be supposed that this attempt arose from the 
petty human vanity of the parvenu. Among all his mo- 
tives, this had less weight than any. A remarkable change 
had taken place within him. He had learnt much from 
recent experience ; he had learnt that it was impossible to 
govern this country in peace with a purely democratic 
representation and a purely military administration, if the 
great landowning interest, which ruled the counties socially, 
maintained a hostile or passive attitude. He therefore 
wished to come to terms with these sulky foes, and the 
contemporary sources of information assure us that had he 
succeeded in thb, the restoration of the Stuarts would have 
been impossible. The new monarchy would have been 
reconciled with the ancient conditions of law and power. 

Cromwell had never been in a more delicate position. 
On the one hand, he saw before him the highest aim of 
political ambition ; on the other, a step which might rob 
him of the fruits of the labours of his life. 

The obscurity of his first utterances on the subject of 
this proposal are perfectly intelligible. It is plain that 
he wishes to gain time, to take counsel with himself; and 
what he said in confidence, proved the real indecision of 
his state of mind. When the mover came and told him 
that the matter looked well, Cromwell laughed, and said, 
** Thou foolish feUow ! " 

He cared but little for Parliament, but a great deal for 
the army, and there was no doubt whatever as to the 
opinion of that When he sounded his generals, he heard 
but one voice. His old comrades would not hear of a 
king. ** A king," they said, " is a tyrant ; we will not have 
one." 

The aversion of the army, therefore, upon whose 
shoulders he had risen, was indubitable. He did not 

VOL. II. G 



450 THE COMMONWEALTH. 

t wart it ; it might be contraiy to his own wishes, but he 
knew what the decision must be. Many a great man in a 
similar position has not been able to withstand the tempta- 
tion of sacrificing the firm ibundatioa of his power to a 
more brilliant position. . Cromwell was great enough to 
withstand it, to resolve not to break with those who had 
raised him up. He knew how little the transitory friend- 
ship of the Royalists would avail him,* whom the first 
breeze would probably blow from his side; and rightly 
estimated that the defection of his Saints would be of far 
greater importance. He therefore declined the crown, and 
said in his answer that he would be content to remain the 
first constable of the nation. On the other hand, he pre- 
vailed upon Parliament to permit the establishment of an 
Upper House, and only accepted as his prerogative the 
favour of naming his successor. 

Thus a monarchy was averted, but an important step 
towards it was taken by the creation of a House of Loids in 
order to reconcile the Conservatives to the revolution. 

It was difficult to fill the House in a satisfactory manner ; 
the great families kept aloof, and in their place relations 
and complaisant partisans had to be chosen from among 
the lawyers and officers ; and many of the latter had been 
draymen, tailors, or other artisans. Worse than this was 
the conflict which broke out between the two Houses im- 
mediately after they assembled, on the 20th of January, 1 658, 
by which the very foundations of the Cromwellian constitu- 
tion were again endangered. The Commons vehemently 
declared that there was no House of Lords, it had been 
legally abolished, and every one of them had taken the 
oath to the " Commonwealth without King or House of 
Lords." In vain Cromwell endeavoured to mediate; the 

♦ For their opinion see the report of Giavarinn. — Ranke, iii. 538. 



CROMWELL'S DEATH. 451 

discord could not be healed, and on the 4th of February, 
1658, he was compelled to dissolve this Parliament also. 
He did it with the words, " And let God judge between 
you and me." 

More successful than this attempt to close the revolution 
by the construction of a peaceful constitution, was the Pro- 
tector's foreign policy. 

The defensive alliance with France had, in March, 1657, 
assumed an ofifensive character. Mardyke and Dunkirk 
were conquered by the English, Jamaica mamtained agamst 
the Spaniards. The star of the English arms, the European 
position of the Protector were in their zenith, when, on 
September 3rd, an eventful day for his destiny, he died. 

His death softened many a bitter feeling, people now 
knew what they had lost. England had never been more 
powerful than under him, she had become the first empire 
in Europe; even Louis XIV. and Mazarin bowed down 
before him ; all the great powers of the Continent felt his 
influence, which was not only the result of English com- 
merce, but of the great modem ideas of liberty of con- 
science and the Reformation. 

Apart from Oliver's past history, no man ever occupied a 
throne more worthily than he did ; and never did a revo- 
lutionary usurper so spare the germs of civil liberty. 
This was the salvation of England : she would have bled 
to death under the Stuarts, if the traces of his labours 
could have been so speedily lost ; and it was his memory 
which finally ruined them. 

Calmly and with undisputed right, like a legitimate suc- 
cessor to a throne, Cromwell's son, Richard, assumed the 
office of Protector ; but his government was weak and 
incompetent in every respect. Having early lost his energy 
through a dissolute youth, he preferred the pleasures of lile 



45^ 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 



to the difficult calling of a ruler. As things would not go 
on as he wished of themselves, in May, 1659, he resigned. 
The generals who governed the districts of the country 
divided the inheritance ; and a state of things ensued, in 
which the oppression of usurpation was felt tenfold, and 
which yet did not bring with it the greatness and security 
for the sake of which so much had been forgiven to Crom- 
well. This anarchical despotism of the generals, the con- 
flicts between the republican and royalist parties, was the 
best preparation for a state of mind to which the restora- 
tion of the Stuarts seemed like redemption. Amidst the 
acclamations of the people, and the gloomy silence of the 
Independents, Charles II. was recalled, the defunct Rump 
Parliament brought to life again ; and the same Parliament 
which had once decreed the fall of the Stuarts now sealed 
their restoration. 



INDEX TO VOL. II. 



Airest of the Five Members, 391. 

Baner, 236-239, 253. 
Barebone Partiament, 436. 
Binvald, Treaty of, 160. 
Battle of Breitenfeld, 164, 165. 

of Copraby Bridge, 404. 

of Dunbar, 430. 

of Edge Hill. 398. 

of Lutzen, 177. 

of Marston Moor, 404. 

of Naseby, 411. 

of Newbuiy, 399. 

of Nordlingen, 224, 225. 

of Prague, 104. 

of Worcester, 431. 



Bernhard of Weimar, 206-209, 

232-235, 239-249. 
Beza, 20. 

Blake, Robert, 431, 433. 
Bohemia, Persecution m, 106, 107. 
— -— ,Warin,343,344. 
Bond of Pilsen, 217, 218. 
Buckingham, Duke of, 350, 356, 

357. 361. 

Calais, Loss of, 296. 
Cardinal Klesel, 9(3, 97. 

Pole, 291. 

Richelieu, 159-160, 188- 

193. 

, his policy, 

194-200. 
Catherine de Medid, 3, 4, 6, 15, 

16, 19, 40. 
Charles IX., 15-17, 26-32. 
~, Death of, 40. 



Charles IX. of Sweden, 139, 14a 
Charles I., 352-422. 
, Breach with Parlia- 
ment, 383. 
— ^— — in Scotland, 384. 

sold to the Scotch, 413. 

-, Escape to the Isle of 



Wight, 417. 



, 'rial of, 421. 

, Execution of, 422. 

-, Results of his Death, 



424. 

and Louis XVI., Paral- 
lel between, 423. 

Christian IV. of Denmark, 112- 
114. 

Church of England, 301, 302. 

, The French, 7. 

Civil War, The, 395-422. 

Coligny, 29-33. 

College des Trois Langues, 7. 

Commonwealth, The, 423-452. 

Confess of Munster and Oana- 
bruck, 263, 264. 

— — , Tenitorial 

Questions at, 267, 270. 



Questions at 271-275. 



Religious 
Political 



Regulations at, 275-279. 
Conspiracy of Amboise, 12, 13. 
Constitution of 1653, 439. 
Covenant, The, 373. 
Cranmer, 284. 

J Death of, 295, 

Cromwell, 404-451. 

-, Overtures of Charies 

I. to, 416. 



454 



INDEX. 



Cromwell, his « Saints," 410, 
413, 414, 425, 427. 435. 

D Hammc 



-, Letter to J 



Dond, 



420. 



446. 



- and Louis XIV., 432. 

as Protector, 437, 451. 

', Speeches of, 440, 

Proposal to make 



King, 448, 450. 

-, his Foreign Policy, 



Religious Liberty 



451- 



under, 446. 

, Death of, 451. 

, Richard, 451, 452. 



David Rizzio, 3I3» 314- 
Davison, Secretary, 329. 
Diet of Ratisbon, 257. 
Donauworth, 88, 89. 
Duke of Anjou, 44. 

Maximilian of Bavaria, 88, 

89. 

of Northumberland, 283. 

of Norfolk's Conspiracy, 

321, 322. 

Earl of Bothwell, 315-317. 
Edict of Amboise, 24. 

Longjumeaux, 25. 

Nantes, 66, 67. 

Restitution, 123-127. 

St. Germain, 20, 21. 

Edward VI., 283-286. 
Emperor Matthias, 92. 

Eric XIV. of Sweden, 132-134. 

Fairfax, 399, 403, 410, 412. 
Ferdinand II., 94-99, 261. 
Francis II., 9, 14. 
Frederic V. of the Palatinate, 

100-103. 343. 344. 
French Protestantism, 10, 1 1. 

General Assembly, The, 374. 

General Wrangel, 257. 

German Empire, Decay of the, 

276-278. 
Great Remonstrance, The, 388- 

390. 
Guise, Mary of, 5. 



Guises, The, 4, 5. 
Gunpowder Plot, 339. 
Gustavus Adolphus, 1 41-180. 

— in Germany, 



149-153- 



169-172. 



-, Projects of, 
-, Death of. 



178-180. 

Henry II. of France, 2. 

Henry III. of France, 40-43, 47, 
48. 

, Murder of, 49. 

Henry IV. of France, 50-67. 

, his Conversion to Ca- 
tholicism, 62-64. 

-, Assassination of, 75. 



Henry VII f., Confusion lea by. 
282. 

, his Marriages. 282. 

High Commission, The, 367. 
Holland, War with, 432, 433. 
Huguenots, The, 18. 
Humanism in France, 7. 

ludependents, The, 401-403. 

James I., 335-351. 

, his Character, 337. 

, Death of, 351. 

Jeanne D'Albret, 11, 18. 
John Hampden, 369. 370. 
John Knox, 306-308. 
John III. of Sweden, 134, 138. 
John of Werth, 237, 238. 

Killing no Murder, 444. 

Ladv Jane Grey, 286, 287. 

La kochelle, 358. 

Laud, Archbishop, 364, 365. 367. 

Leipzig. Convention of, 161, 162. 

Long Parliament, 377-380. 

, Dismissal of 

the, 436. 
Lord Bacon, Trial of, 343. 
Louis XIII., 187-189. 
Louis XIV., 266. 

Magdeburg, Siege of, 163. 
Mansfeld, Genera], 1 19, 1 20. 



INDEX. 



455 



Maishal D*Ancre, 187. 
Mary of Medici, 183. 
Mary Stuart, 6, 303, 304. 
in Scotland, 310- 



-, her Marriage with 



317. 



Damley, 313. 



Imprisonment in 
England, 318, 319. 

, Trial of, 328. 

-, Execution of, 329. 



Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 

29, 33-40, 323. , 

m the Valtelme, 201. 

of Vassy, 22. 

of Protestants in Ire- 
land, 385, 386. 

Maximihan II., 84. 

Monopolies, 342. 

Mutiny of the Army against Par- 
liament, 415. 

Navigation Act, 433. 

Oxenstiema, 180, 205, 208, 209. 

Parliamentary Army, The, 393. 
Peace of Augsburg, 77-80. 

Prague, 229-231. 

St. Germain en Laye, 

25. 

Westphalia, 262-279. 

Petition of Right, 360, 361. 
Plot of Savage and Babington, 

327. 
Pope Paul IV., 296. 
Presbyterians, 401. 
Pride's Purge, 419. 
Protectorate, The, 283. 
Protest of Parliament, 162 1. 347. 
Protestantism in Austria, 83. 
Pym, 376, 377. 

Queen Elizabeth, 298-334. 

. , Estimate of, 299. 

, her Attitude to- 
wards Catholicism, 300, 301. 
her Treatment 



Queen Elizabeth, Death of, 334. 
Queen Mary, 287-297. 

, Estimate of, 287. 

, Catholic Reaction 

under, 289-292. 

-, Marriage with Philip 



of Mary Stuart, 319. 



324-326. 
Tilbury, 332. 



Plots against, 
-, her Speech at 



n.. 293. 



, Death of, 296. 



Reformation in England, comple- 
tion of, 28a 

under Edward VI., 



284-286. 



in Scotland, 305, 



Religious Wars in France, 1-75. 
Republic, End of the, 452. 
Riots at Edinburgh, 372. 
Roval Charter of Bohemia, 86, 

87. 
Rudolph II., 85-87, 91. 
Rudyard, Speeches of, 354, 359. 

Seymour, Duke of Somerset, 283. 

Ship Money, 368. 

Sorbonne, The, 8, 9. 

Spanish Armada, 330-333. 

Spanish Marriage Scheme, 349, 
350. 

Star Chamber, The, 365, 366. 

Stemmatg, 45, 46. 

Stettin, Occupation of, 157. 

Strafford, Earl of, 362, 364. 

— » Trial and Execution of, 

380-382. 

Stuarts, The, 310. 

Subjugation of Ireland and Scot- 
land, 428-429. 

Sully, 68-74. 

Thirty Years' War, First Phase 
of, 93-130. 

Second Phase 

Third Phase 

End of, 252- 

Barbarilies 



of, 131-180. 
of, 181-250. 



201. 



I during, 276. 



— , Devastation 
caused by, 277. 
Tonnage and Poundage, 355, 356, 
361. 



456 INDEX. 

Tontenson, 253-255. 

Ultimatum of Parliament, 397. 

Valois, House of, 2, 3. 

Wallenstein, 1 1 5 - 1 23, 210- 
213. 



Wallenstein, Dismissal of, 129. 

, Recall of, 174, 175. 

, Assassination of, 

219, 220. 
War of the three Henrys, 45. 
Winter Kingdom, The, 100-103. 

Znaym, Treaty of, 175, 176. 



THE END. 



PftlXTBO BY VUtTUI AND CO., UTV ROAi>, UM(X>02«. 



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